If you will open your Bibles
this morning to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. I direct your attention to verse
13. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. How could God love Jacob? That's
the title of the message this morning. How could God love Jacob? Speaking through the prophet
Malachi from where this verse is taken, Malachi 1, chapter
1, the Lord put this same question into the mouths of the ungrateful
Israelites who were of the nation of Israel. He said, verse 1,
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? How have you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother,
said the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob. and I hated
Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the
dragons of the wilderness. How could God love Jacob? Nothing manifests the love of
God like the answer to that question. Nothing manifests the grace of
God like the answer to that question. How could God love Jacob? Nothing causes a redeemed sinner
to fall on his face in utter humility before holy
God, ashamed and sorrowful for our ingratitude toward Him, like
the answer to that question. If God's pleased to reveal it
to you and I, how He has loved us, then we will begin to understand
something of the riches, the glorious riches of God's grace. It calls King David to sing out
in thankful amazement. King David sang out, he said,
Lord, what is man that thou takest knowledge of him? Or the son
of man that thou makest account of him? He said, when I consider
the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars,
what is man that thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man that
thou visitest him? I pray the Lord will be pleased
to answer this question in our hearts this very hour. How could
God love Jacob? If he's pleased to do so, I know
this, our hearts will overflow with joy. Overflow with joy and
thankfulness to him. Well, let's begin here and let's
look first of all at things, some things which had nothing
to do whatsoever with God's love toward Jacob. Let's see some
things that had nothing to do whatsoever with God's love towards
Jacob. Did the Lord love Jacob because
he was Abraham's grandson? Jacob's father was Isaac and
Isaac's father was Abraham, the friend of God. Did God show Mercy
to Jacob because of Abraham? The apostle begins this argument
here by stating his desire for his kinsmen, Israel, the Israelites. They were his kinsmen according
to the flesh. They were both son, natural descendants
of Abraham. And Israel is that nation born
from Jacob. This one we're talking about,
Jacob. Paul states that the many privileges that God gave to that
nation Israel. And then after stating this,
the question would arise in our minds is, well then, after God
promised these things to Israel and they didn't come to pass,
Israel didn't believe on Him. The multitude in Israel didn't
believe on Him. So then, is the Word of God of none effect? Is
it not effectual? And Paul says here in Romans
9, verse 6, "...not as though the word of God hath taken an
effect. For they are not all Israel which are of Israel, neither
because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children."
You mean all those in Israel, all that multitude in that nation
Israel, is not necessarily the Israel of God? That's what he's
saying. You mean all those children born
in Abraham's lineage are not really considered by God to be
Abraham's children and to be God's children? That's exactly
what he's saying. Neither because they are the
children of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall
thy seed be called. Right here, this Isaac. is Christ
Jesus the Lord. Go to Galatians and look it up.
Whenever God chose, when He promised Abraham that in thy seed all
the nations of the earth shall be blessed, Galatians 3.15 says,
and He said, seed, not seeds as of many, but in thy seed which
is Christ. In Isaac shall a people be blessed
from all the kindreds on the earth, from among all the nations
on the earth. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, verse 8, these are not the children of God.
Now that doesn't get any more clear. These that are the children
of the flesh, the natural descendants of Abraham, these aren't the
children of God. Well, I thought everybody was
a child of God. This is God the Holy Spirit talking
to you, right here in this Word. Listen to me. 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. Counted
by who? Counted by God. These are the
ones counted by God as true children. For this is the word of promise.
At this time, at God's appointed time, in the season of His love,
God said, I will come and Sarah shall have a son. And you remember,
we saw that Sarah was past age. She couldn't have a child. She
couldn't have a child. But God said, I'm not depending
upon your doing, Abraham, or your wife's doing. I'm depending
upon nothing but My own grace. I'm going to come at the time
of My love and your wife is going to conceive and she's going to
bring forth a child. They waited. And they got tired
of waiting. And Sarah said to Abraham, Go
into My handmaid, Hagar. She's young. You can have a child
through her. So Abraham went to the handmaid,
Hagar, and she conceived him, bear him a son named Ishmael.
But God told Abraham, take Ishmael, pack up some substance, and send
him and his mother on their way. That's not the son of promise.
Why? Because that was the work of
Abraham's hand. That was the man's will trying
to bring forth the promise that God promised. This miraculous
birth took place because God came, and it's a picture of regeneration. God came at His time, at His
appointed time, and He brought forth a Son because He promised
long before that's what He'd do. He promised Christ in the
covenant of grace that he would have a people. He promised him
a people. A portion that he would have
that would be his brethren, his people. Just like he typified
there when he promised Abraham a son. He did it that His Son
would be firstborn among many brethren. He chose His Son first
and He chose a people and put them in His Son. And in the season
of His love, He comes to each one of them and He miraculously
brings forth life just like He did from Sarah. So, you have
to bear in mind now that there was two sons Abraham had according
to the flesh, Ishmael and Isaac. But Genesis 22, 2, when the Lord
called Abraham and told him to go up to the mountain to offer
up his son, this is what he said. And he said, take now thy son,
thine only son, Isaac. He didn't regard Ishmael as even
being a son. Who counts these children? God
counts them. And he said all the children
of Abraham They're not accounted for the seed, but the children
of promise, those that I've promised by my promise. So did God love
Jacob because he was the son of Abraham? Not at all. That had no bearing on it whatsoever,
ever. Esau and Jacob were the sons
of Isaac, just as Ishmael and Isaac were both the sons of Abraham,
yet only Isaac and only Jacob. were counted by God as his own
children. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. Did the Lord's choice of Jacob
have something to do with who his mother was? Maybe it had
something to do with that Isaac was chosen and Ishmael was rejected
because one was born of Hagar and the other was born of Sarah.
So maybe that was the case with Jacob. Paul closes the door with
a loud, emphatic no. Look here in Romans 9.10. And
not only this, and I think this phrase here, not only this, means
not only did God come in the time of His love like He does
in regeneration, but He's showing us something that took place
before He ever brought the children forth. Not only this, But when
Rebekah also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac,
it wasn't based on who Jacob's mother was. Jacob and Esau both
had the same father and the same mother. So the Lord's love for Jacob
not only had nothing to do with him being the grandson of Abraham,
it had nothing to do with who his mother and his father were.
Well, could it be that God Love Jacob because of some merit that
God saw in Jacob? Romans 9.11 says, for the children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil. God's
love for Jacob and hatred for Esau existed before either of
them was born. They were both conceived at the
same time in the same womb. They were twins. And if you know
Scriptures, you know what a trickster Jacob was, what a beguiler he
was, what a deceiver he was. His name means supplanter. Esau
came to him hungry and Jacob wouldn't even give him, his own
brother, a bowl of stew unless Esau sold him his birthright.
gave him his birthright. He came to his own father when
his father was laying sick on his deathbed and couldn't see. And he put some goat's hair on him so he
would feel like his brother Esau, because his brother Esau was
hairy. And he came up to him and let his father feel of him
and tricked Isaac, who couldn't even see him, into blessing him
with a blessing. so that Esau, who was the firstborn,
wouldn't get it. He was as bad, if not worse,
than Esau. They were the same. He didn't
show him mercy then because he was any better than Esau. God's
love and choice of Jacob was not based on anything in Jacob.
We're sinners by representation in Adam, by conception, by natural
generation, and by choice. We love it by nature. And God's
choice of the people that He'll save is not based on anything
in us. His rejection of someone, His
hatred of Esau wasn't based on anything good or evil in Esau. We ought to be thankful that
God's love is not based on any merit of us, in us, unless we
think there's some in us. That's the only reason a man
wouldn't be thankful for this grace is if he thought he had
some merit in him. But if we see ourselves as we
are and we know that there's nothing in us good that can merit
anything, any favor from God, then let us be thankful that
God's election is not based on anything good or evil in us.
Could it be that God loved Jacob because he was the firstborn?
The birthright went to the firstborn. Maybe that was it. No, Scripture
says here, before they were born, verse 12, it was said unto her,
the elder shall serve the younger. Esau, who's going to be born
first, God said to Rebekah, he's going to serve Jacob. He's going
to be a servant to Jacob. Here's the point that I want
you to get. God's love is not based on genealogy. It's not based on natural ancestry,
who our father or our mother is. You and I may come from a
long line of believers. You may come from a long line
of Baptists. It don't matter. That's not going
to do me and you any good at all. Neither is God's love based
on any good or evil in us. Not any works of righteousness
which we've done to merit it. And God's love is not based on
the order in which we were born. You may be the oldest in your
house. Big deal. That don't have any bearing on
God's love. Now, secondly, let's look at
how the Lord loved Jacob. Let's look at how the Lord loved
Jacob. Verse 11. 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." God loved Jacob and hated Esau simply according
to his own purpose and according to his sovereign electing grace. God chose Jacob simply because
he chose to do so. Ephesians 1.11 tells us this,
In Christ we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after
the counsel of His own will. Paul told Timothy in chapter
2 and verse 9, 1 Timothy, he said, God has saved us and called
us with a holy calling. not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. Jacob believed God because
God loved him, God chose him, God ordained him to eternal life,
and God regenerated him and granted him faith and repentance to believe.
to turn from a false way to believe Him. There's a word in Scripture
that you need to get a hold of and it's called foreknew or foreknowledge. It means He loved intimately
like your father loves your mother. Intimately as a husband, you
husbands love your wives. He foreknew. And it means He
ordained before. He chose before and predestinated
before that His sons, that those He chose would be conformed to
the image of His Son. That's what Acts 13.48 says,
as many as were ordained to eternal life believe. It wasn't that God foresaw they
would believe and therefore He ordained them to eternal life.
He ordained them to eternal life and therefore they believed Him. Did God promise Abraham Isaac
because He looked down through time and saw that Sarah would
give birth to Isaac? No. He's the one that came with
His Word. He's the one that told Abraham
she's going to have a child. And He's the reason she had the
child. Jacob would have never believed
on the Lord had the Lord not called him. Jacob would have
never believed had the Lord not called him. Had the Holy Spirit
not washed him in regeneration, he never would have believed
God. That's what verse 11 is declaring to us here at the end
when it says, not of works, but of him that calleth. It's of
him that effectually draws. Paul said to the Galatians, now
we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. Not
because we did something, because he promised to save us and he
effectually drew us to himself. Turn to a few verses of Scripture
with me. I want you to turn to a few verses. And what I want
you to pay attention to, look back there at Romans 8.29. I
want you to pay particular attention to who gets all the glory in
our believing on God. I want you to see this now. Romans 8.29. For whom He did
foreknow. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called. And whom He called, them He also
justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. Do you see who gets the glory
in this thing? Look with me at Titus. Chapter 3, Titus chapter
3. Look at verse 4. But after that, here's
what we were. Look at verse 3. We ourselves
also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving
different lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful
and hating one another. but after that the kindness and
love of who? Of God our Savior toward man
appeared. Now listen to this. Not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy. He saved us by the washing of
regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. whom He shed
on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being
justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the
hope of eternal life. Look at 2 Thessalonians with
me. This is what the Lord told Jeremiah.
He said, The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love. And therefore in lovingkindness
I have drawn thee. Look here in 2 Thessalonians
2, verse 13. We're bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath,
who did? God hath, from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the true. Does a man believe? He can't
do anything else but believe when God operates on him. Yes,
he believes delightfully, willingly, loves to, and won't do anything
else but believe. Where unto? To this salvation. He called you by our Gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. What does
Ephesians tell us? It says, For by grace are you
saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift
of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. For we are whose workmanship?
His workmanship. Created in whom? In Christ Jesus
unto good works, which God himself hath before ordained." There's
that word. He before time ordained that
we should walk in these good works. The good works are those
that God creates us in Christ Jesus when He creates a new nature
within us. And when He does that, brethren,
He turns us unto Christ from our own dead works of unbelief,
from our dead works of carnality, from our loving our own sin and
hating God, of trying to earn a righteousness by our own hand.
The good works we walk in are the gifts of God given to us
through the blood of Jesus Christ. We walk by faith in Christ. That's a good work. We walk in
the holiness wherein Christ hath made us holy. We walk in the redemption accomplished
which He bought for us with His own blood. We're not trying to
buy ourselves. We trust God and walk in His
redemption that He purchased for us. We walk in wisdom which
of God Christ is made unto us. That's the good work. And then
furthermore, by faith in Him, by believing Him, we walk in
the good works that Christ has actually accomplished on our
behalf and that God ordained that we should walk in. God ordained
that His brethren would be brethren who had upheld all the law of
God. And you know what? By faith in
Him, we have. By trusting His Son who did it
for us, we have. But He upheld all His righteousness. He's determined to receive a
people unto Himself. It has to be holy to be accepted.
And by faith in Christ who is holy and accepted of God and
seated at God's right hand, there we are with Him. As He is, so
are you in this world. That's how God chose to save. That's how He saves. God does
it. God does it. Do we understand
that? Do we get that? That God does
this? Let's consider now, thirdly,
let's consider how sinful men object to this and let's see
how the Holy Spirit answers them. These aren't my objections. These are the objections that
God points out, the Lord Jesus moved Paul to point out right
here in this chapter. The first objection is always
this, when someone hears that salvation is of God's love and
His choosing based on His own good pleasure, according to the
election of grace. When somebody hears that, usually
the first thing a person says is, God is unfair. That makes
God unrighteous. That makes Him unjust to choose
some and pass by others. Romans 9.14. What shall we say
then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Paul asked the question. Is God unrighteous for saving
a people as He's pleased to save a people in the manner in which
He's pleased? Is He unfair for doing that?
Is God unrighteous for ordering salvation so precisely in Christ
Jesus the Lord that it's sure and certain and never can be
lost? Is He unjust in doing that? Is
God unrighteous for loving a multitude that no man can number? Is He
unjust for doing that? Is He unfair for saving a multitude,
Jew and Gentile, in spite of the fact that they came into
this world and all their days hated God? and wouldn't have
anything to do with Him, and wouldn't have come to Him unless
He affectionately drew them to Himself, does that make Him unfair? If we know what we are by nature,
if you know what you are by nature, by grace, by God's grace, if
you know what you are by nature, and I know what I am by nature,
And we know that in spite of us, God chose us, not based on
any good or evil in us, and therefore, He's always viewed us in the
Son of His love. If we understand something of
that, brethren, we won't think it's unrighteous that God showed
us mercy and passed by others. We won't think it's unrighteous.
But if I think there's something in me worth saving, We just sing
about my pride being laid. And we'll sing those songs. We'll
come into this place and we'll sing those songs. And, oh, that's
such a wonder. The singing sure was good this
morning. And I believe a blamed word that we sung. Isn't that
right? If pride is what I'm trusting
in, if I'm trusting in the works of my own hand, then I'll say
in my heart of hearts, that's unfair for God to save as He
will and pass by as He will. What we're saying is, why would
He ever pass me by? Look at me, why would He ever
pass me by? That's what we're saying. The
Lord hath made all things for Himself, yea, even the wicked
for the day of evil. God forbid, Paul said. There's
not unrighteousness with God. It's the very glory of the triune
God to save by His own purpose according to His own choosing. Look here in verse 15. For He
said 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 if we have a problem with
that, there's only one we have to take it up with, and that's
the Thrice Holy God. Some argue that God's sovereign
election is spoken of here, as it is throughout the Scriptures,
as only being His election of nations, as only being that He
elected nations. Indeed, He saw When he speaks
there in Malachi, the heritage he speaks of is those that came
after Esau, which was a nation. But Esau was a person, and indeed
from him came a nation, but both Esau the person and that nation
were both hated by God and left alone, just as Jacob was a person. And both Jacob, the person, and
all those that are the sons of promise, the children of promise
that God chose to save, all of them make up that spiritual nation
called the Israel of God. What is it here that he said,
it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth? That
seems to me to be quite personal. Doesn't it to you? Whenever Paul
spoke to Thessalonians, and he said, knowing brethren beloved,
your election of God. He was talking to brethren beloved
of God. When Peter said, give diligence
to make your calling and election sure. I can't make sure that
you're elected of God. I can't run around and make sure
that the church of God is elected under salvation. I can't. I only can give diligence to
make my own calling and election sure, not everybody else's. He's
talking about individuals. He's talking about individuals.
Is there a multitude that makes up a nation? Indeed, there is.
But they're each one individually chosen by God. You know why? Because he chose his son first.
individually. He chose him that he might have
all the preeminence. He's the first elected child
of God, his own son. And he chose every other one
individually and put them in him. And collectively they make
up the church, the nation of God, the kingdom of God. but
it's made up of people. And I'm going to show you something
else. The illustration given next that we have here is of
one that God hardened, and not of a nation. He's not talking
about a nation. He's talking about one, an individual
person named Pharaoh. This is the illustration that
Paul was moved by the Holy Spirit to give to show that God has
mercy on whom He will, compassion on whom He will, and whom He
will, He hardens. Individuals. Look here. Romans
9.17, For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same
purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in
thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the
earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will, and whom he
will he hardeneth. That's an individual man. All
that time when Pharaoh was making his political inroads to that
office. God was raising him up for a
purpose. All that time when those plagues came about and Pharaoh
was held up there and hardened so that he wouldn't obey God,
it was God that raised him up and held him there and hardened
his heart. Pharaoh hardened his own heart, Scripture says, and
Scripture also says, and the Lord hardened his heart. The
Lord held him there, and he said, I did it for this purpose, to
make my power known. What is it that the Lord said
that the generation in the last days would deny? They'd have
a form of godliness. They'd have a zeal for God, but
they'd deny what? His power. He said, I raised
you up, Pharaoh, to kill you. I raised you up to destroy you
for one purpose, to make known my power. Can God do with His
own what He will? The question is not how could
God hate Esau, or how God could harden Pharaoh's heart. The question
is how could holy God, who demands perfect righteousness, love an
individual like Jacob, and like Jacobs like you and me. That's
the question. The answer is, not by our will,
not because of our will, not because of our running and doing
and trying to impress. The only answer is by His grace
in Christ Jesus the Lord. That's the only answer. That's
the only answer. We've received not the Spirit
of the world, but the Spirit which is of God that we might
know the things that are freely given to us of God. It don't
cost us anything. being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. That's
how God can be just and yet justify a hell-deserving sinner. That's
how God could, by Himself, based on nothing in us whatsoever,
love us and choose us, is because it's in His Son. Election is
in His Son. He chose us unto salvation in
His Son. And he said, we saw last week
in Hosea, he said, I'll heal their backsliding. I will love
them freely. Why? Because my anger is turned
away from him. If his anger is turned away from
you and I, it's because his own son bore his anger in our room
instead, and his anger is turned away from his son, and so his
anger is turned away from you. That's how God can be gracious.
That's how God loved Jacob. That's what Paul said here in
Romans 29. He said, as Isaiah said before,
except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, He'd left us
children, promised we'd been as Sodom and been like unto Gomorrah.
You think there's any difference in you who believe or me who
believe? You think we think there's any
difference in us and the homosexuals and whores and harlots that died
in Sodom and Gomorrah? Not a bit. Not a bit. God's grace, that's it. God's
grace, that's it. The doctrine is a cause for rejoicing. Election doesn't shut the gates
of heaven. It's election that opens the
gates of heaven. The doctrine of God's sovereign
election and predestination is hated by the unregenerate sinner,
and yet we do it every day in our lives on a daily basis. We
choose and pass by on a daily basis in our lives. We're going
to go back here in just a moment and we're going to have a meal
together. And we're going to walk down a line of food that
these ladies have prepared for us. I can smell it up here. It
smells wonderful. And we're going to walk down
that line and some dishes we're going to choose, some of them
we're going to pass by. The only difference between us
and God is we'll choose that which is not good for us and
indulge in that which is harmful and hurtful to us. God only does
that which is right. And it's not right because God
does it. God doesn't do it to be right.
God, whatever He does is right. He doesn't do it to be right.
Whatever He does is right. And those with a high opinion
of themselves, they'll say, well, you can't compare a human life,
a human soul, to a dish of food. That's right, you can't. That
brings far too much dignity on us, us worms. God compared us
to just mud in the hands of a potter. Look here. Here's the second
objection, verse 19. Some will say, well, why does
God find fault? If God chooses some and pass
by others, haven't sinners simply done what He made them do? Well,
here are three answers that God gives to all who dispute the
truth of His sovereign electing love and grace in Christ. Here's three answers. Verse 20. Here's the first one. Nay, but,
O man, who art thou that replies against God? Shall the thing
formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Satan questioned God and was cast out of God's presence. A
host of angels replied against God and were cast out of His
presence. Who are you, thou worm Jacob,
to reply against God? Secondly, verse 21, here's the
second answer God gives us. Hath not the potter power? Hath not the potter power? over the clay, the lump of dirt,
the lump of mud, of the same lump, to make one vessel under
honor and another under dishonor. And does He not have the power,
the right, the privilege, the authority to do whatever pleases
Him? Third thing, verse 22. What if
God, willing to show His wrath, and to make his power known,
endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction, made up for nothing but destruction." What if he
endured them for a long time? "...that he might make known
the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had
aforeprepared unto glory, even us whom he hath called, not of
the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles." All mankind is going
to be made to see these two things. We're going to be made to know
His wrath against sin and against those who love sin, who are fit
for destruction. We're going to be made to see
His power, His wrath against sin. And we're going to be made
to know the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which
He aforeprepared unto glory. And I say all mankind is going
to know it. Everybody in the day of judgment is going to know
these two things. You who believe and anybody who
doesn't believe is going to know these two things. Going to behold
the riches of His mercy and His electing grace towards those
that He prepared before the foundation of the world. and going to behold
His wrath against sin and sinners. That's what we're going to behold.
Those are the three answers God gives. Who are we to reply against
Him? Does He not have power to do
what He will with us lumps of mud? The fashion one to honor
and one to dishonor. And he does it because he's going
to make his power known on the vessels fit for destruction and
his mercy known on vessels of mercy. I had somebody ask me
recently a good question. A question you don't normally
get. You know the question you normally get. The question you
normally get is, when people start understanding something
of God's distinguishing mercy, the question I always say is,
how could God hate Esau? Somebody recently asked me this
question. They said, when I start looking at this, and it's obvious
it's right here in black and white, I see it. God has blessed
me to be able to see it, they said. And they said, my question
is, how could God love me and pass by so many that appear so
much better than I am. That's the question. How could
God love me? How could He love me? Freely. Freely by His grace in His Son. That's a blessing. Let me give
you three things to go home with, or a few things to go home with. How are sinners going to react
to this? How are they going to react to
this truth? One of two ways. Many are going
to hear it and get mad. I read a lot of commentaries
when I was preparing this message. If it can be twisted, it has
been twisted. If it can be changed to try to
tone it down or take the edge off of it, it has been toned
down to try to take the edge off of it, to try to make it
say something else besides what it said. And they will go on
doing that. In religion, zealous just like
Israel was, just like Paul said, I bear them record, they have
a zeal of God, but it's not according to knowledge. For they going
about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted
themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He's
the righteousness of God. It's manifest in Him. God's just
and justifier in Him. But they'll go on and they'll
step right up to the very throne of God. and say, look what we've
done. And God will say, you're a vessel
of wrath fit for nothing but destruction. But secondly, there's some. This is a savor of death unto
death for some, but it's a savor of life unto life for others. And they'll hear this message,
and they're going to discover that chosen vessels of mercy
are accepted and made holy and just and saved by His grace through
His Son. That salvation is by grace alone,
through Christ alone, by faith alone. They are going to behold
it. And they're going to enter into
an understanding of just how totally unfit they are to be
loved of God. If He ever looked upon me based
on anything in me, He would have never chose me. Thank God He
didn't look at anything good or evil in me. And they're going
to rejoice. And you know what they're going
to do? They're going to be working and striving and laboring to
try to, under all the oppression and the yoke of the Pharisees
in our day, and they're going to come to this realization and
by God's grace, they're going to fall at His feet and say,
I can rest now. I can just rest now. The load's
gone. The burden is gone. His yoke
is light and easy to bear. I can rest here. And they're
filled with the love of Christ which passes knowledge and all
the fullness of God. They begin to understand things
about God they never ever saw before. That which man's made
up won't fit with what God's Word says. But when God reveals
Himself in us, then it all starts falling together and we start
seeing it here and here. We begin to realize from cover
to cover this book is taken up with telling us about one, and
that's Christ the Lord. And that believer who knows he's
still a sinner, I know I... You know you're a sinner? That
believer who knows he's a sinner and knows that this thing wasn't
based on anything good or evil in us and knows that God doesn't
change, that He's viewing us in His Son and when we sin and
rebel that though He chastens us, He chastens us as a Father.
And He says, I'm God, I change not, and therefore ye sons of
Jacob aren't consumed. I'm not going to go back on my
promises. I'd do my son injustice. I'd
be lying to you in my Word. I'm not going back on my promises.
The gifts of God are without repentance. And that believer
who knows he's a sinner will say, thank God it's not based
on me. And when the Lord reveals to
you that you are indeed chosen and precious unto Him, you'll
do what the Lord told His disciples to do. You know what He told
His disciples to do? They had gone out and they were
able to do some miracles and do these things that they weren't
able to do before. Can you follow Christ now? Good. I'm glad you can. Don't rejoice
in your being able to follow Him. It's a miracle of His grace.
You can do it. Do you find that you have a heart
to turn from the self-righteous works of iniquity that you once
loved to follow Him? Don't rejoice in that miracle.
Rejoice in Him. And he said this, don't rejoice
in these things that you're able to do through the Holy Spirit.
He said, rejoice in this, your names are written in the book
of life. There's where we rejoice. In
the Lamb's book of life, written before the foundation of the
world, our names are written in His book. There's where we
rejoice. I'm thankful. I'm very thankful
for everything God enables us to do. To follow Him. To walk.
But our rejoicing is this. He wrote my name there. It wasn't
that when I believed a new name was written in heaven. That name
was already there. It was always there. And by God's
grace, He made me to behold. He put it there. He put it there. This is what David said. Psalm
65, verse 4. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causes to approach unto thee, that he may dwell
in thy courts. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. Amen.