This is the thirty-fifth in a series of verse-by-verse expositions of the book of Romans. This message was delivered at Hillcrest Baptist Church on the morning of January 12, 2014. This message deals with God’s use and attitude toward those who accept and reject Him. This post contains an audio recording of my message, along with my sermon notes and a study outline. Please note that the sermon notes are not a full transcript.
AUDIO – Listen Now:
AUDIO DOWNLOAD:
SERMON OUTLINE:
SERMON NOTES:
Romans 9:6-13
v.6:
God’s word always has effect, it never returns void.
Isaiah 55:11
All Israelites are not Israel. Likewise, not everyone in church is a Christian.
v.7:
All descendants of Abraham are not Israel. Abraham had many descendants, some through Isaac and some through Ishmael.
To illustrate the truth of v. 6, Paul reminds his readers that even the racial and national promises made to Abraham were not made to every physical descendant of his, but only to those who came through Isaac.
Genesis 21:12
Only Isaac’s descendants could truly be called the children of Abraham, the inheritors of those racial and national promises.
Genesis 17:17-21
v.8:
To be counted as a child of God, you must be a child of the promise.
The fulfillment of God’s promise is manifest in Jesus Christ.
Likewise, the Bible speaks of two spiritual families, God’s and the Devil’s.
John 8:42-44
Spiritually, you have to be adopted into God’s family
Galatians 4:4-5
Romans 8:15
If you haven’t been adopted into God’s family you are, by default, children of the devil.
We must be of Christ and in Christ! If we are not, we are not His children.
The good news is that adoption is open to anyone. The Bible says “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
v.9:
This is simply a quote from Genesis 18:10
vv.10-12:
Something more needed to be said.
Any Jew could claim the lineage of Isaac, so Paul broke it down even farther. He narrowed it to the example of the twins – Jacob and Esau.
In the case of Rebecca’s children God’s choice was indicated before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad.
This demonstrated that God’s sovereign choice was not by works.
v.13:
This verse has caused difficulty for some people because of the use of the word “hated.”
At first glance, it would seem to suggest that God actually hates Esau. But does God hate Esau? If so, how can we reconcile that with scripture?
In Luke 14:26 Jesus says that in order to follow Him, you must hate your family. Can this be true, do we really have to hate our family to be a Christian?
If so, this would be a disturbing revelation to many would-be Christians. Let’s take a look at what is really being said in these passages.
First, we must understand that we use the word “hate” much differently than God is using it. We have two totally different understandings of the word.
God, in these passages, is drawing a comparison. In saying that He loved Jacob and Hated Esau, He is saying “in comparison to Jacob, I hate Esau.” God does however love both of them.
The same type of comparison is made by Jesus in Luke 14:26, when He says you must hate your family to follow Him. Jesus doesn’t want us to actually hate our family.
He is simply saying that our love for Him should be so strong that it makes our love for our family look like hatred.
The Bible tells us in 1 John 3:23 to love one another. It stands to reason that Jesus would not tell us to love one another, and then tell us to hate our family.
This can also be seen as a reference to the nations that sprung from Jacob and Esau, as seen by Malachi some 1500 years after their death.
Malachi 1:2-3
These nations, Israel and Edom, were chosen by God. One chosen for divine blessing, and one left for divine judgment.
God chose Jacob to bring forth the the family line of the faithful because he knew his heart was for God.
But he did not exclude Esau from knowing and loving him.
Esau always had the option to choose to love and serve God.
Keep in mind the kind of God we worship: He is sovereign; he is not arbitrary; in all things he works for our good; he is trustworthy; he will save all who believe in him.
When we understand these qualities of God, we know that his choices are good even if we don’t understand all his reasons.
In Defense: The Blog 
Posted on January 18, 2014
0