Rev. David Holwick E T.U.L.I.P. #4
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
January 29, 2012
Romans 9:10-26
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I. Do votes count?
A. Sometimes it is almost a joke.
Back in 2007 in Missouri City, Councilman Joe Selle ran for
re-election.
He didn't vote for himself.
Normally, Americans don't know how a fellow citizen has voted.
It is supposed to be a secret.
But you can figure it out for Joe.
Because he got zero votes.
Which means he couldn't have voted for himself.
He forgot that that Tuesday was election day and stayed home.
But it is all okay.
He won the vote and was re-elected.
Even though Joe got no votes, no one else got any either so
the job stayed his.
Turnout was better in Ward 2, where two people voted.
#34527
B. There is a vote that really counts.
1) Will God vote for you?
2) Could he possibly vote AGAINST you?
3) Many Christians feel this is the only thing that determines
your salvation.
4) His vote concerning you will have an impact for a long time.
a) I want to take a close look at a very difficult passage.
II. Paul had a problem.
A. He preached Jesus to the Jews, and was rejected.
1) If Jesus was the finale of God's plan, why was this?
a) Has God's plan failed? Are the prophecies false? 9:6
b) How come the "chosen" people (=elect) aren't interested?
2) If it fails for the Jews, how can we be certain our own
salvation will be effective?
B. Paul had an answer to his problem.
1) The rejection by the Jews is part of God's plan.
a) The majority have always been in rebellion.
b) God's promises, and his salvation, have always been to
a "remnant," a special handful of believers.
c) This is taught in the Old Testament by the prophets.
2) Physical Jewishness is not the same as spiritual Jewishness.
a) Spiritual inheritance trumps physical descent. 9:6
C. Support from the patriarchs (Old Testament geezers). 9:7
1) Abraham had two sons, but only one, Isaac, was part of
God's promise. 9:7-8
2) Isaac had two sons, but only Jacob inherited the promise.
9:10-12
a) What is interesting in this case is that you would
expect Esau, the oldest son, to inherit the promise.
b) Yet before they were born it was revealed that it was
God's will that the younger one would be on top. 9:12
c) A later prophet, Malachi, explained it concisely and
crassly: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." 9:13
III. This doesn't sound very fair.
A. Paul is using the diatribe format.
1) He takes an imaginary opponent and debates him. 9:14
2) Without a doubt, he had faced questioners like this as he
preached throughout the Roman Empire.
3) In this case, the opponent's question is one that lots of
modern people would say, "That's a good one."
B. It all hinges on God's character.
1) Back in the book of Exodus, God revealed himself to Moses.
a) He hid Moses in a cleft in the rock. Exod 33:19
b) Then he proclaimed, "I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will
have compassion."
2) God's mercy is the key to his character.
a) Notice that he doesn't say anything about hating or
damning anyone.
C. Paul next brings up Pharaoh. 9:17
1) Pharaoh was an enemy but God used him to display his divine
glory. (God can't lose)
2) But this is where the negative comes out - "he hardens
whom he wants to harden." 9:18
a) When you read Exodus for the first time, you notice it.
b) Due to the plagues, Pharaoh considers caving in to
Moses' demands, but then God hardens Pharaoh's heart.
IV. The logical conclusion.
A. If God has it all rigged, how can he blame us? 9:19
1) Humans are only doing what he makes them do.
2) Paul shoots the question down immediately - "Who are you to
talk back to God?" 9:20
a) To us, that's not a very satisfying response.
b) It is like when your mom says, "Shut up! I'm your
mother, that's why!"
c) Did that work for you when you were 6 years old?
I didn't think so.
3) Paul does not object to honest questions.
a) Here, he is reacting against a God-defying attitude,
like a six-year-old might have.
b) But it does make one thing absolutely clear:
Paul is teaching unconditional election here.
1> God chooses your destiny.
2> Humans don't have anything to say about it. #15667
B. We have no input because we are pots. 9:20
1) He quotes from a common Old Testament metaphor, a potter
making a clay pot. Jer 18
a) Pots don't get to talk back.
b) They get molded as the potter determines.
c) If he doesn't like how it is turning out, he smooshes
it and starts over.
d) He doesn't have to give explanations to the clay.
2) God can use his power to show judgment or mercy.
a) The focus here is on him, not us.
V. It may be logical, but it is awfully hard.
A. Augustine (400s) and Calvin (1500s) believed in predestination.
1) Because of Bible passages like this, both taught that God
determines our salvation before we are born.
a) None of our good works - or bad works - matter.
b) God doesn't just foresee that we will later believe,
he predestines us to believe, before Creation.
2) It is not just Romans 9.
a) Ephesians 1:4-5 -
"For he chose us in him before the creation of the
world...
In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons
through Jesus Christ,
in accordance with his pleasure and will...."
b) Jesus in John 17:6 -
"I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of
the world.
They were yours; you gave them to me and they have
obeyed your word."
B. Calvin extended the logic.
1) If God chooses some to be saved, he must choose the others
to be condemned.
2) This is ok, because even condemnation brings glory to God.
a) Opponents of such a view have pointed out some
consequences that would result from it.
1> Since there is a narrow door and few get saved,
most of God's glory must come from condemnation.
2> It is almost like God likes to hate more than he
likes to love.
b) Not exactly what you were taught in Sunday School,
is it?
3) This doctrine is known as "Double Predestination."
C. Our logic must be subservient to God's grace.
1) "Esau I hated."
a) This is probably a standard Jewish way of expressing
preference, not hatred.
1> You use an extreme word to make a point.
2> This is exactly what Jesus does in Luke 14:26 -
"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father
and mother ... he cannot be my disciple."
The parallel verse in Matthew:
"Anyone who loves his father and mother more than me
is not worthy of me."
b) The Esau quote comes from Malachi.
1> The prophet is making a comparison between nations,
not individuals.
A> (Esau represented Edom, and Jacob, Israel)
2> Some conclude from this that God predestines groups
and not people.
A> So he elects Israel, or the Church, but not
Joe Smith.
3> This may seem attractive, but it doesn't hold up.
A> Revelation 17:8 talks about "names written in
the book of life from the creation of the
world."
B> That's pretty personal.
c) And the clincher - Esau hated his own inheritance.
1> Or at least, he didn't value it very much.
2> He traded it for a bowl of chili.
3> So Esau's free choice fit perfectly with God's plan.
2) The hardening of Pharaoh also has more than meets the eye.
a) For the first five plagues, Pharaoh hardened his own
heart; it is only at the end that God hardens him.
b) God is never said to have hardened anyone who has not
already hardened himself first.
c) On this side of heaven, you will find that the choices
you are making are a mirror of your eternal destiny.
3) The Bible never mentions God actively choosing to damn
someone.
a) It may seem logical, but it is not Biblical.
b) God is only said to choose to save.
VI. The doctrine of election is really about God's goodness.
A. What should really amaze us.
1) We focus on the wrong thing.
Charles Spurgeon was the most famous Baptist in England in
the 1800s, and he was a staunch Calvinist.
He was once asked about the verse, "Jacob I loved, but
Esau I hated."
The questioner wondered how a good God could ever say that.
Spurgeon responded, "That isn't my problem.
The thing that makes me astonished is how could God ever
say, 'Jacob I loved.'?"
#29981
a) In other words, it's amazing that anyone be saved.
b) None of us deserve it.
B. God is in the business of saving rejects.
1) Notice the end of Romans 9.
a) Those who have been rejected by God, are now accepted.
b) Verse 26 is especially powerful:
"It will happen in the very place where it was said to
them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called
'sons of the living God."
2) Jeremiah 18, the potter and the clay, also ends with grace.
Jeremiah 18:7-8
"If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is
to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed,
and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then
I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I
had planned."
C. Some points to ponder.
1) If God has chosen me to be saved, then my salvation is all
of God.
a) I can't mess it up.
b) I can only praise him for it.
2) None of us gets a peek in the Book of Life.
a) We must accept our status by faith.
b) And we can do more - we can make it certain.
c) How?
1> Believe the good news, repent, and follow.
2> Consider Ezekiel 18:23 -
"Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked?
declares the Sovereign LORD.
Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their
ways and live?"
3> Perhaps God is calling you to do that right now.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#29981 “Jacob Have I Loved,” by Rev. Ray Stedman, from Kerux Sermon #4883,
October 21, 1962.
#34527 “Winning With No Votes,” Preaching Now, www.preaching.com, quoting
an Associated Press story, April 10, 2007.
Although not directly quoted, this sermon also draws upon these resources:
“Romans: God’s Good News for the World,” by John Stott (IVP: 1994).
#15667 “Why I Am Still A Calvinist: The Objector of Romans 9,” by
C. Michael Patton, <http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2007/
03/22/why-i-am-still-a-calvinist-romans-9/>.
#36106 “The Calvinism Debate,” by Rev. David W. Cloud, www.wayoflife.org,
from an email submitted by Rick Swenson of Hopatcong, N.J.
#63513 “An Examination of Unconditional Election,” by Brian Schwertley,
<http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/
schwerley_election.html>.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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