Well, good morning. If you all
can't tell, I'm not Frank. He's got that flu. I think, Sean,
I think I heard you say you hadn't felt that bad in a long time.
I think that's where Frank was. Was it Tuesday he called or Wednesday? Yeah, said he wasn't going to
be able to make it. So today you all get to sit in
on the young adults class. If you'll turn your Bibles to
Genesis chapter 25. We're going to go through Genesis 25,
19 through 23 is where we're going to pick up. Before we do
that, I'd like to go to the Lord in prayer. Our holy Most High Heavenly Father,
we thank you for this opportunity to gather this morning. Lord,
we pray that you would use this time to have us be taught of
Thee. Lord, take away the stumbling
of the vessel and teach us from Thee. Lord, give us not just
a head knowledge, Teach our hearts, Lord. Give us a heart to accept
thee. Cause us to see our need. Cause us to run to Christ. Pray, Lord, that you would especially
bless our young people, Lord. We can teach them, we can give
them that head knowledge, but Lord, we pray that you would
show mercy on them and reveal yourself to their hearts. Leave
us not alone. Let us not meet in vain, but
look to Thee. We ask all these things in the
name of and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. All
right, so we've been going through a lot of Old Testament pictures
of Christ in our class. And we've already looked at Abraham and Sarah and the birth
of Isaac and how he was that promised son, he was the promised
one, a picture of Christ. And how Abraham and Sarah, they
tried to produce that child on their own, right? They didn't
believe the promise. They had Sarah Hagar go in, and she represents
the law and man's own doing versus works. She represents works versus
the promise. And so now we've gotten to Isaac. We looked last week where Isaac
and Rebecca got married, and she was chosen for him. And now
they're married, and we're going to see they're going to have
some children as well. But I want to, the reason we're
going through these is really all of the doctrines of the Bible
are laid forth in Genesis. And in this Bible, it's not an
Old Testament and a New Testament. This tells one story. And they're
more fully revealed in the New Testament because Christ is the
fulfillment of that. And we can see that, but as we
look through Genesis, as we go through Genesis, we've seen all
of those doctrines laid out in the Old Testament and fulfilled
in the New. And today, what I want to answer
is, does the Bible teach election? Is that a biblical teaching? And we're going to see that here
in Genesis. So let's go ahead and read Genesis
25, starting in verse 19. And these are the generations
of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham begat Isaac. And Isaac
was 40 years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter
of Bethuel, the Syrian of Hadaram, and sister of Laban, the Syrian.
And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was
barren. The Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah, his wife,
conceived. So here we, like I said, we see
this continuing story. And just like Abraham and Sarah
couldn't have children, Rebekah was barren as well. And we see
that even though Isaac was the promised son, and we know that
the Lord's gonna come through his generation. He was the promised
one for Abraham, and the Savior's gonna come from that line. This
is where God's people are coming from. And he knows that. And he's been told that. He was
taught that by his father. We saw him willing to be the
sacrifice, knowing that God would raise him. If Abraham had killed
him, God was going to raise him. Because they knew that the promised
seed was coming through that line. But he wasn't having children.
He knew it, yet he still went to God and he prayed. So don't
ever Keep from praying. This is a lesson for us. He had
complete confidence, but he still prayed. And Christ tells us in
John 15, 16, whatsoever you shall ask of my father on my name,
he may give it to you. Well, I know you're probably
thinking, because I've thought this way. We've all thought this
way. There's lots of things I've asked God for that didn't happen,
right? I prayed and prayed and prayed,
and God didn't give it to me. Well, that's because we're asking
after our flesh. We're not seeking God's will. We need to pray God's
will. James 4.3 says, ye ask and receive
not because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
Isaac entreated the Lord for Rebecca and she was given life
because that was God's will. He was praying God's will. So
let's move to verse 22. And the children struggled together
within her. And she said, if it be so, why
am I thus? And she went to inquire of the
Lord. Well, she didn't know it yet, but she had twins, right?
And those twins, there was a struggle going on within her. And that's
a serious struggle. That word struggle that's used
there, that means crushing. They were trying to crush one
another. They were trying to kill one another. She didn't understand that. Why
am I feeling that way? So she went and she inquired
of the Lord. But one thing I want to notice here is there wasn't
any struggle in her until there was life. And once we're given
life, that's when we have that struggle between the old man
and the new man. And that's just a picture of
that. So let's go to verse 23. And
the Lord said unto her, two nations are in thy womb. And two manner
of people shall be separated from my bowels. And the one people
shall be stronger than the other people. And the elder shall serve
the younger." So today I want to look at those two nations.
Those two nations, they were strong adversaries. Like we said,
they were trying to crush one another. And they represent God's
elect and everyone else. Just like there's two religions
of the world. There's the religion of works
and grace. There are two people in the world.
There's God's elect and there's everybody else. And they're gonna
be separated through birth. We see that. They're gonna be
separated from thy bowels. Through birth, they're gonna
be separated. And that's just, that separation,
that reminds me of Christ talking about the sheep and the goats
being separated in the judgment day. in Matthew 25, verse 31
through 34. When the son of man shall come
in his glory, and the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon
the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered
all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd
divideth his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on
his right hand, but the goats on his left, Then shall the king
say unto them on his right hand, come ye blessed of my father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. The elect are God's sheep. They were given to Christ by
the father and he died for them. And though dead in their own
sin, they're all going to be separated through a new birth
in Christ unto salvation. They're going to be taught of
God and they are going to believe. Let's just turn quickly to John
10. If you will turn with me. Here we see Christ talking about
being the good shepherd. John 10 verses 14 through 15. I am the good shepherd, and I
am known of my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father
knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life
for the sheep. And now, when he said that, that
caused division among those folks. You know, they got mad at each
other, and they asked Christ, tell us, tell us plainly, who
are you? And if you skip down to 20, you
know, are you the Christ, they said, are you the Christ? If
you skip down to 25, Jesus answered them, I told you and you believed
not the works that I do in my father's name. They bear witness
of me. But ye believe not because you are not of my sheep. As I
said unto you, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and
they follow me. And I give them eternal life
and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My father which gave them to me is greater than
all. And no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand.
I and my father are one. So here we see the separation. They're going to be separated.
The goats and the sheep. The elect and the non-elect. Jacob
represents believers. He represents God's elect. And
Esau represents those who don't believe. That's everybody else
in the world. So, it's kind of a bold statement for me to make,
isn't it, from that scripture. Well, let's not trust me. If you'll turn to Romans 9. Let's look at the New Testament
commentary on this scripture. Here we have Paul's letter to
the Romans. Romans 9, let's pick up in verse
9. For this is the word of promise,
at this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son. That's
Isaac, the promised one. And not only this, but when Rebekah
also had conceived by one, even our father Isaac. So this is God speaking here. This is God speaking through
Paul, inspired to write this. At this time, the word of promise,
at this time I will come. At God's appointed time, God
came. Sarah gave birth to the promised
son, Isaac. He's a type of Christ. Just as
Christ came in the fullness of time, When in the fullness of
time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made
under the law. He fulfilled that promise that
we saw in the picture of Isaac. Then we get to verses 10 through
12, it says, and not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived
by one, even our father Isaac, for the children being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God, according to election, might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. So there we have the answer to
our question. The Bible does teach election,
and it absolutely teaches election, and that's a scriptural word.
But it's not voting for someone. It's not us voting for someone.
It's God's choice, and nobody else's. And there are some people
that see this, and they do these mental gymnastics to try to explain
that. And some people will even say,
And forgive me for even saying this from a pulpit, but they'll
say a lot that election means that God voted for you and the
devil voted against you. Now you've got to cast the deciding
vote. And that's just, that's evil.
That's pure evil to think that we have a deciding vote in our
salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
God's choice. And notice these children, it
says Isaac's son. We know the mother's the same.
Now we know Isaac's the same. There's no difference between
these two. They're twins. There's no difference between
them. And they had no good works to recommend them. They had no
evil works to disqualify them. It was the purpose of God that
made a difference between these two children. And so now we see
that God, that the Bible teaches election. Let's just go. back
to Ephesians. I want to go over to Ephesians
and look at what the Bible means by this term, election. Ephesians 1. I'm going to read
verses 4 through 6. This is what the Bible means
when it talks about election. According as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world, we should be holy
and without blame before him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. So
several questions we get from that. First question I see is
who chose whom? Well, he chose us. Election is
God choosing us. It's not about us deciding to
accept him. If you're a believer, it's because
God chose you to be a believer. And it's according to the good
pleasure of his will, not our will. When was that choice made? That choice was made before the
foundation of the world, before creation, when the only thing
that existed was a triune God, the Father, God the Son, God
the Holy Spirit. And some people, again, prideful
self-righteousness, for doing these mental gymnastics, they
come up with, well, God kind of looked down through the telescope
of time, and he saw who would believe. And that's why he chose
them. And first of all, there's no
such thing as time for God. God is now, everywhere, he's
now. God didn't look down through
a telescope of time to see who would be good. What does the
scripture say? It says, neither having done any good. There's
no good. They didn't do any good that
caused them to be elected. So what moved God to make this
choice? Well, the scripture says he did it to the praise of the
glory of his grace. God's elect are trophies of his
grace. We're God's treasure. It's amazing
to think that, but there's no glory, no credit is gonna go
to any believers. It's to the praise and the glory
of His grace. His grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. And how does God make this choice?
Like I said, in Him. This choice is made in the Lord
Jesus Christ. You can't separate the person
from Christ. You can't separate the elect
from the person of Christ. God's people were chosen in him,
in the lamb slain before the foundation of the earth, of the
world. He stood as their surety and their guarantee. We had studied
this in our class before when we looked at Noah's ark. The
word ark, you know, we think of a boat, right? We see this
boat. It was really a big rectangle. And the word ark means treasure
chest. And we were God's treasure, God's
elect. are saved in Christ, our ark,
that treasure chest. We're God's treasure, we're trophies
of his grace. He hath made us accepted in the
beloved. Accepted in the beloved because
we're righteous in the beloved. Matthew said, this is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased. Not of whom, in whom I'm well
pleased. God the Father is well pleased
with everyone in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's where election
is. All right. I should have told
you to hold your place. Let's go back to Romans 9. Romans 9-11. I'm sorry. At the end of that,
the last thing I wanted to show you, that the purpose of God
according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that
calleth. Like I said before, It's God's purpose. This is the
purpose of God. And it's not a plan, it's a purpose. God is a God of purpose. A lot
of people will say, God's got a plan for you, and it's up to
you to not mess it up. That's not what, that's not,
God's not planning and hoping that we'll come to him, that
we'll receive him. God has a purpose, and he's purposed
to teach some people and cause them to call on Christ for salvation. And God's purpose is always done.
It's never frustrated. And his purpose is that salvation
is not of works. Not of works. If any part of
our salvation is depending on something you do, whether it's
you believing or you choosing to receive or anything, you making
a decision, that's salvation by works. And what it says here
is that salvation is is of him that calleth. It's not of the
called. It's not salvation from the called. It's from him who calleth. Salvation
is of the Lord. It's not what you do for God.
It's what God does for you. That's salvation. All right,
so let's go to verses 12 through 13. So here it was said to Rebekah,
the elder shall serve the younger, As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, have I loved, but Esau have I hated. So Paul here quotes
two other passages of scripture from the Old Testament. He quotes
Genesis 23, or 25-23, the older shall serve the younger, that's
what we read. But then in Malachi, in Malachi 1 verses 1 through
2, or 2 through 3, it says, I have loved you, saith the Lord, Yet
ye say, wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother,
saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated
Esau. And I laid his mountains as a
heritage of waste for the dragons of the wilderness." So here,
this completely refutes God's religion and natural man's self-righteous
misconception that we can do something to please a holy God
and that God loves everyone and he just wants us to come to him.
God doesn't love everyone. God said he hated Esau. But this
isn't like our hatred. This hatred is in regards to
God's absolute justice and holiness. This is a righteous hatred, because
Esau, just like us, he deserved the hatred of God, of a just
and holy God. Esau, we'll see a little bit
later, he sold his birthright. And that showed he didn't care
anything about God. And we say, well, What's that
mean to sell his birthright? Well, the firstborn, he was the
firstborn and everything was going to him. That's the picture
of Christ. And by selling that birthright,
he's rejecting that picture of Christ, the sovereign, that everything
is going to be given to. Christ is the firstborn. Throughout scriptures we see
talking about Christ the firstborn. In Colossians 1 and 2, 15 through
18 it says, talking about Christ, who is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him are all things created
that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
All things are created by him and for him. And he is before
all things, the firstborn. And by him all things consist.
He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning,
and the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have
the preeminence. He was the firstborn from the
dead, and we're going to follow him, being born from our death
and trespasses and sins. Romans 8.29 says, for those whom
he foreknew, he also predestinated to become conformed to the image
of his son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. Christ was the firstborn, and
there's gonna be others born in him. He was the firstborn
among many brethren. All right, so verse 14, let's
go, let's continue. Here Paul anticipates our arguments,
but what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Well, God forbid. Paul knows how everyone, our
natural thought is that It's unfair for God to love one and
hate another. And, you know, the other scripture
that I hear most that people talk about God being unfair is
in Matthew, when we had the parable of the workers in the vineyard,
right? And some were hired in the morning, they worked all
day. Some were hired in the last hour, and they worked for an
hour. And the master gave them all the same pay. And that's
unfair. That's the creature questioning
the creator. The error of that thought is
that any of that work was worth anything to God. You can't argue with God giving
salvation because it's freely given. That work was not needed. God doesn't need us to work for
him. He will use means. I pray that he would use this
message, right? But it's not me and it's not you believing.
It's him working that in our hearts to trust Christ and to
know our need. So God forbid. God is not unfair. Verse 15. For he has said to
Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will
have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So here we see
Paul's answer to that, is God unfair, is pointing us back to
Exodus 33, where Moses asks God, show me your glory. And God's
very glory is showing mercy to undeserving sinners. The wonder
of the gospel isn't that God would hate a sinner. God should
hate sinners. It's righteous, it's just to
hate sinners. It's that he would choose to
love any sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ. That that is the
wonder of the gospel. Those he elected, he loves. And
the love of God is the foundation for election. And note, you know,
in that picture in Moses, the father puts them in the rock,
Christ Jesus, and he covers them, keeps them there. That salvation,
that election, that choice is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jeremiah 31.3, God says, yea,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. That's the foundation of election,
God's love, and he's gonna draw us. Jacob have I loved. So, I'm gonna continue to verse
16. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. So here we see, once again, finally,
salvation is not of man's will. It's by the will of God to show
mercy. And it's him giving us what we
don't deserve, giving us that mercy, not giving us what we
do deserve, death. So here, you know, I've gone
through this and proven that the Bible teaches election, right? But I don't want us to just have
that proof, this head knowledge. And I certainly want to try to
caution us to be very, very careful how we preach and we teach election. Because it's very easy to fall
into the temptation of the pride of grace. especially in this
day and age. There's always been a struggle. There's always going to be a
struggle between the elect of God and those that aren't elect.
We saw that in Rebecca's womb. There was a struggle between
Jacob and Esau in the womb. And in this day and age, when
we talk about election, it evokes thoughts of winning and losing.
Because that's what our elections are. There's a winner and there's
a loser. There's us and there's them. And there's that division. But we should never think that
we're elected for anything that we've done. If you need to know
any more, just read a little bit more about Jacob. Jacob was
a scoundrel. He had nothing to be proud of.
There was nothing to recommend him to God. But God chose him.
And he was God's elect. And he was chosen unto salvation
in Christ. It's nothing that we've done.
It's Christ. It's in Christ. And Jacob was
given a new name. That represents that new birth.
Jacob was a sinner, the supplanter, right? He rejected the birthright
too, right? He schemed to get that. He schemed
to try to get, to take Christ's place, right? He was violating
that picture the same as Esau was. But God chose him and chose
to love him and gave him a new name, gave him a new nature,
gave him a love for Christ, caused him to run to Christ for salvation. Like I said, there's always been
that struggle. But Christ is really God's elect, right? It's
not us. We're not elect outside of Christ. Christ is God's elect. Isaiah
42 says, Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, and whom
my soul delighteth. I've put my spirit upon him.
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. Christ is elect. We're elect in him. It's only
in the Lord Jesus Christ that we can be saved. And the natural
man believes that's unfair, just like I said with the vineyard
workers, that the error is to think that it's anything that
we've done. There's nothing that we can do to please the holy
God. And if we're taught of God, we're going to know that. If
we're taught of God, we're going to know God is sovereign. He's
holy, he's righteous, he's just. What did Isaiah say when he saw
the Lord high and lifted up? Well, I'm undone. I'm undone. And that's what we teach. That's
what we teach your children. That's what we teach ourselves.
The righteousness, the holiness of God. We also teach that we're
dead and we're dead in trespasses and sins. Our trespasses and
sins against God. The mere thought of taking our
sin and his holy body on the tree caused the Lord Savior to
sweat great drops of blood. Just the thought of that. And
if we get an inkling of that, we're going to cower before a
holy God if God teaches us those things. But if he teaches us
those things, election isn't divisive. Elections our only
hope We know that there's nothing that we could do if God did not
choose me. I Have no hope and that and that's
why we want all of us to be taught of God and and if you If you
accept God if you were not commanded we're not commanded To show that
we're the elect And a lot of people, they get hard shell about
that. You know, they say, well, God,
if God chose me, it doesn't matter what I do. It doesn't matter
whether I worship him or not. It doesn't matter whether I hear
the gospel. If God chose me, well, that's
true. If God chose you, you will. But
God has told us he's going to teach. He's going to teach his
people and his people are going to be taught of him and they're
going to come to him. And the command that we're given
is to come. Don't get caught up in trying
to determine if you're one of the elect. You just come. The election teaches us that
we're in the hands of a sovereign God. And he will do with us what
he will. There's nothing that we can do
to change that. But he tells us to come. Come
to Christ. Come to him. And that's what
we need to do. We need to come. If you do come,
come as you are. is Jacob, is a sinner. You know,
God calls himself the God of Jacob probably more than anything
else in the Bible. And then he shows us what a sinner
Jacob is. That's telling us what sinners
we are. And if you know your sin, if you're taught of God
to know your sin, and you come to Christ, well then we're going
to know that you were one of the elect. And that you were
given new birth in the Lord Jesus Christ. Election is evidence. Belief in election is evidence.
But it's not salvation. Come to Christ. Salvation's in
Christ. I can't say anything more than
that. I pray every day. I pray for me. I tell you kids
in the class, I pray for you all. You're not mine, but I have
a heart for you all. I don't want us to get caught
up in fighting with people over election. I want us to fight
with ourselves and see our sinful nature and our need for Christ. And I want us to run to Him.
I want us to run to Christ and leave the world behind and find
salvation. He that cometh to me I will in
no wise cast out. So that's all I have. Okay.