Romans 9:6–13Scripture
Turn your Bibles with me this morning to Romans chapter 9. As we continue, we are—I think we just hit a year in Romans, right? So we've been doing pretty good, I think, moving through it pretty well, and I don't know about you, but I have learned quite a lot, and quite a lot, and we are only about halfway through, so we have a lot more to learn, right? So maybe just past halfway, but it's been a wonderful thing. How many of you—it's been great—how many of you, at the same time, at times it's just been challenging? Yes, actually more hands went up. So, and honestly, you're in good company. Let me encourage you this morning with this bit of understanding. I actually had Cameron—Cameron rotates with me in sharing on Wednesday night to the students, and he came up to me because I had mentioned a few weeks back that in commentary, certain commentator writers, and in many commentaries, actually, they will stop in their writing and they will not write on chapters 9, 10, and 11. And Cameron came up to me on Wednesday and said, "It's true.
I've run into that situation several times already in doing some research, and I find that puzzling." Because it's challenging.
It's challenging because in the world in which we live today, particularly in American culture, I would say specifically an American in America and an American culture, we hold to the idea regarding foreknowledge and the election of God—there is a term that is used, and I'm going to give it to you today and you can do some research on it today, but it's called the prescient view, P-R-E-S-C-I-E-N-T. If I spelled that wrong, you'll find it on Google, but I think that is correct, right? It's called the prescient view, and basically what
Introduction
The prescient view is, and this is the way most of us in America, many people in America, many people in America have formulated this view dealing with predestination, election, foreknowledge, and all of that, but the position believes that God, at the beginning, before time began, looked ahead to see what you would choose, whether you would choose him, and based on his foreknowledge of you, then he predestined and elected you to be his child. But Romans chapter 9 obliterates this position and undermines it to such a degree that many commentators that hold to the prescient view will skip over three chapters just to not have to deal with the weightiness of the argument against that position, right? And honestly, if we get to a place where we come to a position, a place in the Bible, we hold a position, and then our position seems to be completely undermined.
The goal should not be then to rip out that section and pretend like it's not there.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 3:18
But it should be, with careful consideration, we should throw ourselves into it to make sure that the position we hold is a biblical position, and we should go back to the word and begin to ask again, what have I believed? Because this seems to counteract and contradict everything that I have ever thought before. So today I want to—we're going to be looking at Romans chapter 9, verses 10–13. I think that was my assignment, right? But I'm going to go backwards a little bit, because it's very important for us to contextually understand where we come from, as we kind of go through verse by verse. We can get to a section of, like, three verses and we can forget what happened seven verses ago that lays context for what you're about to read. All right, so let us kind of go back here and look at this. And Romans 9:6–11 says this: "But it is not as though the word of God has failed." And so the reason he's saying that there is because when we look at Israel, when we look at Paul's Jewish brothers and sisters, we see that many do not put their faith in Christ, and so if we have all these promises and privileges that have been offered, if we hear that God has elected and chosen his people, how is it that we can also look at the nation of Israel and see that some are lost? Still, has God's word failed? So Paul speaks to this, and he says, "But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from
Point 1Not all of Israel is Israel
Israel belong to Israel." In other words, what he is saying is you can be born into the nation and not be elected as his true Jewish, elected people. Are you with me? In other words, some commentators say you can be a Jew but not be a true Jew. In other words, you can be a Jewish person and go to hell. Now, you have to understand this kind of language. We all want to come on Sunday and hear a very positive and encouraging message.
Can you imagine being a Jew and hearing this? Can you imagine the offense? Can you imagine it? So not everybody, just because you're born into something, doesn't mean you are something, just because. Okay, let me put it in modern-day context here in America, because we're not an Israelite, we're not a Jew. Let's put it in context for us. Just because you're born into a Christian family, does it make you one? That's a current context. And so when you then look at a family who has children who are not believers, then we can maybe possibly begin to ask the question, so does God's word fail there? The answer is no.
No, that was not the promise. The promise was not, well, this family, because the parents are saved, everyone will be saved. That's not the promise.
And we tend to look at the nationality of something without understanding that every nation is comprised of individuals.
It is the individual that God chooses that is a true Jew. "And not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but 'Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.' This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring." We've already talked about this. I want to talk about it more. In case you were not here, go back, catch up, and then whatever. And then he begins to explain this: "For this is what the promise said." He reminds us of the promise. There were—okay, I am going to explain it, okay? So you have Abraham, was promised to have a son through Sarah. Through Sarah, that was the promise, they would have a son, and then in verse 9 he explains this. And then what did they do?
He went to his maidservant, slept with her, because it was Sarah's idea to do something in the flesh, in their own strength, and then look what that brought them. And he's saying, all the things you did in your own strength to try to make what I promised come true quicker, all of that is not the promise.
Only what I do in my strength, void of your strength, is the promise, and anything that flows out of that. By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not a work of your own. And if this is the way you're saved, you're brought into the promise. Are you with me? It is void of your strength. It is not
Point 2Election rests on God's call, not our works
You choosing it is he choosing you. Him choosing you, that's what it is. And then verse 9: "For this is what the promise said." He breaks it down and he quotes himself.
This is her promise, in case you forgot. This is the promise. This is what I promised you: "About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son."
"And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing"—everybody say "nothing"—"either good or bad." They had done nothing, neither good nor bad.
This hurts the prescient view, because the prescient view says God looked ahead to see what you did, good or bad, and then based the election on that.
Are you with me today? That's why they quit writing here, commentators, because it obliterates their view. For generations we have been trying to strip God of his sovereignty.
We don't have a problem with sovereignty. We have a problem with God having it.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 10:05
We have no problem being sovereign in our life.
We start to struggle and wrestle when this is God's business. We want to take his sovereignty, and we want to sing songs that he's sovereign, but live our lives as if he's not, and so God is calling us to something greater than that. And then in verse 11, it was nothing that they did, good or bad, "in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls."
The power is in the call.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 10:52
The power is not in the general call, the power is in the specific call, what most commentators will say, the effectual call of the believer. Now, we know that God works through the general call, because the effectual call comes in the midst of the general call. So for those of you who are struggling, "if God elects, why should we evangelize?" Because he commanded you to do so. This is in the Bible, the biggest "because I told you so" ever. You don't have to know all of the inner specifics. You just need to know the general call of repentance is where the Holy Spirit illuminates and gifts it. It is in the midst of the general call the specific call happens. How many know that every time a general call goes out, not everyone's saved? You know why? Because it requires the effectual call of God, not of man. So it's constantly—so for those of you who have a heart of evangelism, it is constantly moving the weightiness of what is happening there off of you and putting it on God. You know why? Why is this important? Oh, I'm on a tangent, but just stick with me here. Why is this important? Why is it important that the weightiness of evangelism is moved off the individual and put on God?
I'll tell you why it's important. Because if you bear the weight, then you will manipulate the gospel.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 12:14
So the effectiveness of what you proclaim seems to be more effective. But if it's God's business, then the weight of how you deliver it and what you say and whether it's offensive or not offensive doesn't matter, because God gets and calls who he pleases regardless of how hard it seems to be coming from the mouth of those that proclaim it. This is good news. So it should unburden us and untether us from our prideful state of being, because at the end of the day, evangelism has become a place by which we can celebrate us for the way we do it. If you think there is not some form of selfishness in evangelistic pursuits, you got it wrong, especially if you think that you do it and you've forgotten that he does the work.
And then we begin to celebrate how many people came, how many people responded, how many hands were raised when everybody's eyes were closed.
Why are we trying to hide the greatest miracle of all? Why can't we peer in the face of God's work? Because we've made it ours and we've uninvited him from it. This is good stuff. And so Paul is going through huge measures to try to get us to understand this is not your business.
This is about me. Now, verse 11—that one's a level 11. Verse 12: "She was told,
Point 3Jacob I loved, Esau I hated
'The older will serve the younger.'" And "it was written, 'Jacob I'—oh, here's the trigger-inducing English that you're hoping that I'm going to give you some Greek and Hebrew for and really change the meaning of this, and I'm going to try to help you out here, but it won't be that way: "As it is written, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.'" So I titled my sermon this morning "God Hates Sinners."
God hates sinners. Notice that I didn't say God hates sin. He hates that too, but God hates—and I know many of you say, well, God hates sin, but he hates—God hates—what is the phrase? "God hates the sin but loves the sinner." You know that phrase? How many people heard that phrase wrong? God hates the sin and hates the sinner.
That's what the Bible said. That's what it said right there. Now, why is this important to us? Why is this important to us? Because we have separated God's disdain.
We have separated what comes from us, but it is out of the heart of a man that all things spring up. Okay?
We don't get to live in a world in the Bible where we claim to be a new creation and we live like the old man. The Bible gives no allowance for that.
Now, the Bible does give allowance for having moments of idiocy. How many of you have moments of idiocy every once in a while? Like, praise the Lord, like, I have some moments of idiocy, but we won't habitually. First of all, we feel bad about being an idiot. There's a sign right there. It's like, oh, we're brokenhearted at that behavior that sprung up out of nowhere. Paul says, "Where did that come from?" The flesh. And because we are still wrapped in flesh, we still have things that we do that are sinful, but sin does not have us like God has us. We are made new. We are made completely new.
Notice here—and I think it's important to kind of indicate—it had nothing to do with Jacob or Esau. So his love towards Jacob and his hatred towards Esau, it had nothing to do with Jacob or Esau. You know what it had to do with? God choosing them. God choosing one and God not choosing another. So just—I'm going to break this down more, but generally speaking, every time you see a word used in the Bible, you need to see why that word's being used, and in the context it's being used. Now, for here, how many of you know there are many different words for love in the Bible? We know that much, right? There's phileo, there's all types of—agape love, there's all types of love, and those are applied differently. They're applied differently. So you're asking me, so what does this love mean? Well, contextually speaking, we're going to give the actual word here for love and hate, but contextually speaking, he's speaking to those he chose and those he didn't. That's important. Now, you might apply love here as hugs and squishes and kisses, and maybe that's how you apply it. Maybe some of you apply love as, you know, mercy and gentleness and affection, but here it's specifically talking about God loved Jacob because he chose Jacob, and he hated Esau because he didn't choose Esau. It had nothing to do with what he did. It had everything to do with what God did.
Now, let me break this down for you. Some of you are going, "Well, he hated Esau because Esau was a sinner and Jacob was good." Wrong. It was the opposite, kind of. If you looked at the life of Esau, he lived more upright. He may—he was more honest in many ways. He lived a better life. He was more honorable in the terms of the way that the world sees an individual, and Jacob was a thief, a liar, a scoundrel, a cheat. He was undermining. If you were to compare them, you would think Esau went to church every week and could serve on the elder board, and Jacob was an out-and-out pagan, yet he chose Jacob. Now, this is important. I don't know why my voice cracked just there, but that was embarrassing. This is an important indicating marker. It's saying something to us as a reader:
It is not the measure of your sin, it is the choice of God.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 19:27
Notice both of them were sinners. God hates sinners. That's the name of my sermon. Everyone is a sinner, but you know what happens at the cross?
Love and hate come down to a single point. We see love and hate hit Christ.
We see the love of God for Christ and for the world, and we see the hate of God for Christ in that situation, because he bore the sin of the world. He stepped into your place. Sin did not step— sin was not taken—your sin was not taken by Christ on the cross. You and your sin were taken by Christ, and you were hidden in him.
He stood in your place. He stood in your place. So for those who don't believe, there are people today they don't like the idea of election, predestination, and all of this, and that God is sovereign and God decides these things. They don't like that. They don't like the moving away from an effort-driven religion. Most—listen, what makes us unique is that God elected. What makes our belief system different is that God elected us and we are saved through Jesus Christ. That's what makes us unique. Every other religion is moral-based, it's ethical-based, it's "achieve this and you'll get this," but not Christianity. So
Let us not then turn Christianity into some pagan religion. Let us trust in the word that God does what he pleases.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 21:33
So for those who don't believe that, and some people hate—some people hate, honestly, they hate the idea of God forcing himself on you, but the whole Bible—the Bible is fraught with imagery of God forcing himself on people. The simple fact that Sarah was going to have a baby, no one asked her for her permission. God told her. The simple fact that Mary was going to have a baby, ain't nobody took a vote.
God told her, "You're going to have a baby, it's going to be the Christ." "Well, I didn't sign up for this." "Sorry about you."
God chooses who he pleases, and he don't ask for your opinion.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 22:22
Why is it that all through the Bible we see imagery of God choosing who he pleases sovereignly without your opinion, but when it comes to salvation, we want to make it about our opinion and whether we choose him or not? God takes who he pleases. Praise the Lord today for all who are sitting in this room who know that God chose you. Praise the Lord. This gives us much to celebrate. It is exciting, and it should embolden us to go and proclaim the gospel, because this is the means by which God calls individuals. We should be spreading the good news of
Point 4The gospel does not start with God loves you
The gospel to the whole world, and in case you didn't know,
The good news is not God loves you. The good news is God hates sin and he hates the sinner, and you should be terrified in the presence of a holy God, because he's coming to kill you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 23:25
That's the gospel. But Christ—God so loved the world that he sent his only Son to die for you, because you're a filthy, rotten scoundrel and he's coming to kill you. Repent. That's the gospel. It's bigger than that, but that is the gospel. It doesn't start with God loves you. It doesn't start with God unconditionally loves you.
Stop saying that. Stop saying God's love doesn't have a condition. It has two conditions, right off the top of the bat from chapter 9.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 24:18
One condition is, were you chosen?
The second condition is, he don't love sin. So if you have sin, he don't love sin, and he don't love the sinner, he hates them. So don't just be throwing out words out there that you think maybe will help explain God a little bit.
Why don't you use the words that he uses in the Bible? Because that's good enough.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 24:47
And if men are saved, they're saved by the power of these words, not your softened words that save no one. That's good. That's good. Some of you are like, "Well, I just can't imagine trying to share the gospel with someone." Like, I did it two weeks ago. It is amazing how, when someone who's trying to decide what to do with Christ, when you speak of the gravity of sin, how non-believers, they don't have a problem with that. It's just church people that have a problem with this, and so we need to speak to the gravity of sin because we're all sinners. Now, just so you know, "Shawn, do you really believe that God hates sinners?" Well, Romans 9—do you know that Paul is quoting Malachi, right? All right, so let's just look at that real quick so we can get some better context, and I have it on my phone here, Malachi 1, and we'll look at 1 through 5. Let's read this together so we can get some kind of context of where Paul is pulling this from. "The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. 'I have loved you,' says the Lord. But you say, 'how have you loved us?' 'Is not Esau Jacob's brother?' declares the Lord. 'Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated.'"
It doesn't say "Esau I love less." "'I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.' If Edom says, 'We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,' the Lord of hosts says, 'They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called the wicked country, and the people with whom the Lord is angry forever. Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, "Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel!"'" Notice that in God's love and hatred comes and springs forth God's glory. Some of you ask, "Why does he love some and hate others?" For his glory and for the sake of his glory. So, "Shawn, do you actually believe—I know you've been dancing around the subject—do you actually believe God hated Esau?
Do you actually believe that God hates sinners? Do you actually believe that?" Yes, I believe that. I believe that. Here's an Old Testament word for hate, all right? Oh, there it is.
The word translated as "hate" in Malachi 1:3 is sane and is almost always rendered "hate" or "hatred." For instance, in 146 occurrences, it's translated 136 times as "hate." So it means hate in the Old Testament. Okay, Shawn, but what about the New Testament? I'm glad you asked. In the New Testament, Paul describes the historic scene of God's choice to love Jacob and to hate Esau, and he uses a word in the Greek—I actually, I think it's—it's miseo, all right, that's, I think, that's how you pronounce that. Miseo is how you say that, translated as "hated," and it literally means, this is the literal meaning, to have strong aversion to hate, or to detest. So yes, it means that. Let's look to Psalms, Psalm 5:5–6.
Psalm 5:5–6 says, "The boastful"—not those who boast; notice that it links the sin to the sinner, and the sinner becomes that, the product of whatever springs forth from him; it is evidential knowledge of what they are—"The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evil doers." Well, then why does he love some? Because isn't everyone a sinner? All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Why does he love—why does it say that he loves some if he hates all evildoers? Because he's chosen some to not be evildoers anymore, and how does he remedy that? He remedies that by way of the cross and the Holy Spirit, which indwells the believer, that they might be led into all manner of holiness. "You destroy those who speak lies. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man." He abhors it. So for some of you who have a problem with "God hates sinners," how about "God abhors them"?
He abhors a deceitful man. Fourteen times in the first 50 Psalms alone, we see God very clearly hates the sinner. In John chapter 3, there is earmarked in there one of the most famous verses known by most people, both believers and pagans alike. How many of you know John 3:16? Let's say it in your own translation. Some of you are going to be King James-ing it up in here, and that's fine, right?
I'll have a problem with that. Let's just say it together, for good. Almost unanimous. How many of you know John 3:36? Let's repeat it together.
Here's what John 3:36 says: "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him." Notice the wrath of God is already on an evildoer, and it will remain on him.
No one remembers that. Matter of fact, after the John 3:16, you just read down through, after John 3:16 all the way to 36, and see how much God talks about how much he hates sin and the wrath is coming for those who live as sinners. Why not quote that? It's not pretty.
It's kind of scary, huh?
We have spent all of our life trying to talk people out of being afraid, but there is an unhealthy fear and a healthy fear.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 32:22
I say unrighteous fear and righteous fear. People only talk about fear not, but they don't say it is terrifying and should be terrifying to fall into the hands of an angry God. There is a righteous fear. How many of you know that fear sometimes protects you? Not all fear is bad. There is an unhealthy fear and a healthy fear. There is an unhealthy love and a healthy love. How many of you know that we're going to get to heaven and realize that there are many people that we loved straight to hell? We loved because we did it in an unhealthy fashion. Why? "I love them too much to offend them."
It's going to be dumbfounding when we realize that what we did in the name of love Satan used to destroy lives and eternities.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 33:30
There's this tract that this church put out, kind of being snarky—I like the word snarky, I've been looking for an opportunity to use the word snarky— and that there was—it's like, I blew it up here, "snarky." See if you can use it this week somewhere, sometime. It's a fantastic word to use. It makes me want to chuckle every time I say it. This is the parts of the sermon that I want to cut out, but it takes too much time to go in there and remove stuff. But snarky, this church was kind of being snarky, and they put together a tract, and the tract is a picture of the ark, and it has a smiley face on the side of it, and it says, "Come to Christ. God loves you."
Think about the imagery there. The ark with a giant emoticon smiley face on it. The gospel in essence, that God chose some and destroyed the rest. That's the gospel. Yet we try to make it a happy thing, and we say things like, when we proclaim the gospel, "God loves you."
That's where we start and that's where we end. We don't talk about sin. We don't talk about how much he's angry about that. We don't talk about the fact that God hates that, he doesn't just hate sin, he hates the sinner, because he doesn't just destroy the sin in the flood, he destroys the sinners in the flood.
It's problematic, the way we proclaim the gospel, and I love that, because it should make us think, is the extent of our proclamation of the gospel that God loves you? That's problematic for people. That's like putting a smiley face on the ark and saying, "God chose eight, but he killed the rest because he hated them,"
And then saying as the proclamation of the gospel, "No, God loves you." It creates a problem. We want to make God look better, but think about how ridiculous that is, that in essence, even in trying to protect God's nature and character and what he does, because it's confusing, you trying to make him look better is, in essence, you saying, "I am better. I know how to do it better. I know how to be better. If I were God, I wouldn't do these things." And so we sandwich the gospel and we flower it up, because at the end of the day we don't think God knows how to do it good enough. We're trying to protect his character, all the while we have a horrible one ourself. Should we be telling people God loves you?
Should we be softening the gospel? I'm afraid we want so desperately to win people to Christ that we will do everything we can to hide from them the reality of the wrath of God, and every moment they refuse to repent, all the while they are, the Bible says, heaping wrath upon themself.
Listen, this is a hard word, so no matter how I say it's going to feel hard.
I tend to be more hard and matter-of-fact by nature, and I don't cuddle people. I let the word do what it needs to do. But let me give you some FYI this morning: the kingdom of God is not Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. It's not. It's ugly.
It's tough, and in the midst of seeing God's great mercy, we
Pastor Shawn Gray · 37:42
see none at all applied to some lives.
The most dangerous truth out there is that God loves everyone unconditionally. There is no understanding of the good news apart from the bad news. The problem today is we only want to give the good news, but we are terrified not only to look at the bad news ourselves but to communicate that bad news to anyone else.
There can be no good news if there is not first bad news.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 38:10
So is it true that God loves the sinner but hates the sin?
See, the problem with that statement is the belief that you can separate what we do from who we are, and you cannot.
You cannot. "Well, yeah, you can." And it relates to sin? "Yes, you can." Shawn, no, we separate—what we do is not evidence of who we are.
Well, okay, let's cross-check that. The Bible says that what we do is evidence of who we are. Matter of fact, how do we know and check that we're a true believer? We are to judge people by what they do. So why is it that a believer cannot separate what they do from who they are, but a sinner, we take the position that you can?
And so then when we get to verses like this in here where it says God hates Esau, that is applied to a person, we try to change the meaning of that to mean something else. Listen, God's love is about his choice. The reality is I don't know if I think it's fair or not that God chose eight people to save in an ark and killed the rest of the earth. I don't really know that I think that's fair in my own mind, but when has that ever been promised?
Is that a man-concocted idea or is that a biblical one? Listen to me today. What about Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot?
Because God chose Lot to save, but destroyed all of Sodom and Gomorrah. How is that fair? How is that fair?
And let me blow your mind, and then I'm going to walk off the stage, right? Let me blow your mind. I don't really have an answer to this. I'm actually—it just popped into my mind. I mentioned it last Wednesday, I thought about it a little bit more, and my mind almost exploded, but let me just read this verse to you.
Everybody turn their Bibles to 1 John, all right? 1 John chapter 4. I'm going to give you a moment. Let's read this. I'm going to drop a bomb, I'm going to walk off, all right? Because I believe you, with the help of the Holy Spirit and the illumination of the word through the Holy Spirit and the fact that we have the word, can help you with this. I don't need to spoon-feed you regarding this situation, but you have to reconcile this. 1 John 4:7 through whatever: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love."
Everybody say that last part at the end of verse 8, those three words. What is it? "He is love." It is
Point 5God's holy hatred emanates from his love
Who he is. Therefore—and we'll read on here in just a minute—everything that emanates from him is love.
In other words, hatred is not the absence of love, it is the evidence of it, because if it comes from him and God is love, then it has some facet of lovingness in it. All right, this is not a whole theology class. Can God pick up a rock? Can God create a rock too big for him to pick up? In our world, hatred is the absence of love. In his world, hatred emanates from love because it comes from him.
A righteous hatred. How many of you know that there is an unrighteous hatred? How many of you know there is a holy anger and an unholy anger? So we don't get to move and compartmentalize hatred outside of love. We must understand that there is a righteous hatred and an unrighteous hatred, and if it comes from God, we know it's holy and righteous. This is very important. Let's just read the rest of that verse, because I love it.
So I guess that means I love God because he is love. I don't know, I'm just throwing this out there. Verse 9: "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God"—listen to this—"the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him." That isn't "get saved and live in your own strength void of him." "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us." Read through that a smidge.
God is love. Therefore, as we see him hating a sinner, we see this and we must see this as an act of love. I don't understand that. I don't get it, but God here is not on trial because he hates someone. And there are a lot of people who take the Scripture and put God on trial, and they begin to question whether or not God loves to the measure that they do, and because they look at their love as the supreme love.
But we take love and we enable people to go straight to hell, because we don't love like God. We don't love like God. Why does God love esau? Why does God hate Esau and love Jacob? Why? Because he chose one. In his great mercy, he chose one.
And in the midst of everyone worthy of eternal damnation, this is an act of mercy that he would choose anyone.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 45:34
Anyone. It's an act of mercy, and it's an act of love.
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