Latest / Teachings On This Day On FerventWord / On Aug 12, 2015: Romans 9:6-31 Salvation Is Gods Choice
Transcript
- You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2015. We are here this evening in Romans chapter 9, and we're going to be looking at the majority of Romans chapter 9, but we'll start out by reading verses 1 through 8 here of Romans chapter 9. And so let's read through this passage together. Romans chapter 9 verse 1 says, I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. Verse 1. Verse 6. Verse 7. Here in Romans chapter 9, we have a really incredible passage. which we'll be spending time looking at this evening. And just to kind of give you a little bit of a heads up, I would encourage you to pull out your steak knives, maybe sharpen them up a little bit. The things that Paul gets into here is pretty meaty. And there's some stuff that we'll have to chew on. And it's, you know, not... We've been looking at chapter 8, and it's just like light and just beautiful and awesome and blessings, and that's good stuff. But also here, we're going to be talking about the sovereignty of God. And so I titled the message for this evening, Salvation is God's Sovereignty. And as we look at Romans chapter 9 this evening, we'll see the sovereignty of God at work. And the way that Paul lays it out helps us to understand who God is and the way that he works in selecting or choosing those that he's working in. Now, Paul here, as he's launching into this discussion, he's answering an objection that he's anticipating. Right? So as I mentioned last week, you know, Romans chapter 9 is not, you know, clean break, new subject, you know, everything else is disconnected. But it's really the continuation as he's been talking about the gospel and how we're not separated from the love of God. But then he goes into his lament for Israel, for his fellow Jews who are not believers and how he wished he could be cut off for their sake. And so he imagines here, as you look at verse 6, it says, He's imagining here, he's responding to what he thinks people will object to and respond to and say, well, if Israel... rejected Jesus, and if Israel's not saved, well, does that mean that the word of God is not very effective? Does that mean we should not trust God's word because his own people, you know, who received all the promises and such, they're not saved. They didn't receive the Messiah. And so you wish you could be cut off for them, Paul. Does that mean that we can't trust God at his word? Does that mean that God really is able to save or is he not able to save? And so Paul will answer this objection by discussing the sovereignty of God, but also the selection of God. Now, this is a big subject, and Paul's going to be dealing with this here in chapter 9, as well as chapter 10 and 11. And so we'll be looking at elements of the sovereignty of God and the selection of God over the next couple chapters. Now, as we look at these, for those who have been around for a while, it's very easy to get distracted by the debates that surround some of these subjects. And so you have, you know, the camp of the Calvinists, you have the camp of the Arminianists, and there's, you know, the battles theologically that they have and the discussions that they have. And my objective is not to get into those theological systems and explain, you know, what each one believes, but but to just simply look at the scriptures and try to understand what Paul is explaining to us about who God is and the way that God is. But we do see that there is what seems to be some tension between the free will of man and the sovereignty of God. That is that you have choice and you have responsibility, and yet God is on the throne and he controls everything. He rules on high. Now, many times as we talk about the free will of man versus the sovereignty of God, we talk about it in terms of being opposites. And I shared this a few weeks back in chapter 8 as well. But it's important to understand. We describe them as opposites so that, you know, you go this way and God is sovereign. He rules over all. And it's to the detriment of, or, you know, that the farther over this way you go, well, the less responsibility, the less choice man has. Man really doesn't have a choice. God rules over all. And then you go down to the other side of the spectrum and it's like, okay, well, man has all choice. He gets to do whatever he wants. And And, you know, God really has no say in it because it's all up to the human responsibility and the human choice that God has, you know, given to them. And so we often describe it as like two ends of the spectrum. And I think, you know, there's merit in that. But I also like to describe it better as an intersection. So not two ends of one line, but an intersection of two lines, right? And the reason why is, well, if you think about this church, we are at an intersection. We're on the corner of Lincoln and Railroad. Now, there are two roads. There are two streets, you know, and they're both valid streets. They both, you know, are getcha places. But the only way to get here is to come where the two meet, right? Come to the corner of Lincoln and railroad. So if you're on Lincoln, that doesn't necessarily mean you're at living water. If you're on railroad, that doesn't necessarily mean you're at living water. But when you come to Lincoln and railroad, that's an indication, you know, you're at the destination. And the reason why I describe it that way as well is because, well, if you consider the sovereignty of God and the free will of man as an intersection, then you can also understand if you take one direction forward, past the intersection, then you're going to a different location. You're ending up at a different place. So if you take the sovereignty of God and you go past the free will of man, and so there are those who would teach that man doesn't have free will because God is sovereign. But that's going past the intersection. It's going beyond what the Bible says, and it ends up with a bad conclusion, a wrong location. And so, And if you take the free will of man too far, well, then the same thing. Then you end up with, well, God's watching from a distance. He just wound us up like a top and he's not involved at all. It's all up to us, everything that happens. And so you go past the intersection and you end up at the wrong location. But the balance and where the scripture falls is where these two meet, where there is the sovereignty of God and there is the free will of man. And as you stay at that intersection, you end up at the right place and the balance of what the scripture says. And I think that we saw on Sunday a good example of this as well with King Saul there in 1 Samuel. And we saw how Saul was clearly called by God. He's chosen by God, selected by God. God made it clear. He gave signs. He told Samuel in advance. Then he confirmed it afterwards. And it was just, you know, very clear, abundantly clear. Saul was chosen by God. But he wasn't the best king that Israel ever had. In fact, he failed pretty early as king. And God announced very early that his kingdom would not last forever. Because, well, although Saul was called and chosen and selected and anointed and all of that, you know, with confirmations and signs, he also used his free will to disobey God and basically give up or surrender his kingdom because of his disobedience to God. And so you see the balance in his life. There was that calling and that choosing, but there was also the choice of Saul to be disobedient to God. And so here in Romans chapter 9, we're looking at more the sovereignty of God and understanding that salvation is God's choice and getting that aspect or that perspective on the salvation that we've been talking about throughout the book of Romans. So there's six points that we'll walk through this evening as we look at salvation being God's choice. The first one is found in verses 6 through 9. And here, point number one, is that God counts the promised as his children. God counts the promised as his children. Verse 6 again says, And so again, Paul, in answering this objection, is explaining God's word has not failed. It's not that the word of God has taken no effect. And he says we know this because, well, God was specific and selective in his promise. Israel as a nation rejected Jesus. And Israel as a nation is not experiencing the salvation that God has provided. They have the name Israel, Paul is explaining, but they are not really Abraham's descendants because they would not believe in Jesus. He goes on in verse 7 to say, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham, but because they are the seed of Abraham, And so, no, the word of God has not been, you know, of no effect. But when the word of God was speaking about the salvation of Israel, he was speaking about those who would be descendants of Abraham, but not just the genetic relation to Abraham. That was not enough as far as God was concerned. He was concerned about the relationship to Abraham as far as believing God in the same way that Abraham did. And so he says, it's not just that they're the seed of Abraham. And then to help illustrate that, he quotes from Genesis chapter 21, verse 12, where God says, in Isaac, your seed shall be called. And so here it's calling back to Abraham when he was walking with the Lord in the land of Canaan, the land that God promised to him and his descendants. God promised him that he would have a son. And you remember the account. Abraham waited and it didn't seem like much was happening. And so him and Sarah came up with a plan and Hagar, the handmaiden, was given to Abraham. And Abraham had a son with her and they named him Ishmael. But God said, that's not the son I was talking to you about. That's not the son I promised you. And so, well, I'm going to still give you a son. I'm still going to fulfill that promise that I gave you. And so later on, Abraham and Sarah were able to give birth to Isaac. And then God announces and declares, in Isaac your seed shall be called. He's going to carry on your lineage. He's going to carry on the line of the Messiah. He's going to be the fulfillment of the things that I promised to you. And so God attached his promises to Isaac. Now traditionally in their culture and their customs, that that blessing and those attachments of promises would have went to the firstborn. It should have been Ishmael, according to their normal practices. But God was not just working on, well, whoever descends biologically from Abraham. He's talking about those who descend from Abraham that he promised, that he spoke about, that he declared in advance. And so that makes reference to Isaac. After Sarah's death, Abraham remarried and he had other children as well. But again, those children are not inheritance of the promise. They are not the children of promise. It was Isaac that was the child that God spoke to him about. And so Paul is making the point here. It's not that God's word hasn't been effective, but God's word was directed and selected for those specific people that he had called out in advance. Verse 8 says, He says, that is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. So here again, Paul is saying the same thing over. He's saying the children of the flesh. Now, that's not talking about, you know, like we talk about being in the flesh, you know, when we're disobedient and such. But he's talking about those who are biological descendants of Abraham, right? He says that doesn't automatically make them children of God, but it's the children of promise that are counted as the seed. And so Ishmael was not the son that God had told Abraham about. It was not the son that God had promised. And so he was not the seed that carried on this promise of God. In verse 9, he says, And here he quotes from Genesis 18, verse 14. Isaac was born according to God's promise. At the appropriate time, the next year, God returned and Sarah had a son named Isaac. Now later on in Genesis chapter 22, when God was testing Abraham, he told him to take Isaac, his only son Isaac that he loves, up to Mount Moriah to offer him as a sacrifice. But of course, at that time, we know Ishmael was alive. Ishmael was, I think it was 13 years older than Isaac. So he was around. He was established. You know, he'd been around for a long time. But God refers to Isaac as Abraham's only son. Because again, God counts the promised as his children. He was very specific. He was very selective in who he was focused on in carrying on the promise to Abraham and the line of Abraham, the messianic line and the fulfillment of all those things that he had spoken to Abraham about. And so as we begin looking at salvation being God's choice, we need to first of all understand that God counts the promised as his children. He's specific, he's selective in who he's talking about. And so as he spoke about, you know, Israel and the fact that Israel is not saved, it doesn't mean that the word of God is not effective, but it's a, well, Paul is saying it's because God was speaking about those that he knew and those that he had declared beforehand. Well, going on now to point number two in verses 10 through 13, point number two is God calls whomever he chooses. So God speaks about and selects the people that he chooses, but he also calls whomever he chooses. In verse 10, he says, So now he's going to go into another example. First looking at Abraham and Sarah with Isaac, but now he looks at Isaac and his wife, Rebekah. Now, they get married, they conceive, and she's going to have twins, but she doesn't know it yet. And so what she experiences is some trouble within her. She feels something's wrong, something's not right. And she goes and inquires of the Lord. And the Lord speaks to her and says, well, the reason why you're feeling this way is because you have twins. There's two nations within you, and they're battling. And the older is going to serve the younger. And so he talks about this more in verse 11. He says, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls. Verse 12, it was said to her, the older shall serve the younger. And this is there in Genesis chapter 25, verse 23. So he looks back to this situation where Rebecca is having children. She's pregnant. She has twins. She finds out she has twins as the Lord announces it to her. And so while they're still in the womb, still being developed before they're ever born, God declares the older shall serve the younger. And so Paul points out here in verse 11, the children not yet being born, he declared this, he made this declaration before they were born. And he makes sure to point out that they hadn't done any good or evil. So Paul This declaration that God makes, the older shall serve the younger, was not a punishment for doing bad. And it was not a reward for doing good for, you know, a punishment for the older or a reward for the younger. He explains, this was so that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand. Not of works. It's not based on what these guys did, but it's based on him who calls. And so it was not in response to, you know, Jacob and Esau and their behavior. It was God made a choice. He made a selection. And so as a result, he made the declaration that older will serve the younger. And God is able to do that. God calls whomever he chooses, even if they haven't been born yet. He's able to declare in advance because he knows all. Now he goes on in verse 13 to say, as it is written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated. Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated. Jake modified his Bible a little bit on this verse. He scratched out Esau and put Jerry in his place. So Jacob I've loved and Jerry I've hated. But that's not what the original Greek says. Jacob I loved and Esau I've hated. Now this is a quotation from Micah chapter 1 verses 2 and 3. And this verse has really troubled a lot of people because what does it mean that God hated Esau? And it sounds pretty brutal, right? And there's an account of a woman who once went up to Spurgeon, the preacher, and said, I can't understand why God said that he hated Esau. And I always enjoy Spurgeon's response. He says, that's not my difficulty. My trouble is to understand how God could love Jacob. You can wonder how could God hate Esau, but a bigger question Spurgeon says is how could God love Jacob? Well, to help us understand what this verse is, I want to show you here the original verse. passage that Paul is quoting from here in Malachi chapter 1, and I think it helps us understand it quite a bit. In Malachi chapter 1 verse 2, God says, "...I have loved you, says the Lord. Yet you say, in what way have you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, says the Lord? Yet Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated, and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness." And so you see how that makes it so much more clear. No, of course. Okay, I'll explain a little bit more. First of all, notice here in this passage, God's not talking about individuals. So we think of Jacob and Esau. We think of the two, you know, boys that were about to be born, you know, in the previous passage. We think about those two men and their lives. And we think, how could God love one and hate the other? But actually in this passage, this is happening repeatedly. hundreds of years after Jacob and Esau are long off the scene. They've died many years ago. God's not talking about those individuals. He's talking about the nations that came from them. He's talking about their descendants. And so we can see this because, well, the people are asking, in what way have you loved us? And God is speaking to the people of Israel who were there at that time in Malachi's day. And they're They're saying, or he's saying, God loves you. And the people are saying, well, how has God loved us? How has God loved this nation? And he declares, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated. And then notice, laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness. So he's talking about the land of Esau. Now Esau, his descendants are known as the Edomites. And in the following verses here of Malachi, it begins to refer to the Edomites. And so he's talking about nations. He's not talking about the individuals, Jacob and Esau. So that's one thing to understand. But another aspect of this to consider is that God is not using the words love and hate the way that we typically would. And so it's not saying that God hated Esau and so, you know, he wouldn't let him prosper and so he made his life miserable and then ultimately he brought him, you know, great judgment. That's not what he's saying. He's not saying that about the man or he's not saying, and also he's not saying that about the people, the descendants of Esau. He's really talking about, again, a selection, a focus, an emphasis upon the nation of Israel, also known as Jacob. You could think about it in a similar way that Jesus used these words in Luke chapter 14, verse 26. Jesus says, Now, again, there Jesus, again, is not saying, you know, hate your father and mother and do bad to them and destroy them and do the best you can to take them out. You know, that's not what Jesus is saying. But he's talking about selection. He's talking about putting God first, about putting the focus and the priority upon God. And what God is illustrating here to the Jewish people in Malachi chapter 1 is, hey, you know, I've blessed you guys. I've protected you guys. I've allowed the land of Edom to become a desolate wilderness. And we got to understand that both Israel and Edom deserved to be laid waste. So it's not that Edom was laid waste and it didn't deserve it. It's not that it was unjust. It's Israel also deserved to be laid waste, but God showed blessings and mercy to Israel. He protected Israel. He preserved Israel, and he brought back a remnant of captives after their destruction back to the land of Israel. And so in that way, God has expressed his love, his selection, his preference for Israel and his protection and blessing for them. And so again, salvation is God's choice. It's about God's choice, his selection. And he calls whomever he chooses. And whether it's in the womb, you know, for two individuals, or whether it's two nations that he's speaking about, he's able to call and choose whomever he desires. Now, is that unfair is the question that will come against, you know, as we consider these things. And Paul's going to go on to explain that it's not unfair. And we'll see that in verses 14 through 18 as we go now to point number three. God has mercy on whomever he chooses. Point number three is that God has mercy on whomever he chooses. Now, again, as we look at these points, you can understand why. It's very clear here, and Paul's making sure we get it. Salvation is all about God's choice. He's the one who's calling the shots. He's the one who gets to call the shots. those who are his children. He gets the one, he gets to call whomever he pleases. He gets to, you know, select and choose and work in our lives in the way that he desires and chooses. And here, as we go on in point number three, he's able to have mercy on whomever he chooses. Now, verse 14, he says, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? And then he goes on to say, certainly not. Again, the question is, is God unfair? Because of the way he dealt with Jacob and Esau, because of the way that he dealt with the descendants of Jacob and Esau, the nation of Israel, the nation of Edom, was God unfair in how he dealt with them? Was it unfair? Was it wrong for God to choose a people and bless them according to his own purposes? And Paul says, no way, certainly not. It's not unfair. It's not wrong. It's not unrighteous for God to do this. In verse 15, for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. Here he quotes from Exodus chapter 33, verse 19. And Paul is making the point here. God reserves the right to to show mercy on whomever he wants. God reserves the right to show mercy to anyone that he chooses. He gets to make the call, and if he wants to, he can show mercy. Is that unfair? Is it unfair? Now, in our society, there is oftentimes in our hearts kind of an air of expectation that we deserve everything. You know, everything should be just given to us. But just because we feel that way or we have that perspective doesn't mean that it's right. And so we might say, yeah, that's unfair as we look at these things. But the reality is, it is not unfair. The first thing we have to understand is that the default condition of the world, that is, the default condition of every human being is judgment. Every single one of us deserves judgment. Every one of us deserves eternity separated from God because of our sinfulness. Now, justice is, well, getting the judgment that is deserved. Mercy is a whole different thing. Mercy is the idea of withholding judgment that is deserved. And so everybody deserves judgment. And God says, I reserve the right to withhold judgment because from whoever I want. I have that right. I'm God. I am the judge. I get to do that. This word mercy, though, also would be closely related to the idea of grace. As you can see, he says mercy and compassion. He's able to express mercy and compassion upon whoever he wants. And again, we talk about grace as being undeserved and unmerited, unearned favor from God. And so whether you want to talk about mercy or grace or compassion, these are all things that are not expressed because of something that's earned or deserved. The only thing that you and I deserve is judgment. And so God does not owe you mercy and he does not owe you grace. He does not owe you compassion. And so to not receive mercy is not unfair. to not receive mercy, even if somebody else did, is not unjust. God is able to show mercy if he wants to. I know we wrestle with this because maybe you've had the experience where you got pulled over and you're frustrated because, well, I saw another guy just 30 seconds ago going faster than I was going and yet you pulled me over. Now, why would you pull me over when someone else is going faster? Is that unfair to be pulled over for speeding when somebody else was going faster? Now, the police officer would try to explain to you, well, that may be true, but you were still breaking the law. It's still fair for you to be punished, for you to be penalized for breaking the law when you're breaking the law, even if somebody else is breaking the law in a manner that you would say is worse. You know, to get a ticket is not a declaration that you are the absolute worst offender on the freeway that day. That's not what the ticket means. The ticket means you broke the law. Yes, others might have and others might have worse. But it's not unfair for you to get a ticket because you deserve a ticket when you're breaking the law. Again, in the same way, you deserve judgment. Everybody deserves judgment. And so to receive mercy, well, that's a great blessing. That's a hallelujah, praise the Lord, rejoice, because I deserve judgment. And so for that judgment to be withheld, well, that's wonderful. But we can't then call God unfair or unjust because, well, he shows mercy, but not everybody gets judgment withheld. If God punished people who didn't deserve it, that would be unjust. But to withhold judgment, that's God's choice. He's able to do that. He gets to do that. Maybe a different way to think about it. If I have millions of dollars at my disposal and I decide, you know, I just want to give some of this away. So I walk over to Ronnie and I say, Ronnie, here's a million dollars. And then Melissa looks at me and says, that's unfair. How come I don't get a million dollars? Well, that's not unfair. It's my right to use the money, to give the money to whoever I want. I don't have to equally disperse it among everybody here. I can, now just to be clear, I don't have any money, okay? So don't get your hopes up, okay? This is just an illustration. But I don't have to equally disperse my gift. Now, you know, maybe in kindergarten, we operate on that level, right? Okay, well, if you're going to have that, you know, do you have enough to share with everybody, right? Because there's, you know, level of understanding there. But it's not unfair for me to give money something to someone because I want to and not give to everybody else. That's not unjust. It's not unrighteous. And so God is able to show mercy on whomever he wants to show mercy. And he's able to show compassion on whomever he wants to show compassion. Verse 16. So then it is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. So it's not about your will. It's not about what you want. Well, I want God to show me mercy, even though I don't repent. Well, yeah, I'm sure you do want that. I'm sure we would all want that. That's not the way that it works. It's not about him who wills. It's not about him who runs. So it's not about what you do, but it's about God who shows mercy. It's about God making his choices, his selections, according to his desires. Now he gives another example in verse 17. He says, for the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose, I have raised you up that I may show my power in you and that my name may be declared in all the earth. This is a quotation from Exodus chapter nine, verse 16. And so God speaking to Pharaoh through Moses says, all right, Pharaoh, I've raised you up for a particular purpose so that I can show my power in you And that my name may be declared. And so Pharaoh was raised up. He had authority. And as a result of that, God was able to bring these incredible, miraculous plagues against the nation of Egypt. In doing so, he delivered Israel out of Egypt. And the whole rest of the world heard about God and his power and his work. Because God raised up Pharaoh for that particular purpose. And so Pharaoh would receive the judgment of God and be a declaration of God's power to the whole earth. And again, we would ask, is that unfair? Well, again, I would say Pharaoh deserved judgment. So it's not unjust for God to allow people to receive the judgment that they deserve. That's not unfair. That's not unjust. Verse 18, therefore, he has mercy on whom he wills Now here's another concept that sometimes we struggle with, this idea of hardening. How could God harden, using this example, Pharaoh? So you get the point, right? Pharaoh resisted letting the people go. And the idea is that, well, he resisted because his heart was hard. But the more his heart was hard, the greater demonstration of power was demonstrated. And so God's power, you know, was demonstrated to a greater degree the longer Pharaoh's heart was hard and would not respond to God and let God's people go. And so God says, I have mercy on whom I have mercy. And whoever I want to, I can harden them. I can hold them in that position. deserving and receiving judgment. Now, the important thing to understand here is that God is not saying that he removed choice from Pharaoh or from anybody else. And I think a good example of this is going back to the very beginning of Romans, just to read you a brief passage from Romans chapter 1. Remember, as Paul was there explaining that we are all deserving of judgment, the unrighteousness of God is taking place, and so the wrath of God is being revealed. And in Romans chapter 1 verse 22, he says, So here's the idea of what Paul is saying here. the people, the unrighteous, they professed to be wise, but they became fools. They traded the glory of God for man-made gods. And they worshipped those gods. And they practiced wickedness as a result. And so Paul says there in Romans 1.24, so therefore God gave them up to uncleanness. This is... What I would say is a good picture of what it means for God to harden someone's heart. That he lets them go in that direction of unrighteousness, in that direction of unbelief. It's not that he removed choice and he said, you're going to be hard whether you like it or not. But instead it's that, well, you've chosen to be hard. You've chosen to be disobedient and I'm going to allow you to do that. Or even God could say, I'm going to help you in that, like you did with Pharaoh. Pharaoh hardened his own heart, and also God hardened Pharaoh's heart. In Romans chapter 1, Paul will go on to say in verse 26, And so again, the idea is they were engaging in vile passions, and so God delivered them over to those vile passions. In verse 28 of Romans chapter 1, he says, And so mentally they're saying, I refuse to believe in God. And God says, okay, I'll help you in that. And I'll just deliver you over and you'll have a debased mind because you insist in disobeying, in believing in God. And so God has mercy on whomever he chooses and he hardens whomever he chooses. But don't take that to mean that God removes choice from the individual, but he still reserves the right to have mercy or to harden whoever he chooses. He has the right. Now, why does he have the right? And how is it fair? How is it right that God is able to do this? Well, that brings us now to point number four, found in verses 19 through 21. God has the right to form us however he chooses. We need to understand this. God has the right to form us in whatever manner or fashion that he wants. In verse 19, you will say to me, why then, why does he still find fault for who has resisted his will? So again, Paul is anticipating the response. Well, if he shows mercy whenever he wants and he hardens whoever he wants, well, why does he still hold us accountable? Why does he still find fault? Because while he... and he shows mercy and how can we go against the will of God? Who has resisted the will of God? And again, you see here Paul talking about this tension between the free will of man versus the sovereignty of God. And so there's the challenge. If God is sovereign, why am I still accountable? Because, well, it's God who chose it. He's the one who made me this way. And there are some who would say that. I'm just being whoever God created me to be. I can't fight the will of God, you know? And so I'm just living this way or living that way because that's who God created me to be. Now, Paul anticipates this question, but he doesn't answer it directly right away. Instead, he, first of all, reminds us of our place. He kind of puts us back in our place in verse 20. He says, but indeed, oh man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, why have you made me like this? And so Paul says, let me just remind you about your place in creation. You are a very little tiny created thing and God is the almighty creator. And you are accountable to him whether or not you like it or whether or not you understand why. And so you might say to God, why have you made me like this? But he's not obligated to answer you. You're obligated to answer him But he's not obligated to answer you because he's the creator and you're the creation. Who are you to reply against God? Who are you to question God or to think that you know better than God, to think that you have a better way or a better approach than God does? That's not the way that it works. You are a created being and God is your creator. Who are you to reply against God? In verse 21, he goes on with this thought saying, does not the potter have power over the clay from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? So he uses an example of the potter and the clay. It's one that God's used in the past as well with the prophet Jeremiah, I think Isaiah as well. But so this idea of the potter, God is the potter and you are the clay. Now, I understand that's not real flattering, right? It's like, you know, so what do I do as clay? Well, you pretty much just sit there. God's the one who is in control. And God has the right to form you however he chooses. He has that right, just like a potter has the right to shape the clay however he wants. And the potter can take a lump of clay and So here's my lump of clay, and I'm going to split it in two. Same lump of clay, but now I've divided it in half. And I can take this half and make some glorious, I don't know what you make with clay, but something glorious out of it. And then I'm going to take this half and make something that, well, okay, let's say I'm going to make an ashtray, you know, out of this. And I'm going to make some dinnerware out of this. It's the same clay to start with. And God can take that same clay and use it for something glorious, make a nice plate, make a nice bowl, and then he can also make a nice bowl for the dog, you know, from the same lump of clay. The potter has all the right to do that. And the clay, what does the clay get to choose in that? What part does the clay have? The clay doesn't get a say. The clay doesn't have any rights to in this scenario. The clay doesn't have any, you know, arguments to present. The clay doesn't have any choice in the matter. And Paul is using this to remind us of our place. God is the potter. You are the clay. You don't really have a say. You might not like what God has set for you in your life, but that's not yours to dispute. It's not yours to question. You don't get a say. You God has the right to form us however he chooses. Why do I struggle with this? Why did God make me this way? Why are these things happening in my life? Why do I have to be part of this family? Why do I have to live in this neighborhood? Why do I have to live in this time period instead of that time period? The clay does not get a say, except in this scenario, I would say there is a part that the clay gets to participate in. The variable here, as far as whether the dinnerware is fashioned or the ashtray is fashioned, the condition of the clay can play a part. And the hardness, the lumps in the clay will affect what the clay is used for. Hard lumpy clay is not going to be used for fine work. It's going to have to be worked extra. It's going to have to be manipulated more and then it's marred and so it's going to be used for something less valuable, less precise and But soft clay can be used for either. And so for you and I, I would encourage us to consider God has the right to form you however he chooses. You don't get a say in what he chooses, but you do get a say in how well it goes. If you will be soft, if you will surrender to God and not fight against what he has for you and what he wants for you, things will go much smoother. But if you're going to be hard and resist and try to fight against God, he's going to have to, you know, do that extra work. There's going to be more manipulating that needs to take place because you're hard, because you've got rocks and bumps and you won't just surrender to God. Listen, salvation is God's choice, but there's a lot more that's God's choice beyond salvation as well. God has the right to form you however he chooses. So be soft. Let God shape you and form you however he desires. Don't force your will and your vision, your goals, and what you want for life. Let God have his will. Let God have his way. Consider what the author of Hebrews wrote in Hebrews chapter 3, verse 7 and 8. He says, therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial, in the wilderness. If you want to hear God's voice, You want to experience God's plan? You want to experience God's leading? He says, don't harden your hearts. Be soft. Open yourself up to whatever God wants. Just surrender your wills, your plans, your desires to the hand of God. And let God shape you and form you and move you and relocate you and build you and train you and take things down and put things up and He can do whatever he wants. He needs to have that kind of reign in your life. That's his rightful place. He's the potter near the clay. And ultimately, the only thing you can do in that is resist him or work with him and soften your heart to hear his voice. All right, well, moving on now to point number five, verse 22 through 29 says, God chose Jews and Gentiles. Verse 22. So Paul says, Continuing to look at Pharaoh, continuing to look at this idea of God demonstrating his power through Pharaoh, he says, okay, so what if God wanted to show his wrath and make his power known, and so he endured with long-suffering the vessels of wrath that were prepared for destruction? In other words, God could have brought destruction sooner to Pharaoh, but he delayed it. He was long-suffering. So what if God did that so that his power would be known? The commentator William McDonald says it this way. He says, So you should have punished them or you could have punished them immediately, God, but you waited and didn't punish them until later. That's not unjust. That's not unfair. He still brought the punishment that was deserved, but he was long suffering with them until the time where he decided or wanted to bring the punishment. Verse 23, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had prepared beforehand for glory. Now, I want to notice and point out the contrast here between verse 22 and 23. And please understand, the Bible is very clear and specific about these things. In verse 22, he talks about vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. But then notice in verse 23, he talks about vessels of mercy, which he had prepared beforehand for glory. And so we talked about back in Romans chapter eight, this idea of predestination, the idea of God foreordaining people to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. But notice the language. Again, it's very specific. There are vessels of wrath prepared prepared for destruction, and there are vessels of mercy which God prepared beforehand for glory. So don't immediately assume it's God who prepared the vessels of wrath. In other words, God created this individual or this people just so that he could pour wrath into them. The Bible never teaches that. We prepare ourselves for wrath. We're good at that. We don't have to, you know, have God do that for us. We deserve judgment because of our wickedness, because of our sinfulness. But when it comes to mercy, well, God has his hand in that. He prepares beforehand, in advance, for glory, the vessels of mercy. Is that unfair? Think about it this way. Let's say, again, I have money at my disposal, and I see a young man, and I I decide, you know, I want to be part of his life. I want to help him. And so I began to support financially this young man. And this young man takes the money that I give to him and he goes and he buys drugs. He goes out, he starts to party. He lives up, you know, the whole kind of lifestyle that goes along with that. It would be very reasonable for me to sit down with that young man and say, you know, I'm happy to support you. But if this is what you're going to do with it, I'm not going to help you with that. I'm not going to contribute to that. Now, if you want to get an education, you want to do some things that are productive, well, I have this money that's set aside for you. I've prepared it ahead of time. I've chosen to show mercy to you. And so I'm going to give you this money as you use it for useful, productive things, things that I'd like to help you with. Now, in the same way, God prepares vessels of mercy. And he says, look, if you're going to respond to me and be obedient to me and turn to me, I'm going to help you with that. I want to work in your life along with you. Now, if you're insisting on living out this other life, you're going to prepare yourself for wrath. I'm not going to have any part of that. I'm not going to help you with that. It's your choice. But if you want God's help, well, the vessels of mercy, he's prepared. He's already ready. He's prepared beforehand to show you mercy, to show his glory. It's the way that God works. An old school preacher, Charles Erdman, says, God's sovereignty is never exercised in condemning men who ought to be saved, but rather it has resulted in the salvation of men who ought to be lost. Again, that's our default condition. We ought to be lost. We ought to be judged. We ought to be punished. But for those that God chooses, he helps. He shows mercy. And he decides, I want to save you. I don't want you to be lost. I don't want you to be judged. I want to show mercy to you. Now, Paul's point, as we go on in verse 24, he says, even us whom he called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. And so Paul is making the point here that the vessels of mercy are the ones that God called. And that includes both Jews and Gentiles, right? And so it's not just one group or the other, but God has selected people in both groups to show mercy towards. Now, Paul's going to solidify his point by quoting a few more passages, and we'll go through these verses pretty quickly. In verse 25, as he says in Hosea, I will call them my people who are not my people, and her beloved who is not beloved. This is a quotation from Hosea chapter 2, verse 23. And then verse 26, and it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people, there they shall be called the sons of the living God. And this is a quotation also from Hosea chapter 1 verse 10. Now the point of the Hosea passages is the people of God had turned from God. And so God is speaking through Hosea and using his life to demonstrate to them that although they had turned from God, that God would bring them back. And so they were called not God's people, but they were going to be renamed. Hey, these are God's people. These are the sons of God. And so the point is that God would show mercy to them in spite of their rebellions. He decided to show mercy. He chose to show mercy to them even though they had been rebellious. Then in verse 27, he quotes from Isaiah. Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel. Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved. Verse 28, for he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth. This is from Isaiah chapter 10, verse 22 and 23. God will bring judgment upon the nation and only a remnant will be saved is what Isaiah is saying or the Lord is saying through Isaiah. Now again, understand the nation deserves judgment. And so it's God's mercy to preserve a remnant. He didn't have to preserve a remnant, but he chose to. He decided to. He wanted to show mercy. And so he preserved a remnant. Verse 29, we have a quotation from Isaiah chapter 1 verse 9. And as Isaiah said before, unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and we would have been made like Gomorrah. Lord of Sabaoth, it means Lord of hosts. So it's just a way to refer to God. Now he says, unless God had left us a seed, again, this idea of a remnant of then we would have been like Sodom or Gomorrah. Now, if you think about Sodom and Gomorrah, the destruction that God brought upon Sodom and Gomorrah was complete destruction, no survivors. Men, women, children, no survivors, completely destroyed, wiped out by this judgment of God. And God could have. He had every right to bring the same kind of destruction on Israel. And he would have been completely justified in doing so. But instead, he showed mercy and allowed a remnant to survive. Because God decided. He chose to show mercy. He gets to do that. Again, because everybody deserves judgment, it's not unfair for God to show mercy on whomever he chooses. And God has chosen both Jews and Gentiles. There are Jews, there are Gentiles that God has chosen. They receive the mercy of God. God shows mercy on people from both groups. Now, how does God make this determination? Salvation is God's choice. He has the right to do whatever he wants. He gets to, you know, make the choice. He gets to count the promised as his children. He gets to call whoever he wants. He gets to show mercy whoever he wants. He gets to form us however he wants to form us. But what is... The criteria that God uses for making these choices. Is it by a roll of dice? All right, Ronnie, let's see. If you get a seven, then I'm going to show you mercy. Is it by some random, you know, number generator, you know? And so it's just completely random if he shows mercy or not. No, God has reasons, right? He gets to choose. He gets to make the choice that he wants to make. But he has reasons for making those choices. And so we find that in verse 30 and 31, God chooses those who believe. And so here again, we get to find our part. God can show mercy or harden however he chooses. But again, he doesn't choose randomly. Salvation is God's choice randomly. But he's clearly told us the criteria that he uses in making that choice. Verse 30. What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith. But Israel pursuing the law of righteousness has not attained to the law of righteousness. Israel, God's chosen people, he showed great mercy to them, but they didn't attain to righteousness because they attempted to be right before God by the law. by works, by their keeping of these rules and regulations. But he says the amazing thing is Gentiles. Gentiles, they weren't even pursuing righteousness, but they've responded to the gospel and they've attained to righteousness. He says even the righteousness of faith. It comes down to faith in Jesus Christ. And Israel as a whole, not every individual within Israel, but Israel as a whole collectively says, did not believe in Jesus. And so they did not attain the righteousness of faith. They missed out on right standing with God because they would not believe. But then there's these Gentiles, kind of out of the blue. Nobody expected it, but they heard about Jesus. They believed in Jesus and they attained righteousness. They received right standing with God. And these are the ones who experience God's mercy. Those who believe are counted as children. There's a verse that tells us this, and I believe it's John chapter one. As many as believed him, to these he gave the right to become the children of God. It's those who believe in Jesus that get this right. They're counted as his children. God gets to choose that. He chose. Okay, those who believe in Jesus are I'm going to call you my children. You're going to have all kinds of new rights. You're going to have all kinds of great position because you're my child because you've believed in Jesus. Those who believe are called by God beforehand, before you were ever born. God called you. He knew you. He decided, I'm going to show you mercy. I'm going to withhold judgment. I'm going to be gracious. I'm going to do good things in your life. And I'm going to form you how I choose. And how I choose to form you is I choose to form you into the image of Christ. You've been predestined to be conformed into the image of the Son of God. Predestined by God's choice, chosen beforehand to be made more and more and more like Jesus. That's how God chooses. Salvation is God's choice. But that doesn't mean he chooses some and he says, all right, you're going to be saved and you're not going to be saved and you don't have a say in the matter. He could say that. Understand, God could say that. He's the creator. But that's not the way that he works. The way that he works is he gives you the choice. Will you seek to be right with God by your own works, by your own ways, by your own ideas? Or will you seek to be right with God by faith in Jesus Christ? And if you pursue righteousness by your works, you prepare yourself for wrath. If you pursue unrighteousness, you prepare yourself for wrath. But if you will pursue right relationship with God by faith, you will experience what it is to be a vessel of mercy that God has prepared beforehand to work in your life to make you like Jesus. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you are sovereign. Lord, no one can thwart your plans. No one can defeat your purposes. No one can come against you and succeed. And so, Lord, we can rest and trust in you completely and wholly, knowing, Lord, what you declare and what you say, that's what goes, no matter what anybody else thinks about it. And Lord, you've declared about salvation that it's your choice. You get to say who your children are. You get to choose who receives mercy and who does not. It's your choice. You get to form us. fashion us according to whatever you want. And yet, Lord, you've given us a part as well. And I pray, Lord, that you would help us as clay in your hands to be soft, to not fight against you or your plans, to not try to do things our own way or force our own will. But I pray that you would help us as we sit here in this place this evening, recognizing that you are the creator and we are created beings. I pray that you would help us to soften our hearts. to submit to you, to stop fighting, to stop wrestling against you, and to turn ourselves over to you completely. Jesus, you have full reign in our hearts, please. You take over. You accomplish your will. You tell us what you want, and Lord, that's what we will do. And Lord, I pray that you would help us to live in this relationship with you, not trying to be right with you through our own means, but seeking to be right with you by trusting in what you've done for us and submitting ourselves to you for your will, for your glory. We're clay in your hands, God. Do with us as you see fit. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. 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