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Then in Exodus chapter 9, we're going forward with all of the plagues of Egypt. We've already seen a bunch of plagues. We saw the water turned into blood, and we saw the flies, we saw the frogs, we saw the lice. And in this chapter, a lot of the same themes are coming up. Obviously, we see Pharaoh's heart being hardened again and again. We see these horrible pestilences coming upon the land of Egypt, and we also see God making a division between his people in the land of Goshen, where they are protected from the plagues, and the Egyptians who suffer. And then at one point, there's even an individual choice that they have to make whether to put their cattle inside or outside. If they leave the cattle outside, the hail is going to come. But the ones who did not fear the Lord, they ignored Moses' warning, they left him outside. And then the ones who feared the Lord, they put the cattle inside and were spared. So it's a lot of the same themes in this chapter that we've already seen in the last couple of chapters. So what I really want to do tonight is just focus in on one verse, and talk about that one verse, and then go to where that one verse is quoted in the New Testament, and expound that scripture, because it's very important. But first, let me just give you the overview of this chapter 9. So the first plague that comes, it says in verse 3, Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon the cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep, there shall be a very grievous moraine. Now this is an archaic word that most people are probably not familiar with, but it's pretty easy to remember what it means. It's a plague or a disease, which anyone would have just probably figured out from the context anyway. But it's actually related to the Spanish words morir and muerte, because it's basically a disease that would kill cattle. So it comes from the Spanish words for dying and death. So God strikes the cattle, once again showing that he's willing to slaughter innocent animals through no fault of their own, because God does not take care for oxen, the Bible says. God cares about people. All right. In the flood, God drowned a lot of animals that had nothing to do with all the sins of mankind, and Jesus Christ himself sent 2,000 pigs running off a cliff. So we don't want to go overboard on worshiping animals, and we're going to spend our lives protecting animals and just worshiping the environment, because this is not God's priority in the Bible. He's dealing with man, and in order to punish the Egyptians, he just kills all their animals here. They have bees on them, and they die. Then the next thing was a boil, and this is something that's actually affecting the Egyptians in their bodies. Sores, boils, this is similar to what Job went through. And at this point, the sorcerers and magicians of Pharaoh, they're not even able to stand before Pharaoh, because they're just so afflicted by these boils. They can't even show up for work, they have to call in. And then the third plague in this chapter is the very grievous hail that comes down. And of course, this does all kinds of harm to property, people, animals, everything else. So more horrible plagues being poured out upon the land of Egypt, which are a foreshadowing of what God is going to do in the book of Revelation in the end times. We are going to see a noisome and grievous sore in Revelation 16 upon the men that had the mark of the beast. They will get sores on their body, similar to this. Of course, there will be hail, and hail storms, and the Bible talks in the book of Revelation about every hail stone being the weight of a talent, which is just a gigantic hail stone unlike anything we've ever seen here in Arizona, or even in Texas, where everything's bigger. And all of these plagues have counterparts in the book of Revelation, pestilences, diseases, sores, hail, etc. So here's the verse that I really want to focus in on. Verse 16, this is what God says to Pharaoh, because this is a really key verse, because you know there's this back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, Moses, Pharaoh, Moses, Pharaoh. But here in this chapter, God stops and says something really profound here to Pharaoh. So I really want to focus on this important statement, and in very deed, for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. This is such a strong statement that he makes to Pharaoh, saying, the only reason that you're even in power, the only reason that you're even the Pharaoh, you know, you think you're so powerful, you have all this authority, you rule over this great nation. You are nothing. I have lifted you up to publicly destroy you only so that my name can be glorified throughout the earth, and you're going to go down in history as a fool and a loser. And that's what we see. That's a pretty powerful statement that God makes to Pharaoh, saying you exist for me to basically just chew you up and spit you out. So that's a pretty powerful statement. Now this is quoted in the New Testament, and that's what I want to deal with in Romans chapter 9, because Romans chapter 9 is the go-to chapter for the false doctrine of Calvinism. And pretty much the two chapters that Calvinists will go to the most are Romans chapter 9, coupled with maybe the end of chapter 8, and then they'll go to Ephesians chapter 1. And they're actually misunderstanding both for the same reason. So tonight I'm only going to deal with Romans chapter 9, but if you go back and get my sermon that I did on Ephesians chapter 1, I really focused in on what their big misunderstanding is, and it's the same misunderstanding, because the same subject matter in Romans 9 is the same subject matter in Ephesians 1, and what you have to understand about these chapters is that they are dealing with the fact that God is switching from having the nation of Israel as his chosen people, and he's going to have a chosen people of the Gentiles, and really the new chosen people are made up of both Jews and Gentiles, because Gentiles were more than welcome to receive Christ as Savior and be part of the new covenant, and many of them did. So both Ephesians chapter 1 and Romans chapter 9 are driving in that point. The Calvinists, instead of getting the point of what the actual context is teaching, have applied these scriptures to personal salvation and have made it about God choosing particular people to be saved, and let's face it, folks, if you believe that God chose certain people to be saved, you're saying that God chose certain people to be damned, because there's only two places to go. You know, there's heaven and hell. So if God's picking certain people to go to heaven, well then, by default, his will is damning people, and he's damning the majority of people, and of course, we don't believe in Calvinism. We don't believe in that so-called predestination doctrine. We believe that the gospel is extended to all people, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. You have two different groups of people. You got the world. God loved the world. He gave his son for the world in order that a smaller group, those who believe on him, would not perish but have eternal life, right? And so we see that he's the savior of all men, but especially of those that believe. But he did come and offer this to the entire world, and he loved the world, offered salvation to the whole world, and he says, whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Calvinism, on the other hand, says that God chose particular individuals to be saved, and their election is unconditional, meaning that it's not because they received Christ. It's not because they came to the water of life. It's not because they were a whosoever will and decided, hey, let's do it. It's not because they exercised faith in Christ or believe in Christ. No, no, no. They just say it's unconditional and that God chooses to save one, and he chooses to damn another, and it's all foreordained and predestined, and there's nothing we can do. It's contrary to scripture, and I could do a whole sermon about that, and I've done whole sermons about that many times. But what I want to focus on is the proper understanding of Romans 9, because what they'll do is they'll take this idea of the elect, the chosen people, and they'll try to apply it to individual salvation in Romans 9, when Romans 9 is talking about electing a group of people or a classification of people, where in the Old Testament, he chose or elected the nation of Israel to be his chosen people, and in the New Testament, he has elected that Christians be the new chosen people, whether they be Jew or Gentile, whether they be Bon or Free. It's not that he chose which people would be a Christian. All right, this guy's going to be a Christian, this guy's going to be a Muslim, this guy's going to be a Hindu. No. What he chose is that the Christians are going to be elect, those who, through his foreknowledge, he knows who's going to receive Christ, and those are predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. Now let's look at Romans 9, and you will see that the context is clear if you actually read the whole chapter. Look at verse 1, and we can do the same thing in Ephesians 1 and 2, I've already done it, but let's do it in chapter 9 of Romans. I say the truth in Christ, I lie not. My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God bless forever, amen. So when we say that amen, that's kind of a punctuation here, that that thought is over. So verses 1 through 5 are pretty easy to understand. He's saying, look, I wish that the Israelites would get saved. You know, God has called the apostle Paul to preach to Gentiles. He's spending his life reaching the Gentiles. God tells him, I'm going to take you far from here, far from Israel, so that you can reach the Gentiles. Paul keeps wanting to reach the Jews. God keeps telling him, reach the Gentiles, and we've seen that in the book of Acts. But here, Paul is just expressing his love for his native people. He really wants his fellow Israelites to get saved. And he just feels like, man, you know, the promises, the covenants, the giving of the law, they have all this history with the Lord. Why don't they just get saved? Why don't they just accept the Messiah? He's frustrated here, right? Pretty easy to understand. But look at verse 6. Not as though the word of God have taken none effect, for they are not all Israel which are of Israel. So what he's saying is, here, look, the fact that God made all these promises to Israel and now Israel is on the outside, now Israel is not the chosen people anymore, the kingdom of God has been taken from them and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof, he's saying, that doesn't make the promises of God of none effect. Because God's promise is still kept. And this is what a lot of Zionists get mixed up on, they say, well, God's got to keep his promises to Israel. Yeah, but here's the thing, his promise is still effective without blessing unbelieving Israel because they're not all Israel which are of Israel. So God keeps his promise to Israel because the church is the new Israel. The church replaces Israel, Christians replace Israel is a better way of saying it. So the Bible says in verse 6, not as though the word of God have taken none effect, for they are not all Israel which are of Israel. So let me ask you this, if we look at the country today called Israel, are they all Israel who are of that country? Does God look down at that nation over in the Middle East and say, that's Israel, he'll say, well, that's not all Israel. Okay, so then who is Israel? Which ones are the real Israel and which ones? Well, we got to get a DNA test, wrong, it has nothing to do with DNA. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children. So I don't care what the DNA says, I don't care if you can trace it all the way back to Abraham, which no one can, obviously, they can't actually have a written record of that. But and I don't doubt that Abraham is their ancestor, but that's another sermon. But the point is, if you're a child of Abraham, it doesn't mean that you are one of the children of God, it doesn't mean you're one of the chosen people just because you're the seed of Abraham. But God couldn't have made this clearer, could he, when he said, think not to say within yourselves, Abraham, we have Abraham to our father. That's like the first preaching in Matthew. You open your New Testament, the first preaching, the first sermon you read is against the Jews. Think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father. That didn't take long to find that little nugget. God's able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham, it means nothing. So he says, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, and this is the key, folks, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise, at this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son. And of course, we know from Galatians 4, Hagar and Ishmael represent the Jews and Jerusalem and Judaism and those who want to live under the old covenant still. And we know that we, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. And he said the children of the promise, these are the children of God. They're the ones that are the real seed of Abraham. So the first illustration he uses to show the physical Jews are not God's people, Christians are, the saved are, believers in Christ are, the first illustration is what? It's Isaac versus Ishmael. Hey, they're not all Israel, which are of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Isaac is the Christians, Ishmael is Judaism. I mean, look, it's clear, right? Let's move on to the next argument. And not only this, so he's basically, he's given one argument, Ishmael and Isaac. That's the Galatians 4 argument. And then he says, add another thing. Not only this, so we're on the same thought, right? But when Rebekah also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, now why does it say she conceived by one? Because it's saying Jacob and Esau have the same dad. She conceived by one. So Jacob and Esau are both sons of Abraham and they're both sons of Isaac. I mean, these guys are in the right line here. So 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 caused, it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Now have we just totally changed topics now and we're not talking about the Jews anymore, we're not talking about nations anymore, we're not talking about the kingdom of God being taken from one nation and given to another nation. Now all of a sudden, it's just only about personal salvation, right? Wrong. That's not the context, but we have to read this in context. The Ishmael-Isaac example was clear, okay? Crystal clear unless you're just warped by Zionism, okay? But he says here, the elder shall serve the younger, meaning that not all of them are the chosen people. Is Esau the chosen people? Are the Edomites the chosen people? No. Just like the Ishmaelites are not the chosen people, the Edomites are not the chosen people. Now, this decision was made before they were even born, God said these two statements, he said the elder shall serve the younger, that's the first statement. Now let's go back and look that up, keep your finger here in Romans 9, and let's go back to Genesis chapter number 25. And let's see if God is talking about the individual here, or if he's talking about nations, okay? Let's go back to Genesis 25, because look, if we look up the scripture, we'll get more insight because Paul is quoting a scripture from Genesis 25, so let's look up that verse. Back in Genesis chapter number 25, it says in verse number 23, and the Lord said unto her, watch this, two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels, and the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger. So four times, and when God's repetitive about something, it's because it's important, four times he makes it clear, he's not talking about one person, he's not talking about a guy Jacob, a guy Esau, he's talking about two nations, Israel and Edom. And when he said the elder shall serve the younger, he is not saying that Esau the person is going to serve Jacob the person, nope, because that never happened, read the story. In fact, it's quite the opposite, you know what you actually see in the story is you see Jacob serve Esau, bow down on his face before Esau, you never will see an example of Esau serving Jacob, didn't happen. So was God telling the truth? Yeah, because he wasn't talking about Jacob and Esau as people, he was talking about Israel and Edom as nations. And remember, these guys' names were changed to Israel and Edom respectively. Jacob is Israel and Esau is Edom, that's how the identity of those people is so closely related to the person, okay? That person represents his nation. Now let's look at the second quote, because there were two things stated in Romans 9, and the first one was the elder shall serve the younger. We went back and looked it up and there were four times where God made it clear, he's talking about the nations. And then there's the Bible story itself, which shows that it never happened with the people. Now let's look at the other quote in Malachi chapter 1, because the next quote was Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Let's look that up. Here's the question that I want to ask you tonight, did God hate the person Esau? I say no. I don't believe that God hated the person Esau, I don't think there's any indication of that. I believe that God hated the nation of Esau, okay? And I'll prove it to you, because let's look up the context of Esau have I hated. Look at chapter 1 of Malachi, verse 2, I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet ye say, whereon is thou lovedest? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob and I hated Esau, but that's not the end of the sentence, folks. You got to keep reading. I hated Esau and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Now let me ask you something, did God ever do that to Esau? Nope. Read the story of Esau, Esau prospered and lived unto a ripe old age, and in fact Esau is an example in the Bible of someone who forgives someone who has done wrong unto them. And we see in the Bible story that Esau forgives his brother Jacob, he gives him a big hug, they cry, and they love each other, and they all live happily ever after. That's what happens in the story. But we know that Esau goes off and founds a nation, and that nation becomes a wicked nation. And so what we see here is that God laid Esau's mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. This is after Esau's already dead and gone that those things happened. And let me prove it to you further, keep reading. It says, whereas Edom saith, we are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, they shall build, but I will throw down, and they shall call them the border of weakness, watch this, the people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever. So did God have indignation forever against the person Esau or the people Edom? It's the people, folks. Whether you're in Genesis 25 or whether you're in Malachi chapter 1, it's the people. It's the nation. The point that's being driven in is this distinction between the people who are not God's people, the Jews, and the people who are God's people, Christians. Now go back to Romans 9. You say, well, sometimes in the Bible, God changes the subject. Maybe God started out talking about the Jews, and then he decided to just kind of go off on a little Calvinist escapade here. But here's the thing about that. If you look at the end of the chapter, it all comes back to Jew versus Gentile. That's what the whole chapter is about. Not only that, this theme continues all the way through the end of chapter 11. This is a very strong theme. But even if we just take chapter 9 itself, he starts out talking about something. He continues talking about that something, and he ends the chapter talking about that same thing. You can't just pull these verses out of context and just make them mean whatever you want or apply them to individual salvation, that God's picking a person to be saved. And God's picking, you know, he just picks a guy like Esau. Guy hasn't done anything wrong. He just hates him from the womb. That's what Calvinists are making of this chapter. I don't believe that God hated the person Esau at all. In fact, and this may seem radical, I believe Esau is going to be in heaven. There's no indication that he didn't believe in the Lord. Maybe he's not going to be there, but I believe he's going to be there. And here's the other thing, by the way. I don't even think that Esau was a fornicator. I think people are misreading that verse in Hebrews when he says, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. What the Bible is saying is that if you are a fornicator or a profane person, you're like Esau because he sold his birthright. And when he sought it afterward, he couldn't get it, though he sought it carefully with tears. What the Bible is saying is that being a fornicator makes you like Esau because Esau did what? Esau sold out his future for a momentary physical gratification. And he's saying when you commit fornication, it's exactly what you're doing. You're selling out your future for gratification right now. Oh, I got to eat this food right now. No, you don't. You can wait Esau. You don't have to eat right now. And I'm sure Esau was very hungry, but he wasn't going to die if he didn't eat. So we see that some of this is a little bit misunderstood about Esau. Now I'm not saying Esau was a great guy, but I am saying that I don't think he was a horrible person either. I think he's a complex character in the Bible and he's not the pure evil that he's been made out to be because he actually did some good things and had a good attitude. And I believe was blessed by God for it. But he's a picture. He's a picture of not being God's people. He's a picture. And we have to be able to separate the picture from the reality folks. I mean, David was a picture of Jesus. Was David Jesus? No, it's a picture of Jesus. And everybody on the arc with Noah, you know what that's a picture of? Being saved. Was everybody on the arc actually personally saved, like a believer? No. And was everybody who drowned in the flood, every single person, did they all go to hell? I don't believe so, but they all died and they all drowned. So the physical judgment is a picture of the spiritual judgment, but the two are different. So let me just try not to get bogged down here. It's very important. Look at Romans chapter nine. It says verse 10, not only this, but when Rebecca 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. Folks, Esau represents the Jews and Jacob represents the Christians, just like Ishmael represents. Have you noticed this older brother theme? Cain and Abel? Jacob and Esau? Ephraim and Manasseh? Ishmael and Isaac? I mean, we could go on and on and on. This is a major theme of the book of Genesis and of the Old Testament in general. What does it mean? The older brother is Israel after the flesh, the Jews. The younger brother is the Gentiles, right? The younger brother equals Christianity. The older brother equals Judaism. This is something that is clear throughout the Bible. It's all pointing us toward Christ and salvation. It all has a spiritual meaning. These things are an allegory, the Bible says in Galatians chapter 4. So we don't want to turn this scripture on its head now and just say, well, God just looks in the womb before people are born and based on nothing that they do, he just picks one and says, I love you and I hate you. Wrong. When it talks about him loving the one and hating the other, he's talking about choosing one nation over the other. He's choosing one to be the chosen people, the progenitors of Christ and so forth. And then also he ended up hating a wicked nation, but not hating the individual. Now let's keep going here. Let's deal with the rest of this. It says in verse 12, it was Senator, the elder shall serve the younger. Verse 13, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Was God wrong when he made this decision, when he did these things? Is God wrong to take the kingdom of God from the Jews and give it to the Christians? Is he wrong to have the elder brother serve the younger brother in order to make his point, in order to show the picture of what's going to happen in the New Testament? God forbid that there would be any unrighteousness with God, because God is perfect in every way. Verse 13, for he saith unto Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, here's our verse, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Now, God has every right to be merciful to one and harden the heart of the other. But where Calvinism goes off the rails is when they say that this is totally unconditional and based on nothing. And you know what? Again, I don't even have time to debunk this fully, because there's so much scripture we could turn to. But I did a whole sermon a while back called The Biblical Doctrine of Grace. And I literally went through and looked up every single time the word grace is mentioned. And I just annihilated this idea of unconditional election. And this idea that, you know, God's grace is somehow just given to people according to some mysterious will, and we have no clue why he gives the grace to one and not to another. They call Calvinism the doctrines of grace. And you know what? If you actually look up the word grace, it falls apart really fast. And so I encourage you, if you're confused on this subject, to listen to my sermon called The Biblical Doctrine of Grace, where I go through all those verses. But here what we see is that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, but God did not decide in eternity past, I'm going to take this guy and just make him a rotten person. I'm just going to create this really rotten person and then just use him as my punching bag so that I can get glory. That's not what he's saying. What he's saying is he took a guy who he already knew is a rotten person, and he put him in a position of power and raised up this guy, who is a rotten person, and then uses him as his punching bag for a while, and then hardens the guy's heart just to make sure that the guy will not repent, even in the face of just the obvious fact that he needs to repent. He just hardens his heart, no, because I want to just beat on you more. I want to keep beating on you, and then I want to beat on you again. And then when I'm done with that, I'm going to beat you just so that I can be glorified. But does that mean that Pharaoh didn't bring it on himself, or that Pharaoh was not a bad guy, or that God just made him be a bad guy? No, he chose to be a rotten person. You know what? Every person on this earth today is a rotten person because they chose to be a rotten person, and every person who is a good person on this earth today, you know what? They made decisions and took steps to become a decent person. It wasn't just something that was foreordained, where God just created all these really good people and he created all these really rotten people, or he created everybody so rotten that they came and do anything, and then he regenerated some and damned the rest. It's false. That's not what the Bible's teaching. So yes, God does have the right and the ability, and yes, he does do this, to take somebody who is a rotten person and harden their heart like he hardened the hearts of the sons of Eli so that they will continue down that rotten path so that they'll be destroyed. Why? Because you can only push God so far. See, Pharaoh is the example of a reprobate. But how did he get reprobate? He got reprobate the same way everybody else becomes a reprobate. See Romans 1. See Romans 1. They knew God. They glorified him not as God. Neither were they thankful. They became foolish in their imaginations. That sounds like a lot of they, they, they, them, them, them, and then as a result, their foolish heart was darkened. God gave them up. God gave them over.