Sermon Brief
Date Written: June 23, 2012
Date Preached: June 24, 2012
Where Preached: OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Sermon Title: Chosen – to believe (part 2)!
Sermon Text: Romans 9:14-21 [HCSB]
Introduction:
Now I want us to remember back 2 wks ago when we looked at the how God CHOSE us for belief! As Christian we have been CHOSEN by God to believe in His Son…
This fact lets us know that God has chosen the people whom He is going to bless… and that God, the sovereign Lord of the Universe has a plan and He has chosen his children!
2 wks ago we saw this evident in God’s choice of Isaac over Ishmael… and His choice of Jacob over Esau! God has MADE His choice!
But preacher what about those passages of Scripture where it clearly states that we must confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord? So, if God has chosen us… how can we have a choice in the matter?
Well, I led us to the conclusion that this was a type of contradiction that we could define as a paradox. We looked at the definition of a PARADOX – that it is a statement or situation that seems contradictory or absurd, but is true, even though it is very difficult to understand!
So this morning I want us to jump back in and we will get back to where we left off in v.13 where God said, “Jacob I loved and Esau I hated…”
Today, in our society, we have come to a point of almost absurdity when it comes to what some people call ‘fairness’… THAT’S NOT FAIR!
This is a cry from many people about situations that don’t go their way! Today in our society there are many who have taken this to a NEW level!
• It’s not FAIR that lil Johnny’s team has to lose, so let’s just not keep score!
• It’s not FAIR that lil Susie didn’t make all stars so let’s give them all a trophy!
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• It’s not FAIR that Joanie got the promotion instead of me; I have been here much longer than she has…
• Even I have cried out that it is not fair that my Cubs have not won a World Series since 1908…
For some reason we have come to the conclusion that life is supposed to be fair and the same to EVERYONE!
But when we examine the examples I have given we can easily see WHY these things happen…
Lil Johnny’s team lost because the other team was better, sports is about competition and doing our best… and sometimes others do it better!
Lil Susie didn’t make all stars because lil Susie was not good enough, others were better, and why do we think rewarding those who do NOT achieve the same reward with those who DO achieve is a good thing, failure is a part of life & let’s face it, some people are just better that we are at things… there will always be someone better!
Joanie got that promotion because she was willing to do what we needed OR she has a skill set that is more valuable than your skill set, a job is not about YOU it is about the needs of the company providing the job…
Finally my Cubbies have not won a World Series since 1908 because they have not been good enough! Professional sports is NOT about who’s turn it is or about moral victories… its about hard work and great talent! They have not won a World Series because they have not been good enough…
“That’s NOT fair” is a statement that is poisoning our society… but it did not begin with us! You see Paul was dealing with that very thing here as well.
Paul understood human nature and here he responds to what he knows is going to be the reaction to what he wrote in v.13!
In v.13 it seems as if God is being unfair… why Jacob and not Esau? In v14-18 Paul uses 2 declarations, 2 illustrations and an applications to help us to understand that God is NOT being unfair!
14What should we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not!
This is Paul’s declaration about the mere thought of God’s seeming UNFAIRNESS… Paul discounts any argument about this and his response is that if you think God is unfair that it was absurd…
What he actually says here in v14 asks a rhetorical question “Is God unfair?” and his answer is translated “May it NEVER be…” but it can actually be translated “May that thought never become reality in your mind… OR that sort of though should not even exist!”
So Paul makes this declaration that to believe God is unfair is an absurd thought that should not even exist in your mind… then we find in v15 Paul giving us his 1st illustration for this point…
15For He tells Moses: I will show mercy
to whom I will show mercy, and I will have compassionon whom I will have compassion.
Paul gets this illustration from Exodus 33 when Moses was with God on Mt Sinai and God told Moses this very thing in v19… but actually the jist of what Paul is saying is a direct reflection of what David also said in Ps 115:3 when he said… “God does what He pleases!”
So Paul declares the absurdity of God being unfair and then he points out to his readers that God is God and he does what He pleases…but he does not end there!
In v16 Paul gives us an application for his illustration – He says…
16So then it [referring to God’s choices] does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy.
The application is simple… Paul illustration of God’s choice of Jacob over Esau in v13 was NOT based human will or effort, just as Paul had explained earlier in the chapter! BUT the choice is made simply because it is God’s choice!
Paul goes on then to give his 2nd illustration in v17
17For the Scripture tells Pharaoh: I raised you up for this reason so that I may display My power in you and that My name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
His readers would have been familiar with this illustration as well… as it takes place during the 7th plague of Egypt in God’s rescue of His people from Pharaoh.
He gets this illustration from Exodus 9 when Moses is instructed [by God] to let Pharaoh know just who is in control in this situation… Pharaoh believed he was in control but God revealed that Pharaoh was a mere instrument in His hands…
Paul wants his readers to understand that God has always been choosing! God choices and HIS decisions are made by a sovereign God who answers to NO ONE!
Paul 2nd declaration is found here in v18 where Paul summarizes what he has just stated… We know he is summarizing by the 2 words that begin this verse… “So then…”
18So then, He shows mercy to those He wants to, and He hardens those He wants to harden.
What Paul is saying here is “God is in control and He does what He pleases…” or in other words… GOD IS THE BOSS, but HIS choices are HIS choices and NONE of them are based on human effort or result! In other words God’s decisions are not based on human intervention, they are his own!
So we can see Paul laying out in v14-18 that God is totally in control and ALL of His decisions are made because He is the boss… He is in control and not because He is manipulated by any human effort!
19You will say to me, therefore, “Why then does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?”
Now here in this verse it seems as if Paul was forecasting the response to his teaching! Paul declared that God was in control… That God was the boss and that God was the ONE who chose Abraham, Isaac and Jacob…
So Paul was anticipating the natural response to God being in total control… and if that was so and He has already chosen who he is going to choose, then WHY does God look at and judge our actions?
Now to most of us this notion may SEEM ridiculous, but it was a prevailing thought in Paul’s day and it is actually STILL present today…
Paul then summarizes his answer to this question in v20 as he says “Who are you?” In other words, Paul is saying, “hey, you are just human who do you think you are talking to God like that…”
Then Paul offers another illustration to drive home his point. This illustration pictures a pot speaking to the potter and instructing the potter on how he should do his job… how absurd is that!
20But who are you, a mere man, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”
Paul has already intimated the absurdity of questioning God’s choices, but here he puts it in an illustration. Can you imagine a pot speaking to its maker and asking the potter ‘why did you make me like this?’
Basically what Paul is asking here is WHO IS IN CHARGE? Is it you? Or the Creator God of the Universe? Paul continues his illustration of the absurd in v21--
21Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor?
When a potter sets his mind to creating a vessel, he knows what is needed and what he is going to make. He makes the choice to form it to the purpose he has intended it… that purpose may be decorative and special OR that purpose may be practical and mundane OR that purpose may even be considered disrespectful and belittling.
But the point Paul is making here is that it is God’s choice and NOT ours! How can we, the clay vessel tell God, the potter, how to shape and mold us? Paul uses this illustration to reveal the absolute absurdity of that notion…
Basically what Paul is asking here is WHO IS IN CHARGE? Is it humanity, OR the Creator God of the Universe?
Now this morning you may wonder what point I am trying to make… well it is really a simple point and it is the same point Paul was trying to make to the readers in Rome… God is God and He is in control!
Today there are many of us who want God to see our plans and OUR desires and we want God to bless them… and when He doesn’t we cry “That’s not FAIR!”
Well today I am here to tell you that God is sovereign over all the Universe and God has created all things for HIS pleasure! He is the potter…and all of creation is the clay!
But let me tell you about US… humanity is the apex of God’s creation! Scripture tells us that we are his masterpiece! God created humanity with something no other created being has… we were created and chosen by God to believe in Him as Savior! To worship Him as Lord!
We have been chosen by God to believe! YOU have been chosen by God to believe! God is in control, but in His sovereign nature He allows you to choose to accept or reject Him!
We may not LIKE the choices God has made in our lives, but God is the creator and we have to understand that God is in control and that God is in charge! But God is not in control and in charge to simply LORD over us, but He does these things and makes these choices because of His great love for us…
The Bible tells us that God loved the world SO much that He gave His Son to die on the Cross of Calvary for the sin of the world… so that we could have the opportunity to choose to accept Jesus as Savior!
Today you have that choice! Today you have heard how God has chosen you to believe… how God is in control… but I want you to know that God’s control is out of His great love for you!
Today will you accept His love? Today will you react TO His love? Today if you are here and God is moving in your heart… I want you to step out and come to this altar and confess and surrender to God!
As bro Ken comes I encourage ALL to surrender to Him this morning! Come and give your heart, body, mind and soul to Him!
Come and allow Him to take control of Your life through his love for you… through His Son Jesus Christ! Come as we begin to sing… WOULD EVERYONE STAND!
