Turn your Bibles to Romans 9. Let's read a few verses together,
maybe down through verse 16. We won't have time to get through
all this chapter. It's just too long and too much
here. But let's begin reading in Romans
chapter 9 and look at verse 1. I say the truth in Christ, I
lie not. My conscience also bearing me
witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continuous
sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself
were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according
to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption
and the glory and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and
the service of God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and of
whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all,
God blessed forever. Amen. Not as though the word
of God hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel which
are of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham,
or the all children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children
of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word
of promise, At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a
son. And not only this, but when Rebekah
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. It was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, and Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
Let's read on just a little bit. For the 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. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt
say then unto me, Why dost he yet find fault? For who has resisted
his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou
that replyest against God? Shall the thing farmed say to
him that farmed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay Of the same lump to make one vessel
unto honour? and another unto dishonor? What
if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known,
endeared with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His
glory on the vessels of mercy which He hath aforeprepared unto
glory, even us whom He hath called not of the Jews only, but also
of the Gentiles? As he said also in Osi, I will
call them my people, which were not my people, and her beloved,
which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass that
in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people,
there shall they be called the children of the living God."
Now, let's look at this the best we can, and I'll be honest with
you. This is so deep. I hope none of you expect me
to go to the depths of this passage, because it is deep. And Charles
Spurgeon said about this passage, if a man thinks that he's got
all of it wrapped around his hand and he handles it so easily,
then he's not yet looked into this passage. Because the more
you look into this passage, the more you see how deep it is. It's easy to study it. I love
to study it. We all should study Romans chapter
9. It's a wonderful passage. My
wife asked me today, she said, are you coming on your lesson?
You're studying a lesson. I said, babe, I have studied
Romans 9 for 35 years or more. But I tell you, the more I read
it, the more depth I see in it. So I hope none of you expect
me this evening to get at the depths of this. If I did, you
couldn't go down there with me, could you? We'd all drown, I
guess, before we got out of that death. But what Paul had been
proving here in this epistle, and Wayne's been teaching it
to us, that the whole human race is depraved in sin. The Gentiles,
he proved that in chapter 1. Now he goes to chapter 2. The
Jews. All men are in sin and guilty
before God. And he goes on there in the third
chapter of this book and he begins to prove that justification comes
by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone and not by the deeds of
the law. He says, we conclude that a man
is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. But the
majority of the Jews had rejected this gospel. They hated this
gospel. So, are they lost? Is the majority of the Jewish
nation lost? Were they lost in Paul's day?
Yes. Yes. And that's the trouble,
isn't it? That's the question everybody
was wanting to know. Are they lost? Paul said, I pray
for them that they might be saved. Why? They don't believe the gospel.
They're still trusting in their own righteousness in the flesh.
And Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. And that being so, what about
the advantages that these Jews had in the Old Testament? I read
to you there in verses 4 and 5, they were Israelites. My goodness,
they were children of Abraham, weren't they? They were children
of Isaac. They were children of Jacob,
after the flesh. God made covenants with them,
we're told there. He made a covenant with Abraham
regarding the children of Israel. They were to inherit the land
of promise. On Mount Sinai, He made another covenant with them.
He made several covenants with the children of Israel. And He
gave them promises concerning the Messiah, the coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ, His glory He gave to them. Remember, we
studied in the book of Deuteronomy about the cloud that followed
them of the day, and the pillar of fire by night. What was that?
That was the glory of God, wasn't it? The services, all the services
of God, nobody had the tabernacle, nobody had the sacrifices, nobody
had the priesthood, but then God gave that to them and He
promised them the coming Messiah and that salvation would be by
Him. Isaiah even said this, Israel
shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. Israel
shall be saved in the Lord. And they'll never be ashamed
or confounded, world without end. Israel shall be. And Paul
even said in the 11th chapter, all Israel shall be saved. Well,
can you see the confusion in the Old Testament? He kept saying
the Messiah is coming. He's going to be a Jew. He's
bringing salvation to Israel. And now Paul says, I pray for
them that they might be saved. Well, what happened to the promises?
What happened to the covenants? What happened to all the advantages
they've had? They were the children of Abraham
after the flesh. Paul said, you reach this conclusion
in verse 6, There's three conclusions that men had to reach when they
read verses 4 and 5. Not as though the Word of God
hath taken none effect. That was one conclusion that
men reached. When they said, well, it's a
bunch of hogwash. They were children of Abraham,
had all the promises of the coming Messiah, that Israel would be
saved with an everlasting salvation, and now none of that's happening.
They're lost. What's happened? And you have
the atheistic view that rose up and said this. Why would you
believe such hogwash anyway? It means nothing. It's a bunch
of empty promises. Silly, silly types and shadows. It's vain. I don't know if you
know Gillette Penn. well-known atheist of our time.
He's a comedian. I saw him, interviewed him the
other night on the program, and he said, you know how to make
your children atheists? He said, I'll tell you how my
grandpa made me an atheist. He gave me a Bible, and I read
it. And as I read it, I thought,
this makes no sense. This is just not so. That's what
the Jews said when they saw all these promises that God had made
to the Jews And yet now they're lost and God was beginning to
turn to the Gentiles? What about this? It makes no
sense. Don't believe that. The second
thing was this, the conclusion you had to reach was this. The
gospel Paul preached and all of these apostles preached was
a false gospel. Jesus was not the Messiah. They were still waiting on the
Messiah. Don't believe what Paul's telling
you. He's trying to explain away God's
promises to natural Israel. Don't believe it. The Messiah
is yet to come. And then the third thing was
this, and here's the right answer. There's a deeper meaning to all
of this, and it just needs to be explained. We need to understand
more about what these covenants meant, what the promises meant,
who all of this concerned. There's a deeper meaning. And
that's what Paul is going to tell them in this chapter 9. But notice here how he begins
it, going verses 1 through verse 3. I don't think I could ever
talk like this. I know I couldn't. My conscience
would smite me if I made this statement. My conscience also
burned me witness in the Holy Ghost. I call the Holy Ghost
to bear me witness how sincere I am and that what I'm about
to tell you is the truth." Man, that's strong, ain't it? That
is strong. Paul knew his Jewish kinsmen
hated him. They looked upon him like he
was a traitor. He was one of them. He was the chief among
them. When they wanted somebody to
argue their cause, they said, get Saul of Tarshish. He's a
very zealous man. He knows that we're saved by
the works of the law. He despises this Jesus. And now
he had betrayed them. Now he was preaching the gospel.
And boy, they said, you traitor. You dog. We hate you. So what
he did, he did this often when he preached and when he wrote
these epistles. He had an eye to his Jewish kinsmen
and he loved them. Boy, his heart went out to him.
So he wanted to take off the offense personally. Not the offense of the Gospel.
But he didn't want them to be offended at him. So he wanted
them to realize here how sincere and honest he was in setting
forth Romans 9 to them. And he said, boy, he made a statement.
He made a statement nobody here can make. I'm just about certain
nobody here can make. He said if it would, He knew
this was impossible, but he said, if it could happen that my being
accursed from Christ, my being separated from Christ, would
save my kinsmen, I'm willing to do it. I'm willing to be accursed
myself from Christ if it would save them. That's how much he
loved these brothers. But they hated him. They hated
him. Everywhere he went, they followed
him. and whipped him and stoned him
and everything else. They hated him. But he is going to prove here
who the true Jew is. And he already hinted at it.
I guess you could say he hinted at it. Hold chapter 9 and look
back in verse 28 of chapter 2. He told us here who a true Jew
is. And it has nothing to do with
a man's flesh. Nothing to do with your genealogies.
Nothing to do with your works. Who is a true Jew? He already
hinted at it here in chapter 2, and look in verse 28. For
he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew which is one
inwardly. He has a new heart, a new spirit.
And circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit, and not
in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. There is a natural Jew, and there
is a spiritual Jew. There is an Israel after the
flesh, and there is an Israel after the spirit. The Jews came
to the Lord Jesus one time. They were arguing with Him. And
he said, I know you're the seed of Abraham. They said, we're
the seed of Abraham. He said, I know you are. I know
you've traced your genealogies all the way back to Jacob and
Isaac and Abraham. I know it. But he said this,
you're not Abraham's children. Now what did he mean by that?
They were Abraham's children. Not in the sense that Christ
was telling them. You're Abraham's natural children. But you're not Abraham's spiritual
children. And the evidence of it is this. You won't hear my
word. My word has no place in you and
you hate me and you're trying to kill me. Abraham wouldn't
do that to me. And Abraham knew me. You're not
Abraham's spiritual children. What makes up or who makes up
the spiritual seed of Abraham? Who is it that makes up this
spiritual seed? The spiritual Israel. Well, here's
who it is. It's the children of promise.
Has nothing to do with the flesh, does it? It's the children of
promise. Paul was right into the Gentile
church in Galatia. And he said, Now you, brethren,
as Isaac were, are the children of promise. You Gentile dogs? Yeah, you're inward Jews. You're
the children of Abraham. You're the seed of Abraham because
you're children of promise. Now, who determined who would
be the children of promise? Who determined that? There's
a whole bunch of children of promise. Who determined that? Well, somebody might say this.
What they do in their lifetime determines whether or not they're
children of promise. How good they are or how bad
they are. No. That doesn't determine it,
does it? Well, God looked down through
time and saw who would repent and believe, and that determined
who would be the children of promise. No. That's not it either. Well, it was determined by one's
willing and running and working. No. That wasn't either, was it? And that's what Paul's going
to prove. That's what he's going to tell us there in verse 11,
that the purpose of God according to election might stand. And what He's telling us there
is this, the eternal destinies of every man was determined and
it was fixed before man ever had a being. That's what election
and reprobation is about. That before man had their being,
before time, before the world ever was, God chose those He
was going to save. He chose those that he was going
to give life to in Christ, and then he passed by the rest. But when was this determination
made? In a man's lifetime? Not in the
lifetime of these two children, but before they did anything
wrong or before they did anything good. Now somebody asks, what
do you mean by the sovereignty of God? Well, that's one thing
we mean. That's one thing we mean. The destiny. of every man
has been determined before he ever had a being. That's what
we mean by that. Now, that's solemn, ain't it?
That already begins to shake my soul, doesn't it yours? I
said one time, boy, if you can turn to Romans chapter 9 without
trembling hands, you probably better wait a while. Boy, I tremble
when I think about this. Now, in verses 6 through verse
9, Let's explain this. Abraham had two sons. One was
Ishmael. He was born after the flesh.
That was Hagar's child. She was a slave, Egyptian slave.
What did God tell Hagar to do? What did God tell, what did Sarah
tell Abraham to do? And what did he do? He cast her
out, didn't he? He cast her out with her child. Why did he do that? God told
him to. God told him to. See, you give
her a loaf of bread and a little container of water, and you send
her away. Why? Because I've rejected Ishmael. I have rejected Ishmael. And
I have chosen Isaac. My promise of blessings, eternal
blessings, I've given to Isaac, and I've withheld them from Ishmael. That's what he said there in
verse 6. Not that though the word of God
hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel which are
of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they
all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is,
they which are the children of the flesh, Ishmael, these are
not the children of God, but the children of promise are counted
for the seed. For this is the word of promise,
at this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son." Now
I want you to hold that and look over and let's read that. Look
over in Genesis chapter 25. Or look over in Genesis 17. It's Genesis chapter 17 and verse
50. This is the account of that that
Paul quoted. Look here in verse 15. Genesis chapter 17 and verse
15, And God said unto Abraham, Ask for Sarai thy wife. Thou
shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah, princess, shall her
name be. I will bless her, and give thee
a son also of her. Yea, I will bless her, and she
shall be a mother of nations, kings of people shall be of her. Then Abraham fell upon his face,
and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born
unto him that is a hundred years old? And shall Sarah that is
ninety years old bear?" That is impossible, and he knew it,
didn't he? You know how it came to pass?
God promised it. God promised it. And Abraham
said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee. And God
said, Sir, thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed, and thou shalt
call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him
for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.
As for Ishmael, I have heard thee. Behold, I will bless him,
I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful and multiply
him exceedingly. Twelve princes shall he beget,
and I will make of him a great nation, but my covenant will
I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at
this set time next year." See what he does? He rejects Ishmael.
Abraham said, oh, that Ishmael might live. I don't know if that
was unbelievable or what it was. I don't think it was. Maybe it
was just so much joy and gladness. But God said, no, no, no. The
blessing is coming through Isaac, not Ishmael. I'm going to bless
Ishmael greatly, but my covenant, my grace, my salvation, is going
to be through your promise. And he says here in chapter 18,
verse 14 of Genesis. Chapter 18, verse 14. Is anything
too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will
return unto thee according to the time of life, and Sarah shall
have a son. The child of promise. The child
of promise. If salvation And election and
salvation was of the flesh? If eternal life was of the flesh,
then Ishmael could have laid claim to it, could he not? He
was Abraham's child. But it doesn't come by flesh.
It's the children of promise. Now we go back to our text in
Romans chapter 9. I doubt seriously if any Jew
would have fought against this very much. One probably put forth
the argument, well, I can see why God rejected Ishmael. Look
who his mother was. Egyptian slave. That half-breed. I can see why God rejected him.
I can see why God would give the blessing to Isaac. Look who
his mother was. Sweet Sarah. Look who Abraham
was. The faithful Abraham. So all
that's going on here in verses 10 and through verse 13, and
he's going to give them another example. Here's two people, a
dad and a mother, Isaac and Rebecca, and she has twin sons in her
stomach. Same dad, same mother, twin sons
before they were born, not having done any good or evil, and God
chose one to eternal salvation. He chose one and said, I'm going
to bless him and save him in Christ. And he passed by the
other. Ain't that what we see in verses
10? And not only this, but Rebecca also, when she had conceived
even by one, by our father Isaac, 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 was called. It was said unto the It was said
unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. He chose him to salvation, didn't
he? He chose Jacob to salvation. That's what this is about. It's
amazing to me that you read some men and they start talking about
election to offices and all of this stuff. This is not election
to some office. This is election to salvation. You say, Bruce, how do you know
election is to salvation? Because the Scripture says it
is. Listen to Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3. God hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus according as He has chosen us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. Listen to this well-known passage.
We are bound to give thanks to God for you, brethren, for He
has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Listen to this
well-known passage. He has saved us, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the
world. When did God make His choice who He was going to save
and who He wasn't going to save before time. This year is just
the principle. This is not actual election now. Election didn't take place when
Esau and Isaac was here. But this is the principle that
Paul set in forth of election. Before men ever did any good
or evil, God made His choice. He chose the one to eternal salvation
in Christ. And when He chose the one, what
happened? He passed by the other one, didn't
He? He passed by the other. Our forefathers
used to call this election and reprobation. And they got that
from chapter 11 and verse 7. Look here. Look in chapter 11
and verse 7. Verse 7, you see this put side
by side in the Scriptures, the elect and the non-elect, but
he does here in chapter 11 in verse 7. What then? Israel, natural
Israel, have not obtained that which they seek for. What did
they seek for? Righteousness. But how did they
seek it? By the law. So they didn't obtain
it. But look at this, but the election
hath obtained it. They've obtained righteousness
and life in Christ. And the rest were blinded. There's the election and there's
the rest. There's your Jacob's that he
chose. There's your Esau's that he passed
by. That's why our forefathers called this election and reprobation. The elect come under the term
of election. Reprobation includes all of those
that God passed by. And they called it reprobation
because it simply means rejection. Reprobate silver shall men call
them, because God hath rejected them." Why do we call Esau a
reprobate? Because God rejected him. God
rejected him and he chose Jacob. There are two types of people
in this world. There is the election and the
rest. And God has already determined
who is going to make up those two groups. Remember when Rebecca was pregnant? And she said, these kids are
fighting. Before they ever get out of my
womb, they're fighting. And she couldn't figure out what
was going on. So she went to the Lord and inquired of the
Lord. And you know what He told her? There's two manner of people
in you. Two manner of people. What manner
of people were they? The election and the rest. And I'm telling you what, in
a man's lifetime, in the lech's lifetime, in the reprobate's
lifetime, that war continues, does it not? Paul says in Galatians
chapter 4, as it was then, so it is now. It is now. Ishmael persecuted Isaac, he
that is born after the flesh, persecutes him that is born after
the Spirit, even so it is at this time. And these two men
or people were fighting against each other, warring against each
other. They were two different people, weren't they? One, God
said, I'm going to bless him. I've determined him. I've sealed
his destiny. I've fixed his destiny through
grace, through Christ, through salvation to heaven. And I've
fixed the other's destiny too. I passed him by. Now, he answers two questions.
There are two questions here I want to answer in chapter 9
and verse 12 and verse 13 of Romans. There is the first one here in verse 12.
This is a question that often bothers people. And he said unto
her, The elder shall serve the younger. Esau shall serve Jacob. Now how in the world did he mean
that? Because we know naturally that just wasn't so. Because
Esau was called Lord by Jacob, wasn't he? Jacob prayed to the
Lord and said, Lord, I am scared to death of him. And he sent
cattle to Esau to appease him and said, Your servant Jacob
has desired to find grace in the eyes of my Lord. He said
that to Esau. He was scared to death of Esau.
If anything, the younger served the elder. So what does he mean
here when the Holy Spirit says the elder shall serve the younger?
Well, he means this. God's purpose for Jacob He made Esau serve it. Esau served
the purpose of God concerning Jacob. You say, Bruce, how did
he do that? Well, it was God's purpose for Jacob to have the
birthright, wasn't it? It was God's purpose for Jacob
to have the birthright. How is he going to get it then?
Isn't it strange that Esau sold it to him? He saw God out and
got hungry while he was hunting, come back and he was ready to
pass out, and he said, feed me, feed me, Jacob, feed me. He said,
you sell me your birthright, and I will. What if that man
hadn't got hungry? What if he hadn't been faint?
You say, well, God would have got him the birthright some other
way. He could have, but it didn't happen that way, did it? He served
the purpose of God concerning Jacob. I'll tell you another
way he served it. Jacob was to have twelve sons. All the tribes were going to
come out of this man. He didn't even have a wife. Where's
he going to get his wives to have twelve sons? He dare not
take a Canaanite woman. Where's he going to get her then?
Well, he's going to get his wives from the old country where Abraham
came out of. Abraham's relatives. But he's
not going back there. He loves his mommy. He's a mommy's
boy. I'm not leaving here going back
over there. Oh, yes, you are. And I tell you why. Your brother's
going to kill you if you don't. That's what he said to her. See
how God raised up the elder to serve the younger? He went back
to get his wives because Esau said, I'm going to kill you.
So he fled. The Lord was going to bless Jacob.
He's going to change his name Israel. How in the world was
that going to come about? It came about because he was
scared to death of Esau. And he got along and he went
and sought the Lord and said, Lord, I'm scared to death of
him. Please bless me. Lord, bless me. And he wrestled
with the Lord all night because he was scared to death of his
brother Esau. And God blessed him and said,
Your name won't be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall your
name be called. You're a prince with God and
man. You have power with God. You
know what I see in this, and I bet you see the same thing.
And couldn't we conclude from this that this reprobate world
is made to serve God's purpose concerning the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ? Don't they? Paul said when God
raised Christ from the dead and set him on his own right hand,
He gave Him head over all things to the church. To the church. For His church, His body, this
world full of reprobates and devils serves the purpose of
Christ in His church. We don't see that, do we? But
it's so. It's so. That's the first question. Here's
another question. Verse 13, what does this word
hate mean? And here I could recommend some
commentaries to you if you don't have these or would like to get
Robert Haldane. You read him a lot, Wayne. He's
sort of argumentative. Haldane loved to argue. But he's
a good commentator. John Gill, Matthew Henry. Charles
Spurgeon has one of the best messages on this particular verse.
If you look in his messages, Jacob and Esau, he just preached
one message. He refused to preach on this another time in his life.
But boy, when he dealt with it, it was good. There's Larry's
friend, Adam Clark. He represents the other side. Larry got sidetracked and he
took him off of his computer, but I kept him because I want
to know what the other side says. He represents the Armenian view
of this. Get him and read him and see
what he says about this. Charles Hodge, he's another good
one. Are you afraid of these guys?
Are you afraid of the other view? Brothers and sisters, we shouldn't
be afraid of the other view. If you can't handle the other
view, maybe you don't settle in your view. We need to know
what this means, and one of the ways to understand what it means
is to look at different views of it and see. I can trust my
own understanding, but I may be a trusting to a fool. I want
to know everything I can get. That's why I tell you, go to
these commentators and read them. Much of them, many of them, and
most of them, all of them that I have, are men, I think, that
was Calvinistic, good Bible commentary. But they differ on this word
hate. And that's why I wanted to tell you why they differ on
it. First of all, some says this. Some says it's a positive hatred. Now, what does that mean? That
means God made Ishmael to Daniel. or Esau to damn him. God made
Esau to damn him. It's a positive hatred. I hate
the man and I'm going to make him just to put him in the fire. Now, brethren and sisters, be
careful. Please, I beg of you to be careful. When you read, and if that's
your view, that's your business, but I beg of you to be careful
because listen to this. Sin was the cause of Esau perishing. And I believe he perished. But
God never made him a sinner. And God never tempted him to
sin. And God never infused sin into
him. Why does a man perish? There's
a vast difference between God decreeing men's eternal destiny
and in the means He brings this to pass, isn't there? For Jacob
it was grace. It was a new birth, a new heart,
faith, repentance. And to heaven through that. But
Esau's damnation wasn't because God hated him in a positive way
and made him to damn him. I just can't believe that. You
can't prove that by this Scripture right here, but you can in other
places. That's the first view. Hyper-Calvinists, some of the
hyper-Calvinists believe that. The second view, Charles Hodge,
some of them you can read your commentaries and find this view.
They said this means to love less. Jacob have I loved less,
or Esau have I loved less than Jacob. But let me show you where
they get that. Look in Genesis chapter 29. You
can read Charles Hodge on this. He goes into Scripture proving
why he believes this is love less. Look in Genesis chapter
29. And look in verse 30 and verse 31. Esau, how about love
less? Love less than Jacob. Look in
verse 30 of Genesis chapter 29. And he went in also unto Rachel. This is Jacob. And he loved also
Rachel more than Leah. and served with him yet seven
other years. And when the Lord saw that Leah
was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren." In verse
30 it says that Jacob loved her less. And here God said he hated
her. So that's the term sometimes
used for hate is a love less. That's where they get that. That's
one view. Now, this is my interpretation. I don't think that's right. That's
not my view, and one of the reasons that's not my view, it seems
to take some edge off of this passage. If I say that God loved
Esau less than he loved Jacob, that may be, but that's not the
way I see this, because it seems to take the edge off of God passing
by the one and choosing the other. Now, here's the way I look at
this. And I got this from John Gill. This is nothing original
with me, but he had two types of hatred. He had one, a positive
hatred, and one, a negative hatred. And he said a positive hatred
is when God acts from what he sees. God hateth who? All workers of iniquity. Why
does God hate them? They're workers of iniquity.
He should hate them. He must hate them. God is angry
with who? The wicked every day. Gil said
that's not the kind of hatred this is. But he said it's a hatred. But he said what it is is a negative
hatred. And what he meant was that by
this. When God passed by Esau, it was a hate. But here's where
the hate was manifested. God denied him that mercy and
that grace which would save him, and he gave it to Jacob. It's
not a positive hatred, but it's a hatred. But it's a negative
hatred. It did him no harm. If you want
to read a book on this, but the first time I ever tried to read
it, I just had to lay it up because I said, I don't understand this.
I can't enter into it. But if you want to read a book
on this, get John Bunyan's Reprobation Asserted. It may scare you to
death. If you're going through a dark
trial, don't read it. Don't read it, because it may
scare you to death. Reprobation asserted. The reason I say here that this
must be what the Apostle Paul is teaching, that the eternal
destinies were fixed of God before they had their being. Because if you heard this, And
you were trusting in your flesh, or you were thinking naturally,
what are you going to say when you hear this? The very same
thing that was asked in verse 14. What shall we say then? Is
there unrighteousness with God? Don't that tell you this is the
right interpretation? Because that's the question that
provokes it. And you explain this to people,
and one of the first things they're going to say, that ain't right.
God ain't just to do that. That's the way we know that this
is a good argument that Paul is presenting here. Is there
unrighteousness with God? Paul could have argued many ways
to defend God's eternal purpose. He could have looked at it from
man's perspective and say, well, you don't deserve anything anyway. But he doesn't argue with it
from man's perspective. But he argues this way. by showing
that God is sovereign in his will and he gives his gifts freely
to whomsoever he pleases. That's the way he argues. Is
it not? Look what he says in verse 15. For he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I'll have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth nor of him that runneth, but it's of God that showeth
mercy." Is there unrighteousness with God? No. He saves who He
will. He elects whom He will. He gives
mercy to whom He will. It's His, isn't it? Well, the
Lord Jesus mentioned this so many times. He said, I thank
Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, Because you have hid
these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto
babes." Is it not lawful, he said, for
me to do what I will with my own? Mercy belongs to Him, doesn't
it? Compassion belongs to Him. Grace
belongs to Him. Salvation belongs unto the Lord. Who is He going to give it to?
Those He purposed to give it to. And who did He purpose to
give it to? Those He chose by His own sovereign
will. Who do we hold it from? Those
that He passed by. And all of this was settled back
yonder in eternity. God didn't save Jacob by His
mercy in Christ because Jacob was good. That's not why He saved
him. He didn't deny Esau saving mercy
because Esau was bad. God gave to the one and denied
it to the other because He is sovereign in His will. He just willed to do it. Even
so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight. And Paul refused
to give another answer. He refused to give another answer.
The cause was not in Jacob. The cause was not in Esau. It
was in God only. The will. will of God. Verse 17, Paul begins to show
us that God is sovereign in the way He providentially deals with
the reprobate in their lifetime. He is sovereign in election,
sovereign in passing by, and now when the children are born,
He is sovereign in dealing with them in their lifetime. And he
uses Pharaoh here as an example. Pharaoh was another reprobate,
wasn't he? How is God going to deal with him? Well, he said,
even for this same cause have I raised thee up. God raised
this man up. Brought him forth from his mother's
womb. Watched over him, protected him, preserved him. Kept him
from getting killed. Set him upon the throne down
in Egypt. Made him a mighty man. This was
the most mighty king at this time. He ruled over most of the
known world, and God set him there. And He set him there for
this reason. I'm going to show my power in
you. I'm going to show my wrath and
my justice in you. I'm going to take everything
you've got. I'm going to take your son. I'm going to kill your soldiers.
I'm going to take your property and your fruits and your vegetables.
And finally, I'm going to kill you. I'm going to drown you."
Oh, that's tough, ain't it? Ain't that tough? How can God
do this without being the author of sin? I don't know. That's a mystery to me. But I know this, He's not the
author of sin. He never tempts anybody to sin.
But yet He rules the reprobate and does with them as He pleases. And finally, He shows His wrath
and His judgment upon them. Well, Moses and Aaron went to
Pharaoh just as the Lord told them. They went to him and they
said, Let my people go. Thus saith the Lord, Let my people
go. And Pharaoh said, Who is the
Lord that I should obey Him? I don't know the Lord, neither
will I let the children of Israel go. You better be careful. You better be careful. Rebellion
against God, rebellion against His Word is the first evidence
of reprobation. Don't tell me that Christ is
Lord and I must bow. I won't have it. You better be
careful. Don't tell me I'm a sinner and Christ is the Savior of sinners.
I won't have it. You better be careful. You better
be careful. Rebellion against God is the
first evidence that God may well be raising you up and permitting
you to go on in your rebellion against Him. and someday destroy
your poor, poor soul. I think verse 19 is somewhat
of a smart aleck answer, smart aleck question. Look at it. Since God has this sovereign
will, since he's already made his choice, determined men's
destinies, since he's working according to his sovereign will
and providence, And His sovereign will can't be resisted? What will you say then and to
me? Thou wilt say then and to me. Why does He yet find fault
with me? Or anybody else? For who has
resisted His sovereign will? How could He find fault with
me when everything is according to His sovereign will? Even salvation
and damnation. How could He find fault then?
Well, I'll tell you one thing. There's plenty of fault that
can be found with us, ain't there? And wait until the day of judgment.
There won't be a reprobate asking this question on the day of judgment,
smirking and saying, well, everything's working according to God's will.
He has a sovereign will. It don't matter what we do then,
does it? Everything is according to His sovereign will. But how's
He going to judge me? How's He going to find fault
with me? I'm just fulfilling His will. What was Paul's answer? What
was Paul's answer? Oh, man! Oh, you vile, wretched,
empty man! Who are you to reply and argue
and thus with the eternal, righteous God? Shall the fang? What are we? Shall the fang? That's all we are. Nothing and
less than nothing. Can any of us rise up and question
God's will? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why have you made me thus? Oh, this is a mystery, ain't
it? This is a mystery how God can bring this sovereign will
to pass and not be charged with sin or injustice. God forms the
clay, the vessels of mercy, and they will praise Him for it,
to the praise of the glory of His grace. And the vessels of
wrath will blame nobody but themselves. I know that much. I know there
are vessels of wrath, but I know this. They will lay not one charge
to God. He is a just God, isn't He? Abraham
said, The judge of all the earth must do right. And how He brings
all of this about, I have no idea. He's God. He's God. But to say He doesn't do it is
to deny His Godhead. To say He hasn't determined men's
destinies before time is to deny His sovereign will. He's done
it. I can't figure it out and you
can't figure it out, but He's done it, hasn't He? He's done
it. If He chose a great multitude to salvation, that means He passed
by the rest. And how does He deal with them
in their lifetime? Let me throw a big old wrench
in your little box, your little gearbox. How does God treat the
reprodate in his lifetime? How should you treat them? How
should I treat them? Oh, that Ishmael might live before
thee. That was a man praying for his
reprobate son that he knew was rejected. Oh, that Ishmael might
live! Is it lawful to pray for people
that we know probably are reprobates? Yes, it is. Yes, it is. My heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. Is it lawful
to pray? We do, don't we? We pray. Just
because the world's full of reprobates, no sign we don't pray for people. How should we feel about the
reprobates? Here's how Isaac felt about Esau. Isaac loved Esau. How should we feel about the
reprobate? Boy, here's one you're going to have trouble getting
your mind around. The Lord Jesus Christ walked out one day on
the Mount of Olives, overlooking Jerusalem, and the Bible says
He wept. He wept. How often I would have
taken you under my wings as a hen does her brood, and you would
not. Now, Bud, explain that. And explain
why the Son of God would stand there and weep over that bunch
of reprobates that was going to be destroyed. That's a mystery,
is it not? How does God treat the reprobate
sometimes? Well, sometimes He treats him
very well, doesn't He? Sometimes He gives him a lot. Remember the prayer of Abraham
for Ishmael? And here's the answer of God
to it. As for Ishmael, I have heard thy prayer. Behold, I have
blessed him. I will make him fruitful. I will
multiply him exceedingly. Twelve princes shall he begate,
I will make him a great nation." Esau's descendants enjoyed prosperity
and they had kings when Israel was down in bondage in Egypt. Isn't that amazing? Sometimes
it seems like God preaches the reprobate better than He does
if He selects people, doesn't He? Balaam, listen to this. Balaam was a reprobate. He's
one that God had passed by, denied him the blessings of salvation,
but God gave that man visions of the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he said, Boy, let me die
in the death of the righteous. Man, God would give a man visions
of reprobate? He did Him. Would God call a
man to preach and give him the gift of preaching? and then destroy
him at last because of his sins. Look at Judas. Judas was a reprobate. But the Lord Jesus said, Have
I not chosen you? You twelve and one of you is
a devil. He gave Judas the gift to cast out devils and the Bible
says he was a devil himself. He went and preached that men
should repent and he was without it himself. What might God give
a reprobate? How may the Lord treat him in
this life? May give him a lot and treat him very well. But
I'll tell you one of the things he refuses to give him, and that's
this salvation, this grace that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lazarus was a poor beggar full
of sores, but he was one of God's little loved ones. He was a blood-bought
child of God, loved of God. The rich man fared sumptuously
every day, and he was a reprobate. Paul, in his change, stood before
Agrippa, the king, on his throne. But who was loved of God, and
who was hated? The major difference is this.
Whatever good God does to the reprobate, it is temporal. However
God feels about him in the way of compassion, it is temporal.
The grace and gift of life is denied him. And whatever evil
the child of promise may suffer in this world, it's temporary. His eternal happiness is fixed. And it's fixed by the sovereign
will of God. And Christ has redeemed him.
And the Holy Spirit has regenerated him and will keep him. And heaven
will be his home at last. Now, brethren, I hope all of
you look at this chapter. I hope all of you have grace
to fellowship one with another. But if you want to fuss about
this, then keep it to yourself, okay? If you want to just read this
to fuss about it, then don't read it. There's one verse that
I was going to read, and it was this, over in James chapter 3.
I've got down to 14 or so. The wisdom that is from above
is peaceable and easy to be entreated. It's peaceable. Read this for
yourself and get it in your own heart and be at peace with yourself. And then if you can discuss it
and have fellowship in it, then discuss it. Then discuss it. No word of God should be denied
a discussion on. But there's no passage of Scripture
that has separated God's children like this passage right here.
No passage like this. All right? You say, Bruce, I still don't
understand that. Well, that's all I know about it. And
that's all I can tell you about it. I don't know any more about
it myself. But I tell you what, I can't dwell on it. If you want
somebody to dwell on this every service, you'll have to get another
pastor. I can't do it. It would break
my frame down. I just can't do it. I've got
to go over in Isaiah chapter 55 and say, Thus saith the Lord to the wicked,
Let the wicked turn from his wickedness, and let him turn
to Me, and I will abundantly pardon. I love that, don't you?
I love the passage where the Lord said, ìCome unto me, all
you that labor and are heavy laden, and Iíll give you rest.î
Boy, thatís what I need. Thatís what I need. God bless
this world.