ROMANS: Questions That Leave a Mark

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Yes, Lord.

That's our we're singing our understanding, God, that there's coming a day.

And we're to live in such a way that we speed its coming.

There's coming a day when earth and heaven will be one.

That's just a subtle, beautiful, poetic, lyrical way of saying that you're the reconciling God that's going to reconcile things.

The checkbook doesn't balance right now, God, but you're going to reconcile it.

Heaven and earth are going to be one.

The kingdoms of this world are going to become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.

Just like you said it would.

And so, Lord, we just want to just live in this understanding.

So, Lord, increase our understanding.

We're not here to become more determined religious people.

That doesn't mean anything for anybody.

We don't need determination.

We need understanding.

We believe we get that from your word.

And so, as we open up the Bible, God, cause it to come to fruition in our head and in our heart.

We pray and we listen and we hunger now in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Romans chapter 9.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

If you're a guest today, we're preaching through the book of Romans.

Uh, and we're up to chapter 9.

Last week we did the first five verses, and this morning we'll pick up.

And I'm going to read a long section, uh, Romans chapter 9, verse 6, all the way down to verse 29.

Romans 9:6

And then the text really frames itself around four questions that are in the text.

And matter of fact, that's what I want to talk to you about this morning is simply this questions that leave a mark.

Questions that leave a mark.

There are questions that when people ask you, they leave this indelible impression in your head or in your heart, and they never go away.

Like in 1986, I'm standing on the second floor of Marshall Hall at my college, and somebody comes sprinting up the stairs, and he's out of breath, and he says, Me and some buddies are standing there contemplating, do we go to class or do we skip class and go play golf?

And we're kind of going, Who's in?

Who can play golf?

You got money, you got money, and the guy runs up the stairs and says, Did you hear about the space shuttle?

And I never forget.

Now, since we've lost another space shuttle since then, but back then that was the first one.

I remember standing there outside Spanish.

I didn't even want to go play golf after that because that question marked me.

And one of the questions you get asked that marks you every once in a while.

Here's a question that'll mark you are your terminal?

There's a context within which that question comes out that doesn't come out.

Like I every time I hear this question, it haunts me, okay?

And here's the question: how many souls on board?

You're like, what are you talking about?

Anytime there's problems on a commercial aircraft, there's difficulty, engine goes out, they say we got fire in the cabin.

The air traffic controller is trained to ask back, how many souls on board?

And they say, uh, you know, pan-hand, flight, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, 133 souls on board.

That's an ominous, looming, heavy question.

Those kind of questions are not just asked nowadays, those kind of questions are in the Bible, and this passage we're going to read is framed by four of them.

Romans chapter 9, verse 6, the Bible says, But it is not as though the word of God has failed.

Romans 9:6

For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham, because they are his offspring.

But through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

This means that it's not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but children of the promise who are counted as offspring.

For this is what the promise said.

About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.

And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born, or had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of his call, she was told, The older will serve the younger.

As is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.

What shall we say then?

Is there injustice on God's part?

By no means.

For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, I'll have compassion on whom I have compassion.

So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

You will say to me then, Why does he s why does he still find fault?

Or who can resist his will?

But who are you, O man, to answer back to God?

Well, what is molded, say to its moulder, Why have you made me like this?

Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honored use, and another for dishonorable use?

What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles.

As indeed he says in Hosea, those who are not my people I will call my people, and her who is not beloved I will call beloved.

And in the very place where it was said to them, You are not my people, they will be called sons of the living God.

And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.

And as Isaiah predicted, if the Lord of hosts has not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.

Questions that leave a mark.

There's four of them in the text, but before I get to the first one in verse six, I want to remind you last week we did the first five verses of Romans 9, and the main body of the talk of the sermon last week was about the benefits of the Jewish people.

To them belonged the adoption, the covenants, the promises, the patriarchs, all this kind of stuff.

And what the people in Rome were doing, they were saying to Paul, hey, here's the deal.

It's bigger than you can imagine because the Jews had all this, and yet they don't believe in this Messiah, this Jesus that you talk about.

And so that's the context in which we pick up this morning.

And the first question is found in verse 6.

A lot of these questions you're just asked explicitly in the text.

This one's implied in verse 6.

And here's the question: Has the word of God failed?

Has the word of God failed?

Because Paul says it's not as if the word of God has failed.

Why does he stay there?

Because the people were saying, hey, we don't know if we can trust this because we don't think that God's word to the Jewish people is held up.

It has kind of fallen from its status that it once held in our minds and in our lives.

Because, hey, here's where it comes down to us in just simple talk.

If God, his promise to the Jews have failed, I mean, it it it can God be trusted for anything?

Can his word be trusted?

Because if his word to the Jewish people, his oath that he made, if he can't keep that, then on what basis can we believe anything he says?

And so Paul jumps out and says, Hey, it's not as though the word of God has failed, and then he answers the question by making three statements, okay?

Let me just say this to begin with.

God is not a defensive God.

And say, What do you mean?

God is not a defensive God.

What do you mean by that?

You ever ask your kids a question, and just by the way they answer it, you can tell they're guilty?

They're like, Well, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You're grounded till midlife, right?

And I can tell you're lying already.

And they're like, How'd you know I was lying?

Because your mouth was moving.

No.

There's the way you answer the question.

There's, you know, what you say and how you answer it.

God's not defensive.

He doesn't like, no, no, no, wait a minute, wait a minute.

No, he just points to three realities in the text.

And let me just, the question, has the word of God failed?

I mean, if we can't, if God can't keep his word to his Jews, to the Jews, his people, how can he keep his word to us?

Paul points out three things.

Number one, he says, salvation is not a birthright.

Salvation is not a birthright.

That's what he's talking about in verse 7 when he picks up, or verse 6, he says, For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.

And not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring.

Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

This means it is not the children of the flesh.

Natural descent.

I'm a Jew.

Remember last week we talked about the Pharisees.

We're like, we have Abraham as our father.

Salvation is not a birthright.

This means it's not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise who are counted as offspring.

For this is what the promise said about this time next year, I shall return, and Sarah shall have a son.

And he goes into this kind of unpacking of the way God's plan unfolds in our history in the world.

But in response to the question, has the word of God failed?

The first thing Paul says is, hey, being a Christian, salvation, being in a relationship with God is not a birthright.

My kids are not Christians because their dad's a preacher.

Hello?

Some of you that grew up a long time ago, now bear with me, are you Fox News watching people?

Don't go, don't go crazy on me right now.

But some of you are old enough to remember a long time ago, your dad said, Hey, this is the Democratic house, and if you live in this house, you're gonna be a Democrat, okay?

That's the way I have some friends of mine, that's this way they were raised.

They were like, Well, I'm a Democrat, my granddaddy was a Democrat, you're a Democrat, and your kids are gonna be a Democrat.

And my buddies were like, hey, dad, I'm six, okay?

I didn't know no pressure there.

Because he was just saying, this is what we do as a family.

And the Jewish people were that way.

They were like, hey, well, we're we're all gonna get in, right?

Because we're Jews.

And the Bible says, no, salvation is not a birthright.

My kids aren't Christians because their dad's a pastor.

You it's it's like saying you could sleep in your garage today and wake up tomorrow, a car.

It doesn't work that way.

And so all of a sudden God kind of tilts the thing and people kind of go, no, wait a minute, this isn't just natural descent, not at all.

Second thing he says in response to the question, has the word of God failed?

He says, election is purposeful.

Election is purposeful.

That's when you hear those names, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

If you ever you read the Bible and God refers to himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

It never says, you know, Abinadab, Ishmael, and Esau.

Have you noticed that?

It's Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And what God is saying is, there's a way I do things to ensure that they get done.

It's kind of like telling your kids to do something.

You can tell your kids to do something, and you kind of go check on it to see if it got done, okay?

And God says, I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

One of the things you need to stop believing is that everybody in the Bible had it all together.

Some of you are kind of like, oh, I feel better about myself.

Uh, but enough about Wade Call here.

Uh, not everybody in the Bible, like, for example, Abraham.

God called Abraham.

There was nothing in Abraham that called that caused God to look down.

Abraham was not like, God, I love you, I believe in you, all the people around me are crazy, but I'm your man, God.

No, Abraham was a pagan.

He worshipped a pagan God, he was anti-God.

What are you even thinking about God?

And God called Abraham out of a little gated community called Ur of the Chaldeans, okay?

Surrounded by immorality and pagan worship, of which he was a part.

And God said, I'm going to start something new and I'm going to pick you to set it off.

So God chooses Abraham.

Abraham has a wife, her name is Sarah.

Abraham and Sarah, God gave them a promise.

The Bible talked about the promise.

God gave them a promise.

He said, You're going to have a son.

Sarah was in her 90s.

Okay?

And so they kind of go along there and they say, Well, God said we're going to have a son.

It ain't happening.

And God said, so we better help God's plan come true.

By the way, just put this down in your notes.

A plan is only as certain as the means used to secure it.

A plan is only as certain as the means used to secure it.

Now, when I say election is purposeful, let me just be candid, okay?

In the church, we kind of back away from the doctrine of election because we think about it in the wrong way.

We think about the doctrine of election in terms of exclusion.

God thinks of it in terms of involvement.

You say, What do you mean?

Let me say that again.

We think of election in terms of exclusion.

God thinks of it and uses it in terms of involvement.

God says, I'm going to pick somebody through whom what I want to happen in the world can happen.

And this has got to be a certainty.

God's not going to leave his plan at the mercy of sinful humanity.

He did that once.

It was called the Garden of Eden.

Remember how that turned out?

And so God says, hey, I got to get something certain, okay?

And so God picks him.

By the way, it's not exclusion, it's involvement.

You say, What do you mean?

Remember the last time you voted?

Remember you went and the last time you went and voted and you had the I voted little sticker on?

Did anybody ask you, who'd you vote against?

We don't ask that, do we?

If people are really nosy, they'll say, Who'd you vote for?

But no one says who'd you vote against?

When we read the Bible and we see the doctrine of election, which is all the issue today is not, do you believe in predestination or election?

The issue is bigger than that.

Do you believe the Bible?

And if you say yes to the Bible, then there's parts you can't leave out because they offend your preferences or your intellect or your sensibilities or whatever.

I would just say, in response to that, has the word of God failed?

Paul says, no, election is purposeful.

God chooses Abraham and He tells you're gonna have a son, they're not having a son, and so they had to help God out.

And so his wife Sarah comes to him and says, Listen, I'm barren.

God said you're gonna have a son.

Sleep with my handmaiden, okay?

Hagar, and she'll give you a son.

And Abraham's like, Well, honey, if you insist.

And so he sleeps with her, and they have a child.

The child's born, his name was Ishmael.

Ishmael was born, I believe, about 16, it was 16 years.

And God said, By the way, that's not what I had in mind.

I told you you were gonna have a son.

You were gonna have a son.

Not y'all were gonna create a son, but you were gonna have a son by childbirth.

And it was so preposterous.

Sarah laughed.

By the way, if you don't learn to trust God, you're gonna give birth to a lot of Ishmaels in your own life.

You're gonna end up buying the wrong house, taking the wrong job, marrying the wrong person.

Some of you are like, oh, yeah, it just got clear all of a sudden right there.

Now I'm listening, preacher.

Keep talking.

And so God comes along and says, No, no, no.

I appreciate y'all's effort to help me out, but no.

And so they had a child, and his name was Isaac.

Isaac was a child of the promise.

Paul says, Paul uses that to explain.

Here's what God does, and people come along and say, Oh, well, you know, God didn't choose Ishmael because they had the same dad, but different moms.

And then so they go to another generation.

You got Abraham, you got Isaac, and then he goes to Jacob.

Because Isaac married a lady named Rebekah.

Isaac and Rebekah had twins.

And the Bible says, like we just read before the twins were born, are you done anything good or bad?

Because a lot of you went to, especially Baptist churches, we're scared to death of the doctrine of election.

And they say, Well, God looked into the future and saw who would choose him, and he chose them.

That means that God chose you on the basis of something inside of you, and that robs God of his glory in election.

The Bible says, Let me just br let me just point this one little word out.

Look in verse 11, it says, Though they were not yet born or done nothing, either good or bad, in order that God's purpose in election might continue.

In other words, continue.

This has always been the way God does things.

God chose Abraham, He chose Isaac, and He chose Jacob.

Not because of works.

Not because of works.

The pressure is off.

See, salvation, has the word of God failed?

Paul says, salvation is not a birthright.

Secondly, election is purposeful.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And they said, well, and God says, hey, Jacob I loved, Esau I hated.

And let me speak to this Hebrew idiom that God is using.

When it says Jacob, I loved, and Esau I hated, those are not emotions that God had towards these twins, those are actions that God undertook towards these two people.

So don't think we get hung up on hated and hardened and this, that, and the other.

No, God just says, hey, hey, this is purposeful.

I do what I do for a reason.

The third thing Paul says in response to, has the word of God failed?

is that God calls people to himself.

Look at there in verse 11.

After he says, so that God's purpose in election might continue, not because of works, but because of his call.

She was told the older will serve the younger.

As it's written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.

My actions towards these two, the only way I could use to describe it is this.

And you say, What do you mean?

After he says, he says, because of works, but it doesn't depend on works, but because of his call.

Paul tells us thirdly that God calls people to himself.

This reminds us that God's choice of us doesn't originate in us or anything having anything to do with us.

Y'all missed this last week, but last week we uh baptized in 11:30 my friend Taylor Woolley.

He's a young man that goes to our church.

His uh girlfriend was going to this church.

He came up to me probably a month ago after church and said, Hey, by the way, it's one of the reasons some of you, if you're visiting our church today, you will ask somebody, why don't y'all have an invitation?

We have an invitation every week.

We stand down front, we're available.

We think it's more natural to have a spiritual conversation in that environment than while everyone's standing staring at your back while you're talking to the preacher, thinking, Why are you making me late for the kickoff?

And so that's why we're available down here.

We we don't sing.

I remember the few times I went to church, we would sing just as I am 14 times.

And I'd have bad thoughts about the preacher because he would say, if no one comes, we'll sing one more stanza Mabel.

And I'm back there thinking, nobody is coming, okay?

Shut up and let us go.

I'm sure I'm the only one that thought that, but I thought that.

But I also thought this back then, as a 16-year-old pot-smoking, hard-hearted lost kid, why do you got to manipulate this?

Why do you got to make these people feel?

See, we love feelings and formulas.

And sometimes we love those things so much to the exclusion of the facts that the Bible clearly reveals.

Like one of them is that God calls people to himself.

Taylor comes up to me after the 11:30 service and he says, Hey, I my heart is kind of empty and I need to get baptized.

And I said, My man, there's a big gap in those things.

Why don't we sit down to a cup of coffee and talk?

He goes, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And he comes by Friday at 4.30.

I mean, I'd been beat with a blunt object all week, it was just brutal.

Good, but just busy week.

So Friday at 4.30, I'm drinking my second pot of coffee, kind of going, is he gonna show up?

He shows up and I said, All right, tell me.

We're sitting in my office.

I said, tell me about what how I mean I'm my heart.

He said, Well, I started coming to this church.

I've never been to any church before.

This is the first church I've been to.

I thought, oh Lord, don't screw it up for him, Neil.

And he said, But my girlfriend said, uh, hey, I think you would like my church.

By the way, women, this is not this is not the sermon.

You have more power over a man than you think.

If that rascal wants to take you out, you bring his narrow behind the church.

He'll come.

He'll act like, oh, I don't care about that.

Just raise that eyebrow.

What time does the service start?

I ain't got no church clothes.

You can just say, just come as you are.

But Taylor said, I never been, so I started.

My girlfriend said, I think you'd like it.

So I started coming and I liked it.

And one of the first times I was here, you said, Hey, if you don't have a Bible, there's one on your pew there, take it with you.

And so I and I looked at my girlfriend and she said, He means that.

And so I took that Bible home and I started reading.

And I read those words that says, and God said, Let there be light.

By the way, that's on page one.

You don't have to get far.

See, God doesn't need preachers talking in your ear, you know, just as I am.

Sing, choir, sing, sing.

Doesn't need any of that.

This is what that cat said.

He's like 23.

He said, when I read and it said, and God said, Let there be lie, I don't know how to say it, but it's like a light went on in my heart, and I've never been the same since.

And that little voice in my head said, Your work here is done.

Just drink your coffee and shut up, big head.

So I just, what are y'all laughing about?

And so I just sat there and he said, you know, I could have jumped in and said, Well, that's the doctrine of regeneration.

And what happened is God regenerated your heart, thus making repentance possible, thus making faith possible.

Preachers love to use big words to let you know, hey, I've been to school.

I'm like, Papa, I got an education.

And I just sat there, and that cat just told me, hey, when I read, and it said, Let there be light, that light hadn't gone off.

And I said, Maybe God's saying, Come to the lie, little children.

And he looked at me like, never mind.

You weren't you weren't born back then.

Anyway, anybody, poltergeist?

Anybody?

Thank you very much.

Because I felt lonely on that day.

I thought this would be no, that's not funny.

I'm stupid.

Anyway.

So he baptized me.

Why?

Because God calls.

Because God calls.

What do you mean?

That's what he says.

He says, hey, God's purpose and election will continue.

What does that mean?

God's been calling people for a long time.

Not because of works, but because of his call.

Some of you don't listen to God's call because you relate to God out of your works.

If God related to us out of our Works, I'd be in hell right now.

And so would all of you.

My high school principal used to say to me, Boy, you'd be dead or in the pen by the time you're 21.

I was like, well, I'm gonna raise a little hell in the meantime.

But God called.

And that's what God does.

God calls.

See, has the word of God failed?

He's like, are you kidding me?

I mean, God called.

My friend Bubba.

You know, like, of course you have a friend named Bubba.

I have a friend named Bubba who used to be a cowboy on the King Ranch.

And when I met Bubba, he was a pastor of a church.

And I said, How'd you go from being a cowboy on the King Ranch, which I'm just a little bit jealous of, to being, and he said, Oh, he just burst into tears, and he just said, he called me.

And I said, Help you?

What?

And he said, Yeah, we're on the King Ranch, and they have pastors on the King Ranch that are 16,000, or excuse me, 6,000 acres.

And he said, we'd line up on horses and you'd be about 200 yards apart and you couldn't see each other.

But he said, there'd be a scrub oak and mesquite up to the up to your saddle horn.

I was like, whatever that is, now I know it's that little handle on the saddle.

And he said, it'd be just covered and you'd be lined up and you couldn't see, but you'd have to slowly methodically round the cattle up.

And if you got too far ahead and the cattle cut between you, you'd have to ride all the way back to the fence line and start over again.

And if you the guy that got too far ahead or behind, they would call you names I don't want to repeat, Neil.

And I was like, okay.

And he said, so we all had, all the cowboys had a call, and he said, mine was woo-hoo.

And so I would look over here and go, woo-hoo.

And this guy over here goes, yik, yik! And the guy over there like it's like Chewbacca or something.

What do you got?

He said, but everybody had a call, and you knew their call.

And so, and if I would, oh, he's ahead, I better speed up.

But he's, you know, and he said, so we were always kind of making sure.

And he's, and I'm thinking, okay, how did this get to where?

And he said, uh, God was kind of gnawing at my guts for a long time.

And I was like, thank God for men that talk about God like men.

Not like, well, this little small voice invited me to tea.

And no.

He said, right out of his mouth, man, God was gnawing at my guts for a long time.

And I just hugged him.

Thank you so much.

And he said, I was laying on my couch one Saturday.

He said, We live so far in the country, Neil, it was 32 miles to the nearest Walmart.

Shucka Khan.

What?

I couldn't live there.

And he said, I was laying on my couch.

And he said, he was just gnawing at me.

And I just said, Lord, I need some clarity.

If this is you, you gotta let me know.

Because I think God was telling me to sell everything and go to school and be a preacher.

And so I was just laying there, and I'd been out there feeding my horses, and I'd hated my horses and brushed them down.

And I'm laying there on my couch and I don't know how to say it.

And by now, tears are just pouring down a shirt.

I'm crying.

Have you ever cried and I know why you're crying?

I'm just crying.

Hurry and finish the story.

And he said, and I was laying on my couch, and all of a sudden, in my spirit man, I heard him, whoo-hoo.

And I just, have you ever just snotted yourself?

Just and I was like, good Lord, I just, you got a handkerchief.

And he said, uh, and I met my wife in the driveway and told her, we got to sell all this.

God's called me to be a preacher.

And his wife didn't say, Oh, what are you doing?

She grabbed him and hugged him and said, I just want to be where you're where God's calling you.

Let's go.

Let's sell all of this.

See, here's what I'm saying.

When I say that the election is purposeful and that God calls people, don't God doesn't want to exclude people, God wants to involve people.

Why would he call you in the first place?

They said, Hey, has the word of God failed?

Second question, is God guilty of injustice?

Look at verse 14.

He said, What shall we say then?

Is there injustice on God's part?

Paul says, by no means.

For he says to Moses, I have mercy on whom I have mercy.

I have compassion on whom I have compassion.

So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.

See, this merciful God that calls, it's not about you exerting your will or you figuring it out.

It's about, hey, do you hear God calling you?

Has there ever been a point where God kind of gnawed at your guts in such a way that the only recourse you had was to give your life to Christ?

Because here's what's happened because of bad theology in the church, in leadership, in preachers who don't say what the Bible says.

You got a lot of people who quote unquote prayed the prayer at some point in their life, but they've never been converted.

And they read the Bible and they think, what's wrong with this?

It's not working.

You never got called.

People used you to build their church, but they didn't teach you the Bible.

You feel what just happened in here?

And then I just want to say, you don't need some insecure preacher in front of you using you.

You can know when God's talking to you.

It's like when people, single people always ask you, Well, how'd you know he was the one or she was the one?

You all say the same thing.

What do you say in response to?

How'd you know your wife was the one?

What's the answer?

You just know.

My answer is she told me.

You stand right here and wear this tuxedo.

No.

You just know.

That frustrates single people because they want you to they want you to say, well, there's like a glowing moon beam around her head.

And God said, Rise up and take your wife.

No, you just know.

Why do I say that?

Because there's a calling and knowing is the language of familiarity.

And God makes it obvious what's happening.

He says, Hey, is there is is God guilty of injustice?

Is there injustice on God's part?

And then and Paul says, No, absolutely not.

Anathema, God forbid, he uses two biblical characters everybody knows about.

First of all, he uses Moses.

He tells the story.

By the way, let me just say this: Is God guilty of injustice?

If God's guilty of injustice, then what that means is that he owes us something that he didn't give us, and so therefore we now have a claim against God.

For there to be injustice, then something was owed, something should have happened that didn't happen, and so now we gotta we can charge God with injustice.

And so to all that, I would just say, what did God owe you?

What did God owe anybody that we could say, you did wrong here?

But God is gracious, and he points to Moses and he says, Hey, from Exodus 33, where Moses was talking to God, and he said, You know, God, if you don't go with us, don't lead us up from here.

And God said, I'll go with you.

And Moses got looks at it and said, Great.

Now show me your glory.

And Moses said no.

I mean, God said no.

And here's why.

See, there's what God says, and then there's why.

We don't we don't want to hear the why.

He says, Show me your glory, and he says, No, you can't look up on my face and live.

I'll cause all my goodness to pass in front of you.

But my glory, check yourself before you wreck yourself, my man.

You can't look upon me because you will die.

What am I saying?

More important, what's the Bible saying?

Look at me.

Sometimes God says no for reasons you won't understand in this life.

You just won't.

You won't.

And he says, I have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I have compassion on whom I have compassion.

And in that moment, God is having mercy and compassion on Moses.

Otherwise, he would have had to kill Moses right there.

And then he points to Pharaoh and he says, Hey, that's what verse 17 of Romans 9 says.

For the scripture says to Pharaoh, For this very purpose I have raised you up that I might show my power in you, that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

Why?

Because everybody in all the earth knows the name of Pharaoh.

So verse 18, so then he, God, he has mercy on whoever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

We get hung up, this is like the word hate.

We get hung up on the word harden.

And let me just say, keep in mind that the natural state of man is to be hard-hearted.

In Ezekiel 36, God says, I'll take out your heart of stone.

Why do I tell you that?

Because in theology, there's two references.

There's an active hardening, and there's a passive hardening.

And this is a case of passive hardening.

God did not do anything to Pharaoh to make his heart hard.

The Bible says he hardened his heart.

His heart was already hard.

You say, How do you know?

Don't turn there.

But Exodus chapter 5, verse 1.

Exodus 5:1

Moses goes to Pharaoh and says, God says, Let my people go.

And Pharaoh says, Who is the Lord that I should obey him?

I do not know the Lord, and I will not let his people go.

And God says, Oh, you don't know me, huh?

Let me introduce myself.

And he sends ten plagues.

And by the way, at any point in that whole thing, he could have wiped Pharaoh out.

And he didn't.

Because God's, hey, he's displaying his power through Pharaoh.

Like I said to my kids the other day, I don't want my kids to grow up and be dependent on the government.

I said to them the other night at supper, hey girls, by the way, the government's shut down.

And my 10-year-old's eating.

And she looked at me and says, What's that got to do with us?

And I thought, My work here is finished, my man.

What's that got to do?

Because I don't want them to think, oh, if I don't do this, then the government's going to send me a check everywhere.

No, no, no.

You got to work hard.

You work hard, see?

That's just part of being a human being and bestowing upon yourself the dignity of responsibility.

And my kids are like, okay, Dad, we get it.

There's a dignity to responsibility people can't give you.

Thank you, Mom.

Please make Dad stop.

It's not Sunday.

He's preaching.

I mean, are you kidding me?

You're going to hate yourself if you just live as a dependent.

God didn't make you to be that way.

God gave you a work ethic and says, hey, I'll bestow upon you this dignity of responsibility, and you get that by being responsible, not dependent.

End of that sermon.

Back to this one.

Says he hardened Pharaoh.

It's passive hardening.

See, let me just say like this: people who are lost are not made to disbelieve God.

It's not like people say, I want to believe God, but God hardened my heart and I couldn't believe.

I can't do it.

I don't have enough power.

That's not biblical hardening.

That's just that's the state of his heart.

It's not what God did to Pharaoh to harden his heart.

God didn't do anything to Pharaoh.

You say, no, what are you saying?

I'm going to say it like this: Pharaoh gets justice.

The people of Israel get mercy.

Where's the injustice?

Or put it down to where we live.

I had 10 people lined up on this stage.

These three over here said, We're Christians.

We've been converted.

God called us.

We've responded to that.

These seven are like, I don't believe any of this.

I think this is hogwash.

I'm too scientific for this.

Tomorrow all of them die.

Those three go to heaven.

These three go to hell.

Who got injustice?

The Bible says the wages of sin is what?

You see, you can't believe that and then squeal injustice when people who don't know God who die and they get the just punishment for their sins.

Does that make sense to anybody?

And I'm and I'm not making God out to be hard-hearted, not at all, or insensitive or uncaring.

It's just that when we get up against things that we don't understand or really we don't want to admit, we blame God.

We point our finger at God and say, hey, there's injustice.

Oh, what are you doing?

Or the third question we do, we kind of point at God and we say, and say, Why are you still making us responsible?

Which is exactly what they did in the Bible.

You've not had a thought before that people in the Bible didn't have.

They were like, that's the third question that leaves a mark.

Why are we still responsible?

It's in verse 19.

After he talks about have mercy on who have mercy, I have compassion on whoever I'm compassionate, and I harden whoever I want to harden.

And so the people were like, oh.

Verse 19, you will say to me then, why does he still find fault?

For who can resist his will?

In other words, if this is the way God does it, why are we responsible?

Verse 20.

But who are you, old man, to answer back to God?

But what it's molded say to its molder, why have you made me like this?

Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump, one vessel for honored use, and another for dishonorable?

What if God, we'll get into that in just a minute.

But here's what what Paul does.

He basically says, in response to the why are we still responsible?

He kind of gives three contrasts that are kind of intended to put the question in its proper perspective, but more importantly, to put us in our proper place.

Because there's, you say, What do you mean, put the question in its proper perspective and put us in our proper place?

Because there's a part, there's a residue of our of our fallen nature that wants to go back to the garden and believe the lie that the serpent said to Adam and to Eve, you know, when he said, Oh, God's afraid you'll be like him.

There's a part of us that kind of says, Ah, I this is about, and so to just make the point, Paul just says, here's three things you need to remember.

He says, Who are you, O man, to talk back to God?

There's man and God.

Okay, and what is molded, say to the molder.

There's what is molded and the molder.

And then there's the clay and the potter.

And I just want to say to all of us, we're the clay.

He's the potter.

You're what is molded.

He is the molder.

You are man.

I'm man.

He is God.

Don't get those out of order in your head.

Because many of our problems, I would say most of our problems come from this age-old we kind of want to.

I don't like it being this way.

And by the way, it's always been that way.

Let me just read a couple verses.

They'll come up on the screen.

This is from Isaiah chapter 29.

Isaiah 29 · chapter mention

He said, God says, You turn things upside down.

Shall the potter be regarded as the clay?

That the thing made should say of its maker, he did not make me, or the thing formed say of him who formed it.

He has no understanding.

Translation, God doesn't know what he's doing.

I wouldn't do it that way.

Later in Isaiah 45, verse 9, he says, Woe to him who strives with him who formed him.

Isaiah 45:9

A pot among earthen pots.

Does the clay say to him who forms it, What are you making?

Or your work has no handles.

Be careful, beloved.

Now look at me.

Listen to me.

God always welcomes the sincere questioner that wants understanding.

But the person that asks questions to make a point and keep living and believing something the Bible doesn't teach, this is you.

You're the one that says, Your work has no handles.

I can't get my hands around that.

God make that.

And God says, Hey.

Because we by nature and by choice are sinners.

There's nobody innocent that God just says, I'm going to send that person to hell because I'm a mean God.

No.

People go to hell because of their sin.

Fourth and final question that the Bible kind of uses to leave a mark on us is what is God showing us about Himself?

That's verse 22 to verse 24.

You still with me?

Look at what the Bible says.

Because it let me just say this.

A lot of times we get hung up on the what and the why, and we miss the what.

What is God doing, or why is God doing that?

Or why does the Bible say that?

And you miss the what?

Look at verse 22.

What if God?

See, Paul's inviting us to say, hey, don't miss this.

Don't miss this.

What if God's doing something?

You ain't got eyes to see.

What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience, vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order that, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he's prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he called, not from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles.

Two things, two questions in your head that I want to answer.

When he talks about vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, vessels of mercy, what's he talking about?

When Paul says right here, when the Bible says vessels of wrath fit for destruction, he's referring to people that are never, ever, ever going to come to faith in God.

Now just listen for a minute, okay?

Because here's where a bunch of preachers mess people's minds up.

They start trying to apologize, and I preached on this one once at a conference, and a guy came up to me and he was like, I just can't believe in a God that would make somebody and not let them go to heaven and just make somebody that's gonna go to hell.

And I said, Then you have to be a universalist.

You have to say, then everybody gets in.

The only way for God to not have made people that are not gonna get to heaven is for everyone to get into heaven.

He said, Well, that's not what I'm saying.

I said, Well, pick out the vessel, because the vessels of mercy are people that are prepared before him for glory.

That's people that's that's Christians, that's people that believe the gospel, people that have been converted.

I said, So here's what you do.

I said, pick out all the vessels of wrath, people that are never gonna come, and pick out the vessels of mercy.

The people are gonna, in God's timing, they're gonna come, and I'll just talk to them.

And he got so frustrated.

I know this may surprise you.

Even when I go preach somewhere else, I say things that frustrate people.

I know.

But in a fit of frustration, he made a great statement.

He's like, well, that's just stupid.

We don't know who they are.

And so the gospel is whosoever will.

The gospel is for everybody.

But we don't cheapen the gospel, we don't Mickey Mouse it up because we're trying to you we're gonna we're not appealing to your will, your will, or your emotions.

See, we love feelings and formulas at the exclusion of biblical facts.

That there are people in the world that are never gonna come to God.

They just aren't.

Now, logic dictates that has to be true.

Otherwise, you have to be a universalist and say everybody gets in.

And if everybody gets in on the basis does, on what basis does everybody get in?

See, this really gets at this kind of colloquialism that we've allowed to kind of get in our vocabulary that says, well, we're all God's children.

No, we're all God's creation, but we're not all God's children.

We're not.

And so what does he say?

What is God showing us about himself?

Let me say this the glory of God is achieved by making known his attributes.

The glory of God is achieved by God displaying who he is.

So it's not why or why or how, it's it's why.

Paul says, what if God?

What if God is doing this so we can understand something about himself?

What does God want us to see in himself?

Five attributes of God.

God wants us to see.

Number one, wrath.

Wrath.

God's fixed displeasure with sin.

There were times when I was growing up, I had two older brothers.

My dad would whip my brothers for something, and I didn't know what they did.

I just saw them getting a whipping, and I'd ask them afterwards, hey, what'd you do?

And they would tell me, one time my brother said, Why do you want to know?

It's none of your business.

Because I want to make sure not to do it, because I don't want what happened to you to happen to me.

The Bible says, God, hey, what if God choosing to make his wrath and his power known?

See, there's no fear of God before our eyes.

There's the things that used to be a sin, they're aren't a sin anymore.

Have you noticed that?

It used to be a sin.

Hey, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't live together before you get married.

Don't have sex outside of the context of marriage.

Don't have affair.

Now it's, well, you expect that a man said this to me.

You expect a man to be monogamous his entire life?

Oh, Jesus, help us.

Don't kill us, God.

We're trying.

That was right out here at Starbucks.

At Greatwood, at$59.99.

Came right out of man's mouth.

Because you see, man is now real big and God's real small.

And if God wants in man's life, he's going to have to come on man's terms.

And the Bible says it's just the opposite, my man.

You're like dust on the scales.

God says, Lebanon and all the cedars of Lebanon are not sufficient altar fire for me.

If you want to make a sacrifice to appease my wrath, my fixed and firm holy displeasure with sin.

You could cut down all the trees in Lebanon, and it wouldn't be enough for the fire to lay that sacrifice on.

You are a one-legged man in a kicking contest.

That's what the Bible says.

You ever been in the middle of doing something you knew was wrong?

And you had the thought go through your head, God, I know this is wrong.

Just don't get me for it right now.

You ever had that thought?

Thank you.

There's at least two honest people, me and that guy.

So the wrath of God is not boogeyman.

It's an attribute.

It's who he is.

But it's not the sum total of who he is.

He says also his power.

By the way, God doesn't lay down his love to show his wrath.

Do you understand that?

Don't think of God as a, oh, God's a God of wrath.

That's why you ever heard this phrase?

Oh, my God's a God of love.

That's a pretty one-dimensional God.

The God of the Bible is multifaceted.

He doesn't lay down one attribute to display another.

He displays his wrath, his power.

He says, I'm going to make my power known in Pharaoh.

So everybody that used to live in fear of Pharaoh, they're going to think, they're going to say, you know what?

No more fear of Pharaoh.

I want to think that way about God.

His patience.

His patience.

And let me just say this.

I don't have time to go into this, but are you still with me?

He says, What if he's endured with much patience, vessels of wrath, prepared for destruction?

There was a time in my life, if you'd have looked at me, you'd have said, That cat ain't no way.

There's no way.

That guy is hopeless.

I did not have a teacher.

All from about fifth grade on that didn't say that about me.

Here was the big word I had to go look up.

A teacher looked at me in the sixth grade and said, Young man, you are incorrigible.

My probation officer in the eighth grade told me, hey boy, you go into the pen.

It's just a matter of time.

And I said, Well, I'll take your daughter with me.

Now that ain't a brag.

That's how hard my heart was.

That ain't good.

If you're a student here, don't go, oh, I'm gonna say that.

No.

That man stood up and started coming around his desk, and his partner grabbed him and said, Hal, Hal.

And I was sitting there like, Yeah, come over here, Hal.

14 years old.

You want some of this, Hal?

Boy, I got you, boy, right here.

I hope to meet that man one day and say, Thank you for not killing me.

But here's my point.

It's not about the reputation of Neil.

Look at me.

It's the patience of God.

He's born with great patience.

These objects of wrath.

His patience is on display.

And then he says this he's bore these with great patience.

Why?

Verse 23.

In order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he's prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles.

Last true attributes of God that he puts on display is his glory.

And then his mercy.

His glory says the riches of his glory to these vessels of mercy.

You are a life that is full, that contains God's mercy.

Let me just say it like this.

What if in all this God is actually showing us, telling us, leaving us verifiable proof as to what he's like, and we're missing it because we're questioning why or how, and we're not just looking at the what.

Well, what if God puts himself on display?

Remember when we uh first had children, we had Madison, our oldest, who's 15 now, and I traveled.

I was on the road for 185 days a year, traveling, preaching.

So when I'd come home, I'd be like full board dad.

My wife was like, I hate being married to you because you come home and you have presents and you're all uh and I've just been here all day, just getting the life sucked out of me.

And I'm like, oh, step your game up, woman.

Come on.

Come on, Madison, the good cop is home.

And there was a period in her life, her favorite game to play was hide and go seek.

Okay?

And so I'd come home and say, What do you want to do?

And my wife was like, Y'all do whatever you want.

I'm gonna be in the backyard.

And so we'd be in there, and I mean every day, and not just like once a day, I mean like every hour of the day, she wanted to play hide and go seek.

Oh, how do you go seek?

And I'd be like, uh.

Because my my kid at the time did not know how to play hide and go seek.

Because she would hide like over, she'd pull the curtains out and put the curtains over her and be behind the curtains giggling.

And you gotta act like you don't know where she is.

And you're like, uh, is Madison under the table?

And she'd pull the curtain back.

No, I'm over here and pull the curtain back.

And you go, oh, is she in the refrigerator?

No, I'm behind the curtain.

She'd pull the curtain back.

And you'd go in there and go, Oh, is she under the couch?

No, dummy, I'm behind the curtain.

And I'd be like, I remember the first time she did it.

I got in bed that night and well, how's your day?

Our kid is as dumb as a mud fence.

She's gonna ride the short bus to school.

This kid doesn't know how to play hide and go seek.

And my wife just smiling.

And I said, What?

And she said, It might help you.

This ruined me.

It might help you to know that her favorite part of the game is when you find her.

She can't stay hidden.

She wants to be found.

Reminds you of anybody?

Hold your hands out and speak a blessing over you.

Your God uses phrases like before the very foundation of the world.

Not to confuse you, but to remind you that he's been thinking of you for a long time.

And he's never gonna stop.

Depart now and know that you are loved, cared for, and provided for people.

In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you, you're dismissed.