WEBVTT 00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:13.279 Let me invite you to open your Bibles to the book of Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament. 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:14.880 Malachi chapter 1. 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:17.839 You can find the book of Matthew, the first book in the New Testament. 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:19.600 Turn left a couple pages. 00:00:20.239 --> 00:00:22.719 Malachi in chapter 1. 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:27.440 Isn't that encouraging to have our students lead us in worship this morning? 00:00:37.520 --> 00:00:43.119 I suspect there might be one or two of you who are tempted after this to come up to me and say, that was so great. 00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:48.079 Great job with those students and organizing them and that musical worship, it was amazing. 00:00:48.159 --> 00:00:50.399 And if that's you, let me just stop you right there. 00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:54.560 Because I had absolutely nothing to do with that. 00:00:55.119 --> 00:01:10.719 It's because of people like Kelly Nix, like Astros Blackwell, like Melissa Rowe, and of course JJ, who are doing such an excellent job pouring into our students, not just teaching them how to be excellent musically, but how to love the Lord that their God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. 00:01:10.799 --> 00:01:12.000 And that's what our church is about. 00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:16.560 I hope that it was encouraging to you to have them lead us this morning. 00:01:16.640 --> 00:01:28.640 And I just want to tell you that as a youth pastor here at Emanuel Bible Church, I have found it so encouraging to see that our church wants our students, wants our teens to be caught up in the whole corporate life of Emmanuel Bible Church. 00:01:28.719 --> 00:01:35.439 We don't siphon our students off to in a dark room to entertain them with a smoke and mirror show to try to convince them that Christianity is cool. 00:01:36.879 --> 00:01:38.400 Because that's not what they need. 00:01:38.879 --> 00:01:44.159 Teens need the same thing that every single person needs: a real encounter with the living God through his word. 00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:50.799 That's what's at the heart of the life of Emmanuel Bible Church, and that has been a tremendous encouragement to me. 00:01:50.879 --> 00:01:52.239 And that's where we want to turn now. 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:53.760 We want to turn to the Word of God. 00:01:53.920 --> 00:01:58.400 We want the Word of the Word of God to be the means by which God Himself speaks to us this morning. 00:01:58.480 --> 00:02:01.200 So let's begin by reading from the book of Malachi. 00:02:01.519 --> 00:02:10.960 Over the next couple weeks, we're going to study Malachi chapter 1 as Jesse's away, and then we'll come back as we approach Easter, and we'll actually, as a church, we'll go through the rest of the book of Malachi in the course of the spring. 00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:17.360 But this morning we'll kind of an introduction to this prophet and the Lord's message through Malachi to us. 00:02:17.599 --> 00:02:19.680 This morning through the first five verses of the book. 00:02:19.759 --> 00:02:21.280 So let's read the text together. 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:24.479 Look down at your Bibles and follow with me as I read from God's Word. 00:02:24.639 --> 00:02:27.599 Malachi chapter 1, beginning in verse 1. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:35.039 God's word says this The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. 00:02:36.080 --> 00:02:41.199 I have loved you, says the Lord, but you say, How have you loved us? 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:44.400 Is not Esau Jacob's brother, declares the Lord. 00:02:44.560 --> 00:02:47.680 Yet I loved Esau, but Esau I have hated. 00:02:48.319 --> 00:02:53.520 I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to the jackals of the desert. 00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:58.960 If Edom says, We are shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins. 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:07.039 The Lord of hosts says, They may rebuild, but I will tear down, and they will be called the wicked country, and the people with whom the Lord is angry forever. 00:03:07.199 --> 00:03:14.800 Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel. 00:03:15.919 --> 00:03:19.840 There was a question hanging over Jerusalem in the time of Malachi. 00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:25.360 And it was the kind of question that I think every single one of us can relate to in one way or another. 00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:31.439 It's the kind of question that we ask when we encounter unmet expectations or hopes that have been shattered. 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:39.759 It might be a child asking their parent, it might be a friend asking a friend, tragically, a spouse asking a spouse. 00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:44.080 In this case, it is the Israelites asking this question of God. 00:03:44.159 --> 00:03:47.599 And it is the question: do you really love me? 00:03:48.240 --> 00:03:51.039 Do you really love us? 00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:56.159 Malachi lived in the time in which the people of Israel had returned from their captivity in Babylon. 00:03:56.719 --> 00:04:03.840 They had rebuilt the temple under the prompting of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the two prophets that precede Malachi in our Bibles. 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:28.879 They'd completed that temple, and they were expecting that all of God's promises to his people would now be fulfilled, that the glory of the Lord would fill the temple, that God would fulfill all his covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he'd establish an everlasting kingdom where a son of David would sit on the throne and rule God's kingdom forever and ever, and the earth would sprout forth righteousness and salvation and justice would cover the earth as the seas, cover as water covers the seas. 00:04:29.120 --> 00:04:30.879 That was the expectation. 00:04:32.240 --> 00:04:34.160 And it hadn't happened. 00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:37.920 And by the time you get to Malachi's day, generations have passed. 00:04:38.160 --> 00:04:42.560 The book of Malachi is probably composed in about 450 before the time of our Lord. 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:53.120 That means that multiple generations had been born and lived their life and died in Jerusalem, waiting for God's covenants to be fulfilled. 00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:56.959 And it seemed that they had gone empty. 00:04:57.279 --> 00:04:59.839 Generations dying without the promises fulfilled. 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:03.839 Naturally, they were asking the question, does God really love us? 00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:09.199 And the book of Malachi comes as an answer from the Lord to that question. 00:05:09.360 --> 00:05:18.879 It's a word from the Lord to his people to affirm that his promises still stand, his words will never fall, and he will fulfill all his covenants and purposes with his people. 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:24.079 In a word, the book of Malachi is a book to affirm that God still loves his people. 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:37.680 And the way that the book of Malachi is structured, it's composed of six disputations where God has a dialogue with his people, where he affirms something is true, and he allows them to question him and to ask him, Are you sure that's true? 00:05:37.839 --> 00:05:44.480 And then he gives a reasoned response to prove that it is true, and then he shows the implication of the way that they should respond to him. 00:05:44.639 --> 00:05:50.639 And the reason that I bother telling you that structure is because I think it invites us to understand something about the nature of God. 00:05:51.040 --> 00:06:09.839 He understands our questions, and he understands our complaints, our worries, our anxieties, our doubts, and when we experience doubts, he invites us to come to him with them. 00:06:11.839 --> 00:06:27.759 And what we find in the book of Malachi is a people wearied by unfulfilled promises and unmet expectations, coming to their God and having an encounter with their God through the word of the prophet to reaffirm that God really does love his people. 00:06:28.399 --> 00:06:35.120 And what we're going to see this morning is the first proof that God really loves his people in Malachi 1.1 through 5. 00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:40.240 The first thing that God tells his people to remind them that he loves them is remember, I chose you. 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:55.519 So what this little text, as we're going to study it this morning, does for us is Malachi 1.1 to 5 calls us to rekindle our affections, rekindle our love for the Lord by remembering that he elected us for salvation. 00:06:55.759 --> 00:06:58.319 Now let me just pause for a second before we dive in. 00:06:58.560 --> 00:07:00.000 This is Youth Serve Sunday. 00:07:00.079 --> 00:07:03.040 It's Youth Ministry Sunday, it's Teen Sunday. 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:10.639 So, I mean, I think this is just indicative of the nature of Emmanuel Bible church. 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:18.800 Is on Teen Sunday, we're not jumping into the kiddie pool, we're jumping straight into the Word of God, and we're doing a predestination sermon on Youth Ministry Sunday. 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:21.040 This is a great church, isn't it? 00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:27.759 This is a predestination passage, and I just want us to see before we jump in, this is where God goes. 00:07:27.920 --> 00:07:29.759 When we have a doubt, does God really love me? 00:07:29.839 --> 00:07:32.000 He says, Remember, I chose you. 00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:37.920 That's supposed to affirm his love for us and cause us to gaze at the wonder of his love. 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:40.560 That's where God wants us to go this morning. 00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:42.480 So let's just walk through the text this morning. 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:48.079 We're going to just take Malachi 1, 1 through 5, according to the structure that it presents itself in the passage. 00:07:48.399 --> 00:07:51.120 First thing that we see is that God gives us an assertion. 00:07:51.279 --> 00:07:54.879 God says, verse 2, I have loved you. 00:07:55.040 --> 00:07:56.720 That's great news. 00:07:57.839 --> 00:08:04.800 But the people of Israel living in Jerusalem at this period of time really aren't in a mindset to be able to receive that news. 00:08:05.040 --> 00:08:07.759 Their mind is stuck on their poor circumstances. 00:08:07.839 --> 00:08:12.160 And at this point in time, Judah was not the center of God's global kingdom. 00:08:12.240 --> 00:08:16.319 Rather, it was a tiny little province under the thumb of Persian oppression. 00:08:16.560 --> 00:08:24.399 Poverty was rampant, social injustice was pervasive, the walls of the city were physically torn down, moral laxity was pervasive. 00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:26.160 There were problems. 00:08:26.399 --> 00:08:31.360 And people had their eyes on their problems, and they're thinking, we don't I thought God loved us. 00:08:31.439 --> 00:08:32.240 We don't deserve this. 00:08:32.320 --> 00:08:34.399 We deserve something so much better. 00:08:36.399 --> 00:08:42.799 It's impossible to really be amazed at the love of God as long as you have your eyes on your circumstances and not on God Himself. 00:08:43.039 --> 00:08:47.120 And it's not just an issue of what happens when things are going wrong around you. 00:08:47.200 --> 00:08:50.960 It's also an issue of what happens if you have your eyes on things that are going well around you. 00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:55.840 You remember the word of the Lord to Israel before they even came into the promised land. 00:08:55.919 --> 00:09:20.559 In the book of Deuteronomy, God warned them, Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God. 00:09:24.320 --> 00:09:41.200 Whether things are going well in your life, or things are going tremendously poorly, as long as your eyes are on your circumstances and you're thinking things are going well, this is what I deserve, or things are going terribly, this is not what I deserve, your heart will not be in a position to recognize the reality of God's love. 00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:45.600 That's where Israel was, and thus they ask this question in verse 2. 00:09:45.840 --> 00:09:48.159 God, you say you've loved us, but really? 00:09:48.399 --> 00:09:49.919 How have you loved us? 00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:52.399 And that's the pattern that we find through the book of Malachi. 00:09:52.559 --> 00:10:09.519 It's in chapter 1, verse 6, verse 7, chapter 2, verse 17, chapter 3, verse 7, verse 8, verse 13, again and again and again, seven times, God affirms a truth to his people and he allows them to respond with but, but, but, really? 00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:14.159 They're challenging God. 00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:20.240 But at least they're going to God with their doubts. 00:10:20.559 --> 00:10:23.440 At least they are going to God with their questions. 00:10:23.759 --> 00:10:27.120 That's the pattern that's revealed to us in the nature of this dispute. 00:10:27.360 --> 00:10:36.240 God, when he delivers the word of the Lord through Malachi, could have had Malachi just say, Here are God's requirements, mic drop, and walk out of the city. 00:10:36.399 --> 00:10:46.559 But instead, he reveals his word through Malachi in this form in order to invite us, when we have doubts and when we have questions, to come to God with our doubts and our questions. 00:10:46.799 --> 00:10:49.360 And this is the way that the Lord responds. 00:10:50.080 --> 00:10:52.080 He responds by affirming this truth. 00:10:52.240 --> 00:10:54.559 I chose you, not Esau. 00:10:54.720 --> 00:10:55.919 There's the proof of my love. 00:10:56.080 --> 00:10:57.120 Look at verse 2. 00:10:57.440 --> 00:10:58.159 I've loved you. 00:10:58.240 --> 00:10:59.919 The people respond, How have you loved us? 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:01.200 And here's how God responds. 00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:06.879 Is not Esau Jacob's brother, declares the Lord, yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated. 00:11:07.039 --> 00:11:10.559 I've laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert. 00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:21.679 If Edom says, We're shattered, but we'll rebuild the ruins, the Lord of hosts says, They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called the wicked country, and the people with whom the Lord is indignant forever. 00:11:21.919 --> 00:11:34.159 Remember, I chose you and not your brother Esau, and I've been faithful, and I have spared you, and I've brought you back to the land, and I've rebuilt the temple, and I have not proven unfaithful to my word. 00:11:36.320 --> 00:11:46.799 Now I just, before we move any further, the I we're going to discuss this just a little bit more, this whole language of love and hate, but I think it's helpful just to at least begin to broach it now. 00:11:47.360 --> 00:11:51.120 God says, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated. 00:11:51.279 --> 00:11:53.279 That's pretty startling language. 00:11:54.000 --> 00:12:01.759 And I would guess that most of us, if we find this affirmation startling, it's not the love part we find startling, it's the hate part. 00:12:02.159 --> 00:12:04.720 Jacob, I have loved, but Esau I have hated. 00:12:05.039 --> 00:12:05.840 Really, God? 00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:12.240 But it's helpful to remember something in the nature of love. 00:12:12.720 --> 00:12:18.960 The nature of love is to make a choice, and love, by its definition, by its nature, is exclusionary. 00:12:19.200 --> 00:12:22.000 To love one is not to love another. 00:12:22.399 --> 00:12:27.759 We could give an example of this many ways, but I think a very helpful example is the example of marriage. 00:12:27.919 --> 00:12:33.519 Marriage is, after all, the relationship that God looks at and says, that's what the relationship between Christ and his bride, the church, is like. 00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:43.679 Well, the nature of marriage is that one man, one woman pledge loyal love to one another for life, and they pledge that love to no one else. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:51.360 When a man and a woman say I do to one another, they're saying yes to you and no to everyone else. 00:12:51.600 --> 00:13:00.080 I'm choosing you and I'm choosing to exclude everyone else from this covenant, loyal, intimate, one-flesh love. 00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:03.679 It's the nature of love, is it has to exclude others. 00:13:03.840 --> 00:13:09.679 And so it becomes a Hebrew idiom in the Hebrew language that if you love one person, you're hating the other. 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:12.000 If you love one thing, you're hating the other. 00:13:12.159 --> 00:13:19.039 Because when you choose this, you're not choosing the other, and there's a dichotomy between my love that is going here and not there. 00:13:19.840 --> 00:13:24.320 You see this all over Scripture, but I think one helpful place to go is the words of our Lord. 00:13:24.559 --> 00:13:33.200 Jesus says in Matthew chapter 6, verse 24, No one can serve two masters, for either you will hate the one and love the other, or you'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. 00:13:33.360 --> 00:13:34.799 You cannot serve God in money. 00:13:34.960 --> 00:13:36.399 Now think about that for a second. 00:13:36.559 --> 00:13:38.399 Some of you have two jobs. 00:13:40.480 --> 00:13:44.799 Does this ring true that while you're working for one, you're hating the other? 00:13:44.960 --> 00:13:46.960 I mean, maybe you just hate both of them. 00:13:49.279 --> 00:13:50.720 That's not what Jesus is saying. 00:13:50.879 --> 00:13:54.799 What Jesus is saying, if you are working for one, you are not working for the other. 00:13:55.120 --> 00:14:05.120 You're loving the one in that you are choosing to be devoted to this one master and work for him, and that means you are not devoted to and not working for and not serving this other. 00:14:05.360 --> 00:14:06.960 Loving one, hating the other. 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:12.000 It's just an idiom for choosing one which necessitates you exclude another. 00:14:12.240 --> 00:14:15.279 That's what God is saying to the people of Israel. 00:14:15.440 --> 00:14:21.279 And this goes all the way back to the nature of God's covenant promises through Abraham and then through Isaac and then through Jacob. 00:14:21.440 --> 00:14:23.840 Isaac's wife Rebecca has two children. 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:25.039 She's having twins. 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:29.840 And before she's even gives birth, she goes to the Lord and asks, What is going on? 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:31.360 And the Lord says this. 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:39.919 The Lord says to her, Two nations are in your womb, and two people from within you shall be divided, for one shall be stronger than the other. 00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:42.159 The older shall serve the younger. 00:14:42.399 --> 00:14:53.759 God already chose, when Jacob and Esau were yet still in the womb of their mother, that he was going to send his promise of salvation through one, not the other. 00:14:57.600 --> 00:15:00.000 That is what happened with the people of Israel. 00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:13.919 Jacob's seed becomes Israel, the covenant people, whom God has given a promise to, that through them a blessing will go to all the peoples of the earth, and God is reminding the people of Israel, I've been faithful to that promise, haven't I? 00:15:14.080 --> 00:15:14.879 Here you are. 00:15:15.279 --> 00:15:20.639 Look at your brother Esau, whose line became the people Edom. 00:15:22.879 --> 00:15:24.799 They became your enemies. 00:15:25.120 --> 00:15:29.279 And they participated in the Babylonian destruction and spoil of Jerusalem. 00:15:29.440 --> 00:15:33.279 They mocked you and laughed at you when you were carried off into captivity. 00:15:33.840 --> 00:15:35.200 But now where are they? 00:15:35.679 --> 00:15:53.200 There's an entire book of the Bible, the book of Obadiah, which is dedicated to a prophecy where the word where the Lord promises that there will be judgment on Edom for their participation in the destruction of Israel, but God will continue his promises to Jacob, even though it seems impossible in that moment in history. 00:15:53.440 --> 00:16:01.279 And now, a few generations later, the word of the Lord comes through Malachi to the people of Israel and says, See, haven't I been faithful to that promise? 00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:06.559 Here you are, there's a temple, no one says this was possible, and now look around, where is Edom? 00:16:07.200 --> 00:16:20.720 Because by the time of the fifth century, the Nabataeans and Arabian people had come up and had captured the Edomite cities, had driven them out of their land, and here we are in the 21st century, and there ain't no Edomites, but there's a lot of Israelites. 00:16:21.679 --> 00:16:25.440 This is what the Lord is calling the people to put their mind on. 00:16:25.600 --> 00:16:40.799 Not your circumstances, but the reality that a God who stands outside of time and is above the temporal workings of the nations has put his electing love on you and will fulfill his promises to you, and it's not based on anything that you do. 00:16:41.679 --> 00:16:44.639 This is what the Lord says through Moses to the people of Israel. 00:16:45.039 --> 00:16:47.600 It's not because you are more in number than any other people. 00:16:52.480 --> 00:16:54.720 But it's because the Lord loves you. 00:16:54.879 --> 00:16:57.360 That's where God wants his people to put their mind. 00:16:57.600 --> 00:17:06.559 Not on their circumstances, but on the love of God, and to recognize that God's love for you is not based on who you are, what you do, it's based on his sovereign choice. 00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:07.839 Look at what the text says. 00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:12.079 It's not because of who you are that the Lord set his love on you, it's because he loves you. 00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:13.359 Why does God love you? 00:17:13.519 --> 00:17:14.319 Because he loves you. 00:17:14.480 --> 00:17:23.599 And he loves you because he loves the ultimate cause of God's love for his people, his choice of his people, his keeping his promises to his people resides in God, not in you. 00:17:23.759 --> 00:17:33.839 And so your circumstances might look good or they might look bad, but God hasn't changed, and God's sovereign purposes to love you and fulfill his promises to you, remain. 00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:37.359 That's where God calls his people to put their mind. 00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:42.079 And that leads to this implication of this prophetic word to the people of Israel. 00:17:42.319 --> 00:17:50.480 I've loved you, I've chosen you, I've proved it through history and being faithful to my people, and the way that you should respond is in verse 5. 00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:52.160 You should glory in the Lord. 00:17:52.400 --> 00:17:53.759 Look at verse 5 in your Bible. 00:17:53.839 --> 00:18:03.279 It says, Your eyes shall see this, that is God's fulfilling in history, his promises to his people, and you will say, Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel. 00:18:03.440 --> 00:18:19.119 That'll be the response of the people of God as they see God keeping his covenants, ultimately through Israel, bringing the Messiah who sends a blessing to all the Gentile peoples, tongues, and nations all over the world, and we will say, Great is the Lord who by his own power and grace saves his people. 00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:25.279 That's Malachi chapter 1, verses 1 through 5. 00:18:27.440 --> 00:18:32.960 Now I could just wrap it up right here, and the parking attendants would be really happy with me. 00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:38.480 But it's youth serve Sunday, and I'm the youth pastor, so I'm gonna do what I want. 00:18:39.359 --> 00:18:41.440 And I want to preach another sermon. 00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:44.319 That was Malachi chapter 1, verses 1 through 5. 00:18:44.480 --> 00:18:45.839 But we have a New Testament. 00:18:45.920 --> 00:18:48.400 That's a lection in the Old Testament, but it doesn't stop there. 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:53.119 We have a New Testament, so I think we should close by looking at what Paul says about this in the New Testament. 00:18:53.200 --> 00:18:55.599 Why don't you turn in your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 9? 00:18:55.759 --> 00:19:06.799 Flip over to Romans chapter 9 because this word from God through Malachi that I've loved Jacob but hated Esau, it shows up again in our Bibles. 00:19:07.920 --> 00:19:15.839 It shows up in Romans and chapter 9 as Paul is contemplating God's plans and salvation, how he saved some but not all. 00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:22.640 And that verse from Malachi chapter 1, verse 2 appears again in Paul's argument. 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:31.680 And I just want to look at a few verses in Romans chapter 9 and begin to try to apply them to our situation as new covenant believers and the Messiah. 00:19:32.640 --> 00:19:36.480 What does it mean that God elects people for salvation? 00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:40.400 Look at chapter 9, verse 1. 00:19:40.559 --> 00:19:46.480 Paul is dealing with the question: why is it that God saves some Israelites, but not all, some Jews, but not all? 00:19:46.720 --> 00:19:50.640 Chapter 9, verse 1, Paul says, I'm speaking the truth in Christ. 00:19:50.799 --> 00:19:51.359 I'm not lying. 00:19:51.440 --> 00:20:02.640 My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, 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. 00:20:02.880 --> 00:20:07.839 Paul's wrestling with the issue of he wants all Jews to be saved, but not all Jews are being saved. 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:10.319 Not all Jews are believing in the Jewish Messiah. 00:20:10.480 --> 00:20:11.920 And he has the question, what's going on? 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:14.240 Is God's promise through Abraham failed? 00:20:14.319 --> 00:20:19.359 And then he says, no, it hasn't failed, because God's promise was always for individuals. 00:20:19.599 --> 00:20:22.640 And the elect that God has chosen are being saved. 00:20:22.720 --> 00:20:23.839 They are responding to the word. 00:20:24.079 --> 00:20:25.279 Look at verse 6. 00:20:25.519 --> 00:20:27.680 It's not as though the word of the Lord has failed. 00:20:27.839 --> 00:20:38.000 For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but through Isaac, your offspring shall be named. 00:20:38.319 --> 00:20:44.160 Paul affirms that the re that God elects those whom he has chosen, and he hasn't elected all. 00:20:44.319 --> 00:20:48.559 Here's the first point that Paul makes for us God chose us for salvation. 00:20:48.720 --> 00:20:57.680 If anyone is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is only because God sovereignly before the foundation of the world chose you, elected you by name for salvation. 00:20:57.920 --> 00:21:10.799 Now, some a common view when looking at Romans 9 has at times in various phases of the church's history been to look at Romans 9 and say, this is about nations. 00:21:10.880 --> 00:21:11.920 It's not about individuals. 00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:16.240 That just seems a little bit too in your kitchen, that God would choose some for salvation, but not all. 00:21:16.319 --> 00:21:18.960 This is about God choosing Israel and not other nations. 00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:22.960 Big old books have been written about that. 00:21:23.599 --> 00:21:24.880 It doesn't fit the text. 00:21:25.359 --> 00:21:30.079 One of the reasons is that nations are made of individuals. 00:21:31.359 --> 00:21:34.960 But another reason is that you already believe an election. 00:21:35.039 --> 00:21:39.680 If you are a Christian and you believe the word of God, you already believe an election of individuals. 00:21:40.799 --> 00:21:43.200 The first example that Paul gives is Abraham. 00:21:43.759 --> 00:21:55.039 Why did God reveal himself to Abraham, who was a pagan living in ancient Mesopotamia, an idol follower, and God reveals himself, calls him out, and makes a covenant with him and no one else. 00:21:55.200 --> 00:21:55.759 Why? 00:21:56.079 --> 00:21:58.160 Because God chose him. 00:21:58.480 --> 00:21:59.440 Abraham had two sons. 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:04.960 Isaac and Ishmael, and God chose that the promise would go through Isaac and not Ishmael. 00:22:05.039 --> 00:22:05.599 Why? 00:22:05.839 --> 00:22:08.799 Because God chose Isaac, not Ishmael. 00:22:09.599 --> 00:22:14.559 Why is Paul, the apostle, the one who's writing these letters, able to write these letters? 00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:31.599 Because Paul was a persecuting, blaspheming, Christian, killing, antichrist warrior, and in the midst of his rebelling against God, Christ revealed himself to Paul on the road to Damascus and changed him. 00:22:31.759 --> 00:22:35.039 Why did God do that to Paul and not Pilate? 00:22:36.079 --> 00:22:38.319 Because God chose Paul. 00:22:39.119 --> 00:22:40.319 That's where Paul goes. 00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:44.480 Paul goes to God's electing of individuals for salvation. 00:22:44.640 --> 00:22:46.160 Look at verse 10. 00:22:46.880 --> 00:22:50.799 Not only so, this is where he begins the Jacob and Esau saga. 00:22:51.039 --> 00:23:07.759 When Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our 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 him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger. 00:23:07.920 --> 00:23:12.640 As it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I have hated. 00:23:13.680 --> 00:23:16.400 What's the basis of salvation of any individual? 00:23:16.559 --> 00:23:22.799 It is not in that person, it's in God who chose them, God who elected, it's in God's purpose. 00:23:23.039 --> 00:23:27.039 That's the cause of salvation because God chooses some for salvation. 00:23:27.279 --> 00:23:29.279 Now let's ask this question. 00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:36.079 Here's, I think, a logical question that would come to mind for many of you as you're wrestling with this. 00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:40.319 What about the hate part? 00:23:40.640 --> 00:23:45.200 We kind of talked about that a second ago, but it kind of seems like God is double predestinating. 00:23:45.359 --> 00:23:50.240 He's saying, Some I'm gonna make for salvation, others I'm gonna make them for damnation. 00:23:51.440 --> 00:23:52.559 What about that? 00:23:52.799 --> 00:24:09.440 If God chooses some for salvation, and in choosing them, he then enters into their life, intervenes, and creates faith, grants spiritual life and brings them to salvation, does he in the same way intervene in the life of others to create unbelief? 00:24:09.599 --> 00:24:14.960 Does he intervene in the life of others to create fresh sin and evil and rebellion against God? 00:24:15.119 --> 00:24:16.960 Is that what the text says? 00:24:18.319 --> 00:24:20.319 That's not what the text says. 00:24:20.640 --> 00:24:24.000 The way that God treats individuals is asymmetrical. 00:24:24.240 --> 00:24:35.519 He treats those he elects by intervening in their life and saving them, and he treats the non-elect by passing over them and allowing them to go their own way. 00:24:36.319 --> 00:24:40.000 He chooses one, which means he doesn't choose the other. 00:24:40.559 --> 00:24:47.759 Another way to think about this is that the nature of election for salvation is that it presupposes the need for salvation, doesn't it? 00:24:47.920 --> 00:24:53.279 There's no business, God doesn't have any business electing from some for salvation if we don't have the need for it. 00:24:53.519 --> 00:24:57.839 That is, God looks at human nature and sees that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 00:24:58.079 --> 00:25:00.720 He sees that there are none who seek God, no, not one. 00:25:00.880 --> 00:25:09.440 He sees that the nature of human life is that the wickedness of man is great, and that every intention and the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually. 00:25:09.759 --> 00:25:15.519 As Paul says, the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot. 00:25:15.680 --> 00:25:18.079 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 00:25:18.319 --> 00:25:22.400 We are both unwilling and unable to come to God on our own volition. 00:25:22.559 --> 00:25:25.920 Naturally, we all have the freedom to choose, and we all choose sin. 00:25:26.079 --> 00:25:29.039 We all choose to worship the creation rather than the creator. 00:25:29.119 --> 00:25:30.160 That's our default. 00:25:30.319 --> 00:25:32.240 That's what we want to do. 00:25:32.960 --> 00:25:39.599 This is why Paul sums up our human condition in Ephesians chapter 2 by saying we are dead in trespasses and sins. 00:25:39.839 --> 00:25:46.799 No more ability to choose God than a dead man has to get up out of his casket at his own funeral. 00:25:48.240 --> 00:25:55.200 Thus, Jesus himself says, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. 00:25:55.519 --> 00:25:56.720 This is our condition. 00:25:57.039 --> 00:26:01.359 God does not need to intervene in the life of a sinner to create unbelief. 00:26:01.519 --> 00:26:03.279 We already don't believe in him. 00:26:07.119 --> 00:26:11.200 In order for God to harden someone, all he has to do is let go and stop restraining them. 00:26:11.279 --> 00:26:16.799 As Paul says in Romans chapter 1, verse 24, he just has to give us up to our own desires. 00:26:17.440 --> 00:26:21.279 And those desires will be to worship the creature rather than the creator. 00:26:21.839 --> 00:26:26.480 What God has to do for anyone to be saved is he has to intervene in grace. 00:26:26.640 --> 00:26:28.960 And that's what he has done for us. 00:26:30.160 --> 00:26:34.880 He chose us, and he burst into our life when we were straying from him. 00:26:36.400 --> 00:26:56.160 Dead in trespasses, but God, but God, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, caused us, caused us, he gave us life, he brought us back to life, united us with Christ so that by grace we have been saved. 00:26:58.319 --> 00:27:09.440 What that does is what Paul says in verse 11, it shows that God's purpose of election will continue not because of works, but because of him who calls. 00:27:09.680 --> 00:27:17.759 The basis of our salvation is that God chose us for salvation, and he chose us on the basis of his own will. 00:27:18.319 --> 00:27:20.640 He chose us on the basis of his own will. 00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:33.680 Now, another question that we will ask naturally about the nature of this election that is taught to us in the scriptures is okay, sure, the word election, predestination are in the Bible. 00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:38.079 If I'm a Christian, if I want to believe in Jesus, then I have to deal with that. 00:27:38.240 --> 00:27:41.839 The word election, predestination, they're there in Scripture. 00:27:42.880 --> 00:27:44.640 But what's the nature of that election? 00:27:44.720 --> 00:27:54.240 And some would say that the reason that God elects people is because he can see that in time, when the gospel is offered to them, they will believe it. 00:27:54.480 --> 00:28:10.319 And so the nature of God's election is that because God is outside of time, he can see who are the people who will respond in faith, and so he then retrojects back into eternity past, and he elects those individuals who will respond positively to the offer of salvation. 00:28:10.559 --> 00:28:21.839 Kind of like if you've got a sporting event that you want to watch, and you've recorded it on whatever your streaming service is, and you somehow have stumbled upon the score of that game. 00:28:22.319 --> 00:28:24.480 Oh, that's the worst, isn't it? 00:28:25.440 --> 00:28:27.759 So you know that whoever is gonna win. 00:28:28.079 --> 00:28:33.759 And so at the beginning, as you're beginning to stream that game, you choose whoever. 00:28:35.119 --> 00:28:35.680 The Chiefs. 00:28:35.839 --> 00:28:37.920 I just spoiled it for some of you, sorry. 00:28:39.359 --> 00:28:41.440 Is that the nature of God's election of us? 00:28:41.599 --> 00:28:45.920 He knows the score, and so he then you know places his wagers appropriately? 00:28:46.799 --> 00:28:49.119 He's out outside of time, he can do that, right? 00:28:50.400 --> 00:28:51.839 Look at verse 14. 00:28:52.960 --> 00:28:55.920 Paul responds to an objection now, and he says, What shall we say then? 00:28:56.079 --> 00:28:58.559 Is there injustice on God's part? 00:28:59.039 --> 00:29:00.960 By no means. 00:29:01.359 --> 00:29:03.039 You see the question that Paul's answering? 00:29:03.119 --> 00:29:04.160 It's a rhetorical question. 00:29:04.240 --> 00:29:09.440 He's teaching that salvation is based on God's choice on the basis of his will, not based on anything in you. 00:29:09.599 --> 00:29:13.119 There's nothing in you that would stir God or make him want to choose you. 00:29:13.279 --> 00:29:16.400 It's based solely on his own sovereign electing love. 00:29:16.559 --> 00:29:20.640 He then intervenes and creates spiritual life in you and draws him to his son. 00:29:22.559 --> 00:29:26.000 Naturally, the response to that would be that doesn't seem fair. 00:29:26.240 --> 00:29:28.319 That God would choose some, but not all. 00:29:28.480 --> 00:29:29.920 That doesn't seem fair. 00:29:30.160 --> 00:29:43.920 And do you see that the nature of Paul having to address that rhetorical question just serves to confirm that what Paul is teaching is this teaching of election that's based on God's will and not your faith. 00:29:44.319 --> 00:29:53.039 If Paul were teaching that God looks into time and he sees who will respond to him positively, and then he elects those, he gives everybody equal opportunity. 00:29:53.200 --> 00:29:54.799 Some people choose him, some people don't. 00:29:54.960 --> 00:29:56.480 He elects the ones that choose him. 00:29:58.319 --> 00:29:59.440 Nobody's gonna respond. 00:29:59.519 --> 00:30:00.640 That's not fair. 00:30:00.960 --> 00:30:05.680 And that accords with just everything that we naturally believe about fairness as human beings. 00:30:05.920 --> 00:30:15.839 If that's what Paul was teaching, this objection wouldn't be in the Bible, but it's there because what Paul is saying is that election's based on God, not you. 00:30:16.640 --> 00:30:18.480 That's what he says in the next verse. 00:30:18.720 --> 00:30:19.920 Verse 15. 00:30:20.240 --> 00:30:26.720 For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. 00:30:26.880 --> 00:30:33.680 So it depends not on human will, not on human faith, but on God who has mercy. 00:30:33.920 --> 00:30:39.039 The basis of salvation is God's election based on his own will. 00:30:39.759 --> 00:30:44.000 You could say it this way: election is not the cause of faith. 00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:49.759 Election, excuse me, election is the cause of faith, and not faith the cause of election. 00:30:49.920 --> 00:30:53.119 We're not chosen because we believe, we believe because we're chosen. 00:30:53.359 --> 00:30:57.039 If election were based on the our choice of God, then it wouldn't be God's election. 00:30:57.119 --> 00:31:00.160 It would be our election, and God's just, he wins. 00:31:04.319 --> 00:31:15.519 But election is based not on our choice, it's based on God's choice, God's sovereign purpose to choose us individually for salvation on the basis of his own will. 00:31:15.599 --> 00:31:16.640 And what's the point of it? 00:31:16.799 --> 00:31:20.000 Well, here's what Paul says it's for his own glory. 00:31:21.599 --> 00:31:22.720 Not your glory. 00:31:23.599 --> 00:31:26.000 Because you didn't contribute anything to it. 00:31:28.640 --> 00:31:36.480 From beginning to end, the nature of salvation is from God, through God, by God, and for God, not based on you. 00:31:36.640 --> 00:31:45.599 And if you are reading that, I intentionally tried to craft this sentence because all I did was just rephrase a passage of scripture. 00:31:46.400 --> 00:31:48.000 This is what Paul says about election. 00:31:48.160 --> 00:31:58.720 God predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace. 00:31:59.039 --> 00:32:05.359 God chooses us for salvation on the basis of his will, and it's for his own glory. 00:32:05.599 --> 00:32:15.039 The effect of the teaching of election in the Bible should cause our hearts to say, how incredible that God would elect me. 00:32:34.559 --> 00:32:46.640 That I think you will you may ask as you contemplate this is if that's true, that God elects for salvation, and there's no salvation unless God chooses to intervene in your life and bring you to faith in Christ. 00:32:46.799 --> 00:32:48.640 How can you know that he's elected you? 00:32:50.240 --> 00:32:53.680 You know because you believe him and you love him. 00:32:54.079 --> 00:32:59.359 You know that you've been elected because you believe the gospel and you love the God that saved you. 00:32:59.599 --> 00:33:01.680 Because you couldn't do that on your own. 00:33:01.839 --> 00:33:07.680 The only way you can do that is if God has intervened and has brought you to life and has united you to Christ. 00:33:07.839 --> 00:33:19.279 And now that you see Christ, and now that you love Christ, your heart should swell in awe that the reason you are here enjoying the love of God is because God chose you before the foundation of the world. 00:33:21.039 --> 00:33:25.839 You see how this ought to drive us down in humility and up in praise? 00:33:26.400 --> 00:33:34.079 I mean, we really need to ask ourselves: if I am a Christian, why am I a Christian? 00:33:35.519 --> 00:33:38.160 And the answer can be because I believe the gospel. 00:33:38.400 --> 00:33:41.119 Yes, you're a Christian because you believe the gospel. 00:33:41.279 --> 00:33:42.720 Why do you believe the gospel? 00:33:43.039 --> 00:33:45.119 Well, I was convicted of my sin. 00:33:45.519 --> 00:33:47.599 Why were you convicted of your sin? 00:33:48.160 --> 00:33:49.359 I recognized it was wrong. 00:33:49.519 --> 00:33:50.799 Why did you recognize it was wrong? 00:33:51.039 --> 00:33:52.319 I realized I needed a new life. 00:33:52.480 --> 00:33:53.680 Why did you realize a new life? 00:33:53.759 --> 00:33:56.079 Well, I didn't really have much purpose and I knew I needed a purpose. 00:33:56.240 --> 00:33:58.319 Why did you say you didn't have purpose and you needed a purpose? 00:33:58.400 --> 00:34:02.319 Do you see how you can just keep going layer after layer after layer after layer after layer after layer? 00:34:02.400 --> 00:34:06.720 And what matters, what really matters in your life is what is at the bottom. 00:34:07.200 --> 00:34:17.039 Because if what is at the bottom is something in you, then fundamentally you are walking around God's earth believing you're a little bit better than the people around you. 00:34:18.800 --> 00:34:30.079 Fundamentally, what's at the heart of your worldview, your view of God and your view of self, is that I'm a little bit smarter, a little bit wiser, a little bit more spiritually sensitive than the people who don't believe. 00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:34.000 That's not what God says. 00:34:34.320 --> 00:34:40.800 God says if you are a Christian, it's not anything that was in you, it was entirely a gift from God. 00:34:41.519 --> 00:34:45.519 Everything that you have, you've received with empty hands. 00:34:46.159 --> 00:34:49.599 You are a Christian because God chose you before the foundation of the world. 00:34:49.760 --> 00:34:51.920 He set his affection upon you. 00:34:52.719 --> 00:35:03.119 And God made a covenant that he would redeem you at the infinite cost of God the Son departing the comforts of heaven to come into this world, to stand in your place, to bear the wrath you deserve. 00:35:03.199 --> 00:35:09.440 And then he sent his spirit into the world to awaken your heart, to bring you to life and draw you to the Son. 00:35:09.599 --> 00:35:24.159 And now you've been caught up in the divine nature, sharing in the love of Father, Son, and Spirit, and promised an inheritance, imperishable, undefiled, kept for you in heaven, where you will hear your father say, Well done, good and faithful servant, enter the joy of your master. 00:35:24.400 --> 00:35:28.159 All of this, all of this is from God. 00:35:29.760 --> 00:35:35.199 Because God chose you on the basis of his own will for his own glory. 00:35:36.400 --> 00:35:45.920 You know, the Apostle Paul writes at the end of Romans chapter 11, when he gets to the end of his discussion of election salvation, this incredible doxology. 00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:48.000 I think it's appropriate for us to end there. 00:35:48.239 --> 00:35:54.320 To let the Apostle Paul's response to the teaching of election shape our response to God's teaching of election. 00:35:54.400 --> 00:36:07.039 And one of our missionaries, Davis Prickett, who's a Bible translator in Africa, has prepared what he calls a literary paraphrase of the book of Romans, kind of an expansive literary translation of Romans to capture some of the emotion of the Apostle and his writing. 00:36:07.280 --> 00:36:12.239 So I want to read from Davis' translation of Romans chapter 11. 00:36:12.400 --> 00:36:17.360 Just listen to the Word of God, how Paul responds to the reality God chose us. 00:36:19.119 --> 00:36:25.599 In light of this powerful and perplexing outworking of his providence, I cannot help but pour out praise. 00:36:26.000 --> 00:36:34.880 Oh, how incomprehensibly deep, how immeasurably abundant God's infinite wisdom and knowledge employed in all he ordains and performs? 00:36:35.039 --> 00:36:46.719 Oh, how unfathomably profound his decisions and decrees! Oh, how infinitely fathomless his judgments and dealings with mankind! How could anyone ever know the thoughts and intentions of the Lord? 00:36:46.880 --> 00:36:49.280 How could anyone ever offer him counsel and insight? 00:36:49.440 --> 00:36:52.559 How could anyone ever give God something he must pay back? 00:36:53.039 --> 00:36:55.760 God owes absolutely nothing to no one. 00:36:56.159 --> 00:37:01.760 For everything is created from God, everything is caused by God, and everything goes back to God. 00:37:02.000 --> 00:37:08.000 So everything must give God all glory and honor in every moment for all eternity. 00:37:09.679 --> 00:37:10.320 Amen. 00:37:12.239 --> 00:37:13.760 God, that's the prayer of our heart. 00:37:13.920 --> 00:37:23.199