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Now, today we continue with our major aim, which has been and still is to study the character of God, the character of him whom the Bible describes as the blessed God, and the character of God as is revealed to us, particularly in the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. And here we shall be particularly interested in that gospel and its relevance to God's, uh, ancient people of Israel. And we shall deal with some of the problems that have arisen regarding that nation in relation to the Christian gospel, problems that are put before us in the epistle to the Romans, chapters nine, ten, and eleven.
Here in these chapters that many people find exceedingly difficult, we shall nonetheless find marvelously rich treasures of the glorious character of God. Certainly we shall learn about God's sovereignty. As the potter hath right and authority over the clay to make a vessel this way or that, as it please him, so these passages will assert that God has right. On whom he will, he has mercy, and whom he will, he hardens. Nothing that I shall say this afternoon will be intended to reduce that sovereignty of God.
I shall hasten to add, however, that when Scripture teaches us the sovereignty of God, that in all things he does according to his own will, we should remember that God's being sovereign and acting sovereignly never means that he acts contrary to his own character. And God is not simply some infinite sovereign tyrant. Surely he does what he wills to do, but then just as surely he only wills to do things that are consistent with the totality of his character.
So we shall be thinking together of his sovereignty. We shall find tremendous treasure in God's mercy, in his preparation of what he calls vessels of mercy, that he has foreprepared for glory. And though the time will be meager for allowing us to use our imagination on the basis of Holy Scripture, to try to anticipate the wonder of the glory that God's mercy has designed for those vessels of mercy. Yet our Christian instinct and background will tell us, will they not, that that mercy is indescribably wonderful and exceeds abundantly all that we could possibly ask or think.
My dear Christian friend, if God had saved us miserable and sinners who deserved nothing but his wrath, if he had simply saved us, that would have been mercy, wouldn't it? If in saving us he had appointed us to shine the boots of the lesser angels in glory, who could have said it was anything other than a marvelously glorious occupation to spend eternity doing, polishing the boots of an archangel? God has designed a mercy that not only forgives arrogant sinners and tiny, nasty little sinners and mean sinners, and designed that they should be made heirs of God and fellow heirs of God's dear Son.
Who could conceive it? And when to that is added, that not only does he make us heir of God and joint heirs with Christ and promise that Christ will never leave us? But mystery of mysteries. We are joined to Christ in a body through every member of which flows the life principle, which is the Holy Spirit of God. We shall find not only a God who is sovereign and does what he chooses to do, we shall find that what he chooses to do is according to his mercy.
And even when it comes to the solemn matter of the wrath of God, pray let us remember that the wrath of God, solemn as it is, is something beautiful. You wouldn't have God be on the side of sin, would you? Doesn't your heaven depend on God's being absolutely uncompromisingly and eternally against sin? The very heaven depends on it. His wrath is the expression of his character and his settled hatred of sin.
We thank God for that too. And when at last vessels of clay refuse to repent and accept the mercy of God and persist like Pharaoh did in their evil and obstinate and irrational antagonism to God. Then when God hardens them, he hardens them in their own choice. And then makes them vessels of wrath according to his wisdom and his grace.
The vessels of wrath, like Pharaoh, are not some simply people upon whom God pours out his wrath, but people who, when they have deserved God's wrath by their sinning, and he must punish them, God makes them advertisements to the rest of the world, so that by this means, if possible, he might bring people to repentance and salvation. And in the case of Pharaoh, whom we shall meet once or twice this afternoon, it is evident that God's condign punishment at last on Pharaoh, when he hardened Pharaoh in Pharaoh's own choice and brought down his wrath upon Pharaoh's impenitent head.
God's wrath upon Pharaoh was reported in the distant country of Canaan, and the, and Rahab heard of it. It was one of the means that brought her to repentance and to salvation and to being an ancestress of Christ, God's son of glory. So will God turn the very sin of man and his wrath against sin to the means of salvation, salva- sal- saving other people. Preeminently above other things, maybe, in these three chapters of this epistle, we shall be struck at last, if not in this session, then in the next, with the wisdom of God.
For at the end of chapter eleven, overburdened with sorrow for his unconverted fellow nationals, as Paul was, as he contemplates the wisdom of God, not only in what God has done, but what now Paul perceives God is intent on doing, and what in his wisdom he will do, how God by his wisdom is using Israel's disobedience and rejection of the gospel first to bring salvation to the Gentiles, and then by bringing salvation to the Gentiles, God is maneuvering affairs so that he will provoke Israel to jealousy, so that in the end all Israel will be saved.
As Paul contemplates the way that God's wisdom will bring out glory out of that sad disaster, Paul is moved to raise his heart in worshipful praise of the wisdom of God. That God has shut up all in unbelief. What for? So that he might banish as men as he, many as he possibly can to hell. Or so that he should stand by fee unfeelingly and watch millions going to hell without any effort to save them, all for his glory. No, God has shut up all in their unbelief and rejection of his gospel so that he might have mercy upon all.
I tell you again, my dear beloved in Christ, the God who gave his son to die at Calvary will save as many as God possibly can save. It follows from that infinite gift of his son and the divine intention that lay behind it as he gave that gift. So then these chapters are difficult, Romans nine, ten, and eleven, We shall find therein many a rich lesson on the glory of the character of God. And if we have learned our lessons anywhere near correctly, as we finish our studies, our hearts will be reduced or elevated to worship God's wisdom.
And if we do not feel like that after our studies of these chapters, then surely we have missed their major point. I have to get my permission to what I may say from the clock, so I obey it, and I proceed. The chapters nine, ten, and eleven of the Epistle to the Hebrews deal with the problem arising out of the fact that the majority in Israel as a nation rejected Jesus and denied that he was the God-appointed Messiah.
That created a problem, such that when Paul set himself to outline the gospel in a systematic way in this great epistle, he was obliged sooner or later to turn to this problem. Now, the chapters being difficult, I'm not telling tales out of school when I say that some Christians have been known occasionally in their reading and studying of the Epistle to the Romans to get to chapter eight and then practice long jump and go straight to chapter twelve. Let us be practical, they say.
Why have a Bible reading that isn't practical? Yes. Pity, isn't it, that God has written a lot in his word that isn't practical. You might have thought that God knew better, mightn't you? But we, who apparently are much more interested in people being practical than God is, we sometimes deem it wise to omit certain part of his word from our public Bible studies, because as we think they are not practical. For Paul, these chapters were, of course, in the first place, exceedingly practical. You just imagine Paul being in his prison, uh, at Caesarea one night, hmm, and Master Felix, or if not that rogue, then Governor Festus saying, uh, Paul, I and my wife, you know, would like you to come to dinner with us.
We know you're a prisoner, you know, but we know you're not a criminal, and uh, uh, would you consent coming to dinner with us tonight? And here goes Paul and sits down with her ladyship, and Festus the governor at their highly polished table. Mm-hmm. Somewhere about the, uh, dessert, the conversation turns from the weather, and uh, and Festus says, now Paul, uh, you know, um, um, I don't understand all this business why you are in prison. Um, what is it exactly that you believe, Paul? And Paul starts to tell Festus what he tells us here in Romans. We'll see. Well, he says, so, you know, it begins with God's story of how he chose out our ancestors of the, of the Hebrew race, the race of Israel.
He chose out Abraham, called us out to be a special people, and made us unique among the nations, and gave us a role to play in history. And this Jesus, uh, is the fulfillment of all those promises and prophecies that God made to our people down the centuries, centuries before Jesus was born, does he? And Festus says, is that so? Uh, can you guarantee to me that the Old Testament was written, uh, before Jesus was born? Isn't it that you Christians have sort of faked up an Old Testament, and it ain't the real thing? Oh, no, sir, no, sir, no, sir. There's abundant evidence you can prove that to any academics, uh, con- uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, agreement that, uh, the Old Testament was written most of its centuries before Jesus was born.
Really, Paul? Well, show me some of those prophecies. And so Paul goes through the prophecies of the Old Testament and says, you see, our Christian gospel is based on the Old Testament prophets, and Jesus Christ was born according to the flesh of the seed of David and fulfilled those prophecies even recently in his death and resurrection. And Festus is getting very impressed, and Paul thinks he's got a near convert, you know, almost he's persuading Festus to be a Christian. And Festus presently turns and he says, Paul, um, tell me one thing. You're a Christian, of course, and you say that Jesus fulfilled all these prophecies, don't you?
And that, uh, your nation of Israel was raised up by God to point the way to the coming of the Messiah. Yes. Tell me, how many other rabbis are there among the Jews nowadays that believe that Jesus is the Christ, like you do? Well, well, there's a man called, oh, there's Peter, of course, says Paul. Was he a rabbi? Well, no, he wasn't a rabbi, really, he was a fisherman. Oh. Uh, uh, and and then there's John. Oh, yes. Is he a rabbi? No, no, he well, he was a fisherman too, in a good way of business. Yes, I know, I don't know about businessmen, but um, rabbis, you know, the authorities on the Old Testament.
How many of these rabbis, at least, would you say that agree with your interpretation of the Old Testament, that Jesus is the Messiah? Uh, would you say a majority, Paul? Well, no, not a majority. Well, how many could you mention? Well, there are Nicodemus and uh, mm, uh, Joseph of Amathir maybe, at least he was a member of the Sanhedrin, and uh, and not any others? Oh. Well, that was very interesting, your conversation, uh, uh, Paul. Have a few more olives, and then we'll go and sit on a more comfortable seat. You see, our gospel is not a philosophy.
It is the end product of a great historical movement, a movement of God in history, that chose out the nation of Israel to be the nation through whom the Messiah would come, so that all should be able to recognize him when he came. He would come of this nation, born in that place, of that tribe, of that particular family, of the seed of David. And Israel, the nation commissioned to point the way to the Savior so that all the other nations would see and know who the Messiah was. And if that's what you claim, well, now you'll have to have some explanation why that nation and the vast majority in that nation to this present day denies that Jesus is the Messiah foretold in their Old Testament.
Talk about being practical. You must have some answer to it. And you'll see, there's another reason why. In chapters five verse twelve to the end of chapter eight, Paul tells us about Adam's disobedience and the tremendous wreckage that has befallen humankind as a result of Adam's transgression. And then we think of the nation of Israel and the role that God gave to them in the course of history. Here was the early stage of God's great program for the redemption of mankind.
The call of this special nation, the formation of the nation of Israel, to demonstrate to the world what the true God was like when the rest of the world was sunk in abysmal idolatry. What the service of God was like. Not offering little babies to pagan gods, prying them on the statues and the fires of their idols. But the pure worship of God as it was carried on in tabernacle and temple at God's instruction. Here were the initial stages of the great program of redemption for mankind in this nation and through this nation, would all the nations of the world be blessed.
It was bad enough when Adam went astray and ruined creation. But now if you're going to say that Israel raised up of God as the early stage in redemption, they've broken down as well. Then what hope is there that salvation is a realistic and a practical thing? If the very early stages arranged by God have come to disaster. If our gospel is to have any credibility whatsoever, you must be able to answer this question. How is it that the nation appointed of God to bring in the Messiah have, as a majority, denied that Jesus is the Messiah?
And so we come to the chapter, and if you care to open your Bibles at it, let's look at the argumentation. And on your page of notes, I have highlighted some things that appear to me to be of great importance in grasping the argument of what follows. First of all, notice that Paul says in verses, uh, uh, one and two and three: I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ, for my brethren's sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
Now, pray notice his definition of those, uh, for whom he has sorrow. They are his kinsmen according to the flesh, that is his fellow nationals who physically belong to the physical nation of Israel. He is not talking about what some people call the election, the elect within Israel, regenerate men and women. He doesn't have sorrow over them, of course not. He has sorrow for those that are not saved. And why should he bother his head about them? Oh, good sir. They were his fellow nationals. He loved them.
What'd you say? When they were unsaved? Yes, he loved them. Ah, but you've just told us that the majority of them have rejected the Lord Jesus. You're not telling us now that Paul loves them and has sorrow over them, are you? Why, indeed he is. Over his fellow nationals, that now had rejected and crucified and unrepenting of their sin, persisted in rejecting the Lord Jesus, and Paul loves them and has sorrow over them. Doesn't turn around.
You mistake the argument of this passage if you think that Paul is saying, of course, they're the non-elect, they're going to perish in hell forever. Of course they are by God's eternal decree. He made them simply so that they should at last be damned and perish in hell for his glory. Paul, you have no reason to be sorry over them. It was by God's decree. No, his sorrow over them. I could wish myself anathema from Christ for my brother's sake, who are physical Israelites. And if ever there was a time when Paul's emotions and heart and love for Israel in their sin and impenitence reflected the heart of Almighty God, then it was.
As Paul felt, so God felt. You say, why didn't he feel a little bit like that for the Gentiles who live in England? Well, he scarce knew about us at the time, and uh, the Jews were his fellow nationals. Is it right for Christians to love their fellow nationals, huh? I get the impression that Americans love their fellow nationals. I don't know whether that is true. Perhaps more than English people love their fellow nationals, but then we're just a funny lot, aren't we? And you, my dear sister. And you, sir. And you have a fellow national.
He's your own physical child. You taught him patiently the scriptures all through his childhood and through his teenage, and he's gone astray. And in spite of all your prayers and your tears, he seems impenitent still. Is it right that you should sorrow after him? Simply because he's your child? Indeed it is. And in your sorrow, you reflect the sorrow of God himself, who is not willing that any should perish.
Pray on, my dear sister, pray on. Next, we should notice that it was to these kinsmen according to the flesh that God gave these extraordinary privileges that are described in verses four and five. Isn't that what grammar dictates? Sorrow for my kinsmen according to the flesh, national Israel, physical Israel, who are Israelites, who i- whose is the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the service of God and the promises, whose are the fathers and of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all.
God bless it forevermore. Amen. These wonderful, glorious privileges given, were given to physical Israel as a nation. Were they not? That is very important. It is true, as Paul will presently notice, that not all physical Israelites are true spiritual Israelites. Some have turned out to be quite unregenerate people, but it nonetheless remains it was to that physical nation that God gave these privileges.
And that ask- reminds us to ask what these privileges amount to. Whose is the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the service of God and the promises? Whose are the fathers and of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, and so forth. What are they? Do they add up to salvation? You may say, well, in, in my estimation, Mr. Preacher, they do, these things, they are so wonderful, it must be that the people to whom they were given, they they add up to salvation. Well, Paul is about to tell us that nonetheless, not all of this nation were saved.
And it was to the physical nation that God gave the privileges. But let me take your side for a moment, and that these privileges, if they had been understood, amount to what we should call salvation. Now, let me ask you a big question. You should decide this absolutely before you go further in this chapter. Suppose these privileges amount to salvation. Does it mean that when God chose out Abram and his descendants and gave them these privileges, at that moment God stopped saving everybody else except Israelites. And for the next two thousand years, just let the whole world go hang.
Because he saved Israel, and that meant they were chosen to be saved, and God had chosen nobody else, so nobody else was saved. Is that how you read it? Well, if you do, you'll have to ask a few questions about Melchizedek, for he was neither Christian nor Jew. Priest of the Most High God, accepted by God, who blessed Abraham himself. And you'll have to ask why God saved the Ninevites, and other large questions you will ask. Is he not the God of the Gentiles? Is he only the God of the Jews for two thousand years? That's what Jonah thought until God drowned him in the belly of a whale to teach him better, and sent him with a mercy of compassion for a God who cared for Nineveh and for the children so young that they didn't know their right hand from the left, and for the cattle.
Why does God care for cattle? Well, simply because he made them. And having made them as creator, God feels a moral responsibility for his creatures. God has created no one just as a toy thing, that when he gets tired of them, he flings them over the battlements of heaven, as though they were no more than toys. Having made them, he has a moral responsibility to them, and God will be loyal to his creatures. You'll never accuse God effectively of being disloyal to anything that he has made.
No, these things are not a sign that in choosing out Israel, he was saving them and letting the others all be damned. Not at all. What these things compass is the special role in history that God gave to this nation. For by this time, the nations at large were sunk in idolatrous interpretation of the universe, much as our contemporary Western society is likewise. And therefore, to make himself known to men at large, God started again and made a new nation and gave them this revelation of himself, the law and the covenants, and what is more, the presence of God among them in the tabernacle and temple, and gave them the promises that they might be his witness to men, that eventually through that nation he might send his son as their Messiah.
We are thinking, therefore, here, not so much about Israel's individual salvation as to the role that that nation was designed of God, uh, to carry in history. That meant creating a nation out of Abram and Sarah. And Paul observes now an important point, and it comes into his argument like this. The nation of Israel in Paul's time, contemporary with Paul, many of them had rejected the Messiah and with him the gospel that the Messiah brought. And Paul is going to argue, ah, but if they thus reject the Messiah and they reject the gospel, in spite of the fact that they are physical Israelites, they are not true spiritual Israelites.
The true spiritual Israelite, as all down the centuries, so in Paul's time, welcomed Jesus as the Messiah. And in Paul's day after Pentecost, there were some thousands in Jerusalem itself, uh, being converted, showed themselves true Israelites and witnessed to the Messiah. There have been a few, and nowadays in our day, increasing numbers of true Israelites that believe that Jesus is the Christ. To prove that point that not all the physical descendants of Abraham are true spiritual Israelites, even though they had these great privileges given them, Paul noticed this, the historical fact.
At the first level of Abraham's physical children. Abraham had two sons, one Isaac and one Ishmael. Both of them were equally s- physical sons of Abraham. But when it came to God's giving Israel the great promises and privileges, God did not give them to all Abraham's physical children. The promises were not given to Ishmael. They were given to Isaac and his seed. That establishes the fact that not all I- Abraham's physical children carried even these privileges.
How did God determine which of Abraham's sons should have this privileged role in history of being the patriarch of the nation that should bring in the Messiah. Two incidents are recorded, one in Abraham's life and the other in, uh, Isaac's life. The first was with Abraham and Sarah. That's a charming story, isn't it? Let me just remind you of its broad details. God promised Abraham that he would have a son, and Abraham was getting a bit middle-aged and early retired and all that, and Sarah was barren, you see.
But God promised he was going to have a son, and in that son all the nations of the world be blessed, and Abraham's seed was going to be in number like the sand on the seashore and like the stars of the heaven. So that was that, and Sarah and Abraham were very pleased. But the time went by, and one morning, or was it an afternoon, Sarah and Abram sat at table, you see. And Ab- uh, Sarah said, Abram, my dear, uh, uh, I've been thinking. And he said, you have? Really? What have you been thinking about, Sarah dear? And Sarah said, well, it's about that promise, you see, that God has made to us, that we're going to be, uh, the parents of a, a child, and he shall grow into a great nation.
Yes, said Abram, isn't that marvelous? Well, I don't know, said Sarah. Huh? What's wrong? Well, you see, God seems to have overlooked something. Oh, really, dear? Yes, he promises us a son, and he's overlooked the fact that I'm barren, you see, Abram. And he's overlooked the fact that his promise is just impossible. And what's more, he's being a little contradictious, and he's, he's shut up my womb, Abram, and I can't have a son, you see. Oh, said Abram, I hadn't thought of that. Uh. Well, what can we do? Well, I tell you what I've been thinking, said Sarah. You see, when God promised that he was going to give us a son who should be the father of this special nation, he didn't just mean I'm going to give you a son, did he now?
I mean, when he said I'm going to give you a son, he meant that, uh, God helps those that help themselves, Abram, you see? And he meant us to use our own resources so that his promise should be fulfilled, Abram. Oh, very good, said Abram, but we don't have to have any resources, Sarah, my dear. Oh, yes, we do. Who? Well, that's your handmaid Hagar, you see. Oh. Oh, so there is. Well, I suggest that if this promised thing is ever going to be fulfilled, we shall have to start fulfilling it, Abram. So you take Hagar. What would you have felt like if you'd have been listening to that conversation in the tent? I think my legs would have wobbled a little bit, my knees would have wobbled.
Here's the great purpose of God in history, that he's going to create a physical nation that one day shall bring in the Messiah, you see. Marvelous scheme of God. But God has overlooked a few details in it, and Sarah, all credit to Sarah, she's thought a way of getting the Almighty out of the difficulties occasioned by the Almighty's lack of foresight, you see. Good of old Sarah, wasn't it? Always say though. I think my knees would have shaken a little bit to think that all the promises of God to raise up the nation of Israel and bring in the Messiah all depended on Sarah. Of course, she's a good enough soul, and she won't mind my saying it now. Dear, dear, dear, if the salvation of the world had depended on Sarah, goodness me, where should we be?
No, no, said God. You misread me. When I promised, I meant it as a promise. I'm going to give you a child, Sarah, Abram. That's what I meant. And thus create a nation. But wouldn't you accept Ishmael? No. For a promise is a promise is a promise. And when I said promise, I meant it as a gift, not according to your works, a sheer gift of God's grace. Oh, my dear brothers and sisters, thank God for that. Are you saved? Well, I tell you what, it's not because what Sarah did.
Your salvation is of God, isn't it? Shout hallelujah. We must not mistake that lesson for the other lesson that is drawn from this. We will say in the New Testament, in the Epistle to Galatians, Paul teaches us a spiritual lesson from that historical instance, that we, like Isaac, are children of the promise. But there is a very big distinction to be made, and you should try to grasp it. And the distinction is this. In the actual history, Isaac was a child of promise, not because of Isaac's faith.
The lesson was being taught to Abraham and Sarah, that they would have a child given them by God, not by their merit, not by their desserts, not by their power, a genuine gift from God. It was Abraham and Sarah that had to learn what faith in God's promises mean, not Isaac. Isaac was born according to the promise through the faith of Abraham and Sarah. When that is applied in the New Testament, then listen how the lesson goes. We brothers are like Isaac, children of promise. What does that mean? Now, it is a lesson for us, for Isaac as well, maybe.
It is a lesson for us, not that you're saved because your mum and dad physically were believers. That is not true. Being a child of promise means that you take God's holy word, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, and you dare believe the word of God and rest your salvation simply on God's promise and not on your own efforts to keep God's law. So, they're two but distinct lessons. We need to keep that in our minds, for Saul, for Paul is preaching both, but they are to be distinguished.
The historical lesson that Abraham and Sarah learned about their own personal faith, the spiritual lesson that we learn from it, that if we are to be regenerate and justified and saved, we must learn to put all our hope not in our efforts to fulfill God's word, but in God's own promise. Yes? It must be that way. God's great salvation to the world cannot depend on Abram or Sarah either. And then there was a second class, and that was, uh, Rebecca and the lesson she had to learn. For she was with child, and there were twins in her womb.
And when she went to consult the Lord, he told her that two sons would be born, the elder would serve the younger. In fact, two nations were in her womb. The elder would bow down to the younger. Again, we need to notice very carefully what the history tells us and how that promise was fulfilled. It was not primarily concerned with Jacob more than Esau as individuals, was it? Because in the subsequent story of Genesis, Esau the elder never did once bow down to Jacob, his younger brother.
Never. In the Genesis story, never did Esau serve Jacob, never. What God was talking about, he made clear to Rebekah, it was the nations that should come of these two boys. That was true later in history when the nation that came from Esau, then called the Edomites, bowed down before David, king of Israel. But never did Esau serve Jacob. Jacob bowed down to Esau. Which shows us what? We're talking about the formation of the nation that should carry these special privileges of being the nation on earth to represent God.
To have his temple, to have his service, to have the covenants of the law. And God's choice here again was absolutely sovereign when he raised up that nation, then the patriarch was going to be Jacob and not Esau. You say, what was it all about? Well, not for salvation. This is for privilege, for role within history. On what grounds did God make his choice? Which of those two boys would be the patriarch of the nation that would bring in Messiah? Was it that that Jacob deserved it more than Esau? No, indeed not.
The choice was according to God's purpose, regardless of the boys' works, for they had neither done good nor evil at that stage. God's choice was sovereign, independent of works. I repeat, you are not thinking about God's determination to save one and damn the other. You are thinking about God's choice of this special nation for a special role in history, and God chose Israel through Jacob, and he told them subsequently, I did not choose you because you were better than others. I chose you because I would choose you to give you this role in history. Now, uh, my friends, that is a lesson that the New Testament will repeat to us as servants of God.
Listen to Paul talking to Timothy in two Timothy chapter one. Stir up your gift, says Paul to Timothy. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of boldness. For he saved us, that number one. but in addition to saving us, he called us to this ministry to serve him. On what ground did he call us to serve him? Because we were better than our fellow Christians? No, indeed not. He called us to his service not on the ground of our works, but according to his mercy and grace that was given us before times eternal.
All of us here are called to serve God in one way or another. But you're not called, my brother, on the ground that you were better than somebody else. Isn't that true? You may have the most spectacular gift that God has given you. Sir, you are a sinner like I am. Not as bad as I am, of course, but a sinner like I am. You have your role given you in the body of Christ, not according to your works. Given you in spite of many a bad work. Given you by the sovereign grace of God that chooses you to be his servant.
That doesn't mean that you should go out and sin and think sin is, uh, is not important. It remains that God chose us not for our merit. He chose us to serve him, to play our role by his sovereign grace. Thus far, then, we have been thinking about God's choice of the physical nation in Israel, through what line of physical descent it came, through Isaac and not Ishmael, through Jacob and not Esau. That is the physical line. You see it clearly, don't you? The physical line of the nation through whom Messiah would eventually come.
You say, but doesn't salvation enter into it somewhere along the line, as well as role? Yes, salvation does. And you'll see that in the next pair that Paul quotes from history to push home to our hearts the sovereignty of God's choice. And he does it thus. Says God to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will 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 saith unto Pharaoh, for this very purpose did I raise thee 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 harden. Now we enter the sphere of salvation, strictly so called. For Israel, appointed as a physical nation to this tremendous role in history, distinct from all the other nations, sinned against God Almighty themselves. Scarce had they been given the covenants of the law, then they forsook the worship of the Lord and went over to the worship of the golden calf. God said to Moses, Moses, stand clear a moment now, Moses.
I'm going to destroy them root and branch, and I'll start again with you, Moses, and make the physical nation from you. And had God done that, God would not have broken any of his promises. His promises were to the physical nation, not to the individuals within the physical nation. His loyalty to was to the nation as nation. And had God destroyed the whole nation except Moses, and started again with Moses, since Moses was the seed of Abraham, Moses' descendants would have been the seed of Abraham. God's promises would have been fulfilled. The promises were to the nation.
But when God made that tempting offer to Moses, Moses was loyal to his kith and kin and pleaded with Israel, and God listened to his intercessions. And God eventually said, Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have. And God had mercy on that enormous apostate nation and restored them to their role in history. Magnificent mercy, that, isn't it? And there's one thing about mercy, you can't deserve it, you know. You can't say, I've qualified for mercy, Lord. If God has mercy, he has it because God, well, that's what his heart is like.
He is a God of mercy and compassion and chooses sovereignly to have mercy. On whom he will, he has mercy. We'll say, but he hardened Pharaoh. Oh, so he did. Ah, but now I must ask you to remember the situation. I must ask you, when did God harden Pharaoh? And why? And what did the hardening mean? Was it that from all eternity past, God had decreed in his sovereignty that there should be one nation called Israel, and he would have mercy on them for his glory.
There shall be another nation called the Egyptians, headed by Pharaoh, and God made them on purpose and for no other reason than that he should damn them. Now, that's a blasphemy to say that. God never made anybody so that he could damn them. That's blasphemous. God would have all men to be saved. And if you want an example of the long suffering of God that would lead a man to repentance, well, you could do no, uh, better than take, um, Pharaoh. Israel were a sinner. Pharaoh and his nation were sinners.
From that point of view, they were the same lump. Both deserved God's wrath. God had mercy on Israel, and what did he do to Pharaoh? Well, God foreknew what was going to happen, and so he could tell Moses in advance what would happen, that his heart would be hardened, and God would eventually harden it. God foresaw that. But when it came to the working out of the actual details in history, this is what happened. Read your Exodus and see. God sent Moses to Pharaoh with the message, in the name of Jehovah, let my people go, that they may worship me.
And Pharaoh says, Moses, you've got a little excited this morning, haven't you? Moses, let m- let these people go. That would seriously interrupt my building operations, uh, Moses. Mm-hmm. Have you got some alternative scheme for getting these cities built at a reasonable cost, Moses? Don't trifle, said Moses. This is the word of God to you, your majesty, and God, the father, the God, the God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, um, command you to let his people go. That's all right for you, said Pharaoh. I don't happen to believe in the God of, what do you say, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?
Isn't that a lot of old legend from the past? I mean, nobody nowadays believes that kind of stuff here, Moses. Anyway, I'm not going to let them go. How can you prove to me that your God is real anyway? Well, I, I, I, I, I, I've got a miracle to do, Pharaoh, says Moses. Oh, really? Well, bring it on then. And Moses got hold of his rod, you see, and cast it down. It became a serpent. Mos- uh, Pharaoh said, Moses, uh, uh, what's that meant to be? Well, a miracle, your majesty. Come off it, he said. Oh dear, Moses. He says, you know, my scientists can reproduce that kind of thing in the laboratory. And he pushed the button, and in came all the old, uh, eggheads dressed up in their white aprons.
Why they wear them, I don't know. And Pharaoh said, gentlemen, Moses here thinks he's done a miracle, you see. Uh, hmm. Just show this Moses that we can reproduce the same kind of thing in our laboratories. It's no miracle. So the scientists obliged, and they cast down their rods, and they became serpents. Mm. But Moses' serpent gobbled up theirs. Explain that bit, said Moses. Well, we can't quite yet, but science has explained so much already, it certainly will get round to explain it one of these days. Anyway, it's no miracle, Moses. You'll have to do better than that. And had you been God, what would you have done to Pharaoh then?
Six feet of clay. God wasn't hard up for a few human beings. What would you have done with him? Who said I would have banished him forever? Not God. Here is the sovereign God. He does what he likes, you know, but do you know what he likes doing? He likes having mercy. What if God endured with much long suffering these vessels that were fitting themselves for wrath? As God, he likes having mercy. When Pharaoh rejected the evidence, what did God say?
Well, notice now you must get up early in the morning. And three more demonstrations came of signs upon. In the course of those signs, Pharaoh asked Moses to intercede with God for him, to take one of the plagues away. Do you know what? Moses prayed for Pharaoh. Wow. I'll tell you something wonderful, more wonderful than that. God listened to Pharaoh and gave him what he asked for. How about that?
You see, Moses had prayed for Israel when they sinned, and God had listened to Moses' prayer and in answer had saved Israel. Now old Pharaoh prays, asks Moses to pray for him, and Moses prays for him, and God answers Moses' prayer and gives Pharaoh what he asks, and the plague is taken away. That's God's mercy. Enduring with much long suffering. Three further signs given as evidence until the old scientists come in, as afore said, and this time they said, Pharaoh, we have to tell you as professionals that we can't do this thing that Moses has done in our estimation.
This is the finger of God. So now Pharaoh has the evidence he asked for, that God is real. He's done a miracle and a whole series of them right under Pharaoh's little nose. And Pharaoh does what? He rejects it. Well, you say, now God, now, now, now, now God, you're free to, to destroy the man. Not God. God sends another three signs. More evidence. Until at the end of those three, the scientists come in. Well, they don't because they can't stand. They're so covered with boils they can't stand up straight.
So much for their version of science. And Pharaoh rejects that as well. For the mercy of God. But what will God do now? When after all that mercy, after all that evidence, clear as a pikestaff, and Pharaoh knew it. Raw, arbitrary, arrogant, refusal to bow to God. Then God says to Moses, Moses, I could at this moment have destroyed him.
God would have been just to do so, wouldn't he? I'm not going to destroy him forthwith, Moses. I'm going to make the man stand. I'm going to harden him so he stands instead of crumpling up. I'm going to harden him in the attitude he himself has chosen. So if he won't submit to me and have it my way, he shall have it his way. God hardened the man in that man's own choice. Made him stand.
That now, in punishing him with the punishment he had already deserved, God could use the punishment of Pharaoh to make known his name to the world at large. This is what must happen under the holy wrath of Almighty God to a sinner that will not repent in spite of God's long suffering and mercy. What would you have God do to such a man? Tell me, what would you have God do with a Hitler? Make known his very character. Now that the man had deserved his punishment and chosen it, and God hardened him in his choice and so punished him that he became a vessel of wrath, and the surrounding nations heard of it.
And as I said earlier, Rahab in distant Canaan heard of it. It was the beginnings of her repentance, being warned by the Egyptians' judgment, she sought the true and the living God, found salvation, and became ancestress of Messiah himself. All the wisdom of God and the mercy of God. Isn't that wonderful? God is sovereign, yes. He has mercy on whom he will have mercy. It is not his will that any should perish. He would have all men to be saved. He would be long suffering to the very last with the pharaohs of this world.
Who decides when the point comes that God's long suffering must cease, and deliberate, impenitent sinners sinning against the light must now be punished? Who decides when that comes? Well, of course, God does. In his sovereign choice it is. But pray notice once more as we cease this session, when it happened, only after God's tremendous long suffering and patience and appeals and beseechings and evidences galore and answering Pharaoh's prayers so that he should know that God is real.
Only when at last he rejected it all knowingly. Then God decided the time when God hardened Pharaoh, and Pharaoh was destroyed. That leaves a lot of lessons unlearned, doesn't it? But though I have full permission of our chairman to provoke you by the hardness of those seats and the lack of oxygen in the air, and I'm told I could carry on regardless, I too have a little long suffering in my heart. And so we're going to have a break now before we resume our next session somewhere about three o'clock.
