Now, look back with me to Romans
chapter 9. I want to tell you what has given
rise to this message. In fact, my text for this message
is verse 13. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. That doesn't sound like a good
text for Mother's Day. But that's not really what I'm
concerned with about this issue. And I'll deal with that in just
a moment on some issues concerning that. But what gave rise to this
is I was up in Huntington a couple weeks ago. And on Fifth Avenue,
you have all those great big church buildings and all that.
And I happened to park the car over there in front of one of
them. I got out and I looked back and I saw the sign outside the
church. And here's what the sign said.
It said that, that God who hates, we don't worship him either.
And you hear what he said? That God who hates, we don't
worship him either. And I almost wanted to go up
and knock on the door and say, well, fella, you just said you're
not worshiping the God of the Bible. Uh, because We read in
scripture, verse 13, and we read in Psalm 5 there. He said, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. Psalm 5 and verse 5, God hates
all workers of iniquity. And I got to thinking about it,
and I thought, well, let's just go back. It's been a while since
I preached. When I first got here 11 years
ago, I preached through the Book of Romans. And I always do that
when I start pastoring somewhere because It's just so fundamental,
the gospel is so clear and even systematically, I know that's
a bad word to some people, but it is systematically laid out
right there by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul. And
as you know, Romans chapter 9 is one of those chapters that people
commonly say that it's very difficult to understand. It's really not
difficult to understand. It's just impossible for the
natural man to receive and bow to and rejoice in even. Our Lord
rejoiced in it because he repeated it as far as the concept and
the truth of God's workings in this world with his elect people
and others. But it's there and it's, like
I said, it's not hard to understand. It's just impossible for the
natural man to receive and bow to. Verse 13 Jacob have I loved
but Esau have I hated you've heard Gospel ministers say that
we can certainly understand how God hated Esau Esau was a was
a rebel He despised the true living God. That's what it means
you remember you read if you read the story of Jacob and Esau
It says Esau despised his birthright Aaron, and I were talking about
that means he counted it as nothing No value to it his birthright
was to be the spiritual head of his family after his father
Isaac died, and to lead the family in the truth of the gospel of
God's free and sovereign grace in the promised Messiah. And
Esau despised that. It wasn't money and riches that
he despised. He had that. But he despised
his birthright. So it's not hard to understand
how God hated Esau. What's awesome is God loved Jacob. And you read about Jacob, there
wasn't anything lovable about Jacob. Well of course we know
the modern day message to everybody is God loves you, Christ died
for you and trying to save you if you'll just let him. He loves
everybody because we're all so lovable, aren't we? At least
I am. That's how we feel, you know.
I'm right, everybody else here's wrong. or either you're all right
and I'm wrong. We can ponder that, and we can
pray about it, and we can think about it, and we can parse it,
tweak it, do whatever we want with it. But you see, here's
the problem. What does the Bible say? Now,
whether you believe it or joyfully submit to it or not, what does
the Bible say? I'll tell you something as difficult
to understand about Romans 9 as those first three verses. of
Romans 9. That's hard to understand. Do
you realize what Paul said there? Verse 1, I say 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. That word accursed,
you might see it in your concordance there, means separated. It means
forsaken. Remember the Lord hung on the
cross and he said, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
He did that because he loved his sheep. He did that because
our sins were charged to him and he was paying the penalty. And Paul says here, I could wish
myself a curse from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according
to the flesh. Now think about that one. That's
hard for me to grasp and understand. And I know Paul wasn't just waxing
poetic there or trying to make a, what they call in literature,
hyperbole. That means an exaggeration. He
wasn't just exaggerating to make a point. He was writing by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit. And that's the expression of
his heart. That a man could wish himself accursed, separated from
God eternally, For others, I can't tell you that I've ever
come to that point. Maybe the closest I've come to
it is my wife and my children. And I think about that. But that's
difficult. That's grace, grace, grace, isn't
it? Hard to understand. But I thought
about this, you know, we talk about about God's love. Every time we preach the gospel,
we preach God's love. And here's what I thought about
when I read that sign up there. You know, every time we preach the
gospel, we not only preach God's love, but we preach God's hatred.
Did you know that? Have you ever thought about it
that way? Because we do. Now, In fact, if you really want to
get tactical, you can't even understand God's love without
understanding God's hatred. But the problem is this. It's
like every other difficult concept in the Bible. Concerning the
nature, the ways, the character of God. The problem with people,
like who wrote that sign, is they think God's like them. That's
right. And even when it comes to God's
love, they think it's love like their love. And of course, they
think too highly of their love. We all do. We all think we love
more than we do. We do because we're selfish.
That's us by nature. We have a warfare with our own
selves. Selfishness. Love God perfectly. Love your neighbor as yourself.
The rich young man said, I do that. And Christ said, OK, let's
put it to the test. Go sell everything you have and
give it to the poor. That's the test. If you claim
to love God perfectly and love your neighbor as yourself, that's
the test. Do unto others as you would have
them do unto you. The golden rule. And we struggle. You say, well, pastor, you're
hard to love sometimes. Yeah, and you are too. We're
all hard to love, aren't we, sometimes. Husbands and wives,
they love each other. But it's not easy, is it, all
the time. Somebody may say it is, I think they're lying. I'm not gonna try to peer in
everybody's heart on that issue. But I do know this. We struggle
here. And the problem that people have
with this when it comes to God's love or God's hatred is they
reason, as I told my Sunday school class, they reason from the ground
up. And that's the worst thing you can do. Salvation is by revelation. That means from heaven down. It's not from human reason or
human logic. Or it's not from human investigation.
Sure, we should seek the Lord. But the only way that I'm going
to know God, or you're going to know God, is if God reveals
Himself from Heaven. Isn't that right? He's got to
reveal Himself. Now, it starts in His Word. This
is the revelation of God. Right here. Somebody says, well,
he says, Esau have I hated. Now, that's got to be somebody
messed up in the translation there. We're going to determine
it this way. That means Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I loved less. Now there's a problem with that.
Number one, that's not in the Bible. Number two, that's not
a proper translation of the word. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
one. I'm sorry, Hebrews chapter one. Verse
nine. He's talking about Christ the
priest king, who as the high priest who finished his work
on the cross, now rules and reigns as the priest king. And he says
in verse 8 of Hebrews 1, he says, but unto the son, he said, thy
throne, O God, is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness,
and that's a key word in understanding God's love and God's hatred,
is the scepter of thy kingdom. And look at verse 9. Thou hast
loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Now that word hated
is the same word as hated Esau. Now would you say that that means
that God has loved righteousness but he just loved iniquity less?
No. He loved less iniquity. No. God
hates iniquity. And over here it says God hates
Esau. He hated Esau. And the reason people have trouble
with that is they somehow think they themselves are lovable.
I've told you about the man who told me one time, he said, I
know I'm not perfect, but I've never done anything to deserve
hell. And I told him, I said, well you don't know the scriptures.
You do err not knowing the scriptures. You don't know yourself. Listen. God would be right if he came
down here to earth and said, I hate the whole bunch of you. He would be right to do that. Exactly. But now you take a word
like that and you know context determines the meaning. Words
can mean different things in different contexts. So I want
us to look back at Romans 9. And let's look at the context. Now you know, if most so-called
Bible students would tell you that That these three chapters,
Romans 9, 10, and 11, are very difficult for the Bible student
to understand. And I contend that they're not
that difficult to understand. But again, they're just impossible
to receive. We just don't want to believe
that by nature. We don't want to believe in a God who hates.
That's what the sign said. That God who hates, we don't
worship him either. And they're right. They don't.
They worship an idol. They worship a God of their imagination,
a God who is like themselves. But the whole issue here in Romans
9, 10, 11 is simply this. God's word, God's promise cannot
fail. That's the whole theme of it.
It cannot fail because he always accomplishes his purpose. And
how does he do it? Through his choice, not yours. Not mine. That's what Romans
9 and 10 and 11 are teaching. God's promise cannot fail. Now
I may make you a promise and it could fail. Most of my promises
do. And you may make me one. And
maybe it's not because we don't intend to keep it. We may not
have the power to make it come to pass. But God's promises cannot
fail. Whatever God promises comes to
pass. And he does it through his free
choice. His electing grace. And he does it through his free
choice of a remnant according to his grace. Not everybody. Listen. If you're reading the
Bible thinking that God loves everybody so much that he's gonna
save everybody, you don't know the Bible. This book doesn't
say that. Listen, I didn't always believe
the Bible, but I at least admitted that that's what it said. I told
you I was like Mark Twain. It's not the parts of the Bible
that I didn't understand that bothered me, it's the parts that
I did understand that bothered me. I understood that, yeah. That's what it says. And God's promise will not fail
because he accomplishes it through his remnant according to grace,
his choice, and based on the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus
Christ as the substitute and surety of his people. Now that's
why God's promises cannot fail. He's engaged himself behind these
promises. God's reputation is on the line. So let me give you just a few
things to consider as we look through Romans nine up to this
point. First of all, God's work cannot fail because he's the
only sovereign of the universe who always accomplishes his purpose.
That's it. Look back at Isaiah. Let's go
back to Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 46. In Isaiah
46. I'll give you these verses beginning
at verse nine. And I think this is one of the
best summations of history that you'll find in the Bible. Right
here in these verses. If you want to put history in
perspective, right here it is. Isaiah 46, look at verse 9. Remember
the former things of old. Now he's talking specifically
about Israel's history, but it can apply to our history too.
The former things of old. For I am God, there's none else.
That's one thing history teaches us. God is God and we're not. God is on the throne. God is
working all things after the counts of his own will. There
are no accidents here. I told some people yesterday,
I said, I don't believe in accidents. I don't believe in luck and I
don't believe in chance. I believe in providence. I believe God
is the governor of this universe. There are things that happen
that make me happy. There are things that happen that make
me sad. He's God and there is none else. Is that right? That's it. And then he says,
I'm God and there's none like me. Not only is there no other
God, there's nothing else like God. So don't be comparing God
to anything. Don't try to illustrate God.
Just keep that out. Don't try to illustrate Him.
You're not going to make it. There's none like Him. And you say, God
is like this. There's none like God. All we
know about God is what He says about Himself. So whatever he
says about himself in the revelation that comes from above, which
begins with the written word here now. Now that revelation
has to be applied by the Holy Spirit to the hearts of people.
We know that. But this is where it begins.
What does the Bible say? God is like this. God is like
that. God would do this. God wouldn't
do that. What does the Bible say? That's
the issue, isn't it? Now, look there in verse 10.
He says, declaring the end from the beginning. Now there's history.
You know what's so amazing about that statement? Is that somebody
who declares the end from the beginning has to be God. You
can't do that. I can't do that. We can declare
the beginning from the end. And what I say about that is
I know how this day started. I don't know how it's going to
end up. But God declares the end from the beginning. He knows
how it's going to end up. You know why? Because he determined
it. He declares it. It's his to do. Not yours, not
mine. We fear the future. We shouldn't. We shouldn't. Why? Because God
declares the end from the beginning. That's history. And he says,
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done say. The
things that are not yet done. OK. You know what he's going to be
talking about here? Now hold on. Predestination. Ooh. A fella called me one time. He said, I don't believe in that
predestination. I said, oh. I said, you don't believe the
book of Revelation. Why? He said, I believe every
word of it. And I said, oh. Do you believe those are things
that might happen? or things that will happen no
matter what. He said, I believe they will
happen no matter what. I said, oh, really? I said, well,
that's predestination, friend. I said, where did that word come
from? You know, first time I ever heard that word? Somebody read
it in the Bible. The word came from the Bible.
So don't sit there and tell me you don't believe predestination.
What you need to do is find out what the Bible means by that
word. Well, here's what he says. Let me tell you what God says.
Verse 10, he says, my counsel shall stand. Now, what's God's
counsel? That's the product of God's wisdom,
God's knowledge, and God's thoughts. It means he's not a reactionary
God. It means that he doesn't look
down through a telescope of time in just his crystal ball, so
to speak, and foresee what's going to happen and therefore
reacts to that. No, sir. He says, it's my counsel
shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. I'll do what I please.
That's what he says. Now let me tell you something.
Sure, this boggles our minds. It ought to. We're talking about
God here. If it didn't boggle our minds,
there'd be something wrong with us. Wasn't it? His ways are past
finding out. Who can understand God? Who can
put God in a box? Some people, I remember Brother
Mahan used to say, some people act like they're God's little
secretary. They know what's right, they know what's wrong, they
know what you should do, what I should do, and all of this.
That's what he's talking about, being God's little secretary.
And when things don't go our way, what do we do? We complain,
we get down, we get sad. Now listen to me. He said, my
counsel shall stand. I will do all my pleasure. Does that mean everything we
do pleases God? No. Not at all. Somebody said,
well, God will let you have what you want. Well, what is it you
want? Well, I believe from my heart I can say I want to honor
God. I want to please him. I want to glorify him. You can
say that too, can't you? I hope you can. Well, whatever
it is, God's going to do all his pleasure. And then verse
11, he says, calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that
executes my counsel from a far country. Now that's a specific
thing. He's talking about the deliverance of the people of
Israel from Babylon, which hadn't even happened yet in Isaiah's
day. And he's talking about the ravenous
bird. That's Cyrus, king of Persia, who came in and freed up the
Jews to come back and rebuild the temple. But here's what he
says. Look at verse 11. He says, yea,
I have spoken it. I will also bring it to pass.
I have purposed it. I will also do it. But now look
at the whole point of this. A lot of times, I remember in
my early years, preach from that and I'd stop at verse 11 and
then it just dawned on me that's a bad thing to stop at verse
11. I know there's a paragraph mark there at verse 12. But you
know those paragraph marks weren't in the original. Translators
added that. Here's the point. That because
God's promise cannot fail. Here's what he says in verse
12. Here's the exhortationist. Harken unto me. Listen to God. You stout-hearted. What is it
to be stout-hearted? It means to be a rebel. It means
to be an unbeliever. That's us by nature, isn't it?
That's our sin. That's our depravity. That's
our fallen Adam right there. By nature, we're all stout-hearted.
We think we're better than we are. We think we know better
than what God does. And he says that are far from
righteousness. There's the key. There's none
righteous, no not one. There's none that do a good,
no not one. There's none that seek. That's total depravity. We don't have a righteousness,
we can't work one, and we don't want it God's way. That's total
depravity. We want it our way. We want righteousness,
but we want it in a way that exalts us. That gives us bragging
rights. Well, that's not God's way. What
is God's way of righteousness? Verse 13. My righteousness. Who's the my there? Who's it
belong to? It's God's righteousness. What's the gospel? It's the revelation
of the righteousness of God, Romans 1, 16 and 17. It shall
not be far off. You know, in religion, righteousness
is something man seeks to attain by his efforts. And it's always
a far off. And if anybody reaches it, it
won't be long, they lose it and they have to reach for it again.
But he says, my righteousness will not be far off, and my salvation
shall not tarry. That means it's not in the future,
it's a now thing. And how's he going to do it?
Listen to how he's going to do it. I will place salvation in
Zion for Israel my glory. Now you know the word salvation,
what that is in the original Hebrew, don't you? Remember? Yeshua. Joshua. Jesus. There it is. His name shall be called Jesus.
What is that? That's salvation. For He shall
save His people from their sins. His name shall be called Emmanuel,
which being interpreted, God with us. He said, I'm going to
do that in Zion. Now Zion can refer to a lot of
things. There's a literal mount or hill.
Some people equate it with Golgotha, which is all right, or Mount
Moriah, which some say is the same as Golgotha. And then it's
a type or a picture of the church, the mountain of the Lord, the
temple of the Lord. And he says for Israel, now who's
he talking about? Well, we're gonna look just a
moment, Romans 9. The name Israel, means those
who have prevailed with God. We sometimes translate it Prince
of God, Prince of the Lord. And that's okay, but that's what
it's talking about. Those who literally have prevailed,
remember Jacob, he had his name, Jacob, supplanter. Change your
name from Jacob to Israel. Sometimes when the scripture
speaks of the, in the Old Testament of the Messiah coming, that he's
going to bring together in salvation under his headship, Israel and
Judah, the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. Judah means
praise. Israel means those who prevail
with God. How does a sinner prevail with
God? Through Christ. No other way. And what does that
accomplish? Praise to the Lord, not praise
to the sinner. And he said, I'm gonna place
that salvation in Zion for Israel and my glory. He's talking about
Christ there. That's why his promises cannot
fail. The Bible says, 2 Corinthians 1.20, all the promises of God
are in Christ, yea, and in Christ, amen. That's what it's telling
us. Now look back at Romans chapter
9. So God's word cannot fail because he's the only sovereign
of the universe and he always accomplishes his purpose. He
will not fail. Secondly, God's word of promise
to the Jews cannot fail because he always accomplishes his purpose
through his free choice of a remnant according to the election of
grace. Now, look over Romans 11. Romans 11. And look over at verse 26. Now listen to what
he says in verse 26 of Romans. He says, and so all Israel shall
be saved. As it is written, now he's quoting
from Isaiah 59, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer and
shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant
unto them when I shall take away their sins. Now, first of all,
all Israel shall be saved. Now, whatever you think of when
you hear that name Israel there, Here's one thing that's for sure.
They're all going to be saved. They're all going to be saved
by the Deliverer, that's Christ. They're all going to turn away
from the ungodliness of Jacob, that is, they're going to come
to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works. And it's all going
to be according to the new covenant. That verse 27, for this is my
covenant unto them, which I shall take away their sins. Remember,
that's only applied to the new covenant, not the old. The blood
of bulls and goats, the old covenant, could never take away sin. Remember
Jeremiah 31? He said, I'll remember their
sins no more. I won't hold it against them. I won't charge
them with sin. Charge them to Christ. They'll
be righteous in his sight. So whoever it's talking about
here, if you say it's the nation Israel or spiritually, Whatever
they do in being brought back, it's going to be under the salvation
that is totally by grace under the headship of the Lord Jesus
Christ according to the new covenant. It's not going to be based upon
what they call today the Judeo-Christian ethic. There's no such thing. Now a
lot of that has to do with terminology. I mean, you know, when you talk
about, I hear a lot today about the fellowship of Christians
and Jews. Well, if you're talking about
a Jew as a religious person, who's trying to be saved by keeping
the law, then there is no fellowship between Jews and Christians there.
How do you know that? Well, look over at Romans 11
and verse six. He says, if by grace, look at
it, 11.6, if by grace, then what? It's no more works. Otherwise,
grace be no more grace. You see, if salvation is by works,
then grace is canceled. Grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ the Lord. Grace means you don't
earn it, work for it, or deserve it. Christ did it all. So if
it's of works, it's no more of grace. But if it be of works,
then it's no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work.
What then? Israel hath not obtained that which she seeketh for. Israel
didn't obtain what? Well, what was Israel seeking
for? Romans 9 says she was seeking for righteousness by works. She
didn't make it. And neither will you if you're
seeking righteousness. There is no fellowship of Christians
and Jews in that sense. Religious fellowship? They deny
Christ. There's no religious fellowship
between the true people of God in Christ and those who deny
Christ. Somebody said, I heard it on
the radio the other day, said, well, Christianity has its roots
in Judaism. Oh, no, no, no, no. Let me tell
you something. Where did Christianity begin?
How would you answer that? Some people say, well, 2,000
years ago when Jesus and Nazareth came and lived. No, friend. Go all the way back to Genesis
chapter 3. The seed of woman. Who is that? The
blood of a lamb. What is that? That's Christianity.
That's salvation by the grace of God through the God-man, the
promised Messiah, based on his blood and righteousness right
there. And every type and picture and prophecy was about him, him,
him. You search the scriptures, he
said, for in them you think you have eternal life, for they are
they which testify of me, he said. No, Christianity doesn't
have its roots in Judaism. No, sir. In fact, go back further
than Genesis chapter three to the, Annals of Eternity and read
in 2nd Timothy chapter 1 about a salvation which was given us
in Christ Jesus when Before the foundation before the world began
See no, sir That's not the case But he's going to save a people And the thing about it is he
says they're all Israel's going to be saved Well, who is Israel? Well, look back at Romans 9.
Look at verse 1 again. Let me just read through this.
He says in verse 1, he says, I say the truth in Christ. I
lie not. My conscience also bear 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, remember, separated, cut off, alienated from Christ
for my brethren." Now who's he talking about? My kinsmen according
to the flesh. Now according to the flesh means
that he's talking about physical Israel there. We all have kinsmen in the flesh
who are not kinsmen spiritually. You have family members, blood
kin. And you believe the gospel. You've
been brought to faith in Christ and they don't. Now they're still
your kinsmen according to the flesh, but they're not your kinsmen
spiritually. And this is what he says in verse
four, who are Israelites. And then he begins to list all
the privileges that they had as a nation, to whom pertaineth
the adoption. That was their national adoption
as a people. God chose that nation for a time,
for a purpose. And the glory. That was the Shekinah
glory that dwelt in the tabernacle, the temple, the mercy seat, and
the Ark of the Covenant. That's what he's talking about
there. They had that. And the covenants. You can talk about
the physical aspects of the covenant God made with Abraham. You could
talk about the covenant that God made at Sinai with the nation. You could even talk about the
covenant God made with David to fulfill Genesis 49, 10, which
says the scepter will not depart from Judah until Shiloh come.
Those are the covenants, you see. The giving of the law, the
10 commandments from Mount Sinai, and the ceremonial law, the service
of God, that's the priesthood. They had the priesthood, they
had the day of atonement. had the Sabbath days and the
promises. The nation had physical promises
given to them. The promised land, that was an
actual land, a geographic location, real estate. That was given to
them, a land flown with milk and honey. And the promises of
prosperity in that land based on their obedience, which they
failed, we would have too, but it proves that salvation cannot
be conditioned on sinners. He says in verse five, whose
are the fathers? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. And of whom concerning
the flesh Christ came. Christ, his humanity, his sinless
humanity as he was a Jew. He was an Israelite. He was made
of the seed of David, according to the flesh, of the tribe of
Judah. He was Mary's son. Mary was a descendant of that
tribe too. Joseph was too. But he came, the Messiah came
through them. Thank God for the Israelites. Thank God for them. And then
he says all, he said who is over all, God bless forever, amen. That is through Christ we're
blessed forever, amen. Now, he said all Israel shall
be saved. But the fact is, if you read
the history of the Israelites in the Old Testament and you
read statements in the New Testament, many, in fact, most of the individual
Israelites died in unbelief without Christ and perished. We could
go to a lot of scriptures this morning but we don't have time.
Well, does that mean, does that mean that God went back on His
promise? to save all Israel? Does that
mean that God failed, wasn't able to keep his promise to save
it? What does that mean? Well, look at verse six. It's
not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. No, it's
not because God's word was not powerful enough or that God was
not faithful enough to keep his promise. It's not that God didn't
keep his word. And here's how he explains it.
For they are not all Israel which are of Israel. What's he doing
here? He's making a distinction, isn't
he? That's the way I see it. He's
making a distinction. Here's Israel. But they're not
all Israel which are of Israel. Well, what do you mean, Paul?
Well, verse 7, neither because they are the seed of Abraham,
that's the physical seed, because he's talking about those according
to the flesh. Are they all children? What kind of children are you
talking about? Children of God. Remember, I've always told you
the Jews had three things that they based their relationship
with God on as to claim that we're children of God. Number
one was their physical connection with Abraham. Well, that's not,
Paul says, that's not what makes you a child of God. Number two
was their circumcision, and number three was their keeping the law
of Moses, which they didn't do. But he says, but in Isaac shall
thy seed be called. Now you know the story of Abraham
and Sarah and how they were promised a son, and they didn't have that
son until, Abraham was like 100 years old. Sarah was like 99
years old. He was a promised child. He was the child of promise.
And you remember the story of Isaac and Ishmael and how Abraham,
Sarah told him to go into his handmaid, Hagar, and they had
Ishmael. He's the child of the flesh. Paul explains that in
Galatians 4, by the way. But he says, in Isaac shall thy
seed be called. Now what is it about Isaac? Well,
he's the promised child. But here's the key. It's through
Isaac that Messiah would come, according to the flesh. It's
through that line that Christ would come, according to the
flesh. And so he says in verse 8, that is, they which are the
children of the flesh, these are not the children of God.
Just because you are a physical Israelite does not make you a
child of God. But the children, now here's
how we know what he's talking about the children. The children
of what? The promise are counted for the
seed. What's the promise? Turn to Galatians
3. And this is not the only passage
we could look to on this one. Galatians 3, verse 26. For you are all the children
of God by faith in Christ Jesus. That's a child of God, one who
believes in Christ, who rests in Him, who pleads His blood
and righteousness for all salvation. who's repented of dead works,
who walks by faith in Him. And He says, for as many of you
as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. To be baptized
into Him is to be united to Him. To put Him on is to believe in
Him. There's neither Jew nor Greek. That distinction's gone
in Christ. Did you hear that? There's neither
Jew nor Greek. That distinction is gone in Christ.
There is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female,
for you are all one in Christ Jesus, and if you be Christ,
read it this way, and if you belong to Christ, then are you
Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. You see it? Now
go back to Romans 9, let me finish. Now, he says in verse 9, for
this is the word of promise, at this time will I come, Sarah
shall have a son. Now he's talking about Sarah. And not only this, but when Rebekah
also had conceived by one, even by her father Isaac, Sarah had
Isaac, Isaac and Rebekah, and then they had children. And here
they are, verse 11. Now listen to this, for the children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil. Now, did
God look down through the telescope of time and look at these two
boys and see who would do good and who would do evil? Now look
at it. 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. There it
is. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger. They were twins, but Jacob came
out second. But he said, the elder shall
serve the younger. Esau would serve Jacob. As it
is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Now it's not, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I loved less. This hatred here is the opposite
of godly love. And the point he's making is
that God's word of salvation cannot fail because it is in
no way dependent on me or you or anybody, any sinner. He says
it. Verse 14, now people say, well
that's unfair. Well look at, what shall we say
then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he
saith to Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I will. Have mercy and
I'll have compassion on whom I will have compassion. Here's
the point, verse 16. So then it is not of him that
willeth. It's not of the will of man.
Nor of him that runneth. That's another way of saying
the works of men. But of God that showeth mercy. God that
showeth mercy. Now this thing of God hating
Esau. First of all, God's hatred is not like our hatred. It's
not like ours. Our hatred is full of sin. Our
hatred is full of vengeance, jealousy, selfishness, pride.
We can think of a lot of things. That's the kind of hatred that
I hate with. It's the kind of hatred you hate with. But God's
hatred is holy hatred. He hates iniquity. He hates the
workers of iniquity. Let me give you a couple of words
to put in place of hatred to help us understand it. God is
just. He will punish all sin. That's
God's hatred. God's hatred is justice against
all sin. It's not a feeling. It's not
God throwing a tantrum. It's not God just deciding, well,
I dislike this one and like that one. He didn't like any of us.
That's not the point. It's not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth. It's of God. God didn't save
you because He liked you. Yes, He loved you with an everlasting
love, but it wasn't because of you if you're one of His loved
ones. It's because of Christ. You say,
I don't want to experience God's hatred. I want to experience
God's love. Run to Christ. That's where God's love resides,
in His Son. God doesn't honor anybody but
He that honoreth the Son. God's hatred is that He will
not accept or receive sinners apart from Christ, who is the
seed of all His love. He will not receive you. That's
what His hatred means. He will receive, accept, bless,
save no sinner apart from Christ. That's His hatred. Listen, even His love is holy
and just and righteous. God's promise of salvation cannot
fail because it's all conditioned on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
where his love resides. Nowhere else, outside of Christ,
there is no love from God. His love is an everlasting love. You may ask the question, well,
does God love me? Well, let me ask you this, do
you love Christ? That's how you know. When we
sing that hymn, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood
and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. Did you sing that
from the heart? Did you mean it? Is that really
your hope? Or were you just, ah man, I love
them old hymns. Oh, I love to hear that gospel music. Do you know Christ? Do you love
Christ? You say, oh, I don't love him
enough. That's not what I ask you. Because I know you don't
love him enough. I don't love him enough. None
of us do. Do we love him? Do we trust him? Because I want
to tell you something. That's who God loves. And anybody
else, God hates. Those who die and unbelieve,
that's God's justice against sin. That's what we deserve.
And I'll tell you what, if any of us love him, you all know
it's because he first loved us. All right.