God’s Foreknowledge (Part A)

God wants those who want out of living without Him. God wants those who no longer want to go through this life without Him. God wants those who want to share His eternity under His authority as God. God is God, not applying for the job. Well, you know, maybe I can get it, maybe I can be your God.

No, God is every bit that omnipotent being, and He wants those who will trust Him for salvation, for life, for all eternity. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Book of Romans.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the Book of Romans, chapter 9, with today's edition of Cross Reference Radio. Romans 9, beginning at verse 6. God's foreknowledge, that's the title of this message, and the exposition that we hope to unfold will bring that out for us. Now, if you're not aware of what's going on here in this ninth chapter, the first eight chapters, Paul has been teaching about our salvation and anticipating the question, well, what about the Jews who aren't coming to Christ as Messiah?

What about them? And so he takes chapters, what we call chapters 9, 10, and 11, and he begins to deal with this. One of the big things is, well, is God's word failing because they had the scriptures and they can't see that He's the Messiah?

And He says, certainly not, and that's where we're going with this. So how could the Gentile, the Gentile outcasts receive God while the people who gave them the Bible become the outcasts as a people? And again, Romans 9, Paul lays out God's past dealings with the Jews.

When he gets to chapter 10, it will be the present dealing with the Jews, and in 11, he sums up the end times, prophecies, and plan of God for the Jewish people, for Israel. And what he is also doing, by taking them back to their past, is showing them the principles of God that they are according to perfect knowledge. That all the things God did with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and what He did not do with Ishmael and Esau, is according to perfect knowledge.

Not by an accident. When the church was born on the day of Pentecost, Peter got up and he said, Well, I quoted that verse from Peter because he mentions the foreknowledge of God. God's far-seeing eye, which we can never lose sight of.

He can't be sovereign without that, but he is sovereign, and he does have that. The failure of the Jews to see their Messiah does not mean God's promises failed. It does not mean the Bible could not be trusted. We face similar questions about, well, what about those people? What about these people? Well, God has it under control.

It's the bottom line, but oftentimes there are many clear and easy, relatively easy answers to those questions. God is just, and His scripture is trustworthy. And He never said that He was finished with the Jewish people, and now He's moving on to the Gentiles. What He has said is He is moving on to the Gentiles, but He's not finished with the Jews either. There are those taught by Satan who believe God is done with Israel, and I say it because the scripture is just so clear on this. God is done with the Jews, but He sure has a bargain with us Gentiles.

Well, that's not true. We are just as problematic as the Jewish people. So we look now, and if you go to church long enough, you're going to really find that out, won't you? Romans 9, verse 6, But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect, for they are not all Israel who are Israel. Not that the word of God has taken no effect. They are not all Christians who say they are Christians. That's putting it in New Testament terms.

This was a big problem in Paul's day. He's referring to the promises of God made by the patriarchs to Israel, and he says don't blame the scripture. If they're not coming to Christ, and these Gentiles are, and many of the Jews too, the ones that aren't coming, don't blame the scripture.

Ethnic Israelites failed by responding negatively to the invitations in God's word and to the fulfilled promises in the Messiah, Christ. Abraham, in a parable of Jesus, said they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. The scripture's sufficient.

Well, we say today people have Bibles, let them read and believe. In John's Gospel, we read about Philip, his excitement over finding this Messiah of the Jews. And he went and told his friend, Nathanael, we have found him. Nathanael wasn't so quick to believe. He did become a believer, but it's worth reading.

John's Gospel, chapter 1, verse 45, Philip found Nathanael and said to him, we have found him, of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Well, if he could read his Bible and come to that conclusion based on the evidence, then what's everybody else's problem? So do not criticize scripture for failure to be heeded, which is a common practice. God's word is without blame, but not without power. The truth is there, and the consequences and the blessings, they're not going to change. They are static.

They become fluid based on the individual's response. Which one will it be? He says here in verse 9, for they are not all Israel who are of Israel. Well, being Jewish and being faithful are not synonymous. Being a Christian and being genuine, not synonymous.

It should be, would be nice. Otherwise, if being Jewish was synonymous with being saved, there'd be no apostates. They'd all be saved, and none of them would fall away from the faith. Unbelief would have been wiped out in Israel, but it was not wiped out. And as with Paul is going, he's going to use the Bible to prove his point.

He's going to speak to them in a language that they would understand, but would they be honest enough to act on that understanding? God in his sovereignty has decided to let people choose between true and false. He has decreed this will be the battleground. He is sovereign. 1 Timothy chapter 6, he who is the blessed and only potent king of kings, the Lord of lords. And so now looking at verse 7, and all of these are sort of, they're connected, but the verses just of course detail a little bit more for us and maybe answer questions that might be roaming around in our heads. Verse 7, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham, but in Isaac your seed shall be called. Well, once more, being Abraham's descendant has never been sufficient for salvation. Paul already wrote that in chapter 2 in verse 28.

He comes back to it. Ethnic Jews were notorious in those days and in the days of Christ for citing their Abrahamic pedigree as grounds for salvation. John the Baptist said, don't do that.

Jesus came along, don't do that. Matthew 3, 9 and John chapter 8 verse 39, if you want to look it up after service. The just shall live by faith, not ancestry.

Very important, especially to you youth. I'll come back to that point. He continues here in verse 7, but in Isaac your seed shall be called. Well, God set the criterion along with the circumstances. Both Abraham and Isaac tried to alter this. Both of these great men of God, Abraham and Isaac, tried to get God to change his approach. To use their standard, their criteria, Abraham pleaded with God for Ishmael. Isaac did his best to pass on the patriarchal blessings to Esau.

They both failed. Both the rejected men, Ishmael and Esau, have been born into the family of Abraham, but were still outside of the blessings. And that's the point Paul's trying to make. We have this history of ours, it means something. They're not just words, they're not fairy tales. They have a consequence built into the point that they make.

We say the same thing, but the gospel. Both rejected men, born into that family, in each case, the parent wished to see the rejected one inherit the promise. Well, the parents aren't sovereign. Parents are not in the role of God. And of course Abraham and Isaac pushed it no further. The righteous of Israel are not determined by natural descent, but by faith, points that have to constantly be made. It was so difficult in the days of Christ and Paul, and it is still alive here in some form.

There are those who can prove them wrong all day, but their responses don't confuse me with facts. My mind is made up, not a good place to be. Refusing to trust Christ excludes you from the promises, which is, again, the point that he's making throughout this ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapter. Salvation is neither automatic or inherited. Ishmael and Esau, both again, descendants of Abraham, circumcised in the house under the covenant with God, yet both remained outside that covenant. Being born into a Christian home is not enough.

You have to believe. That's the point for the New Testament. That's the point for our teens.

You're born in a Christian home? What are you going to do with that? A lot of them abuse that.

Dismiss it. You better understand, Satan hates your guts and everybody around you. Every human being you've ever laid eyes on, Satan hates. Even if he uses them, he hates their guts and wants them in hell. You better understand that.

Know what your response is supposed to be. And whenever you can't answer the questions, understand God has the answers, and he will do right. By faith, we know that to be true.

John's Gospel, chapter one, we know it, but let's hear it in the context of what Paul is teaching. He came to his own and his own did not receive him, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. And so there, that Jewish apostle saying a pedigree doesn't mean anything without faith. Faith, not the flesh, which Abraham and Isaac were trying to inject into God's plan when they were lobbying for their beloved Ishmael and beloved Esau.

Well, you could understand it from a natural perspective. Abraham loved Ishmael, that was his first boy. And with Isaac, Esau was also the first of the twins, his first son, but Isaac had more carnal reasons to love Esau.

Esau could really fix up some nice food, and so it was carnal. Anyway, back to, well, you know, Jacob was perceived as a mommy's boy, but he was a tough guy, so I don't know, you can't push that but so far. Verse 8, that is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. You know, sometimes you can read Paul's writings and you say, Paul, I think you could have worded that a little bit more clearly. You seem to, you know, you start with a sentence, then you switch up on us, and this can be a little tricky sometime if you go too quickly, or don't understand what's happening, and that's why it's so important to understand what's happening, Romans 1 through 8, and then why the shift, 9, 10, 11, and then why does he go back?

And this is very helpful to give us this understanding so that we can do something with it when it's our turn to draw from these scriptures. I mean, why do I need Jesus? Well, because you're born in a natural state, and that natural state is contrary to God. It has natural appetites, not spiritual appetites, not the spiritual appetites God is looking for, and the only way to fix that is to let God do it. You can't in Christ, and when you bristle up against that, you're just demonstrating how natural you are and just why the natural are rejected. It's called the flesh, that sort of thinking, that sort of behavior, that natural state gives into the physical things that we are made of, which are, again, unacceptable to God because it resists Him.

War is against His interests. The carnal man is the natural man. Well, a Christian can behave like a natural man. That's a carnal Christian. That would be when we begin the church at Corinth, that first letter to the Corinthians, Paul said, Are you not carnal? Are you not behaving as natural men?

What is your problem? I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian, and you behave like this? I'm a Peter, I'm a Paul.

Did they die for you? Well, it's a magnificent section of dealing with a clumsy church that got its act together, by the way. That second Corinthian letter, I enjoy that letter more than the first one, but the first one is critical. Anyway, why does God want me? Why does He want my neighbor especially, right? God wants those who want out of living without Him. God wants those who no longer want to go through this life without Him. God wants those who want to share His eternity under His authority as God. God is God, not applying for the job. Well, you know, maybe I can get it, maybe I can be your God.

No. God is every bit that omnipotent being, and He wants those who will trust Him for salvation, for life, for all eternity. He wants those that will trust their hearts to Him on this level and no one else. I mean, we all have to trust. We trust that the opposite lane driver coming from the opposite direction is going to stay in that lane.

There's trust in everything, but this is the highest level. So He says in verse 8, these are not the children of God. Well, that had to be a punch in the nose to the Jews that were still struggling with all this or angry. Well, Paul, why don't you soften your message? Why don't you stop telling the truth and tell people what they want to hear?

Leave out the hard stuff. Well, whose voice would that be in Paul's ear? It wouldn't be the God of truth now, would it? But it could be the God of this age, this perverse and wicked generation.

It is. These are not the children of God. Those of the flesh are not spiritually recognized by God as family, and that's why Isaac is the seed, even though Ishmael was first born. Big lesson in that, especially in a culture that valued this system of the elder being first so much. So they have Bibles, but they're out of touch with God.

So we know that's possible. Paul was once out of touch with God. He knew his Old Testament Bible, and yet that's the man God used to write much of the New Testament. He forfeited his peace with God, but he did reach a point in his life where all that changed, even though his was an extraordinary situation, as was Jonah's. But when you think about it, all conversions are extraordinary.

None of them are dull. None of them were all, I knew that was going to happen. I know of someone that felt I was irretrievable, would never be saved, even though I was raised in a home that loved the Lord.

Then God used me to save that person. Yeah. I'm rejoicing. I'm not boasting. Let's make that clear. I don't want fire to come down and get me. In front of everybody, no less. Anyway, having the New Testament, we get it. We get this. But what if you were in the first century with Paul and Jesus, and there was no New Testament?

You're in that transition stage. Well, what you had were witnesses who saw Christ crucified, saw the empty tomb, who had a man like Paul who also saw the risen Christ, and reasoned with people from their own Bibles in such a way there's nothing they could say. They made a habit of killing those who knew their Bible.

Which of the prophets did you not stone? Stephen asked them before they stoned him. So having the New Testament, we can get this faster than they who were living it may have gotten it. They were under the pressure of these things. When they stepped out of the church, they could be persecuted. The Christians, yes, them too, but the Jewish people especially by their own people. And so he says, but the children of the promise are counted as seed, made so by faith.

And we're going to bring that one out. Isaac still had to believe. It wasn't that, well, you know, I chose Isaac, you know, because he's just, you know, you have, he can, I just like him. No, because he had faith. You know, he prayed hard for Rebekah to have a child.

There's just one place it shows up. So verse seven, the son of promise, verses, verse eight, the son of human effort. That was Ishmael.

What does the Bible say? What did God say about Ishmael prophetically? He will be a wild man. His hand will be against every man and every man's hand against him. You don't want that guy for a neighbor. And yet we have him.

The descendants of Ishmael are here genetically and behaviorally. There are some people that their hand is against every man and every man's hand is against, you can't live with them. So you move, you move, you try to get away from them. It shouldn't be this way. But we find it happening. And I'm not endorsing one or the other.

I'm just saying these are the realities that we are faced with. Genesis 22, verse two. God says to Abraham, take now your son, your only son.

Well, wait a minute. Ishmael's probably, you know, he's a grown man by this point. He was a teenager when Isaac was born. What do you mean your only son?

He's still alive. Well, this is the one God recognizes in the context of faith, of the promises, of the continuation of revealed things. Ishmael wasn't going to go around quoting Scripture in the sense that, because you can't really say Isaac was too, Scripture wasn't really formed yet either for them. But Isaac would tell you about Yahweh, the God of Abraham.

Ishmael would be busy with other things. Take now your son, your only son whom you love and go to the land of Moriah. And we know the rest of the story. And if you don't, you're being ripped off, you're being cheated by Satan and yourself. You need to get the story and find out what it means and how it applies not only to those around you, but to yourself.

It is one of the most fantastic stories, true stories ever recorded in human history. One must be chosen by God, as will be pointed out in Romans 9, verse 33. As it is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. Now that's Paul quoting the prophet, the great prophet Isaiah. The one must be chosen by God, but they must also choose to believe God by faith.

He who chooses, chooses by that criterion. Verse 9, now we're going to take verses 9 through 11. For this is the word of promise, at this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but when Rebekah also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac, verse 11 now. For the children not being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand.

Not of works, but of him who calls. Well, you know, church doctrine can make all this go upside down for you, so I think it's better to just try to read it for what it means in the context and in the light of all the scripture that we have. In verse 10, where he mentions Sarah, which is the wife of Abraham who gave birth to Isaac, that's the bloodline from Abraham to Jacob. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, heirs of the offered promises that all the Jews were so self-satisfied with. What could they really boast coming from Jacob? Jacob had a lot of problems. You know, what could they boast about King David? Well, there's a lot to boast about David, but there are also some heavy asterisks attached to his name, which takes out the boasting of being perfect amongst the peoples.

They are not. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross-Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.

We're currently going through the book of Romans. If you're in need of hearing this message again or want to listen to others like it, head over to crossreferenceradio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast, too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. On our website, you'll be able to learn a little more about the ministry of Cross-Reference Radio, so make a note of it, crossreferenceradio.com. That's all we have time for today, but thanks so much for listening. Pastor Rick will be back next time in the book of Romans here on Cross-Reference Radio.