be in fair elections. They're a great blessing. They're the hallmark of people who enjoy liberty. With the COVID-19 restrictions, One of the things we know about voting is that there's been a massive increase in early mail-in voting. And this has caused a lot of people to have grave concerns at the potential this creates for election fraud. And I get that concern. Voting's important. It's a way of saying in the direction of our nation. The ability to vote means we're represented. We're not merely the subjects of some distant monarch, but actually participate in government, a government of the people, by the people, for the people. To borrow a phrase from Abraham Lincoln, I've always been immensely thankful to live in a nation that affords us the privilege of voting, and I believe a democratic republic is about as good as human beings are going to do in regards to providing opportunities for liberty and opportunities for people to thrive. It's a great form of government, and our vote matters. But as much esteem as I have for our form of government, it's not a biblical way to understand salvation. Yet that's how a lot of our evangelical brothers and sisters understand salvation. That salvation is sort of a democracy based on your vote. In the late 20th century, one of the most famous Baptist preachers was Herschel Hobbes. He was known among Southern Baptists as Mr. Baptist. He preached one of his most famous sermons in October of 1967. It was entitled God's Election Day. And the main point of the sermon was the devil and God held an election to determine whether or not you'd be saved or lost. The devil voted against you, and God voted for you, so the vote was a tie, and you had to cast the deciding vote. I have amazing respect for Hobbes' evangelistic passion, and perhaps even his creativity, and we should acknowledge that. But behind this view, It's a dangerous assumption, and that is that God's relinquished his sovereignty to man. God wants one thing, Satan wants another thing, and ultimately, salvation's outside of God's control. He's done his part to be sure, but now it's up to you. And in the end, dear ones, No matter how noble the evangelistic pursuits may seem, that view ends up dethroning God and enthroning man. I found myself wondering if the Apostle Paul read Mr. Baptist's sermon, how he might correct it to delight it more with Scripture. And it might go something like this. Before the foundation of the world, God cast his vote for whom he would save according to the counsel of his will, and they would be saved. Period. That election took place before you were born, before you ever made a choice about anything. And the only vote that mattered in that election is God's. Of course, Paul would never have the opportunity to read Hobbes' sermon, but that is a point he'll make this morning as we come to Romans 9. So let's seek the Lord's face and we'll get to work. Father in heaven, we pray again for your blessing upon us as we come to this text that extols and magnifies the wonder of your power, your sovereignty, your grace. Help us to be in awe of this teaching, because we're in awe of you and your grace toward us. Grant us this for Jesus' sake. Amen. Let me ask you to open up your copy of God's Word to Romans chapter 9. Romans 9. We're going to read verses 6 through 13, Romans 9, verses 6 through 13. But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect, for they're not all Israel who are Israel. Nor are they all children, because they're the seed of Abraham. But in Isaac your seed shall be called. That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God. But the children of the promise are counted as the seed. For this is the word of promise. At this time I will come and say, I shall have a son. And not only this. But when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac, for the children not yet being born, nor having done anything good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls, it was said to her, the older shall serve the younger. As it's written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated." There ends the reading of God's Holy Word. May He bless it to our hearts this morning. Dearest congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, you'll remember as we move into Romans 9, the Apostle is dealing with a bit of a tension. He ended chapter 8 with one of those pinnacle gospel promises that nothing in heaven or earth, indeed nothing in all of creation, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. And this is one of those truths that's so splendid, so overarching, that it thrills the souls of believers and is able to sustain them and fill them with hope through every conceivable adversity. But there was a tension that had to do with Israel. What about all the promises God made to them? God had promised to Abraham to be God to him, to be God to Abraham's descendants, and this was a forever promise. And yet in the first century, as the gospel marched forward, massive numbers of Gentiles were believing, and very, very few Jews. So the question emerged, had God's word failed the Jews? And this is a real pastoral issue for the Apostle Paul, and for us as well. Because if God's word failed Israel, then you and I might as well throw in the towel. eat, drink, and be merry. I mean, think about some of the promises in the Old Testament regarding the Word of God. Isaiah 48, the grass withers, the flowers fade, but the Word of our God will stand forever. Or Isaiah 55, 11, that's well known. So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to be void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper, and the thing for which I send it. Psalm 119, 89, and 90. Forever, O Lord, your word is settled into heaven. Your faithfulness endures to all generations. You establish the earth. and it abides. And in the New Testament, Jesus said in Mark 13, 31, among other places, Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. You see, our faith, our hope, our comfort is grounded in the truth of God's promises that we discover in His Word. And so, this is a legitimate pastoral issue. Can the Word fail us? That's the issue Paul's addressing. Now as we're gonna see in coming weeks, the broad theological question of chapters nine through 11 is, what about Israel? But before we can even move into that issue, before we can address that topic, before the apostle Paul tackles it head on, He begins with a vindication of God's faithfulness. And that vindication will come as Paul explains God's gracious, unconditional election. God's Word didn't fail. It accomplished exactly what God intended it to accomplish at any given time in redemptive history. Now let me say, I suspect that most here basically agree with the teaching of unconditional election, the doctrines of sovereign grace. But you need to know a great many Christians get frustrated by it. They actually get angry when you talk to them about it. I've had so many discussions with those over the years who believe that choosing God was ultimately what they did, And I shared with them parts of Romans 9 or Ephesians 1, and they say, that's not what it means. And I'll say, that's not my interpretation. That's what the text says. And they'll say, that's not what it means. And they'll get hot if you press them. I hope my wife doesn't mind me telling you this, but we shared this when we first met. She was an Armenian. And I started sharing the doctrines of grace with her. And you know what her response was? Something I've encountered numerous times over the years. She was angry. First she was angry because she didn't like that I disagreed with her. Then she was angry that the Bible taught that she didn't like it. And then she was angry that nobody else had ever taught her. Because it is in the Bible. John Piper was spot on when he wrote, emotions run high when you feel your man-centered world crumbling around you. And that's just what the doctrines of sovereign grace do. They say in the most radical way, God is God. He is majestically sovereign. And you're not. And that's hard for us to take. I mean, we live in a culture that says, my rights, my body, my choice. We live in a culture that says, you're not the boss of me. And we can't help but bring that to Scripture. And we so need to have our views conformed to Scripture. And one of the things you might be asking is, why is this important? Well, I'm going to mention four reasons. These are brief. First, it's in the Bible. And we're studying it now because it's where we are in our study of the Book of Romans. Second, the doctrine of election is on nearly every page of Scripture. And if you don't get this, you will by necessity have a skewed view of God's Word. Third, it grounds our salvation in God's sovereignty and not ours, and that's a comfort. And fourth, and this is a big point, it produces God-focused worship. If we understand the doctrines of grace, if we understand our position in light of who God is, what God's done for us, if we get a glimpse of sovereign grace. It produces worship. I mentioned John Piper. It was Romans 9 that the Lord used powerfully to shape his ministry. He writes of how he was on a sabbatical in the fall of 1979 and he was digging deep into Romans 9. And he writes, the result of that sabbatical was utterly unexpected, at least by me. My aim was to analyze God's words so closely that I could write a book and it would be compelling and maybe stand the test of time. I was 34 years old. I had two children and a third on the way. As I studied Romans 9 day after day, I began to see a God so majestic and so free And so absolutely sovereign that my analysis merged into worship and the Lord said, and in fact, I will not simply be analyzed, I'll be adored. I'll not simply be pondered, I'll be proclaimed. My sovereignty is not simply to be scrutinized, it's to be heralded. It's not grist for the middle of controversy, it's gospel. for sinners who know that their only hope is the sovereign triumph of God's grace over their rebellious will. And dear friends, that's exactly where Paul is taking us on this journey. It culminates, this journey that teaches us about sovereign grace culminates at the end Romans 11 where we're left with this pristine picture that God is God and all we can do is adore him and worship him. So keep this in mind as we move forward. The Apostle isn't merely creating studious Calvinists, he's creating devout worshipers. While God had spoken his word to Israel, he had given them all sorts of privileges and benefits. Did his word fail them? And it's interesting, in the original language, both verse 6 and verse 10 begin with the word, no. It's grammatically awkward. But it alerts the reader right up front before the question's even contemplated. It's as if the apostle knows this line of thinking and he knows it well. He's encountered it before. It likely crossed his own mind. And so he speaks directly to it. No. No, don't think that way. It is not that the Word of God has taken no effect. Not at all. And to explain this conundrum, he states an important principle. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children, because they're the seed of Abraham. Now what Paul's explaining is that there are people who were born into the nation of Israel who enjoyed all the privileges and benefits of being in that covenant community, the benefits and privileges that he just laid out in verses 4 and 5, and those people were not saved. And if you remember, Paul's actually alluded to this earlier in the study, back in chapter 2, verses 28 and 29, when he wrote, for no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the spirit, not by the latter. His praise is not from man, but from God. And the point that Paul was making then and now is very clear. You can be born a Jew, you can be circumcised in the flesh, but if your heart isn't circumcised by the Spirit, in other words, if it isn't regenerated, if you're not born again, then you're not part of true spiritual Israel. And you're not actually a child of God. The apostle John would say it this way in John 1, verses 11 through 13. Speaking of Jesus, he came to his own, but his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. You see, a distinction needs to be made between who's the visible Israel and who's spiritual Israel. And simply having the right national or ethnic profile does not make you true Israel, nor does it make you a true descendant of Abraham. And Jesus himself made this distinction. In John 8, he was speaking to Jews and said to them, you seem to claim that Abraham is your father. But if that were true, if that were true, You'd love me and you'd believe on me. And because they didn't believe on Jesus, he speaks these piercing words to them in John 8, 44. You are of your father, the devil. They were national and ethnic Jews, but they were not spiritual Israel. Paul said it with equal clarity in Galatians 3.7, only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. The Puritan John Flavel put it succinctly, if Abraham's faith be not in your heart, it will be of no advantage if Abraham's blood is in your veins. And dear ones, this is true. This is true for Israel. And it's true for the church. There are enormous blessings and enormous privileges of being in the covenant community. It is an absolute place where the means of grace are distinguished and distributed to the people of God. You can't overemphasize the benefit of having that proximity to the gospel. But proximity doesn't save. You have to have a changed heart that enables you to lay hold of Christ. It's not enough to be in the visible church. You've got to be able to see Jesus for who He is. to see yourself for who you are and the need you have for His soul-cleansing blood. Listen, when God chose Abraham, the first patriarch, Abraham was pagan. God chose him out of all the people on earth, certainly all the people who were in the era of Chaldeans. Not because he was a Jew, he wasn't yet. He would become a Jew after God chose him, after he believed. I mean, that's striking, isn't it? To consider that the father of the Jews was a Gentile when he trusted God. He would become a Jew later in his circumcision. So what does this mean? that Abraham was the object of God's unconditional election. Abraham was the object of God's electing mercy. God chose him, not because Abraham worshipped the moon with louder howls than the other pagans, but because it was God's good and sovereign pleasure. And Paul invites his readers, especially the Jewish ones, to think about this All the patriarchs, if you look at them, they're grounded in God's free and sovereign choice of them. He would choose to distribute his covenant promises to one and completely pass over the other. So let's follow Paul's logic here. Abraham was taught in Isaac your seed should be called. That is, those who are the children of the flesh. These are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. For this is the word of promise. At this time, I will come and Sarah shall have a son. Now, if we can remember our history, Abraham actually had two sons that were very important to him. One was Ishmael. He was a son of flesh. That is, he's the son that Abraham had with Hagar, trying to accomplish naturally what God intended to do supernaturally. So God passed over Ishmael and caused Sarah, in her old age, to miraculously conceive, and Isaac became the son of promise. And so that the promised seed and the covenant blessings would flow through him. Again, emphasizing God's purpose and freedom in election. And Paul realized that some might hear that first bit of history and say, well, yeah, sure, that's true about Isaac, but that had to be the case, because Hagar was an Egyptian, and she wasn't actually Abraham's wife, and clearly God wouldn't reward their sinful scheming. So God, excuse me, so Paul ups the ante, and he says, not only this, but when Rebecca, also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac. But the children, not yet being born, or having done anything good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls, it was said to her, the older shall serve the younger. So now, Paul's saying, okay, you've got this nice Jewish father and this nice Jewish mother who have two sons. They're both of good Jewish stock. In fact, they're twins. And according to Jewish custom, the oldest son would be the leader of the estate, even if he was only older by a few minutes. But that wasn't God's plan, was it? God chose Jacob. It was through the younger son so that his purpose and election would stand. And did you notice that God's choice was before the two were born or had done anything good or evil? And why is that? So God's sovereign and gracious choice would be on display. But before they've done anything good or evil, the older will serve the younger. God was reversing humanity, excuse me, reversing custom to show us something about election. Several years ago, a friend sent me a link to a sermon preached, who was at the time the president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, the seminary associated with the Falwells. The sermon that this particular seminary president preached was, Why I'm Not a Calvinist. And he made much of the idea that if you ever talk to a Calvinist, he's going to take you to Romans 9 and ask you to explain Romans 9, and particularly verse 13. Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. And then the seminary professor said this, and I quote, ladies and gentlemen, please hear me. and ask yourself, did God hate Esau just because he was Esau? Or did God hate Esau because of what Esau did? Did you hear that? This is a seminary president saying, did God hate Esau because of what he did? He's actually contradicting what our text tells us. That God chose Jacob before they were born and had done anything good or evil. He was saying God chose Esau because he was robbed. When the text explicitly says that's not the case. God chose Jacob because it was God's choice to make. And he wants us to learn that. Now we're going to come back and unpack verse 13 next week, Lord willing. But I want us to get the challenge of this text. When we move further into this section of Scripture, chapters 9, 10, 11, some of those things are not the easiest to interpret. What will happen with national Israel, for example? I'll go ahead and lay my cards on the table. I do believe there will be an in-gathering of national Jews at the end of days, but there are a lot of moving parts there. And it can be a struggle to put all the different pieces together. So there are some difficulties as we move forward. We'll also understand when we're in chapter 10 the role of the preached word under the umbrella of God's sovereignty. But the problem with most of Romans 9 is, in fact, its clarity. It's not so much a problem to interpret as it is a problem to accept it. Which is why I think a great many of our evangelical brothers and sisters, and they are our brothers and sisters, either gloss over it or have to come up with some kind of fanciful interpretation. Because the doctrine of God's unconditional election, which Paul not only teaches here, but very clearly in other places as well, it forces us to face some uncomfortable facts about ourselves. God didn't choose us because of anything good in us. Hence, unconditional election. Before the twins had done anything good or bad. God didn't choose us because there was some good in us. And that's hard to accept. We want to think or perhaps cling to the fact that God saw a little something in us. Something that caught his eye. Something that just slightly distinguishes us from our neighbor. And to say otherwise can rub us the wrong way. But behind this is a subtle but dangerous misunderstanding of the gospel of grace. You see, it's a way of saying I want a gospel that's 99.9% grace, but I do want just a smidgen of justice. I want that little bit of justice for that little sliver of me that's good. Even if the only good I do is making the right choice, I want that little bit of justice there. The problem, dear ones, in the gospel, the only one, the only one in the gospel who gets justice, praise God, is Jesus. So, it's a dangerous teaching. No, there's nothing in you. you didn't catch God's attention. He loves you because it's His nature to love. And He set His love on you because it's His prerogative to choose. And this is our comfort too. Paul taught us this back in chapter 8, verse 33, who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It's God who justifies. And you see, that's the problem. We want to appeal to justice. We want to say, Lord, I know I need lots and lots of mercy, but there is this little part of me that could stand up under your justice. We don't have to wonder if that's the case, because that's where the apostle's going to go in verse 14. Clearly, that existed in the minds of his people. So what are some of the things this leaves us with? Or I could say it this way, how ought this impact us? First, it produces humility in us, right? To quote Sinclair Ferguson, it strangles the demeanor that regards itself as superior. is thinking I'm in any way better than the next person. It does that. You see, if God didn't choose me because there's just a hint of good in me, then I really have to accept other people on that basis. And this is hard because this really is the last nail in the coffin of our self-sufficiency. But it produces that humility in us. and it produces worship and awe because we're left saying, You are God and You saved me. It leaves us in the most remarkable position of looking into the face of the Lord Jesus and crying out, Thou must save and Thou alone. And then to live in the reality of that grace for us. Amen. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you open eyes that are blind. You replace hearts that are hard. You are sovereign. You are God. And we bow before Your Majesty and Your Grace. Help this Word to penetrate our hearts to remove any thinking that there's something in us that forced you to choose us. Help us to purge that kind of sufficiency in us that we may marvel at a grace that is a marvel and a gospel, that is all of grace. Grant us this for Jesus' sake. Amen. Well, brothers and sisters, as we prepare to come to the Lord's table, At the heart of what we do when we fence the table is to say we believe Jesus as He's offered in the Gospel. We believe that He is our all-sufficient sacrifice, that His broken body, His shed blood paid not only for the penalty of our sins, but ensured our inheritance to everlasting life. So if you're trusting in this Christ, and not trusting in your own merits, your own goodness. And this is certainly a feast for you, again, assuming you're a member in good standing of a Bible-believing church. And as we prepare to come to the Lord's table, we use the Apostles' Creed, as you well know. You can find that on page 851. So Christian, what do you believe? I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. And I'm gonna read this portion of scripture, Luke 22, verses 14 through 20, and then one final Lord's Day, we're going to look at a catechism lesson for the Lord's Supper. And Lord willing, next week we'll come back to different kinds of meditations. Luke 22, verses 14 through 20, the word of God says, when the hour had come, He sat down and the twelve apostles with him. And he said to them, with fervent desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I'll no longer eat of it until it's fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup and he gave thanks and said, take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say to you, I'll not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God comes. And I want to look briefly at Westminster Larger Catechism, question and answer 168 and 170. You can find this on page 962 and 963. 962, Question 168, what is the Lord's Supper? The Lord's Supper is a sacrament of the New Testament wherein by giving and receiving bread and wine according to the appointment of Jesus Christ, his death is showed forth. and they that willingly communicate feed upon his body and blood to their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace. Have their union and communion with them confirmed? Testify and renew their thankfulness and engagement to God and their mutual love and fellowship, each with others, as members of the same mystical body. Question 170, how do they that worthily communicate in the Lord's Supper feed upon the body and blood of Christ therein? As the body and blood of Christ are not corporally or carnally present in, with, or under the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper, and yet are spiritually present to the faith of the receiver, no less truly and really than the elements themselves are to their outward senses, so they that worthily communicate in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper do therein feed upon the body and blood of Christ, not after a corporal and carnal, but in spiritual manner, yet truly and really, while by faith they receive and apply unto themselves Christ crucified and all the benefits of his death." One of the things that all of the catechisms and all of our confessional documents tell us is that It wasn't accidental that the Lord used a meal. This is something you see unfolding throughout redemptive history. The point was, if you'd been there in that upper room, normally what they would have taken would have been meat. It wasn't there. It was replaced. He's saying it is my body symbolized in this. He gave us this to understand we're really participating with Him. Not that this becomes something different than what it is. It's still bread, it's still grape juice, as the case may be. But the promise that Christ is present with us is real. And it's true. And we get to celebrate that as we come together.