Gooding, David: 14 - Has God’s Plan for Israel Failed?

So now we take up our study in Romans chapter nine with the verse number six. But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. Paul has just outlined in detail the majestic role that God gave to Israel in Old Testament days. He laments the present state of Israel that gives him great sorrow and unceasing pain in his heart. Nonetheless, he positively points out in verse six that Israel's present state bordering on apostasy does not mean that the word of God, that is to say, not here so much the written word of God, but God's plan. God's purpose. The logic behind God's redeeming calendar and purposes in the world. Among which, of course, is his choice of the nation of Israel. For God's earlier self-revelation to Israel and thus to mankind, that should lead on to the Savior. It does not mean Israel's virtual apostasy at the present does not mean that God's scheme, his purpose, has come to nothing. So let us, um, uh, just sum up what the, uh, eh, uh, rest of the chapters are going to say. It has not come to nothing. Look at verse chapter nine, verses twenty seven to twenty nine. Isaiah, prophesying centuries beforehand, cries concerning Israel, if the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that shall be saved. For the Lord will execute his word upon the earth, finishing it and cutting it short. And as Isaiah said before, except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had become as Sodom and had been made like unto Gomorrah. In a word, when God rises up to judge, and not only judge the nations, but judge Israel, then in the mercies of God, he will leave a remnant, that is of Israel. He will not destroy the nation of Israel completely. He chose them as a witness. He will maintain them as a witness. Never will he destroy Israel completely. He will leave a remnant. The relevance of that to Paul's argument that God has not cast away his people, we shall see in chapter eleven. Verse one: m I say then, did Ca- God cast off his people? That question in Greek is phrased in such a way, uh, as means it isn't, is it, that God has cast away his people, and the answer is certainly not. And how would you know that? Well, says Paul in verse one, I also am an Israelite. He's not cast me away. I am an Israelite. And a very powerful witness to God was this Israelite. I never ceased to be an Israelite. He doesn't say I was an Israelite. I am an Israelite. And he goes on to argue on that basis, God did not cast off his people which he foreknew. Or don't you realize what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleadeth with God against Israel? Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have digged down thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life. What saith the answer of God unto him? Well, the answer was in brief, don't talk nonsense, Elijah, you alone are left alive, my dear good man, recover from that pessimism forthwith. For I have left for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. You're not alone, Elijah. I know Jezebel is pretty fierce and her lipstick is horrible, but, uh, you see, she's murdered the prophet. Yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes. And she is, uh, intent on getting your life, Elijah, and you run off, haven't you? And you're feeling as though you were left alone and the whole thing is coming unstuck. Please know this, Elijah, you are not alone. I have left for myself and will leave for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. And, uh, uh, there was a remnant in Elijah's day, rebuking Elijah's pessimism. In that same way, says Paul, even so, at this present time, not in the future, well, that will be true in the future as well, of course, but not just in the future, even so at this present time. There is a remnant. Now you have a little, uh, logical question to ask yourself. Why would God bother to save a remnant? If he were going to destroy Israel, why didn't he do it forthwith, the whole lot, bang, shoot, finish, end? Why leave a remnant? Well, because the remnant is God's pledge that one day he will restore the whole lot. And that is what is plainly said, you see, in verse twenty six of chapter eleven. The time is coming that all Israel, which is a technical phrase in the Old Testament, all Israel means the nation as a whole. Israel as a whole shall be saved. And the guarantee of that, the pledge of that, is at this present time there is a remnant. And Paul was part of the remnant. There were others I could think of, a chap called Nicodemus, and another called Joseph of Arimathea, and sundry good ladies, Martha, Mary, uh, you'll see, and a good many more. And by this time, in many places around the Roman Empire, Jews, true to God's choice of Israel, now come to believe the Messiah, a remnant at this present time, says Paul. So Israel's witness goes on. Yes. I hope that doesn't offend you in any way. Israel's witness carrying on in the God-ordained fashion. Only by remnant, yes. But carrying on. And the remnant, the pledge of God that one day the whole of Israel, Israel as a whole, shall be saved. Answer to the question, and the question is, has the plan of God come to nothing? And the answer is, no, certainly not. Not even for the present, let alone the future. It is a remnant according to grace. You'll see. That is to say, let's be careful not to misinterpret it. As Paul will presently expound in this, in this very chapter, God chooses to save those Jews that will consent to be saved by grace and not by the works of the law. There were many Jews who just wouldn't bow to that and kept on seeking salvation by the works of the law and wouldn't accept salvation by grace and felt they didn't need it. Well, of course, the remnant, like Saul of Tarsus, who came to acknowledge themselves as sinners and embraced the grace of God through Christ and his atoning death and resurrection. God chose them. They are the present Israelite witness. The fulfillment thus far of God's purpose throughout the whole of the Old Testament. And you'll see he tells us in verse twenty nine that certainly God's, uh, intention has not come to nothing. For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. This is chapter eleven verse twenty nine. God does not change his mind. If he chose Israel as a witness, he will not destroy them. He has at the present moment a remnant who carry on that witness. Rejoice in this. How many epistles of the New Testament, uh, do you know? And when you thought about that, answer me how many of them were written by Gentiles. Think of one if you can. I have a notion in my head they're all written by Jews, most of them. The present witness of Jews, Israelites, true Israelites, to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yeah? But don't believe it just because I say so. Search and see if this is in fact the argument of Romans nine, ten, and eleven. So we come now to the detailed argument in Romans chapter nine. And here we shall have to pause just a little brief moment to get our minds round what for Westerners is a difficult thing. When Paul uses the term, when scripture uses the term Israel, what does it mean? Well, it can mean two things, but then they shade into each other. It can refer to the nation Israel as distinct from necessarily every individual Israelite. There's a difference between America, and if you were asked, what does America stand for? You'd have to listen, listen to the present administration, you know, to know exactly what the America stands for at the moment. Of course, uh, America like that, as a nation officially led by its by uh uh by the president, truly, is not exactly the same thing as what every individual America, American thinks. So we have per now to to juggle in our minds, if that's the term to use. God chose Israel to be a witness for him. That means the physical nation. Listen to Paul, my kinsmen according to the flesh. It was to Israel as a physical nation, a physical entity, that God gave the majestic role of being his witness in the earth. That was given to Israel. But of course, within Israel, there were a lot of Israelites who never were anything much more than the glo- inglorious sinners, of course. And from time to time, God had to deal with them, and he destroyed a number of them in many generations. The fact that he had to destroy a good many because of their apostasies and rebellions doesn't imply that God was thereby destroying Israel as a nation. Can we begin to get our minds around that? It was to Israel as a nation, then, as distinct from all the other nations, that God gave the unique honor of witnessing in the earth to the one true God, with their temple and so forth and so forth and so on. The nation, God hasn't destroyed that, never will. But, um, individual Israelites, that's another story. And this is the thing that we have to get into our minds now, and to follow Paul's argument in Romans nine. End of verse six, for they are not all Israel which are of Israel. So there's Israel as a nation, to whom the privilege was given, but within Israel there's a distinction between some and others. Some are Israelites indeed. Remember our Lord's word when he accosted Nathaniel? As he saw him coming up the road, our Lord said, behold, an Israelite indeed, a real Israelite, in whom there is no guile. There are a lot of other Israelites, and still are, in whom there is plenty of guile, particularly in business. And our Lord, in conversation with those that at one stage professed to believe on him, the conversation recorded in John chapter eight, They said to him, we be Abram's seed. That, he said, is remarkable, gentlemen, because you're not behaving very much like Abram. For now you seek to kill me. And Abram didn't that do that kind of thing. They said, uh, uh, God is our father. We were not born of fornication. God is our father. He said, gentlemen, if God were your father, you would show signs of the family relationship, wouldn't you? If God were your father, you would love me. I know you are Abram's seed physically, but not Abram's seed spiritually. In fact, you are of your father, the devil, he told them. And Paul is making the same point here, that whereas the privilege was given to Israel as a whole, within Israel, some were sincere Israelites. And you could rattle off the names of them, couldn't you? Hannah, Joshua, Caleb, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, whole lots of them. There were others who nationally, ethnically were Israelites, but in their spiritual condition were not true descendants of Abraham or Israel either. Now then, verse seven, Paul appeals to history. Neither because they are Abram's seed are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, it is not the children of the flesh that are children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed. For this is a word of promise, according to this season will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. So now Paul is enlarging on the notion that not all the physical descendants of Abram are the promised seed. Because after all, Ishmael was a physical descendant of Abram, wasn't he? And it is the thing quoted. And Abram, in his old age, doted on Ishmael, nice lad he was, and, uh, tried to persuade God to accept him. No, thank you, says God, nice enough chap. I shall bless him. Do notice that. God proposed to bless Ishmael. But it's not what I meant when I said I was going to give you and Sarah a, a son, you'll see. It's not that one. I made a promise to you. You tried your very best to fulfill that promise of your own strength, didn't you, and produced Ishmael. Thank you very much, says God, but I, I don't accept that as a fulfillment of my promise. I'm going to fulfill my promise, Abram, and when I fulfill it, it will be by a direct miracle of my intervention that you and Sarah will have a son. So now let's go back to the basic principle. God started with Abram to build a nation called Abram. On what principle did God choose amongst Abram's descendants? On what principle did he choose one of those descendants to be the channel of the building of the nation? And the answer was not through human effort. It wasn't that Abraham said to himself one day, you know, I think this is marvelous. I have a hint from God that he's going to do marvelous things for me, and I'm going to be unique. Now let me, let me have a son, and I'll get him well educated, and I'll put him forward, and he'll be the leading chap of his day, and I shall take the credit for it, and you'll see. No, no, no, no. It isn't even by Abram's ambition and efforts. God raising up of the nation, uh, that be this function for God in the world, raising up of a- a- a- of Abram's seed was God's own initiative, a miraculous intervention in his parents, so that this was a work of God, not human ambition. In that sense, Ga- Abram could not take any credit for it. Again, in choosing, uh, this descendants of Abraham to be the seed, the nation, the witness to God. See, it says Paul in the next pair. Verse ten, and not only so, but Rebecca also having conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the children being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God might s- uh, the purpose of God according to election might stand firm, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. So this is another fork in the road. The first one, how did the nation come to be? First of all, concentrate on the parents, old Abraham and Sarah. It wasn't their initiative. It wasn't their ambition. It was not, uh, brought about by their power. This is God talking about the parents that began the race. It was by God's direct initiative. Now you turn to the, uh, children. Isaac's children. And they were twins. And God accepted the second one, which is Jacob, to become eventually Israel, the father of the twelve sons that should be the core of the nation's existence. Chose Jacob and not Esau. On what ground did God choose, uh, Jacob and not Esau? You say, well, no, I- I mean, Jacob wasn't perfect, goodness, everybody knows that. But, uh, perhaps he was a bit better than Esau. That's why God chose him. Certainly not. Why the children were not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad. That God's electing purpose might stand. For now, gentlemen, do perceive it very clearly. God is not, Paul is not talking, and God isn't talking about salvation or forgiveness of sins. He's talking about his choice of a particular nation to be the witness for God in the earth. That is the choice. The fact he chose Jacob but not Esau doesn't mean that when he chose Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all the rest of the world were consigned to eternal perdition because he chose them for salvation and not the others. That would be untrue to scripture itself. There were Gentiles that got converted. I can think of one of them, Queen of Sheba, to start with. Mm. What God chose Jacob for, as he chose Abraham and Isaac, was for this unique privilege of being God's witness in the earth. On what ground did he choose Jacob, therefore, for that purpose? Well, not on the ground of his works, good or bad. Did I hear you mutter, if I'd have been God, I could have foreseen that what a rogue old Jacob was going to be on times. I wouldn't have chosen him, I would have chosen, uh... Well, that's an idea. Who would you have chosen? Well, I said chosen somebody. Like your colleague sitting here? There's a rumor going around that our Lord himself said of his apostles, um, you didn't choose me, I chose you. And that is applicable to us, I presume. Yeah? You would hold that? It was Christ that chose you. I don't think it was you coming along to Christ and saying, now, Lord, I have a suggestion to make. You see, you wa- require witnesses. Now, I could be quite a substantial witness to you. You'll say, I- I- I- in fact, I- I've got great reputation in my, uh, my district, and if you would only consider appointing me, you see, I- I- I could do your cause a lot of good. That isn't how it happened, is it? Well, it didn't. I know that because Christ says, you didn't choose me. I chose you, that you should go forth and bear fruit, and that your fruit should ab- abide. Christ is talking to them as his servants to witness for him, as the true vine. And it's Christ that does the choosing. But to come back to what you, who would you have chosen? You would, you say I would have chosen somebody absolutely sinless. You would? Well, that rules out you lot then. If God had insisted that that the nation that's going to be my witness in the earth must be absolutely sinless, well, then he wouldn't have had any witnesses, would he? How do you work it out? He chose Jacob, of course, but not on the grounds of whether he was sinless or on his works good or bad. God's choice of Israel had to be on those terms, for there wasn't anyone sinless in the whole earth. Hmm. But pray understand again what Ball is talking about. When, uh, the w- the twins' mother, Rebecca, realized she had twins, she consulted the Lord about it, you see. This is Genesis twenty five, verse twenty two. And the children struggled together within her, and she said, if it be so, where do- wherefore do I live? And she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said unto her, to... what? Nations. Not two babies. Two nations are in thy womb, and two peoples shall be separated from thy bowels. And the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the older shall serve the younger. Now that is exceedingly important. In choosing Israel and not Esau, God was choosing a nation, the Israelite nation, and not the nation descended from Esau, which are the Edomites. Is that quite plain, or is I- am I forcing scripture and saying what scripture doesn't say? This is God's choice of a nation from among the other nations. The one shall serve the other, the older shall serve the younger. That wasn't true of Esau, the man Esau. He never did serve Jacob, not Esau didn't. Read the story. And he certainly didn't bow down to to Jacob or Israel. Israel bowed down to Esau in the story. Yes. Paul is quoting here from the initial prophecy. It's nations that are at the point of it. And of course, eventually, Edom did bow down, the nation of Esau's descendants did bow down to the descendants of Israel, particularly in the time of David. Later on, they revolted, of course. We're talking about God's choice of the nation, and he's chosen them because they were better. Well, listen to dear old Moses talking to Israel. The Lord didn't choose you because you were better. Don't get that into your heads. Or stronger or more numerous or anything. The Lord chose you in his sovereignty, not according to your merit or your works. Some many years later, by the time of Malachi the prophet, God pro- pro- uh, uh, sent a message to the prophet about Edom. Israel have I loved, Esau have I hated. Read the Old Testament prophets and you'll find out why he hated him, because of his interven- his his behavior all down those intervening years as a nation. If that is so, if God has chosen the nation of Israel on those terms, it wasn't their forefathers' initiative, it wasn't the merit of the children, it was God's sovereign choice. Is there unrighteousness with God? Well, God forbid. For now you come to the story of Israel as a nation, and then on f- a story of Pharaoh. Verse fifteen, for he says that God 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 is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose did I raise you up, that I might show in thee my power, and that my name might be published abroad in all the earth. So then he hath mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, why doth he still find fault for who withstandeth his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why didst thou make me thus? Or hath not the power a right over the clay from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long suffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy which he for prepared unto glory. The argument is now going to turn not on the origin of the nation, but on their subsequent history, and God's dealing with the nation in the course of history. And God dealing with the nation in the course of history is to be contrasted with God's dealing with Pharaoh. So let us notice the analogy Paul uses. The potter faced with the same lump of clay, and out of that same lump he makes a vessel to glory and honor, and he makes a vessel to dishonor, a vessel of wrath. Let's fasten on the notion the same lump, because now God is talking about Israel as a nation in the course of their history, and Pharaoh as the head of the nation of Egypt in the course of his history, and points out that they were of the same lump. Demonstrating by their behavior they were the same lump. Sinful. Disobedient. Often God defiant. The question that will arise, however, that when God showed mercy, how long would he wait with people's rejection, refusal, refusal, determination not to believe, not to repent? How long would he put up with that before either of those parties humbled themselves, acknowledged their sinfulness, repented and believed. Now, this is a very big question, and it applies still, doesn't it? How long will God wait? And what decides how long a person has to repent? One man hears the gospel ten thousand times, Sunday school, gospel meetings, whatnot, carries on, lives without God, without repentance, till he gets to sixty five. Hears the gospel or something through some circumstances, repents and gets converted. Yeah. Another man hears the gospel, goes out, unrepentant. Gets run over by a bus. Who decides how long God will wait his forbearance? The answer to that, of course, must be that this is not accidental. Since it is God that shows mercy. It's God that decides how long a person has and how long he's prepared to wait. Pharaoh transformed himself into a vessel of wrath. And in a very real sense, God used, uh, Pharaoh as a vessel of wrath to make his power known to all the earth. So now let's consider what the term vessel means in this connection. A vessel of wrath is not simply somebody upon whom God eventually executes his wrath. A vessel of wrath is a someone that God uses, so that in God's execution of wrath upon that person, that person becomes an exhibit, an exhibition, if you will, a demonstration, an object lesson for all who ever hear of it. They learn thereby something about the character and holiness of God. And when Pharaoh hardened his heart, then God eventually used him as a vessel of wrath. God hardened his heart. Whom he will, he hardens. The question is, when exactly did God harden his heart? Well, if you're going to understand this part of Romans, of course, you must read Exodus. And before Moses went into Pharaoh, God told Moses, they're not going to let you go, and I shall harden his heart. For God foreknew what was going to happen, of course. But when you look at the actual story, and ask yourself, when exactly, according to the story, is it said that the Lord hardened his heart? Then it becomes exceedingly significant. Other phrases are used, as you'll see. This is the account up on the board here of the nine plagues, and you say there were ten, you've made a mistake. Uh, wait a minute, there were nine plagues. The tenth was a super duper exceptional plague, and it was the judgment of God. I will execute judgment. This is not judgment. This gentleman is evidence. I explain that in a moment. There were nine pieces of evidence. Various phrases are used. Pharaoh's heart was hardened. You say, who hardened it? We're not told. Many people think that that use of the passive, his heart was hardened, implies it was God that hardened it. If scripture had meant it, it would have said so, like it does say at the end of plague six. Mm. You know, I went up the coast road the other day, came upon the road. The road was covered with rocks. Was covered? Who covered it? Well, nobody in particular. The stone just fell off down into the road. The road was covered. By the time the car arrived, the road was covered. Isn't saying that the authorities covered it, or anybody else covered it. The stone just fell off the mountain, covered it. So then the other phrase, Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Or, as in number five, Pharaoh's heart was stubborn. It is not until the end of the sixth plague that we have it explicitly said that the Lord hardened his heart. And the significance of it, gentlemen? Well, you'll have to let me tell you the story, I think. Best way we can do that. Moses, uh, God told Moses to go to Pharaoh. And to say, uh, the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you to tell you you are to let my people go, says Jehovah, God of the Lord of Israel. Who's he, says Pharaoh? I, I, I, I haven't, I think I haven't heard of him. Who's he? I don't know, Fa- I, what's this God your name? Jehovah or something? No, no, no, no, I've never heard of him anyway. But let him go? Well, why should I let them go? I'm not gonna let them go. I don't know your God, Jehovah. Wait a minute, said Moses. I can show you my God is real. See, he's given me this rod. I see it, says Pharaoh. Moses threw it down on the ground. Up came a snake. There are Pharaoh, said he. Take notice of that. See, my God is real. Uh, oh really? What, what, what, what, what's that supposed to be, Moses? A miracle, he said. Oh, come off it. Moses, grow up. My scientists can do the same in the laboratories, do it nearly every week. So it rang a bell, and in came the scientists, dressed as they usually do in white clothes, of course, for some reason, and he said, uh, gentlemen, this Moses thinks he's just done a miracle, you see, poor chap. He's thrown down his rod and become a snake. Uh, just show them that you can do the same thing. So he did. I said, Pharaoh, you'll have to do a better, a better miracle than that, Moses, if you want to convince me. Wow. Well, it did so happen that the Moses' rod, uh, um, gobbled up all the other rods. That didn't affect the scientists too much. They said it was an extraordinary phenomenon, and given further research and more funding, they could explain that as well. Mustn't bring God into it, of course not. Mm-hmm. So, now the plague started. And God specially commissioned Moses, and he goes in and does the first plague, water to blood. The magicians did the same. Well, I'm tempted to say any old fool can pollute the rivers. Doesn't take God merely to pollute rivers. We know it all too well, don't we? All sorts of industrialists and I don't know what who are polluting rivers and the oceans indeed. So, well, yes, the magicians did the same. Moses, you get this idea, you live in a pre-scientific age, old boy. I mean, you see, this is not a miracle. Ah. So Moses was given another side to do, the frogs. What a pissed they were, came out everywhere. Pissed, playing with frogs, frogs. And uh... the magicians did the same. You see, said Pharaoh, you'll have to do better than that. If you want me to believe that this, uh, thing is a miracle formed by God. So Moses was told to produce the lice. At which point the magicians couldn't do it. And the magicians themselves said to their master, sir, this is the finger of God. This was his own scientist telling him that this was a miracle performed by God. And Pharaoh said, well, if that's so, of course, well, I give in, and I... No, he didn't. He'd asked for evidence. God gave him the evidence. And And Pharaoh's Pharaoh. heart was hardened. I don't know how that strikes you. That strikes me with a wonder of God's magnanimity and his mercy, putting up with Pharaoh and enduring him. He asked some for evidence. God's given him evidence and taken pains to distinguish what could be interpreted as being possible to the scientists and what went beyond scientists and was an evident interposition of God Jehovah. Pharaoh had his evidence. And his heart was hardened. And then what did God do? You say strike him dead, of course. No, he didn't. Look at the next three. How long will God wait? And put up with him? But with the flies, Pharaoh hardened his heart. With the, uh, sores on the cattle, the heart of Pharaoh was stubborn. With the boils, well, even the, even the scientists got the boils. Four souls weren't able to stand up straight. You might think God has almost a sense of humor. And notice the dear scientists of the day, don't think that they were wizards, they were the, the best they knew about science. The magicians of the day couldn't even stand. And Pharaoh wouldn't repent. Too lot of evidence. In the patience and forbearance of Almighty God. And at last God says, have it your way, Pharaoh. And God hardened his heart. Before the next plague came, God explains to Moses what was happening. Tell Pharaoh, for this cause I have made you to stand, says the Hebrew. Referring not merely to the fact that God had raised him up and set upon him upon his throne in Egypt, but even now, says God, you see, I could destroy you at once and would be perfectly just to destroy you. You asked for evidence. I have given you a superabundance of evidence, and you know what the truth is. I could cut you off now. I'm not going to. I'm going to make you stand. God made him stand to endure. The, uh... The next three. Make you stand that I may make my name known throughout all the earth. Made him a vessel of wrath. What would you have got to do with Hitler? Put your hand through his curly hair and say, well, you meant it on the whole pretty decent, and... There comes a point when God, when a sinner will not repent and hardens his heart against God, God himself will harden it and cause him to stand, that in judging that man publicly, God may make his holiness known and character known throughout all the earth. When Israel eventually came to Canaan and came in, you will find people saying, we heard what God did. To the Egyptians and to to the rest. And Rahab got converted. The question is, how long will God go before he hardens? The fact is that some he does harden. And of course, two Thessalonians says the same thing. God will wait, but in the end, it is written, God shall send them a strong delusion, that they believe the lie. On what grounds? Because they received not the love of the truth. That implies, gentlemen, that they must have known the truth, does it not? You can't accuse anybody of refusing to receive the love of the truth if he never knew what the truth was. But where people have known the truth, and in their heart it is true, and refuse to receive the love of the truth, God will send them a strong delusion that they believe the lie. Is that God being unreasonable? Well, gentlemen, if you won't refuse, if you won't have the truth, what have you got left anyway? You are choosing a lie. There comes a point when God's forbearance comes to an end, and he gives people their choice and hardens them in it, and they receive not the love of the truth, therefore they believe the lie. And the lie, when it comes, will be a preposterous lie. Yeah. Yeah. Pharaoh, therefore, was a vessel of wrath. Not only did God, uh, uh, uh, uh, pour out his judgment on him, but of course, uh... he became an exhibition of the wrath of God. Now we turn to Israel. And it is there said, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. God's sovereignty in mercy. So that it is not of him that willeth, but of him that, nor of him that runneth, but of God that has mercy. But gentlemen, to understand it, you must go back to your Exodus once again, to the chapter where that is written. That was written after Israel's virtual apostasy at Mount Sinai, when they made themselves the golden calf. And Moses, uh, was up the mountain with God, receiving the, the, the two tables of the law. And God said to Moses, they have corrupted themselves, gone astray, made this golden calf the very opposite of what they was called to witness to, of the one true God. Let me alone, says God, I'll destroy the whole lot of them. And I'll make of you a nation, Moses. Could you have blamed God to do it? So Moses came down the mount. And eventually, after some long time of Moses' intercessions and God's disciplines upon the people, Moses went up the mountain, pleading with God not to forsake them, not merely to go with them, but to go among them and maintain the nation and take them on to their destiny in Canaan. And God said, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Meaning that he wouldn't then wipe out the whole nation, but to give them chance to go ahead. What did that mean for Israel? Did it mean that none of them were judged at that time? It did not. For when Moses came down the mountain, he told the Levites to gird their swords upon themselves and to slay their brethren, the Levites, who had been the organizers and the instigators and the a- and the managers of this apostasy and had made the calf. They were judged and destroyed out of the nation. The nation as a whole, duped as they may have been by their spiritual leaders, the nation as a whole was allowed to continue and not wiped out. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, allowing in his forbearance the nation to proceed in spite of their apostasy. Uh, not many days later, they came to the borders of Canaan. You know that, don't you? They sent the spies across, and they came back with their report. Ten out of the twelve said, oh, cool, we'd have come, if we'd have known this in advance, we wouldn't have come. And they spoke of making a captain and returning to Egypt. Caleb and Joshua tried to plead with them not to be so foolish, saying God will give us the land, but they would not listen. And they talked of stoning Moses and going back to Egypt. And God said, I've had enough of this. You have seen my wonders ten times over, and still you reject me, and you say you're not going into this land I provided. Righto, then you won't go in. And God swear that those men, being over twenty years old when they came out of Egypt, would never go in the land. They would perish in the wilderness. Did that, uh, eliminate the nation? On- they came near to, but, uh, Joshua and Caleb survived from the older generation. But the nation who were less than twenty years old when they came out of Egypt were allowed to continue. God's mercy. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. That doesn't mean that God said it doesn't matter if Israel sins. He disciplined them. And you know enough about Old Testament history to notice how eventually God turfed them all out of the land completely. The multitudes of Israelites perished because they rejected God. But the nation was spared. There came a time, and Paul had witnessed it, when Israel took their very Messiah, son of the owner of the vineyard and of the un- uh, of the universe, and put him to a tree. Would you not think that then at last God said, I've done with Israel? Well, our blessed Lord wept over Jerusalem. Oh, Jerusalem, how often would I, but you wouldn't? The time is coming when your enemies shall destroy you and you be scattered over the face of the earth. And so they have been. But God has left a remnant. On whom he will have mercy. And you can see in history who they were. Well, examples of it. Paul is talking in his own day. He too was a sinner. He was an Israelite. Now listen to him talking to Timothy, one Timothy chapter one. I was the veritable chief of sinners, but God had mercy on me because I did what I did in ignorance and unbelief. And for this cause he had mercy on, on me, that in me as the chief he might show forth all his... Do you remember the verse? All his forbearance, his long suffering. You consider God putting up with Saul of Tarsus. When he was herding Christians into prison, having them tortured and stand overing them to try and make them blaspheme the name of Jesus. How long would Po- God put up with Saul? He says, Paul, but I did it in ignorance and unbelief. And when the Lord appeared to me, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. And he chose me that I might be an example to all those subsequently who should believe on him unto eternal life. Yes, Paul, a vessel of mercy. Not only God had mercy on him, but used him as an example of God's mercy to encourage the millions that have come on behind and have been saved as a result of Paul's testimony to the grace of God. How long will God wait? Well, who can tell? But the question of how long God will wait must be left, of course, to God's sovereign choice. Vessels of mercy then. And what about Israel? The majority of Israelites? Well, let's look at the end of the chapter, and then this session is ended. You'll see. Verse thirty: What shall we say then that the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith? But Israel, following after a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were of works. They stumbled at the stone of stumbling, even as it is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame. Vessels of wrath, vessels of mercy. Uh, was it that God got angry with the Jews and wouldn't save them? No, no, gentlemen, no. Look at it. There are a lot of old Gentiles around the Roman Empire, you know, and uh, presently s- seeking for righteousness, I should think not most of them, not Gentiles, old pagans. Uh, uh, and one afternoon there came a hook-nosed Jew, and he was a funny looking chap, into their uh, uh, market square and began to preach, knocking on the doors, and presented the gospel. And the Gentile women who attended the synagogue heard him preach. And the Gentiles, who weren't seeking after anything in particular, heard the gospel and got converted. Vessels of mercy. The doctrine of salvation by faith. Vessels of mercy. Why didn't the Jews become vessels of mercy then? For the simple reason, gentlemen, that they wouldn't have the mercy. They wouldn't admit they had needed the mercy. Ask them, and they were offended when Paul pointed out they were sinners and need to be saved through the death of Christ on the cross. They got mightily offended. They were good enough, thank you. And they would earn their salvation by works. Well, that's one thing, sir. If you could earn salvation by works, and you managed it, one thing you would never be, that is a vessel of mercy. You'll be a vessel, look how well I worked. I'm an example to everybody else. You know, I worked so well, I got salvation. Look at me. You could never be a vessel of mercy, could you? Not on those terms. It is a heartbreaking thing that many religious people, even in Christendom, take that same view. They will not admit they're bad enough to need salvation by grace, not of works, but of the mercy of God, and hold to the fact that they're doing their very best to merit salvation. In that case, they never will be vessels of mercy. So here's Paul, I won't say struggling, for he was an apostle. How many hours, weeks, months, years did Paul break his heart over these matters and search the scripture. He preached hundreds of times in synagogues, and the very people you could have expected to have been saved at the end of all his preaching were not saved. Why weren't they? Why was it that multitudes of Gentiles were getting saved, but not his own kinsmen, the Jews? Here is the true evangelist with a real heart and wants to know why Israel is not getting saved, Lord. Preyed for them I don't know how many times. I was given to understand it by the Lord as he read the Old Testament scriptures. What are the principles of God's dealing, both with Gentiles and with Israel as a nation? This is not merely theology, gentlemen, nor yet history. If you are an evangelist, this will go to your very heart. As God helps you to see his diagnosis of why it is that Israel so apostatized and branches had to be broken off. But that's not the end of the story. This afternoon, God willing, we shall spend yet one more session on, uh, this passage, this time Romans ten and eleven. They will not take us so much time. And then, by decree from Pharaoh himself, I shall not have any take any questions in the fourth session. I shall use my fourth session to make some leading remarks about, um, chapters twelve to sixteen, and show how they relate to the book and how they are part of its in- in an integral part of its message. But save up your questions, write them down, because if you don't, you'll forget them. And if the Lord hasn't come, I have to be, do be warned, I have to be at these sessions again towards the end of the year sometimes, ostensibly speaking about the book of Ruth. But, uh, given permission from the management, I should be allowed then to answer the questions that you have thought of both this morning and afternoon, and subsequently when I'm gone. So now have a good lunch.