Calvary church is
dedicated to doctrine. And we want you to experience
the life change that comes from knowing God's word
and applying it to your life. So we explain the
Bible verse by verse, every chapter, every book. This is Expound. Good evening. Great to see you,
especially on a day when the season can't decide
if it's spring or winter. And I think we've
had a little of both in the last couple of days. But it's nice and
warm in the fellowship of God's people in here. And we're glad that you could
make it for this midweek Bible study. A time when we plow through
the scriptures verse by verse, book by book. And we are in the
book of Romans. Jesus said to the religious
folks of his day-- he said, you error not
knowing the scriptures. And that's a mistake I don't
want any of us to make. We will error if we don't
know the scriptures. And so the commitment of our
staff, of this fellowship, of those in
leadership is that we would feed people all
of the word of God, all of the scripture-- what
Paul called in the book of Acts, the whole counsel of God. From Genesis to Revelation, see
how it applies to our lives. And we have finished Old
Testament books, two of them. And now we're in the New
Testament book of Romans. We're in chapter 9. So let's open our
Bibles to Romans 9, if you haven't already. You probably already have
in my little introduction. You're all ready to
go-- raring to go. Hopefully, you have even read
in advance Romans 9, 10, and 11. I trust that you
have or that you have a working knowledge of it. If not, doesn't matter, but
it's always better if you have. Anyway, shall we pray together? Father, thank you for
the hunger that we have that you have put
within us to know truth. To know your words of truth. Lord, I pray that as we
uncover this grand section of scripture, this unit,
in the book of Romans-- chapters 9, 10, and
11 or however far we make it tonight-- help us to not only understand,
but to rejoice in the fact that you are sovereign. And in your sovereignty
have elected us, chosen us in Christ, before
the foundations of the world. That's a truth we
will not fully grasp. Yet, it is a truth
that we can rejoice in. We can be thrilled about. Lord, I pray you will give
strength if we are weary. I pray that you will
give encouragement if we are downhearted. I pray that you will lift us up. I pray that you will provide
for the needs of your people. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, when we get to chapter 9,
as we dipped into it last time, we noticed a shift in Paul's
tone and Paul's emotion. In chapter 8, he's pretty high. He's pretty exuberant. What will separate us
from the love of Christ? And he lists several
possibilities and says, in all these things,
we are hupernikaó. We are more than conquerors. So it's a great,
awesome chapter. He's definitely pumped. He's definitely stoked. But when we get to chapter
9, there's a shift. He's broken hearted. He comes right out
of the chute, so to speak, expressing his
heartache over his own people and the lostness
of his own people. And how that he, himself,
could even say, look, I'm willing to be
a curse from Christ for my brethren,
the Jewish nation. So Paul is emoting quite
a bit in chapter 9. It's very personal to him
because of his background as a Jewish man. And so in chapter
9, 10, and 11 he speaks about Israel's
past, present, and future. Romans 8, their past-- or Romans 9, their past. Romans 10, the present. Romans 11, their future. I'm sure that many
of the Jewish people, especially those who had
known Paul personally, thought that Paul was a traitor. Because he is saying
that Christ is the end of the law to
everyone who believes. That the law served its purpose. It's done. And now Paul is running around
preaching to Jew and Gentile a law free gospel. Saying, we're not under the law. It's not about keeping the law. The law is over. It served its purpose. Now we are under a New
Covenant, the covenant of grace. I suppose if you
are Jewish and you heard Paul say that, you'd
think, the guy's a traitor. He left Judaism. He's gone off to
Gentile regions. He sold out. Remember when Paul wrote his
letter to the Philippian church and he gave his background? And he says that
I was circumcised on the eighth day of
the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin. A Hebrew of the Hebrews
concerning the law a ferrocene, concerning
Zeil, persecuting the church, concerning righteousness
which comes by the law. I was blameless. Then he said, all those things
that were once gain to me, I counted loss. For the excellence of the
knowledge of Jesus Christ and I do still-- I do count them as
rubbish, dung, scoobalawn-- a very strong word. That I might gain Christ. I'm willing to give it
all up to gain Christ. So Paul would have
been misunderstood. Therefore, he circles
back after having written what he has
written to underscore the idea, the fact, that God
is not done with the Jews as a nation. The Jewish people--
Israel as a nation-- as an ethnic group,
he's not done with them. They still are chosen. And he still has a plan
to incorporate salvation in and through
the Jewish nation. And that's why 9, 10, and 11
are very important chapters in the book of Romans. Over the years,
I've gotten letters from people who knew that I
had a Catholic background. And I got one several years ago. I was then approached
by somebody, locally, in another town up in Santa Fe. And then just-- the
week before last, I got another one
of these letters. And this was different, though
all three were different. But this was from a gal-- But they were, basically,
all the same thing saying, the Lord laid it on my
heart to write to you and tell you to return
to the Catholic church. And now, I don't
know in what capacity she thought I should return
to the Catholic church. Certainly, I
couldn't be a priest. Being married with an
adult son and grandchildren does pose an impediment
to that possibility. But she did say, you
could have a role as a deacon leading people
back to the true light in this church. Now I understand where
she is coming from. And part of me
wanted to write back a very loving, but forthright,
letter about truth. And even stir up a dialogue. But then I thought, how
profitable would that be? So I just read
that-- and the letter that I got a few years
back saying, basically, the same thing that
I should return. And I can only think
that some of them think that I must hate
the Catholic church. I don't hate them. I love them. My heart breaks for them. Who, like many of
the Jewish religion, believe that their
relationship to their church or with the Jews to their
synagogue is enough. And that that merits
their salvation. So I can relate a little bit
to Paul and his sentiment here. Now as we get into chapter 9,
10, and 11 there's something else you need to know. You know that Paul quotes
the Old Testament a lot when he writes his letters
in the New Testament. He was a rabbi. He knew the Old Testament. And in the book of Romans,
he does this quite a bit. He will often appeal
to Old Testament text. What's interesting is that half
of Paul's quotes in the book of Romans from the
Old Testament-- half of them are in
chapters 9, 10, and 11-- dealing with the Jewish people. He knows his audience. And also what's interesting
is 40% of those Old Testament quotes are taken from one
prophet, the prophet Isaiah. So in chapter 9, verse 1, "I
tell the truth in Christ"-- even though we dipped
into this we're going to go back,
take it as a unit. "I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience also bearing me
witness in the Holy Spirit. That I have great sorrow and
continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I,
myself, were a curse from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen,
according to the flesh." Here, when Paul is
speaking about Israel, he's speaking out about his
spiritual brothers and sisters, but his brothers and sisters
racially as Jewish people. He has sorrow in his heart. And he's going to
explain that sorrow. But the fact that
Paul says something that I don't know
that I could say-- he said, "I have great
sorrow that I could wish that I, myself, were
a curse from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen,
according to the flesh." Now, this reminds me of somebody
else in scripture, a guy by the name of Moses. Moses was up on Mount Sinai,
received the Ten Commandments directly from God. He's walking down all excited
to give the children of Israel the Ten Commandments. He looks down in
the camp and sees them getting into a
drunk, debauched state, dancing around a golden calf. He breaks the tablets
on the ground. Symbolic of the
fact that look, I haven't even given you the law,
and you've already broken it. Second Commandment-- you
will have no other gods or make no idols. First Commandment-- no other
gods before me, besides me. You've broken one and
two, and I haven't even delivered them to you. God, in effect, says,
Moses, stand aside. I'm just going to destroy them. I can raise you up to
lead a different nation. We'll start from scratch. Moses stepped in,
as an intercessor, and said Lord, forgive them. And if not, blot my
name out of your book that you have written. Now that's a kind of a love
that I don't relate to. As I look around
at my nation today, I don't think that
I could say Lord, you can just take salvation away
from me if you save my nation. I look at my nation,
thinking, you know what? They kind of made their
bed, let them sleep in it. They made their stupid
choices, let them live with it. That isn't the heart of Paul. And that certainly isn't
the heart of Jesus. And he said, I could wish that
I, myself, were estranged apart from Christ if it brought
salvation to my people. That's probably a very
strong figure of speech. I don't think Paul
really wished that he wouldn't be a saved person
or that would do anything. But he is expressing
a sentiment. And he says, verse 4,
"Who are Israelite's?" That is racially
the Jewish nation. Who are Israelite's? Not spiritual Israel,
literal Jewish people. "To whom pertain the adoption." The adoption is the
fact that they were called the children of Israel. God said, you are my
son, my firstborn. I chose you out of all the
other nations in the earth. They had a special relationship
as adopted, so to speak. God entered a
covenant with them. Of all the people in the
world, God chose them as his special nation. "To whom pertain the adoption." Next on the list, the glory. I think the glory was a
reference to the physical glory of God that was with
the children of Israel while they were going
from point A to point B-- going from Egypt into
the promised land. The presence of
God was with them. Every time they would
camp, every time they would move from the camp,
there was a visible sign of the glory of God. The shekinah-- the
shekinah-- glory of God. So during the day,
it was a cloud that hovered over
the camp of Israel, over the Tabernacle proper. At night, it was
a pillar of fire. So a built in
nightlight for 40 years. This kind of warm glow at
night outside your tent. You'd get up at night, you
couldn't sleep, you go outside, and the sky would be
glowing as a reminder that God is with
you in your midst. Then during the day-- and I got to tell you,
in the Sinai desert where you get--
especially in the heat of the day in the
summertime where it's like living in a tent
in Phoenix in the summer, to have a cloud covering you
in your encampment every day, that's pretty handy. It's pretty awesome. So it was something that
rested over the Tabernacle and, later on, entered into
the temple that Solomon built. But that was the glory of
God visible as a reminder of his presence with the people. So the Israelite's,
they're children of God in the Old Testament. The glory was committed to them. The covenant is
next on the list. God made a covenant with
Abraham for the land. God made a covenant with
Moses for the people. God made a covenant with
David for the kingdom and the Messiah. The giving of the law
is next on the list. God revealed himself through
the scriptures, through the law, through the prophets. The law is the Torah. The initial meaning of that
is the Ten Commandments. The broader meaning of that is
the first five books of Moses. The full extent of that is
the entire Old Testament scriptures, the Tanakh. God revealed himself through
the scriptures to them. Next is the service of God. That's something that means God
provided a means of approach to him by the service of the
priests in the Tabernacle and the temple, a
sacrificial system, prayers that were offered,
seasons of gathering and convocation during the year. All of that was the service
through the tribe of Levi, through the priest
and the high priest, so the God's people
could approach him. And the promises-- think of
all the incredible promises God gave to the Jewish nation. He promised them land. He promised them a kingdom-- something he has yet
still to fulfill. He promised them a Messiah. So he is listing the
benefits that God has given to his nation-- Paul a Jew, Hebrew of Hebrews. I belong to this nation. It's a special nation,
God picked them. And then notice, verse 5,
"Of whom are the fathers--" Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, patriarchs-- "and from whom, according
to the flesh Christ came." So he's the pinnacle of
all the promises God gave. He is the ultimate
Revelation that God gave to the Jewish nation. Through the Jewish nation
came the Jewish Messiah that we Gentiles are
worshipping, are following. It's important you realize
Jesus was a Jewish man. Jesus wasn't a Christian. He didn't go to church. He went to synagogue. He was dedicated in the temple. He was bar mitzvahed as
a son of the commandment. He said, I didn't come
to destroy the law. I came to fulfill the law. "Of whom are the fathers from
whom, according to the flesh, Christ came." And here's one of the strongest
affirmations of the fact that Jesus Christ is
God, the deity of Christ. Notice verse 5. "Of whom are the
fathers and from whom, according to the
flesh, Christ came." Notice who "is over all the
eternally blessed God, Amen." Now, that is a
perfect translation from the Greek
language of that verse. He is the eternally
blessed God, Amen. But "it is not that the word
of God has taken no effect, for they are not all
Israel who are of Israel. Nor are they all
children because they are the seed of Abraham." But, quoting now
scripture in Isaac, "your seed shall be called. That is, those who are
the children of the flesh. These are not the
children of God. But the children of the promise
are counted as the seed." So you know how Paul is writing. He's writing in a diatribe form. He is posing a
question as if he's sitting next to a
dissenter, somebody who would disagree with him. And he is supposing what
the disagreement might be. And then, after he brings
up the question, the issue, he then answers the question. "It is not that the word of
God has taken no effect." Somebody might say, you talk
about all the promises God made, since all
of Israel did not believe in Jesus but
the nation itself as a majority has rejected
Jesus as the Messiah, does their rejection
of Jesus as the Messiah mean that God's
promises have failed? That's where we
left off last week. We dealt with that
question and then closed. And what we said is this. Rejection by the majority
does not negate God's promise to the minority. There's always a
few who do believe. There's always a remnant
in the scripture. And he will hammer
this through chapter 9, that there is a
remnant who believe. Here's what we need to
understand about how God works. God gives not operate on
the basis of human relation. It's not who you're related to. Well, my parents were believers. My grandparents were Christians. Good. God has no grandchildren. God only has children. Are you a child of God? So God gives not operate on
that basis of human relation. God does not operate on the
basis of human perfection. It's not what you do to earn it. It's not your good works. It's not like you meet
a certain threshold, now, you've worked hard,
and you've earned it. So now God sort
of owes it to you. It doesn't work that way. God operates on the basis
not of human perfection nor of human relation,
but of divine election. He makes a sovereign choice. And he cites the
case of Ishmael, the firstborn of Abraham,
and Isaac, the second born. Though, before
Isaac was even born, God chose Isaac, not Ishmael. It was God's sovereign
choice before birth. He was the son of promise. Even though Sarah said
take my handmade, Hagar, I can't do this. I'm an old hen. I can't pull this off. So let's help God
out a little bit. You take my handmaiden, Hagar. You guys have a child. And we'll call
that God's promise. The firstborn-- that
child was Ishmael. Later on, God gave them the son
of promise, when Sarah became pregnant, and Isaac was born. That was the son of promise. And so it's interesting
when you read-- even the book of Genesis,
where God, in Genesis 22, says to Abraham, take now
your son, your only son Isaac. Wait a minute. Abraham said, he's
not my only son. I've got a son who's years old-- some say up to 30 years old. His name is Ishmael. But the son that God recognized
as the only son was the son God had promised in advance, Isaac. Take now your son,
your only son Isaac. So that is those who are
children of the flesh, verse 8. "These are not the
children of God, but the children of the
promise are counted as 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 Rebecca also conceived by one man--"
that would be Isaac-- "even by her Father, Isaac. For the children
not yet being born nor having done any good or
evil of that purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works but of him who calls. It was said to her,
the older shall serve the younger a it is written. Jacob I have loved,
but Esau I have hated." When Rebecca could
not have children-- she was unable to have kids. She was barren. Her husband, Isaac,
prayed, which is a good thing for
a husband to do. He prayed for his wife. And the Lord
answered his prayer. Rebecca became with child. And she was having a
difficult pregnancy. She didn't know why. And she complained
to her husband. And she goes, well, if
everything's all right with me, how come I'm having such a
hard time in my pregnancy? And so the Lord spoke to her
when they both prayed about it before the Lord. The Lord said two
nations are in your womb. In other words, you're
going to have twins. Two nations are in your womb. Two peoples will be
separated from your body. And the older shall
serve the younger. Now, God said that before
they were even born. God made the choice. God knowing what these
two kids would be like-- God has precognition. God knows all things in advance. God is omniscient,
he knows all things. And part of omniscience is
precognition, the ability to know things in advance. That's where
prophecy comes from. God knows it all,
so he predicts it. God knowing that to those two
children, Esau, the first born, wouldn't care about
spiritual things, wouldn't care about
family name, wouldn't care about his heritage,
could care less. Sold his birthright for a
little bit of red chili stew. But God also knew
that Jacob would be interested in that
blessing, would be interested in spiritual things. And so God made a choice in
advance, having precognition, knowing all things, the older
is going to serve the younger. Now, in both of these cases,
you have God making a choice. And in both of these cases,
it's not the first born. It's the second born
that takes the blessing of the family, which was against
all Semitic sensibilities. There was a law, not
just among the Jews, but all Semitic peoples
of ancient times-- we would call it the
law of primogeniture. Which means the first
born gets the blessing. The first born takes
the family inheritance. The first born is the priest
of the family, et cetera. God broke that rule. He said, the older is
going to serve the younger. The younger one is the
one that I have chosen. Now, he's going
somewhere with this. We do, though, have to remark
on verse 13 because this bothers a whole lot of people. "As it is written--" now,
he's quoting Malachi, not Genesis here. So this is the last book
of the Old Testament. So these two kids
have been born. They've had children. They've developed nations
already by this time. So verse 13 says, "as it is
written, Jacob I have loved. But Esau, I have hated." Now, that does
bother some people. It used to bother me a lot. How could God say that? Here's what you
need to understand. He is not writing this. This prophecy is not
about Jacob and Esau. But the descendants of
Jacob and Esau who had developed into nations-- the nation of Israel
versus the nation of Edom, that hated the Jews, that fought
against the Jews, that attacked the Jews, that rejoiced when the
Jews went captive into Babylon. So as God is writing about their
descendants he says, "Jacob, I have loved. Esau, I have hated." He's speaking here about
national election-- national election. One day, a student of
Charles Hadden Spurgeon's, in Spurgeon's pastors
college, went up to him and he was grimacing
in his face. And he said, Mr
Spurgeon, I'm really having a problem with a passage
out of Romans, chapter 9. And he quoted this verse. "Jacob, I have loved. Esau I have hated." He said, I really am
struggling with the fact that God said
Esau, I have hated. And Spurgeon looked at
him and said, you know, I too have had problems
with that verse. Except my problem is a
little bit different. I don't understand why it
says Jacob, I have loved. That's what I'm
having problems with. I know about Jacob. And the fact that God
says, I really love Jacob, it's like man-- I also have problems
with this verse. Verse 12, "The older
will serve the younger. The premise of that is
in the previous verse, "that the purpose of God
according to election might stand." Now, the idea, the teaching,
the doctrine of election-- God sovereignly choosing
people to be saved is one of the hardest
teachings, doctrines, you will ever confront. I don't know if you've
wrestled with it. Most thinking Christians
have wrestled with it. It's a tough, hard principle. On one hand, we are told to
make a choice to choose God. Choose this day
whom you will serve. Whosoever will, let him come. Believe is the appeal--
believe, receive. We're told to make a choice. On the other hand, we are told
that God has already chosen. We are chosen in
Christ for salvation before the foundation
of the world. So we have a problem with that. Now, I have not
unraveled the mystery. I am not here to
give the final answer so you'll walk away going,
oh, good, I'm satisfied now. No matter what I say,
no doubt, you and I will still wrestle with it. But both are true. Both principals operate
at the same time. Now, I'll give you
an example of how that works in an earthly level. The FAA, the Federal
Aviation Administration-- that's the FAA? They have determined
that on a certain date, at a certain time, of
flight will leave New York City to London, England. It's in the books. You can go on your
computer-- you can see that the plan
has already been made. The departure time, the
estimated arrival time, the coordinates, the route,
it's all determined in advance. Yet, you can choose if you want
to be aboard that plane or not. And all the people
aboard that plane, they don't have to be there. It's not like somebody
woke up and said, you have to go to England today. You have no choice. No, they've made a
choice to buy a ticket. Not only that, you can
choose what part of the plane you want to sit in. If you've got money to burn,
you want to sit in first class all the way to England-- it's a nice ride. You have a little bit less, you
might prefer business class. Your business may
provide that for you. Or you want to save money and
you get it well in advance, you get a economy class. And you can even choose if
you want to sit on the aisle or you want a window seat. You're not going to
choose a middle seat, but that could be chosen for
you if you don't make the choice far enough in advance. But you have certain
parameters of your own choice. Then, you can choose, once
you're aboard the flight, if you want to eat or not,
listen to music or not, watch a movie or not,
talk to people or not. You are operating within the
parameters of human choice, even though you're on
a predetermined flight. So you have both something
predetermined and selected in advance, cooperating
with your decision. So things like that
happen all the time. When it comes to salvation, God
has made a choice to pick you. Now, you can get
bummed out about that. You can wrestle with that. And I've seen people
irate because of that. And my reaction to
them is I don't know why you're upset about that. I'm thrilled at that. You know what that means? It means God chose me. I'm on the winning team. I don't go, I'm so bummed
out God chose me in advance. Think how elated
the disciples were when Jesus said to
them one day-- now, these disciples had
chosen to follow Jesus. They had chosen to give
up their nets, chosen to give up their fishing
career, and follow him. And one day he turns to them
and said, you didn't choose me. I chose you, and ordained you
that you should bring forth fruit. And that your fruit
should remain. He not only said that
I chose you before, but he guaranteed the success
of their future ministry in those words. Boy, that's thrilling. So you walk up to a gate and
the gate says, whosoever will, let them come. You go, well,
that's interesting. I'm up for that. I'll choose to go in. You open the gate. You walk in. The gate closes behind you. You look back and
the inside sign of the door you just
voluntarily opened says chosen in Christ before
the foundations of the world. And then you find a table
with your name tag at it. And you go wow, I made
the choice to come in. Yet it seems like I have been
chosen to be here all along. It's a marvelous mystery. It is a mystery,
but both are true. You must choose. You are not drawn
irresistibly to God. You have no choice
in the matter. You do have a choice
in the matter. But God chose you in advance. What shall we say then verse 14? Is there unrighteousness
with God? Certainly not. For he said to Moses, "I
will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy. And I will have
compassion on whomever I will have compassion. So then it's not of him who
wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the scripture says to
Pharaoh, even for this purpose, I have raised you up. That I might show
my power in you. That my name might be
declared in all the earth. Therefore, he has
mercy on whom he wills and whom he wills he hardens." The next illustration Paul
uses is Moses and Pharaoh. Two men-- both sinners,
both murderers, both had seen the marvels
of God in their midst. One is saved, one is not. God chose Moses to
lead his people. God chose his people
to inherit a new land. Now, something I
want you to notice. In verse 15, he
says to Moses, "I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. I will have
compassion on whomever I will have compassion." He's quoting from Exodus 33. You need to understand
the context of Exodus 33. As soon as the
children of Israel we're dancing around that
golden calf, which I just mentioned to you, and
God said move aside. I'm going to wipe them out,
destroy them, and start a whole new nation. Moses intervened and said, no. After that, after
Moses' prayer, God said, I will have mercy on
whoever I will have mercy. I will have compassion whoever
I will have compassion. In other words,
I'm going to have compassion on these people. And if you know the story,
a plague swept through. God stopped the plague. Instead of wiping
all of them out-- 3,000 died, but not
all of them died. All of them deserved
death because all of them were engaged in idol worship. But God was merciful to his
people during that incident. So I think Paul is bringing
it up because somebody said, it's not fair that
God should choose people to be saved
and have compassion on one and not another. So he says, OK, so if you are
having trouble and balking at the fact that God is
merciful and compassionate, then you have to
realize that God was merciful and
compassionate to you. He should have destroyed
all y'all, and he didn't. He had mercy on you. He was compassionate on you. Now what do you say? Well, I'm glad he did. Yeah, exactly. So that is the incident
that he uses as an example. Verse 17, "For the
scripture says to Pharaoh, even for this purpose
I have raised you up. That I might show
my power in you. That my name might be
declared on all the earth. Therefore, he has
mercy on whom he wills and whom he wills he hardens." If you are familiar
with the Book of Exodus, I'm just guessing that you
are, we are told in that book that God hardened
Pharaoh's heart. Do you remember reading that? You read that and you
go, that's horrible. So it's God's fault.
No, because if you would have read from
the beginning it says, Pharaoh hardened
his own heart first. There's about 20 instances
in the Book of Exodus where it says that pharaoh's
heart was hardened. About half the time, Pharaoh
hardens his own heart. The other half, God hardens it. Two different words are used. One is a voluntary, I want
nothing to do with God. I want nothing to do
with his revelation. I'm going to do
what I want to do. That's personal hardness. That's choice. And then it says,
God hardened it. It's a different word. It means he affirmed it
or he firmed up his heart. He firmed it. He made it firmer. So here's the principle. Whatever choice you make,
God will firm that choice up. If it's a choice for him,
he will firm your heart. He'll harden your heart in
your desire to be owned by him, controlled by him,
submitted to him. He'll firm that up. If you harden against him, he'll
harden your heart against him. He will-- it's a bad analogy. It's like poker. I see your five. I raise you ten. I see your hardness. I raise you a little bit harder. I'm going to harden my heart. OK, I'm going to make it firm. I'm going to soften my
heart and open it up to you. OK, I'm going to
firm that decision. So one is personal, your choice. The other a sovereign,
God's choice. Both are true. "Therefore, he has
mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens. You will say to me then,
why does he still find fault for who has resisted as will?" So if God is hardening
my heart, then how can God charge me for
having a hard heart? Even though we
just explained how he can do that because Pharaoh
hardened his heart first. "But indeed, oh man, who are
you to reply against God? Will the thing formed
say to him who formed it, why have you made me like this? Does not the potter
have power over the clay from the same lump to
make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to show his
wrath to make his power known, endured with much long
suffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?" Yeah, it says God firmed up or
made hard the heart of Pharaoh. But think how long God was
patient with that bonehead. Who is the Lord that I
should obey him, he said. He was just so
flagrantly in God's face as a rebel for a long time. God put up with him
a long, long time. "That he might make known
the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which
he had prepared beforehand for glory. Even us, whom he called, not
of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles." Now, back to this
whole election thing. If people hear about that and
they're not following Christ, they might, like the dissenter
Paul uses, in an imaginary way, say something like, well,
maybe God didn't choose me. What if God didn't
choose me for salvation? How can he blame me then? How could he send me to hell
since he didn't choose me? Well, that's an
interesting objection. Because the Bible says
whosoever will, let him come. Whoever wishes, let him drink
of the water of life freely. There's a lot of whomever's
or whosoever's in the Bible. There's lots of appeal
for you to make a choice. To change your
future trajectory. So I would tell
somebody who says maybe God didn't choose me-- I'd say, well, maybe he didn't. But do you want to be saved? Do you want your sins forgiven? Do you want to spend eternity
with God forever in heaven? I don't know. Do you want to commit
your life to Christ? Do you want to right now--
let's pray right now. You can repent right now. And everything can
change for you. Your name can be written
in God's book of life. You can be a forgiven sinner. You can walk out
of here with joy. I don't know. I don't think so. I don't want that. OK, your choice. Maybe God didn't choose you. Well, that's not fair. Well, then if it's not fair, I
can prove that God chose you. Turn your life over to Christ. Choose him and
you will discover, like the disciples who
chose to follow Jesus, you didn't choose him. He chose you. No, I don't want that. Maybe you're right, maybe
God didn't choose you. But you can't use that as
an excuse when God says whoever will, let him come. So come-- do something about it. Make a choice. Do it tonight. Don't let another day
go by apart from Christ. But you can't stand before God--
if you think you'll be able to stand before God
and say not fair-- Paul sort of brings it down
to this answer and says, who are you to
say to the potter? You're a lump of clay. Who are you to say to
the potter not fair? Remember when God
told Jeremiah-- he said, Jeremiah go down
to the house of the potter and watch the potter
work on his wheel. And I will reveal my
word to you there. So he goes down, he sees the
potter working on a jar of some kind-- some kind of a vessel-- and he goes, as I was
watching the potter, the vessel was marred
in the potter's hands. So the potter, rather
than throwing the clay and discarding it, he
reshaped it, reformed it because it was marred, and
shaped it into something different. Now that's a picture of the
mercy and compassion of God. Because what causes a
clay pot to be marred? A lump. It's hardened. It's stiffened. There's a lump in it. And so when the wheel
is turning around and he puts his thumb or
hand on it to shape it, that lump will dig
out and leave a scar. It'll be marred. Now the potter could say,
this stupid bunch of clay, and toss it away. But clay costs money
and takes time to act. So he just will add water,
resoften it, work out that stiffness,
make it malleable, and shape something he wants to. God says, this is like
the children of Israel. Instead of discarding
the nation, he'll reshape the nation. He'll rework the nation. So think of God's-- every flaw that you had he
goes, I'm done with you, forget you, get out of here. You're not going to heaven. Like Santa Claus, having
a list, checking it twice. Aren't you glad that
he is patient enough to be merciful and gracious. And though you are marred,
he reshapes and reworks for his glory. As he says, verse
25, also in Hosea, "I will call them my people,
who were not my people and her beloved, who
was not beloved." Now, you remember the
book of Hosea, right? Hosea married a wife
by the name of Gomer. Not a great name,
not a great wife. She was a prostitute. God said, go down and
marry a prostitute. And so they got married. They had a few kids. First born boy
was named Jezreel. Second born daughter
was Lo-Ruhama. And then he said the third
born son, when the third born son was born, the name
was given to him, Lo-Ammi, which means not mine
or not my people. And God was working
out an analogy through the life of
Hosea, the prophet, of how he dealt with
the people of Israel. So here you have
a prophet and God says, OK, I've got a tough
assignment for you, dude. Marry a prostitute,
knowing that she's going to go out on you after
you have kids in the marriage. She's going to
leave the marriage and go back to prostitution. And when she does that, here
you are at home with the kids. Your wife has left you and
gone to be a prostitute again. Go take money with you to
the house of prostitution and buy her back to you again. Well, that's a tough assignment. I don't want to be a
prophet and do that. I don't want that job. That was Hosea's life. And Hosea was
demonstrating that that's what God would do with
his people Israel. And in the place where it was
said, you are not my people, the book of Isaiah said,
you shall be called ahme, my people-- mine,
you belong to me. So that's a summary
of that book. So he quotes that. "I will call them my people." And he says that
regarding Jew and Gentile, according to verse 24. "And her beloved,
who was not beloved. And it shall come to pass in the
place where it was said to them you are not my
people, they will be called sons of the living God." So he cites Hosea, the prophet. Now, he cites
Isaiah, the prophet-- Isaiah chapter 10. Isaiah also cries out
concerning Israel. "Though the number of
the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea,
the remnant will be saved." There's that principle again. "Rejection by the majority
does not negate God's promise to the minority." A few people will be saved. A remnant will be saved. Some will believe. "So although the number
of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the
sea, the remnant will be saved. For he will finish the work and
cut it short in righteousness because the Lord will make a
short work upon the earth." Now, I can't be sure,
but in part, Paul may have been looking
also to the future. Even if he wasn't,
John certainly had the advantage of
writing about the future in the book of Revelation. In the book of Revelation, you
have a remnant of Jewish people who are sealed in the
tribulation period. There are 15 million Jews
right now on the earth. A very small remnant,
144,000, of them, according to the
book of Revelation, will be sealed and
protected during that time of future judgment
upon the earth. A remnant-- a small group. That's always a remnant. Verse 29, "And as
Isaiah said before, unless the Lord of Sahbalt
had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom. We would have been
made like Gomorrah. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who did
not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness
even the righteousness of faith." Sort of like the second born. In the law of primogeniture,
the second born isn't the one chosen. But in Isaac's case and
in Jacob's case, it was. We shouldn't have been
chosen, but we are. God made us his people. "We've attained
righteousness of faith. But Israel, pursuing the
law of righteousness, has not attained to the
law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not
seek it by faith. But as it were, by
the works of the law. For they stumbled at
that stumbling stone as it is written. Behold, I lay in Zion
a stumbling stone, a rock of a fence, and
whoever believes on him will not be put to shame." Now if you're wondering, what
on earth does that all mean-- what he just said? Israel pursuing the
law of righteousness, hasn't attained
to righteousness. OK, he explains that. I'm glad you asked that. Verse 1, chapter 10, "Brethren
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is
that they may be saved. But I bear them witness that
they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they--" here's the answer. "For they, being ignorant
of God's righteousness and seeking to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted to the
righteousness of God." There are two
religions in the world. You say, Skip, you
need a math class. There are far more
religions than two. No-- If you boil all
belief systems down, you have only two
approaches to God. Two religions in all the world. The first is the religion
of human achievement. The second is the approach
or, you might call it, the religion of
divine accomplishment. Most all religions in the world
fall in the first category. You are saved by
something you do. OK, God opened the door,
but you earn your salvation. You achieve certain things. The Jews had a system
of righteousness, a system of sacrifices. They would pray. They would pray
three times a day. They would fast a
few times a week. They would tithe. And all of that was a means by
which they were earning favor with God. Jesus even gave a
parable of that. Luke, chapter 18, he said
two men went up to the temple to pray, one a pharace,
the other a tax collector. The pharace stood and
prayed, thus with himself. Lord, I thank you that
I am not like other men, unjust, extortioners,
adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of
all that I possess. He is boasting of
what he had done. And so whenever you
have a righteousness that you concoct, or conduct,
or perform by yourself, that is, by definition,
self-righteousness. A self-righteous
person is a person who is righteous by him or herself. They've done things. They've earned things. But then, there's the only
approach that God will receive, and that is divine
accomplishment. It's where you come
and you say, nothing in my hand I bring, simply
to thy cross I cling. You realize, I
can't save myself. I can't add to my salvation. I can't earn my salvation. It's only by the grace of God. It's a gift that I received. All have sinned and fallen
short of the glory of God, but he gives a grace. He's willing to
give you salvation if you just believe in him. It's not faith plus
continued faithful membership in a certain church. It's faith plus nothing. No, it's faith plus baptism. No, it's not. Because if it's
faith plus baptism, now it's faith plus a work
that you have performed-- your work of baptism. When Jesus was on
the cross and he said to the thief next to
him who evidently believed in him, made some kind
of utterance of belief, Jesus said, today, you will
be with me in paradise. He didn't say, buddy boy,
once you've been baptized and establish membership
in a local church, proving yourself faithful,
then and only then will you be with me in paradise. First of all, the
man's on a cross, he's going to be dying soon. He can't do anything at all. And he really didn't need
to do anything at all. Jesus was doing it all for him. The cross was at all. He did it all. And so that simple act of
faith, that simple utterance of faith-- today, you will be
with me in paradise. But, "They being ignorant
of God's righteousness and seeking to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted to the
righteousness of God." We need to look at the
next verse as we close. "For Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." It's over. The covenant of the law,
the covenant under Moses-- it's over. It ran its course. It's done. God promised, through the
Prophet Jeremiah, behold, I will establish
a New Covenant-- in chapter 31 of
that book-- a New Covenant with the
House of Israel. Not like the old one-- I'll write my law
in their hearts. It'll be a covenant of
faith, not of works, not of sacrifices, not praying,
or fasting, or tithing, but just believing in Jesus. Now, we have a moment, so
I'll dip back into verse 2. And next time we're
together I'll just take all of chapter 10. I did have the intention
of going through chapter 10 tonight. But you're not surprised
that we didn't make it. No, I'll save those
remarks for next week because our time really is up. Father, thank you for
what you have given. It couldn't have been given
unless Jesus had given it all 2,000 years ago on a cross. That act, that event
is so monumental. So unique in time and space
that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. If we confess with our mouth,
if we believe in our heart, that God raised
Jesus from the dead, as Paul said in chapter
10, we will be saved. Lord, we can't be
righteous by ourself because there's not
enough we could ever do. There's not enough righteousness
we could ever produce. There's not enough goodness
we could ever manufacture. If we spent 24 hours a
day, seven days a week our entire life
being perfect, still wouldn't be enough
to merit being in your Holy perfect presence. But you've made a way
where there is no way. And by your sovereign
choice, you have elected us. And we chose to cooperate
with your choice of us. And so we don't rebuff or
have a hard time with it. We rejoice. We're so stoked
that you picked us. We're your kids. We're part of the Covenant. We've been adopted,
sons and daughters. Were in the family. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen. [MUSIC PLAYING] For more resources from Calvary
Church and Skip Heitzig, visit calvarynm.church. Thank you for joining us from
this teaching in our series Expound.
