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Romans 9:16-29
16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion,1 but on God, who has mercy. 17 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.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 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, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel2 be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, 28 for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” 29 And as Isaiah predicted,
“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
we would have been like Sodom
and become like Gomorrah.”
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Romans chapter 9. It is also there in your worship guide. If you are visiting, we've been working our way through Romans. We've been in this, letter for about a year now. And now we are in our 2nd week of chapter 9, which is all about predestination.
Joel Brooks:So glad you're here. Afterwards, we're going to this afternoon. We were also renting out a brewery if the predestination didn't put, you know, already, push you away. And, and we were having our potluck over there, so it was it was good meeting you today. And, hopefully, you will return.
Joel Brooks:We're gonna begin reading in verse 16. I'm not gonna read everything. We'll save some stuff for later, but we'll go through verse 24. 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.
Joel Brooks:So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, why does He still find fault? For who can resist His will? But who are you, oh man, to answer back to God? Well, what is molded say to its molder?
Joel Brooks: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 honorable 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. And this is the word of the lord.
Joel Brooks:If you would pray with me. Father, we pray that you would honor the very reading of your word, that through your spirit, we would hear you clearly. You would open up our hearts, open up our minds to receive what you would have for us today. Father, we are gathered in this in this place because we want to know you. We want to know the real you so that we might come to adore you and worship you.
Joel Brooks:I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. So as I look around this room, I can imagine that there is not one of you who just woke up one morning, poured a cup of coffee, maybe a bowl of cereal, sat down at the kitchen table and thought, today's the day.
Joel Brooks:Today's the day that I'm gonna become aware of my sins. Today's the day I'm gonna realize I've been rebelling against my creator. Today's the day I'm gonna be convicted. Today's the day that I am going to come to see Jesus as being the son of God. Today's the day I'm gonna hear his voice calling me to himself.
Joel Brooks:Today is the day that I'm gonna give my life to Him, fully trusting Him with my life. I have never known any Christian who, who planned out their own conversion. I've known many people, you know, who plan out everything else in their lives. They plan out their vacations. They've planned out where they want to work, where they want to live.
Joel Brooks:They've planned out who they want to date, maybe planned out who they want to marry. I mean, we all know people who, who are those planners who plan out every little minute detail of their lives. We avoid people like that, don't we? But even even those people didn't plan their conversion. No one here planned their conversion, but that doesn't mean it wasn't planned.
Joel Brooks:For those of you here who have been irresistibly drawn to Jesus, I want you to think of your conversion right now, and I want you to think of all the events that led up to it. Maybe there was this key conversation that you had in which somebody talked about God and eternity and it really got you thinking and and then that was followed up by a person giving you a book that presented the gospel. Maybe you found yourself at a church service and you heard the pastor proclaim the gospel, and for the first time in your life, it actually made sense. And you heard it and you you responded. Think of all of those events that led to your conversion.
Joel Brooks:Now do you believe those events were coincidences? Or do you think they were orchestrated by someone? Do you think they were planned? In other words, when thinking of your salvation, should you thank God or thank you were lucky stars for your conversion? If you believe that you should thank God, it's because you believe He orchestrated those things.
Joel Brooks:He planned out your salvation. So the question is this, when did he make those plans? Did he plan them on the fly? He was he was watching your life and like, you know, second by second always reacting, and that's why you happen to have that friend there. You happen to get that book, and you happen to hear the gospel.
Joel Brooks:What was he planning on the fly? Or maybe did he make his preparations a few days or a few weeks ahead? Maybe a few millennia ahead, the biblical word for that is predestination. Christianity is something that happened to you because God predestined for that to happen to you. Last week after we began looking at Romans 9, somebody asked if I could just clearly define predestination.
Joel Brooks:Well, that's it. God orchestrated the events, those things that led you to himself, and he didn't do it a second beforehand. He did this way back in time. So the question is this, does God do that for everyone then? Well, the obvious answer to that is no.
Joel Brooks:Because we look around and we see so many people who do not know Jesus. God chooses some, He does not choose others. That's actually why we have this chapter in the bible. The Christians in Rome, they were wondering about God's chosen people, the Israelites, the Jews. And they're like, if if God chose them, then why is church filled with Gentiles and not Jews?
Joel Brooks:Why have the chosen people, by and large, rejected Jesus to be their Messiah? And Paul answers with this chapter. He says, because not all of the chosen people are really chosen. Says, there's a remnant. There's an elect within Israel.
Joel Brooks:Now, could Jesus have met every Jew and changed their hearts and drawn them to himself Damascus. He could have. He could have given every person, all every Israelite, a road to Damascus experience. But for reasons only known unto him, he did not do so. We looked at that last week.
Joel Brooks:It's called the doctrine of election. He didn't do that for everybody. Could he have? Yes. But he did not.
Joel Brooks:Now when you picture election, and I realized this as we were talking last week, some of us have the wrong picture and it was kind of a stumbling block for us. When you picture election, don't picture everybody's going to to God's door, they wanna get into the kingdom of God, and so they're knocking on the door and God kinda cracks open the door, and he's like, alright. You. Grabs. Pulls in.
Joel Brooks:Like, hey. You in the back. Grabs, pulls in, and we'll do one more, and you. And then he closes the door, and he leaves all these people outside, like, still knocking, wanting to get in, but he says, I'm sorry. You're not elect.
Joel Brooks:It's just for these. That is not at all the biblical picture of election that we are given. A much better picture would be this. God has sent out countless invitations to all of humanity to come. Come and to be with him.
Joel Brooks:He has prepared a a feast, a a party that will go on for all of eternity and he is waiting for you to come in. In other words, the gospel invitation has gone out. And he is waiting for people to respond. And he promises us in John chapter 6, that all who come, he will never cast out. He will joyfully let everyone in who comes to Him.
Joel Brooks:However, when God goes to the door and He opens it to look to see who's responded to His invitations, He looks out and He sees no one. That's what he's talked about in Romans chapter 3 when he's quoting from Isaiah. When he says, there is none righteous, there is no not one. There is no one who seeks God. No not one.
Joel Brooks:No one is coming to him. No one is seeking him out. A matter of fact, when he opens that door and he looks out there, the people he sees way in the distance, they're running away from him. Not running towards him. And so, God, at that point, he had every right.
Joel Brooks:If if he wanted to, he could have just slammed the door and he could have gone, you know, father, son, and spirit could have sat down and just had the banquet and enjoyed that for all of eternity. But what we read is God, out of a deep heart of love and mercy, He opens that door and He runs after some. And He grabs some and He pulls them in in which we are saved not by our will, not by any kind of human intention, but by God who has mercy. That's what we've been reading in Romans. So the reason we get into the feast is because God has grabbed us and he has dragged us in, not because we were knocking on the door.
Joel Brooks:This is what Jesus meant in John chapter 6 verse 44 when He says, no one can no one can come to me unless my father who sent me draws him. That word draws is translated elsewhere in the New Testament as the word drag. It's the same word that's used to describe when, when the Apostle Paul, when at one point he was stoned and they thought his body was dead, lifeless, They grabbed him, and they dragged his body out of the city. Same word there. God's saying that Jesus is saying, unless my father drags you to me, you won't come to me.
Joel Brooks:My my parents, they wanted to teach me the meaning of this when I was a child, and so they dragged me to church every Sunday. I mean I mean I'm sure lots of kids don't wanna go to church except for maybe ours because Reagan does a phenomenal job downstairs. But I certainly did not want to go to church. And, and my my parents had to like sometimes physically grab me and put me in the car, and then it was a 30 minute car ride to get to church, and so they had heard me, you know, whine and complain for 30 minutes when I got there. So we finally got there and, it would have probably been easier for them if I never came.
Joel Brooks:It certainly would have been easier for those at church if I never came because I was such a disruptive force. My mom was the church organist. She is still the church organist, over 60 years playing the church organ. And, and so I would usually start a service in the pew until I got in trouble, and then my mom, you know, would just see that, come. And I'd have to come sit by her.
Joel Brooks:And I shared this story years ago, but one time I had to sit by her during the sermon and when she wasn't looking, I literally found a dime on the floor. I picked it up and I undid the screws to the vent, took it off, crawled underneath the church's stage while the pastor was preaching, went underneath his feet and I started banging on the bottom of his feet in order to distract him. That's the kind of kid I was. But my kids drag I mean my mom me to church, and eventually, one of those times, Jesus dragged me to himself. Jesus drew me to him.
Joel Brooks:Jesus, that's what God does with us. Alright. So that's what our salvation looks like. Running away, He grabs us. He pulls us in.
Joel Brooks:And now let's look at what God's sovereignty looks like for those who reject Him. People like pharaoh. Look at verse 17. This is one of those uncomfortable passages, and I'll go ahead and warn you. Some of you are good enough to, send me some pictures of the table of contents of some Romans commentaries you're reading.
Joel Brooks:Some of them literally just jumped over chapter 9. I mean Max Lucado, come on. I mean you you you gotta you gotta go through these. My wife and I, we've been married over 25 years. And it's when we decided to have the hard conversations that our marriage got even better.
Joel Brooks:It wasn't because we avoided the hard conversations. It's when we decided, okay, we love each other enough, this hard conversation is worth going through. And when we had that hard conversation, came out the other side, man, we loved each other even more. Some of you need to have these hard conversations with God. So, verse 17, 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.
Joel Brooks:So then He has mercy on whomever He wills, and He hardens whomever He wills. Sometimes Scripture is hard to understand because the words are difficult, and sometimes it's not hard at all. It's perfectly clear, and that's what makes it difficult. It's one of these words. Once again, if this rubs you the wrong way, know you're understanding Paul correctly.
Joel Brooks:Just like last week, if you if you have an objection like, oh, I don't like that, that means you're reading him correctly because he anticipates your objection. And so he follows it up in verse 19. You will say to me then, why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will? In other words, Paul, are you telling me like, pharaoh never had a chance?
Joel Brooks:That's what it sounds like what you're saying. Pharaoh never had a chance. He's just God's pawn or maybe worse, he's just like God's robot. He doesn't even have a will. He has to do exactly what God tells him.
Joel Brooks:Is that the kind of God I serve? Does he really harden hearts like this? Paul's answer is yes. God does harden hearts, but perhaps not in the way that you think. Paul's actually already discussed what this hardening looks like when he's, gone through Romans chapter 1, back at the start of this letter.
Joel Brooks:If you remember, Paul, he was describing how there were certain people who refused to honor God in their lives. They they kept living a life of rebellion. And so in chapter 1, he says this. He said, instead of honoring God in their lives, they, I quote, exchange the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man. Therefore, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity.
Joel Brooks:Actually, 3 times in this chapter, we find that God responded to some people who were living in rebellion against him. He responded by giving them up to their evil desires. Or or in other words, God tells these people, you know, for so long, you might not have been realizing this, but for so long, I have graciously been holding you back in your sin. I've been graciously restraining you from being as evil as you could be. I have been secretly holding you in check, but because you refused to acknowledge me, I withdraw my hand, and I will hold you back no more.
Joel Brooks:And I give you over to the lust of your heart. I give you over to your evil desires. God's judgment then is him saying, you can do whatever you want. That's judgment. I give you your heart's desire.
Joel Brooks:And so we read this three times. We read that he gave them over to their lust. He gave them over to dishonorable passions, he gave them over to a debased mind. God's judgment is, I will let you do whatever you want. This is the hardening you should see here when it comes to pharaoh.
Joel Brooks:Pharaoh was already a very evil man. He'd already committed mass genocide against the Hebrew children. He's already, put in slavery all the Israelites. This is a man who has refused to listen to God. And when you read through the account in Exodus, when you first have come across pharaoh over and over, he is hardening his own heart.
Joel Brooks:It says, he hardened his heart. He hardens his heart. And then finally, it seems to reach a point where God says, since you refuse to come to me, I will actually hold back your evil no more. And he fully gives them to the desires of his own heart. And then God begins to be described as hardening his heart at that point, using it for his own will, for his own purposes.
Joel Brooks:In other words, what pharaoh meant for evil, God meant for good. But pharaoh was meaning on his own accord evil. But God was using pharaoh at this point now for his good. Alright. So here's the question.
Joel Brooks:Here's the hard question. We haven't even hit the hard question yet. The hard question is this, why didn't God overcome Pharaoh's rebellion just like He overcame Paul's rebellion? Or why does God deliver some people from their sins and yet hand over other people to their sins? Why does God give some people a new heart and other people a hard heart?
Joel Brooks:That's the question. That that's that's a lot harder question to answer. And Paul's answer here is the same answer that God gave to Job when Job wanted to plead his case. You know, when when Job couldn't understand everything that was happening around him, didn't know how, like, how his relationship with God and all that was working out, and he wants to argue his case. God tells him, Job, remember who you are and remember who I am.
Joel Brooks:And that's what Paul says here. We are to remember who we are and we are to remember whom we are talking to. And that we have no idea what's actually going going on. We read this in verse 20. But who are you, oh man, to answer back to God?
Joel Brooks:Will what is 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 honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make his 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. And now I know when you read this, it get kinda feels like God's being a bully. Doesn't it?
Joel Brooks:Just a little bit, like, saying, hey, remember who you're talking to, you piece of clay. I mean, it kinda feels like that. I mean, so that that's how it hit me when I first read it. It's like, you know, mind your own business, you lump of clay. But that's not at all what the tone you should read into this.
Joel Brooks:It's not what God is saying. He's he's reminding us though. He is the creator. Therefore, He knows what He's doing. He knows what He is doing.
Joel Brooks:He has so much more wisdom, so much more understanding than us. Why would we ever question Him? And when you combine all of that with our history of arrogance, our history of violence and dishonesty and every imaginable evil, what makes us think that we know better than God or that we should try to correct him in the way that he deals with his creation? That's what Paul is saying here. We should trust.
Joel Brooks:Now we don't have much time, so I I wanna make sure that I at least point out a a couple of things from this, that were really clarifying to me and hopefully they'll be helpful to you. I know you're gonna still have, you know, a number of questions out there, but hopefully, this will be helpful. Last week, you know, I gave you the advice when dealing with these things. I know questions arise, but it's best first to start with, start with what the affirmations, what God says about himself. That's your starting point, and then work to the questions.
Joel Brooks:You all nodded your heads and then you immediately jumped to the questions. I mean, I wasn't even home before my email box was full and the texts were there. And I was joking about y'all doing that. No. Y'all send them right in.
Joel Brooks:Alright. But we should affirm things about God first. And, like, one of the things we can affirm is throughout scripture, God declares He's sovereign, doesn't He? Over everything. I mean, He names everything.
Joel Brooks:I mean, from from birds to hares to the king's heart, He names every we start with that. So when we come to passages like this, we don't ever think where does God's sovereignty and man will, where does it meet? It's a wrong picture because God's sovereignty is this. There is no end to it. We start with that, and now we have to think, where does man's will fit within that?
Joel Brooks:Not are they pushing back and forth. Where does God where does our will work within God's sovereign will? That's that's how we're to understand these things. This is very helpful for for as we're thinking through this. So here are some of the things that I have found helpful when I've had these questions arise in this text.
Joel Brooks:First, is that in this passage, we see that God is clearly the one who prepares us or predestines us for glory. I mean, we clearly read that. However, we do not read that he is the one who has prepared anyone for destruction. Look at verse 22 again carefully. 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.
Joel Brooks:Notice that God is not mentioned as the one who prepared vessels for destruction. They're just prepared for destructions. But does that say God prepared them for destructions? If anything, that's supposed to be seen in contrast for what he's doing in preparing people for glory. With that group, it shows God is he is exerting great patience towards this other group here.
Joel Brooks:He is so patient with this other group. These vessels of wrath have prepared themselves for destruction. God didn't do it. In other words, what we have is a picture of this. If left on our own, do you know what we are planning for?
Joel Brooks:Our destruction. That's how we live out our lives. That's the path that we chose we choose. If left on our own, we are preparing ourselves for destruction. Vessels of mercy, however, were prepared by God beforehand.
Joel Brooks:And we're gonna talk more about what it means to be a vessel of mercy, later in Romans 10. Alright, so that's the first thing I want to mention. Sorry, I'm almost like doing these like bullet points, but, you're gonna have to just deal with it. Sorry. Second thing is this, this is our only hope for evangelism.
Joel Brooks:Now, I was not going to talk about this this week because there's other parts of Romans 9, but just one of the questions that kept popping up. Plus we have we're about to commission some money on the mission field. We have 43 college students about to go to Panama, and they're like, why do I even share my faith? And I'm like, okay. Well, I at least need to I at least need to put a foot in here, but we're gonna talk about this a whole lot more when we get to Romans 10.
Joel Brooks:Once again, y'all are so impatient. Alright? But this is a question. Why? What does this say about evangelism?
Joel Brooks:And I would say it is our only hope in evangelism is God's sovereignty over our hearts. I can guarantee that for those of you who are praying for someone who is lost, perhaps a lost family member or friend, that you 100% are clinging to God's sovereignty over their heart. And this isn't, like, just some kind of theoretical thing. My wife and I, we have family who don't know Jesus. And we, the sovereignty of God is our only hope, His sovereign mercy in their lives.
Joel Brooks:And perhaps you've never consciously thought about God's sovereignty or election, or how God is a potter and we are the clay, as you have prayed for the lost but can I tell you as a Christian you instinctively believe this? So let me explain to you what you already believe. I know you pray the sovereignty of God because I have never once heard somebody pray for the lost like this. God, you know my friend here, they don't know you. They don't wanna know you.
Joel Brooks:They're living a complete life of sin and in rebellion against you, and they're running away from you as fast as they can. So, God, would you honor their free will? God, would you respect the decisions that they are making? I have never heard a Christian pray that. Because you know what we know instinctively?
Joel Brooks:That to pray for God to honor their free will is to pray for their judgment, not their salvation. We know where they are choosing to go. Our hope is that God sovereignly will change their hearts. That's why we pray this. God, would you change their heart?
Joel Brooks:God, would you cause them to be aware of their sin? Would you give them a heart of repentance? God, would you orchestrate events in their life? I mean, maybe bring somebody in their life to share gospel. Maybe open up their minds and their hearts to hear the gospel for the first time.
Joel Brooks:All of those are prayers that understand that God is sovereign over our lives. So our hope for the loss is that God will sovereignly intervene and change that person's will because we know where their will is leading them right now. So it's our hope. God changes hearts. He overrides our will.
Joel Brooks:Deep down, we know that we cannot become a Christian on our own. Dig a little deeper down, and you'll realize you can't even want to become a Christian on your own. God has to change our desires. Once again, think back to your own conversion. Did you wake up that morning and think today's the day?
Joel Brooks:Today's the day I'm gonna give up my free will, Or today's the day that I'm gonna that I'm gonna just, on my own, become aware of my sin. On my own, realize I have sinned against the creator on my own, believe that Jesus is now Lord and savior. Today's the day I give my life to no. But that happened because God intervened in your life, and he changed your heart. For those of you, I know you've been listening to me and you're like, but that hasn't happened to me, and you're beginning to wonder in, like, Romans 9, this whole world here is like, oh my gosh.
Joel Brooks:Am I not part of the elect? Am I not chosen? You know, first hit pause. Paul doesn't even talk about this for the first 8 chapters of Romans. He gives us a full gospel without ever mentioning predestination.
Joel Brooks:It's a family secret, if you will. It's like what you know after. What you need to know is this, Take great comfort that you're here. Take great comfort that you're actually listening and you're engaged, because you would not be coming here unless the father was drawing you. And he is pulling you into himself.
Joel Brooks:Lean into that. If you have not trusted in Jesus, today is the day for you to do that. Today is the day for salvation, that you would call out to him. You come to him, and he will by no wise cast you out. If you would pray with me.
Joel Brooks:Lord, for those of us here who know you, when we come to a text like this, the only words that really formulate in in my mind are thank you, just gratitude. Thank you for your mercy. For left on our own, we would have certainly gone to destruction. Thank you for pulling us into yourself, holding us close to your heart. We were dead in our sins.
Joel Brooks:And, lord, you have made us alive. For those here who don't know you, right now can they hear you calling them? Can they begin feeling the irresistible pull of you pulling their heart towards yourself? May they call on your name, Jesus, and be saved. I pray that they would not leave here today without doing so.
Joel Brooks:We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.