Genesis chapter 25. We're only
going to read the first, actually we're going to read the whole
chapter. So it's not very long, but let's read this together.
And I'm not going to be the one who takes this Old Testament
scripture and applies it. I'm going to let the New Testament
do that for us. In Genesis chapter 25, Then again
Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. And she bare
him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Midan, and Midian, and Ishbak,
and Shua. And Jokshan beget Sheba, and
Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Ashurim,
and Latushim, and Leumim. And the sons of Midian, Ephah,
and Ephur, and Hanok, and Abida, and Elida, and Eldah. All these were the children of
Keturah. And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac. That's
a very significant verse. He gave all that he had to Isaac. Was Isaac his only son? We just
read a whole long list of kids that Abraham had after he married
Keturah. And we know he had another son
named Ishmael. But God singles out Isaac and says Abraham gave
all that he had to Isaac. And this is very important. This
is scripture. Scripture doesn't say anything
accidentally or incidentally. It's all important. And this
is especially important. Abraham gave all that he had
to Isaac. Remember what Jesus said in John
3.35, the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into
his hand. He's the heir of all things,
appointed that way. Verse 6. But unto the sons of
the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and
sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived eastward
unto the east country. And these are the days of the
years of Abraham's life, which he lived a hundred threescore
and fifteen years. That's a hundred and seventy-five.
A score is twenty. There were threescore, so that's
sixty. And fifteen and sixty is seventy-five. So he was a
hundred and seventy-five years old. Then Abraham gave up the ghost
and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years. And
he was gathered to his people. And his sons Isaac and Ishmael
buried him in the cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephron, the son
of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre. The field which
Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth There was Abraham buried
and Sarah, his wife. Remember he bought that field?
We read about that a couple weeks ago. Verse 11. And it came to
pass after the death of Abraham that God blessed his son Isaac.
And Isaac dwelt by the well, the Hiroy. Now, these are the
generations of Ishmael. Not Isaac, but Ishmael. Abraham's
son, whom Hagar, the Egyptian, Sarah's handmaid, bear unto Abraham.
And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names,
according to their generations, the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebejoth,
and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam, and Mishma, and Numa, and Massa,
Hedar, and Tima, Jitur, Naphish, and Kedema. These are the sons
of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns, and by
their castles, twelve princes, according to their nations. They
were great men in the earth, castles, princes. And these are
the years of the life of Ishmael, 137. And he gave up the ghost
and died, and was gathered to his people. And they dwelt from
Havilah, this is Ishmael's kids. And they dwelt from Havilah unto
Shur, that is before Egypt, as Elgoas toward Assyria. And he
died, Ishmael, in the presence of all his brethren. Verse 19,
And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham
begat Isaac. And Isaac was forty years old
when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the
Syrian, of Padon Aram, the sister to Laban, the Syrian. I'm just trying to parse that
sentence here to make sure I tell you this right. Bethuel, I think,
was the father. Well, it doesn't matter. I'm
not going to get into that right now. Verse 21. The point here is Isaac was
40 when he got married. And his wife's name was Rebekah.
And she was the daughter of these people, Bethuel and so on, of
Syria. Verse 21. And Isaac entreated
the Lord for his wife because she was barren. And the Lord
was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. So we'll
find out how long she was barren in a second here. So she didn't
have any kids. Isaac prayed for her, and God
gave her a child. Actually two. Verse 22. And the
children struggled together within her. And she said, If it be so,
why am I thus? And she sent to inquire of the
Lord. And the Lord said to her, two nations are in thy womb,
and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels.
And the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the
elder shall serve the younger. So the firstborn is the elder. The firstborn normally gets everything.
But in this case, God says the older child, the older son, the
elder, is going to serve the younger. It's going to be reverse
of what you would expect. Verse 24, And when her days to
be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her
womb. And the first came out red all
over, like a hairy garment, and they called his name Esau. And
after that came his brother out, and his hand, Jacob's hand, took
hold on Esau's heel, and his name was called Jacob. And Isaac
was 60, or three score years old, when she bare them. So he
got married when he was 40, and he had their children when he
was 60. Which means there was a space
of 20 years after they got married before they had these two boys.
And since Abraham was 140, remember he was 100 when Isaac was born?
He was 140 when Isaac got married. So 20 years later, Abraham would have been
160, right? So that means that Esau and Jacob
were 15 years old when their grandfather Abraham died. They
would have been kids around Abraham hearing him. And you know what
he was telling them, right? He was telling them about God's
covenant to bring Christ into the world to save his people
from their sins. That was his message to them.
So these boys grew up hearing this from their father Isaac
and from Abraham. It says in Hebrews 11 that Abraham
sojourned in the land of promise dwelling in tents with Isaac
and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. I like to understand
how these grandsons were around Abraham, and he was an old man,
and they would have heard him teaching them the gospel. And
that's what Isaac, I'm sure, did as well. So, it says that
Jacob, when he was born, he grabbed a hold of his brother's heel.
Now, he was a baby. But it signified something. It
signified what God had spoken before, that when Jacob grew
up, Esau was going to serve him. This is interesting, isn't it?
Why did God do that? Well, we're going to go on. In
verse 28, I'm sorry, verse 27. And the boys grew, and Esau was
a cunning hunter. His very good hunter. A man of
the field. And Jacob was a plain man, dwelling
in tents. And Isaac... That's what I meant.
I'm just a plain man. I'm not a hunter. I'm not skilled
at much. Just plain. He was dwelling in
tents. And Isaac loved Esau. Because
he did eat of his venison. But Rebekah loved Jacob. And Jacob sawed pottage. He made food in the pot, and
it was boiled. That's what sawed means, boiled.
He sawed pottage, and Esau came from the fields, and he was faint.
And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same
red pottage, for I am faint. Therefore was his name called
Edom. Because remember he was red all
over, like a hairy garment. And he saw this red pottage and
he said, that looks good, fits me just right. And so they called
him Edom, which means red. And Jacob said, now notice this
is another very important statement here. Jacob said, sell me this
day thy birthright. Remember, the birthright meant
what? He was the oldest and he got everything that was his father's.
He had the blessing. And Jacob was born second. But
he wanted that birthright more than he wanted anything else.
And so he said, sell me your birthright for the food. And
Esau said, behold, I'm at the point to die. And what profit
shall this birthright do me? Obviously, he was able to talk,
so he wasn't quite dying. And Jacob said, Swear to me this
day. And Esau swore to him, and he
sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and
pottage of lentils, and he did eat and drink and rose up and
went his way. God says this about it, Thus
Esau despised his birthright. What was the birthright? Remember
what God said to Abraham? In thee and in thy seed shall
all the nations of the earth be blessed. That was the promise. That was the promise God gave
to Abraham and to Isaac, and not to Esau, but to Jacob. That's what Jacob wanted. It
was eternal salvation, eternal blessings and inheritance in
Christ. And Jacob wanted that more than
anything, and so when he had this opportunity, he asked Esau,
sell me your birthright. Sell me your birthright. And
he said, what good is it to me? Esau was a profane man, it says
in Hebrews chapter 12. He lived to satisfy the lust
of his belly. That's what profane means. Jacob
lived to have the eternal inheritance in Christ. I've mentioned these things in
passing, but I want you to see this. It says, and you know this
is in the New Testament, when Rebecca knew that there were
twins in her womb and they were struggling, actually she didn't
know there were twins, perhaps she did, but they were struggling,
she asked the Lord, why is this? And I don't know how she knew
they were struggling. It must have been unusual. Rebecca
was a woman of God. She was, remember how she gave
water to all the camels, and she was a chaste virgin, and
she was very respectful, and she went to be Isaac's wife. And so she understood some things,
and so what did she do when she had this question? She went to
the Lord in prayer and asked Him, what about this? And the
Lord said, It says in verse 23, I'm going to read it again. And
the Lord said to her, two nations are in thy womb, and two manner
of people shall be separated from thy bowels. Two kinds of
people. Two kinds of people. The one
people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder
shall serve the younger. Now, I want you to go to the
New Testament. We're going to pick this up. In Romans chapter 9. Because
this is where it's talked about. It's drawn out. God put this
here to teach us what's written in Romans chapter 9. At least
this. And this is plainly brought out. Now Romans chapter 9 is
that dreadful chapter to most people who have great concern
about what's called election. That's a big word, isn't it?
Election. What does it mean? It means to choose. And so, in Romans chapter 9,
the first part, the first eight verses, are a question raised
by the Apostle Paul, and he's going to use this birth of Jacob
and Esau in order to teach us something. God's going to use
it. And what he's going to teach us is that the nation of Israel
which for over 1400 years lived under the law and heard the gospel
and did not believe it for the most part. And then when Christ
came, they rejected him and put him to death on the cross. And
then after he was raised from the dead and preached to them,
they still rejected him. The nation of Israel. The children
of Abraham after the flesh. And Paul is asking the question,
why? Why did they do this? And so he's going to use Esau,
Jacob and Esau, to show why. And he answers this, and this
is the first part of a couple of messages here. But I want
you to look at this in verse chapter 9. In verse 11, we're
just going to pick it up right in the middle here, even though
it would be best if we went back and did the whole chapter. I
just want to focus on this today. He says in verse 11, for the
children, Jacob and Esau, for the children, in fact look at
verse 10, when Rebekah also had conceived by one, even by our
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 to her, the elder shall serve the younger." That's
a fantastic truth that God was teaching then, we never would
have seen it, but here the Apostle Paul, by the Spirit of God, reveals
to us the meaning of what happened in Genesis 25, that God was saying,
when he said, the elder shall serve the younger, he was saying,
this is spoken in Scripture in order to establish God's purpose
of election, and what is that purpose? that our salvation might
not be of works, not by what we do, but of him that calleth."
And how does it prove that? Well, because he said, the children
be not yet born. How could they do any works if
they weren't born? neither having done any good
or evil." See, that's the proof here that it's not of works.
It's not of works, but it is of what? Of Him who calls, the
One who shows mercy. Verse 12, "...and it was said
to her, The elder shall serve the younger." And then listen
to verse 13, "...as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated." And then he asks a question.
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 shows mercy. What is? Salvation. Our salvation
is not of what we do. It's not our striving, not our
willing, but God's mercy. It's the one who shows mercy
that saves us. That's the truth. And this is
something God determined before the children were born. Now this raises several questions.
This raises several questions. And today I'm going to make a
statement that might shock you. I'm going to tell you today the
answer to all of your questions and all of your objections about
the doctrine of election. That seems like a really arrogant
thing to say, doesn't it? It's not arrogant, because I'm
just going to tell you what God says. That's the answer. So I've
entitled this message, The Answer of God. The Answer of God. Look at Romans 11, verse 4. It
says in Romans chapter 11 that Elijah made a prayer to God against
his people Israel. And then in verse 4 it says,
But what saith the answer of God to him? Elijah thought one
thing and prayed one way, but what sayeth the answer of God
to him? That's what we want to know.
The question might come up, why did God create men that he determined
before not to save? Have you ever wondered that question?
Maybe someone's asked you. My own children have asked me
that question. In other words, if God eternally
and unalterably determined whom He would save and whom He would
not save, why did He create those He wouldn't save? Why did He
create men that He would send to hell? Now, I've often tried
to answer this question the best I can to myself and to others,
but I often leave with a sense that I didn't give a satisfactory
answer. Have you ever tried to do that?
That question, has it ever occurred to you? Maybe you've never had
the objection in your mind raised. Or maybe no one's ever asked
you. But maybe asking it now. Why did God create men? Obviously
He created Esau. And before he was born, He said,
Jacob, have I loved? Esau, have I hated? That seems
to raise a question in our mind. Why would God do that? Doesn't
it? Therefore, today I want to give the answer of God from scripture.
The Spirit of God Himself speaks through the Apostle to both ask
and answer this question in Romans 9. In verse 11, God says that
before Jacob and Esau were born, while they were still in their
mother's womb, before either of them had done any good or
evil, God said, the elder shall serve the younger. He did not
mean simply that Esau would serve Jacob in his life, but spiritually,
God would use Esau to further his purpose in the salvation
and the blessing of his people. That seems really amazing, isn't
it? But this is what scripture says.
And you can read about this in several places, but I'm going
to defer going to those scriptures right now. What he meant was
that Esau would forever remain the servant of sin. He would
never have the promises in Christ God gave to Abraham which were
salvation and eternal glory. We know that's true. It says
that God spoke this before he was born in order that the purpose
of God according to election might stand. And the purpose
of election is that salvation not be of works, but of him that
calleth, not of man, but of God. Our salvation is not of us, it's
of God. This is why scripture declared
before Jacob and Esau were born that God loved Jacob and hated
Esau, that salvation from first to last might be of God and not
of man. God's will never changes. This
is important. Those he loves, he loves eternally. Those he loved, those God loved
in heaven, and those God loved before, I'm sorry, those God
loved in heaven, or those God loves in heaven, are those he
loved before the foundation of the world. God's love never changes. All of those loved before time
are eternally loved in glory. In 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13,
the Apostle says, We're bound to give thanks to God for you,
brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation. So that's love and God's electing
grace to salvation all in one sentence. Those the Lord saves,
He determined to save from eternity. Therefore, in Romans 9-11, Paul
quotes the scripture from Malachi. And you know what Malachi, this
is where it says, Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated.
That's actually spoken in Malachi chapter 1, which was much later
than Genesis, the last book of the Old Testament. But Paul quotes
Malachi to affirm God's eternal will towards Jacob and Esau.
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Malachi's prophecy
was not a decision that God made at that point in time, but one
He had made before time. So Romans 9-11 teaches us that
Jacob was not loved for his good works, because he was loved before
he was born. And it teaches us that Esau was
not rejected for his evil works. That seems hard, doesn't it?
God is less influenced by sinful man than men are influenced by
a worm. God is less influenced by sinful
man than a potter is influenced by the clay on his wheel. Job
asked this question. If you sin, you don't hurt God. If you do righteousness, you
don't do anything for God. The election is not in any way
conditioned on man. God eternally loved and eternally
chose his own. He eternally rejected all the
rest. And nothing about men moved God
to choose one and pass by the other, for the children being
not yet born, neither having done any good or evil. That's the word of God, isn't
it? Now many deny this plainly declared truth, as if God did
really love one unborn child. did not love one unborn child
and hate the other. A lot of people say, well, some
have tried to say that these words apply to nations. Now God
didn't love Jacob and hate Esau, individuals. He loved the nation
of Israel and he hated the nation of the Edomites, the people of
Esau. Some have also said that God
loved Esau less, as if hate didn't mean hate. But if he loved nations
and hated nations, isn't that loving a bunch of people and
hating a bunch of people? How does that remove the problem? And if it meant that God loved
Esau less, That raises another question.
Maybe he really hated Jacob less. You can't have it both ways here.
The word hate here, you know what it means in scripture? It
means hate. Some people use Luke 14, 26 to
show that Jesus used hate to mean love less. Remember he said,
if you don't hate father and mother more than me, you're not
worthy of me. But the word in Luke actually
means hate. Jesus was teaching that we must
disobey all, even our loved ones, in all things they want us to
do, in those things that oppose the will of our great God and
Savior. Our disobedience to them makes it appear that we hate
them. So it meant hate. Thus hate means hate. And God
follows his statement here with a question. Here in Romans chapter
9. I want you to read this again.
Look at this. He says, As it is written, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? This
is God's question. Is there unrighteousness with
God? Why would that question even come, occur to us, if it
didn't mean what God says. That God loved Jacob and hated
Esau. There would be no objection if
it just meant, well he loved one less. Maybe there would be.
Why would God love less? Why would that be just? if you
want to base it on that. So God follows his question with
an objector that's from an objector that only makes sense if the
meaning was that God did love Jacob and Hades, saw before they
had done any good or evil. The objection is raised and answered.
And what is that question that's raised? What shall we say then?
Is there unrighteousness with God? The question confirms God's
plain meaning. There could be no objection if
God rewarded Jacob and Esau for their will or their works, either
past or foreseen. If God said, I love Jacob, and
it was because God saw that Jacob was going to be a good man, and
he said, I hate Esau, and he did it because he saw that Esau
was going to be a bad man, then who would object to that? They
would just say, well, God just did what was right and just.
No one would object to that. What was a problem, what raises
the issue in our minds, is that God would do this before they
were born. And that's why the question is raised here. Is there
unrighteousness with God? The question confirms God's meaning.
Only if God had this attitude toward them before they were
born. But the objection serves to confirm the truth plainly
stated that election is unconditional on us. On the ones God chooses,
it places no conditions because God chose one and rejected the
other before they were born. In fact, election depends on
God alone. That's what election is all about. It's God being God. God eternally
set His love on Jacob and chose Jacob in Christ to eternal salvation
and to glory. Jacob is God's example of all
of the elect of God. God judged Christ and rewards
His elect for Christ's works. That's what the Gospel is, isn't
it? God laid our sins on Christ and
judged Him for our sins And then he rewarded his people for what
Christ did. That's the gospel. That's what
we need to focus on, isn't it? But God determined not to choose
Esau. He left Esau. How? He left him
to bear the consequences of his own sin. to reward him according
to his own works. God chose to save Jacob and all
of his elect by rewarding them for Christ's work. But he chose
to leave Esau and all those who were not his elect to receive
the consequences of their own actions. Doesn't the objection
raised here capture our own objection when we ask it? How can God be
just if He created some with the unalterable will that they
suffer the punishment that is justly due them for their sins?
Why did God create any who ultimately go to hell? Wouldn't it have
been better if God either saved all men or simply didn't create
those that would ultimately perish? Wouldn't that seem best? Well,
it seems best to us. But we are not God. We are not
good. Now, we might put forward many
responses to these questions. I might respond, well, when you
ask such questions, you place a greater concern on man than
the glory of God who is holy. Wouldn't that be a fair statement?
When we object to something God has done and say, well, what
about man? We're asking God to set aside His purpose and will
because we think that He isn't considering man. That's putting
more emphasis on man than God, isn't it? Even though that's a correct
way of assessing the situation, that God's glory is more important
than ours, or we might respond in another way. We might say,
well, God only gives men what is right. That would also be
correct. But Paul doesn't do that here.
By the Spirit of God, he does something better in his answer.
And this is what we all must learn to do in response to our
own objections and the questions and objections of others. Look
at it again. Verse 14. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? That's the objection. How does the Spirit of God Himself,
through the Apostle Paul, answer this question? This is the wisdom
of God now. We must never forget this principle.
The Spirit of God answers all such questions as our Lord Jesus
answered Satan three times. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew
chapter 4? Satan said, why don't you turn
some bread into stones? Or why don't you climb up on
this temple and throw yourself down and God will keep you from
hurting yourself. Or why don't you bow down and
worship me? How did Jesus respond? Did he
argue with Satan? He just said, it is written. It is written. Who was Jesus? He was the Son of God. the son
of God, couldn't he have silenced Satan with a powerful argument? He did. What was it? It is written. I think about a little boy on
the playground at school and everyone is, he says something
and everyone is laughing and mocking him. He says, he stands
up against the whole crowd and he says, but my dad said so. That's the full answer. That's
all he needed to give. That's the way he knew what was
true. It is written. This is always the answer of
God, isn't it? And let it therefore be ours, our answer. God's word
must be our final answer to every question. We must stop with all
of our reasoning and own that God's word is truth. We must
rest in the fact that there is no truth but the word of God. God's written word is the ultimate
authority. There is none higher. God says
in Psalm 138.2, Thou hast exalted thy word. above thy name. Jesus said in John 10.35 that the scripture
cannot be broken. In Matthew 24.35 Jesus said that
heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall never pass
away. God's word is truth. Jesus said
in John 17.17 thy word is truth. And in Psalm 119, verse 89, forever
thy word is settled in heaven. Forever, O Lord, thy word is
settled in heaven. God's word is the only truth. How do we know that the Bible
is true? Thy word is truth. That's it. My daddy said so. That's the final answer. God's
Word written. If we want to know the truth
of anything, we must come to the final and ultimate answer
of God's written Word. For example, how did this world
come to be? Scripture answers it, and answers
all such questions in the same way. Through faith, we understand
that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. So that things which are seen
were not made of things which do appear. How did God create
all things out of nothing? He spoke. He spoke. He commanded and it stood fast.
By the breath of the Lord were the heavens made and all the
host of them by the breath of His mouth. By the word of the
Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath
of His mouth. Psalm 33 verse 6. How did God
create everything out of nothing? He just spoke. It was His will. He willed it and He spoke it
and it was done. How do we know? The Bible tells
us so. In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth. God made all that is by His word. Scripture has spoken. That's
the proof. That's the final response of
God on the matter. And to go beyond scripture is
to presume there is truth that's more foundational than what God
has said in His Word. What does that mean? Well, it
means that God isn't as sure as whatever that other thing
is. And we know we have a tendency to make our own reasoning the
final place where the answer has to be given. But that's not
what God does. He just says this is the way
it is. Scripture is truth. It's the unprovable axiom. All
truth is therefore proved by the word of God. That's the way
we know it. How do you know that two and
two is four? God says so. Truth is not proven by experience.
It is not proven by science. It is not by man at all, in any
way, not proven at all by man in any way. It is most certainly
not proved by our own sinful reasoning. Faith is taking God
at His word, and our Lord Jesus Himself refuted Satan's temptations
by using Scripture. Eve failed to do so, and she
was deceived. Didn't she? Believers must believe
Christ according to the Scriptures. Look at 1 John chapter 5. I want
you to look at this verse with me, just as an example of how
this is spoken in Scripture. Believing God's Word is believing
God. Faith is believing God's Word.
And saving faith is believing what God has said concerning
His Son. 1 John chapter 5 and verse 9
says, If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is
greater. For this is the witness of God
which he has testified of his Son. He that believeth on the
Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not
God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that
God gave of his Son. Now that's powerful, isn't it?
This is the record that God has given to us, eternal life, and
this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. That's
the way God, He always speaks. that by His Word we might believe. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. Faith doesn't make it true. God
says it. That's what makes it true. It
is true, because God thought it, and God spoke it, and God
established it. Faith just simply receives what
God said as the way things are. So now here in Romans chapter
9, God asks and then answers the objection. Is there unrighteousness
with God? And what is His answer? Look
at this again in Romans 9 14. God forbid. We immediately know that God
is not unrighteous because He said so. God forbid. No. He's
not unrighteous. Is He unrighteous? No. But He
continues He continues beyond that, because he brings in the
foundation of all truth, which is scripture. Listen to how the
Apostle does this. Again, this is the Spirit of
God speaking. He says, God forbid. Now listen. 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. There you go. That's God's Word
spoken. He quoted from Exodus chapter
33 verses 18 and 19 when God spoke to Moses. And that was
his answer to the question. Is there unrighteousness with
God? No. God says, I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. Scripture says God is not unrighteous.
Scripture says He'll have mercy on whom He will. Scripture says
He'll have compassion on whom He will have compassion. And
the Spirit of God draws the conclusion from Scripture to our objection. He knows it lies in our minds.
It lies in the heart of sinful man to object to the truth of
God. He says, it is not of Him that willeth. not of man's will,
nor of him that runneth, not of man's striving, but of God
that shows mercy. Salvation is not of him who wills,
it is not of him who runs, it is of him who has mercy, it is
of God, to the exclusion of all that is in man." That's what
he's saying here. By raising and answering this
question from scripture, the matter is put to rest with regards
to Jacob and Esau. God determined to have mercy,
and did have mercy on Jacob. He determined not to have mercy,
and did not have mercy on Esau. God loved Jacob. He hated Esau
and rejected him. Scripture says this was God's
eternal will towards these two unborn children. Scripture says
God shows mercy as it pleases Him. We might try to go further
and ask why? If we question further, we must
know that we are prying into God's eternal counsels, and that
is the pride of our natural heart. Only faith in God's word can
put such pride to silence. This is so fundamental. Will
you be satisfied when someone explains it to you so that you
understand it? Or will you be satisfied when
you stand on God's word in the plainly declared truth? You see,
we have to be on that side. Otherwise, we're resting on our
reasoning. Have you ever come face to face
with a complex system? like your computer maybe, and
the computer expert says, don't do that, or do this. And you
know if you don't follow their instruction, it's going to cost
you a bunch of money. What do you do? Do you try to
figure out, well, wait a minute, now I need to figure out how
the electrons in this circuit work, I need to figure out how
these protons and electrons are moving around, and how they move
down the wire, and their electromagnetic fields, and the silicon, and
the logic gates, and all these things, I gotta figure it out,
I gotta understand it, or I can't take your word for it? Of course
not, you don't do any of those things, you just take the word
of the expert, don't you? So we rest on the expert's advice.
We don't pry into every supporting fact and intermediate conclusion
that led that expert to give that advice. Don't do that. Do it this way. Don't click there. Click over here. So in Romans
9, God says He has a purpose. His purpose is that salvation
will be of Him, of His calling, not of our will and not of our
works. And He says that before these two boys were ever born
or ever did any good or evil, He says that He loved Jacob and
hated Esau. There! The answer has been given. It's simple. God has spoken. Scripture has recorded it. Truth
has been revealed and faith must stand firm upon it. God, who
is righteous, is absolutely sovereign. He saves because of His own will
to show mercy on whom He will show mercy. He does not save
because of our will or our work to save ourselves. That's the
way things are. Believe the Lord. Bow to Him. What's the only response? Remember
when the United States bombed Japan in World War II? What was
the condition of peace between those two countries? Absolute
surrender. Unconditional surrender. That's
our only response to God who is sovereign. Unconditional surrender. Lord, this is the way things
are. You said it. It's true. It's worship. His judgments have
been made known. Psalm 4610 says, Be still and
know that I am God. Yet the Lord gives us another
example here in Romans 9. He includes Pharaoh. And the
Spirit of God again speaks through Paul with ultimate authority
of scripture. He again draws the conclusion
for us. Look at verse 17. We'll read this. In verse 17
it says, for the scripture, this is going on to what he said before,
from quoting Exodus 33, he says, for the scripture said to Pharaoh,
even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might
show my power in thee, that my name might be declared throughout
all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardneth. Thou wilt
say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted
his will? Isn't that what the question
was? Why did God do this? If in the beginning he knew that
some men were going to reject him and ultimately perish in
hell, why? Scripture spoke to Pharaoh. Scripture
said God raised him up to show his power in him and to make
his name known throughout all the earth Isn't that interesting? God used Pharaoh to show all
men that he's the judge and sovereign in salvation. God rules over
and defeats his proudest enemies on behalf of his people to the
glory of his power and his justice. That's what Pharaoh was all about.
He saved Israel against all the outcries and the opposition of
this proud king on earth who had all this power. At the peak
of his power, God deflated him like a little balloon. It pleased
God to bring Pharaoh to power over all of Egypt. And then,
at the appointed time, God commanded him to let Israel go. But in
his pride, Pharaoh said no. So God hardened him in his own
pride. Ten times Pharaoh refused. Finally,
God overruled his objections. And when Pharaoh was in the height
of his pride and anger against the Lord and the Lord's people,
God destroyed him in the Red Sea to the utter humiliation
of Pharaoh and his proud army. God destroyed him in the open
view of God's helpless people without so much as them lifting
a finger in their own defense. And in the same way, Christ,
the Lamb of God, cast Satan out of heaven at the cross. Now is the judgment of this world.
Now, Jesus said in John 12, 31, is the prince of this world judged. What did we do? Nothing. God
did it all. Now this scripture in Exodus
chapter 9 verse 16 where God said that for the same purpose
have I raised thee up to show my power in thee and he hardened
his heart. This scripture is called forth
to us in Romans 9 to establish the truth that God has mercy
on whom he will and hardens whom he will. Again the Spirit of
God anticipates the objection of men. He says in Romans 9.19
that will say to me, Why doth he yet find fault for who has
resisted his will? The objection once again confirms
God's meaning. God does with men what pleases
Him. Does that seem harsh? Is God
harsh? No. Do you remember what God
said in Genesis 18.25? When Abraham prayed, will not
the judge of all the earth do right? Oh yes, he will do right. He not only does right, he does
what is best. Not only what's best to us, but
what is best to the all holy God, with whom there is no darkness
at all. No darkness, no darkness at all. No shadow of turning. God is
light. He can't do wrong. All that He
does in Psalm 72 verse 18, it says, He only does wondrous things. Can you trust Him? That's what
His word says. Can you trust His word? Or do
we hold Him suspect? because of the hardness of our
heart. So God answers this way. God does with men what pleases
Him. His will is absolute, eternal, and unalterable. Because this
is so, sinful man vigorously objects. If God's will determines
all outcomes, sinful man says, why does He find fault with men?
No one can resist His will. Haven't you wondered that? Haven't
you heard people ask that question? But once again, to this objection,
God himself answers. And his answer is authoritative,
final, and perfect. He says this, 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? Now this quotation
comes from Jeremiah, when the potter was making something on
the wheel. And as he was making it on the wheel, the clay was
marred in the potter's hands. And Jeremiah asked the question,
God asked it through him, he says, Doesn't the potter have
power? to make of the same lump one
vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. The pot, the clay
was marred in his hands. And God says, I'm going to take
from that marred lump, I'm going to smash it down and I'm going
to make a new one to honor and another to dishonor. Doesn't
the potter have power over that clay? That's the argument here. He does. Man fell by God's will,
like the clay was marred in the potter's hands. And God chose
a people before that clay was marred in order to save them
for himself. And he left the rest to be vessels
of dishonor to his glory, the glory of his power and his will
as Pharaoh. Who are you, he says, that reply
against God? God's answer doesn't stop with
verse 20. He goes on to reveal that in His sovereign will, before
the world began, He predestinated some men to be vessels of honor,
to His saving mercy. Look at verse 23. He says that
He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of
mercy, which He had afore prepared to glory. even us, whom he's
called. And he also determined for others
to serve his purpose as vessels of dishonor in their just condemnation. That means their judicially just
condemnation. It was right for God to condemn
them, to demonstrate his wrath. He sovereignly saves, He sovereignly
shows mercy on those he chooses before to save. That mercy is
his sovereign will alone, and he hardens those he rejected
as Pharaoh. He leaves them, this is what
hardening means, he leaves them to the consequences of their
own pride. Everything God said to Pharaoh,
Pharaoh said no. No, no. No, no, no. Ten times. Or, as with Esau, God leaves
them to the just consequences of the lusts of their own hearts.
Remember, I want that bowl of pottage, I don't care about my
birthright, just give me the stew. Pharaoh was destroyed in the
height of his pride. Esau was cast away because he
cast away eternal blessings for soup. God therefore cast him
away, and who can deny that God dealt in justice with these two
men Listen to scripture. Scripture says God does not tempt
men to do evil. James 1 verse 13-15 Scripture says men commit sin
when they are drawn away by their own lusts. James 1 verse 14 Scripture
says that God did not create Adam and Eve with a sinful nature,
but He made everything very good. Genesis 1 verse 31 Scripture
says men are inventors of evil things. Romans 1 verse 30. Scripture says God created man
upright, but they sought out many inventions. Ecclesiastes
7 29. Scripture says that God's wrath
is revealed not against the innocence of man, but against the ungodliness
and the unrighteousness of men. Romans 1 18. Scripture says God
has shown every man that He is eternal and almighty, and He
alone is worthy of all worship in Romans 1. Men are therefore
without excuse. Men suppress the truth God showed
them, and in consequence God gives them over to their own
hearts' lusts. Romans 1.21-24. Scripture makes it clear that
men go to hell justly. In Romans 9, Scripture makes
it clear that men receive the just reward of their actions.
But Scripture also makes clear that God chose some to salvation
and eternal glory in spite of the curse of God they deserve.
He did so by preserving them in Christ, by rescuing them from
the curse of his justice by Jesus Christ. Scripture gives this
answer in Psalm 145 verse 17. The Lord is righteous in all
his ways and holy in all his works. And then he says this
in Romans 3.12, there is none that doeth good. All have sinned,
Romans 3.23. There is no man that sinneth
not, 1 Kings 8.46. And yet, Jesus said, there is
one good, that is God. He is righteous. In his goodness,
and according to his righteousness, he has mercy on whom he will.
And in his righteousness he hardens whom he will. The soul that sinneth,
it shall die. Death is the payback for sin,
but eternal life is the gift of God's grace. We must not exercise
our minds further than what God has revealed. He's not revealed
the processes. in His counsels, by which He
determined and predestinated all things to His glory, but
He has given us the concluding decisions of His counsel. Scripture
reveals God's decrees and purposes, and He records His works. Justice
is what God thinks. Righteousness is what God does. God chooses to save whom he will
as it pleases him. Matthew 11, verse 25 and 26,
remember Jesus said, Father, I thank thee, Lord of heaven
and earth, I thank thee that thou hast hidden these things
from the wise and prudent, but you have revealed them unto babes,
even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. He does this
so that salvation of His elect cannot in any way be the result
of their works or their will, just the opposite. He saves His
people in spite of their sinful opposition to Him, even their
sinful opposition to their own salvation. Scripture reveals
that unless God saved men in this way, none would be saved. Look at Romans 9.29. Isaiah said
before, except the Lord of Sebaoth, or the Lord of hosts, had left
us a seed, we had been as Sodom and been made like Gomorrah.
All would be lost if God hadn't redeemed His own by His own will. Scripture reveals that God pours
out His wrath on men for their sins, and He hardens men by giving
them over to their own pride and their own lusts that reside
in their own hearts. Why did God create men whom He
determined not to save? Because it seemed good to Him
to do so. All that God thinks and does
is good because He thinks it and because He does it. We should
be more concerned to believe scripture. than to pry into the
things of God's counsel. We should be more concerned for
God's glory than for the consequences men suffer for their willful
and stubborn ungodliness and unrighteousness. May the Lord
be pleased to show us His mercy and cause us to rejoice in His
salvation in Christ. And may He make us go in the
path of God-given faith in Christ. Psalm 119 verse 33 says, Order
my steps in thy word. Align me to you. Make me to go
in the path of thy commandments. Psalm 119 verse 35, Incline my
heart to thy testimonies and not to covetousness. Psalm 119
verse 36, Give me grace to understand, Lord, and know the Lord Jesus
Christ Psalm 119, the last verse, says, I have gone astray like
a lost sheep. Seek thy servant. And don't you
find it in your heart before a sovereign, almighty, gracious
God who does all things well, when you hear these things, to
say, O almighty, gracious Savior, according to your righteousness,
to the glory of your great and holy name, find me in Christ
alone.