A. It has been said: “There are two sure things in life: 1. There is a God; 2. You are not Him!”
1. I would like to add a third sure thing: “And this God, whom you are not, is sovereign and can do whatever He decides to do.”
2. Steven Curtis Chapman wrote a song called “God is God” and the chorus goes like this:
“God is God and I am not, I can only see a part of the picture He’s painting, God is God and I am man, So I’ll never understand it all, For only God is God.”
B. In our last sermon in our Romans series, we started into Romans chapter 9, where Paul begins to address the deep and confusing subjects of God’s sovereignty, election and predestination.
1. In Chapters 9-11, Paul wrestles with the perplexing problem of the relationship of Jews and Gentiles to the gospel.
2. As we have seen in our series, the theme of the book of Romans is announced in 1:16 “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, and then for the Gentile.”
3. Notice the order in which the gospel was announced: it was given first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.
4. In that one fateful phrase are two titanic forces that collided with historic significance in the first century: the original election of the Jews and the later inclusion of the Gentiles.
5. The problem, of course, is that when the late-comers walked in the front door of the church, the “charter members” became offended and stormed out the back!
6. The great reversal of the first century raised such questions as: “Does God know what He is doing? Is He true to His promises? Has he rejected his own people?”
7. And I pointed out in our last sermon that this was a personally painful issue for Paul, because he was a Jew and he loved his fellow Jews.
C. In response, Paul seeks to reassure the Romans by referring to God’s foreknowledge, His election, and of predestination.
1. Unfortunately, the theological system of Calvinism, instead of bringing reassurance, causes people to doubt God’s goodness and His will for their life.
2. What Paul intended to be as a reassurance has instead become something quite unsettling: the mistaken idea that predestination means God arbitrarily appoints some individuals for salvation and other individuals for damnation.
a. A sort of cosmic “Eeny, meeny, Minnie, moe, you get heaven, to hell you go.”
3. Here is what we must keep in mind: The central point of this passage, the one thing I want you to know, is that God’s choice is for salvation!
4. In fact, the whole issue in this passage revolves around a widening of God’s salvation, not a narrowing of it!
5. The thesis of Romans is that now, through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God's Good News is for the whole world.
6. Paul is not saying that God chose the Gentiles instead of the Jews, but instead Paul is stressing that now through the gospel He chose to accept the Gentiles in addition the Jews.
7. But didn’t God foresee what would happen? Didn’t he know that if the door was opened wide for the Gentiles, His chosen people would become offended and reject the message?
D. Let’s see how Paul answers those questions by reading Romans 9:6-13: 6 Now it is not as though the word of God has failed, because not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7 Neither are all of Abraham’s children his descendants. On the contrary, your offspring will be traced through Isaac. 8 That is, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but the children of the promise are considered to be the offspring. 9 For this is the statement of the promise: At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son. 10 And not only that, but Rebekah conceived children through one man, our father Isaac. 11 For though her sons had not been born yet or done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to election might stand - 12 not from works but from the one who calls—she was told, The older will serve the younger. 13 As it is written: I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.
1. To explain this great reversal Paul refers in these verses to the doctrine of election.
2. To “elect” is to “choose,” and the story of salvation is a long history of forks in the road, a virtual catalog of divine choices, of selecting this one and not that one.
3. Don’t be thrown off by Paul’s use of the word “hate,” (Or God’s or Jesus’ use of the word) because it was a typical Hebrew idiom to express a preference, to like or love less.
a. In this context of preference, it means that God “loved” Jacob meaning He “chose” Jacob, and the “hating” of Esau, was God’s “rejection” or not choosing of Esau.
4. Paul lists three of God’s choices here, and then, in verse 11, reveals that God choices were not arbitrary – He had a purpose in election.
a. Always, always, God’s choices were for salvation.
b. Why Abraham, and no one else? So God could develop His promises for salvation.
c. Why Isaac, and not Ishmael? So God could demonstrate the principle of salvation.
d. Why Jacob, and not Esau? So God could declare His prerogative to establish salvation.
5. All of these examples are from the Old Testament for a reason.
a. Paul is using the history of the Jews, the heritage of the Jews, the heroes of the Jews to help them understand that God has always had the right to choose that which He knows will lead humanity to salvation.
b. And the obvious point is that if God has now elected to extend forgiveness to both Jew and Gentile on the basis of the atoning sacrifice of His son Jesus, even if that step ran the risk that his own previously-chosen people would stumble over the “stumbling stone of the Cross,” would rebel and reject His grace and thus be lost, then God’s promises have not failed – but this choice, like all the other choices throughout the Old Testament, is simply in keeping with God’s purpose in election.
6. Why did God promise Abraham and Sarah a son, and then inexplicably choose to make them wait for years and years, until they were far beyond the age of realistically hoping for a child?
a. Why did he overrule their own scheming by refusing to accept Ishmael as their heir?
b. Because the Lord wanted the principle of righteousness by faith forever established – we are not the children of God by virtue of our physical birth, but instead we are spiritually born again when we trust in the Lord.
c. Salvation is by faith, so God chose Isaac to demonstrate the principle of salvation.
7. Today, we worship the God of “Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” but it almost wasn’t so.
a. Had the usual rules of inheritance applied, it would have been the God of “Abraham, Isaac, and Esau” instead.
b. Here we are presented with yet another choice, one even more baffling.
c. We read in Genesis 25 that Rebekah was pregnant with twins, and even in the womb the two brothers “jostled” in a wordless, soundless, sightless struggle.
d. When Rebekah cried out to God, the Lord gave her an explanation both thrilling and terrifying: “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23).
e. To be the mother of not one nation but two was an unimaginable honor, but why would the natural sibling order be reversed, why would the older serve the younger?
f. Because God had chosen Jacob to be in the line of faith, not Esau.
g. Even before they were born, God’s election had been made to demonstrate his perrogative of salvation.
h. Only God can set the terms for forgiveness and salvation.
8. There are mysteries here concerning the relationship of God’s foreknowledge and man’s free will that we will continue to discuss as we move through Romans 9-11.
E. As we have noted elsewhere in Romans, Paul writes this letter as a seasoned teacher.
1. He knows the questions people will have about his teaching, and so he raises them himself in order to head off misunderstandings.
2. Paul knows that his teaching about the sovereignty of God in election will stir questions and objections.
3. Let’s look at how Paul asks and answers some of those questions as we read the next section: 14 What should we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not! 15 For he tells Moses, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 16 So then, it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy. 17 For 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 the whole earth. 18 So then, he has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden. (9:14-18)
4. So, Is God unjust or unfair? Certainly not!
a. Because He is God, He cannot be unrighteous or unfair.
b. The fairness of what we human beings do may be open to question, but the fairness of what God does is unquestionable; it must be just and right.
c. God said it to Abraham many years earlier: “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25).
d. Moses reaffirmed it: “He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are just, a God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He” (Deuteronomy 32:4).
5. But Paul doesn't just say it and drop it, rather he proves his answer with two Biblical examples.
F. First, Paul gives the example God gave to Moses.
1. For God tells Moses, “I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”
2. This quotation from Exodus 33:19 and doesn’t make any mention of justice, but it does emphasize mercy, and mercy is the key to understanding the doctrine of God’s election.
3. We have to project our minds back to Mt. Sinai where God was giving the law to Moses.
a. In the valley below, the people of Israel were dancing and playing, sacrificing and worshipping before a golden cow, and God was angry with them.
b. God threatened to consume all of them (Exodus 32:10).
c. That’s what they deserved. Justice demanded it.
d. But Moses interceded on their behalf, and “...the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people" (Exodus 32:14).
e. Some would die in the plague that would follow, but the nation as a whole would be spared.
4. It was shortly after that episode that God revealed Himself to Moses with the words Paul quotes here.
5. God is basically a merciful God. His very character is mercy.
a. When His justice prompts Him to punish sinners, His mercy restrains Him from administering the punishment they deserve.
b. And how can God possibly be accused of being unfair if He doesn't extend that mercy to everybody.
c. Nobody deserves God’s mercy. No human being has a claim on God.
d. It is only out of the greatness and goodness of God’s heart that any are spared the punishment they deserve.
6. Paul draws the conclusion in verse 16: So then, it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy.
a. God’s mercy is not the result of any human desire nor any human effort.
b. It finds its source purely in His character, which is mercy.
7. When Napoleon was emperor of France, one of his soldiers was sentenced to death for some offense.
a. The young man’s mother sought a pardon from Napoleon for her son.
b. The Emperor insisted that it was the man’s second offense, and that justice demanded his death.
c. “I don’t ask for justice,” said the mother, “I plead for mercy.”
d. “But he does not deserve mercy,” replied the Emperor.
e. “Sir,” cried the mother, “it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is what I ask.”
f. “Well then,” said the Emperor, “I will have mercy,” and her son was spared.
8. “If mercy is deserved, it is not mercy” - That is a great truth.
a. And since mercy is never deserved, it must be given sovereignly, completely by the will of the one who gives it, not those who receive it.
G. Paul then moves from the example of Moses to the example of Pharaoh: 17 For 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 the whole earth.” 18 So then, he has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden.”
1. There’s that mercy again – God’s sovereign choices always involve His mercy.
2. But Pharaoh was not the object of God’s mercy, was he?
a. Well, in a sense he was, because God spared him far longer than justice would have dictated.
b. And the result of God sparing him was ten plagues that caused the Israelites to be mercifully delivered from bondage, and demonstrated irrefutably to the world that God was more powerful than the armies of Egypt or any of the gods of Egypt.
c. His name was declared in all the earth.
3. But wait a minute - it still doesn’t seem fair for God to harden some people just to accomplish His own purposes.
1. I think it’s important to recognize that God is never said to harden anybody who did not first harden himself.
2. If you will read through the account in Exodus, we are told that Pharaoh hardened his own heart 10 times.
3. One commentator explained it this way: “God's hardening follows on what Pharaoh himself did. His hardening always presupposes sin and is always part of the punishment of sin. God could kill the sinner immediately when he sinned, but he usually does not. But he shuts him up to the effect of his sin, so that the person who hardens himself is condemned to live as a hardened person” (Leon Morris, The Epistle to the Romans, p.361).
4. That’s what happened to Pharaoh - he was no puppet on a string, just doing what God made him do.
a. He made his own decision to harden his heart.
b. And God simply sealed him in his decision, and then used that decision to magnify His own glorious name and to extend mercy to Israel.
5. But I'm sure some of us are still concerned about verse 18: So then, he has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
a. God extends His mercy to those whom He sovereignly chooses. Is that fair?
b. Is it fair for Him to choose of His own will and not tell us on what basis He chooses?
c. I like the answer F.F. Bruce said in his commentary: “If God does not reveal the principle on which He makes His choice, that is no reason why His justice should be called into question. He is merciful and compassionate because such is His will” (F.F. Bruce, Romans, p. 188).
d. You see, God isn’t obligated to tell us everything that goes on in His mind.
e. God has good reason for the choices He makes, and someday we may or may not understand it.
f. God is like a cosmic chess master who can figure out every move and counter move from beginning to end, and if He were to try to explain it to us, we would be lost after the first or second move, meanwhile God simply asks us to trust Him.
H. “Alright,” we might say, “maybe it’s fair for God to choose those on whom He will bestow His mercy, but that leads to another obvious question: Is It Fair to Hold Us Responsible?”
1. This is the question and answer Paul brings up in the next verses: 19 You will say to me, therefore, “Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But 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?” 21 Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor? 22 And what if God, wanting to display his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And what if he did this to make known the riches of his glory on objects of mercy that he prepared beforehand for glory— 24 on us, the ones he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?
25 As it also says in Hosea, “I will call Not My People, My People, and she who is Unloved, Beloved. 26 And it will be in the place where they were told, you are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God.”
27 But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of Israelites is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved; 28 since the Lord will execute his sentence completely and decisively on the earth.”
29 And just as Isaiah predicted: “If the Lord of Hosts had not left us offspring, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah. (9:19-29)
2. Paul is wrestling with a very a reasonable question, isn’t he?
a. If God extends His mercy to some and hardens others, then how can He possibly blame us for what we do?
b. Are we not simply doing what He moves us to do and what we cannot avoid doing?
3. Wouldn’t that be like insisting that your son carve his name on your lovely mahogany dining room table, then punishing him for doing such a stupid thing?
a. That's not fair!
b. Again, Paul offers two answers.
4. The first is the answer from God’s sovereignty – God is the potter and we are the clay.
a. This is probably the one truth about God that we mortal beings dislike above all others.
b. God is absolutely sovereign; He can do whatever He pleases, He answers to no one for what He does, and He has no obligation to explain to anyone the reasons for His actions.
c. We just don't like that. We want to know why? And we don’t appreciate being likened to clay that is pushed around by the potter any way He pleases - making one pot for a noble use and another for a menial use.
d. We are people, with opinions, and feelings, and we have rights! Right?
e. We may not like it, but the fact remains: God is the potter and we are the clay.
f. He has a right to do with us as He pleases, and in His wisdom, He will always do what is best.
g. So it would be imprudent of us to reply against Him, talk back to Him, contradict Him, question His actions, and accuse Him of injustice.
h. Please notice carefully: Paul does not say that God prepared these vessels of wrath for destruction.
i. They made their own choices (just as Pharaoh did), but God does endure them far longer than they deserve, allowing them time to store up wrath in the day of judgment, so that He may display His righteous wrath against sin and make His power known.
5. The second answer Paul gave is from Scripture.
a. Paul quotes two Old Testament prophets, Hosea and Isaiah, to show that this rejection of the Jews and acceptance of the Gentiles had been predicted beforehand.
b. Those verses also point out that it is because of God’s mercy that the Gentiles are included and that any of the Jews are saved.
c. John Stott said it well when he said, “The wonder is not that some are saved and some are lost, but that anybody is saved at all. For we deserve nothing from God’s hand but judgment. If we receive what we deserve (which is judgment), or if we receive what we do not deserve (which is mercy), in neither case is God unjust. If anybody is lost, the blame is theirs, but if anybody is saved, the credit is God’s” (Romans, pp. 269-270).
I. In Romans 10, Paul will deal more directly with the issue of human responsibility in salvation, but here in chapter 9, Paul wants to ground us firmly in God’s absolute, unquestioned, totally free sovereignty.
1. God does exactly as He pleases, all the time, everywhere, in every situation, in all parts of the universe – God always has and always will.
2. In a profound sense, God’s ultimate will is always being done.
3. God is God and that’s the way it has to be.
4. And God doesn’t have to explain Himself to us.
J. What is your view of God? It is so important that we have the right view and understanding of God.
1. God is far bigger than we imagine – His presence fills the universe – He is more powerful than we know – He is wiser than all the wisdom of the wisest men and women – His love is beyond human understanding – His grace has no limits – His holiness is infinite – and His ways are past finding out.
2. God is the one true God – He has no beginning and no end – He created all things and all things exist by His divine power – He has no peers – No one gives Him advice – No one can fully understand Him – He is perfect in all His perfections.
3. There is nothing we have, not even our praise and worship, that adds anything in the least to who God is – He did not create us because of any lack in Himself, as if we were created because God was lonely – to paraphrase A. W. Tozer, “were every person on earth to become an atheist, it would not affect God in any way – the belief or disbelief of the human race cannot change the reality of who God is – to believe in Him adds nothing to His perfection – to doubt Him takes nothing away.”
K. What should be our response to a God like this?
1. The only proper and rightful response is submission and praise.
a. When we submit ourselves to God, we ultimately say, “Lord, you are God and I am not. You made me and I am yours. Do with me as you please.”
2. The right understanding and response to God should lead us to a calm confidence in God.
3. It should make us bold in our witness and strong in our prayers.
4. It should give us the strength to persevere over the long haul.
5. It should make us ready to respond in obedience to God’s will and commands.
L. If you haven’t yet made this right and good response to God, I hope you will decide to offer yourself to the God of Gods, who made you, loves you, and wants to save you.
1. For we know that God’s ultimate will is for all to be saved.
2. Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” (Jn. 3:16).
3. Paul wrote, “God wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4)
4. Peter wrote, “God is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Pet. 3:9).
5. God has done what is necessary for our salvation.
a. His grace is available in Christ.
b. We must choose to submit ourselves to Jesus so that He can be our Savior and Lord.
c. But we can also refuse to believe, submit and obey Jesus, and if we do so, we will be lost.
6. God is sovereign, but the choice is ours.
Resources:
Romans, The NIV Application Commentary, by Douglas Moo
God’s Purpose in Election, Sermon by Dan Williams
Is That Really Fair? Sermon by Richard Strauss
God’s Freedom, Sermon by Ray Pritchard
