If you don't truly know what the word predestination means or why it's so controversial, Don't be embarrassed. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindahl will break it down for us with refreshing honesty and biblical clarity. He tackles this challenging doctrine head-on. addressing tough questions that keep people up at night. Questions like, does God really choose some and reject others?
Are we just puppets in his plan? In this message, Chuck helps us navigate Romans chapter 9. To give us a meaningful grasp of this profound truth that has shaped Christian theology for centuries. When we worship together, our time is not. completed.
until we have heard from him. We speak to him in prayers and in song. We hear from him. Through his word. And that section we're looking at is out of Romans chapter 9.
Romans nine, which addresses a very deep subject that will call for our most concentrated attention. All sorts of heresy has arisen from this truth. as individuals have taken it and abused it or misused it. We don't want to do either one. Let's pay attention to a few verses from the reading of the scriptures in Romans 9.
What we're calling straight talk. about predestination. I'm telling the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience.
testifies with me in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow, and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated. from Christ. for the sake of my brethren. my kinsman according to the flesh.
who are Israelites. Verse 14. What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be.
For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy. I will have compassion. on whom I have compassion. And then the key verse of the chapter.
So then it does not depend on the man or the woman who wills or the one who runs. but on God. Who has mercy. Verse twenty. On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God?
The thing molded will not say to the molder, Why did you make me like this, Willie? Or Does not the potter have a right over the clay to make from the same lump One vessel for honorable use and another For common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience. Vessels of wrath. prepared for destruction.
And he did so to make known the riches of his glory. upon vessels of mercy. which he prepared beforehand. For glory. You're listening to Insight for Living.
To dig deeper into the book of Romans on your own, be sure to purchase our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbook by going to insight.org/slash offer. Chuck titled today's message, Straight Talk About Predestination. It was the late, great A.W. Tozer who referred to worship as the missing jewel. The missing jewel of the church today.
And it has been for decades. is worship. True worship, deep worship, meaningful worship, God-centered worship. Man eclipsing worship. Worship that focuses and requires our best attention.
on things eternal. Tozer has died, but his words live on, thankfully. In one of his finest, The Knowledge of the Holy, he writes this. The church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one solo, so ignoble. As to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping men.
This she has done not deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge. And her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic. He continues, with our loss of the sense of the sense of of majesty. has come the further loss of religious awe. And consciousness of the divine presence, we have lost.
Our spirit of worship. And our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring. Silence. A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology, but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple.
Where it is inadequate or out of plumb, the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying. Christian ethics that Cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts of. God. I commend to you.
Thoughts. of God. I suggest that's the way you spend some of your spare quiet time. Thinking about your father. Not earthly Father, but your heavenly Father.
Most of us know Christ as Savior, we who worship in this place, but. We are woefully inadequate in our understanding of the Father. We study with fascinating interest the work of the Holy Spirit. We can even describe it in objective terms, but The father. The father.
Where is he in all of this? What about his plan? What about his attributes? What about his work? Among us.
As a member of the Godhead, it was He who has planned it all. I find it amazing that we who live in such an entertainment era. Have substituted cheap and shallow, superficial entertainment for the worship. of our great Great God.
So, when we come to chapter 9 of Romans, chapter 10 of Romans, chapter 11 of Romans, we come to a rare place. Many a preacher would get to the end of chapter 8 if he gets that far. And would jump quickly to chapter 12, keeping everything on the practical side. fearing he'll lose his audience, quote unquote. if he doesn't dumb down religion.
What a heresy. We come today to the ninth of Romans in awe of its truths. and we come with good company as we talk about predestination. I'll explain it in a moment, but let me tell you the good company in which we traffic. In the 14th century, there was John Wycliffe who embraced it.
Sometime thereafter, there was William Tyndall, another British. Of mind and heart. Then came the hymn writer Isaac Watts and his Anglican contemporary John Newton. Revivalist George Whitfield with his Influence over Oxford and later over those unsaved groups to whom he spoke. along with Jonathan Edwards of what was then called Yale College.
in colonial New England. Missionaries William Carey of India and William Burns of China. Scottish ministers Samuel Rutherford and Alexander White. Embrace this doctrine. And the same, of course, as Martin Luther and Philip.
Melanchthon in Germany, Ulrich Zwingli, Of Zurich, Switzerland, and John Calvin, of Geneva, Jon Hus of Prague in what was then called Czechoslovakia. John Knox of Scotland, Girolamo Savonarola of Italy. The Welsh preacher Thomas Owen, and then came the theologians William Shedd and Charles Hodge and A. H. Strong, and B.
B. Warfield and Gracium Machin of Princeton in its heyday. Then Lewis Ferry Chafer, founder of Dallas Seminary, and John F. Walvard, his disciple and the president for some 34 years. Abraham Kuyper of the Netherlands, and well-known names like John Bunyan, Charles Spurgeon, Donald Barnhouse, A.
W. Pink. R. C. Sproll, John Piper, J.I.
Packer, S. Lewis Johnson. And of course. John Stott. You're in good company.
It may be rare to hear truths like you will hear today, but it's certainly. is not neutral. The simple fact is, our God is in the heavens and He does whatever He pleases. Psalm 115.3. And the fact is, Christianity is all about Him.
Not a about us. What a great relief to know that the truths of the scriptures and the great theological doctrines of the faith. do not revolve around us, though they do impact. And Embrace us. in our lives.
Now, I've given you an outline to follow. I filled mine in, and hopefully, by the time I'm through, you will have completed yours as well. In it, I talk about the context of Romans 9. Which falls within the letter itself. The whole theme of the letter, understand, is the righteousness of God, and with it, the unrighteousness of humanity.
Oh, it has not always been that way. When God made Adam and Eve coming from his creative hands were two perfect creatures. The man, his wife, They loved one another and they loved their God and they walked with him in the cool of the day. I like the way Genesis reads over there in that wonderful early section. But then came the enemy who tempted them, and Eve fell, and Adam fell.
And Romans 5:12 tells the woeful tale. Through one man, that's Adam, sin entered into the world, and death through sin, so that death passed upon all. humanity for all. have sinned. Adam acted as our federal head, tells us by the theologians, those words, the federal head.
Of humanity, Adam acted on our behalf, and just as he fell into sin, so we are born into it. The pollution that has ruined the stream of life. came originally from Adam and Eve. And that same separation from God, which is called death. in Romans 5, verse 12.
is the same today. We are born not right with God, but wrong with God. We are born not interested in God, but disinterested in God. We are born running from God, and were it not for His irresistible grace, we would never be drawn to God. God.
He works to draw us to himself. We of all people. We Sinners by choice and birth. and nature. Are by God's grace chosen.
By him who loves us. And Christ who gave himself for us. And the Spirit who illumines us. with hope and truth to live by. It's the righteousness of God.
No. When you get into Romans 9, you realize that Paul is suddenly burdened over what he has just written. All the way through chapter 8 and up to it, he has covered conversion, and then he has covered the Christian life. Was Alan Redpath who says the conversion of a soul is the miracle of a moment, but the making of a saint is the task of a lifetime? Romans talks about both: conversion, that's salvation by grace through faith apart from works.
And then this wonderful Christian life that we live out, and in the process, we become more like Christ, that's all explained in Romans 1 through 8. Suddenly, Paul realizes that his kinsmen, the Jews, are on the outside looking in, not on the inside, declaring the message of hope. And he's a burden for the Jews, being one of them.
So, beginning with chapter 9, and then the beginning of chapter 10, and then the beginning of chapter 11, it's about the Jew. Look for yourself. Verse 3 of chapter 9. I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh, who are Israelites. He remembers his Pharisaic friends, his brothers from years past, and he realizes most of them are still lost and they will die lost.
Not because they're not Jews, but because they're not converted Jews. They're Jews by blood, but they're not Jews by new birth. And he'll get into that. Chapter 10 begins with another concern, Brethren. My heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.
He lived to present the gospel to the Jew first and then to the Gentile. Chapter 11 begins with a similar passion. I say then, God has not rejected his people, has he? May it never be. May it never be.
So he's concerned about the Jews, and what can he say to help them understand? Why are they lost, even though they have Jewish blood coursing through their veins and arteries? How could a Jew be lost? Many Jews will ask you, how could you tell me I'm a lost person? I go back to Abraham.
Paul's answering here, you must go back to Christ. And without him, you're simply a Jew by birth. Not a true Israelite. in the family of God. Knowing that all of that is true, He moves into some of the benefits that were the Jews to enjoy, verse 4.
They are the ones who belong to whom belongs the adoption. as sons. They are the ones with the glory, the ones with the covenants, verse 4 continues, the giving of the law. I mean, if it weren't for the Jews, the law would not have been written, nor would the law have been preserved. How faithful of God to work through the Jew to preserve the scriptures for us.
And the temple services were all handled by Jewish priests. And the promises to and through the Jews, these are our fathers, another benefit. We look back on great lives, and almost without exception, they are Jews. They are Jews, they are believing Jews. These Jewish This lineage goes all the way back to Abraham.
And from whom is the Christ? It was through a Jewish mother and and uh in the marvelous plan of God through the Virgin birth of the Savior came a Jewish baby. Given to the Jewish people and ultimately to the world.
Now, when you see that and you realize such benefits, you say, Well, how in the world could we not think that the Jews would be part of the plan? Understand, you're part of the plan by a decision you make in life, not by birth lineage. not by the traditions of your fathers. Every individual who lives and breathes on the planet must, on her own or his own, come to know Christ individually. But Paul goes back even above and beyond that.
He goes back to the work of God the Father. As he shapes the thinking of those on this earth. And carries out a plan that is sovereignly designed. For our good. And for his glory.
Now I find in Romans chapter 9, beginning at verse 6, down to the end, four great truths regarding predestination. Let me give them to you one at a time as we work our way through. And I'll do my best to keep it interesting. If I get boring, leave. Nobody ought to sit through a service board.
So you have my permission without, you know, just preferably not shaking your head and screaming, but just quietly walk out. That'll be fine. Let me give you four truths on predestination that I think you will find them making sense. Number one. Predestination begins with the sovereign choice of God.
It all begins with the sovereign choice of God. That will take us from verses 6 through 13. It is not as though the Word of God has failed. For the Jews not to be in the family doesn't mean the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel.
You see the reason now. Just because you're born of Abraham's stock doesn't mean you're in the faithful family of the Israelites. That takes faith in the Messiah. Nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants. Just because a person can say, I have Abraham as my ultimate father, being Jewish, it doesn't mean you're in the family of God.
God's choice is involved here. Look closely now. Through Isaac, your descendants will be named.
Now, understand. Abraham had two sons, not one. One was through Hagar, named Ishmael, and one was through Sarah named Isaac. God sovereignly chose that the plan of salvation would work through Isaac. the younger of the two boys.
And verse 8 tells us, that is, it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise who are regarded as descendants. And he used Isaac and Ishmael as examples. This is the word of promise. At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son. Not only this, there's another example.
There was a woman who lived named Rebekah and she had twins conceived in her womb named Jacob and Esau. The older was Esau, the younger is Jacob. But look at God's choosing. Not only this, but there was Rebekah also, who and she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac. For though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, Remember, they aren't even born yet.
So that God's purpose, according to His choice, would stand. Not because of works. But because of him who calls. You can't have good works if you're not even born. Maybe you aren't kicking on your mother as much as your brother did, but the point is, there's no works of good or bad.
You're in the womb, and in the womb, God made the decision: I'll choose Jacob. Neither one of them is worth a two. When you study their lives, they're both sorry individuals. Both had real problems. Why?
Because they're like us. We're like them. We're all sinners, just rotten, slimy sinners. Verse 12. It was said to her, the older will serve the younger.
The mother hears this, and she must have been confused. Because in those days the older was in charge of the younger. He got the double portion when the blessing was given in Jewish homes. As it is written, Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated.
Now that'll keep you awake all night if you just sit there and stare at that and understand.
Some of this is going to be offensive. I've said to friends before: when you preach on predestination, you run two risks. First, that you might be misunderstood and people are offended. And second, when you are fully understood, you are offending. And so, either way, you're going to offend the people, especially those who are full of pride.
And you want to take some of the credit for your salvation. You want to walk around with your thumbs under your suspenders saying, Whoa, God, you're lucky to have me, babe. That's not the way it works. That's not how it's put together. God isn't lucky.
There isn't any such thing. And you're no great shakes, and neither am I. And so, if we're going to be selected as Jacob was and as Isaac was, it's going to be by the sovereign favor and mercy of God, nothing because of what some good thing we have done or promised to do. Predestination begins with the sovereign choice of God. Here's the second fact.
We're going to see this now in verses 14 to 18. Predestination upholds the perfect character. Yeah. It upholds the perfect character of God. Before we dig any further into 14 to 18, let's understand something of our fathers.
attributes. I said, make a study of your Heavenly Father. Here are some good places to start. God is omnipotent, meaning all-powerful. God is eternal.
He never had a beginning. He will never have an ending. God is omniscient. There is nothing He ever learns or discovers. He knows all, has known all, since before there was time and when there is no longer earth.
He knows all. God is good. God is omnipresent. Able to be everywhere at one time and no more at one place than at any other. God is love and wrath and mercy and justice.
God is grace and sovereign and wise and infinite and holy and faithful and self-sufficient and immutable, just to name a few. It seemed as though one who has that Resume would be qualified to make the right choices. And it seemed as though being sovereign, that would be his to choose without one word from lumps of clay like you or me. But we don't like that kind of preaching. as we don't like to think of ourselves as lumps of clay.
Really, that's a compliment. We start just being dirt, and then clay happens when you add water. This is all about The perfect character of God. Look at 14. Here we go.
What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be. I mean, he can't be unjust. He's just.
And now he illustrates it through two other people from the Old Testament: Moses first, then Pharaoh. God says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy. I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. Let that sink in. That's God's sovereign right.
It's God's sovereign right.
So then? It does not depend on the one who wills. It does not depend on the one who runs. But on God, Who has mercy. That's the key verse of the chapter.
It's all about God. It's all about upholding his character. Scripture says to Pharaoh, on the other hand, unlike Moses. For this very purpose, I raised you up. To demonstrate my power in you, that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole.
earth.
So then, says Paul, He has mercy on whom he desires. He hardens. whom he desires. This is Insight for Living. Chuck Swindahl titled Today's Study in Romans chapter 9: Straight Talk About Predestination.
After hearing a message like this one, it's possible you're curious to learn more about this doctrine and all the questions it provokes.
Well, we urge you to take a deep dive into Paul's letter to the Romans, using your own Bible and a variety of Chuck's companion resources. By doing so, you'll begin to grasp the beauty and magnificence of God's sovereign plan. For instance, did you realize the Insight mobile app provides access to Chuck's sermons on Romans for free? This platform allows you to hear each sermon from the series at your own convenience. Just download the Insight mobile app from your favorite app store and you're ready to listen.
And that's not all, because Insight for Living offers a complete Bible study workbook on Romans, which is part of our Searching the Scriptures Bible studies. All the details for purchasing both volumes can be found at insight.org/slash offer. And today we're pleased to offer a special downloadable PDF that features the fifth chapter in Chuck's biography of Abraham. Patriarch of the Faith. The book is called Abraham.
One Nomad's Amazing Journey of Faith. And this chapter is called, Can We Talk? In this highly personal chapter, Chuck describes how Abraham cultivated his friendship with God and the benefits that followed. Chuck wrote, the Lord has your future blessings all planned out. ready to be released when your spirit is mature enough to receive them.
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I'm Bill Meyer. Join us next time when Chuck Swindahl continues to present Straight Talk About Predestination. Thursday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Straight Talk About Predestination, was copyrighted in 2007, 2010, and 2025, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2025 by Charles R. Swindahl, Inc.
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