Has God’s Word Failed? Series

Has God’s Word Failed?

(Romans 9:6-13)

1. Have you ever had a gift certificate or card they wouldn’t honor because it had expired?

2. Most restaurants no longer have expiration dates, because it creates bitter feelings – and people will ask for cards from other establishments instead.

3. But what about God’s gift cards? Does God keep His promises? Or did they expire?

4. When we talk about God keeping His promises to Israel, there is a lot on the line. Is God faithful? Does He change the meaning of words after the fact and make promises that are knowingly deceptive? Does he renege on His Word? Default? A matter of character.

Main Idea: If God’s Word failed regarding Israel, how do we know it will not fail regarding us? But God’s Word has not failed.

I. Many of God’s Promises Only Apply to Children of the PROMISE (Rom. 9:6-9 & Gen. 17-17, 21).

John 1:12-13, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

A. By choosing Isaac over Ishmael, God THWARTED all social expectations.

• Tell the story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael, and Isaac.

1. Ishmael conceived because of UNBELIEF, therefore of the flesh.

2. Isaac was conceived in FAITH, the child of promise.

B. The principle: only some Israelites proved to be Israelites INDEED.

1. In the Old Testament, true Israelites are referred to as “the remnant.”

2. Circumcised not only outward, but circumcision of the heart (regeneration).

C. Perhaps a MIDRASH on Jeremiah 9:25-26.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh— Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert who cut the corners of their hair, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.”

A typical Jewish belief is that all Jews would have a place in the world to come by virtue of their descent from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

I once talked to a young man who was far from God and didn’t know it. His grandfather was a founding elder here, but he thought he was saved because he tried to keep the 10 commandments, which he didn’t. Jesus is the only inside connection.

D. The child who was the heir was MIRACULOUSLY conceived by a 90-year-old woman! (8)

E. This is why we need the SECOND or new birth.

F. God will honor His Word to us, if we truly BELONG to Him.

II. God Chose ONE Above Another Because He is God (10-13, Gen. 25:21-26).

Are all people created equal? In one sense, yes; in another, no.

A. Sarah and Hagar were distinct, but Isaac and Jacob had the SAME mother.

1. They were non-identical twins.

2. They were both conceived miraculously at the same time (Rebekah was 60).

B. God contradicted PROTOCOL again and chose Jacob to be heir to the promise.

21 And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 22 The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. 23 And the Lord said to her,

“Two nations are in your womb,

and two peoples from within you shall be divided;

the one shall be stronger than the other,

the older shall serve the younger.”

24 When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb. 25 The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau. 26 Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau's heel, so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.

C. Malachi 1:2-3a, in context, refers to the nations that descended from JACOB and Esau.

1. Paul applies it to the prophesy that was made when the twins were born.

2. To love is to choose, to hate is to pass over. Jesus used the same figure of speech in Luke 14:26, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”

It is love and hate by comparison, or, better yet, by priority.

D. Election is completely independent of WORKS.

1. Election: God choosing us not on the basis of anything we have or would have done.

2. Predestination. Why do Calvinists make great telemarketers? Because they love to tell people they have been pre-qualified.