Come with me please in your writings
to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. The Apostle Paul is writing,
and again he is speaking in the first person here. I see the
truth in Christ. I lie not, my conscience also
bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness
and continual sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself
were accursed from Christ for my brethren. my kinsmen according
to the flesh, 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 forever. Amen. Not as though the word
of God hath taken 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. Well, this is the word
of promise. At this time will I come, and
Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but when Rebecca
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. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God. that show mercy. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. The subject of predestination
is a matter, is a subject, which I am sure has challenged anyone
who has thought seriously about the Bible's teaching on grace. The Apostle Paul, in writing
this letter to the Romans, has spent considerable time setting
out the basis and the cause of a man or a woman's justification. And let me just remind you that
by justification we mean both the forgiveness of sins and the
making righteous. The provision of everything that
is needful for a man or a woman to stand in the presence of God
at peace and accepted. It's the taking away of our guilt
our sin, our condemnation, and the bestowing of that which we
could never attain, achieve by our own efforts or our own works. Justification, the apostle has
shown, is a sovereign, divine work of grace. It is God's justification. It is God who justifies. And the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ is the ground or the cause, the foundation of our justification. That is why I personally prefer
to talk about justification by the Lord Jesus Christ rather
than justification by faith. Not that I don't understand what
is meant by justification by faith, but I fear many people
do misunderstand what justification by faith means. It is not that
we are justified by our faith, rather the cause of our justification. Sometimes the word is used, the
efficient cause or the effective cause. That which makes our salvation
possible and which brings salvation to us is the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we must never think that
we move the question of justification along the line of it until we
settle it upon the faith of the individual. It has already been
established before that, it has already been won before that,
it has already been gained before that, and all that happens when
we are given the gift of faith is that we are enabled to lay
hold upon that which Christ has already done. So that is a distinction
which I trust we appreciate. And in bringing this portion
of his message to its conclusion, bringing to an end this message
of justification and how it has been obtained and how it is applied
and how it is received, the Apostle Paul has spoken of this concept,
predestination. And there we saw it in the middle
of chapter 8. He speaks about a people whom
God did predestinate, verse 29, to be conformed to the image
of his Son. So this word, predestinate or
predestination, and the concept and the idea of it has been built
into the Apostle's teaching on justification. It's a great theme
of this book, how we're justified, who justifies, the objects of
justification. And here he is mentioned in this,
we spoke of it, I think, as a golden chain, this golden chain of God's
purposes. We're told there that whom he
did for know, that is whom he did love in that time before
time, in that eternal existence, of God in His solitary majesty. He loved a people whom He did
foreknow. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
amongst many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called. Whom He called, them He also
justified. Whom He justified, them He also
glorified. And so, here is the apostle speaking
about predestination, about God having predestinated a people
to be conformed to the image of his Son. That is, to be made
Christ-like, to be made just like Christ, to be united to
Christ, to be joined with him, to be so united to him that the
picture of the bride is brought into focus. that the husband
and the wife become one flesh. They are joined together. They
are joined together in the mind of God inseparably. God doesn't like divorce. God doesn't want divorce. God
doesn't approve of divorce. God hated putting away. And that
is a picture, that union. And the reason why there is so
much emphasis placed upon the vows that are taken at the commencement
of a marriage is that God regards these two that are brought together
as being a single entity. And that is a picture of the
union that we have with the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in Him,
He is in us. So to be made Christ-like is
what God has predestinated us to. But the apostle was clearly aware
that such a reference would be controversial, and it would need
explanation. He knew that it would be controversial,
and I'm also sure that he knew that it would be the subject
of opposition. And Paul raises this matter. And he decides to explain what
he means to explain the doctrine more fully in this chapter 9. And I do believe that we ought to
be immensely grateful that the apostle took the time to explain
this matter of predestination. So here is a question. If predestination
is true, if God has already decided and chosen and arranged who is
going to heaven and who is going to hell, what is the point of
free will? And how can justification Now, I want to address those questions
this evening. I want to think about these questions. But before I do that, I want
to mention a matter that is raised in the first few verses of chapter
9, which I think is very important. And I trust that I have interpreted
these things properly. in my thinking and in my thoughts,
I'm giving you something here that will be of help and some
comfort to you. I want to read verse 3 particularly. The Apostle Paul says in verse
3, Romans chapter 9 verse 3, I could wish that myself were
a curse from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the
flesh. And a number of commentators
have found this to be a very difficult verse and concept to
address, the idea that Paul could say that he would be willing
to be accursed. The phrase, the word means separated,
to be separated from Christ for the sake of his kinsmen, his
brethren, according to the flesh. And I want to draw your attention
to the fact that I don't think that the apostle could have been
any more emphatic about the genuineness of what he is saying here if
he could possibly have tried to be. The way in which he introduces
this statement in verse 3 is by the employment of a three
oath here in these opening verses. He is saying that he is speaking
the truth in Christ. Now that's an oath. What he is doing there, he is
saying, I call on Christ himself to attest that what I am about
to say is true. I lie not, he says, my conscience
bears me witness in the Holy Ghost. So he has called on Christ,
he has called on his own conscience, and he has called on the testimony
of the Holy Ghost to attest that what he is saying is true. And I don't think that it would
be fair for us to say that this is a mere rhetoric device that
he is using. He's not trying just to get our
attention or to big up something in order to sort of make it more
important sounding. This is genuine. This is the
apostle telling us exactly how he feels. And therefore we cannot
understate what he has stated in verse 3. And I want to personalise this
also, because while we're going to speak about some other things
to do with predestination, I want us to think and to question and
to reflect upon what the Apostle has said here. Because the interpretation
that I'm going to give it, I think, might be of help to some of us. And here it is. People talk. They think about salvation and
forgiveness of sin. They talk about it and they think
about it as being a cause of joy and a reason for joy. And it is. It is. We ought to
rejoice. The apostle tells us that we
are to rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord. And we've
already been speaking much about this. The fact that we are united
with the Lord Jesus Christ in our justification. The fact that
God has planned and ordained and established this way of salvation
right from the very beginning, from eternity. That he has set
up a covenant purpose That is all something which, when a man
and a woman realizes their own sinful, scaring condition, and
the distance that we are from God and from His holiness, to
be confronted with a gospel, to be confronted with good news,
the fact that there is a way of salvation, a way of recovery,
a way of deliverance, a way of reconciliation, is truly a wonderful
thing. And I don't want to minimise
or understate that joy at all. But I do want to say that it
doesn't come alone. It doesn't come by itself. Because
it also brings genuine great heaviness and continual sorrow. And why? Why does it do that? Because of the implications of
that salvation and the consequences of revealed truth. What do I
mean by that? Well, I might believe that I'm
saved. I do believe that I'm saved. But the revelation of that salvation,
which I believe I am the possessor of, is a double-edged sword which
cuts two ways. Because to the extent that I
believe that I am saved, I have to believe also that there are
many who are lost. Worse than that, Not only does
my belief cause me to have a joy that the Lord has been pleased
to save me, but it compels me to be fearful for my children's
eternal destiny and for my grandchildren's eternal destiny. And while I have joy in the knowledge
of my salvation, I'm compelled to think that my children and
my grandchildren, if their names are not written in the Lamb's
Book of Life, will spend as much eternity separated from God as
I will serve with Him. And that brings great heaviness
and continual sorrow. Because I have to realize that
in the midst of my joy at the salvation which the Lord has
given me, I see around about me many who have no knowledge
of the things of God, who have no desire after the things of
God. And my natural affections in
this life strive with my spiritual understanding. They contend together. The very fact that I believe
these things to be true, the very faith that I have in these
matters, is also casting a shadow upon those around about me that
I care for the most. to such an extent that we sometimes
recoil from what we believe to be true. The desire that we have for heaven,
the desire that we have to be with Christ is overshadowed by
a dread for the eternal well-being of the ones that we love. And if that wasn't bad enough,
Here's another song of fear and dimension to it. What if the
witness that we give to those that we love the best will aggravate
the eternal suffering in hell? What will happen if they are
tormented for all eternity with the things that we have told
them? Will hell be worse for them for
having heard the gospel at our lips? Will the fact that I have preached
to them as faithfully as I could be aggravating their condemnation
for eternity? I think this is the very matter
that Paul had in his mind. I think that's what he's talking
about here. He's speaking about his brethren
and his kinsmen according to the flesh. This is a reality. This is what the Lord's people
carry with them in their lives, in their minds, because of their
faith. We have been given insights,
revelation, which has been withheld from many, many people. Some
that we love dearly. Now I'm not going to say here
that I believe that the apostle Paul was saying that he would
rather give up his own salvation that someone else might be saved.
I don't think that a believer says that. I don't think that
that's what any believer could say. But I do wonder, as perhaps
the apostle is saying, wouldn't an annihilation Wouldn't just
an end of all things be better than knowing that while some
are going to heaven with Christ, others are going to hell for
eternity? And I would be prepared to be
separated from Christ if I could lay hold upon such a notion. And why am I saying all this?
Why am I telling you? Well, I'm telling you this because I think
this is what the apostle was addressing here. But I'm also
telling you it because of something else. I think the answer to this
question, and if you tell me you've never thought about it,
well, I'm not going to be offensive to you, but maybe you should
be thinking about it. And I doubt that there's anyone
who is a true believer and a true understander of of what the Lord
has prepared in heaven, the consequences of being separated from them,
who hasn't worried about these things and reflected upon them
and thought about them. But I think that the question
of predestination is an answer to this matter. And once again,
I say to you that while often we Go to Romans chapter 9 and
use it a little bit like Samson's jawbone, right? To wade through the opponents
to sovereign grace, swinging it like a club, swinging it to
spread them aside and make a path for the truth through all these
gainsayers. Maybe that's a sort of superficial
use of this passage. Maybe we should be using this
passage to comfort our own hearts and souls in the sight and in
the reflection of these great and eternal realities of what
it is to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and justified
by the Lord Jesus Christ, and what it is to be a reprobate
and not justified by the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul is speaking
here about his brethren and his kinsmen. That's what we have
around about us. Our kinsmen, those that are our
kindred, those that are our loved ones, those that we have been
brought into this world, connected to, united with, and carrying
the affections and the emotions of those relationships with us. He is speaking about these people,
and we have them in our minds, too, when we think of them, when
we reflect on them, when we see them and talk to them. The Israelites
were blessed with a godly example. They were a people who had covenant
Not to them came comprehensively the covenant of everlasting grace,
the covenant of peace, but there were multiple covenants which
prefigured and typified that covenant of peace that were granted
to the people of Israel, the people of Israel after the flesh.
They were given many blessings by God. He chose them amongst
all the nations to be that people to whom these things were revealed,
that people to whom the prophets were sent, over whom the kings
would reign, unto whom the Lord Jesus Christ would come in the
incarnation and in the flesh. They had glorious revelations
given to them. The giving of the law was to
them. Yet many of them, many, many
of them, perhaps the vast majority of them, were strangers to grace. They were not amongst that remnant. Those few, remember how, at the
time of Elijah, he could lie down and say, I'm the only one
left in this whole nation. I'm the only one left. And he
thought he was. That's the sad reality of their
condition. And that was a state that rendered
them guilty and condemned before God. It's a state that weighs upon
many believers who have sensitive hearts for their own loved ones. Much has been given to them.
Much has been spoken to them, much has been said before them,
as far as Bible reading, as far as prayers, as far as hearing
the gospel, as far as a godly example. And yet, for all the
good that has been done, there seems to be no care or concern
for the eternal soul. Let's move on a little bit. Here
in verse six, We see that this is an important verse because
this verse has a weightiness, it has consequences that go through
the whole of scripture if we are to properly understand the
revelation of God. And it is simply that it's not
as though the word of God has taken none effect, for they are
not all Israel, which are of Israel. And the point that the
apostle is making here is that you can't claim to have the benefits
of God, the benefits of God's grace just because of who you
are, just because of your parentage, just because of your DNA, just
because of your nationality, just because of your geography.
These people had received many blessings, but the work of grace
which came to the true Israel. And I'm sure that the Apostle
Paul is here distinguishing between national Israel and true Israel. There's lots of confusion about
this, whether we're thinking about the Old Testament scriptures
or the doctrine of salvation or the doctrine of the end times. Israel means the prince that
prevails with God. That was the name that Jacob
was given when he wrestled with the Lord Jesus Christ. He wrestled
with God. And he was blessed, and he was
changed, and he had this new name given to him. One that prevails
with God. It's descriptive not of the Jewish
nation, but of the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ. So
while there are true believers amongst the Jews, there are also
many true believers who were Gentiles and the nationhood of
Israel and the heritage and the history of Israel did not meaning
that they were provided with the fullness of the justification
that the apostle had just been speaking about. That was a different,
that was a subset, that was a remnant, that there were some amongst
the Jews and there were some amongst the Gentiles, and these
were the true people of God, and the rest were just a picture
in the history. how God was bringing his purpose
to bear upon those that were chosen. And I believe that the
apostle has no pleasure in revealing this important distinction because
he knows the implications. He knows that this is his people
that he's talking about, that these people, these people that
he had been raised amongst. These people that had been so
persecuted over history, who had received so much in the way
of God's blessing. These people to whom now he preached
this gospel. These were the very people whom
he was saying, you have no part in this. All of those people
right from the very beginning of time, right through the history
of Israel, that have assumed that because of their nationality,
because of their genealogy, because of their way of life, because
of the blessings that have been given to them, we're all part
of this great big party of God's people on earth. It's not right. And do you realize the implications
of saying that? I may not say that he's condemning
all these people to hell, but he is stressing, he is revealing
the fact that that's exactly where they all are. He knows about predestination. He knows about salvation. And he knows that these things
do not flow through bloodlines. And they don't come as part of
family relationships. But they come by grace. by mercy,
and they come through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not
the children of the flesh, but the children of promise who are
the seed of the Lord Jesus Christ. So what of predestination, and
what of election, and what of free will? This separation that
the Apostle is making between the natural and the spiritual
leads the Apostle to make such an emphatic statement of God's
eternal purpose as has reverberated down through the ages of the
Church and set professing believer against professing believer.
with respect to a proper understanding of the doctrine of God and the
doctrine of salvation. And it still causes vast numbers
of professing Christians to reject the apostles' teaching and to
endeavour to explain it away. Most people who profess to be
Christians do not accept predestination and election as God's purpose
for salvation. Most who claim to be Christians
in our world today reject the apostle's teaching on this point. In verses 11 to 13, the apostle
makes this very clear statement. Let me read it again. For the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand, nor 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. The apostle in these verses,
I think, is giving us five proofs. of sovereign election. Five proofs
that God has chosen those whom he will save and passed over
the remainder. That God has predestinated some,
that means he has made their destination absolutely certain,
has made them to be conformed to the image of Christ, Christ-like,
and not predestinated others. That he has effectually called
some people in this world whom he has determined to save while
passing over others. And this is the omnipotent, the
omniscient, the all-holy God who has done this. So what are
these five points that the apostle identifies here in these verses?
Here's the first one. Election is a divine act. Predestination, if you like,
because it flows from the elective purpose. Election and predestination
is a divine act. It is the method of securing
and delivering the purpose of God in salvation. The means of
justification is Christ's death. And that death fully accords
with the revealed purpose of God. The Lord Jesus Christ died
for and justified Those that God had predestinated to be conformed
to the image of his Son. Those that God had elected and
made choice of in his eternal decree to save them and deliver
them from their sin. God the Father chose a people
and the Lord Jesus Christ redeemed that people. He justified that
people on the cross by his blood. And the Holy Spirit's quickening
power regenerates, enlivens, brings to conversion those that
the Lord Jesus Christ died for, those that were committed into
the care and keeping of the Lord Jesus Christ in the elective
predestinating purpose of God. This is a divine act of the triune
God. The second point is this, it
is according to God's will and not man's will. And we can take
that at several levels. We can take it from the point
of view of the predestinating purpose of God was not based
upon man's will, but it's based upon God's will. who has chosen
to do it this way. It is God who calls. Him that calleth. Equally, it's
not within our gift to decide or to choose or to reflect upon
the means and the method by which this great work is done. Just
as we might say to somebody who challenges the whole notion of
election and predestination. But that's what the apostle says. That's what the scripture teaches. That's what God has done. So we have to be just as ready
to bow the knee before the sovereignty of God as those to whom we speak. This is for your benefit. as well as another's. These things
are written for us, that we might be instructed in righteousness,
that we might be brought under the doctrines of God's purpose. The third thing that I want to
draw your attention to is that it is not based upon works. The apostle is very explicit,
again, the children not yet being born. The children, Jacob and
Esau, the twins in the womb, the two twins born at the same
time, one after the other as it were, brought together in
that womb as the means of showing us how these two different strands,
these two different streams, these two different seeds would
go separate ways was not based upon any works that those children
had done. The statements that are made
concerning those children are before they were born, before
they had drawn their first breath in the outside world, they were
still in their mother's womb. when these statements regarding
them were made by God. There is no deserving good in
the choice of Jacob, come Israel. And there is no debarring evil
taken into consideration. It's not of their works. It was the predestinating choice
of God that it should be so. Fourth point is this, it was
predetermined by God who would be who. Who the blessings of
grace would come upon and who they would not come upon. And
so the testimony is given to us, the elder shall serve the
younger. Man would have said that the
younger should serve the elder. that the elder had priority,
that the elder had inheritance, that the elder had right. But it was predetermined by God
his way. And the manifestation of that,
the revelation of that, the explanation of that was given here, that
the elder would serve the younger. And the fifth point is this,
that it is founded upon and flows from a distinguishing love in
God. And we need to remember that.
We need to remember that. Because it is the love of God
that has established this whole way of salvation. Love that was
placed upon individuals. Love that was granted to one
and not another. And yet God is right and just
and holy and perfect in all his ways and he will do right. And we have to be a people that
are subject to the sovereignty of God at all levels and in all
ways. This is our God, and he does
that which is right. Paul anticipated that there would
be a number of arguments against this theology that he was here
quoting. And he supported his position,
he supported his teaching from the Old Testament scriptures,
from the word of God as it existed at that time. Remember, it was
only the Old Testament scriptures that the apostles had to use
when they were establishing these doctrines and revealing, by the
inspiration of God the Holy Spirit, these truths to the new church. We're going to, perhaps on another
occasion, deal with them a little bit more fully. But I wish just
to re-emphasise the the points that are made here with respect
to this work of salvation. It is God's work. It is not based
on man's free will. It is God who chooses. It is
Christ who has redeemed. And God's choice or God's election
is of individuals. Salvation is designed as the
fulfillment of God's holy purpose, not the random whim of the fallen
creature. This is the fulfillment of the
divine holy purpose that we have in view in this passage. And
free will is a popular view, but it is philosophical nonsense. It cannot be justified in any
proper view or reflection of the nature of an unchanging God. It cannot be justified by any
proper teaching of Holy Scripture. It serves man's own thinking
well. Someone once said, it makes for
good preaching. But it doesn't reveal what God
has taught in the scriptures concerning the state of those
who are in this world. The reality is that man in his
nature is fallen. Man is opposed to the holiness
of God. Man is against the rule of God. And whether it is the Old Testament
Jews to whom much was given, whether it is our families whom
we love, or whether it is the random people of this town and
this city and this nation, and all of those that are alive in
the world today, The natural man in his own heart says to
God, no, I will not have you to rule over me. I will do it
my way. I will go my way and I will live
my life according to that which I want to do. I will not succumb
to your ways and your purposes. the Adamic nature. That's the
old man at work. That is the reality of those
that we love and those that we see around about us. Unless and
until God makes a difference in their hearts, they will not
bow the knee to the sovereign God. We think we have free will. because we imagine that we can
choose what we want to do with our lives. I've done a little
bit of thinking about this over the years and a little bit of
reflection and a little bit of listening to other people talking
about it and it is very interesting that even amongst some who have
no biblical or spiritual acts to grind or point to make, there
is a genuine question about whether an individual has free will. If we think of ourselves as materialistic,
if we think of ourselves as being people that are prompted and
provoked to do certain things. Let me give you an example. You
say that you are going to have an evening meal. You choose to
have that evening meal. But why do you choose to have
that evening meal? Because your tummy is telling
you that you're hungry. So, was that your free will that
chose to sit down at the table and have your meal? Or was it
the empty tummy that told you to sit down and have that meal? You see, we are all the product
of those things that are around about us, that nature that we
have that is opposed to God. This society that we live in
with all of its temptations, all of the promptings and provokings
of the life that we have lived up until this very point, combined
together to cause us to make the decisions that we do. Are
we free to do those? And free will is recognized as
being a very elusive idea and philosophy. That while we want
to think about it as being our choice to do something or not
to do it, that we are free agents, as it were, to do whatever we
want, the reality is that we are hedged in by all number of
promptings and provokings and circumstances. that drive us
in a particular direction. And that drivenness is opposed
to God because of the nature that drives the fallen man. Our wills are neither free nor
are they willing to choose God and to follow Him. To find in
the Lord Jesus Christ the way of life and salvation apart from
God giving grace to whomsoever he will. As the prophet Jonah
discovered, salvation is of the Lord. It is a gift of grace. It is a gift of mercy. No one
deserves it. Yet God, at his own initiative,
for his own glory, has determined to freely give it to some people. The way of salvation, the method
and the means have all been wisely designed to accomplish the divine
purpose. The definite, particular redemption
of chosen sinners by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, the
quickening power of God the Holy Spirit in regenerating grace,
the gift of faith, the preaching of the gospel as the means of
gathering in the elect, the fellowship of the saints where we come together
to speak of these things and praise God and worship God. This
all accords with God's will and purpose for the revelation of
the church, the gathering of that people and that eternal
union of the church with the Lord Jesus Christ, his son. We're
going to look a little bit more at some of the verses on another
occasion. But verse 15 says this. He saith to Moses, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. And I just want to make a rider
to this at the end. This is the responsibility of
those who trust God to say, I accept this, I believe this, I will
be at peace under this revelation. But at the same time, we do not
deny the affections that the Lord has given us in our hearts
and in our minds. And while we see the immensity
of the situation as far as those that we love. We have come to
learn that it is only by the grace of God that an individual's
heart will be changed. So you have your son and your
daughter and your grandchildren. And we have our sons and daughters
and grandchildren. And we have our kinsmen after
the flesh. And we have our brethren that
we have affection for and love for. And the Lord has given us
those people. And he has given us a burden
for them. So we take that burden to him. We take our burden to the throne
of grace. We take the burden that he has
given us and we lay it before him. And we say, Lord, this is
what I desire. This is what I long for. This
is what I want to see grace manifested in the lives of these few. And
there we have to leave it. There it has to be placed and
we have to commit these things into the hand of the sovereign
God who will do all things well. Amen. Closing hymn is 224. I know not why God's wondrous
grace to me hath been made known, nor why unworthy Christ in love
redeemed me for his own. Rise and sing 224. I know not
why God's wondrous grace to me He hath made known, for I am
worthy Christ in love redeemed.