Dale Partridge - Romans 9_6-13： God's Total Control Over Salvation with Dale Partridge

00:00:00.000 Good morning, saints. It's good to be with you guys this morning.

00:00:05.460 Rise out of your seats with me this morning, Romans 9, 6 through 13.

00:00:09.600 Hear the word of the Lord.

00:00:12.540 But it is not as though the word of God has failed, for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.

00:00:18.940 And not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

00:00:26.000 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God,

00:00:30.540 but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

00:00:34.320 For this is what the promise said.

00:00:36.460 About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.

00:00:40.340 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac,

00:00:45.700 though they were not yet born and had not done neither good or bad,

00:00:51.380 in order that God's purpose of election might continue,

00:00:54.200 Not because of works, but because of him who calls, she was told,

00:01:00.500 the older will serve the younger.

00:01:02.940 As it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.

00:01:08.640 Amen.

00:01:09.680 Well, this is, I can't recall exactly, but somewhere around 75 to 80 sermons now through Romans.

00:01:18.200 And I love this book.

00:01:23.160 This book is a beautiful exposition of the gospel.

00:01:28.380 And last week, if you were here or listened to the sermon, we covered the first five verses of chapter nine. 0.98

00:01:36.480 And we saw that there was an appropriate attitude that we are to have towards the unconverted. 0.60

00:01:42.800 Paul modeled this attitude. 0.93

00:01:44.720 It was an attitude of sorrow that his people had rejected the Messiah.

00:01:49.360 Now, his example wasn't new.

00:01:50.940 It was actually him modeling Christ's example of how he was sorrowful over his own people.

00:01:58.480 Over the very people that actually tried to kill him.

00:02:01.300 We saw that the same as Paul.

00:02:02.580 Paul is in the situation where people of his own nation, of his own tribe, of his own heritage

00:02:09.080 are trying to kill him multiple times through the book of Acts.

00:02:12.620 Yet he is still sorrowful and grieving at the rejection of the Messiah.

00:02:16.920 We explored the balance of being sorrowful for pagans while also desiring God's justice.

00:02:31.880 It's this balance to want justice, which is the imprecatory Psalms of David.

00:02:39.900 you can see the justice and also wanting mercy upon those who have rejected Jesus Christ.

00:02:50.300 We saw Paul's particular concern for his own people, and I emphasized last week the importance

00:02:56.140 of prioritizing those in your own home, in your own city, and in your own nation.

00:03:03.980 Okay, we know that the globalists hate the idea of nationalism because they think that it's

00:03:08.940 intolerant. But global fruitfulness always comes from local faithfulness. That's the way.

00:03:19.200 And yes, we do need to be sending foreign missionaries. But if while we're sending

00:03:27.460 foreign missionaries, we are starving our own nation of the gospel, we should consider the

00:03:35.320 focus and frequency of international missions in this country. There is a good thing to desire 0.99

00:03:42.340 the prioritization of your own people, which was modeled clearly by Paul.

00:03:50.860 Lastly, we saw the reason for Paul's great sorrow. It wasn't just that his people had rejected the

00:03:59.080 Messiah. It was that they had nine covenantal privileges, absolute blessings, absolute

00:04:07.980 advantages. They had an entire heritage of pointing them to and preparing them for the

00:04:17.120 Messiah, which is what makes it so puzzling that they rejected the Messiah. Despite all

00:04:26.260 this, Paul was concerned about their rejection, their putting

00:04:34.000 away, their being cut off of the covenant blessings. We dealt

00:04:38.500 with passages like John 12, 37 through 40. It says, though he

00:04:41.820 had done many signs before them, they still did not believe in

00:04:45.340 him. So that the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be

00:04:48.440 fulfilled. Lord, who has believed what he heard from us and to

00:04:52.420 whom the arm of the Lord has been revealed. Therefore, they

00:04:55.180 could not believe. They could not believe. Goes on to say, again, Isaiah said, he has blinded their

00:05:03.780 eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their

00:05:08.300 heart and turn and I would heal them. What do you do with that? What do you do with a passage like

00:05:14.540 that? First Peter 2.8 says, the stone which the builders rejected, this became the very corner

00:05:21.040 stone, a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense. They stumbled because they disobeyed the word

00:05:26.800 as they were destined to do. So you have this balance of Paul being sorrowful over the rejection

00:05:37.520 of the Messiah. And then you have these other scriptures that are talking about the prophesied

00:05:43.320 reality that Christ would be a stumbling stone, that he would blind them, that they were destined

00:05:49.560 to disobey passages like these are important because they show us that the decisive factor

00:06:00.340 the decisive factor for belief it's not signs and miracles you saw this Jesus was literally said

00:06:10.260 though he had done so many signs before them they still did not believe in him you know how many

00:06:14.100 people saw Jesus do incredible, miraculous signs and still did not believe?

00:06:23.860 It shows us that the decisive factor for belief is not information.

00:06:30.860 It's not information.

00:06:33.200 It's not covenantal privileges.

00:06:35.920 It's not even birthright.

00:06:38.200 Okay.

00:06:40.280 It's God.

00:06:42.280 decisive factor for why someone believes is God. I forgot who said the quote, but it was something

00:06:53.260 along the lines of Judas saw all of Christ's miracles and heard all of his sermons. Do you

00:07:01.560 know how many people, sometimes we think, if I could just get the gospel right, maybe they'll

00:07:09.120 believe. Do you know how many people Jesus preached the gospel to? Jesus, God of heaven

00:07:17.780 and earth, or the apostle Paul, the one we model our preaching after. How many people

00:07:28.080 they have preached to and they were still rejected? It's not about information or even

00:07:35.260 eloquence. Have you heard the stories of Spurgeon and Whitfield and how these men come to faith?

00:07:41.020 Spurgeon comes to faith under the preaching of a layman who didn't even know what he was doing

00:07:45.800 in the pulpit. This is how God works. And the most unexpected ways from the most unprepared

00:07:55.880 preachers at times. In fact, I know as a preacher, the time I come in here with a sermon that I feel

00:08:01.020 is just going to be absolutely great

00:08:02.760 because I feel like I understand the text

00:08:04.840 and it was a great delivery

00:08:06.180 and, you know, nothing extraordinary.

00:08:10.000 And the time that I come in

00:08:11.220 that I feel like I'm behind the ball

00:08:13.340 and I don't know if I fully understand the text

00:08:15.280 and all of a sudden the Spirit of the Lord

00:08:16.900 makes something happen in the pulpit.

00:08:18.500 Someone comes up to me and says that

00:08:19.780 they feel like they've come to faith

00:08:21.700 under that preaching.

00:08:24.400 The Lord often works

00:08:26.140 in a counterintuitive economy.

00:08:32.420 Down is up, up is down, first is last, last is first.

00:08:40.860 God determines whether someone will receive or reject Christ.

00:08:45.640 This is the context of the next three chapters.

00:08:50.220 The pressing question becomes,

00:08:52.940 if God causes all things to work together for good,

00:08:55.080 for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

00:08:58.280 We learned that in chapter 8, the previous chapter.

00:09:00.420 And he controls even their redemption from election to glory,

00:09:03.360 which is also a part of chapter 8.

00:09:06.400 Then how do we explain God's own people rejecting Christ?

00:09:12.080 If that's the case, if God causes all things to work together,

00:09:19.620 and then God's people had the covenants and the promises

00:09:22.980 and the priesthood and the temple and the word of God and the law of God

00:09:28.500 and had all these privileges, there seems to be an incongruent reality.

00:09:33.660 Has the word of God failed?

00:09:36.000 Has God become unfaithful?

00:09:40.220 Because God's own people aren't saved.

00:09:43.520 What do we do with that?

00:09:45.380 That's what Paul is dealing with in this passage of scripture.

00:09:48.660 How can God be in total control of his people's salvation and yet the vast majority of the Jews not be saved?

00:09:57.660 This is why Paul has to write this passage of scripture, explaining why some are saved and some are not.

00:10:08.240 Here in chapter 9, Paul deals with this apparent contradiction and he says, verse 6, follow along with me.

00:10:14.100 But it is not as though the word of God has failed.

00:10:18.660 For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel.

00:10:26.900 When Paul speaks of the word of God, he's got three dimensions in mind.

00:10:31.940 He's thinking of his own words in the previous chapter.

00:10:36.400 He's thinking of Jesus' words.

00:10:38.800 He's also thinking of the Old Testament scriptures.

00:10:43.460 Has God's promises failed?

00:10:45.360 Has the word of God failed?

00:10:46.400 Was I wrong?

00:10:48.660 Was Jesus wrong?

00:10:49.880 Was the Old Testament wrong?

00:10:53.400 He says, it's not that God is unfaithful to his people.

00:10:56.380 It's that we have misunderstood who the recipient of these promises really are.

00:11:03.760 They're not just the blood descendants of Abraham, but those who share in the faith of Abraham.

00:11:11.060 Turn with me real quick to Romans chapter 4.

00:11:13.040 Go back a few pages.

00:11:13.980 Romans chapter 4, verses 16 through 17.

00:11:18.660 Here we learn that the promise to Abraham was not only to his physical

00:11:26.520 progeny, but to anyone who has faith.

00:11:30.960 It said, quote, this is why it depends on faith.

00:11:35.500 In order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his

00:11:41.800 offspring, not only to the adherent of the law, that's the Jews, but also to the 0.70

00:11:47.540 one who shares in the faith of Abraham that's Jews and Gentiles who is the

00:11:51.800 father of us all just as it is written I have made you a father of many nations

00:11:58.660 not just one nation of the Jews so essentially what we have here is Paul

00:12:05.420 telling us that we have two groups of people we have ethnic Israel the Jewish

00:12:13.220 people who's made up of the physical descendants of abraham and we have spiritual israel or true

00:12:22.020 israel who is made up of both elect jews and elect gentiles who are the children of abraham

00:12:30.580 by faith which is why it says in the very next verse in chapter 9 verse 7 nor are they all

00:12:40.020 children because they are Abraham's descendants. But through Isaac, he's

00:12:44.580 quoting the old scriptures, Old Testament, but through Isaac, your descendants will

00:12:48.360 be named. That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of

00:12:55.400 God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. This would be an

00:13:02.300 extremely difficult passage for a Jewish person to agree with. They would be very frustrated with

00:13:13.280 the language that Paul is using here. Not all children, not all are children because they are

00:13:21.740 Abraham's descendants. This is a shocking piece of language to the Jews. Paul is telling us that 1.00

00:13:30.300 there is a group within a group, right? I should say backwards. There's a group within a group. 1.00

00:13:38.200 This has always been the case and it remains so even to the Lord comes and separates the sheep

00:13:42.440 from the goats. There is the wheat and the tares. There is the visible church and the invisible

00:13:48.320 church. There are people in the covenant and there are people of the covenant. That is how

00:13:52.340 Bible works there are a people and then there are a people all throughout the

00:13:59.900 Old Testament all throughout the New Testament 36% of the world confesses and

00:14:05.480 proclaims Christ are 36% of the world's population truly in the covenant of

00:14:13.400 grace they're certainly in the covenant are they actually redeemed with the same

00:14:20.540 dilemma as the old testament israelites you have the covenant and then you have the redeemed many

00:14:28.780 people are in because of baptism they're in the covenant many people are in because of birth many

00:14:33.500 people have married in they are now one with a spouse who does have belief and they are in the

00:14:38.140 covenant it does not necessarily mean that that person is saved there are people in the church

00:14:44.220 that have not come to christ this is why i often preach and whenever i go and speak at conferences

00:14:50.380 I just assume that whoever's here isn't actually saved

00:14:53.760 because millions of people have come to the church

00:14:56.200 and not come to Christ.

00:15:01.220 In the following verses, Paul provides two examples

00:15:04.100 to support this claim that not all the children

00:15:08.540 are the children.

00:15:12.460 And he provides these two examples

00:15:14.260 illustrating how God distinguishes

00:15:15.960 between the children of the flesh

00:15:18.020 and the children of promise.

00:15:21.800 Look down to verse nine with me.

00:15:26.000 For this is what the promise said.

00:15:30.300 About this time next year, I will return

00:15:33.440 and Sarah shall have a son.

00:15:37.120 So while both children, Ishmael and Isaac,

00:15:43.620 both children were ordained by God's sovereignty,

00:15:48.000 Okay, because God is sovereign over all.

00:15:50.700 Isaac was the child of the promise

00:15:52.440 and Ishmael was the child of the flesh.

00:15:55.760 Basic Old Testament covenant fundamentals here.

00:15:59.960 Okay, both of them are genuine children of Abraham.

00:16:05.180 But only one is elect and the other is not.

00:16:09.640 One family line will have faith

00:16:11.420 and will materialize into the Messiah

00:16:12.880 and the other one will not.

00:16:14.360 then Paul offers a second example. Look at verse 10 through 13 with me.

00:16:21.080 And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man,

00:16:28.000 our father, our forefather, Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good

00:16:34.300 or bad in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because

00:16:41.220 of him who calls, she was told, the older will serve the younger, as it is written,

00:16:48.280 Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated. So not only do we see this divine election between the

00:16:55.340 two children of Abraham's family, but we actually see it again in Isaac's family. So Paul may have

00:17:04.020 assumed that the first example of Abraham and Isaac and Ishmael could have been refuted because

00:17:10.400 the sons were conceived by two separate women hey maybe they won't buy in because you know you have

00:17:17.760 hagar and you have sarah and maybe there would be an argument to dissuade somebody to say well

00:17:23.920 they're not part of the promise uh because it was from a different woman your point doesn't

00:17:28.880 necessarily remain coherent and so the example of isaac and rebecca is not the case so if that was

00:17:38.640 the hurdle that you needed to get over for trying to dispute Paul's claims. You can't get over it

00:17:46.200 with the example between Rebecca and Jacob and Esau. Even though both of these children were

00:17:53.580 conceived by the same man and the same woman, God still only elects one of them. Only elects one of 0.88

00:18:02.660 them. But this election is not based on anything done by Jacob or Esau. I want you to look back

00:18:11.480 real quick. Look into verse 11. Though they were not yet born and had done nothing, nothing.

00:18:24.440 Okay, that's going to be important in a few minutes. Nothing. What does nothing mean? Nothing.

00:18:31.080 Okay?

00:18:32.280 Fundamentals here.

00:18:34.040 Even though both of these children were conceived by the same woman and same man,

00:18:37.540 God still only elected one.

00:18:38.900 So under the example of Abraham and Isaac, you might have somebody again refute the idea

00:18:44.840 arguing that God elected Isaac because he was the promise to Sarah

00:18:51.840 and because Isaac proved himself to be more faithful than Ishmael.

00:18:56.800 Genesis records Ishmael mocking Isaac, and it records Isaac being submissive to his father,

00:19:03.560 even to death, when he was to be burned as an offering.

00:19:08.560 And so, hey, maybe God looked down the corridors of time and saw that Isaac was going to be 0.91

00:19:15.120 the obedient one and not Ishmael, and God elected him for that reason.

00:19:23.680 But that logic doesn't work.

00:19:25.840 with Paul's example of Jacob and Esau.

00:19:29.940 It doesn't work.

00:19:31.960 Paul says that though they were not yet born,

00:19:34.980 they had done nothing, good or bad,

00:19:39.040 in order to continue God's purpose of election,

00:19:42.020 not because of works, but because of him who calls.

00:19:45.080 So essentially this passage eliminates any possibility

00:19:50.680 of actions, human actions, choices, behaviors, thoughts,

00:19:55.140 whatever it may be, to be the grounds of God's election.

00:19:59.900 There is no learning God that looks down the corridors of time

00:20:04.960 and sees that Isaac is going to make the right choice

00:20:08.460 and Jacob is going to make the right choice

00:20:11.240 and God goes back and elects that person. 0.99

00:20:14.420 That is foolish thinking. 0.96

00:20:18.040 Though they were not yet born, they had done nothing, 0.98

00:20:21.860 either good or bad.

00:20:23.820 You cannot get around that.

00:20:26.560 Nothing.

00:20:27.840 There is nothing that God is looking at down the corridors of time.

00:20:34.600 Paul actually tells us in the text, what is the grounds for election?

00:20:44.720 Verses 11 through 13.

00:20:47.380 God told Rebecca the reason for his preference was before they were born.

00:20:52.820 in order that god's purpose of election might stand or might continue not because of works

00:20:59.220 but because of him who calls what's the reason god's reason of election do we know god's reason

00:21:05.940 for election no we do not know that's why we call the doctrine unconditional election

00:21:11.140 there is no conditions on which we understand why god has chosen some and left others to justice

00:21:17.860 But God has chosen some of his own secret mystery and mercies.

00:21:23.340 We have no clue why God chose me or you.

00:21:29.360 This is how God works.

00:21:31.640 God is an electing God.

00:21:33.860 I think it was Charles Spurgeon that said,

00:21:36.420 so many men love the fact that they have the right to elect themselves a bride,

00:21:42.700 yet hate and will not allow Christ to elect himself one.

00:21:47.860 This is how God works.

00:21:51.060 He chose Abel over Cain, and he replaces Abel with Seth. 0.89

00:21:56.480 He chose Abraham out of the Chaldeans. 0.89

00:22:01.240 He chose Noah over his brothers. 0.93

00:22:03.800 He chose Shem over Japheth and Ham. 0.61

00:22:09.520 He chose Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, Joseph over his brothers, Judah within his brothers. 0.77

00:22:14.840 Moses out of the tribe of Levi, David out of the tribe of Judah, he took the prophets and before 0.64

00:22:22.120 they were even born, he had Jeremiah and he had Isaiah and he had Ezekiel and he had John the

00:22:28.100 Baptist and he had Paul. All these people have been chosen before they were born, before anything

00:22:33.200 had happened, good or evil in their lives. Jesus even says to his 12 disciples in John 15, 16,

00:22:43.600 you did not choose me, but I chose you. John 6 44 says, no one can come to me unless the father

00:22:53.680 who sent me draws him. This is the clear pattern of scripture. God first chooses us and then we

00:23:05.620 choose him. God initiates. Do you want to know why you're saved? It's not because you on your

00:23:12.320 own volition, of your own free will, heard the gospel and said, you know what? That's

00:23:21.200 a good idea. I think that's a great, I think it's a great opportunity. I'm going to take

00:23:24.220 that. No, that is not the biblical anthropology. That is not biblical soteriology. That's why

00:23:35.780 John says we loved because he first loved us. We respond because of the work that God already does

00:23:44.480 in us. God is the one who calls. God is the one who changes. We respond to that electing grace.

00:23:51.600 He doesn't look down the corridors of time to see who will choose him, then goes back and chooses

00:23:56.800 those people based on their future choice to choose him. This is an absurd way to think.

00:24:02.740 This is the type of Arminian theological gymnastics that is required to maintain this concept of free will.

00:24:15.320 Again, I did three or four sermons on free will.

00:24:17.520 You can go back and listen to them if you want to learn more about that topic.

00:24:22.260 There is no scripture to support this type of thinking.

00:24:25.920 In fact, there are over a hundred scriptures that literally object that type of thinking.

00:24:30.500 dr. Steve Lawson once said the free will is a pagan goddess that the church has worshiped for

00:24:39.860 far too long we have a will but it's never free it's either enslaved to sin in the flesh

00:24:51.140 or it's enslaved to Christ in righteousness we have free agency we can operate within the domain

00:24:59.400 of our state of being if we're dead spiritually dead we're free to sin we're

00:25:04.920 free to follow the flesh we're free to follow the prince and the power of the

00:25:08.400 air we're free to follow the desires of the body and the mind what we are not

00:25:12.780 free to do is change our nature you cannot change your nature without divine

00:25:20.160 assistance when you have been born again which is the whole reason Jesus uses

00:25:26.220 that example, it's the metaphor that makes sense universally. How much involvement do you have in

00:25:32.080 your birth? None. None. You can't change your nature. You can't go from death to life without

00:25:39.100 divine assistance. These are the purpose of the miracles. You can't go from blind to seeing

00:25:42.820 without divine assistance. You can't go from deaf to hearing without divine assistance.

00:25:46.820 You need God to do that work.

00:25:50.840 When you're here in the living side,

00:25:54.940 God has made you new.

00:25:58.460 You are now free to obey.

00:26:01.520 Your highest affections, your will,

00:26:04.940 which is literally your highest desires.

00:26:08.460 Your will is now Christ in righteousness

00:26:10.400 when it used to be sin and fleshliness.

00:26:15.120 Right?

00:26:16.820 So we have free agency.

00:26:18.860 Yeah, you could make all the decisions you want in this category,

00:26:22.440 but you cannot born yourself again.

00:26:25.560 You need God to do that.

00:26:27.800 Again, it's not faith plus repentance

00:26:31.940 or repentance plus faith equals born again.

00:26:34.840 No, that is not what the Bible teaches.

00:26:37.800 It is born again equals faith plus repentance.

00:26:43.800 That is the order of salvation.

00:26:46.820 God comes and acts first.

00:26:50.740 And it totally changes the gospel.

00:26:53.360 Totally changes the gospel.

00:26:56.340 Because when you realize that the reason you have ears to hear and eyes to see

00:27:01.400 is not because you were so wise,

00:27:04.760 but in fact you were actually so dead and so hated God,

00:27:08.120 and all of a sudden, yesterday you hated God and today you love Him,

00:27:13.840 and you want to give yourself that credit?

00:27:16.540 No.

00:27:18.720 The Bible says to give credit where credit is due.

00:27:22.080 There's a reason that I have this passage of scripture imprinted on the front of my Bible.

00:27:25.900 It says, for from him and through him and to him are all things.

00:27:30.300 To him be the glory forever and ever.

00:27:32.600 Amen.

00:27:35.460 Let's briefly talk about these two phrases in verses 12 and 13.

00:27:42.100 the older will serve the younger as it is written Jacob I have loved but Esau I have hated

00:27:49.980 okay the idea of the older serving the younger was not only contrary to customs but it's actually

00:28:00.380 contrary to the the Hebrew way of birthright this is not only speaking about carnal affairs here

00:28:10.620 Okay, this isn't just speaking about Jacob essentially being over Esau as boys.

00:28:20.260 Okay, the structure of this passage of scriptures we're going to see is about two nations.

00:28:26.620 The Israelites came from Jacob and the Edomites came from Esau.

00:28:31.240 So if you remember, if you've read Genesis recently, this is a poll from Genesis chapter 25, 23.

00:28:38.100 and it says,

00:28:41.520 And the Lord said to her,

00:28:42.680 Two nations are in your womb,

00:28:44.780 and two peoples from within you shall be divided. 0.99

00:28:49.340 The one shall be stronger than the other. 0.77

00:28:52.060 The older shall serve the younger.

00:28:54.260 That's the Old Testament context for this passage

00:28:57.900 that Paul is using to support his point.

00:29:02.280 The Israelites would become the heirs of the covenant of grace.

00:29:07.240 They'd have the promised land.

00:29:08.780 They'd have the grace of God, the bloodline of the Messiah.

00:29:12.500 That was not going to be given to Esau.

00:29:15.380 That was going to be given to Jacob.

00:29:20.320 Now, this is, again, where many of the Arminians or the provisionists would say,

00:29:25.420 see, Romans 9, it's not about individuals, it's about nations.

00:29:29.900 It's not about electing individuals, it's about electing nations.

00:29:33.440 Okay, this is flawed logic because salvation is thoroughly individualized in the scriptures.

00:29:41.240 Not only do Jacob, Jacob and Esau are individuals, by the way, that's just one simple point,

00:29:46.940 but the rest of the chapter in chapter nine is filled with singular, not plural,

00:29:53.340 pronouns and references, and it continues to reference individuals throughout the remainder

00:29:58.120 of his argument, and it's going to be very, very clear in my sermon coming up in two weeks.

00:30:03.420 So scripture also calls, or also says that Jesus calls his sheep by name.

00:30:12.560 Think about how impersonal electing nations makes the gospel.

00:30:20.000 Oh, God elected a nation. I guess I'm included in that. So, you know, it's so strange because

00:30:25.920 the Arminians are the people that are always like it's not a religion it's a

00:30:28.980 relationship right it's so weird that you want this relationship element but

00:30:38.020 you won't actually realize that salvation in the election of God is

00:30:42.300 individualized and it's not individualized because you individually

00:30:45.980 chose God it's because God individually chose you

00:30:55.920 Again, Jesus calls his sheep by name.

00:30:59.600 Our names have been written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the

00:31:06.240 world.

00:31:10.240 Paul says that our names have been written in heaven in Philippians.

00:31:16.880 Jesus said again, no man singular can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws

00:31:24.060 him. Individual. So yes, this passage that we're talking about, it does reference nation. There's 0.99

00:31:30.740 certainly a reference to nations here, but not at the exclusion of individuals.

00:31:36.620 Nations are filled with individuals. So to say that it applies to the whole,

00:31:40.980 while it does not apply to the parts, it's an illogical argument. Election of a nation by its

00:31:46.580 very nature cannot exclude the unique individuals who form up the collective whole.

00:31:49.480 and lastly I want you just to remember that the entire design of Paul's argument here in chapter

00:31:58.140 9 10 and 11 is to show that some individuals are within the covenant and actually part of

00:32:05.640 the covenant of grace and some individuals are not and so this first statement this first statement

00:32:15.340 of the older will serve the younger,

00:32:20.620 highlighted that God's election is not according

00:32:23.280 to human traditions, human conventions.

00:32:27.380 The next statement, the next statement,

00:32:32.660 it is written, Jacob I have loved and Esau I have hated,

00:32:35.320 highlights that God's election is not based on human decision,

00:32:38.900 but on God's favor, on God's favor.

00:32:45.340 I want to talk about this line, it is written, real quick.

00:32:50.860 It is written, it's an affirmation of the inerrancy and the authority of the Word of God.

00:32:58.420 In the Old Testament, we see many of the New Testament writers using Old Testament references

00:33:07.660 by saying, it is written. It's a phrase used by Jesus, by Paul, by Peter, by the author of the

00:33:14.300 Hebrews, it is a way to invoke authority showing that they trusted that the Old Testament scriptures

00:33:21.720 were truly the word of God. Second, it's a statement of preference. It's a statement of

00:33:26.980 preference of priority. It's a statement of election. God has preferred Jacob over Esau

00:33:34.320 without respect to anything that they've ever done. Think about that. He has preferred

00:33:42.380 Jacob over Esau without respect to anything they have ever done again this

00:33:50.540 is why we call this doctrine unconditional election there are no

00:33:55.280 conditions fulfilled by a person that caused God to choose them if there was

00:33:59.960 then it would be done by works if God looks down the corridors of time and saw

00:34:06.900 that this person would have faith then there would be a condition on which that

00:34:14.300 person would be elected but there is no conditions upon man for our election

00:34:24.780 because if there were we would have a right and reason to boast

00:34:30.940 John Piper uses the example, you get to heaven, you stand there before the Lord, and God says,

00:34:40.680 why are you here? And you say, well, because I trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. I had faith

00:34:47.200 that his righteousness became my righteousness, and my sin was paid for on the cross.

00:34:54.180 and he goes, amen.

00:34:57.020 But why are you here

00:34:58.260 and your brother Chris

00:35:00.500 who heard the gospel also

00:35:02.280 is not here?

00:35:05.940 No matter what you say,

00:35:08.320 you get yourself into a boast.

00:35:12.460 Because if you say, well, because I was smarter,

00:35:15.620 because I was

00:35:17.140 more spiritually aware,

00:35:21.000 well, I was more humble.

00:35:22.040 No matter what you say, it was I, I, I.

00:35:30.680 The only answer that is appropriate to a question, again, this is a theoretical question.

00:35:38.160 The only answer is to why are you here is because it pleased you to save me.

00:35:45.780 I shouldn't be here.

00:35:47.000 But for some reason, in the mercies of your grand plan of redemption, it pleased you to save me.

00:35:56.000 That's the only answer.

00:35:58.600 The only appropriate response.

00:36:04.820 Now, many centuries have gone by, and this phrase has been vandalized by the liberals.

00:36:11.500 they say, Esau I have hated really means Esau I have loved less. I don't know if you've heard

00:36:20.300 this, but it's a very common thing in theological circles. I have just loved Esau less.

00:36:27.800 The definition of the word in the Greek here is detest. Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have

00:36:35.500 detested. 18th century theologian Robert Haldane wrote a commentary on this that's better than

00:36:42.980 anything that I could write, so I'm just going to read it. He wrote, Jacob was loved before he was

00:36:50.860 born, consequently, before he was capable of doing anything good. And Esau was hated before he was

00:36:59.420 born, consequently before he was capable of doing any evil. It may be asked why God hated him

00:37:06.000 before he sinned personally, and human wisdom has proved its folly by endeavoring to soften the word

00:37:14.180 hated into something less than hatred. But the man who submits like a little child to the word

00:37:21.260 of God will find no difficulty in seeing in what sense Esau was worthy of the hatred of God before

00:37:28.700 he was born. He sinned in Adam and was therefore properly an object of God's hatred. There is no

00:37:36.980 other view that will ever account for this language and this treatment of Esau. By nature,

00:37:43.520 too, he was a wicked creature conceived in sin. Although his faculties were not expanded

00:37:49.760 or his innate depravity developed, he was a child of wrath and a fit object of hatred.

00:37:57.120 scripture to back this up is Ephesians 2

00:38:03.120 why don't you guys turn there real quick

00:38:04.240 Ephesians 2, 1 through 3

00:38:06.460 this is the biography

00:38:18.760 your spiritual biography

00:38:20.140 this is the biography of your infant

00:38:24.260 this is the biography of your sweet little child this is your biography

00:38:32.300 before you came to Christ and you were dead and the trespasses and sins in

00:38:40.460 which you once walked following the course of this world following the

00:38:45.080 prince and the power of the air the spirit that is now at work and the sons

00:38:48.860 of disobedience, among whom we all once lived, and the passions of our flesh, carrying out

00:38:57.640 the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the

00:39:06.740 rest of mankind.

00:39:10.220 You are not an exception to that passage of scripture, and neither is your beautiful one-year-old

00:39:16.080 baby.

00:39:18.860 The primary reason people struggle to embrace Calvinism, or the doctrines of grace, or God's sovereignty over salvation, is because it demands humility.

00:39:31.700 It demands humility.

00:39:33.660 It requires you to have a biblical anthropology that admits that your newborn baby deserves God's wrath.

00:39:41.660 That's a shocking statement.

00:39:43.260 it requires you to see that you were so utterly corrupted by sin that according to scripture you

00:39:51.100 were hostile to god that you were spiritually blind in death that you were dead in sin that

00:39:55.720 your god or that god's gospel was foolishness to you that you loved darkness rather than light that

00:40:01.140 you followed the world that you followed the flesh you followed the devil and you followed

00:40:05.020 the desires of your heart. It requires an immense degree of humility. Until you get

00:40:18.860 there, you will never appreciate the grace of God as you should. You will never see the

00:40:28.580 gospel as you should until you realize that God saved you when you could not and would not save

00:40:36.180 yourself. A lady who went to Charles Spurgeon once said, Mr. Spurgeon, I don't understand how

00:40:46.180 a loving God could say in his word that he hated Esau. Have you ever struggled with that? Mr.

00:40:51.260 Spurgeon replied, that has never been my problem, miss. My problem has always been how could God

00:40:57.600 have ever loved Jacob. That's the shift. We often say things like, why do bad things happen

00:41:09.300 to good people? Without ever asking the opposite question is why do good things happen to bad

00:41:17.660 people? The only time that a bad thing has ever happened to a good person was on the cross.

00:41:23.960 no your cancer diagnosis your tragic accident your difficult career

00:41:34.460 those are bad things happening to bad people we have been saved by God's grace which is a good

00:41:44.160 thing that's happened to a bad person we deserve wrath we do not deserve mercy when you start there

00:41:51.340 When you start that you don't deserve anything but God's hatred and wrath, then everything

00:41:58.540 is mercy. Even trials, you can have unconditional joy because there are no conditions

00:42:07.520 that change your joy or your peace. You have Christ, which means you have everything.

00:42:14.780 And if you have everything, whatever trial may hit you, it doesn't matter.

00:42:21.340 because you have Christ you've gained the whole world in Christ in his book

00:42:29.060 all of grace Spurgeon said quote too many think lightly of sin and therefore

00:42:38.800 think lightly of the Savior he who has stood before his God convicted and

00:42:44.300 condemned with the rope around his neck is the man to weep for joy when he is

00:42:49.140 pardoned, to hate the evil which he had been forgiven, and to live to the honor of the

00:42:55.340 Redeemer by whose blood he has been cleansed, end quote.

00:43:02.120 So next week, we're going to get into the further objections. If you look down, verse 14,

00:43:10.700 Paul anticipates rejection and frustration from the audience that he's speaking to in Romans.

00:43:19.720 He anticipates objection, and he's going to deal with that in even more forceful terms than he did in this section of scripture.

00:43:29.500 If you don't currently yield to the fact that God is sovereign over electing whom he will,

00:43:39.860 next week's sermon, which I'm not preaching next week, it's the following week,

00:43:44.500 will certainly persuade you. If we are yielded to the word of God,

00:43:51.140 we will be able to rest in the fact that God has for some reason elected to save some

00:44:00.540 and leave others to justice. It'll allow us to revel in the beautiful mercy and grace of the

00:44:09.260 gospel. Amen? Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you have saved us. Lord, that when we

00:44:25.040 were disinterested, God-haters, loving sin and the flesh, that you had called us,

00:44:34.780 brought us to new life, spiritually resurrected our souls,

00:44:40.220 made us see and made us hear.

00:44:42.920 Lord, that you did what we could not do and were not interested in doing.

00:44:47.520 Father, we thank you for that.

00:44:49.420 Like Lazarus, you brought us back to life.

00:44:54.940 Father, we ask that you would help us to understand the beauty of that,

00:44:57.920 that we might appreciate the fact that you, before the foundation of the world,

00:45:01.560 have predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters.

00:45:08.520 Lord, that that truth would hit us somewhere in our heart and soul

00:45:11.860 that we would revel in the grace,

00:45:15.380 that it would change the way we behave,

00:45:17.980 that it would force us to be graceful to others

00:45:21.040 because we would see the grace extended to us.

00:45:25.480 Father, we thank you for all these things in Jesus' name.

00:45:28.660 Amen.

00:45:31.560 Amen.

Dale Partridge - June 15, 2024

Romans 9_6-13： God's Total Control Over Salvation with Dale Partridge

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