As it is written, Jacob hath
a love, but Esau hath a hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. The Bible, the Word
of God teaches truths that we must believe. even though we
can't understand some of the things. I know the scriptures
talk about the Trinity but how can one God being three persons
and being in heaven and earth at the same time come and be
made flesh and still be three persons. It's an amazing thing.
But I want to deal with predestination in this verse of scripture. predestination. Jacob hath a loved, Esau hath
a hated. Men have problems with that.
A lot of people have problems with that truth. With that truth. And it's easy to build a straw
man. Put in men's mouths what you think they're saying or what
they should be saying. and tear down another man's doctrine.
But it's a different matter to establish your own truth, establish
the doctrine that you believe. I'm down through the years. When
I first got started teaching me the gospel, I don't know how
many calls I got and said, Donnie Bell, I hear you're going off
the deep end on predestination, on election. And men would get up and say,
you know, I don't believe anything Donnie Bell preaches. Elections
are doctrine, it's hatched in hell. Well, if it was, and one, you know, they say,
well, God's man is, he's depraved all part of him, but his will,
his will's still free. But when you're on solid ground,
stay right there. When you're on solid ground,
don't move a peg. Even when you say that, I ain't
moving a peg. When you're on solid ground, stand there. You
know, we don't have the right, we don't have the right to question
God. But men do it every day. They
do it every day. They question God's right to
love someone and hate somebody else. You know, and what God tells
us is enough, no matter what anybody else believes. But here it says it is written.
It's written. It's written. Huh? It's written. And this is God's blessed doctrine. Doctrine of God's sovereign and
free grace. God's blessed truth. A fact. It's a fact that some men are
chosen and some men are left to the shells. That's a fact. Ain't that what he says down
there in verse 18? Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and on whom he will he hardeneth. He hardened it. Now that's a
truth that some people say is terrible. The reason men try to explain
this away is because they don't know God and they think God's
like himself, like themselves. And they'll say this word hate,
you know, God said I love Jacob have a love but he's all have
a hated. They'll say well that Hate means
he loves less than he does Jacob. Does that mean that he hates
Jacob less than he hates Esau? Is that what it means? And the
fact is that God loved Jacob and he hated Esau. Now that's what the scripture
says. It tells us that plainly. He did choose Jacob. He didn't
choose Esau. He did bless Jacob. He didn't
bless Esau. His mercy and grace followed
Jacob all his life before he was even born. Right to the end
when he got his feet up under him and bowed up and left this
world. And his mercy never followed
Esau. He let him go on in his sin.
Let him go on being the reprobate that he was. And some say that
then God loved Jacob and hated Esau that he's dealing with nations.
Dealing with nations. Well then does that mean he hates
one nation? And loves one nation? Does that
mean he loves America and he don't love somebody else? Is
that what it means? And don't you know that nations
are made up of people? And he chooses, that's why Paul
said they're not all Israel which are of Israel. It's in the promise. And I tell
you, it don't make it any easier. And I tell you what, I don't
want to change my thinking. And I don't want to be around
people who can change their thinking. And what they don't like or what
they don't understand, they just ignore it. We don't never make
the Bible about us, we about it. We don't never try to reason
it out. Like I said last week, if the
Bible says that Jonah swallowed the whale, I'd believe that.
Because it's in the Word of God. And that's why, that's how settled
I am. In fact, God said, Psalm 189,
19 says this, Thy word, O Lord, is forever settled in heaven.
In heaven. It's settled. It's done. Man
says, I believe in that settles it. No, it was settled before
man, God ever made a man. God's truth was true before He
ever made a man. Before He ever put it in His
Word. And when He says, you know in Revelation 22, when the books
are open, you know what books, He's talking about this one right
here. Not a book He wrote about you. You're not important enough
to write a book about. You're not important enough,
done enough that they need to write a book about you. No, this
is the book that's going to be open. And that's the book God's
going to judge men out of. That's what He judged Israel
with, with His Word. That's what He's going to judge.
The books are going to be open. And men are going to say, well,
they said that God loved Jacob and hated Esau. Well, I didn't
believe that. Well, why in the world are you
upset with me for? Because I put you in hell. Why
are you mad at me? Because you wouldn't believe
my Word. God will use his old sword, then
take God's word, take his sword, and cut themselves to pieces
with it. It's too sharp to handle. And I tell you what, and I just
want two points I want to make. The fact that Jacob, God loved
him, and Esau, God hated him. And why did God love Jacob, and
why did God hate Esau? I don't know if I can answer
even one of those questions. But I'm going to try. I'm going
to try. Now it's a fact. And you know
it as I know it. God does not treat every man
better than another. He never does that. He does not
treat one man better than another. The fact is that God does not
treat every man alike. All you got to do is look at
your everyday life, look at what goes on around you, and you understand
quickly that God does not deal with every man alike. You know,
how about the living that men make? There's some men that make
minimum wage. Some men make less. And then
there's other people that make so much money they try to figure
out how in the world, how am I going to spend it all? Where
am I going to put it? What am I going to do with it?
Who made the difference in that? Who made the difference in that?
And what about your brain? What about your intellect? Huh? Man, some men have gigantic brains. Gigantic brains, huge brains. There's men, there's people that
they call what, that have what they call edadict. That means
they have a perfect memory. If they ever hear it or see it,
it never leaves their brain. They can take and quote something
from 40 years ago and remember it perfectly. Now that would
be a strange thing. I don't want that so much I don't
want to remember. I don't want no brain like that.
I don't want no brain that remembers everything. The things that I
remember ain't worth remembering except God's Word. And oh, look
what it says here. I'll tell you what, then you
know. And then there's some people that's not very smart. There's
some people that are idiots even. Very, very small minded. Very
small minded. And then we see the difference
in where people are born. Where people are born. Why in
the world wasn't we born in China? Why wasn't we born in Africa?
Why wasn't we born in Indonesia? Why wasn't we born in Mexico?
Why was we born here? Why was we born of parents that
we were born of? Why was we raised like we were
raised? Who gave us the nature to do
what we do? Some men got a great work ethic
and some men are so lazy that they wouldn't get up to taste
pies. And you know I'm telling you
the truth. And then not only that, but who they're born to.
Who's your parents? Some people have absolutely wonderful
parents. wonderful parents, blessed parents,
glorious parents, God honoring parents, God glorifying parents,
parents that love their children and treat their children right
and make them grow up right and try to teach them and instruct
them in the right way and their children are delightful to be
around and they are too. And then there's people that
are born to reprobate. Jacob and Esau come out of the
same womb. One of them said, God said, I
love that man. And the other one, he said, I
hate that man. So God's deed, what He does in
this world, we see it happen every day in our presence. You
keep this and look with me over here in 1 Samuel chapter 2. Look
in 1 Samuel chapter 2. And I want you to look in verse
6. And while you're looking there, let me make a couple of comments
about, like, Moses and Aaron. What differs in Moses and Aaron?
When God called Moses and told him to go down and speak, Moses
said, Lord, I'm a stammerer. I don't know how to talk. I'm
not a good speaker. I'm not a good talker. I get
tongue-tied. I don't know how to speak, you
know, and I'm not excellent in speech. He said, you go. And
he said, I'll have Aaron to be your mouthpiece. Moses couldn't
speak well. But you know when you watch the
Ten Commandments, Moses was a big old deep voice, you know. But
he didn't stammer or stutter there. But the scripture says,
Moses, God told Moses, I don't speak very well. I'm not quick
at speech. He said, well, I'll get Aaron
to speak for you. He'll be your mouthpiece. And look what it
said here in 1 Samuel 2, 6. Talk about the Lord now. The
Lord killeth, and the Lord maketh alive. You know when you're going
to die? When the Lord killeth. And then
what Jel said, who's going to be made alive? He's the one that
brings down to the grave. And he's the one that brings
up from the grave. The Lord maketh poor, and he
makes rich. He'll bring a man down, and he
can turn around and lift a man up. He raises up the poor out
of the dust, lifted up the beggar from the dunghill to set them
among princes, to make them inherit the throne of glory. Now listen
to this, for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's and He has
set the world upon them. So I tell you what, who made
you to differ? Who made you to differ? And I
tell you what, some men are born kings, Some men are born beggars. You remember the story about
the rich man. Fares sumptuously every day.
And there was a beggar sitting outside his gate named Lazarus.
And every day that rich man drive out there in his big old chariot
and I tell you with his servants around him and Lazarus is laying
there begging for crumbs. Dogs, he is so messed up and
he is so pitiful and had sores running all over his body that
dogs were licking him and licking his sores. But one day that rich
man, it was time for him to leave. And being in hell, he lifted
up his eyes. And he said, Oh, send Father
Abraham, send somebody, my brethren, so they won't have to come down
here, my five brothers. He didn't ask to get out. He
didn't say, I'm sorry. He didn't say, please forgive
me. And he said, oh just send Lazarus. Send Lazarus. Now that man has
said that he's gave back and he said send Lazarus and let
him dip his finger in water and just let him get one drop is
all I want. Now who made the difference in
them two men? Who did that? Huh? Oh my, then what about men's
dispositions? Every one of us in this building
today have different dispositions. You know that? We have different
dispositions. We have different natures. We
have different constitutions. And let me tell you something
else, not only is it a fact that we see every day in God's providence,
but you look in religion, you look in religion, and there's
enough of that around here to go all the way up to your neck.
God in religion gives to one and not another. That's a fact.
Election is a fact. Look at the people that heard
the word of God. It says, you know, I said there in verse 13
and back over in Romans 9, as it is written, that's the first
thing he said. As it is written, Jacob have
a love, but Esau have a hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness of God? That's the first thing people
want to say. Well, God's not fair. It's not right. He's unjust. And Paul said, don't
you dare who you think you are to question God and say God's
unrighteous. And he says, and he quotes the
scripture now. These are what people that heard the word of
God. What did they do? For he said to Moses, I'll have
mercy on whom I will have mercy. God said that to Moses, and I'll
have compassion on whom I will have compassion. Well, the fellow,
he said, I'm willing, I'm willing, I'm going to go will, I'm going
to do everything for Jesus. It's not of him that willeth.
It's not of him that runneth, him that just got to keep running,
running, running, running to God, running to this and running
to that church, running to this doctrine, running to that doctrine. But God that showeth mercy. For the scripture saith, and
again, this is what the scripture said, Even for this same purpose
have I raised the F. You know why Pharaoh was there
when Moses went down there? God put him on the throne for
one reason, one reason only. He said, I put you there for
one reason, one reason only so that I can let everybody in this
world know that I can destroy you with the blink of an eye.
I want everybody to know what power, you think you got power?
You think you got authority? You think you can rule over people?
I'll tell you what, I'm gonna let everybody in this world know,
and you know what he did? They said, well the Red Sea was
only four inches deep. God, if he did, he'd drown the
whole army in four inches of water. But I know this, old Pharaoh's
gone, you know why? Because God said, I raised you
up just for that purpose. And I tell you why. And then
he goes on to say, and it's written that he'll have mercy on whom
he will. And this is what's frightening. Whom he will, he'll harden. Oh my. And you know it's not
only those who hear the word. You know how Shirley's son said
the other day he went to a service one time and the preacher got
up and made a big talk and everything and never even had a Bible. Never
opened a Bible. Never used a Bible. Never opened
the Word of God. He entertained them. And he know
that was wrong. He know that was wrong because
of the places he's been. and all mine, I tell you not
only in the word that they hear but let me show you something
look over in John chapter 12 talking about whom he will heal
heart and it's how a person hears the scriptures look down here in verse 37 John
12 verse 37 Oh, election's a fact and it's
obvious. And those who hear the word,
there's people heard the word, it's written, said, oh, listen,
I don't believe that. But though he had done so many
miracles before them, yet they believed not on him. That the
saying of Isaiah the prophet, now here we go again with the
scriptures, that the might be fulfilled which he spake, Lord
who hath believed our report, who's believed our preaching,
And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Now watch
what it says next. Therefore they could not believe. It didn't say they would not
believe, they could not believe. Huh? It's not of him that willeth. They could not believe, because
Isaiah said again, now listen to what God did. He hath blinded
their eyes, hardened their heart, that they should not see with
their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted,
and should heal them. People say, my God don't do that.
I know He don't. I know He don't. I know He don't. And then the word of God comes
along. And God in His sovereign and
free grace, He works so powerfully by His Word and by His Spirit. He works so powerfully upon some
men that they can't resist. In the day of His power, He makes
them so willing, they bow and rejoice at His free and sovereign
grace. And if God had left them to their
self, He would have been just like Esau, but others He leaves
to themselves.