If you will, turn back in your
Bibles to Romans 9. Romans 9. You can also follow
me in your pastor's commentary. We are embarking upon our second
consideration of the 9th chapter of Romans. And we are in some
very important territory of the Scripture for those of you who
are wanting to be rooted and grounded in the Gospel of God's
grace. We are at that point in the book
of Romans that I would consider almost the top of the hill on
our way down on the practical side of theology, whereby the
apostle will exhort the church as to how it ought to conduct
itself in the world. But right now we are at a major,
major juncture where the apostle Paul is addressing from his heart
a targeted group of whom I have called your attention to for
months now, and that is his own Jewish brethren whom he knows
are auditors and listeners to his exposition on his treaties
around the gospel of Jesus Christ from verse 1 of chapter 1 to
the present. He's aware that his audience
struggles with the message of grace. He knows that his Jewish
brethren have had a difficult time with the concept and idea
that God would save men and women freely by His grace apart from
any human works and that upon that foundation men and women
could live to the glory of God in an honorable way by which
God is exalted and men and women are the better for it. He knows
they are struggling with the centrality of the Gospel in terms
of the person and work of Jesus Christ. He knows his Jewish brethren
really struggle with the idea that the God that they had conceived
of for 2,000 years to that point would manifest Himself in the
person of Jesus of Nazareth fulfilling all of the Old Testament scriptures
around his role as Messiah. Then to be killed in a very ignominious
fashion of which both the Jewish and Gentile culture would consider
rude, would consider barbaric, and would consider a confirmation
of a person being under the curse of God rather than being the
ultimate foundation and center for blessing. For the Jews, the
gospel of the grace of God in Christ is a stumbling block and
foolishness. And so they have to struggle
with divesting themselves of every natural impulse to make
themselves right with God based on something they do. And then
to hear it over and over and over again that you are saved.
by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ, apart from words,
is to cause them to struggle. And this is the problem with
religious folk. And I might even say non-religious people. Non-religious
people also struggle with grace. Because we all really want to
assure our standing before God, if we believe in God, the merits
of something we do that to stand before a holy God and have to
depend purely on his grace requires grace to walk in a level of humility
that abandons yourself to the message of the gospel but as
I stated to you last week if you are a caring Christian You
ought to be concerned with those to whom you have an opportunity
to share the gospel. And more particularly, your loved
ones. Paul gives us a great insight
into the maturity of a true believer who is not so enamored by the
fact that he's saved and therefore has the privilege of being the
mouthpiece of God to all of the Gentiles out there in the far
regions of the world. He's a mature believer and therefore
he cares about his own family, his own son, his own daughter,
his own wife, his own husband, their own children, their own
parents. Obviously, Paul is single. I'm
using him editorially. If you are a true believer, you
ought to be concerned about the eternal welfare and state of
your family. And what Paul shows us here in
the opening of these verses, as we shared last week, coming
off the mountaintop of the security of God never abandoning us, that
we are rooted and grounded in Christ. And because we are in
Christ, we are secure for eternity. No condemnation, no accusation,
no separation. And he descends into the emotional
abyss, but I have brothers and sisters who are not a partaker
of this grace. This hurts me severely. So he opens up with verses one
and two, and then ultimately in verse three, I could wish
myself accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen after
the flesh. And I share with you last week
that God will never answer that prayer But it's a good prayer
to pray as an indication whether or not the love of God is poured
into your heart and mind. I shared with you last week and
I'll say it again to you before God today. I will die for my
children. If they could be saved, I would
trade places right now. And I hear the echo of the words
of a man some 1500 years before Paul, who also did the same thing. You know who that was? It was
Moses. Moses comes down off the Mount
with two stone tables of the law of God and his people Israel
are committing rank fornication and idolatry, having abandoned
God after 40 days. And Moses realizes that God is
going to destroy thousands of them in his holiness. And what does Moses say in Exodus
32, verse 32? Lord, forgive them. And if not,
cast me out and blot me out of your book. That's amazing. You
know what he's saying? If I can be a substitute for
them, let it be me. If you would simply throw me
into hell as a substitute for them so that they can live, let
me die. You guys remember that text?
Let me die. And of course, God wouldn't answer
his prayer either, would he? And the reason is this. No sinner
can atone for another sinner and merit righteousness for the
sinner that needs righteousness. which tells us that Jesus had
to be righteous if in fact Jesus becomes an atonement for our
sins. And more than that, because Christ
has offered himself up as an atonement for our sin once for
all, we need not petition God in earnest to be separated that
our loved ones might be saved. We merely need to lay them at
the foot of the cross. and say, God have mercy on our
kids. God have mercy on our kids. That's
the way he opens up Romans nine and he opens up Romans nine because
he wants his Jewish brethren to know his heart. You know,
sometimes you have to do that with your family members. Isn't
that right? You didn't live with them all your life and they still
don't get you. And so sometimes you have to
have that very candid conversation to let them know, son or daughter
or brother or sister, you missed me. You got caught up in my vocation,
in my office, in my externalities. You don't realize I've loved
you all my life. That's all Paul is saying. And
what I love about Paul as a minister of the gospel, he does this frequently
throughout the epistles. He'll let brothers and sisters
know, I'm being candid with you. And that's a very vulnerable
place to be, isn't it? And yet that's what God did when he sent
Jesus. He became candid with us for god so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish but have everlasting life The apostle
paul knows that he is about to get into territory Theologically
speaking that's going to be hard for his brethren to hear and
it's going to be hard for some of you to hear as well Because
what we are going to be dealing with over the next three weeks
is a doctrinal teaching that strips you and me of any sense
of pride or control over our salvation. And that's the doctrine
of election. The Bible teaches that God alone
chooses those who will be saved. And as we work through this doctrine
of election over the next several weeks, Hopefully the Spirit of
God will work in the hearts of some of you who don't quite understand
the sovereignty of God The rule of God the right of God to choose
to save whom he wills I hope you will get it over this because
people struggle with watch this now not being in control Even
in your own relationship with God be honest there are a lot
of areas in your life that you just don't let God have full
control and That's because of your own insecurity, your own
immaturity, and because of your lack of knowledge of this glorious
God who, if He has saved you, can He run your life? And so what the Apostle Paul
is about to do as we work through these next 14 verses is to explain
the failure of much of Israel to enter into the promises of
God. And when he's done explaining the failures of his brother's
history to enter into the promises of God, what he's going to declare
boldly is God is not a failure. God is not a failure. And what
that's going to amount to is this. When you observe the lives
of men and women, and you see people who profess to be believers,
and then over time they fall away and get into trouble, depart
from Christ, live like hell, die and go to hell. Here's what
you must understand. It wasn't God's fault. Secondly,
God didn't fail. What you're going to learn as
we walk through the book of Romans chapter nine is all for whom
Christ died will certainly make it to glory. That's what you're
about to learn. As Jesus said in John's Gospel
chapter six, all that the father giveth me shall come to me. he
that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out there will never
be one person for whom the blood of Christ was shed that will
end up in hell for that to occur would make God a failure and
now Paul has to go through the arduous task of explaining that
and for those of us who are on the outside of Christ today this
is not a comfortable doctrine agreed This is not something
that makes you feel good. Agreed. But comfort and feel
good is not the most important thing while you're lost. While
you're lost, you need truth. While you're lost, you need that
which is right being told you so that you can get right with
God. And so I admit that today's message, if you're on the outside
of Jesus, is not going to make you feel good because you're
going to see a God who is in full control of the destinies
of all men, hell and heaven. Point number one in our outline,
let's work through this quickly. Exalting and blessing the God-man
Jesus Christ is where we left off at in verse 5 It was verses
1 through 4 where the Apostle Paul reminded us that this group
of people he called his kinsmen after the flesh were highly privileged
in verses 4 and 5 where they have received the adoption the
glory the covenants the giving of the law the service of God
and the promises and then he says whose are the fathers and
as whom as concerning the flesh Christ came and then he closes
out verse 5 with this doxology which says who is over all God
blessed forever amen Paul does that through his epistles. When
he's writing a letter, whether he's in prison or on house arrest
or on an island, as he's writing, he gets so caught up in the things
he's thinking about that he finds himself actually worshiping God.
That's what's going on here. So we might say this, there's
a spike that now takes place in his mourning and in his grief.
There's a spike of joy, a spike of delight that rises up in Paul
in the midst of his sorrow and anguish over his brethren. Have
you ever been there? Have you been in the midst of
trouble and sorrow and pain and yet you reflected upon something
good and it gave you a momentary joy? You shot up. Now that's
what Paul did here. He shot up in joy And his shooting
up in joy caused him to bless God audibly. Now I want you to
mark this now. This is not a sort of spontaneous
act that never occurred before. This is truly Hebraic. This is
the way the true Jew responds to God when they think about
God. Here's what they say. Bless God. Bless God. Bless God. Bless God. And when Paul thought
about Jesus at the tail end of all the promises, the promise
of the adoption, the promise of the covenants, the promise
of the law, the promise of the services, the promise of the
glory. And then he thought about Jesus
coming in the flesh. You know what he said? All of
God's promises are yes and amen in him. And then he started shouting
for joy because he was reminded once again that God didn't fail. How do we know he didn't fail?
Jesus showed up on time. the fullness of time Christ born
of a woman made under the law came into the world to deliver
us from the curse of the law and I just want you to stay with
me for a moment on this first point blessing Jesus Christ as
the God man that's our first point I want you to get that
he says who is overall God blessed forever now Paul does that several
times in the New Testament but it doesn't have have its origins
there it has its origins in the Old Testament Those of you who
are going through Psalms with me right now, you guys know how
many Psalms are in your Old Testament, right? How many? 150. How many
divisions are there? Five divisions, right? From 1
to 41, from 41 to 72, 72 to 89, 89 to 106, right? We're learning
something about our Bible. And I told you the way you indicate
that is by looking at the last verse of every one of those divisions. And when you go to Psalm 41 verse
13, you see where David says, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
forever and ever and ever and ever. What is he doing? He's
exalting in his God. And when you go then to the next
one, Psalm 72, the same thing is the case. The last verse in
Psalm 72 is, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel forever and ever
and ever and ever all the way through the Psalms. Every point
of division is marked by a doxology. Better yet, a eulogy of God's
glory and greatness. Every believer, every time you
think about your God, you ought to shout in your soul, amen.
Thank God for a kind of God that I have that has redeemed me from
all iniquity, has made me right with God. I'm standing in such
an auspicious place with God. Every time I think about God,
I want to say hallelujah. Now that's where Paul is. And
we would call Paul, therefore, charismatic. Because he was always bubbling
over with joy when he talked about God I want to show you
a few verses to affirm that what he's doing here is acknowledging
the deity of Jesus Christ our text notice what it says who
are of the fathers what is that the promises were of the fathers
Abraham Isaac and Jacob and of whom as concerning the flesh
Christ came Christ came into the world through the Jewish
line did he not and notice what it says who is over all what
God blessed forever now that comma shouldn't be between all
in God But the translators have struggled with whether or not
we want to attribute this to the father, this doxology, or
to the son. But in the original language,
that comma is not there. And when you work it through
the scriptures, all Paul is saying is Jesus Christ is fully man. Having been born of a woman made
under the law therefore therefore being Jewish, but Jesus Christ
is also fully God and because he is the God-man all the promises
of God are yes in a man through him I want you to see this pulling
back up our point because I want us to walk through a few verses
to affirm this in Romans chapter 125 this kind of exaltation in
God appears again as well as in the midst of some very difficult
terminology that Paul has to use about the present culture
that you and I are in. We're in a tough world right
now, are we not? And unfortunately, we are on
the downside of human character and human behavior, and much
of Romans chapter 1 actually reflects where we are today.
Would you say that's true? Romans 1 describes the present
culture in which you and I are in and listen to what Paul says
over in verse 23 through 25 and mark the last line in verse 25. He says mankind has changed the
glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like the corruptible
man. Is that true? Is man depicted
today as God? Yes, he is. Yes, he is. Birds and four-footed beasts
and creeping things Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness
through the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own
bodies between themselves Watch this because they have changed
the truth of God into a what and they have worshiped and served
the what? More than the Creator watch this who is blessed forever. Amen See what Paul is doing every
time he lands on God He worships This is an insight to what it
means to be born again. When you are born again, you
have been impacted by the glory of God. You cannot contemplate
your God and not worship him. When you are truly born again,
you have been impacted by a revelation of his glory. And at the thought
of God, the soul rejoices. Am I telling the truth? See,
this is how I know whether or not you met Him or not. If you
have not met Christ, He's ho-hum to you. But if you've met Him,
Christ is everything. If Christ has revealed His glory
to you, you say He is better than 10,000, He's the most wonderful
thing on planet Earth, because you beheld His glory. I am not
surprised when men and women go ho-hum about God. It simply
means God has not pulled back the scales. They have not seen
him in his glory. And the gospel has not shined
in the heart to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. See, when God cuts the lights
on, you know God came. You know God came. And when people
of God have earnestly met God, it's a sin for us to treat God
like a homie. Y'all get that in a minute. you'll
get it in a minute, to treat God like a homie means you haven't
met God. And what Paul will let you know
frequently through his letters, and he doesn't even have his
auditors in their face, he's writing to them. But he's so
candid when he writes and he thinks about God, he goes into
these doxologies and praises about God. Hallelujah, that brother
knew how to worship, didn't he? Who is blessed forever, amen.
He closes out with an amen. He finished the worship service,
worshiping all by himself. when he thought about God and
God's glory and God's mercy and God's grace and God's long-suffering. And even though we see a world
reprobating and descending into hell, God's still merciful to
this world. That's why he's worshiping him.
And that's why you ought to worship him too. That's why you ought
to worship him too. This phrase is used one more
time in 1 Timothy chapter 15. You can look at all the rest
of them on your own. But watch what Paul says in 1 Timothy chapter
6. as he's encouraging young Timothy
around the ministry of the gospel. He says in 1 Timothy 6, these
words, and these are astonishing words too. He says in verse 13,
and you guys have begun to learn some of this last night in homiletics
class, I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth
all things, and before Jesus Christ, whom before Pontius Pilate
witnessed a good confession, that you keep this commandment
without spot and uh rebuke without spot unrebukeable until the appearing
of our lord jesus he lays a charge on timothy to pass the gospel
on to good men and to keep himself from being corrupted by the world
now watch verse 15 as he closes verse 14 with the lord jesus
christ he says which in his time now he's talking about christ
which in his time he will show who is the blessed and only potentate,
the King of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality,
dwelling in the light which no man can approach, unto whom no
man has seen, nor man can see, to whom be glory and power everlasting. Here it is again. Amen. Amen. The boy is worshiping. And he
ain't even done with his letter yet. I guess we would call that a
praise break, right? Let's take a pause and praise God for a
moment. And that's what he's doing in his letter. And so this
gives me insight into the character of Paul. Paul was very moved
by the reality of God. Now, we're not just talking about
playing church. See, because you can play church
and you can pretend that you actually know him and worship
him. But in fact of matter, those who really know God are impacted
by who God is and what God has done for them. And it doesn't
matter whether they in church, at the job, at school, at work,
in prison, in the halfway house, doesn't matter. When they contemplate
the glory of God, it wells up, does it not? It wells up. they
can have worship all by themselves as the Apostle Paul is. Let's
go back to Romans chapter 1 so we can continue to move. So it's
on this premise that Paul now is going to deal with some difficult
terminology. You know when you are grown-ups,
when you live in the world as a grown-up, you got to face the
difficulties of life. Is that true? Right. And mama
and daddy, you are not doing your children any favors when
they are 975 years old and you still got them in diapers and
you got cushions around the tables and everything to keep them from
bumping their head. Because the sooner they start
falling down and learning that falling down doesn't kill them,
that they don't have to fall out and you know how they fall
out and whine and lay there forever just because they fell down.
When they fall, they swear they're about to die, right? And you
rush over and you bump your head on the table trying to save them,
right? Watch this now. And they're going to do that
every time you rush to save them until you start letting them
fall and leave them there. And from across the room, say,
baby, you all right? Get her up. And then baby going
to turn around, look at you, see you didn't move. And they
figure they better get on up, because it's not profitable to
stay here. And after a while, they'll start falling and learning
how to get up on their own without always having to have mama kiss
them on the forehead. Right. And that's how it is when
it comes to walking with Christ. Christ is going to take you through
difficult stuff. And when you're going to be a
Bible based Christian, you've got to deal with the hard teachings
of the word of God. Didn't I teach you last week?
We can't be doing no hopscotch over the doctrines of scripture,
right? We're going to step on every difficult block, cover
all the bases in order to make sure that we are giving people
the whole counsel of God. And so Romans 9 has been for
a lot of people very controversial, but I will say this, Romans 9
is not controversial to people who have humbled themselves before
a sovereign God and have said this, God alone has saved me. God alone has the right to save
me or let me perish in hell. I'm so glad he saved me though.
And therefore God has a right to save whom he will and whom
he will he has a right to let them perish. Have you guys accepted
that proposition? And so now let's work through
a very critical point. Point number two. Let's get at
this now. Point number two in your outline. Here it is. Election.
Point number two. Election is God's choice. Do
you see that? Election is God's choice and it's God's choice
alone. And what this means is Paul is about to explain What
you and I need to know about why some people go to glory and
some don't Because you and I as part of our culture in our world
are brainwashed and pre-programmed by the false notion that your
eternal destiny is based upon your choices and decisions and
that you are in control of it. But in fact or matter, the Bible
is very clear that if men and women go to heaven, it's not
because of their choice. It's because of God's grace.
Are you hearing me? You are no smarter than the fellow
that sticks his fist in God's face and says, I do not believe
God. I do not want God to hell with
God. You're no smarter than them.
And the only reason you're headed to glory is because of God's
grace. And in fact, you and the fellow
that has his fist in God's face are just alike. You remember
the day, don't you? You remember the day. And what
makes the difference then between a person that enters glory and
a person that perishes? Only the grace of God. Only the
grace of God. So we have to work through Romans
9 because Paul is going to explain to us by the Spirit of God this
very difficult truth that your salvation and mine is the consequence
of the electing love of God in Christ alone apart from our actions
or decisions. Election is God's choice alone.
This is verses 6 through 11. So we're going to work through
verses 6 through 11 following the following sub points. The first is the clarification
of their failure. Now here's what Paul says over
in verse 6. Are you there? He says, now not
as though the word of God has taken no effect or has failed
or has not accomplished its purpose. For they are not all Israel,
which are of Israel. Do you see verse six, part B?
All right, for those of you who are awake and following me, Paul
has just made a distinction within the midst of one people group.
He made a distinction. Now, this distinction is critical
to your theology if you're going to be a sound Bible-believing
Christian. Paul has made it clear that within
the whole of the people of Israel, Abraham's children, he says they
are not all true Israelites. What that does then is it forces
me to ask the question, what does it mean to be a true Israelite
versus a false Israelite? Because Paul is going to explain
why some went to hell and the others went to glory. Are you
guys following me? It's very important to know. Not as though
the word of God has taken not effect, for they are not all
Israel which are of Israel. The clarification of their failure
is given in verses 6 and 7. Look at verse 7. Neither because
they are the seed of Abraham are they all what? But in Isaac
shall your seed be called. Now this is very important. Grammar
is critical when you are plumbing into the depths of scripture
to understand the specificity of what's being said. On the
surface, you might fall prey to thinking that the term children
and the term seed are synonymous. But Paul has made a critical
distinction which distinction he borrowed from his Lord Jesus
Christ in the gospel of John chapter 8 of which I'm going
to make plain to you today again for the 500th time in my ministry. Because I'm one of a few men
who dare to preach election by grace alone in this generation
I live. Most pastors who've gone to seminary
know what I'm saying is the truth. But because they are more men-pleasers
than God-pleasers, they will not press home this essential
doctrinal truth which gives God all the glory that there is in
the secret counsel of God. Before the world began, a choice
that God made to place you in Christ before you had a being. And so that in time, when he
chose to, he hunted you down by his grace, and called you
by his gospel, and let you know he knew you before the world
began, loved you before the world began, sent his son to die for
you before the world began, and saved you in time. Are you guys
hearing me? Watch this. And we call this the electing
love of God in Christ. And I'm going to show you through
several examples how that you cannot actually teach the Bible
at all unless you accept this critical doctrinal truth. What
Paul is doing is explaining why some go to heaven and why the
rest don't. Let's say you're on your way
to heaven. Say, Pastor, I'm on my way to heaven. And I would
ask you, well, how come you're on your way to heaven? Because
I would say, stop right there. You just messed up again. You
just messed up again. You're not headed to heaven because
of you. You're headed to heaven because
of grace. You're headed to heaven because of him. You're headed
to heaven because of Christ. Not you. It was not I that sought,
O Savior true. No, I was found. I was found
of you. I sought the Lord and afterwards I knew. He moved my
soul to seek him seeking me. Do you guys see the hymn in your
Bible, in your outline? Is it teaching the truth of election?
without a doubt. And what we tell men and women
is when you come to discover that God's knocking on your door
and calling you to the kingdom, God's been a long time working
with your raggedy soul. He had his eye, God is the great
NSA, National Surveillance Association. He'd been watching you before
you had a bed. He kept his eye on you and hunted
you down. David said it in Psalm 139, you've
been way acquainted with my ways. And now what Paul has to do,
in the burden of his heart, is explain this gargantuan truth. Verses 6 and 7 uses the term
children and seed. Watch this. Not as though the
word of God had taken none effect, for they are not all Israel,
which are of Israel. So we've got two Israels we've
got to deal with. Neither because they are the
seed of Abraham are they the children. See that? See the word
seed? That's the word sperma. That's
the stuff that irresponsible men float all around the planet
creating babies without being daddies. I thought I'd be a little
pastoral for a moment. Right, so now watch me now, watch
me now. The word sperma has to do with our biological life,
our biological existence. He said because they are the
sperma of Abraham, because they are the sperma of Abraham does
not make them all children of Abraham. The word children there
is the Greek term techno or techno which has to do with your identity
and your similarity of relationship to the family. Stay with me for
a moment. And he's going to build this
argument based on the historicity of what your Bible sets down
concerning him and Sarah having Ishmael and Isaac. And here's
what he's going to teach us. And this is what we call an expository
development of our theological point. When we set forth a premise,
we defend our premise by the scriptures. We don't just go
to arguing philosophically or theoretically. When Paul says
there are two Israels, what he's going to do now is argue from
the call of Abraham by God, God telling Paul, telling Abraham,
Abraham, you're going to have a son and that son of yours,
he's going to be the heir of the world. And yet in the struggle
of Abraham's relationship with Sarah, who was barren, they couldn't
have children. They ended up having a firstborn
through his handmaid. Hagar, and that firstborn's name
was what? Ishmael. So mark this now. The
Ishmael-Isaac paradigm is the difference between the flesh,
which are the children of Abraham biologically, and the spirit,
which is the children of Abraham not only biologically, but spiritually. That Isaac is the one that's
called not Ishmael. So when you go back and read
the account in the Old Testament, how that when God gave Abraham
that promise and gave Sarah that promise, how long was it before
they even saw a child? 13 years. And when they saw their
first child Ishmael, it was the consequence of their own works,
not God's work. Are you guys following me? When
Ishmael comes on the scene, it's the effort of a lively Abraham. And a lively Hagar, because Sarah
was dead, being barren from her birth. And the birth of Ishmael,
Paul is going to argue, is the work of the flesh. It's the ability
for you and I to produce something by the powers that's in us. But
that work of the flesh can never be called the grace of promise. Because the grace of promise
is always the work of God all by himself. so that Isaac is
the consequence of a supernatural grace that God imposed upon Sarah
when both Abraham and Sarah were almost a hundred years old. Are
y'all following me? What he's doing is building the
distinction between mere religious works, where you merit righteousness
by what you do, and then you hand it to God and say, here
God, accept me on the basis of my good works. You know what
we call that? Ishmaelite religion. Now the work of grace is where
God comes in to the life of dead sinners. Sarah is dead. Abraham is dead. How are you
going to get any children out of two dead people? By the power
of God's grace, supervising the dead, putting life into the dead
and producing life from the dead. And what we teach is that when
you and I are truly born again, We are not the product of our
decision for Jesus, plus God's work in our life. That's Ishmaelite
religion. We can therefore boast that we
did something to save ourselves. Now I'm going to press that home
in another week when we get into the heart of Paul's argument
around the sovereignty of God to raise Pharaoh up to destroy
him, that God's glory might be manifested. But what we tell
believers is, don't ever frame your lips to tell men and women
that you are saved by something you did. Because when God came
to you, you were just as dead as Sarah, just as dead as Abraham,
just as dead as Lazarus. You were dead in trespasses and
sin. And the operation of grace, the
operation of grace that raised you from the dead was a one-sided
unilateral operation. It wasn't the consequence of
a contract you signed. In other words, you're only saved
by what God did for you. Are you hearing me? Watch this
now, watch this now. That's the way Isaac talked because
he knew he was the consequence of the grace of God having a
mama and a daddy who could in no wise produce him. Here he
is alive. able to say to the whole world,
I'm a child of promise. I'm the product of grace. Because
my mom and daddy was combined together, they was almost 200
years old. Wasn't nothing ever working in
mama. And daddy had died about 10, 20 years earlier. So it wasn't
possible for his sperm to make it all the way up into the ovum
of anybody. It was the grace of God that
brought Isaac into existence. And when you and I are called
children of grace, children of grace, children of grace, we
are part of a promise that God purposed and God fulfilled in
Jesus Christ. Apart from ourselves, we are
saved by sovereign grace. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? So you can make this point very clear. And if you're
struggling with what I'm talking about, go back and work through
your first principles. Go back and work through your
first principles. Because there's a good likelihood that you are
not saved if you are struggling with this fundamental principle.
If you're struggling with the fact that God did all the saving
and you did none of it, if you're struggling with the notion that
you had to help God, that somehow your decision for Jesus gave
you life, you better go back to your first principles because
it's a good likelihood that you still don't know the grace of
God. So I'm going to be working through this over the next couple
of weeks because many of our people are really still hoodwinked
by the powers of the human flesh. We call it the doctrine of humanism,
and it has been in the church since the periods of the Reformation,
where somehow they have taught that man intrinsically has the
ability to do good things, and therefore has enough ability
to make a right decision to get right with God. I would argue
that the Bible would teach that no man has the ability whatsoever
to get right with God on his own. And I'm going to demonstrate
that over the next couple of weeks in order to demolish not
only evolution, which is a major myth that dominates our secular
world, but the mythical freedom of your will, which is what most
Christians hold. When God gave us a free will,
show me that in the Bible. Are you hearing me? Show me in
your Bible where God gave you a free will. Show me. And then
we can debate it. Remember what I told you? Most
Christians are living on assumptions and ideas that they have never
proven before at all. And they are borrowing arguments
that have been worked through for several hundred years by
other men and taking a position without determining whether these
things are true for themselves in their own Bibles. So I'm going
to trouble some of y'all right now. You never had a free will. I never had a free will. In reality,
when we work it through, no man has ever ultimately had a free
will. At best, Adam and Eve were free from sin until they failed. And when Adam and Eve failed,
they lost that freedom. So that the freedom that you
and I think we have today, are you ready? It's simply the freedom
to sin. Are you hearing me? We're going
to work this through. We're going to work this through.
Now, when Paul says, because they are the seed of Abraham,
are they the children of God? But in Isaac shall thy seed be
called, Paul is taking up the argument of his master, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I would say this, child of
God, I would say this, that if you're going to be a sound student
of the gospel, you better hear everything that Jesus says, understand
what he says, and echo what Jesus says, if you're going to be a
gospeler. Point number B under our second point. Not only is
there clarification of their failure on the basis that Isaac
was called, who is the true Technon, but there is a fleshly and natural
Jewish stock who is not the true Israel of God. You guys already
heard that argument, right? But look at now verse 8. That
is, they which are the children of the what? These are not the
children of God. Can I do some work today? I know
you came to church to hoop and holler and get a little entertainment
and go home, but I'm gonna actually teach you today. I know we get
the heebie-jeebies when we have to be taught. But notice what
the text says. Watch this now. The text says,
they which are of the flesh, like Ishmael was of the flesh,
the biological children of Abraham, the sperma, Will you hear this
next line? This is a very emphatic, negative
clause. They are not, they are not, they
are not what? You gotta lock that in. You gotta
lock that in. Do you know why you gotta lock
that in? Because for those of us who are enamored by or interested
in what we call eschatology, we have a whole eschatological
paradigm that overlooks this emphatic negation. The assumption
is that physical national Israel today are the children of God.
When the whole of the New Testament militates against that truth.
Are y'all following me right now? In other words, some of
us who may be sympathetic to national Israel, and some of
y'all are, you think that they are the children of God. Well,
you got to jump over this clause to do that. Don't you? Isn't
the clause clear? Just because you are the fleshly
children of Abraham does not make you the children of God
All right. So here's a lesson. We've got
to get when you meet a Jew If that Jew does not believe in
Jesus Christ If he has not abandoned legal works righteousness as
the basis of his salvation. He's not a child of God The whole
nation of Israel over in Palestine are not the people of God and
They're just the children, or the flesh rather, of Abraham.
Are you guys hearing me? Watch this now. In other words,
you don't give them a pass into the kingdom by virtue of flesh
and blood. Flesh and blood does not enter
into the kingdom of God. It's not of the will of man,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of blood, but
of God. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? Now don't get me wrong. National Israel, just like all
of the nations of the world, are in the same place. They need
Jesus. Now if you're going to love them,
you better tell them you're lost until you come to know Jesus.
Because what I'm doing with you now is showing you the foundation
of the totality of New Testament theology. You find what I'm sharing
with you through every epistle. I'm going to share with you a
few verses to help you understand. This is what we call Pauline
theology. This is New Testament theology. And it's critical to
the glory of God. And it's critical to the gospel.
If you and I were to adopt a notion that people are automatically
saved because of their blood lineage to Abraham, then salvation
would be by works and not by grace. And God would be a respecter
of persons Rather than a sovereign savior of those whom he has purpose
in christ before the world began. Am I making some sense? It's
very critical for you to understand this and so then in your outline
We have a number of verses to underscore go with me in your
bible to john's gospel chapter 8 verse 37 through 40 and mark
how our master said it i'm going to share with you a few more
and then we'll move on through our points in john's gospel chapter
8 jesus is in the midst of a heated debate with the rulers. And this
heated debate with the rulers is around, once again, Him calling
Himself the Son of God. There were two reasons for which
they killed Jesus. The first is this. He made Himself
to be the Son of God, therefore being equal to God. That's why
they killed Him. The other reason they killed
him is because he called himself Messiah. Therefore, he was the
king of Israel. Remember when they killed him?
They put a crown on his head, calling him the king of the Jews.
And they wrote it in three languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, prophesying
Christ's universal rule over all men. Is that true? Over all
men. And yet that's why they killed
him. They killed him because he made himself to be the son
of God, equal to God, and that he made himself to be Messiah.
And he was. Now watch this argument, because
this is going to reflect on you and me. Here's what Jesus says,
I know that you are Abraham's what? What's the word? Sperm. That's right. Sperm. Watch this. But you seek to kill me. Now
watch this, because my word has no place in you. Now watch what
verse 38 says watch this now watch it how verse 38 says I'll
speak that which I've seen of my father and you didn't do that
which you have seen of your what So now we get ready to play the
dozens here. Okay, so stay with me for a second I know but we
get ready played it up. It's gonna be three daddies.
We talking about here and Christ brought this topic up Christ
Told them that he was of his father from heaven They said
no And then they said, but we be the children of father Abraham. Jesus said, no. And then Jesus
says, you are of your father, the devil. And the evidence that
you are of your father, the devil, and not your father, Abraham,
as you claim is because you are seeking to kill me. If you knew
God as your father, and if you were truly Abraham's children,
you wouldn't seek to kill me. Are you guys hearing me? But
because you seek to kill me, you are of your father, the devil,
who never abode in the truth. He was a liar and a murderer
from the beginning. And you cannot but do what he
did. What Jesus is doing is piercing
into the heart and soul and spirit of men and women and letting
us know this thing is spiritual in nature. That you and I are
not part of God's kingdom through the flesh. and that the evidence
that we are in or out is how we view Jesus. The evidence as
to whether or not we are saved has everything to do with how
much you understand Jesus to be the Son of the Living God,
the Messiah of the world, the Savior that God sent into this
world. Verse 39, watch this, watch this. Here it is. Then
answered they and said unto him, Abraham is our daddy. Jesus said
unto them, if you were Abraham's what? Dead ears. What's the word? Tecna. Tecna. Not sperma. Tecna. Remember the other word
seed? That was sperma. He acknowledged
that you are Abraham's seed, but you're not Abraham's children.
This is the same grammatical construction that Paul is using
in Romans 9. The subtleties are clear when
you get behind the language, but even the King James made
it clear by giving you the word seed versus the word what? Children. He says the answer said it to
him Abraham's our daddy. Jesus said until if you were
Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham What
would the works of Abraham believing on God? Abraham was the father
of faith Jesus said Abraham saw my day and rejoiced what you
gonna do watch the next verse Verse 40, but now you seek to
kill me a man that had told you the truth Which I have heard
of God watch this this did not Abraham Every religious system,
every political system, every group of people that rejects
the person and work of Jesus Christ cannot be called the children
of God, including the Jews. Are you guys hearing me? Let
me build this argument through Paul's teaching. Now, what is
a true Jew? I'm going to take you through five or six verses.
Are you ready? What is a true Jew? Romans chapter two, verse
28 and 29 tells us a true Jew is an individual whose circumcision
is not in the flesh. but in the heart, which God mandated
way back before Israel got out of the wilderness into the promised
land when he told them to circumcise the foreskin of their heart and
be no more stiff-necked, which is a work that only God can do,
right? Watch this. For he is not a Jew, which is
one what? Let me say that again for those
of you who are sympathetic to national Israel. For he is not
a Jew who is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh Do you guys see that? So for
a person to say I am a blood descendant of Abraham I've been
circumcised this makes me a Jew as a Christian you say no, I'm
sorry. This does not make you a Jew According to my Bible you
not you're not a Jew because of your external Association
to Abraham nor because you are circumcised How many of you guys
believe your Bible? Raise your hand. You believe
your Bible? Okay, good. I want to hear that because I'm taking
a picture. I'm gonna meet y'all on Judgment Day. I'm gonna meet
y'all on Judgment Day. This is a serious matter because I run
across dozens of professing Christians who will debate me and won't
even open their Bibles. I doubt whether or not you're
even a Christian if you're not willing to open your Bible and
defend your position from the scriptures. Are y'all hearing
me? And I'm showing you the Bible, am I not? This is not Pastor
Jesse's teaching. The text is speaking explicitly.
It's not very clear. Watch this. For he's not a Jew,
which is one outwardly, neither that circumcision, which is outward
in the flesh. Verse 29. But he is a Jew, a positive affirmation,
which is one where? That's what Jesus was saying.
when he said in John chapter 2 concerning Philip and Nathaniel,
he said, here's an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile. A true Israelite is an ideal
concept of a relationship with God the Father through God the
Son where the heart has been renewed. God has taken out that
stony heart, put in a heart of flesh, and you truly believe
God. That's the heart that has no guile in it. The heart that
believes God. It didn't say we were sinless.
It simply means we agree with God. A guileless heart says God
is right. Are y'all hearing me? A guileless
heart says God is right. David was a man with no guile.
Psalm 73, 1. The elect are people of no guile.
Revelation 14, 1. The text here tells us that when
your heart's renewed, you agree with God. Even if you don't like
it. Isn't that what we learned last
week? See, we're sharing truth with people. We know some truth
they don't like. And they start off not liking
it and not believing it. Then about six months later,
they actually believe it, but they don't like it. And we tell
them, that's great. You're halfway home. You're halfway
home. Because God has to do that with
us. Our children don't always like what we say. But after a
while, they agree with it. And when they grow up, they love
it. Because we have told them the
truth. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying? Watch this now. He's
a Jew that is one inwardly and the circumcision is that of the
heart and the spirit and not in the letter whose praise is
not of what? This is important. In a culture
like we live in, we live in a culture where we get caught up in the
things seen and heard. We are so bamboozled and hoodwinked
by the media and by propaganda. We think a thing is so because
it appears to be so. But I told you that men and women
who are in pursuit of truth are men and women who see by faith,
not by sight. Men and women who read their
Bibles, not listen to the media. You got to learn how to see through
what you see to what's really there. And what we understand
is, it's not the things that are seen that are real, but the
things that are unseen. And what Jesus knew about the
whole of the people to whom he had come, was that the vast majority
of them were not true Jews. They had sold out the gospel
long before. Are you guys hearing me? This
is Paul's argument. Now I want you to go to another
verse, Galatians chapter 3, and show you another set of principles
around this interpretation that's going to be critical. Now I have
to lay this foundation so that next week when we move into Paul's
deeper, more historic argument, you'll have these foundational
truths. In Galatians chapter 3, I want to start at verse 8,
where the apostle Paul is making a distinction between grace and
law in the church at Galatia, where the Jewish brethren at
that time also were harassing the Gentiles around being saved
by grace plus words. If you guys remember, And He
warned them, if you preach any other gospel than the gospel
that Christ gave us, let them be anathema when Jesus comes. There's a curse in the gospel,
and that's it. The curse in the gospel is that
if you distort or twist or deny the gospel, you're under the
curse of God. That's the only curse in the
gospel. There's no curse because you don't... There's only one curse. When
you reject the gospel, you are left to the curse of the law.
And the curse of the law is going to send you to hell. It's either
grace or works. And if you're under works, and
you don't keep the whole law, you're going to hell. For if
a man break one law, he's violated all God's law. Well, pastor,
I ain't did nothing wrong. You just lied. You're on your
way to hell right now, right now. Watch this and the scripture
foreseeing that God would justify the heathen. That's me Won't
know what your past is. He's a heathen and the scripture
foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through what? Not
what? That's right. That's right. You
guys are exegetical thinkers now preached before the gospel
to whom So when folks tell you the Gospels not in the Old Testament
show him this verse the Gospels from Genesis to Revelation when
rightly comprehended God preached the gospel to Abraham by telling
Abraham that from his seed all the nations of the world would
be blessed. Watch this now. Priests before the gospel unto
Abraham saying what? In thee all nations shall be
blessed. Do you guys see that line? This
is the line that politicians and hoodwinked Christians use
to bamboozle you into supporting national Israel. This is the
line. Isn't it? Is that the line? Goes
all the way back to Genesis. I told a sister who called my
Monday show one time, I said, where in the Bible does it say
that if we help the children of Israel, God will bless us?
And she couldn't find it. And you won't either? Because
this text here is not talking about material blessing. This
is talking about the grace of God in Jesus Christ through Abraham
C. Isaac, i.e. Jesus. Watch how
it unfolds. He says, in thee shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed. Verse nine, watch verse nine.
So then they which be of what? And not of what? Are blessed
with who? Faithful Abraham. So then you
see what he just stated. The gospel promise given to Abraham
2,000 years before Jesus came says this, if everyone believes
the same gospel that Abraham believes, they are children of
God. Watch how this works. Verse 10,
I want you to see it, verse 10. For as many as are of the works
of the law are under the what? For it is written cursed is everyone
that continues not in all things which are written in the book
to do them verse 11 I'm gonna go through verse 19 But that
no man is justified by the law and the sight of God is evident
for the just shall live by what? This goes all the way back to
the days of Abel and Cain You know what the reason why Abel
is in heaven by faith. I You know the reason why Cain
is in hell? Because of his words. That's
1st John chapter 3 verse 9. He was of that wicked one, the
devil. Do you understand that? And this gets into the doctrine
of election too. Because God elected Abel and he left Cain
to himself. Like God elected Isaac and left
Ishmael to himself. Like God elected Jacob and left
Esau to himself. Are you hearing me? Are you hearing
me? This is the reason why those people were saved, and it wasn't
because they were better than the other person. In some cases,
they was worse. You can't get as bad as Tricky
Jacob. He still went to heaven, because this gospel is a sinner's
gospel. Are you hearing me? Because there's
none righteous, no, not one. So if I get to heaven, it's got
to be on grace. I guarantee you everybody in
heaven will tell you that they are a heaven-bound sinner saved
by grace. They're telling truth when you
get there. We love to play church down here and act like we're
all righteous and all that. The only standing that you and
I have that makes us accepted before God is the righteousness
of Christ. The rest of it is sin. Sin. Even our good works is sin. God
tells us to do it, but it's filled with sin and corruption. He tells
us to love one another, but we never love one another out of
a pure heart. I love my wife, but I don't love her perfectly.
She'll tell you that. I love my children, but I don't
love them perfectly. I love my God, but I don't love
him perfectly. And if God were to look on my
love towards him to determine whether or not I get to heaven,
I'm going to hell. And you are too. This is a unilateral
salvation based upon the obedience of Jesus Christ. He loved God
with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and his neighbor
as himself. And his righteousness is given
to you and me freely by God's grace. Are y'all hearing what
I'm saying? I'm only in because of him. See, Isaac leads to Jesus,
Isaac leads to Jesus, and Jesus is the grounds of our salvation
and our hope. Verse 12, watch this now. And the law is not
of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them, verse
13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made
a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that, what?
That's our solution, isn't it? Remember Moses says, God, blot
me out. Paul says, I could wish myself a curse for Christ. What
God the Father says is my son took care of that already. Do
you see that? There's only one man who took
care of the business of putting away sins. He became a curse
for us. So no man will ever successfully
get God to accept the appeal of throwing them in the hell.
In fact, if you know the gospel, and you go to God saying, throw
me in the hell, God will say, what, have you rejected my gospel?
That would be an affront on God, wouldn't it? Look at verse 14. Verse 14, that the blessing of
Abraham might come on the what? Through whom? That's right, that
we might receive the promise of the what? By what? That is
through the gospel. Do you see it? Abraham, Jesus,
the promise of the Spirit through faith. That whole line completely
sets aside national Israel. It sets aside the law. It sets
aside works. This is about Abraham, Jesus,
the cross work that sent the Holy Ghost, which gives us faith
to believe in what Jesus did that makes us sons and daughters
of God. Did y'all get that? It sets aside the whole of physical
Israel. the whole of physical Israel,
from Abraham to Jesus. This is what verse 19 is going
to say. Look at verse, skip it down to verse 19. I want you
to see this. This is an amazing, sorry, verse
17. This is an amazing promise, an
amazing promise. And this I say, that the covenant
that was confirmed before of God in Christ, I'm thinking I
got to go back two verses. Go back to verse 14. Because
I want you to see this one verse that Paul uses for his argument.
Verse 14. And so we just finished at verse
15. This is the verse then. Here it is. Watch this. Brethren,
I speak after the manner of men, though it be a man's covenant,
yet if it be confirmed, no man disanulleth it thereunto. Speaking
to covenants, verse 16. Here it is. Now this is amazing. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. I just want you to lift that
out because I got to work through that for you and with you over
the next couple of weeks. This is important. He says, now
to Abraham and to his seed were the promises made. For those
who are thinking of a political and national Israel, they could
use this verse, couldn't they? But what Paul wants you to know
right now, and he was a Jew himself, this is not talking about the
nation of Israel at all. This is talking about two people,
Abraham and Jesus. The promises were made to Abraham
and Jesus, not the physical seed. Watch how the line falls out.
Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made he said not
and to seeds as a what the nation The nation Now mark ladies and
gentlemen what's happening here? What's taking place here is an
insight into the illuminating work of the holy ghost in the
mind of one of god's apostles who wrote infallibly interpreting
the old testament christocentric ly I want you to get this now
because again, we have people in our present generation who
would challenge us in our pressing home that the totality of scripture
is about Jesus. What we say to them is the biblical
hermeneutic demands that we draw the conclusion that this book
is about Christ, not about Israel, not about the church, not about
the world, but about Christ. And New Testament theology drives
that home by example. Look at what he's doing. He's
taking a text out of the Old Testament. which if you didn't
have the New Testament you would swear that God was talking to
Abraham about Isaac and Jacob and the twelve tribes the Holy
Ghost is saying jump over all those brothers and land on the
true seed and that true seed is Christ do you see that watch
it now and to seize as of many but as of one and to thy seed
which is who So, ladies and gentlemen, what Paul is teaching in his
radical theology is that when we comprehend the true Israel
of God, we are talking about people who are in Christ. In Christ. Let me close out our
message on the last two points in our outline. Going back to
point number two. Election is God's choice alone. The clarification
of their failure is seen in that there is a physical seed and
a spiritual seed. There's a fleshly, natural Jewish
stock who is not the true Israel of God. Christ affirmed that.
Paul is affirming that here. Point number C. The doctrine
of election in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is confirmed in Romans
9 verses 9 through 11. And I need to read that as we
close. Paul is building his argument around why many failed, but some
made it. Will you listen to what he says
in verses 9 through 11, and I promise I'll close here. For this is
the word of what? Here it is. And the word promise
here is closely associated to the word gospel. Euangelion is
the Greek term for the gospel. Evangelion is the Greek term
for promise. When you talk about the gospel,
you are talking about the promises of God. So whenever Paul uses
the term promise, think the gospel. Don't think law works. Think
grace. Think faith. Think Christ. Here
it is. He says, for this is the word
of promise. At this time, I will come and
Sarah shall have a what? Now, who is talking in the historical
narrative? God is talking to Abraham in
Genesis 17. Why is God saying to Abraham
in Genesis 17? At this time next year, Sarah's
going to have a son? Because Abraham and Sarah have
worked out a child named Ishmael. And that became a mess in the
family. Sarah got so upset with Hagar for pumping her suspenders
for being able to have babies. Sarah said, that sister got to
go. That's how queens talk. You can't have two queens in
the same house. I know I'm getting in your business now. Watch this
though, watch this. That sister got to go. And do
you know Abraham was having fits. Let me share with you why. I
want you to get this. And this is how we know the gospel had
to demolish Abraham too. Because when God told Abraham,
listen to your wife, Sarah, now God don't say that a whole lot,
but every now and then he say, listen to your wife. Stay with
me now. Stay with me now. I love you boy. Watch this now.
Watch this. Sometimes our wives get it right.
Don't they get it right sometimes? You got to come back and say,
honey, you was right. You was right. He said to Abraham, he said,
Abraham, I know you're tripping, I know you're grieving because
both Hagar and Ishmael got to go. What God said to Abraham,
that as soon as they leave and you stop trusting in the flesh,
your wife gonna get pregnant. See, without faith, it's impossible
to please God. And a lot of times you and I
are trapped Situations that don't make any progress because we're
trying to hold on to the flesh and the spirit too and you got
to let some things go But to let it go you got to believe
God and what God is saying is when once you let that thing
go That other promise gonna come to pass. So now watch this. I
want you to see this now when God told Abraham Let it go. Let
it go Sarah right this time. She wasn't right the first time
she right this time. I You know what Abraham said? Oh, that Ishmael might live before
you. From the depths of his soul,
he wanted Ishmael to be the man. Are you hearing me? This is how
intrinsic our own good works are to our welfare and being. Abraham is saying, God, accept
my works. Now, if God would have accepted
Abraham's works, God truly would have been a failure. Because
God said, Sarah gonna have a child. But now you gonna give me your
works. What you trying to do, help me? Are y'all hearing what
I'm saying? And when religious folk do all
of these machinations to try to get right with God, altar
calls, accepting Jesus, Romans Road, and speaking in tongues,
and tithing, and giving, and serving to get right with God,
you trying to help God save you? Why don't you just rest in the
grace of God? Why don't you accept God at his
word? Why don't you realize that God
saves you by his grace alone, apart from works? Why don't you
understand that God doesn't need anything from you? That you can't
build God's kingdom with one dime or one dollar. God owns
the cattle on a thousand hills. If God was hungry, he wouldn't
ask you for a thing. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
In other words, if you reject grace, That's an affront to your
God. God said, son, to Abraham. Israel got to go. That's Galatians
4. Cast out the bondwoman because
the child of the bondwoman cannot coexist with the child of promise.
And this is what Paul is pressing home now. Watch this now. I'm
going to close here. I'm going to close here. The vast majority
of the Israelites that perished were Ishmaelites. Are you hearing me? How many
of y'all understand what I'm saying so far? I need a hand.
Okay, good, good. That means I'm a fairly decent
teacher. I'm done right here. Now watch this. If you got that,
if you got that you can actually be a physical blood descendant
of Abraham and yet be like those crazy Ishmaelites, you understand
that the kingdom of God is spiritual. And Jesus taught that, and Paul
teaches that, and this is what we teach. that to be an Israelite
indeed is to be one that rules with God. Didn't we learn that
last week? To rule with God is to walk by faith in Christ, which
makes you more than a conqueror through him that loves you. You
rule by being in Christ. And when you are in Christ, you
are Abraham's seed. You are then heirs of the promises
of God. And you prove yourself then to
be God's elect. Am I making some sense? We'll
pick up here next week.