I will invite you now to turn
with me to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. This portion of Scripture is
familiar to each of us this afternoon. No doubt, it was a portion of
Scripture that God open your mind and understanding to the
subject of the doctrines of grace about the sovereignty of God. I don't suppose there's ever
been a grace preacher that have not found great comfort in reading
the words that are penned on these pages. Not only is the
ministers of Christ blessed in these words, but in the lives
of every one of us as children of God, as we read these words,
it gives us understanding more than just in our minds, but in
our hearts who God is. The satisfaction that we bear
today in Christ Jesus is knowing that before the foundation of
the world, there was a holy God that loved us and cared for us.
And from the very beginning, from the very I am, the purpose
of God was to bring forth a people and to redeem them from their
sins and set them above all other men. and have a special place
prepared for them in glory. This morning, this afternoon,
I invite you to read with me now in Romans 9, verse 1. I say the truth in Christ, I
lie not. My conscience also beareth me
witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great heaviness, continual
sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself were accursed
from Christ for my brethren, my kindred according to the flesh,
who are Israelites, to whom pertains the adoption and the glory and
the covenants and the giving of the law and the service of
God and the promises whose are the Father, and of whom, as concerning
the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen. Not as though the word
of God came hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel which
are Israel. Neither because they are the
seed of Abraham are they all its children, but in Isaac shall
thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children
of promise are counted for the seed, for this is the word of
promise at This time will I come and Sarah shall have a son. And
not only this, but when Rebekah also hath conceived by one, even
by our father Isaac, for the children not yet being born,
either having done any good or evil, have the purpose of God
according to election might stand, not by works, but of him that
calleth, it was said of her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved and Esau have I hated. Reading Romans 9, 1 through verse
13. My first observation in reading
these words is what Paul said about the heaviness of his heart
for his brethren. For every preacher who is called
of God, I believe there is a heaviness upon his heart to preach the
gospel of Jesus Christ. And to preach the gospel of Christ
to those that you personally know, to your family, to your
friends, to your loved ones, those that you have come acquainted
with in this world. The commission of Christ is more
than just to your family and friends, but is into the entire
world a person is called to preach the gospel. But I make note this
afternoon the fact that Apostle Paul had a sincere desire to
see his people come to the knowledge of the truth in Jesus Christ
and for that he speaks to them in these verses in And he is
telling them, though you be of Abraham, though you be of Isaac,
though you be of Jacob, that doesn't mean that you are of
God. Because coming into the grace
of God is not by heritage alone. It's not by blood alone. We have all known families that
have three, four children, and there would be one or maybe two
that would find faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, but then there
are others of that family that never believed or have any concern
for the gospel of Jesus Christ. The parents of that family find
it grievous when they think about their children not being believers
in our Lord Jesus Christ. But here Apostle Paul is grieving
in himself with a heavy heart that his people, his own people,
the Israelites, believe not and that most of them, so many of
them, were not probably in the household of faith. It is not
because of their heritage. It was not because of their blood,
but the calling of Almighty God. Now the way that Paul introduces
this is by bringing to their remembrance the work of God in
Abraham. Abraham had a promise of God. that Sarah, his wife, would bear
a son, and that son would be his heir. But because of age
and time, it would appear to Abraham and to Sarah that that
was not going to be. Many times we run ahead of God. We know what the righteous and
good thing would be in our family, and we look really anxiously
define that promise that maybe you know is there. Maybe God
has spoken to you or you believe and you hope that this or that
would happen and you wait and you wait and sometimes we kind
of lose faith and maybe that's what happened to Abraham he lost
faith in the promise of God but God's promises are sure and true
and whatever God has promised it's going to come about so this
is the Bible lesson here When God has promised us and we feel
and have faith in something, we should believe and trust in
our holy God, our Lord Jesus Christ, that it will come about.
And pray to that end every day. Pray to the end of the hope that
you find within yourself. Such life. Example. I get on
little sidetracks here. Such that we are asked so many
times in this church to pray for this one and for this one
and this week. I had someone come to me and
they told me of something that was pretty bad and they asked
me to pray, to pray for this person. And we will pray for
that person, but because of our time and because of our days,
sometimes we forget to pray. We forget to pray and ask God,
will you have mercy upon this particular occasion. Well, we
should never forget. We should never forget our prayer
requests and our petitions before Almighty God. Now, back to Abraham. Abraham believed God and he was
counted unto him for righteousness, but there was a time that he
went ahead and took another wife, Hagar, unto himself and bore
a son. Now, Hagar's son, Ishmael, was
the firstborn and was then the heir of Abraham, but not the
heir of God. He was not the one that God had
promised. He was one that Abraham put as
a substitute for the promise of God. Ishmael can never be
a substitute for Isaac. He cannot be and never will be. The will of God cannot be torn
down, cannot be distorted. The will of God will be. Now, Hagar's son, Ishmael, it
was said by the scripture that he was loved. He was loved. He
was loved, and he was cared, but he was not the promised purpose. Well, in our lesson this afternoon,
we see there is two families that we want to examine. We want
to examine Abraham and his wife, Sarah, and we want to examine
Hagar and her son, Ishmael. Paul brings these two families
before us today to represent example of God's will and how
God brought about it and then I want to turn this message in
such a way that would bless you to know that it is the promise
is yours now with the first family with Abraham and Hagar and Sarah
you have two sons the firstborn but it's not the promise seed
it is Isaac himself we have Another family, we have Jacob and we
have Esau. In Jacob and Esau, Isaac is the
father of both sons. He is the father of both sons. Where Abraham, he is the father
of both sons, but they have different mothers. Some have said that
Ishmael was not the proper candidate because his mother was an Egyptian. But that really would not have
much bearing. But in the case of Jacob and
Esau, they were in the womb together. But it was that this boy of Ishmael,
of Isaac, and all his family, the firstborn of that mother
is the firstborn, and rightly so, as the heir, but what did
God say? God say that the younger shall
serve the elder. The younger shall serve, will
be the one to be the promise seed. Now in this we have examples
of God's choosing. God overruled man and he brought
forth this person. Isaac was the chosen and not
Ishmael, and we have Jacob is the chosen and not his brother. One overruled the other because
of God's own choosing. In our lives this day, God has
chosen us before the foundation of the world. These two examples
that Paul brings forth are two examples of God's choosing. It
is said that the second, the second with Isaac and his two
sons is a better example of God's choice, a better example of unconditional
election because the will of God will not be done away with. The will of God will be administered
in all that we have in our lesson today, we find the mercy of God
is upon His chosen people, not upon bloodline, not upon nationality,
but upon the will and the purpose of God. I know a man who is a
born in the Jewish, he's a Jew, he's a Jewish person, He does
not practice the Jewish religion, but he is of that origin. Now his faith is not much at
all, but because he is a Jew, many would say he is the chosen
of God. I don't know what we can say
about a person who doesn't believe his own religion to be the chosen
of God. We all here are in this Baptist
Church. I'm happy to call it a Baptist
Church. We've been here for many years.
Our children were in this very service. And our children have
grown up. But just because our children
grew up in the Baptist Church, set under godly preaching, does
not mean that they are of the faith, that they are of the chosen
of God, that they are under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not our choosing. It is
not the quality. It is not the church. It is not
anything that we have done or will do that will determine the
faith of our children or the faith of anyone. This was a heaviness
of Paul's heart when he spoke to them. As he spoke to them,
he saw nothing but ritual. All he could see before him,
I suppose, was the carrying on of a tradition that went back
hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. Paul preached Christ
Jesus as the Messiah, as the chosen one, the one that was
promised even in the book of Genesis. He was the one that
is our Redeemer. All of those that were Kenfos,
all of those Israelites that carried the name Jew, all of
them who went even to the temple, unless their faith is based upon
that Lord Jesus Christ and His blood, they were all going to
perish in their sins. The scripture says that Jacob
have I loved and Esau have I hated." God loved Jacob. His heart and soul was upon Jacob. His blessing was upon Jacob where
it was not upon Esau. They were in the womb together
but they were different. They were two mighty nations
in the womb. and his brother was born first,
but even though he was born first, he is not appointed to be the
chosen of God. So I want to say this this afternoon. All of our faith, all of our
works will not save us, nor will it save those that you love. Our prayers are needed. We should
be praying always for our families, our friends, that the grace of
God might be revealed in them, that the grace of God might be
revealed in each of our family members, in our neighbors, in
congressmen, in senators, and in a president, in all men everywhere. Apart from this grace, there
is no mercy with God.