Pastor Steve Hopkins' sermon at Barnet Bible Church explores Romans 9:10-13, focusing on the doctrine of election and God's sovereign choice. The sermon delves into the biblical narrative where God declares His love for Jacob and His disfavor for Esau before their birth, emphasizing that this choice is not based on their future actions or merits but solely on God's will. The sermon references Romans 8 to illustrate the continuity of God's electing love and His unbreakable bond with His chosen people. Pastor Hopkins challenges the notion that God's election is based on His foreknowledge of human choices, instead asserting that it is predicated on His mercy and grace alone. Throughout the sermon, the speaker addresses common theological interpretations, discusses the implications of God's sovereignty in salvation, and encourages believers to reflect on their gratitude for God's unmerited favor.

Welcome back to Barnet Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the book of Romans. If you would turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Romans. Let's stand and read Romans 9 verses 10 through 13. Together is the congregation.

Let's read together the word of the Lord. And not only this, but when Rebekah also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you, Lord, for giving your people eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to understand the truth. And we ask God once again for your help as we continue to look into the teaching of your word concerning the doctrine of election and we pray that you might be pleased once again oh God to give the Spirit to them that ask to guide us in the way of truth as we open your precious word, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's be seated. Jacob, have I loved, but Esau, have I hated.

To many, these are some of the most, if not the most, disturbing words found in all of Scripture. So disturbing are these words to many, that upon reading them, they either ignore them or pass over them altogether, or they find themselves seeking some way to take the edge off of them. What are we to make of these words? I want to remind the congregation that this is not the place where Paul first brought in love. The theme of God's electing love was introduced in the last chapter in Romans 8.

It's there where we read of God predestinating a people whom he foreknew, that is, whom he foreloved in a distinguishing sense before time began to be conformed to the image of a son. And it's there back in Romans chapter 8 where we read of God's love for those whom he predestinated being manifested toward them and that he spared not his only son but delivered him up that is Jesus up to die for them and It's there in Romans chapter 8 that the Apostle referred to those whom he foreknew or for loved and delivered up his own son to die for as God's elect. That was verse 33. God's elect to whom no one would be able to lay any charge against. God's elect that the following verse 34 says no one will ever be able to condemn.

So this theme of God's electing love already began and it continued in verse 35 of chapter 8 where the apostle assured His readers that nothing would be able to separate them from that love. These are God's, in His own words, foreknown. His predestinated, His elect. And He says neither death nor life nor angels are going to be able to separate them from his love. Verse 38, we labored this for weeks.

Demonic principalities can't separate the people of God, his elect, verse 33, from that love of God. No civil power on earth can affect the separation. Nothing in the present, nothing in the future can affect the separation. Nothing in the heights of heaven above, nothing in hell below can affect it. That was verse 39.

In fact, nothing in all of creation, Paul told us, will ever be able to separate God's elect, whom he predestined to be conformed to Christ, from the love of Christ. And as we come to our passage this afternoon in chapter 9 and verse 13, we see this theme of God's electing love continuing. And it's Paul citing Malachi from the Old Testament, chapter 1, quoting God saying, Jacob, have I loved. This is the first time, if you look back over these scriptures from where we are in chapter nine back to chapter eight, it's the first time we hear that word again since the end of Romans eight. It's the first time God brings in the word again.

Paul speaking by the Spirit. The word love. But here it is again. Jacob have I loved. The children being not yet born.

Jacob I loved, God says. Neither child having done any good or evil, Jacob have I loved. That the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of him who works, but of him who calls. God's distinguishing love in our last session on Romans 9, we found is not based on dissent from the patriarchs. We saw that very clearly in our last session.

God's distinguishing love is not based on any foreseen works or future performance of the individual himself, Paul says here. God's electing, distinguishing love and favor is based on himself. It's of him who calls, our text says. And so, there's not any consideration of the persons themselves in election. There's not consideration of their national heritage or ethnic descent in election.

And there's no consideration of future or foreseen works in God's election. And you'll remember the first example Paul gave us was Isaac and Ishmael. Remember they were both natural children of Abraham, but only one a child of promise. The second example is the one before us this afternoon. Jacob and Esau, unlike Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau are two sons born of the same mother and father, twins from the same womb.

And yet, before either is born and has had any opportunity to do any good or evil, their mother Rebekah is told, quote, that the elder will serve the younger, reversing all of the customs of the time. And that's exactly what happened in history. But we need to understand that Paul here isn't giving his readers a history lesson on the decree of God involving the nations that would descend from Jacob and Esau. That's not what he's doing here. He assumes in the text here that you know that history.

You've read the Old Testament. He assumes his readers know the story. The apostle isn't giving his readers a history lesson here on the decree of God concerning the Israelites and the Edomites. That's not what he's teaching on here. He's providing an example from their histories to prove that God's decree concerning the election of individuals stands, that the purpose of God according to election might stand.

Remember, they're not all Israel who are of Israel. Paul is using these examples to prove that God sets his affection and favor upon whom he wills and passes over whom he wills with regards to heirs of eternal salvation, and that before they're ever born, and that before they've ever done any good or evil. Calvin says three points here Paul is making. Number one, as the blessing of the covenant, that's the covenant God made with Abraham, separates the Israelite nation from all other people, so the election of God makes a distinction between men in that nation. Okay?

As the blessing of the covenant separates the Israelite nation from all other peoples, so the election of God makes a distinction between men in that nation. And I would add to that if you look at Matthew 9, verse 24, Paul adds to that, even us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also the Gentiles. He's talking about individuals. So as the blessing of the covenant, Calvin says, separates the Israelite nation from all other people, so the election of God makes a distinction between men in that nation. And Paul says, men outside of that nation, even us, whom he's called, not just the Jews, but also of the Gentiles.

In other words, even as the blessing of God's covenant promise to the Jewish nation separated Israel from all other nations of the world, even so, God's electing love distinguishes between men in that nation as well, and outside of that nation as well, Jews and Gentiles, as God chooses one and passes over another. And God does this before the persons are ever born and even before the foundation of the world. We'll look at some passages of scripture, backing that up in a moment. Second, Calvin says there is no other basis for this election than the goodness of God alone. It's just God's goodness and mercy.

Since the fall of Adam, Calvin writes, his mercy embraces whom he pleases without any regard whatever to their works." Not only does God not choose based on ancestry, he doesn't choose based on foreseen future works, He chooses without regard whatsoever to the works of men. Third, Calvin says, the Lord in his election, which is by grace, is free and exempt from needing to impart the same grace to all." But on the contrary, he passes by whom he wills, and whom he wills he chooses. It's inescapable in the passage. And we're going to see as the weeks unfold here, He just takes it further and further and further and opens up more and more understanding. He'll be dealing with Pharaoh, the difference between the Gentiles and Jews, and the elections of one, the passing over of another, the raising up of men to show God's power in them, God having the right to do whatsoever He wants with the clay that He has formed, the pots He's formed from the clay.

It's just gonna go on and on and on with this. And it's why so many people just run from Romans chapter nine. It's a salt of the pride of man, ultimately. But just as God's covenant with the nation of Israel separated them from every other nation and people, so God's election distinguishes between individuals in that nation and outside of that nation. This is this goodness of God in distinguishing one and not another for his favor is all of mercy, not with regard to anything foreseen in the person or person, the person who is elect or passed over.

God is not bound to impart equal grace to all. He's free to pass by whomsoever he wills and choose whomsoever he wills. Case in point, Jacob and Esau. Okay, Verse 11, for the children being not yet born, the children being not yet born, verse 11, the children neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, be established. Not of works, not based upon anything within that human being, but of Him who calls.

It was said unto her, verse 12, the elder shall serve the younger. Even as God reversed the cultural custom of the times in the Jewish tradition and chose to favor Jacob the younger over Esau the elder brother and determined to have the elder brother serve the younger brother Jacob, so God is free to choose one and to pass over another with regards to the recipients of the promise of saving grace. Neither cultural custom, in this case the expectation that the younger will serve the elder brother nor future works are taken into consideration at all God freely chooses whom he wills and he passes over whom he wills and again, it's a saltive to humanistic thinking God predestines some sinners to eternal life, but is not obligated to predestinate all sinners to eternal life. He predestinates some sinners to eternal life, quote, this is from our Baptist confession, to the praise of his glorious grace, while others, quote, are left to live in their sin leading to their just condemnation, to the praise of His glorious justice. God's glorified either way.

He's glorified when He saves this person out of their sin and their rebellion, gives them a new heart and changes them. His grace is just glorified. Oh, praise God for his glorious grace and saving a sinner who deserves eternal fire and wrath and to be punished forever for his sins, praise God. And he also is praised and glorified when he leaves a sinner in his sin to go on to his just damnation and receive what he justly deserves. Grace and justice.

God receives the glory. Either way. Election is not based on descent from the patriarchs or anyone's descent for that matter. Election is not based on any person's works, either actual or foreseen, as one writer put it, God's electing love is based on nothing outside of God himself. Why?

That the purpose of God, according to election, might stand. That is, that it might be established, And that God might receive the glory do his name for his mercy and grace not of works Not based on what any person might one day do But of him who calls of him of God who calls men and women Long before they are ever born. I said I'd give some scripture backup for this. Look at Ephesians chapter one and verse four. Here, Paul writing to the church at Ephesus, Ephesians chapter one to verse four writes, even as He, God, hath chosen us in Him that is in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world.

Remember, Jesus said in John 15, 16, You didn't choose me, I chose you. You didn't choose me, I chose you. You didn't choose me, I chose you. Brothers and sisters, God's electing love is sovereign and unconditional, as one of my commentaries puts it. It is sovereign in that it is all of God and God alone and it's unconditional in that it isn't conditioned on any foreseen good works, faith, or merit on our part.

Paul says in 2 Timothy 1 and verse 9, the cause, look at this, that the cause, that is so important if we want God to receive the glory for our salvation, to know the cause. The cause was his own mercy and grace. Remember the definition of grace, unmerited love and favor of God. His own mercy and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus after he saw what we were gonna do and looked down through the corridors of time, no. Given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, already given, and not based upon anything that we would do or he would foresee in us.

That's God's electing love. That's God's electing love. Now consider the alternative for a moment, okay? Consider the alternative. What if God's decree concerning our election to salvation was based on something God foresaw in us, or something that he foresaw that we would in the future do.

What if that was the case? That's the Arminian position. That is the overriding dominant position in the mass majority of the churches of America today. God's predestination was based on something God foresaw. Not as we read in Romans 8, 29, someone he foreknew, those he foreknew, but something he foresaw about someone he foreknew.

They change it, right? What if that was the case though? What if God's predestination was not based on foreknowing us with a distinguishing affection before time, but was based on God foreseeing what we would do. What if God, as some claim, looked down through the corridors of time and determined to choose those whom he foresaw would choose him? That's the Arminian position.

That's the dominant position in evangelical churches in America today. God looked down through the corridors of time. He got new information. He saw that. He waited to see what was gonna happen and what would happen, he saw that we would choose him and so then he elected us because we elected him.

That's the dominant position. Would any be chosen if that was the case? To believe such a thing, one would necessarily have to deny original sin. We'd have to deny original sin is the effects of the fall upon us. Okay?

Every one of us was born with a totally, completely, wholly corrupted nature that we inherited from our first parents. And all the faculties of body and soul were corrupted by the fall, including our will, including our will. The human will in the natural state in which we are born, the human will is the slave of sin. Does man have a free will? Absolutely.

Does he have a will that's free to choose whatever he wants, absolutely, man has a total free will. He can choose whatever he wants. Man is free to choose whatever he wills. We make choices all day long every day. The problem is that in the corrupted state of nature in which every one of us is born, we only choose according to that nature.

A nature with a will that is bent against God, and a will that is enslaved to sinful desires and passions. We freely choose against God because our will is corrupted and bent against him. We were born with a nature that is wholly corrupted and a will that is bent against God and righteousness. The Bible says in Ephesians chapter two that in the state of the flesh, we all walked according to the flesh. We all walked according to this world.

We all walked according to the prince of the power of the air, that's Satan. The spirit that now works in the children of disobedience, that we all walked in such a way that we were continually, quote, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and that we were by nature the children of wrath. In that state, no one chooses God. In that state, no one opts for righteousness. Unless God changes our will, we will never will to embrace Him or the mercies offered in the gospel.

Until God changes our will, we never come to Him. We'll never embrace Him. Brothers and sisters, that's why Adam and Eve took off running in the opposite direction from God and hid from Him after they sinned, after the fall. They didn't want fellowship with God. In the unregenerate state in which we are born, nobody wants God.

They may have some notion of a God out there who kind of fits their thinking. And yeah, I like a God who doesn't condemn my sin. And I like a God who doesn't have a hell for sinners. And I like a God that whatever. They make a God in their own image.

And yeah, they may believe in a God, a false God, but they don't want to have fellowship with the creator God, the holy and just God, the God who created all things and created them and who says thou shalt not and thou shalt. They don't want to have fellowship with the holy God, the just God. But Praise God, before time began, God chose the same sum from the out of this fallen state. And He set His affection upon them, and in time gave them new hearts, and gave them new wills, wills that were now inclined toward him rather than against him, and new desires, and conviction for sin, and hearts to repent, and faith to embrace his son, whom he sent into the world to save them, and deliver them from their dreadful state of bondage and sin. And Jesus said, if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.

If the Son sets you free from this bondage to sin and corruption, you shall be free indeed. So the answer to the question is, long answer to a short question, no, God didn't look down through the corridors of time to see if any would choose him and then choose those who chose him or elect those who chose him Because he knew none would. God knows all things and he knows that none would. None would respond positively to the gospel unless he affected the change within them. If left to ourselves, we would never embrace Jesus and respond positively to the gospel of grace.

Praise God, he determined before time to do for his elect what we could never do for ourselves, and the same was true of Jacob. The passage in front of us tells us clearly God's electing love, He loved Jacob. Jacob have I loved. Was not based on any consideration whatsoever of the things Jacob would one day do, either good or evil, but in himself, based in God himself, upon him, his will, his purposes alone. Remember, Jacob was a liar.

Think about Jacob for a second. Think about his character. Jacob was a liar, he was a deceiver, and he was a thief. That's Jacob. He lied to his father, Isaac.

He deceived his father. He stole his brother's birthright. His very name Jacob means supplanter, a deceiver, a cheater. Yet God says, Jacob have I loved. You know the story?

Everybody remembers the story, right? Esau comes in from the field. Isaac, Isaac his father says, son, go hunt down some venison, and when you've done that, bring it back and make it that way you, I really like, you know, fix the way you make it so good. And after I've eaten, I'll bless you. That is, I'll pass on the patriarchal blessing that was given me from my father Abraham.

Esau goes out, he's out hunting his game, and what happens? Jacob, conspiring with his mother Rebecca, puts on Esau's clothing, puts goat hair on his hands so that he'll, you know, so his hands will feel to his father in order to deceive his father like his brother's hairy hands. Apparently, he was a pretty hairy guy. And he deceives his father, and he lies to his father. Yes, I'm your son.

I'm your son, Jacob. And he steals his brother's birthright while his brother's out hunting down game to make his father a meal to receive the blessing. God didn't choose Jacob based on future foreseen righteousness. He didn't pass over Esau because he was profane, as we see in the New Testament written, because he sold his birthright for a mess of potage. That's not why he passed over him.

The children not being yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand. It was said to her, to Rebecca, the mother of Jacob, and Esau, the elder's gonna serve the younger. As it's written, Jacob have I love. The son who was in line to inherit the blessing was the firstborn son Esau, yet the preference was given to Jacob independently of all ground of merit before the children were even capable of doing any good or evil. That's Robert Haldane back in the 1800s.

This was done for the very purpose of taking away all pretense for merit is a ground of preference. Doesn't enter into the equation. The apostles intent here is to remove any ground for protest. Nothing about Jacob could possibly be viewed as grounds for Jacob being chosen while his brother was rejected, but merely the gracious sovereign choice of God, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works or any other thing, but of God who chooses and calls whom he wills. And someone might say, oh, wait a minute, you didn't deal with that second part yet.

I don't have a problem with God loving Jacob before he was born. It's that that second part of the passage that that disturbs me. The part where God says, but Esau have I hated? Before he was born, before he did any good or evil, Esau have I hated? What am I to make of that?

What are we to make of that? Some say The meaning is that Esau was loved less comparatively. So Jacob have I loved and Esau I didn't love as much. Or I loved comparatively less. They use Luke 14 26 where Jesus says that a man must hate his father and mother if he would be his disciple.

And I think that the tendency is to go there because we maybe feel this need to rescue maybe what we feel is God's integrity at stake. But that's not what Paul is saying concerning Esau. In the passage in Luke, Jesus is saying, when he says the person is to hate his mother and father and if he's gonna be the disciple of Christ, he's saying there can be no competing love to our love for God. That's comparative. There could be no rival love.

I mean, throughout the scripture, love your wife, love your kids, yeah, he's not saying that, right? There can be no competing love for our love to God amongst family members. No rival love. But Paul isn't saying that in Romans 9 and 13. He isn't saying God loved Esau less by comparison.

The language is much stronger than merely comparative love. This is my conclusion, just based upon the text and all that we see concerning the doctrine of election and God's favor being and affection being upon one and him passing over others and all these scriptures that have to do with this, this doctrine of predestination and election is this, ultimately God's love for Jacob equates to divine favor, and his hatred of Esau ultimately equates to his divine disfavor. When you read the words, Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated, think favor and disfavor, because that's what grace is all about. That's what grace is all about. Remember grace?

I defined it earlier. This is from 1828, Dictionary of the American Language. Noah Webster is the free, unmerited love and favor of God. That's what grace is. Remember we read earlier, where Paul was writing in his epistle, Timothy was shown us, that grace was shown us before the world began, in Christ Jesus before the world began.

That's what grace is all about. The grace of God is free, unmerited, undeserved mercy and favor. And he doesn't know it to everyone, which we're gonna be looking at next week. Is God unfair? Is God unjust?

Is he unfair? When we get to the next passage, but God's favor rested on Jacob and his disfavor upon Esau with no consideration whatsoever of either son's future performance or merits, faith, nothing was taken into consideration that the purpose of God according to election might stand. We read it earlier, remember from Calvin, the Lord in his election which is by grace is free and exempt from needing to impart the same grace to all, quote, but on the contrary, he passes by, whom he wills, is this favor, and whom he will, he chooses, his favor is set upon them. The apostle writes to the church at Thessalonica in 2 Thessalonians 2.13. God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation.

If you're saved here today, if you're a believer here today, that is written to you. And you should be humbled by those words. God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. That's God's electing love. That's the doctrine of God's electing love.

It's difficult for us to comprehend or to understand. Anyone who says they fully understand and fully comprehend it, well, I don't know. I don't, but I know that it's true because it is written. I know that it's true because it is written in the word of God. God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation.

2 Thessalonians 2.13. As we close, again, we should be humbled by these words, if we're believers here today. When we consider that our faith is the result of God selecting love. When we consider that none of us would have come to Him if He hadn't changed our wills, our will would still be bent against Him. When we consider these things, it should bring us to our knees and humble gratefulness.

I want to encourage everyone to do something. Not here, but later. Everyone who's a believer, if you're not a believer, just disregard what I'm saying right now. Just set it aside and go to sleep. But if you're a believer and you know that God has saved you, you know that He changed you one day, that He gave you a desire to love Him and serve Him.

You're so far from perfect. That's why you need Jesus so much. But you're just so grateful for what He's done. I wanna encourage you to find a place later today to get alone with God and fall down before Him, get on your knees before Him and praise and thank Him for the love wherewith He loved you undeservedly and before time began. For his undeserved goodness and favor that caused you in time to see yourself as a sinner, worthy of divine rejection and disfavor and eternal castigation, and yet whose electing love and unfolding mercy opened your heart, drew you to his son, changed your will that was bent against him, and produced within you a heart of repentance and faith to embrace the mercies offered in the gospel under the saving of your soul.

Find a place to get alone with God. I encourage you to do that today. Maybe make yourself a note, oh God, just make yourself a note. I just wanna go and I'm just gonna go and get alone with God. Find a place to be apart from everyone else, even if it's only for one minute.

I just thank Him for His love, His mercy, His grace, that He showed me in His Son before I was ever born, before the world began. Let's pray. Father, we thank You now for Your amazing grace, how sweet the sound, the saved wretches like us. We once were lost, but now we're found. We were blind, but because of what you did for us, we now see.

Oh God, we Confess that salvation is of the Lord It's all of you and none of us we confess that we never would have have come to you if you had not changed our will that our salvation From beginning to end is your work So we praise you God and we thank you that before the world began, you set your affection upon a people, and that in time, you sent your son to die for them and to reconcile us to you. And you gave your spirit to work in us, a work that we couldn't do in ourselves. To open our hearts, to change our hearts and our wills, to crush our natural rebellion, and to put in our hearts a principle of love for you that was not there before, and the desire to trust your Son with our sin debt. We thank you, God, for all that you've done for us. And Lord, as we approach this table here in a few minutes, help us, God, to examine ourselves and help us, God, as we eat of that bread and drink of that cup proclaiming Jesus died for me.

Help us to just thank you God and praise you