Your Choice, His Chosen

*Open your Bibles with me to Romans 9:

As College Football season started yesterday, I thought we’d open with a football illustration:

I know I’ve got a few football fans in here.

And going into every game, you’ve got an idea as to whether or not you think your team will win

but, what if your team knew EVERY single play the other team was going to run, and the order they were going to run them in?

You all know that I’m a major Florida fan

For a long time, one of the biggest games of the year was the Florida-Tennessee game

And in that time frame, Florida owned Tennessee. Florida has won 24 of their last 30 games vs. Tennessee

in 1991, however, there was controversy known among fans as “Faxgate”

Fans accused an ex-Tennessee coach of faxing their offensive playbook to the Gators’ defensive coach

Florida won the game 35-18, but gave up our defense gave up 400 yards to Tennessee’s offense (If we had the playbook, it didn’t help any)

Years later, Tennessee admitted that it was the other way around-they had purchased copies of Florida’s playbook and still couldn’t stop them.

TRANSITION:

Last week, we finished with Romans chapter 8.

You’ll recall that we were saying that God knew before time began who would be His

God has made plans for those that belong to Him, plans that will be for their good and His glory

God’s children WILL suffer because of the things that they say and do for Jesus.

But the suffering will be worth it in the end, because of the inheritance of God’s Kingdom

And it is an inheritance that is guaranteed, because nothing in all of creation can take you out of the hand of God.

God will never let go of those that He loves

And so this week, we’re diving deeper into what it means for God to know everything, and how it impacts us

Romans 9:1–18 NASB95

I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “through Isaac your descendants will be named.” That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.” Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 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 does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.” So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

PRAY, Ask the church to be seated

*LISTENING GUIDES OUT

If you had all of the answers in life, if you knew everything that will ever happen, you would reshape your life, wouldn’t you?

You would avoid the big mistakes

You would take advantage of opportunities you would have missed

You would live life to your advantage, according to your will

And while I know that none of us knows everything, there is Someone that does.

God is working everything out according to HIS plan

So, if God knows everything, and is working things out to His plan, why are things how they are? Let’s look at the first 5 verses again:

Romans 9:1–5 NASB95

I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

If you’ve got your listening guide, what we see here is this:

Those that love Jesus love the lost more than themselves, because this is the heart of God

Paul says here that the Holy Spirit is in Him, and His sorrow for the Jews that have not trusted Christ is growing.

He wishes that he could give up His own salvation so that all of the Jews could be saved

Some of you know what he feels, don’t you? (Lost family members)

But what doesn’t make sense here is the why. Why isn’t all of Israel saved?

In verses 4 and 5, we see that the Jews are

God’s adopted children

image bearers of the High God, as His people by which He reveals His glory

Recipients of God’s Holy promises and covenants

Proclaimers of God’s Law to all the nations

Ministers to God in His Holy Temple

In the Human lineage of Jesus Christ!

We know that God loves them. We also know God desires them to be saved

1 Timothy 2:4 NASB95

who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

As Jesus approached Jerusalem in Luke 19, He said

Luke 19:41–44 NASB95

When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. “For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”

In Matthew 9:35-38 Jesus calls on the disciples to pray for the Father to send others to reach more people.

Matthew 9:35–38 NASB95

Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”

So, if God is Sovereign, which we will see today He is, and if He knows everything, and He wants everyone to be saved, why isn’t everyone saved? Why aren’t all the Jews saved? Why isn’t everyone saved? Doesn’t this mean that God has broken His promise and that He doesn’t get what He wants?

And I want you to see this morning this hard, but crucial truth, that the free will of man and the election of God agree in the pages of Scripture. You see, God has given man the will to choose, but He is also the Sovereign King of the universe.

Look at verses 6-13

Romans 9:6–13 NASB95

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “through Isaac your descendants will be named.” That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.” Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

It is the heart of God that all men would be saved, But God’s will and His purposes are for His glory. He knows your heart, and the next thing we need to remember is this:

God knows who He will call before we are born, and His promises are theirs

You and I like to think that we choose, that we are the drivers of our own destiny, but really God chooses. And He gives us two great examples here

Abraham made his own descendents through Hagar, when Ishmael was born, but God’s people descended through the promised child from God, Isaac

God saw the hearts of Isaac’s two sons, and while they were still in the womb, God chose Jacob over Esau

When it says “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated,” we are looking at a Jewish Idiom

They speak of two extremes in absolute terms to emphasize the difference

When we look at the life of Esau, it become apparent that God chose the greater son.

EX: Remember the card game of life,

God did not cause the rebellion of Israel, but He is sovereign over it

God did not cause the rebellion of your heart, but He is sovereign over it

God knows your heart. He knew it before you were born. And those that are His, He called before you breathed your first breath

THIS is the crucial point. God lets us make decisions, but we are not in charge. We are still responsible for what we do; But God knows the ones that He has chosen, and these are the ones that His promises are for

Anybody can come to Jesus. Anyone can turn from their sins in repentance; but only those that are called of God will do so. God knew who they were before-and He has called them.

And in this, we see it-both free will and predestination. You have a choice, but He has chosen. He has called those that will respond to Him.

And as we wrestle with this, the loving and gracious part of us that, like God, desires that all men would be saved, and we say, but is that fair? Isn’t that unjust?

Look at verse 14

Romans 9:14–18 NASB95

What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 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 does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.” So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

We’re going to continue to wrestle with this moving forward. In the weeks ahead, this discussion isn’t going away, but the last thing I would have you to note this morning is this:

God’s choice to show mercy to those He chooses does not make Him unjust towards the rest

Let me give you an imperfect analogy:

two men come before a judge, one after another

the first man stole a car. And after hearing the circumstances around the case, judge sends him to prison

the second man also stole a car, and after hearing the circumstances, the judge is merciful and lets him off with a slap on the wrist- just probation and community service.

Was the judge unjust? NO! Because both men were guilty

The man who went to jail absolutely deserved to go to jail, and the judge showing the other guy mercy doesn’t change that!

And this is precisely how it is. God is just to punish the wicked, because all of us deserve to be punished, and his choice to be merciful to some doesn’t make the rest less deserving to be punished.

And because God is sovereign, both those who are given mercy and those that are condemned will bring Him glory-They just glorify Him in different ways.

INVITATION:

Which way are you glorifying Him this morning? I would desire that you would glorify Him by responding to His mercy, that you would come, and put your faith in Jesus Christ, the only one that can save you from your sins. His salvation is freely offered to all who would come, and He is calling some of you to come today. Won’t you come and be among the children of His promises? If that is you this morning, I would love the chance to talk with you about it, would you respond to me, privately, so we can arrange that? If today, you hear Him calling, harden not your heart.

PRAY