All right, let's return to Romans
chapter nine. Romans chapter nine. Now I've entitled the message
this morning to simply this, God's answer. God's answer. And the reason
I entitled it that way is because when you come to a passage of
Scripture like Romans chapter 9, which is such a glorious revelation
of the sovereignty of God in salvation, the sovereignty of
God, the absolute sovereignty of God, and that's a truth that
man by nature just does not want. that God's in control, that God
chooses whom he'll save. It's what this passage teaches.
When it comes to passages like this, and most people will just
skip over it or deny it, what we need is not man's opinion
or man's answers or man's... We need God's answer. That's
what we need. I don't know how many of you
have probably said to me, and I've said it too, that in the
past under false Christianity, we experienced going through
the book of Romans and preachers would just skip right over this.
Romans 8 and or Romans 9, because they would say that it's just
too deep for us. Well, I agree with that. It's
too deep for us. But I'm afraid that what happens
is the charge of it being too deep is just a disguise for simply
saying, I just don't like what it says. And when it comes to
that, it doesn't matter whether you like what it says or not.
It's said here. And I want to tell you, well,
I didn't write this now. Now, this is God's Word, and
somebody said, well, this is not for God's people. Well, I
don't think I have the right to decide that for you. I think
only God has that right, and He put it here. And when He put
it in His revealed Word, God is saying this is for His people.
So, I can't overrule God. And then somebody might say,
well, you're just giving your opinion of it. Well, let me just
say several things about that. If that's your, if you're suspect,
suspicious, then I'm just giving my particular opinion of this.
Number one, I didn't start out believing this. This is not what
I believed in, in my own idea of religion and salvation, who
God is, who man is. I didn't start out believing
this. I started out believing basically, and I'll put it in,
in just simple words because to save time, is that man is
his own destiny. That's what I believe by nature.
That's what man believes by nature. We make choices all the time.
This book here, Romans 9 or any other chapter, does not deny
that men and women make choices. You make choices every day. You'll
make some good choices. You'll make some bad choices.
And that's so. But this book does not teach
that man is his own destiny. Our destiny can only be found
in God who is in control. Now that's what the Bible teaches.
So I didn't start out believing this. Secondly, the way that
I came to know, first of all, that this is what the Bible is
teaching is because I had it in my mind to prove that it wasn't
what the Bible's teaching. When I first heard these things
preached, I didn't like them, didn't want them, didn't believe
them. In fact, I hated them. And I just knew that's not what
the Bible taught. And I was going to prove it.
And I went to a seminary to prove it. And I found out that's what
the Bible teaches. So then I come to this conclusion.
I told my mother this. I said, well, I just don't believe
the Bible. I just don't believe it. And
I didn't. But I kept listening to the gospel. By the providence
of God, I kept listening to the gospel of God's free and sovereign
grace, and God brought me to bow to Him and to Christ, and
to submit to His righteousness alone as the only way of salvation. And He taught me if God hadn't
chosen me, I would have never chosen Him. I know there's some difficult
things here that raise some questions. There are issues here of God's
sovereignty and man's responsibility. Now, how do you reconcile God's
sovereignty and man's responsibility? Well, most people don't reconcile
them at all. They just deny one or the other. And how does the Bible reconcile
them? It really doesn't. It just accepts both as being
true and goes right on with the revealed will of god but let
me show you what leads up to this now this this is this is
something you need to understand Because really when I start out
on these messages, my real goal was to get to Romans 11 because
I wanted to talk about, you know, what, there's so much talk today
about Israel and the Jews and how we should deal with that
and how we should look at that as believers. And Romans 11 is
a classic passage that deals with that. And I'm working my
way up to that. But let me show you how this
starts out. First of all, what God teaches
here is that God is going to save His chosen people. Period. Now you mark it down.
He's going to save His people. His true spiritual Israel. His word will not fail. His promise
will not fail. His word of grace. His promise
of grace. God's going to save His chosen
people. God has a people. He calls them
His children whom He chose. That's what He said now. whom
he loves, whom he justified in Christ, salvation is by sovereign
grace and mercies, not by the works of man, it's not by the
will of man, it's by the works and will and ways of God. That's what it is. It's not based
upon what you do for God, it's based upon what God does for
you if you're saved. It's not based upon works of
righteousness which we have done, are doing, or try to do, or plan
to do, or promise to do. It's based upon the work of righteousness
that Christ accomplished in His obedience unto death on the cross. That's how God can be just and
justify the ungodly. His people whom He redeemed by
the blood of Christ. There's our redemption. whom
he forgives by the blood of Christ. Forgiveness doesn't come at the
cost of anything we do. The cost of forgiveness is the
blood of the Son of God incarnate, the God-man. The Bible says God
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, but before that
he said the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from sin. God has a people whom he gives
life and calls by the Holy Spirit under the preaching of the gospel.
And back down here in Romans 9, he mentioned Isaac. You remember
he said Isaac, verse 7. He said, neither because they
are the seed of Abraham are they all children. Just because they're
physically connected with Abraham doesn't mean they're all children
of God. That's what he's saying there. A person can be born an
ethnic, national, physical Jew. And there's nothing wrong with
that. We should never be prejudiced against that. We should never
persecute anybody for whatever they are, naturally. That's wrong,
that's unchristian, it's ungodly, it's wicked, and it's evil to
do so. But here's the case. That doesn't
make them a child of God. You're not a child of God because
you're an American and carry coins around in your pocket that
say, in God we trust. That's not what makes you a child
of God. You're not children of God by the flesh. That's what
he's pointing out here. You're children of God by a promise. Like Isaac was a child of God
by promise. He was a child of Abraham by
promise. By a miracle. And that's the way one becomes
a child of God, by the promise. Now, what is the promise? Well,
the promise of God is in the gospel. And God promises to save
sinners by His grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the promise. That's why Paul wrote over in Galatians chapter
5 he chapter 4 and 5 that we're we are all the children of God
by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ When God gives a sinner faith
to come to Christ That sinner shows evidence that he's a spiritual
eternal child of God who has a permanent abiding Place in
the kingdom and family of God Christ said that in John chapter
8 He said, if the Son, talking about himself as the Son of God,
if the Son therefore make you free, you shall be free what?
Remember what he said? Indeed. Not just a claim, not
just something other people say, but a real child of God. So like Isaac, they're not children
of the flesh, but children of the promise. The promise to save
sinners by grace, in and through and by the Lord Jesus Christ.
The true children of God believe the promise. Now there are false
promises, understand that. There are preachers all up and
down this world who are telling people that God will save you
if you'll do your part. Whatever that part is, depending
upon what denomination you come from. God will save you if you
do your part. God never made such a promise. See? That's not the promise. God promises to save those who
can't do their part, cannot do their part. Because there's only
one part to do, and that's to keep the law perfectly, and there's
only one who did that part, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
What does God require? Somebody said, well, he requires
faith. Faith in Christ to fulfill it all, to do it all. And even that faith, he 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. Well, does God give faith to
everybody? Well, the Bible says he doesn't. Paul wrote to the
Thessalonians, he said, not all men have faith. Well, look at,
this promise of salvation is not to those who were redeemed
and physically called out of Egypt, but those who are redeemed
and delivered and spiritually and eternally called out of the
bondage of sin, Satan, and the curse of the law by Christ. It's
not to those who are physically circumcised, but those who have
been spiritually circumcised in the heart. Do you see your
sinfulness? Do I see my sinfulness? Do we
see our need of Christ? That's the key of this whole
thing. It's not for those who for a short period of time occupied
an earthly land of promise, but it's for those who occupy forever
a heavenly city, a heavenly land, a heavenly Jerusalem. It's not
for those who stood at the bottom of Mount Sinai and trembled at
the law, it's for those who stand at Mount Calvary and look to
Christ. Now to prove this, Paul reaches
back to God's sovereignty in his choice of Isaac instead of
Ishmael. You know the story of Isaac and
Ishmael. God promised Abraham and Sarah a son. But as time
went on, Abraham began to doubt. He got up to be a hundred years
old. So before that time, he had an affair with his handmaiden,
Hagar, and they had a child of the flesh named Ishmael. He's
not the child that God promised to give Abraham and Sarah. And
incidentally, it was Sarah who incited Abraham to do that. He didn't go behind her back
to do it. But they had the child of the
flesh, Ishmael. But later on, when Abraham was
around 100 and Sarah was around 98, 99, God gave them a child. As I said last week, could you
imagine that? But that was the child of promise.
That was the child that was born out of the natural strength of
things. This was the child that God gave. through the promise. That's what
he's saying here. There's a promise made, and that's how one becomes
a child of God, through that promise. And that promise, as
it applies to believers, has to do with the gospel of God's
grace in Christ. We can't make ourselves... Isaac
could not birth himself. He could not conceive himself
and birth himself. Well, neither can we spiritually.
The new birth is of the power and grace of God. You know, most
preachers would say, well, you believe and then as a result
you're born again. Oh, no. That's like saying Isaac
breathed and then he was born. No, that's not the way it happens. So Paul reaches back to God's
choice of Isaac instead of Ishmael, and then he even goes on further.
He goes to his choice of Jacob instead of Esau. Look at verse
13 of Romans 9. Listen to this. He says, as it
is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. He's quoting
a verse of scripture from the last book of the Old Testament.
It's over in Malachi chapter 1. Let me just read it to you.
This is the last prophet before the 500 years of darkness in
the book of Malachi. And in Malachi chapter 1, and
there's just three chapters in Malachi here, and in Malachi
chapter 1, It says, verse 1, the burden of the word of the
Lord to Israel by Malachi. He says, I have loved you, saith
the Lord, yet you say, wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau
Jacob's brother, saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated
Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the
dragons of the wilderness. I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau. And that's what Paul's quoting
here in Romans 9, 13 when he says, Jacob have I loved and
Esau have I hated. What's he speaking of? He's speaking
of God's sovereign love toward Jacob and God's just hatred against
Esau. Now you have to understand something
about what God's love is and what God's hatred is. The Bible
tells us that. What is God's love? Well, it's
not an empty love. It's not a weak love. It's not
any love that is determined or given or expressed because of
the worthiness of its object. Now let me tell you something.
One thing I know about Jacob, he did not deserve the love of
God. One thing I know about Esau,
he did deserve the hatred of God. One thing I know about all
of us, we do not deserve the love of God. Another thing I
know about all of us, we deserve the hatred of God. And if you
don't believe that, I'll tell you exactly why you don't believe
it. I won't mince words. You just think too much of yourself. That's right. That's why I didn't
believe it, because I thought too much of old Bill. I thought, what's not to love
here? That's the way I felt. This love, this love of God is
not love in response to anything done by its objects. Look at
verse, look back at verse 11 again, Romans 9. 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. See, it wasn't because of Jacob's
works that God loved him. And he says, but of him that
calleth, it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger.
As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What is this love that he's talking
about? Well, it's God's redemptive love. It's God's sovereign love
that ensures, listen to me, it's God's love that ensures the eternal
well-being of its objects. You want me to prove that to
you? Look back at Romans chapter 8 and verse 35. Here it is, here's
what God says about this love. He says, Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Now who's going to separate you
from that love? Shall tribulation, or distress, persecution, or
famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Can any of that separate? God's love from the objects of
that love, he says, as is written, for thy sake we're killed all
the day long, we're counted as sheep for the slaughter. If those
things could separate us from God's love, they would, because
we go through those things all the time. That's what he's saying.
Verse 37, nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
him that loved us, through Christ, the love of Christ, who overcame
all these things. We don't overcome them. I'll
tell you what, if our remaining in God's love and favor were
conditioned on how we go through that stuff, we would be goners. We would perish eternally. But Christ, we're more than conquerors
because Christ is the mighty conqueror. And that's what he
said. He said, I've overcome the world.
He conquered sin. The reason sin cannot separate
me from the love of Christ is because Christ conquered my sin
on the cross. He put my sin away. He died for my sin. He satisfied
the law and justice of God. The law cannot condemn me because
for in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation. Who shall anything
to the charge of God's elect? The reason Satan cannot separate
me from the love of Christ is because Christ put him in his
place. He says, now is the prince of
this world cast down. How do we turn back the charges
of Satan against the people of God? Revelation 12 says, we plead
the blood of the Lamb. Right? That'll turn him back
every time. I saw a preacher on TV, they
had a little dummy doll that they said was Satan and he just
started beating that thing with a bat and he said, get on back
to hell, Satan. Well, you know what? What he
was doing was satanic. You think that's too hard? Satan
would wrap that guy around his little finger and put him in
his place. You can get every ball bat, machine
gun, machete that you can get. You're not going to conquer Satan.
Christ did it by the shedding of his blood on the cross. Righteousness
turns back Satan. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. Yea, rather He's risen again.
Seated at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession
for us. There's our hope. Christ. That's
the issue. And so he says in verse 38 of
Romans 8, listen, he says, I'm persuaded that neither death,
now, Somebody made the statement one time, said, well, sin can
do it because, see, that's not listed here. My friend, when
it says death, what is death? It's the wages of what? Sin. Now, if death can't separate
you, sin can't. Because death and sin are together.
Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor
depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. God's love ensures the eternal
well-being of its objects. You know, most people think more
of their own love than they do God's love. Now, think about this. You men,
think about your wives. Think about your children. Is
there anything you wouldn't do for your wives and your children
to ensure their well-being here on Earth? That they don't get
sick, that they don't lose everything, that they... You want them to
be happy and healthy, wealthy, wise. You want all that for them.
Well, let's say that you were all-powerful, and all wise and
all knowing, what would you do for them? If you love them, you'd save
them from everything that could harm them, wouldn't you? And
yet people say, well, God loves them, but he didn't want to step
on their human dignity and free will, so he just lets them go
their own way. Where do you find that in the Bible? You don't
find it in the Bible. No, sir, it's not there. You
know what Romans chapter 5 and verse 6 tells us? Look over at
Romans 5, just back a few pages. And here's the thing about it. Here's the thing. None of us deserve the love of
God. None of us earn the love of God.
Let me show you. Romans 5 and verse 6. It says,
for when we were yet without strength, that's without power
to do anything, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely
for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good
man some would even dare to die. We could see that. If somebody
deserved it. But God commendeth his love toward
us, that's talking about his people, in that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us. when we were yet sinners. 1 John 4 and verse 10 says, Herein
is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and gave
His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now, back here
in Romans 9, I guess this is the whole issue here. What we're
learning to do, I'll tell you this whole thing about salvation,
discipleship, you know, It's all about learning to think like
Christ, to think like God. That's what it's all about. Let
me show you what I mean. Look back at 1 Corinthians chapter
2. I want to show you something
here. Look over at 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Paul says in verse 7 of 1 Corinthians
2, we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. What does that
mean? That's something God has to reveal. We don't know this
by nature. This is not how man thinks by nature. 1 Corinthians
2 and verse 7. Whatever he's going to talk about
here, this is not how the natural man... You weren't born thinking
this way. And I don't care how much you
grow in human things and in education, you will never learn to think
this way unless God reveals it to you. That's what he's saying. He says, even the hidden wisdom
which God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none
of the princes, the nobles of this world knew, for had they
known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
But as it is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither
hath entered into the heart of man, this hadn't even entered
into the heart of man, his mind, his affections, his will, the
things which God hath prepared for them that love him. Now do
you love God? If you love God, you love everything
about God. You love His truth. You love
His sovereignty. You don't fight against it because
you love God. You're glad He's in control.
If you love God, you're glad He's in control because you know
yourself. If you love God, that's a gift
from God. That's what the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in the hearts
of God's people in their conversion. You say, well, I don't love him
perfectly. I know that. I don't either. I didn't ask
you. I said, do you love God? If you love God, you love the
fact that He chose a people. You say, well, I don't love that
God. Well, then you've got an idol that you love. That's what
this book says. But look at verse 10. He says,
but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit, the Holy Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. for what man knoweth
the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him."
The only thing you can know as a human being is what the spirit
of humanity and flesh will let you know. Even so, the things
of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. The Spirit of
God has to reveal them and teach us through His Word. So verse
12, now listen to this verse, this is really telling him. He
says, now we have received not the spirit of the world, but
the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that
are, what's that word? Freely given to us of God. That's the first thing the spirit
of God teaches us, that we don't deserve God's love, we don't
deserve God's favor, we don't deserve salvation, it is free
to his people. The things that are freely given.
You don't earn them. You don't deserve them. Unconditional
love. We talk about that. We don't
know a whole lot about it. Other than when the Spirit of
God causes a sinner to look to Christ. Then we know something
about unconditional love. Freely given. Now look at verse
13. He says, which things also we speak not in the words which
man's wisdom teaches. Now what I'm teaching you is
not what man's wisdom would teach you. Man's wisdom would teach
you either to deny the sovereignty of God or to deny the responsibility
of man. But because we can't wrap our
minds around both and logically figure them out on a human level,
say, then men deny them. So, well, that can't be, that's
not fair. Well, what's God's answer to that? He says, "...but
which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with
spiritual, but the natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him." Now, how are they to me? How
are they to you? He says, neither can he know
them, because they're spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual
judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who
hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? We
can't teach God. God's teaching us. He says, but
we have the mind of Christ. We have the mind of Christ. Learning
to think like Christ. How do we have the mind of Christ?
We have the indwelling Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ.
Christ dwells within us by His Spirit and we have His Word.
Right here, Genesis to Revelation is the mind of Christ. And He gives us the foundation.
You know, you look at Romans chapter 9 and you see some very
difficult things there that you can't figure out. And I can't
figure out either. And no preacher can. Nobody can. These are the things of the Spirit
of God. Here are things that seem to
be at odds in our mind, but they're not in God's. And how you work
that out, I don't know, and you don't either, and no other preacher
does. Other than, they'll just deny
them. I heard a fellow on TV just get up and boldly say, he
said, that many Christians, he said, operate under a common
fallacy, and that fallacy is that God's in control. He said,
I'm here to tell you, God is not in control. And I said to
myself, I said, well, he better find out who is and go worship
him. I'm afraid he thinks he's in
control. As the fellow said, he's a self-made
man and he worships his Creator. No, God is in control. Ephesians
111 says, God is working all things according to the good
pleasure of His will. It says, all things work together
to them that love God who are the called according to His purpose.
Now how could all things work together for good if anybody
but God was in control? Christ told the rich young man,
he says, there's none good but God. So how could all things
work together for good unless God was doing that working? What do you think about? You
say, well, I don't understand all that and I can't wrap my
mind around all that and I look at things and it looks to me
like sometimes the world's out of control. It doesn't matter.
God's got the answer. And that's what He told Job.
Job, that's what his complaint was. God, things are out of kilter
here now. And I've got three friends and
they're just bugging me to death and they don't give me any comfort.
They're giving me man's opinion. That's man's answers. What is
it, God? And God says, Job, you just trust
me. I've got it all under control.
I'm working it all out. You trust me. That's what he
said. And man says, well, that's not
good enough for me. Well, go on then. I mean, that's just
it. But God gives us some foundations
on which to go by. Let me show you some of them.
Look back at Deuteronomy chapter 29. I refer to this passage quite
often because it's so foundational. So foundational. And this verse
here now, Deuteronomy chapter 29, verse 29, the very last verse
of this chapter, This verse teaches both the sovereignty of God and
the responsibility of man in the same verse. Now, you can't
put them together and I can't put them together. Someone said
it's like a railroad track. You got two tracks and that train
runs along the tracks, but those tracks, they never meet, but
they're going right along together. And that train's going to end
up at its destination safe. If those tracks ever come together,
what's going to happen to that train? So you've got the sovereignty
of God. But look at verse 29 of Deuteronomy
29. What he's talking about here
is God's ways in his dealings with Israel in their getting
them to the promised land. And here's what he says in verse
29. Here's a foundational principle from which we can understand
these things to a point. And it says here, the secret
things belong unto the Lord our God. They're things that God
has not revealed to us. in his ways, in his will. They're
secret. They're hidden. You don't know
how it all works out. How many of you all can predict
the future? If you can tell me what's going
to happen tomorrow, it's because you can read it in God's Word
and it says something about that day. That's it. I know Christ
is coming again. God's revealed that to me. I
don't know the day and the hour. That's for Him. He kept that
to Himself. But I know he is. I know he's
going to be right on schedule. I know he's not waiting for them
to build a temple in Jerusalem. He's not waiting for them to
re-establish a priesthood in Israel. He's not waiting for
them to start slaying animals again. No, sir. That would be a denial of Christ.
Read the book. Read the book of Hebrews. That's
what it tells you. Read the book of Galatians. Read
the book of Colossians. That's what we know. We know
anybody who goes back to that old covenant temple and sacrifices
in priesthood denies Christ. God's revealed that, that's not
secret. But I don't know what hour and day Christ is coming
again. Secret things belong to God. But look here, he goes on,
but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children
forever that we may do all the words of this law. There's human
responsibility. What are we responsible to act
upon? Only what God's revealed. Not
what God hasn't revealed. Think about it. Go back to Romans. Go to Romans 11. That's the first
foundational principle upon which we, as in our limited view of
things, can operate. Secret things belong to God.
And if you spend your life trying to figure out those secret things,
you're going to come up empty. The revealed things belong to
us. What's God revealed? That which is in His Word here. Here's the next foundational
principle. Look at Romans 11 and verse 33. Romans 11, 33. Oh, the depth of the riches both
of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his
judgments and his ways past finding out. That shouldn't surprise
any of us, he's God. Verse 34, for who hath known
the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor? Some
of these false preachers, they act like they are God's counselor. He says in verse 36, now here
it is, look here. For of him and through him and
to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. My friend, it is all for the
glory of God. No matter what. And then one
more, turn to Matthew 11, what I opened up with there. Here's
the third. The first one, the secret things
belong to God. The revealed things belong to
us. The second one, God's working all things according to His own
goodwill and pleasure for His glory. But look at verse 25 of Matthew
11. It says, at that time, Jesus
answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and
the prudent. Now, who are the wise and the
prudent? Self-righteous, rebellious sinners. Well, that's all of
us by nature. That's what the Bible says. But
you've revealed them unto babes. What are the babes here? Those
who realize their helplessness. and their total dependency. Listen,
if I'm going to be saved, if I'm going to be saved, it is
totally by the sovereign will and power and goodness of God. That's a bait. No man by nature
feels that way, believes that way, but God brings his people
to do so. But look here, verse 26, now
he's hidden it from the natural man, he's revealed it unto his
people, verse 26, even so, father, for so it seemed good in thy
sight. You know what he's saying there?
He's saying whatever God does is good. Whatever God does is
right. You say, well, I don't see how
it all can work out that way. Doesn't matter whether you see
how it all can work out that way. That's the way it is. Look
back at Romans 9. What did he say here? He said,
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. Whom does God love? The world says God loves everybody.
And they quote John 3, 16. That's not what that verse teaches.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son
that whosoever what believeth should not perish but have everlasting
life. The world there is not everybody
without exception. I can show you a multitude of
verses in the Bible where it uses the word world and doesn't
mean everybody without exception. John said in 1 John chapter 5,
the whole world lieth in the wicked one. Is that everybody
without exception? He's not talking about believers
there. They've been brought out from under the wicked one. What's
he talking about? He's talking about the world
of his people, Jew and Gentile. I can tell you right now, God
didn't love Esau. Here it is, Romans 9, 13. Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. The Bible says in Psalm 5, 5,
the foolish shall not stand in thy sight, thou hatest all workers
of iniquity. Psalm 11, verse 5, the Lord trieth
the righteous, but the wicked in him that loveth violence,
his soul hateth. Proverbs 6, 16, listen to this,
these six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination
unto him, a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent
blood, a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that
be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh
lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. God hates them. Now, the secret things belong
to God. That's what I don't know. I don't
know the secret things. The revealed things belong to
us. That's what I know. Let me give you this in closing,
in light of Romans 9 here. Now here's what I know. God loved
Jacob and hated Esau. I know that because this book
says that. And you can't lighten that or water it down. It doesn't
mean he loved Esau less. That's not in God. God doesn't
love in degrees like us. I know that. Why did God love
Jacob and hate Esau? Well, here's what I know. No
one, including Jacob, deserves or earns God's love. In Romans chapter 3, he says
there's none righteous, no not one. He didn't say except Jacob.
He said, there's none that doeth good, no, not one. He didn't
say except Jacob, or he didn't say except me. Now you may say
except you, but God didn't. You know, that's really the way
most people would have to read that. It says there, no, there's
none that seeketh after God. A lot of people have said, oh,
except me. No. That's natural man. That's concluding
all Jew and Gentile under sin. Why did God love Jacob? Jacob
was a sinner. He was a cheater. He was a conniver. Well, the only answer Christ
gives is in Matthew 11, 25, "'For so, Father, it seemed good in
thy sight.'" Here's what I know. The sovereign love of God that
brings salvation is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
look at Romans 9. Look at verse 13. Now, listen. Here's God's answer.
As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
What shall we say then? Now, what are you going to say
to that? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Is God being unfair there? Is God being unjust? Well, here's
God's answer. Two words. God forbid. No, God's not being unjust. God's
not being unfair. God is not unjust or unfair to
set His love upon and choose some people for salvation and
pass by others and lead them to their own wills and their
own ways apart from their merits or actions. Here's what I know. God forbid. God is the only one
qualified to do this. And he says this, verse 15, for
he said to Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and
I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. If any sinner is going to find
the love of God, the mercy of God, the compassion of God, and
avoid what we deserve and have earned, that love can only be
found in God himself, in the person and work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Somebody says, but the Bible
says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. That is exactly right. The man by nature will not call. Look at verse 16, so then it
is not of him that willeth, it's not of the will of man, nor of
him that runneth, it's not of the works of man, but of God
that showeth mercy. Salvation's by God's grace through
Christ. and based on his blood and righteousness
alone. Somebody said, well, how do we
know whom God loves and whom God hates? There's only one way. The revealed things belong to
us. What are you to do? How do you react to that? He
says later on, we'll get to that. He says, what shall we say to
these things? And you know what the answer
is? Sinner, run to Christ. You seek salvation. from Him. You beg for mercy from the God
of all grace in Christ. You submit to His righteousness
as that which alone. You can sit around the rest of
your life denying the sovereignty of God and you'll meet that sovereign
God. You can sit around the rest of your life trying to figure
out God's wills and God's way, God's will and God's ways in
the secret things and you'll just be, you'll die as ignorant
as you were born. That's really what'll happen.
What are you to do? What are we to say? How are we
to react? You run to Christ. Right now. That's the reveal
thing. God will save you for Christ's sake alone. I know that
so. He will not turn away any sinner, He never has, who come
to Him His way. Seeking mercy in Christ. Now
don't come your way or my way. Come His way. Christ said, I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the
Father but by me. Jacob came God's way through
Christ. Esau despised his birthright. He despised God's way and lifted
up himself. All right.