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Romans 9:1-13
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
All right. Romans 9. Romans 9, if you would turn there. So it was fun while it lasted, church. Our unity, I'm talking about.
Joel Brooks:We survive COVID, masks, politics. And now we come to Romans 9. And we're going to be talking about predestination, sovereignty of God election over the next few weeks. You know, we've It's all part of our growth strategy actually. I figured if I skipped over these chapters, then I'd have to do some capital campaign for newer and bigger building.
Joel Brooks:Preach through these, we're back to one service, and so so I just chose the easier route for us. Before we we read this text together, I do want to just acknowledge that likely, in a group this size, that we're gonna have a number of questions, and and that's okay. Possibly some of you will have some very strong emotions as we go through this. And I just want you to know, we're gonna we're gonna give space for that here. I grew up in a church that was not reformed or or did not believe in the sovereignty of God to the extent of, like, election and predestination.
Joel Brooks:And, it really kinda squashed any questions that you might have about that. I vividly remember during a Sunday evening service, our pastor had a time of q and a. And I asked him about Romans 913. I was a high schooler, and I was just curious. I said, could you explain to me what it means when God says, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated?
Joel Brooks:And the pastor, he was kinda dismissive. He said, well, I mean, it's God's kinda talking like, you know, he's he's choosing chocolate ice cream over vanilla ice cream. I was like, but he doesn't send vanilla ice cream to hell. I'm like, I mean, I I need more than that. And he was he was dismissive of me and just moved on.
Joel Brooks:And I know some of you are gonna have some pretty serious questions and I hope you do. I hope you do. And I want you to hold those as we go through this chapter together. And you'll probably have more questions next week. Hopefully we'll answer more next week.
Joel Brooks:You're likely gonna have some negative reactions to and and that's okay. Know that I was right there in your shoes and still am to some degree. I'm not sure there's a person in this room, that could be angrier at the idea of God's election than I was when I was first confronted with it. I was furious with it. One of my friends he was he was a He came and he he talked to me about predestination.
Joel Brooks:It was the first time I'd been confronted with it. I was in college, and I didn't just shoot the message. I shot the messenger. I mean, I went after him. And, and he was just so loving and patient, which made me more angry.
Joel Brooks:Because I just wanted to argue with him so much. Finally at one point, this is how angry I was. I got a Bible. I ripped out every page in it except for Romans 9, and I gave it to him. I said, since this is your only Bible, here you go.
Joel Brooks:I thought I'd make a Bible for you. So I was not just angry, I was a jerk. I I was an honest jerk when it came to this issue. It it it took me a while of just study. But eventually, I want you to know that I came to see this doctrine as beautiful and glorious, Which means I then became a new type of jerk.
Joel Brooks:I became one of those obnoxious new Calvinists. And I'm not sure there is a more obnoxious person on the planet than somebody who used to believe in free will, and then they move over to predestination because they won't ever shut up. So I became that for a couple of years. So basically, like you probably didn't want to be around me and discuss any of this while I was in college. Hopefully I've grown out of that a little bit.
Joel Brooks:I recognize that probably there's a spectrum in here of everything in between. That's okay. We're just gonna hold that before us. We're gonna be gracious with one another. Alright.
Joel Brooks:So Romans 9 and I'm a actually I'm gonna read more than what's in your worship guide. We're gonna go all the way through, through verse, 16. I am speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience bears witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.
Joel Brooks:For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh? They're Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs. And from their race according to the flesh is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
Joel Brooks:But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. And not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring. But through Isaac shall your offspring be named. This means that that it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.
Joel Brooks:For this is what the promise said. About this time next year, I will return and Sarah will have a son. And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by 1 man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had not done had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. What shall we say then?
Joel Brooks:Is there injustice on God's part? By no means. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy. And I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.
Joel Brooks:This is the word of the Lord. Amen. Pray with me. Father, we pray that through your spirit, you would give us clarity to these words. I pray that we would come to see you as more glorious.
Joel Brooks:I pray that we would come to understand the depths of your mercy towards us. Lord, I pray that your word would return or would go out and not return void. But my words will fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. So years ago I was, eating at Sanford's cafeteria. So first just let that sink in. So I'm at Sanford's Cafeteria, and somebody who I've never met before came and sat next to me. And first thing they said was, are you reformed?
Joel Brooks:And I said, actually, I'm Joel. The reason I tell you this story is because it is important for you to know that Paul did not begin his letter to the Romans by talking about predestination. That's not how he introduced the gospel to us. For 8 chapters, Paul has been slowly and methodically methodically explaining the Gospel to us. You know Romans chapters 1 and 2, there there is a God and that we have sinned against him.
Joel Brooks:Chapters 34, he talks about how we are justified by by faith and by God's grace. And then he moved from 5 all the way through 8, and Paul goes on to talk about our sanctification, about the spirit of God given to us, how we become children of God. So Paul has given us a very full and robust gospel without ever mentioning a word about predestination. So predestination is not the first thing he comes out to talk to us about, But it is also not the last thing he talks about. Paul discusses God's sovereignty, predestination before we get to Romans chapter 12 when he begins to unpack living a life of worship.
Joel Brooks:The placement of predestination is very important in this letter. So although understanding God's sovereignty and election is not necessary for understanding the gospel, we see it is necessary for setting the foundation or the stage for worship. Or even look in chapter 10, even for evangelism. I hope you got to see that a couple of weeks ago when, I got to preach on the sovereignty and the supremacy of God. That the ultimate goal of understanding God's sovereignty and supremacy is doxology.
Joel Brooks:It leads you into worship. And that's why Paul has this placed here. So what leads Paul at this moment to begin talking about sovereign election was because he is having to answer a question that arises from chapter 8. Really it's not so much a question as an accusation that people are making against God. You see in chapter 8, Paul has just given us some amazing promises about God.
Joel Brooks:They're they're glorious, and and they are so glorious, people are beginning to wonder, can God really do that? Is that really true? Does God really justify everyone He calls? Does he really glorify everyone he calls? If if that's true, well, then Paul, what about Israel?
Joel Brooks:God called Israel just like he's called us. God called them and promised them glory just like he's called us and promised us glory. But look at Israel. I mean, they're looking around in their church setting and they're like at all their potlucks, there's a lot of pork because there's very few Jews there. It's all Gentiles.
Joel Brooks:And they're thinking, if if God was faithful to His promises, shouldn't there be more Jews in church? Shouldn't they have accepted Jesus as their Messiah? It seems like God can't keep his word. And so that's the question here. Does God actually keep His promises, or has the word of God failed?
Joel Brooks:Why should we trust God? It's a serious question. For if God cannot keep His word then, did not, why would He keep it now? Why should we ever trust Him? And it doesn't matter how well intentioned God might be.
Joel Brooks:The question is, does he have the power to do it? Does he have the power to keep his word? We don't care about his intentions. Does he actually have the power to keep his promises? And that's the real issue here.
Joel Brooks:Does God's purpose actually stand? Does he accomplish all of his purposes as Isaiah says? Now we still have this question. We state it in different ways, but we still have this question. One of the ways that I really encountered this question was actually when my my father passed away.
Joel Brooks:And some Christians, they would come to me to try to comfort me, and they would they would say words that they were trying to provide comfort. They were well intentioned. They would say things like, don't lose your faith in God, Joel. We know that God didn't want this to happen. We know that this wasn't God's will that your father should die, and that was how they tried to comfort.
Joel Brooks:And inside, I was screaming. Because what I wanted to say was, so what you were telling me is that the very God whom I have given my entire life to, The very God whom I have entrusted with my eternal soul. The very God whom I am believing will someday physically raise me up from the dead, that this God, although He really wanted to, He could not prevent a single clogged artery. That's what you're telling me? I'm supposed to put my faith in a God who can't even do that.
Joel Brooks:He wanted to. He he really really wanted to, but he just somehow lacked the power to do it. That is no comfort. The comfort is that this was by God's plan, that he is 100% sovereign even if I might not understand the plan. But everything works according to his purpose.
Joel Brooks:Paul here, he's thinking of his fellow Jewish brothers and sisters, how they have rejected Jesus as the Messiah, and it hurts him. He is in sorrow. But it is no comfort to come up to Paul and to say, you know, God really wanted to save them. He was really well He wanted to save them, But in the end, they were just too rebellious. He just wasn't strong enough to save all He couldn't keep his word to them, although he really really wanted to.
Joel Brooks:His hands were tied, Paul. Paul emphatically rejects that. He is living proof that God can overcome every hard heart if He wants to. Look what God had done to him on the road to Damascus. There wasn't a harder heart in all of Israel.
Joel Brooks:And God met him, changed his heart, drew him to himself, and Paul knows God could do that to everyone should he choose. The reason that all the Israelites haven't come to accept Jesus as a Messiah is not because Jesus or God was not powerful enough to do it. It's that he chose not to do it. For reasons only unto him, that he, for some reason, he chose not to do it. And Paul begins to unpack election here.
Joel Brooks:He says what God did do is He didn't save all of ethnic Israel, but there's always been an Israel within Israel that his promise has gone towards. That's what leads Paul to verse 6 when he says, but it is not as though the word of God has failed. It hasn't. Why not? Because not all who were descended from Israel belong to Israel.
Joel Brooks:Not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring. So God's promise is true. He he is saving Israel, but but it was never for all of ethnic Israel. It was for an elect within Israel. Paul is not teaching anything new here.
Joel Brooks:He's actually already kinda broached this in chapter 4 when he says not all everyone who's circumcised is actually circumcised. There's a smaller circumcision in the of the heart that happens within the ethnically all the Jewish people who were circumcised. He's already told us this, and now he's really unpacking it. And he does this by going to election and telling us he gives us two examples of how God chooses a smaller group of people. And those are the people on whom His promises really go to.
Joel Brooks:He does this by by pointing to 2 groups of people, Abraham's children and Abraham's grandchildren. He actually could have started with Abraham himself and talking about how God has elected Abraham, because if you think about it, Abraham, he was just a pagan Mesopotamian. He was an idol worshiper, And God looked at him, not because of any goodness in Abraham, but of all the people there on earth. God said, and I will bless you. Not because of anything you've done.
Joel Brooks:I will I choose you. And he grabbed Abraham and he pulled Abraham to himself. Paul could have started there by talking about election, but the people already understood that. They already believed that about Abraham. What Paul is now developing which might have been new to them is God's choosing did not stop when He chose Abraham and his family.
Joel Brooks:God now keeps choosing within Abraham's family. He choose between his children, as in he chose between his grandchildren. Those are the examples that he gives. Alright. So let's look at those.
Joel Brooks:The first example is of Abraham's 2 sons, Ishmael and Isaac. God chose Isaac to be the child who received the promises of a god. He did not choose Ishmael, Even though Ishmael was older. Now, Paul realizes the moment he's given that example, you're gonna be thinking, oh okay, alright. True, God chose Isaac over Ishmael.
Joel Brooks:Yes, they both had Abraham as their father, but they had different mothers. Ishmael's mother was an Egyptian slave. Where Isaac's mother, well, that was Sarah, Abraham's wife. So of course God's gonna choose Sarah's child. And so Paul continues, says, well let's look at their children, the grandchildren of Abraham.
Joel Brooks:This time he brings up Isaac and Rebekah's twin sons, Esau and Jacob. We read this in verse 10, second part of it. When Rebekah had conceived children by 1 man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had not done had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls, She was told, the older will serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob I love, but Esau I hated. So now the example that Paul gives, he said, you know, Esau and Jacob, they had the same father and they had the same mother.
Joel Brooks:They actually had the same womb. And yet God chose one over the other. And it wasn't based on anything that they had done because he did it before they were even born, before they had done right or wrong. God chose Jacob over Esau. We read that he loved Jacob, but he hated Esau.
Joel Brooks:Now Paul here is using a Hebrew idiom here when he uses love and hate. It's to choose or not to choose. Jesus uses the same idiom, when he, in Luke chapter 14 when he said, unless you hate your father and your mother and your spouse and your children, you cannot be my disciple. He wasn't saying you were to have the emotion of hatred towards them. What he is saying, unless you choose me over choosing them, you cannot be my disciple.
Joel Brooks:That's that's what he's talking about. Choice here. That doesn't soften this because god's choice has enormous implications. Enormous implications here. God chose Jacob and did not choose Esau.
Joel Brooks:Why? Why does God choose some for salvation, and he doesn't choose others for salvation? Feels kind of arbitrary. Is it, is it just arbitrary? Is God, you know, like, kinda blindfolded, just, you know, throwing darts out there, just see where it sticks?
Joel Brooks:Is He, do you come before me, like, flips a coin? You know heads you're in, tails you're out. Even if he did that, I mean Proverbs 1633 says every flip of the coin, he determines. He's sovereign over all of those things. It's not arbitrary here.
Joel Brooks:God has his reasons, but Paul is crystal clear in saying his reasons are not to be found in you. He has his reasons for choosing, but they're not found in you. His purposes and his reasons for his choice are known only unto him. And so for his own reasons, he chose Jacob and he did not choose Esau. How does that make you feel?
Joel Brooks:Be honest. How does that make you feel? Does it rub you the wrong way? Still kinda rubs me a little bit the wrong way. Some of you already crafting the email to me.
Joel Brooks:Is that is that why the phones are out? That's it's already crafting. Some of you, you know, you're tempted to start tearing out pages in a bible. If you do, get one of the soft cover Bibles that are already kind of dilapidated, and don't get one of our hard bounds. If you're having these kind of reactions, that's okay.
Joel Brooks:And what I want you to do is really try to affirm the things that scripture clearly affirms first. Don't start with your questions. Start with God's declarations as to who he is. Hold those truths first and then get to the questions. And we're gonna answer some of these questions in a little bit and and a lot more next week.
Joel Brooks:So if you have yourself find yourself having this type of of reaction, it's okay. Actually, you should take comfort in it because that means you're understanding Paul correctly. Because he anticipates this type of reaction in you. That's what we have in verse 14. He He anticipates her to respond with this.
Joel Brooks:What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.
Joel Brooks:So Paul knows that our immediate reaction when we hear about the doctrine of election is to cry out, that's unjust. It's our it's our immediate reaction. Choosing one person over choosing another, not based on anything they have done, Just we wanna scream that that's unjust. And so Paul actually raises the question and answers it. And and by the way, this shows here that predestination is not, how I tried to do mental gymnastics explain it earlier in my life.
Joel Brooks:It's not God just looking into the future and seeing what you would do and then predestining it. Like, God didn't look into my future and see that as a 9 year old child, I would come to accept Jesus as my savior and Lord at a family devotion. You know, my my dad praying. We're all kneeling down. My dad on the right side, my mom on the left side, praying then.
Joel Brooks:God didn't look at that and be like, oh, he is gonna choose me. Angels, bring bring me the book. And then he writes down my name. Joel, you know, Eugene Brooks. You know, my middle name is Eugene, people.
Joel Brooks:Writes it down there. I don't know. It's not even a family name. It's just. But but God doesn't do that.
Joel Brooks:See what we would do and then predestined it. Because if he were to do that, no one is screaming about injustice. You're like, of course. That's as justice you could get. God saw what I was gonna do and then he acted on it.
Joel Brooks:And justice only comes up when it wasn't based on what I would do. His choice came before that. It was predestined. So if you feel this kind of reaction, know you are understanding Paul correctly. He's anticipating this objection here.
Joel Brooks:This question of God being unjust is only raised if election is not based on anything we do. Also, I think it's very important for you to understand the difference between justice and fairness. It's actually a pet peeve of mine, that Lauren's had to bear the brunt of because I keep mentioning it. Anytime I hear a sermon or I read a commentary, and it's all through them that they don't make a distinction between those 2. And always, parents like, here's another one.
Joel Brooks:I mean, come on. And they're like, the question isn't about is God being unfair. If fairness is defined as God treating all people the same, then God's unfair. And actually, there's so many parables that even prove it. You know, the parable of the talents.
Joel Brooks:God, you know, the master gave 1 10, the other 5, the other 1. That's not fair. The parable of of God paying out the wages. He he You work an entire day, He gives you your wage, you work 1 hour, you get the same wage. It's not fair.
Joel Brooks:So you're not gonna be able to go to scripture and see fairness as God treating every person the same. That's not what's at stake here. The question is, is God being unjust? Is he unjust? Justice is when God treats people like they deserve.
Joel Brooks:That's justice. So to be unjust is if God is not treating people according to what they deserve. So do people deserve heaven and God's denying it to them? That's the question. Because that would be unjust if they've earned their salvation.
Joel Brooks:Now Paul does not actually I mean, at least when I first read this, I I thought he was avoiding the question. For years, I thought this. So he gets this question, is God unjust? And then he talks about God's mercy. I'm like, He doesn't bring up justice.
Joel Brooks:He talks about God's mercy instead. And honestly, for years I thought when I was reading this, is Paul just kinda changing the subject to talk about something else new? It's kinda like if, you know, Lauren, she asked me, hey, you did remember that we're going out with so and so tonight for dinner. I'm like, I love that new dress that you bought today. Like, I just bring up something else because I forgot, and so I just bring out something else we could talk about.
Joel Brooks:And it kinda feels like Paul is doing this. Is God unjust? Let's talk about His mercy, people. It's not at all it. God's mercy is at the very heart of God's justice.
Joel Brooks:If you don't get this, you're not gonna understand Romans 9. God's mercy is at the very heart of his justice and election. Paul's point is this. God would only be unjust if he owed us salvation, but he refused to give it to us. But that is not the case.
Joel Brooks:God does not owe anyone in this room anything other than hell. All of us have sinned and fallen short of his glory. All of us have rebelled against our creator. All of us deserve his wrath and his punishment. And if we really knew the extent of our sins, there's no way we could deny that.
Joel Brooks:God and his mercy doesn't allow his wrath to come on all of us, but he saves some of us. If you believe that God is being unjust by saving some and not saving others, what you are implying is that God owes everyone salvation. But God is not anyone's debtor. Or as we looked at in Isaiah a couple of weeks ago, who has given to God that He should ever be repaid? So God could have justly left everyone in their sins who has rebelled against Him.
Joel Brooks:He was under obligations to no one to save them, and and why should He? I mean we have been spitting. Humanity has been spitting in his face since we were created. But out of a heart of mercy, he saves some. Why doesn't he save all?
Joel Brooks:I don't know. I don't know. The reasons are his and his alone, but I can never say it's because he's unjust or that he owes us anything other than hell. He does not owe anyone salvation. All I can do is proclaim his mercy that he does indeed save some when he didn't have to.
Joel Brooks:This is actually one of the reasons that the doctrine of election is so important Because without it, you compromise the central teaching of the new testament, which is that you are saved by grace alone. You don't earn it. You are not saved because of anything you do. That's what Paul means here when he unpacks it in verse 16, that it does not depend on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. In other words, your salvation does not depend on your decisions.
Joel Brooks:Human will. It does not depend on your exertion or how hard you try. It depends on one thing and one thing alone, God's mercy. Now we'll end here. Paul Paul is quoting from Exodus 33, which is one of those mountain peaks in the Old Testament.
Joel Brooks:It comes after Israel's worst sin when they bow down to the golden calf in chapter 32. They bow down to the golden calf, and God's like, I mean, I just took you through the Red Sea. I just freed you from the the Egyptians. And you do this? And he's like, it's time to smite you all.
Joel Brooks:I mean, it's just like, come on. And Moses intercedes, says don't do it, God. Don't do it. He intercedes. God decides not to destroy the Israelites, and Moses is so bold, he not only prays that God would not smile to all the Israelites, he says, and, god, may I see your glory?
Joel Brooks:Would you be so kind as to show me your glory? That's that's the setting for Exodus 33. And we read these words. Moses said, please show me your glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name, Yahweh.
Joel Brooks:And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. And I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy. Who is our God? Yahweh. Who is Yahweh?
Joel Brooks:The one who is gracious to whom you will be gracious. The one who shows mercy whom to whom you will show mercy. Who did not smite all of the Israelites but saved some. He is the one whom we can trust. He's the one who has never failed us.
Joel Brooks:And if you want to truly see God as glorious, you've got to wrestle with this. Pray with me. Spirit of God, we need your help as we wrestle through these things. We are so small. Our minds are so feeble.
Joel Brooks:Would you help us? We want to see you as glorious. Lord, we thank you so much for your mercy. There's nothing in us, that we could point to that has saved us. Nothing in us that would distinguish us from anyone else.
Joel Brooks:That Lord, you were just so merciful to us and you've drawn us to yourself. And so may we spend the life in endless praise of you, Jesus. And we pray this in your name. Amen.