We finished our lesson last week
in verse 8 where the Apostles talking about the children of
promise. He said in verse 8, 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. And this is the word of
promise. At this time will I come and
Sarah shall have a son. Now we know Abraham had two sons.
And Isaac was the child of promise. That's the child he's talking
about here, the child of promise. And Sarah went practically a
whole lifetime without ever conceiving a child, being barren. And she
conceived Isaac when God fulfilled his promise. And without that
miracle, Isaac never would have been born. Without the power
of God being exerted there, Isaac never would have been born. And
Isaac, we talked about this last week, is a type of all of God's
children. We're the children of promise.
The children that were promised from all of eternity. The children
who've been born by the Spirit of God, by the power of the Spirit
of God. We're born by the will of God
through the Word of God. That's the child of promise. Now, Ishmael was the second son.
He was not the child of promise. Ishmael was the product of man's
efforts, man's ingenuity, the thoughts that men dream of. Ishmael
was the product of Sarah and Abraham and Hagar all working
together to try to help God fulfill His promise. That's Ishmael.
And Ishmael is a type of all carnal men, a type of the man
that we're all born. A man of flesh. He came from
the flesh. He came from the will of the
flesh, from the idea of the flesh. And He'll always be nothing but
flesh. That's the two sons. The child of promise and the
child of the flesh. And they represent all mankind. Every son of Adam falls under
one of those two categories. The child of the promise or the
child of the flesh. And we can thank God that there
is children of promise. That He didn't just all leave
us to ourselves. Because of His promise of mercy and grace, there
are children of promise. And he gives us another example
here in verse 10 of the child of promise. We're going to read
verses 10 and 12. We'll come back to verse 11 here in a second.
But Paul says in verse 10, and not only this, but when Rebecca
also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, it was said
unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. And here's another
example of God's promise to his people. Another example of God's
sovereign choice. Now, Isaac and Ishmael ought
to prove forever to all of us that all Abraham's natural children
are not children of God. But those Jews, you know, the
human mind is so dead it can dream up wild things. And those
Jews could argue, well, now, Ishmael doesn't count. Ishmael
was not a child. He was not the son of the natural
legal wife. He's the son of the bondwoman,
so Ishmael doesn't count. Well, you might argue that, but
the case of Jacob and Esau is another example. You could say
a more clear example if you want to, that not all Isaac's children
are sons of God. You know, we read last week,
in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Well, even not all Isaac's natural
children are children of God. Here's these two boys. They're
born to the same mother and father. They don't have a different mother.
One's not the son of the bondwoman and one's the son of the free.
They're the son of the same father and mother. They're twins. Conceived at the same time. And
you can't say, well, one was conceived now and then two or
three years later another one was conceived and circumstances
were different. Conceived at the same time. Twins. They grew
up together. Both being taught the same things
at the same time. Ate the same food at the same
time. Everything was the same about those two boys. But there
was a difference. There is one difference. And
it's God's choice. The sovereign choice of God.
And God's promise is always to the least. You go through and
find the time in Scripture where God's promise was to the greater. It's always to the lesser. God's
promise, His grace is always given to the most undeserving. Never to the one we think deserves
it. It's always to the undeserving, the least, the bottom of the
barrel. That's where he had to go to
find Jacob. Look over back at Genesis 26. Genesis 26 verse 1. And there was a famine in the
land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham.
And Isaac went unto Abimelech, king of the Philistines, unto
Gerar. And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down
into Egypt, dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of. Sojourn
in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee. For
unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all these countries, and
I will perform the oath which I swear unto Abraham thy father,
and I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will
give unto thy seed all these countries. And in thy seed shall
all the nations of the earth be blessed." Now, God promises
to Isaac's natural seed, this land. But then he says, and in
thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed. Now he's
not talking about Isaac's physical children. He's talking about
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the seed who's going to come
from Isaac. That's the fulfillment of God's
promise that in Isaac shall thy seed be blessed. But at this
point, Isaac isn't having children. But if you look back a page at
verse 21 of chapter 25, see, Rebekah was like Sarah. She was
barren. And in verse 21 of Genesis 25,
and Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife because she was
barren. And the Lord was entreated of him and Rebekah, his wife,
conceived. See here again, these promised
children, the same as Ishmael and Isaac. The promised child
is going to come from a dead womb. That's a picture, you know,
of sinners, of all of God's children. We're born from the dead. Absolutely,
utterly dead. And God's got to move in power
in a miracle of grace and give life. That's what He did again,
just like He did in Isaac's case, He did in Jacob's case. Born
from a dead womb. These children are going to be
born by the power of God. And again, it has to be that
way because this is given to us as a picture of God giving
life to dead sinners. The same way He gives life to
that dead woman is the way He gives life to His children. And
the children that God chooses, the children that God makes His
own and chooses to bless are always the ones, like I said
a minute ago, that are the most undeserving. Look here in verse
22 of Genesis 25. After she had conceived, the
children struggled within her. And she said, If it be so, why
am I thus? And she went to inquire of the
Lord. And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb,
not just two boys, two nations. They represent two nations. They
represent two manner of people which shall be separated from
thy bowels. The one people shall be stronger than the other people,
And the elder shall serve the younger." God's blessing didn't
come to the elder. It came to the younger. Now Esau
was born first. And according to the flesh, according
to the traditions of men, Esau had priority over Jacob. He's
the firstborn. Esau had the rule of the family.
Not Jacob. Esau did. Esau had the birthright. That was his naturally. It wasn't
Jacob's. Esau had dominion over Jacob
in every way. He's the firstborn. But God chose
Jacob. He chose the lesser, the leaser,
the one that was the most undeserving and God passed Esau by. God promised
a blessing to Jacob and that's why Jacob ended up with the blessing
because God promised it to him before he was born. God made
Jacob. one of his children. There's
those two boys, those two twins in that womb. He chose one and
made him his child. Jacob became a child of God.
He left Esau to be what he was naturally, a child of Isaac.
Now, I don't know how anybody can read the Bible and deny election. This is electing love that chose
Jacob. I mean, what a scoundrel. He
came out of the womb with his hand wrapped around Esau's ankle
trying to pull him back and get ahead. His nature was established
in the womb. What a scoundrel. But God chose
him. And I'm telling you, that gives
hope to me. That's how I am, Jacob. If I
can't win, I'll grab someone and pull back. I mean my soul. That's the people that God chooses. And the only reason somebody
reads that and doesn't rejoice is they're dead. It's because
God hasn't given them life yet. That's the only reason. Well,
why did God make that choice that way and make it so public?
He did that to make it clear to us that salvation is of the
Lord. It's of His sovereign will. It's
of His sovereign choice. Salvation begins And it ends
and has everything in the middle of the Lord. It doesn't have
anything to do with men's actions or men's will. Salvation is of
the Lord. And that's what he tells us in
verse 11 in this parenthetical statement that explains what's
going on here. He says, "...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." Now, God gave us this example. to make God's
election clear, to make his electing love plainly seen to you men. No one can ever think that Jacob
did anything during God's favor, because he chose him before he
was born. Well, it's a good thing, because if he had waited to see
if he'd do something after he was born, he never would have
done anything to deserve God's favor. He never did. Same thing
is true of you men. It has to be God's sovereign
election that happened in eternity past. It has to be simply because
it seemed good in His sight. It cannot, election, God's choosing
a people cannot have anything to do with our actions. It's all of His will. Look over
in Titus chapter 3. In Titus 3, verse 5, not by works of righteousness,
which we've done, but according to God's mercy. He saved us by
the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which
he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Election
must have happened in eternity past. It's not by works of righteousness
that we've done. And without God's election, there
would be No salvation. I know the natural man hates
it and despises the teaching of election, but I'm telling
you without it, there'd be no salvation. Election is unto salvation. Election is simply God choosing
a people. He chose them out of the mass
of Adam's lump of sinful humanity and chose some out to redeem.
And that choice, if you look over 2 Thessalonians 2, that
choice was according to the purpose of God and the will of God alone. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning, and not in the beginning, not
after the beginning, from the beginning, chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth.
Now, Jacob was chosen by God and loved by God. And the only
way that can ever be said of any son of Adam is that we're
loved in Christ. Not because of anything we've
done or haven't done. In Christ, we're loved in the
Beloved in spite of who and what we are. It's in Christ. I'll
show you that in Ephesians chapter 1. chosen in Christ, loved in Christ,
because of Christ. by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will." See, it's according to the good
pleasure of God's will in Christ Jesus. That's the only reason
Jacob was shown this electing love. Now, the natural man says
that's not fair. From the time our girls are old
enough to talk, that was a forbidden statement in our house. Janet
forbid it. They could never say, that's
not fair. Here's two boys. That's what
the natural man says. Well, one boy ought to have the
same chance to be saved as the other. Well, I'll tell you this. God gives every man room to repent. Gives him plenty of opportunity
to repent. But here's the problem. Left
to themselves, they never will. We will not come unto Him that
we might have life. I hate to use the word chance,
but left to themselves, every man has the same chance. Zero. Zero percent. Our only hope of
salvation is that God chose us in eternity past. That's our
only hope. Without any regard to our sinful actions, to who
and what we'd be. And I'm telling you from reading
Scripture, I'd a whole lot rather salvation be based on God's election,
God's choice, than my choice. Because I know what my choice
is by nature. I'd a whole lot rather salvation
be based on God's election, His will, His purpose, which shall
be accomplished, than left up to chance. A whole lot rather. And I tell everyone, I always
want to leave people with this understanding. Right now. I mean right this second. Where
you sit, you come to Christ. You come to Him begging for mercy. Begging for salvation. Throw
yourself at His feet in the dust and beg Him for mercy. You come to Him. And I know what people think
because I grew up thinking it. Well, why bother? If only the
elect will be saved and without a doubt they will be, then why
bother? If I'm one of the elect, the Lord will save me in time. But do you know, we do not come
to Christ because we know that we're one of the elect. You don't
wait to find out, well, I'm one of the elect and then come to
Christ. That's not the way this works. We come to Christ because
we're sinners. Sinners in need of a Savior.
Sinners in need of mercy. Nowhere in Scripture You read
it from cover to cover, nowhere in Scripture are the elect commanded
to come to Christ. Every man is commanded to come
to Christ. Sinners are commanded to come
to Christ. And we read in Scripture, this
man, the Lord Jesus Christ, receiveth sinners. It doesn't say he receives
the elect, although he does. He receives sinners. You and
me are sinners. We better come to Christ. Come
to Him for forgiveness. of your sin. Come to Him for
salvation. Come to Him for mercy. Come to
Him because you know you're a sinner. That's why you come to Christ.
And I promise you, real soon after you do, this is what you'll
learn. You came because He called you. That's why you came. I call
on Him every day. But only because He called me
first. You come to Christ real soon, you'll find out you came
because He chose you. I choose Him. I choose His Word. I choose to be with His people,
worshiping Him. But only because He chose me
first. You come to Christ. And the more He reveals Himself
to you, the more you'll fall in love with Him. I love Him. Oh my soul, I love my Savior. But only because He loved me
first. from eternity, the same way he
chose me, from eternity. I'm thankful for God's election
because this is where it leads to. The God of election is our
only hope of salvation. Now he goes on in verse 13 and
in our text he says, as it's written, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. Now look back at Malachi chapter
1. Last book in the Old Testament.
And here's where this is written. Here's where Paul's quoting from. The Burden of the Word of the
Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith the Lord.
Yet ye say, wherein hath the Lord loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's
brother, saith the Lord? Yet I love Jacob. And I hated
Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the
dragons of the wilderness." This is verse written, this is God's
own words, Jacob I've loved, yet Esau have I hated. Now men,
I've heard this many times, will try to tell you this means Jacob
have I loved, and Esau have I loved less. And men, I guess they try
to say that because they're still trying to propagate this thing
that God loves everyone. And you can't say God loves everyone
if you read plainly in Scripture where God said, Esau have I hated. That ought to knock in the head
any thought that God loves everybody. And here's the best explanation
that I've ever heard to explain this. God does everything perfectly,
doesn't he? He's perfect in all of his ways.
Well, if God loves less, then that's not perfect love. And
that's not the love of God. That can't be what that's saying.
It means exactly what God said. Jacob have I loved and Esau have
I hated. Now, God hates Esau and Esau,
remember, represents everyone in the flesh. And that's easy
to understand. I know men hate that, but that's
easy to understand how God can hate Esau if we have any understanding
whatsoever that God is holy. And we're sinners. One who's
holy must hate sin. The amazing truth is that God
loves anybody. And the only way, like I said
a minute ago, God can love anyone is in his Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. God gave Jacob mercy because
he gave his substitute the punishment and the justice and the hatred
that Jacob deserved by nature. And God simply gave Esau what
he had coming. He simply left him alone and
gave him justice. And that's what's going to happen
to everyone that Esau represents, everyone in the flesh. Outside
of Christ, the only thing anybody can expect is damnation and justice. But inside of Christ, all anyone
can ever expect is love. That's all there is for those
who are in Christ. That's why he loves Jacob. Now, Paul answers the human objection
to this in verse 14. He says, what shall we say then?
Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. The flesh objects
and keeps saying, well, that's not fair. God's being unjust,
unrighteous to pass Esau by when he has mercy on Jacob. Is he
really now? Paul says, God forbid that we
think that way. How could we ever say the holy
God is being unrighteous? Election is an act of mercy. And when God leaves someone alone,
he's just leaving them to justice. And that's not unrighteous. God
isn't unjust to pass someone by who's not asking for mercy.
He's not unjust to pass someone by who isn't seeking a savior.
They want to be left alone? God gives them what they want.
And they get justice. The only way God could be unrighteous
is by punishing an innocent man. God would be unrighteous if he
punished a holy man, but none can be found. And that's why
God's not unrighteous in passing Esau by. He's not innocent. He's not holy. So when God hates
someone like Esau, it's just giving them justice. It's not
unrighteousness. And here's Paul's response to
this objection in verse 15. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. You know, we never need to apologize
for the truth. Paul doesn't apologize for it
here, does he? He just proclaims it. We believe
that God is God. And we believe that because that's
what God's Word plainly says. And Paul uses God's own words
to teach us God's sovereign in all matters. In this matter of
mercy, just like every one of God's actions, He's sovereign.
When God shows mercy, it's sovereign mercy. Now, God's chosen a people
to save. He's chosen some and He's passed
some by. And nobody can explain why. Why did God choose Jacob and
pass his saw by? Nobody can explain that. I know
this, one's not better than the other. He didn't choose one because
one's better than the other. They're all on equal footing.
They're all equally depraved. Those are reasons that are known
only to God. Look back at Job 33. Those are reasons that are known
only to God and God doesn't explain to us why. Job 33, here's a life use part
of his response to Job. In verse 8, he says, Surely thou hast spoken
in my hearing, and I have heard the voice of thy words, saying,
I am clean without transgression, I am innocent, neither is there
iniquity in me. Behold, he findeth occasions
against me, he counteth me for his enemy, he putteth my feet
in the stocks, he marketh all my paths. And at Eli he says,
Job, behold in this thou art not just. I will answer thee,
that God is greater than man. Why dost thou strive against
him? For he giveth not account of any of his matters. For God
speaketh once, yea, twice, yet man perceiveth it not." God doesn't
give account of why he does what he does to his creatures. And
if he did, we wouldn't understand. He speaks once, twice, but man
doesn't perceive. We don't have the capacity to
understand. If God would try to explain to
you and me why He's doing what He's doing, we wouldn't understand
any more than Sidney could understand Wayne trying to tell her what
he's doing with this engineering at work. I couldn't understand
either. She certainly couldn't. She doesn't have the capacity.
God's greater than man. We don't have the capacity to
understand even if He would explain. But He's God, so He doesn't owe
us an explanation. And what Paul's teaching, what
Scripture's teaching us here now, is that mercy, sovereign
mercy in election, has to do with the glory of God. This is
not a trivial doctrine. This is not just something, well,
you know, you kind of ought to understand that. No, this is
the glory of God. And if you look back in Exodus
33, I'll show you where this is a quote from. You see, to
the child of God, it's good enough that God said it. He didn't owe
me an explanation. It's good enough that He said
it, so I just believe it. I'm happy to believe it. And
this matter of sovereign mercy has to do with the very glory
of God. In Exodus 33, verse 18, And Moses
said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. Now here's God's glory. And God said to Moses, I'll make
all my goodness pass before thee. I will proclaim the name of the
Lord before thee. And will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. And show mercy on whom I will
show mercy. That's God's glory. When Moses
asked to see God's glory, that's what he showed him. Sovereign
mercy. This is God's glory. And we read
this and it teaches us how much of a mercy beggar we really are. We are totally dependent on God
to show mercy. And honestly, I'm happy to have
it that way, to be dependent on Him. Now, salvation is sure
to every one of these objects of mercy that God's chosen. Look
back at Romans 9 in our text there, verse 16. So then it is
not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy." Here's the conclusion. Salvation's of the
Lord. Not by the will of man or the
power of man, but it's of the will of God. Salvation is not
obtained by the religious fleshly activities we go through. Salvation's
already been accomplished by what the Lord Jesus Christ did
for us, and we receive it by faith in Him. And Jacob didn't
end up getting that birthright because of Jacob's will or Jacob's
cunning or ultimately his running. Jacob didn't get the birthright
because of how tricky Rebecca was, tricking her husband, deceiving
the old blind man. Jacob received the birthright
because of the promise of God, the choice of God that God chose
to give it to him and the mercy of God. And we receive salvation
the exact same way because of God's mercy, because of God's
choice. Now, verse 17, he shows us the flip side. For Scripture
saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised
thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name
might be declared throughout all the earth. See, here's another
example of the sovereign choice of God. We see God's sovereignty
in salvation of his elect, and we see God's sovereignty in the
destruction of rebels. His power is displayed both ways.
Here's another pair of boys. Moses and Pharaoh raised his
brothers. Both of them had every advantage
of the flesh. They had the best education.
They had power. They had influence over men.
But one day, God took all that away from Moses. He didn't take
it away from Pharaoh. He took it away from Moses. Sent
Moses out to the desert. Moses had to be stripped of all
those fleshly advantages so God could use him. But Pharaoh, while
Moses is out there in the wilderness looking at somebody else's sheep,
Pharaoh keeps growing in power and influence just spreading
across the whole wide world. And God gave him that power and
that fame and that influence until in a very public way, God
destroyed him while he's saving Moses and the children of Israel
through the Red Sea. And it was God's will for Pharaoh
to enjoy so much power and wealth and influence, even power that
he abused over God's people, over Israel, for this purpose,
for God's glory. And God destroyed that man so
that he'd get glory. And he did. You read through
Israel's histories. They wandered through the wilderness
and they come into Canaan. Everywhere they went, the people
were terrified of them. What did they always say? We
heard about you. We heard what your God did to
Pharaoh at the Red Sea. They all heard about it. God's
fame went to all nations because his sovereign choice to raise
this man up and destroy him. So then, verse 18, therefore,
this is what we see, hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy?
And whom he will, he hardeneth. Mercy is an attribute of God. So, by definition, it must be
sovereign mercy because every one of God's attributes is sovereign.
He's King of Kings. Now, God's merciful, but He must
act in justice. Justice is an attribute of God
too, isn't it? So, God can never show mercy at the expense of
justice. And He doesn't. God acts in justice
to all men, without exception. Every son of Adam, God will deal
with them in justice. He'll deal with us in justice
and punish our sin in us or in our substitute. And if God chooses
to deal with your sin and your substitute, that's mercy. That's
sovereign mercy. He chose to do so. He's free
to have mercy on whom He will. And whom He will, He hardened. Now, we read about Pharaoh hardening
his heart. After the plagues, you know,
different ones, he'd say, well, you know, Lord, take this plague
off. I'll let you go. The Lord removed the plague and
Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go.
Then one day we read, God hardened Pharaoh's heart. And he told
Moses, I've hardened his heart. He won't let the people go, but
you go to him one more time. And he won't let them go because
I've hardened his heart. Well, men harden their own heart.
Both happen. Men harden their own heart by
sinning against the life that God gave them. And God hardens
their heart. simply by withholding this sovereign
mercy that softens. Look over in Luke chapter 10
and we'll quit. This is interesting. I know the
flesh bucks against sovereign mercies. God's sovereign choice
in whom He will, He has mercy on and compassion on. In whom
He will, He hardens. Look at our Lord's response to
this in Luke chapter 10, verse 21. In that hour, the Lord Jesus
rejoiced in spirit. This is not a thing that people
who are children of God hate. They rejoice in the spirit. And
he said, here's why he was rejoicing. I thank thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the
wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father,
for it seemed good in thy sight. And God's people, just like our
Lord, rejoice.