Gooding, David: 4 - Israel and the Sovereignty of God

And now, dear friends, the hour grows late, and I have worked you unconscionably hard for two sessions already this afternoon, and treated you as no preacher has the right to treat anybody. Now we come to another session, to a part of scripture that is among the most difficult parts of scripture, generally speaking. Any device that you may think of to help you keep awake and survive this next hour and a quarter is well worth trying. Standing up is one way of stopping going to sleep. You are perfectly free to do that and walk around. If you walk around, do it gently, but I shall know what you're doing if you're standing up. I have seen people do it in times when I've been preaching, just for the sake of surviving, you'll see, and keeping the circulation going and, uh, being able to concentrate the better. A way that I have favored myself in having to listen to difficult lectures is to listen with my eyes shut. I found that the energy one has to spend on keeping the eyes open took away from the energy at my disposal for listening, you'll see. So I have developed the technique of listening with my eyes shut. I recommend it to you, so long as you're not afraid of going to sleep in the process. With all, let us come to this, tired as we may be in the conviction that this too is the word of God, as we approach now chapters nine, ten, and eleven of the Epistle to the Hebrews. It is the word of God in such sense that if God opened heaven and spoke to us, he would say, amongst other things, these very words. And because God has caused them to be written, it is important that we should understand them. Let us not be tempted to think that these are such theoretical theology that they have no immediate relevance to us. They are passages that have given rise to difference of opinion and considerable argument amongst good and godly men and women. And it is therefore understandable if you should disagree with the interpretations, or at least some of them, that I shall be putting forward this evening. On the other hand, let it not escape us that the proper reading of these chapters should lead to the, uh, effect that they produced on Paul when he penned them. For, as we have now noticed several times, that whereas in the first... Oh, where is my adjuster of the truth? Whereas in the first section, he comes to the great climax with a statement of the love of God. And at the end of the second major thought flow of his work, he comes once more to a delightful outburst of expression of the love of God. When he comes to the end of this, um, chapter uh nine, ten, and eleven, it leads him not so much to praise of the love of God, as to profound worship of the wisdom of God. And here is how he ends his discourse. All the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past tracing out. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor, or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him and through him and unto him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. A noble, profound expression of worship of the wisdom of God. And that is not coming from a man who has taken flight from the realities of life. Twice over in the course of these chapters, he bears his heart to us and lets us know the profound daily burden he bore, for him overwhelming in its anguish. When he has preached his heart out, his own countrymen, the very people you might have expected to have been saved, gladly to receive the Messiah and be reconciled to God, rejected the gospel, rejected Paul, rejected Jesus. Were fast bringing themselves under the judgment of God. The pain of it was immense, so great he says he could have wished himself a curse from Christ for his fellow national's sake. It was out of that pain that these chapters grew. Why of God's working? How will you explain it all? It is not with any pretended pretense that he comes in the end to this great expression of worship. But God's ways, past finding out as they may be, when they are seen in their ultimate intention and effect, will reduce the heart even now to worship and to daring to trust the wisdom of God. Even though all our problems are not solved in all their details, yet confidence arises in God's intentions, the wisdom of his tactics and his o- overall strategies. One day, when we see the final result, we shall praise him. If that be so, let us have the faith to praise him and start praising him now. What is the relevance to the gospel is the first thing we ask, and we have talked of it now several times. Why does this occur this long description of Israel's refusal to believe the gospel? Why does it occur here? Because the gospel, as chapter one puts it, is witnessed to by the law and the prophets. That was Israel's function, amongst many other things. And if now Israel deny that Jesus is the promised Messiah, then that naturally presents a problem for the gospel. If the very nation that was raised up of God to prepare the way, the coming of the Messiah and point to him, denies him. How will you Christians explain that fact and still say that Jesus is the Messiah? You will have to have some answer to why Israel, God's specially chosen nation, deny that Jesus is the Christ. And secondly, we noticed this afternoon, in the second great movement of thought, Paul deals with the reason why we need to be saved because of Adam's sin. Adam was God's creature. Yes, he disobeyed, he fell, he went astray and ruined the race. Ah, the comforting news comes that God has a salvation to recover us from the wreck. Marvelous thought. Perceive the early stages of that redemption when God called out Abraham and from him began to build a special nation. The early stages of the great plan of redemption. Oh, but wait a minute. Says someone, the plan has come unstuck, hasn't it? Well, if it has, I don't know what faith you can salvage in the rest of the scheme for salvation. It's one thing for Adam to go astray and then to have a salvation provided to put him right, but if the early stages of the process of redemption have gone wrong, what faith can you have in the rest of the plan for redemption? Perhaps that would go wrong as well. We must have an answer to it, mustn't we? So let us begin by taking our Bibles in our hand and looking first at the description Paul gives of Israel in chapter nine. And noticing what it is that Paul is saying about Israel. Verse three: I could wish myself anathema from Christ for my brethren's sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh. Who are the Israelites? Oh, so what does it mean to be an Israelite? Whose is the adoption, the placing of sons? Yes, the book of Deuteronomy is heard to proclaim that Israel were God's sons. That was true of all Israel. But we must not confuse our terms. Deuteronomy is using the term sonship in a very different sense from what the New Testament will use it on occasions. Nicodemus was a good and godly son of Israel, that he would need to be born again, and thus by implication to become a child of God. Israel were God's son in the sense that Moses was told to tell Pharaoh in the name of God, Israel is my firstborn. The honored nation given firstborn status among all the other nations. Israel was a latecomer in history as a nation. There were many gigantic nations and very powerful and very, very civilized before he- the Hebrews appeared on the sea. Though they were latecomers, they were God's specially chosen, his elect, his firstborn, given the prominence above all the others. What for, and in what sense? Well, he proceeds to tell us whose is the adoption and the glory. That is to say, the glory of God's immediate presence. In Israel's tabernacle, and then in the temple at Jerusalem, the transcendent Lord dwelled in a unique sense. That is an historical fact to be got hold of. When God came and his glory descended upon the tabernacle, that didn't express the truth of God's omnipresence. That God is everywhere, so he's in this tabernacle as well as he is in your backyard and at the North Pole and the South. No, no, the tabernacle didn't proclaim God's omnipresence, it claimed the very opposite, that here you will meet God, in a sense that you will meet God nowhere else. The tabernacle and the temple in Israel were, so to speak, a prototype of what our blessed Lord Jesus became when the Word became flesh and tabernacled amongst us. And the glory of God dwelt in Jesus Christ, our Lord. That wasn't an expression of God's omnipresence, God is in Jesus, God is in Thomas, God is in Peter, God is everywhere around the world. We're expressing the presence of God in an utterly unique sense in Jesus Christ. God was present, in a sense he was no- not present anywhere else on earth whatsoever. To Israel then, this, this distinguishing privilege was given. That they had, in this unique sense, the living God among them, the shekena glory of his presence in their temple and tabernacle. With them, God made the covenants. With the fathers like Abraham, covenants of grace. At the Sinai, covenant of law. With David, their king, another covenant. The covenants and the giving of the law. Giving of the law too was a landmark in human history. God himself came down to Sinai and wrote the law with his divine finger, so to speak, a vivid metaphor for saying that the Ten Commandments and the law they summarized were not the product of Moses' mind because he was jolly good at religion, like some people think, and he managed to think up these moderately decent laws. Laws were given by direct intervention of Almighty God, written with the finger of God. And thereto they had the service of God. In their tabernacle, as we said this afternoon, and in their temple, God laid down how Israel would serve him, that Israel might be an object lesson to all the other nations, all pray, consider what it meant. If you'd have gone to Athens or Corinth, to their temples, to see what kind of gods they served, on the Acrocorinth you would have found a temple with a thousand priestesses. They were cult prostitutes. Their prostitution was practiced in honor of the god. It was a religious exercise. In the ancient world, Phoenicians and other such things offered their children to their gods, watched them sizzle in their sacrificial fires. And from that you perceive the nature of God as they conceived it. Israel was chosen that by its very temple sac- sacrifices and services of God, God might make himself known as to what he is really. And as you might expect, God took tremendous exception against Israelites who compromised with the pagan civilizations around and offered their children in sacrifice to God. And the promises were given them. And you'll say they had the fathers in the past and the promises of the future, and among those promises, notably that one day God's servant would come, God's great Messiah would come, the redeemer of the world would come. Israel was raised up for these things. That was her special privilege. Now, let us ask immediately the practical question. When God chose Abraham and set up Israel for these special tasks, does that mean that he chose them for salvation and nobody else? Is that what we're talking about? That anybody who wasn't the descendant of Abraham was now automatically lost, lost because they weren't elect and Israel were. Is that what we're talking about? And the answer is obviously not. Melchizedek was not an Englishman, nor even an Irishman. He was neither Jew nor Christian. Was he a true priest of God? Well, obviously so. Such a true priest of the Lord, in fact, the Most High God, that he becomes a prototype of Jesus Christ our Lord. But he wasn't one of the elect nation of Israel, was he? God's election of Israel for the, this unique role in history is not to be confused with a question of personal salvation. That's number one thing. Salvation will become involved therein as we move onwards, as we shall presently see. But let's not introduce it too early, else shall we make difficult, we shall make our thinking about it difficult. Elect to this special privileged position of representing God, a testimony for God among the nations, to be the nation that pointed the way to Christ, not only through its prophecies and promises, but the nation through whom, after the flesh, the Messiah should come. Now the problem then. They have, as a nation, rejected Jesus as the Messiah. Does that mean that because the majority in Israel have rejected Jesus as Messiah, that God's whole purpose in raising up Israel has been ruined. No, it doesn't. Paul, and Paul is going to proceed now to give us a series of arguments why God's purpose and plan in the first place has not been ruined by the defection of the majority in Israel. The answer is that God's election has always secured, down through the centuries and right till the present, has always secured the maintenance of Israel's God-given role. That's number one argument. Let's concentrate on that for a moment. Here is where Paul preaches the sovereignty of God's election that has maintained this witness to God, not always by a majority in Israel, but right down to the present, says Paul, it has been maintained through a minority, at least in Israel. You say, well, that's unfair to quote a minority. If the majority of Israel have rejected it, why, how, how can you salvage anything by say there's a minority of Israel that has preserved this role? That minority including people like Martha and Mary and Peter and James and John and Paul and company, you'll see. Uh, nothing to be surprised at, says Paul, not really. Because all down history, you know. Uh, God has not, uh, chosen all Abram's seed for this particular role in history. But God has always chosen between the various seeds, so to speak, of Abram. Abram had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, but he chose Isaac, not Ishmael, though Ishmael was Abram's seed. Jacob had two sons, uh, Isaac had two sons, Jacob and, uh, and Esau. They were both descendants of Abram and descendants of Isaac. God only chose one of them. Physical descent from Abram doesn't of itself secure a part in this great role. If that is so, if God has chosen some of Israel's, of Abraham's seed for this role and not others, on what principle has he proceeded? Paul answers it by, by calling our attention to those cases I have mentioned. You see, the fact that Israel as a whole have defected doesn't make the, uh, word of God come to naught. Verse six: it is not as though the word of God has come to naught. For it never was that all the physical descendants of Abraham were intended by God to carry this special role. God has always been selective. On what principle did God select? Well, verse nine— verse eight: that is, not the children of the flesh are children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed. What do you mean? Do you mean that the bad living ones were rejected and the good living ones were accepted for this role? It is not that. What is it? Well, to be a child of the promise means, well, yes, well, now please tell us what exactly it does mean. Well, verse nine will do that. For this is the word of promise, and the emphasis in Paul's original tongue is on that noun promise. This is a promise. When God said to Abram and Sarah, Sarah, my dear, you're going to have a son. Paul now remarks that that was a promise of God. And God always keeps his promise. And the keeping of God's promise doesn't depend on man's own efforts. To be a child of the flesh is to be a child of man's own effort. To be a child of promise is to be the product of God's intervention. Thus did it happen with the first pair, didn't it? There was some, uh, um, Abraham and Sarah, you see. Sarah was barren. Abraham was, uh, young enough to have a son, you'll see, but problem was Sarah was barren. And God had promised that they were going to have seed and so forth. I don't know what morning it was, one Monday morning, perhaps again, I don't know if it happened on Mondays, could have been Wednesdays, for all I know. And whether it was breakfast, lunch, or tea, I not know. But one day, Sarah started speaking, and she said, Abram, dear. Oh yes, he said. Ha ha. Um, I've been thinking Oh, really. really, have you, Sarah? Now, what have you been thinking about, my dear? She said, well, it's all about this promise thing, do you see? You know what God said, uh, is going to give us a, a son. Ah, yes, that's marvelous, said Abram, isn't it, my dear? It's marvelous. Well, I suppose it is marvelous in a way, said Sarah. But I've been thinking, you see, and um, God has overlooked something. Oh, really? Yeah, uh, he's overlooked the fact I'm barren, Abram, you'll see. Can't have a son. Hm. And what is more, said Sarah, he's acting a little bit contradictiously, God is, because one minute he says you're going to have a son, and the next minute the Lord has shut up my womb so I can't have one, you'll see. Hm. I hadn't thought of that, said Abram. Oh, wh- wh- what do you propose we do, my dear? Well, this is what I've been thinking, you see, when God made that promise thing, uh, we're going to have a son, he didn't mean it that he was going to give us a son just like that. I mean, uh, it was God suggesting that, uh, we do our best. You know, God helps those that help themselves. And, uh, doesn't mean that we just sit around here. Uh, uh, we've got to use our resources, you'll see, and that's, that will be fulfilled, what God says. That's all very fine, said Abram, but we haven't got any resources, my dear Sarah. Have we now? Oh, we have, she said. What? Well, there's Hagar. And there's a lot of people in the world do that kind of thing. The old Babylonians do it, and there's no reason why we shouldn't either, do say. I think we, God means us to use our intelligence and, you know, our initiative. Now you take, uh, Hagar and you beget a child and, and, and God will be pleased with that. That, that will be what he meant when he promised to give us a child for this great work. So that's what Abraham did. And Ishmael was born. And God said, well, he's a nice fellow, nice curly haired chap, but no, I didn't mean him. And thank you, dear Sarah, but when I promised I was going to give you a child, I meant I was going to give you a child, Sarah. And I wasn't, uh, tacitly inviting your efforts. And I have certain sympathy with God at that stage, because I don't know what you would feel if you had been in Abraham's tent when Sarah was making these proposals. God has made the promise for giving this, this child, and we say to ourselves, yes, half a minute, and that child, mm-hmm. All the promises of God and the purposes in history, right down to the bringing in of Messiah, are dependent on this. And what is Sarah saying? Well, God has this good scheme, but he hasn't thought out the details, and and I got a suggestion that I could get God off the hook and make it work. You would hope Sarah was wrong, wouldn't you? I mean, she's a nice enough girl, but you'd hope she was wrong. What all the promises of God and the purposes in history and the nation raised up and to bring in Messiah, and it all depends on Sarah. Oh, my dear love Sarah, that can't be. It isn't so, says God. It isn't indeed. When I said promise, it meant promise, not man's effort. And Ishmael was put aside, nice chap though he was, he was child of the flesh, man's effort. The great role of being a special privileged witness for God in the earth was given by God's sovereign gift, and not man's effort. Has to be, doesn't it? It's the best scheme Sarah could have thought up would have gone wrong anyway. And when it came to the next couple, it had to be on the same terms, didn't it? That was dear old Isaac, and his wife had twins, you'll see. And she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said, two nations, notice that. I was talking about nations, not particularly individuals. Two nations are in your womb. The young- the older shall serve the younger. Esau never served Jacob. The nation that came of him, the Edomites, served the Israelites at certain stages in history. God is talking about nations. On what principle did God choose the Israelites then and not the Edomites? Well, Paul points it out. That the choice was made when the chi- children were not yet born, the children not having done anything good or bad, that the thing might proceed by God's sovereign choice. It had to be that way, didn't it? We're not talking of salvation, we're talking of people being raised up for this tremendous task of being God's unique witness in the world. Will that depend on man's qualification? I suppose God was putting an advert in the Daily Times of the day, wanted applicants to be the unique witness for me in the earth, state qualifications. How could it be so? It had to be made independently of what they did, good or bad, else God would have chosen nobody. Isn't that so? For all have sinned. Choice had to be independent of man's own qualifications. So far then, God's choice of witness to himself. I might add, at our little level, we who hope to be witnesses of the Lord. On what ground were you chosen, my dear sister, to be a witness of the Lord? Your spectacular holiness? That you were better than I am, that you were chosen and I wasn't to be a witness of the Lord? You say it's never thus. His choice is always in spite of our bad, isn't it? Does then the question of salvation not enter into this whole business of witness of God? Yes, it does. And now we begin to talk in terms and think in terms of, of, of salvation and forgiveness. When we come to verses fourteen onwards, and God contrasts Israel experience with that of Pharaoh. For God says 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 says 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 hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he still find fault? Who art thou that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made 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. Let's pause there for a moment. These great remarks that God made to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. When were they made? Well, not when God was calling Israel out of Egypt, not then. But when Israel, given its pa- its privileged role to be a witness for God, and God had proposed that he, they built him a sanctuary, and he came and dwelt among them, and Moses had gone up the mountain to get the detailed plans of this aforesaid sanctuary, then Israel, in Moses' absence, and within a few days, had turned to gross idolatry and built the golden calf. And God was so angered by that direct slap in the divine face that he threatened to destroy the whole lot there and then, and would have done but for Moses' intercession. Relenting to Moses' intercession, God said, Moses, all right, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. It was when Israel had deserved no better than the Egyptians. Is when Israel had, by their sin, sinned more luridly than the Egyptians. That God acted sovereignly to have mercy on some of them and spared them. That is an act of his sovereign decision. Of course it is. It's a question of now God having mercy on people who deserve to die, who can't deserve mercy. If you could deserve mercy, it wouldn't be mercy, would it? Israel is contrasted with Pharaoh. They were of the same lump. They were both lot abominable sinners. Why did God have mercy on some in Israel and not have mercy on Pharaoh, but harden him? That too is in the sovereign choice of God. Whom he will, he hardens. But just wait a moment. When did God harden Moses? When did God harden Pharaoh? We should pay very close attention, attention to that ancient text before we answer that too hastily. God knew that Pharaoh would harden his heart all the way along, and that he himself would eventually harden Pharaoh's heart. Told Moses in advance, but in actual fact it happened this way, that Moses came to Pharaoh one bright morning and, uh, said, Pharaoh, I'm come in the name of God, saying, let my people go, Pharaoh, that they may worship me. You see, the God of our fathers has appeared to us, and he made a promise and a covenant to our fathers, and he was going to give us a land of our inheritance out there, the other side of the desert, Pharaoh. So now I command you, in the name of God, uh, to let the people go. Oh. You don't really believe that stuff, Pharaoh, do you, Moses? I mean, what's this about your, your fathers or something, your granddad? That's old fashioned nowadays, you know. Nobody around here believes that. How do you know it's true, anyway? I'll do a miracle, says Moses. You will? Oh, that would be nice, said Pharaoh. Do a miracle, Moses. I'd like to see a miracle. Well, I will, says Moses, and he threw down his rod, and there it became a serpent. Was that meant to be, said Pharaoh. What miracle, said Moses. Oh, come off it, my man, said he. Moses, dear. That ain't no miracle. My scientists could do the same in the laboratory. I'll call them in if you like, and he rang the bell, and in all the scientists came. He said, look here, this chap, Moses, thinks he's done a miracle. Just show them that we can do things like that. That ain't no miracle. So they threw down their rods, and they became serpents. You'll have to do better than that, said Pharaoh to Moses, if you're going to convince me, give me enough evidence to let the people go. What would you do- have done if you'd have been God? Slaughtered him forthwith for his impertinence? Well, God didn't. You know, Pharaoh, you want some more evidence? My, my evidence wasn't good enough. We'll have some more evidence, Pharaoh, do. So Moses was told to get up in the morning, and he came and he, he used his rod and turned the river to blood. My men can do that as well, said Pharaoh. Oh, really? So they did. And then Moses produced a lot of frogs. My men can do that, said Pharaoh. I see. So the evidence isn't good enough. You'd really like some overwhelming evidence, would you, Pharaoh? And then you would repent and believe, would you? Well, what about this then? And Moses used his rod again, and there came up a lot of lice. And this time, the old Egyptian scientists couldn't do it. And they said to Pharaoh, we have to tell your majesty that we can't do it. This is the finger of God, your majesty. And Pharaoh repented and said, well, now you've given me the evidence, that's okay. Did he? Now, having got the evidence he asked for, they wouldn't have he. Like a good many more today, they'll tell you they'll become Christians if you can solve their difficulties, and when you've answered their questions, they don't want to become Christians anyway. What would you have done then? You say, destroyed him completely. Well, God didn't. He had another two pieces of evidence getting increasingly uncomfortable. When Pharaoh, in spite of it, still refused to repent, then it was, according to the text, that God hardened him. Hardened him in the stance that he himself had taken. That's what it means. Pharaoh refusing to repent, God hardens him in that stance. And he finds he can't repent. God himself has said, have it your way. Who decides how long a sinner gets? gets, before he crosses the point from which there's no return. That remains as ever. In the sovereign choice of God, how could it be anything else? But the potter has right over the clay to make vessel to honor and a vessel to dishonor. So it is here said. What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much suffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy which he afore prepared unto glory, even us whom he also called, not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles. At the same lot of clay, in other words, from the mass of sinful humanity, deserving God's wrath, their only hope of salvation, God's mercy. Out of that same clay, God makes some vessels of mercy, some vessels of wrath. What does that mean? What is a vessel of mercy, should you meet one? A vessel of mercy is not just somebody to whom God has shown mercy. A vessel of mercy is someone whom God makes and chooses to be an advertisement for the mercy of God. Let me read you the p- testimony of the very man who wrote this letter to the, uh, Romans. I thank God, says he that enabled me, even Jesus, him that enabled me, even Jesus Christ our Lord, for that he counted me faithful, appointing me to his service, though I was before a blasphemer and worse. How be it I obtained mercy because I did it in ignorance and unbelief. And the grace of our Lord abounded exceedingly with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. Faithful is the saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the chief. How be it for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me as chief might Jesus Christ show forth all his long suffering, for an example of them which should hereafter believe on him unto eternal life. Do you, do you grasp what Paul is saying? First he says, I obtained mercy. Why? Because what I did, even persecuting Jesus Christ, I did it in genuine ignorance. I had not yet been illuminated by God's Holy Spirit. Therefore, God had mercy. Secondly, he had mercy on me, that he might use me as an advertisement of his mercy to everybody else. The argument was simple. Here am I, the very chief of sinners, blasphemer, persecutor, torturer, and I don't know what. And God has had mercy on me. Well, if he's had mercy on me, he'd have mercy on anybody, would he not? That's why God chose the chief of sinners to have mercy on him as an example of what God is prepared to do for others. How do you become a vessel of mercy? I did it ignorantly. I had not been illuminated by God's spirit. I was not, in that sense, sinning against the light. And when God illumined me, then I received and accepted his mercy through faith in Jesus Christ, and accepted it on the ground solely of mercy, not of my merit. I become an advertisement to the world of God's mercy. Well, why didn't Pharaoh become a vessel of mercy? Why did he become a vessel of wrath? We've just seen the answer. He wouldn't have the mercy, would he? And when he wouldn't have the mercy and persisted in his deliberate rejection of God and his evidence many times given, God did the only thing he could do. He called down his judgment on Pharaoh, but not just that. In his very judgment of on Pharaoh, he made Fa- Pharaoh a mess- a vessel of wrath. What does it mean to be a vessel of wrath? It means not only to suffer wrath yourself, it means to be made an object lesson and an advertisement for the whole world. This is what happened. When men and women, in spite of God's mercy, harden their heart against him and pass beyond the point of possible repentance. And why God does God do it? Well, he does it that other people, being warned, might repent while there's yet time. Pharaoh became a vessel of wrath, and as a result, dear old Rahab got converted, didn't she? When the spies came to Rahab's house, she said, we know you're the, your God's the true God. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. How did you come to that opinion? Well, we heard what God did to Pharaoh in Egypt, you see. Ah, yeah. Isn't God magnificent? He'll use his very wrath on hardened sinners that refuse his mercy to warn other folks and bring other folks to repentance and salvation. Oh, you can't be God, you know. I'll use his very wrath to achieve that other people get saved. Why was it then the majority in Israel became vessels of wrath and not vessels of mercy? Because God didn't choose them? No, sir, no, madam, it isn't thus. The one thing you have to do if you're going to be in a vessel of mercy is to accept mercy. Yes? And that is precisely what Israel would not do. They wouldn't have mercy. Paul explains it as he comes to the end of chapter nine. going about to establish their own righteousness. They would not humble themselves as bankrupt sinners and receive salvation as bankrupt sinners through Christ and his cross and sacrifice, would insist on trying to earn their salvation through the keeping of God's law. All right, set out to keep God's law. Make yourself a tremendous exhibition of what can be done if you really put your back into it and are serious in your intention. Well, what will you be then? Well, you won't be a vessel of mercy, obviously. You'll be a vessel of, um, your good achievement, won't you? And what will that show the world? Well, you'll drive the likes of me to despair to start with. So I haven't got a chance of being as good as you. Oh, thank God for people like Paul, who were prepared to say goodbye to all their supposed religious attainment, and accept mercy, and show the world what God was prepared to do for bankrupt sinners. And there, in a nutshell, is a sorry story. Why couldn't Israel be made vessels of mercy in Paul's time? They wouldn't have the mercy. Whose fault was that? When we come to chapter ten, its burden is this. Israel are not saved. Paul breaks his heart for it. But if you ask him why they are not saved, the answer will come back. It is their fault that they are not saved. Zealous religiously, they would not submit to God's way of making a man righteous. Whose fault was that? Their fault. You say, well, it wasn't because I mean this believing business is so difficult, isn't it? If salvation is by faith, well, then the business of believing is very difficult. It isn't difficult, says Paul. The word is nigh you in your mouth, in your very heart. You've only got to close on it, believe it, and confess the Lord Jesus, and you'll be saved. It isn't difficult. Oh, well, I'm different from other people. No, you're not different from anybody else. There is no difference. No difference in this that you have sinned, be you Jew or Greek. No difference in this that the Lord is rich to all that call upon him, be they Jew or Greek. What do you have to do then to be saved? What has to be, what conditions have to be fulfilled? Well, you have to call on the name of the Lord. That's all you have to do. Whosoever calleth on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Ah, but wait a minute. How shall they call on him... in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? If anyone's going to be saved, those things will have to be fulfilled, won't they? If you're going to call on the Lord to be saved, how will you call on him in whom you haven't believed? Well, what- what's got to happen if you're going to believe? Well, you can't believe unless you have heard Christ, not just heard about him, not just heard somebody preach about him. You won't believe in the biblical sense unless you hear Christ himself talking to your heart through his word. Hearing in that profound sense that provokes the faith. Well, if people have got to hear like that, how shall they hear without a preacher? Would you say a lot of volunteers going around to do the preaching? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that's preaching and preaching. And you're going to do the kind of preaching in which, as you preach, God himself, the risen Lord Jesus himself, speaks to people, and they hear and know it is the voice of Christ. You're going to preach like that. You'll have to be sent by God. I hope. Is it that God hasn't done any of these things, and so somewhere along the line, the conditions haven't been fulfilled, and Israel didn't have a chance to be saved then. Is it, for instance, that Israel have not heard in that profound sense? They may have heard bits and pieces about the gospel, but in that profound sense, they've never heard. No, says Paul, it is not that. Notice that. And there are who say that the unregenerate, because they are unregenerate, are as deaf as a doorpost and can't hear anything. Unless God opens their ears, they'll never hear, so they'll never be saved. And are inclined to say, therefore, the Israelites who weren't saved were failed to be saved. Why? Because God didn't open their ears and they never did hear. They're not true. We're talking about those that have rejected Christ. Did they hear? Yes, says Paul, of course they have heard. Is it that hearing they didn't know and could claim ignorance? That isn't true either. They did know. Their prophets are witness to it. And what is more, they'll never say they didn't know. Paul says, God through his servant, all day long I stretched out my hand unto a disobedient and gain-saying people. The picture is of a parent stooping to a little child, stretching out the hand, bidding the child take its fumbling first step to come and fall into the arms of its parent, and God has stretched out his hands as far as God can stretch them. And when mankind crucified his son, tell me, how much did God stretch to reach sinners? Oh, it would only take that they would fall into the hands of God, and he would save them. They stood back, and they argued, and they disobeyed, and they weren't saved. And whose fault? Their fault, obviously. What does that mean then, finally? They have, uh, fallen. Does that mean then that God has finally and forever cast away the people that he chose in Old Testament time? Is that what it is? No, says Paul, equally certainly, that is not what it means. God has not cast away the people he foreknew. And how can you say that, Paul? How do you know that? I'm one of them, he says. I am an Israelite. Didn't cast them all away, has he? I tell you a few others as well, if you give me the time. There's Martha down the street there, and Mary. I could take you to the house she lives in, and there's Peter, and there's John, and Matthew, and old Thaddius and company. Uh, yes, there is still a remnant at this time. Well, what about that thing? Why do you suppose God leaves a remnant? The very fact he leaves a remnant, you know, is indication of his intention one day to save the lot. If he were decided to to destroy the nation forthwith and completely, he wouldn't have left any remnant. The very fact there is a remnant and some Israelites who believe in the Lord Jesus is God's way of indicating that one day all Israel shall be saved. But how will God do it? Yeah, we touch great mysteries, do we not? Unless Paul pondered it, he had himself experienced in many a synagogue, in many a town, a very interesting, though very painful thing. The Gentiles would come to the synagogue, scores of them, some of the leading citizens of the town, and notably the women. And when Paul came and opened the Old Testament prophets and preached them, multitudes of these people came to see that Jesus is the Messiah, and they believed in the Jewish Messiah. And you'd have thought the Jews would have been glad. No, they weren't. When they saw Paul making Christian converts, they were exceedingly jealous and hunted Paul from pillar to post. That was painful for Paul. He saw a ray of hope in that, that jealousy rising in the hearts of his fellow Jews, that Gentiles were getting converted. Oh, says Paul to God, carry on, God. Stoke the old jealousy a bit more, God. Why? Because in the end, God will use it to provoke them to jealousy.