Listen
Transcript
I want to begin this morning by trying to put Romans 9 in the context of Romans 8.
For many years I was personally of the opinion that Romans 9, 10 and 11 were sort of a section
of Scripture all by themselves unrelated to either Romans 8 that precedes it or Romans
chapter 12 that follows it. I now see that that is not the case. I still believe it is a
separate segment of Scripture. It deals with the issue of the Jewish people and the issue
of the Gentiles that are being brought into the church, but far from being unrelated to
the passages that preceded it follows on the heels of what Paul has been trying to teach
us in Romans chapter 8. Let's take a few moments and just quickly review where Romans
chapter 8 ended. Romans chapter 8 you will recall deals with a great theme of the sovereignty
of God. How do we know that in light of the tribulations and the distress and the persecution
and the nakedness and the famine and all of the difficulties that we encounter in this
pilgrim journey, how do we know that we are going to arrive in glory against all the
opposition of hell. The answer to this Paul you will recall is the sovereignty of God.
We don't make it to glory because we are so smart wise intelligent or because we chose
to follow God. If we make it to glory, we make it to glory because before the foundation
of the world, God chose us to be His own. Call us to faith, work salvation into our lives,
and the God who began a good work in us will also bring it to completion on the day of
Jesus Christ. That's why Paul can say nothing but nothing will separate us from the love
of God. So Romans chapter 8 talks about the certainty of salvation, the fact that when
God enters into covenant with His elect people, He will take them by the hand and He will
bring them to glory. That as I said is what Paul talks about in Romans chapter 8. Now
you can well imagine that if you put yourself in the shoes of the people to whom Paul was
writing, Christians enroll many of whom were from Jewish background, that immediately
raises a very significant question in the back of their minds. What about all the Jewish
people? After all, the Jewish people are the descendants of Abraham. And through Abraham,
God entered into covenant with all of the Jewish people. That's why Paul begins this
chapter by saying they are the Israelites. To them belong the sonship, the glory, the
covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs
and of their race according to the flesh is the Christ God who is overall be blessed forever.
That Paul goes on to say the bulk of these Jewish people, members of a covenant that God
made with Abraham so many years ago have hardened their hard to faith, only a remnant
has embraced Jesus and come to salvation. The bulk of them have rejected Jesus Christ
and according to Paul's gospel, unless they repent are going to be lost forever. So the
big question that Paul deals with in this and following chapters then is the question,
how can you say God is faithful to his promises? When he seems to have made this promise with
Abraham and his descendants and now he allows the vast majority of the Jewish people to
be lost because they hardened their hearts and he fills their places with Gentiles who
was far as the Jewish people were concerned were not part of that original covenant that
God made with Abraham. So the issue is, is God true to his word? Can I really trust God
to take me and bring me to glory when he didn't bring all of the Jewish people to glory?
That as I say is the issue that Paul addresses in Romans 9, 10 and 11 and he begins in verse 6
by defending the integrity of God. It is not as though the word of God had failed. Paul says
whatever it looks like, however inconsistent God seems to be to his promises,
fact of the matter is God never lies. It is not as though the word of God had failed.
And then he goes on in this next paragraph to give us two reasons why it is not the word of God
that is failed but it's our understanding of the word of God that is limited and that's what
gets us into trouble. Number one, not all the children of Abraham are Abraham's children.
Not all the children of Abraham are Abraham's children. It sounds funny when you put it that way
but that's what he says. Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel
and not all are children of Abraham because they are his descendants but through Isaac
shall your descendants be named. Not all are children of Abraham because they are his descendants
but through Isaac shall your descendants be named. What is he saying? Well he is saying that when
God entered into covenant with Abraham and with his descendants, God never intended to include
into that all of the children of Abraham because you see Abraham if you go back to the Old Testament
had more children of course than Isaac. There was Ishmael born of Heigar but later on after
Sarai died he also married a woman called Katura and had a whole bunch of sons by her. And Paul
here is telling us that the covenant that God made with Abraham and with his descendants
focused on Isaac and those who would be born through Isaac and Paul uses that argument in his
passage to indicate that just because people are born physically from Abraham that does not mean
they share in the blessings of Abraham. They only share in the blessings of Abraham if they have
been born through this spirit. That's why he goes on to say in verse 8 this means he wants to
spell it out for us it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God but the
children of the promise who are reckoned as descendants for this is what the promise said about
this time I will return and Sarai shall have a son not the children of the flesh or the children
of God but the children of the promise are reckoned as his descendants and to summarize that again
what he is really saying is that just because a person is a physical Jew born of Abraham's family
that does not mean that they are spiritually heirs to the promises that God has made.
The only way that you become heir to the covenant that God has made with Abraham
is by being born a new spiritually because that's what Isaac represents. Isaac represents
being born of the spirit whereas Ishmael represents being born of the flesh and the modern
day equivalent of this would be this just because you and I are born into a Christian family
and have perhaps a whole godly ancestry and maybe have gone to church all our lives
doesn't make us a part of the family of God you only become part of the family of God
by being born a new spiritually and both Jew and Gentile that have received the touch of the
spirit of God are reckoned to be the spiritual descendants of Abraham children born according
to promise. You can see why I had some hesitation preaching on this this morning
just because you're born of the flesh does not make you a believer a person is only a believer
if they have been born and new by the spirit of God. So Paul says when God made a covenant with Abraham
he never said that every Jew would enter into glory. He said only the Jews born through Isaac
spiritually reborn would become the children of God they are the elect whom God takes with him
into glory that he goes on to spell that out even further and he gives us a second explanation
of how this whole process works because now he goes on to say that just because a person is physically
descended from Isaac that also doesn't mean that you automatically enter into glory because he
says even there there is operative this process of election concerning which he has been speaking
listen carefully to verse 10 and not only Saul but also in Rebecca that is of course Isaac's
wife had conceived children by one man or forefather Isaac though they were not yet born
and had done nothing either good or bad in order that God's purpose of election might
continue not because of works but because of his call she was told the elder will serve the younger
as it is written Jacob I loved but he saw I hate it that's a quotation from Melachi
Melachi chapter one and the context of that book it deals with the nation of the Edamites who were
descended from Saul as opposed to the nation of Israel and the context of that passage it refers
to the fact that God chose the nation of Israel but not the nation of Edam but the way that Paul is
using it here he is using it from the point of view of individual election notice again carefully
how he puts it though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad in order
that God's purpose of election might continue not because of works but because of his call she was
told the elder will serve the younger as it is written Jacob I loved but he saw I hate it
traditionally that's been known as the doctrine of election or the doctrine of predestination
it's a doctrine that says out of a whole human world a fallen sinful mankind God in his sovereign
love reaches down into that world and he chooses his own people to eternal life not because they're
better than anybody else not because there is something inherent within them that makes them worthy
of that choice but in sovereign choice God chooses his own while he leaves in their scene all the
rest of humanity Jacob I loved but he saw I hate it now you can well imagine what a terribly
frustrating and annoying doctrine that is for people because everything inside us
cries out and says God that's not fair why do you pick the one but you don't pick the other
everything inside says God there is an injustice on your part that's not the way the game ought to be
weighed and Paul ever the consummate teacher always predicting the questions and the objections
that arise from the people with whom he is communicating now begins to address that issue in verse 14
he says what shall we say then he uses that phrase all the time in the book of Romans it's like
he's arguing with the people that he is writing to what shall we say is there injustice
on God's part is God playing favourites is God unfair with his people
is answer Megan Oito by no means may it never be it can possibly be but the God of the universe who
prides himself on righteousness and holiness could ever do an injustice and then he goes on to explain
for he says to Moses I will have mercy in whom I will have mercy I will have compassion on whom I
have compassion so it depends not upon man's will or exertion but upon God's mercy for the
scripture says to Pharaoh I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you
so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth so then he has mercy up on whoever he
wills and he hardens the heart of whomever he wills he has mercy on whomever he wills
and he hardens the heart of whomever he wills the emphasis here is on the sovereignty of God
God being the almighty God the almighty creator of the universe can do whatever it is that he
wants to do with any of his creatures people have difficulty with the doctrine of election because
if you start with the idea that somehow any of us deserve salvation and God only picks out one and
he doesn't pick out the other then you can help but think the whole process is very unfair
but if you come at it from the other angle from which the Bible approaches this whole issue
then the Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God
all of us have deserved hell in condemnation because we are all rebels at heart
inclined to hate both God and our neighbors as our Catechism
and if God should come along in his own sovereign choice and pick out the one
and leave the other in their sin that is not an injustice on the part of God because God as the
part or can do with the clay that which he wants to and so the issue is one of recognizing by faith
that God is just God is holy God is righteous and God can do what he wants to do
and there is no injustice on the part of God because any salvation that God exercises
is his own privilege and his own sovereign right he has mercy on whom he will have mercy
and he will harden the heart of whoever he will and you know people don't have so much trouble
with God showing mercy to those whom he wants to show mercy what people have so much trouble
with in this passage and why this passage has been so controversial in the history of the Christian
Church is that when you read it superficially you get the idea there that that God does the hardening
of the heart the doctrine that often in our tradition has been called the doctrine of reprobation
a one that says God not only chooses people to life but he also condemns people to hell
and then you get into the whole big question of what choice does anybody have if God's already
decided that's where you're going to go and that's the problem that a lot of us have had growing
up when we learned about these kinds of things we said well well it seems so totally unfair
what choice does anybody have if God hardens their heart and then of course the example that
people always bring up is poor old feral poor soul never had a chance God hardened his heart
and it's true when you read this passage superficially and when you read it in isolation from
the rest of scripture that's what Paul seems to be saying but if you read it in the broader context
of the scriptures then you discover that the hardening of heart of which the scripture speaks
is not something that God does apart from what already lives in the heart of the people that
have chosen to reject him because as I said the argument is well God comes along hardens your heart
what chance have you ever got to come to salvation and the rest of scripture teaches that God has
a genuine call of salvation to all the people that ever lived and anybody that repents and comes
to faith nobody God will turn away and when the day of eternity dawn nobody is going to wake up
in hell saying to themselves I had no choice but to go this way because God destined that I would
burn in the fire of hell you don't find that in the scriptures what you find in the scriptures
is that when people wake up in hell they wake up in hell because they hardened their heart stubbornly
and rebelliously against God and then when it became evident that there was nothing they
wanted to do with God God gives them over to their sin God hardens their heart so that in the
hardness of their heart he can demonstrate his justice and his judgment and his mercy and demonstrate
his defense of those who are righteously his who are being persecuted by the on meches the classic
example of that is Pharaoh it's the example that Paul refers to I have raised you up for this very
purpose of showing my power in you so that my name may be proclaimed at all the earth I said a
few moments ago hundreds of believers throughout all of the years in their heart of hearts they
felt sorry for poor old Pharaoh God hardened his heart poor Pharaoh had no choice in the matter
that's not true you go back to the Old Testament and you discover that for every verse that says
God hardened Pharaoh's heart there is an equivalent verse that says Pharaoh hardened his
heart as a matter of fact during the first five plagues Pharaoh hardened his own heart the
Bible either says Pharaoh hardened his heart or that his heart was hardened then when it becomes
evident that Pharaoh wants nothing to do with God doesn't acknowledge him doesn't want to bow
before him doesn't want to yield before God in spite of all the evidence that is coming against it
the Bible says God comes along and he hardens Pharaoh's heart brings out all the rebellion that is
inside so that when God moves in judgment the whole world can see what God's going to do
for people that don't want to obey God and that want to go that roadway God says I'm the
potter you are the clay I can do with my creation what it is that I want to do with my creation
but God says it's not that I don't give people a choice in the matter it's that given a choice
people refuse to go my way I give them over to their hardness of heart and so here's how the
doctrine of election works I believe biblically and we need to understand that it's something that
dwells in the heart of God in eternity past and if God has set his seal of love and approval on you
then when the gospel is proclaimed and the word of God comes to you God provides you with faith
you hear the word you respond to the word you begin leaving it out and the doctrine of election
in the scriptures is never intended to be sort of a cosmic dice game of any meany mindy mo you're
going to make it and you're not going to make it it's always used in the scriptures as a word of
comfort to those who have come to Christ as a matter of fact if you're not in Christ then the
stuff that we're talking about this morning doesn't even make begin to make sense to you
because it can only be experienced from the point of view of salvation and it's a word of comfort
to God's children so that when you and I face the difficulties of life the weaknesses of
their own hearts the temptations that come out our way when everything inside us is I'm never
never going to make it God says don't you worry one little bit I'm bigger than everything I'll
hold on to you and I will bring you to glory as you keep on looking to me that's how election
is used in the scriptures and for those who are not elect that non-election surfaces
in their own human response to God's word God's words proclaimed the truth is laid before people's
eyes and like feral of all they hear it but something inside them says who is the Lord God that I
should listen to him I want to do what I want to do sometimes when the pressure of God is on
their lives they'll even momentarily repent they'll even momentarily say all right God have a
your way but in their heart hearts they're still stubborn and the moment the pressure is off the
old self is back full of pride and full of arrogance full of concede running their own way head
on against God and against the purposes of God and God is so patient he just lets them go for a
long long time but Paul says there comes a day when God's patience is done and he gives them up
to their hardness of heart and when God gives you up to the hardness of your heart everything that
is inside you now becomes a way of life and with conviction and with determination you go your own
way I already said feral was an example he saw as the same kind of thing
he saw I have hated but why did he saw lose the blessing because God didn't want to give it to him
no he saw was a carnal man he saw was a man who loved his food he saw was a man who despised
spiritual things he wasn't interested in pie and the sky and the sweet pie and by he wanted life
and he wanted it now and so when he came back from his little hunting expedition and
he was hungry and he saw Jacob mailing making that that bowl of potty piece or lentil soup it was
and Jacob negotiated with him for the birthright
he saw the Bible says despised his birthright because he was more interested in getting his
immediate needs mad than he was interested in being chosen of God to be God's people
and so again he saw lost the blessing not because he had no choice but because he rebelliously chose
to go his own way and the same thing is true concerning the nation of Israel the bulk of them
Paul says they have not chosen to believe why not because God didn't give them a chance you
betcha God gave them a chance sent them prophets sent them Jesus signs and miracles to validate the
work of God God always validates his work with signs and with miracles didn't fit their ideas
of how life ought to be run rolls up against the son of man and rebellion demonstrated their
hardness of heart and that became the evidence of their status before God you see then how critical
and how crucial it is for us to have a correct heart response to the gospel the doctrine of election
in the Bible is never the kind of thing that enables me to sit back and say well if I'm elect
I'll make it regardless of what I do and if I'm not elect then I guess I'm not going to make it
doesn't matter much what I do so whatever will be will be you won't find it in the scriptures that's
nonsense election says if I'm elect of God and the word of God comes to me then God will give me
grace and faith to believe and everything that is within me is going to work out my salvation with
fear and trembling because that becomes the evidence of my salvation and when God's word comes to
me and I reject it I harden my heart against it and if I persist in that then that becomes the
ultimate demonstration that I have no relationship with God I've turned away from him
and I'm coming under judgment because of my own hardness of heart and folks what that means then
for you and for me is that when God comes to us with his word and with his truth
when he calls us to repent when he calls us individually and corporately to be the kind of people
that he's calling us to be we need to cry out to God and we need to say God don't ever let me
heart in my heart don't ever let me reject your true no matter how painful it is no matter how
deeply I've been hurt in my journey with you help me Lord to be humble and spirit and broken
of heart and help me to be the kind of man the kind of woman that you're calling me to be
last with the hardening of my heart I move away from you and I lose sight of who you are
and what it is that you have for me that's of course what Peter talks about in second
Peter chapter one when he says be the more zealous to confirm your call and election
for if you do this he will never fall so there will richly be provided for you an entrance into
the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be the more zealous to confirm your call
and your election how do we know if we're elect it'll show in our lives of faith it'll show in
our lives of obedience it'll be the ultimate test that God's at working us working out his own
salvation God doesn't wish that any should perish but rather that all should reach repentance
for himself and this passage talks about the unceasing anguish that he has in his heart
because people who choose to harden their heart against God and if we're ever going to
err in our theology I'm not suggesting we should but if we're going to err
between attributing too much generosity to God and not enough and folks let's
err towards the generosity of God because God does not wish that any should perish but that
all should reach repentance and that means if we call on the Lord from within our heart
God will hear God will never turn us aside God says I love you
with an everlasting love I gave my son for you to bring you to life bless it be the Lord God of
Israel who has done great and wonderful things let us pray
a lot of things Lord we're covering this morning in this message a very difficult passage
and we confess that our logic doesn't always get around your truth because you are so much
greater and so much wiser than we are but Lord we do acknowledge this
that you are righteous there's no favoritism with you
everything that you do is governed by justice and mercy and love
and Father is your people we thank you that you have chosen us before the foundation of the
world that we're not here because we chose to be here but because you first chose us and you
helped us to respond to your love and Lord should there be some of us struggling this morning
wondering if we are elect and wondering why we're not getting anywhere help us to understand
that paradoxical as it sounds everyone that comes to you in repentance and faith you will never
turn away help us Lord to humble ourselves before you to allow you to be God overall because you
are Lord and you will all help us to understand that you are the potter we are the clay
helps to accept your Lordship and our individual life and our family and our business
in our church and our world and help us Lord to demonstrate by the lives we live
that we are the chosen we are the elect of God redeem to live for the praise of his glory
thank you for your word help us to believe it help us to live it in Jesus name
amen