back to index2017-03-26 Is God Fair Part 2
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If you can turn your Bibles to Romans chapter 9, our focus this morning is on verse 19-23. 00:00:12.880 |
But I'm going to be reading from verse 14 so that you can see the context of what we're 00:00:28.240 |
For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion 00:00:33.680 |
So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. 00:00:38.240 |
For the scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I 00:00:41.560 |
might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." 00:00:46.240 |
So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. 00:00:50.780 |
You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault? 00:00:56.040 |
But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? 00:00:58.760 |
Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?" 00:01:02.940 |
Has a potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable 00:01:10.440 |
What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with 00:01:14.780 |
much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches 00:01:19.140 |
of his glory for vessels of mercy which he has prepared beforehand for glory? 00:01:26.080 |
Heavenly Father, you truly are a God worthy of worship. 00:01:34.960 |
We thank you for our brothers and sisters that we can run this race together with. 00:01:40.460 |
We pray that you would help us to build a community that genuinely loves you and worships 00:01:47.100 |
We pray that your living word would judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart. 00:01:53.000 |
Help us to understand and be more than willing to apply all that you have. 00:01:59.160 |
All right, this morning, before we jump into the text, I want to start with a riddle. 00:02:07.640 |
I want you to see if you can answer them for yourselves. 00:02:10.000 |
Some of you already probably may have heard of this riddle. 00:02:13.520 |
But again, if you know it, don't blurt it out. 00:02:17.480 |
A man and his son are in a terrible car accident and are rushed to the hospital in critical 00:02:23.960 |
The doctor looks at the boy and exclaims, "I can't operate on this boy. 00:02:33.560 |
A man and his son are in a terrible accident and are rushed to the hospital in critical 00:02:39.040 |
The doctor looks at the boy and exclaims, "I can't operate on this boy. 00:02:48.720 |
And the answer is, the doctor was his mother. 00:02:58.000 |
Again, if you know it, don't blurt it out if you know it, okay? 00:03:02.560 |
The captain is my brother, testified the soldier. 00:03:06.760 |
But the captain testified he didn't have a brother. 00:03:16.500 |
The captain is my brother, testified the soldier. 00:03:19.000 |
But the captain testified he didn't have a brother. 00:03:32.600 |
Okay, some of you guys knew, some of you guys did not know. 00:03:39.360 |
The reason why I start with this riddle is because sometimes a riddle exposes or reveals 00:03:48.320 |
It was a female doctor, it was a female soldier. 00:03:51.520 |
But when we hear these questions, you know, again, when you hear the answer, it's pretty 00:03:56.160 |
But a lot of times in the way that we ask, in the way that we answer questions, it kind 00:03:59.600 |
of reveals our paradigm, how we look at the world, certain things that are true or certain 00:04:05.160 |
That doesn't automatically mean that you're a male chauvinist pig if you didn't get the 00:04:10.720 |
But there are certain things that we look at and certain paradigms, certain parameters 00:04:14.680 |
that we are used to and we try to see the whole world within that paradigm. 00:04:19.920 |
And so even though it's a very simple question, very simple answer, certain things that we 00:04:24.480 |
look at look a certain way because we have certain things that, again, glasses that we 00:04:32.280 |
The question that we have this morning that we've been dealing with for the last few weeks, 00:04:36.120 |
that Paul's been dealing with, with the whole chapter 9, as he's been talking about salvation 00:04:40.520 |
by grace, by his sovereign election, predestination. 00:04:46.000 |
The question that Paul's been trying to answer is, how can that be fair? 00:04:51.300 |
Is God sovereign or is man responsible for his sin? 00:04:55.180 |
If God shows mercy to whom he has mercy and he hardens those whom he hardens and God chooses 00:05:03.520 |
So the question that came in the previous weeks was, is there injustice in God for doing 00:05:09.800 |
And then today in verse 19, he would say, why does he still find fault? 00:05:15.440 |
If God is the one who's hardening and softening, how can he keep any of us accountable? 00:05:23.000 |
So this is, you know, the larger question that we ask is, is God sovereign or is man 00:05:30.820 |
And obviously the answer to that is yes, because the Bible clearly teaches both. 00:05:36.800 |
The Bible tells us that we are called to repent. 00:05:40.700 |
It says that God tells Israel that judgment is coming upon them because they willfully, 00:05:49.960 |
Joshua, the famous passage in Joshua chapter 24, where he says, "Choose you this day 00:05:56.380 |
So there's clear passages in the Bible that say, you are responsible. 00:05:59.960 |
You need to repent and you need to choose God. 00:06:03.640 |
And again, in the scriptures in John 6, 44, it says, "No one can come to me unless the 00:06:10.820 |
The only reason why we're even able to repent and come to the Lord is because the Lord is 00:06:17.320 |
In Isaiah 40, 12-31, not only does he draw individuals, it says that God controls even 00:06:26.080 |
He raises up nations and he puts down nations all for the purpose of his glory. 00:06:32.540 |
The chapter we're in, in Romans chapter 9, it is the conclusion of what Paul says in 00:06:38.840 |
It says, "For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image 00:06:42.900 |
of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." 00:06:48.440 |
So he says in Romans 8 that he who foreknew, he predestined, and then he conformed, and 00:06:54.520 |
And so God is the author from the beginning, the middle, and the end. 00:07:00.580 |
So if we're looking for a philosophical answer, like how does this work? 00:07:07.720 |
But the question that Paul is trying to answer, is it biblical? 00:07:16.360 |
We start to get into trouble when we look at one text and then we look at another text 00:07:20.700 |
and say, "Well, this sounds more reasonable." 00:07:22.540 |
And then we begin to ignore this whole other thing over here. 00:07:25.920 |
And that's how the Jehovah Witnesses get into trouble with the doctrine of the Trinity. 00:07:31.360 |
They'll always bring up questions, "Well, Jesus is praying to the Father, so how can 00:07:37.600 |
Clearly he's the Son and he's the Father, so they're distinct, they're different. 00:07:41.200 |
And then they completely ignore the passages where God the Father is calling his Son in 00:07:45.800 |
Hebrews chapter 1, "Thy throne, O God, is a righteous throne that will last forever 00:07:51.820 |
Jesus himself says, "I am," before Abraham was. 00:07:55.460 |
So in every instance where Jesus declares himself same and equal to the Father, the 00:08:00.720 |
Old Testament clearly spells that God is one, there's no other. 00:08:05.480 |
So the Bible teaches that God is one, there's only one, and yet there's a distinction about 00:08:16.080 |
There's a mystery about the identity of God, but we present in the doctrine of Trinity 00:08:24.480 |
So when it comes to our understanding of salvation, it is presented to us in both ways, where 00:08:29.360 |
we are responsible and yet God is absolutely sovereign. 00:08:32.380 |
He controls, he even raises up nations and destroys them ultimately for his purpose. 00:08:39.320 |
So the question is, again, the philosophical question is, if that is the case, if God is 00:08:44.280 |
sovereign and salvation isn't by human will, why does he find fault in man? 00:08:55.440 |
Martin Luther, again, the father of the Reformation, he addresses this issue this way, and again, 00:09:04.400 |
it's a paragraph, so I want you to pay close attention to how he addresses this issue. 00:09:08.360 |
He says, "Mere human reason can never comprehend how God is good and merciful, and therefore 00:09:15.160 |
you make to yourself a God of your own fancy who hardens nobody, condemns nobody, and pities 00:09:22.240 |
You cannot comprehend how a just God can condemn those who are born in sin and cannot help 00:09:27.020 |
themselves but must by a necessity of their natural constitution continue in sin and remain 00:09:34.440 |
The answer is God is incomprehensible, and therefore his justice as well as his other 00:09:42.560 |
It is on this very ground that St. Paul exclaims, 'Oh, the depth of his riches of the knowledge 00:09:48.800 |
of God, how unsearchable are his judgment and his ways.'" 00:09:53.680 |
So we can take certain parts of the scripture and it says, "Well, how can God be good if 00:09:57.320 |
he does this?" and then therefore you start to create a God that's not of the Bible. 00:10:02.240 |
If God is going to be merciful, he saves everybody. 00:10:05.960 |
That he is not wrathful, he's not vengeful, so basically we project upon him our idea 00:10:11.240 |
of justice, and then if we're not careful, we start worshipping a God that we've created 00:10:20.760 |
Paul's going to try to answer this question, but I'm going to tell you ahead of time that 00:10:25.640 |
you may not be satisfied, but I don't think Paul is trying to satisfy your question. 00:10:31.200 |
Let me tell you right off the bat, this is one of those passages that are wrestled with 00:10:35.880 |
and debated and struggled, and I'm not going to tell you even now that at the end of the 00:10:40.800 |
sermon you're going to say, "Oh, now I get it. 00:10:49.600 |
Paul's intent basically is to not deal with the question, he's trying to deal with the 00:10:54.480 |
question, but he's going to tell us what we need to hear. 00:11:00.040 |
He's going to answer the questions by asking us a question. 00:11:05.240 |
In fact, you're going to see that Jesus often does that. 00:11:08.200 |
When the Pharisees would come and ask him a question, he would turn it around and he 00:11:13.240 |
In Matthew 5, 1-4, the Pharisees scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, "Why do 00:11:18.480 |
your disciples break the tradition of elders? 00:11:20.840 |
For they do not wash the hands when they eat." 00:11:23.800 |
He answered them, "And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?" 00:11:34.240 |
I think Matthew 21, 23-27, when Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders 00:11:39.280 |
of the people came up to him as he was teaching and said, "By what authority are you doing 00:11:48.960 |
Jesus answered them, "I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, 00:11:53.080 |
then I will also tell you what authority I do these things." 00:11:56.400 |
The baptism of John, from where did it come from? 00:12:01.320 |
And they discussed it among themselves, saying, "If we say from heaven, he will say to us, 00:12:07.880 |
And if we say from man, we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet." 00:12:16.200 |
Which is very disingenuous, because they had very strong opinions about John, but they 00:12:21.640 |
couldn't answer because they were afraid about the consequence. 00:12:26.200 |
And he said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things." 00:12:34.020 |
He was questioning the very questions that they were asking, the motive behind it. 00:12:38.760 |
See, when they came and asked Jesus, "By what authority are you doing these things?" 00:12:42.080 |
They weren't asking him a question, they were questioning him. 00:12:48.300 |
They were asking a question, hoping that he will trip up and say something that's going 00:12:51.280 |
to get him in trouble, either by the Jews or by the Romans. 00:12:54.880 |
They weren't asking questions, they were questioning him. 00:12:59.600 |
They were in the seat of judgment, and Jesus is the one being judged. 00:13:04.680 |
And that's the reason why he flips the question around and asks you. 00:13:13.860 |
Paul's going to answer, or at least attempt to deal with this question. 00:13:18.780 |
One, "But who are you, old man, to answer back to God?" 00:13:24.000 |
Two and three are kind of related, and I'm going to deal with that together. 00:13:27.160 |
Number two is, "Well, what does Molded say to the Molder? 00:13:32.760 |
Third, "Has a potter knolled right over the clay to make out the same lump, one vessel 00:13:38.000 |
for honored use and another for dishonorable use?" 00:13:46.240 |
And again, remember that this is in the form of a question. 00:13:50.920 |
"God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience 00:13:55.660 |
vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory 00:14:00.560 |
for vessels of mercy which he had prepared beforehand for glory. 00:14:04.600 |
Even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles." 00:14:11.680 |
Now why does he try to answer this question by asking a question? 00:14:17.360 |
If you notice, the question that is asked is, "Why does he still find for?" 00:14:24.080 |
And he says, "Who are you, O man, to answer back to God?" 00:14:29.600 |
Paul is not saying, and God is not saying, "How dare you ask me any question?" 00:14:35.760 |
Some people, you know, very genuine Christians are afraid to ask questions because you think 00:14:42.640 |
Jesus says, "You shall not test the Lord your God, so I better not ask any questions." 00:14:46.880 |
So some people think a good Christian just sucks it up. 00:14:53.600 |
I learned this thing in science and I don't know how this fits and you're not allowed 00:15:04.520 |
See, Paul is not saying, "Don't ask any question." 00:15:08.680 |
If you look at the heart of the way he answers it, "But who are you, O man, to answer back 00:15:20.120 |
He's dealing with the heart of the person asking the question, who is sitting in the 00:15:29.480 |
So either you, God, are unfair or what Paul is saying is untrue. 00:15:39.040 |
He first and foremost addresses the issue of the man coming before God. 00:15:45.840 |
Did God ever say, "You're not allowed to ask any questions because I'm God." 00:15:52.160 |
Honestly, some of the most challenging areas where I grew in my faith was because I had 00:16:01.480 |
questions and I kept on asking about the Trinity, about salvation, about the gospel. 00:16:09.000 |
I'm a very curious person so if I get stuck on something, I can't let it go. 00:16:13.360 |
I remember my Bible study leaders would be frustrated because if I had a question, I 00:16:16.800 |
mean, I just, even if there was no answer, I would just keep asking and asking and asking 00:16:20.520 |
until it made sense to me, whether there was an answer or not an answer. 00:16:24.520 |
I would never discourage anybody from asking questions, but that's not what Paul is saying 00:16:29.680 |
Do you remember when Jesus goes up to the wilderness and he gets tested on the third 00:16:36.040 |
Satan says, "If you really are the Son of God, why don't you jump off this temple and 00:16:41.520 |
his angels are going to come, he's going to protect you, prove yourself." 00:16:45.120 |
Jesus responds to that question by quoting Deuteronomy 6.16 and it is said, "You shall 00:16:52.960 |
If you look at the fuller text in Deuteronomy 6.16, it's specifically referring to an event 00:17:00.080 |
Well, the nation of Israel, God leads them out into the desert and they ran out of water 00:17:04.640 |
and they were saying, "Why did God bring us out here to die of thirst?" 00:17:12.720 |
So the testing that he's referring to is the grumbling and complaining before God, 00:17:19.760 |
You brought us out here and all this was a trick and now you're going to cause us to 00:17:25.160 |
He wasn't saying, "Don't ask me any questions." 00:17:29.680 |
In fact, in Malachi 3.10, God actually tells the nation of Israel, "Test me." 00:17:36.360 |
Malachi 3.10, it says, "Bring the full tithes into the storehouse that there may be food 00:17:45.360 |
He said to the Lord of hosts, "If I will not open the windows of heaven for you and 00:17:49.600 |
pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need." 00:17:55.320 |
When the scripture says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall 00:17:58.120 |
be added unto you," our obedience to that, in a way, is testing God's goodness. 00:18:08.820 |
So first and foremost, he's not dealing with saying, "Well, that's not a question you 00:18:21.240 |
"Will what is molded say to its molder, 'Why have you made me like this? 00:18:25.760 |
Has the potter no right over the clay to make out the same lump one vessel for honored use 00:18:34.000 |
Repeatedly over and over again in the scripture, we are described as clay and he's the potter. 00:18:40.000 |
Now sometimes we're described as sheep and he's the shepherd, right? 00:18:46.340 |
But one of the images that is repeated, especially in the Old Testament, is that we are clay 00:18:53.840 |
Now I want you to sit back and take a look at, think about what that illustration is 00:19:06.680 |
Until the potter chooses to make something of it. 00:19:10.680 |
So when we think about the clay and he is the potter, he chooses to make the pot, make 00:19:18.200 |
But until the master potter picks it up and chooses it for his purpose, it is just dirt. 00:19:27.600 |
So what this imagery is trying to teach first and foremost, do not understand that you're 00:19:36.080 |
So before you get even offended by this illustration, he said, "Before I can even attempt to answer 00:19:42.840 |
this question, you need to first understand who you are." 00:19:49.080 |
Now for an unconverted person, that may sound offensive. 00:19:57.020 |
Because an unconverted person, he himself is at the center of the universe. 00:20:05.220 |
So to have the God of the universe say, "You are clay and I am the potter," is offensive. 00:20:16.640 |
He stands and he lives for the purpose of glorifying himself. 00:20:20.160 |
So when God shows up and he says, "No, you're just clay and I am the potter," it is offensive. 00:20:26.400 |
But to a converted man who has met Christ, our core relationship with God begins when 00:20:37.160 |
When we recognize that we are clay and he is the potter, and that we have offended this 00:20:42.520 |
holy God, and then we come and we humble ourselves and we repent of this sin and we surrender 00:20:52.640 |
That's when salvation, that's when life begins. 00:20:55.560 |
So when Paul says, "Do you not realize that you are the clay and he is the potter," he 00:21:02.700 |
The question in itself has to be asked in the context of a clay and the maker. 00:21:08.200 |
So if you understand that, do you understand what you are asking? 00:21:19.420 |
And again, he's turning the table around and asking, "Do you know who you are? 00:21:24.120 |
And again, up to this point, he hasn't even dealt with the question. 00:21:32.800 |
We see the same line of thinking when he deals with Job. 00:21:36.580 |
Job was targeted with suffering because he is righteous, and horrendous thing. 00:21:42.540 |
We can't even begin to imagine the suffering that this man went through. 00:21:45.100 |
Not only all the physical and the illness and losing of his children and all of that, 00:21:52.280 |
In three separate cycles, they come to him and say, "Job, confess your sin. 00:22:02.540 |
And over and over again, one by one, all of his friends come and say, "Job, you're 00:22:11.700 |
And in the beginning, Job was very benevolent. 00:22:17.260 |
There's nothing that I am aware of that I need to repent of." 00:22:20.700 |
But by the end of the book of Job, it starts to get to Job. 00:22:36.340 |
God, I thought you were a fair man, fair God. 00:22:40.460 |
And then finally, when he gets to his breaking point, God shows up. 00:22:44.820 |
In Job chapter 38, beginning verse 1, this is how God deals with his question. 00:22:50.100 |
"Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, 'Who is this that darkens counsel 00:22:58.900 |
Dress for action like a man, and I will question you, and you make it known to me.'" 00:23:03.420 |
In other words, you're judging me, you're questioning me, and you have no idea what 00:23:09.940 |
And then he begins four chapters, right, three and a half chapters of questioning him. 00:23:18.580 |
"Job, you're questioning me, thinking that you know what you're talking about. 00:23:23.060 |
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? 00:23:26.100 |
Tell me, if you have understanding, who determined its measurements? 00:23:38.660 |
When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? 00:23:42.600 |
Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb? 00:23:46.180 |
When I made clouds its garments and its thick darkness, its swaddling band, and prescribed 00:23:51.620 |
limits for it, and set bars and doors, and said, 'Thus far shall you come, and no farther, 00:24:00.740 |
Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its 00:24:05.580 |
That it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it? 00:24:09.760 |
It is changed like clay under the seal, and its features stand out like a garment. 00:24:13.700 |
From the wicked their light is withheld, and their uplifted arm is broken." 00:24:17.580 |
And he does this for three chapters, three and a half chapters. 00:24:28.740 |
Basically he's saying, do you have any idea who I am? 00:24:32.540 |
And do you have any idea of what it is that you are asking? 00:24:37.500 |
See, God is not saying this just to kind of put him in his place. 00:24:49.720 |
How do you answer a child's question that he would not even begin to understand? 00:24:59.300 |
You know, I got a third grader at home and he asked, you know, a calculus question. 00:25:04.340 |
But let's say he asked a calculus question and he's barely doing multiplication. 00:25:13.780 |
If you don't, if you can't answer me, maybe you don't know. 00:25:17.540 |
The only way that I can answer that child is to remind him what he does not know. 00:25:33.500 |
I can begin to answer you, but from step one, you're not going to know what I'm talking 00:25:37.860 |
So the only way that I can satisfy him is to show him what he does not know. 00:25:44.580 |
You're putting me in a judgment seat and basically saying I'm judging you and I'm going to decide 00:25:54.500 |
You have no control over when you are born or when you die. 00:26:00.780 |
You have no idea how the earth started or how it's going to end. 00:26:04.180 |
You have no idea why the sun comes up, why the sun goes up. 00:26:09.260 |
And you have no control over any of these things. 00:26:11.060 |
And yet you're going to come and you're going to judge me. 00:26:15.180 |
Job, after hearing four chapters of God just revealing to him who he is. 00:26:25.260 |
He doesn't say all of this happened because of this. 00:26:28.500 |
And a lot of times we read the book of Job superficially. 00:26:31.260 |
We get to the end and he says, oh, his possessions were multiplied. 00:26:41.660 |
I took two of your kids and now I gave you four. 00:26:47.140 |
You had 100 cattle and at the end you had 200 cattle. 00:26:58.540 |
And he never actually ever even answers that question. 00:27:01.020 |
He just shows up and he basically tells him, you have no idea. 00:27:06.820 |
And God reveals himself to Job and this is how Job responds in Job 42, 1 through 6. 00:27:11.100 |
That Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose 00:27:18.440 |
Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? 00:27:20.340 |
Basically, I mean, it's a rhetorical question. 00:27:24.140 |
Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? 00:27:26.900 |
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand. 00:27:29.500 |
Things too wonderful for me which I did not know. 00:27:32.900 |
Here and I will speak and I will question you and you make it known to me. 00:27:36.940 |
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear but now my eyes see you. 00:27:40.860 |
Therefore I despise myself and repent and in dust and ashes. 00:27:52.540 |
And after he meets God, he says, I despise myself. 00:27:58.140 |
He's the one who says, now I'm dust and ashes. 00:28:03.700 |
We may look at that on the surface and again, an unconverted person will look at the book 00:28:08.820 |
of Job and if you study it carefully, he said, well, God seems like a vengeful God. 00:28:15.300 |
He's toying with Job, his emotions, his children, his wealth. 00:28:22.420 |
Because Satan just said, well, you know, like you didn't give me a chance. 00:28:25.980 |
If you take away your hedge of protection, we'll go at him. 00:28:32.500 |
An unconverted person who have not experienced the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ may 00:28:39.500 |
look at that and all they see is on the surface. 00:28:42.540 |
But Job, he encounters God and he is satisfied. 00:28:49.880 |
He doesn't reveal himself, the details of his plan. 00:28:53.100 |
He just says, you do not have the ability to know. 00:28:58.940 |
Now, again, our human psyche may hear that and say, well, I'm still not satisfied. 00:29:06.580 |
Before we approach God, every single one of us has to come to a point where we understand 00:29:18.320 |
Anything that God says, the gospel itself will not make any sense until we recognize 00:29:30.800 |
Every time you come, you know, we always talk about, oh, we shouldn't judge each other. 00:29:37.980 |
We judge each other in the way our hairstyle. 00:29:41.240 |
Somebody came to Bible study late, we judge them, right? 00:29:45.380 |
We judge if they serve the church or don't serve the church, if they clean, don't clean, 00:29:51.020 |
The kind of car you drive, we judge everybody. 00:29:59.060 |
Because from my perspective, this is what it seems like is happening. 00:30:05.700 |
From God's perspective, God is orchestrating human history. 00:30:12.740 |
Everything that is happening in human history, he's orchestrating to make it fit. 00:30:18.420 |
How is he going to explain to us that what happened to you last Tuesday is going to affect 00:30:23.020 |
somebody at your work, and then that may affect his family, and then that may eventually lead 00:30:28.180 |
to somebody coming to Christ, and they're going to preach the gospel in Syria, and the 00:30:31.300 |
revival is going to break out 40 years later. 00:30:34.460 |
And everything that happened here is going to be somehow connected to that, and this 00:30:43.180 |
Everything God is doing, our sovereign God is doing, he's, all of these things are working 00:30:51.620 |
We all know what's been happening in the Middle East. 00:30:54.340 |
ISIS has come in and persecution and Christians, at least the years that I've lived, I've never 00:31:01.140 |
Christians literally being chased out of their homes, churches being burned down, and it's 00:31:08.260 |
A couple years ago, people would have looked at that and said, "God, why are you doing 00:31:16.780 |
Why are you allowing your children to experience this horrendousness? 00:31:21.300 |
And having parents watch their children being burned alive, because that's all we see. 00:31:27.780 |
But we've been hearing news from the Middle East, from the mission groups, that there's 00:31:31.500 |
a revival breaking out among the Muslims that we haven't seen in modern history. 00:31:38.700 |
A lot like what we saw in the early church, in the Colosseum. 00:31:42.420 |
One Christian would be torn apart by the lions and two people on the stand would convert 00:31:50.140 |
That's what's happening in the Middle East right now. 00:31:51.740 |
In one sense, horrible events are taking place against Christians, and yet God is orchestrating 00:32:02.220 |
We don't have the ability to comprehend what God is doing, why He's doing it, and how that's 00:32:15.060 |
God may be using me for noble purposes, to be sacrificed for a larger purpose. 00:32:21.140 |
But we judge everything based upon, "How does that affect me?" 00:32:33.220 |
The third and final answer, I think, whether we are satisfied with this or not, is the 00:32:40.100 |
The third question he asks is, "What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known 00:32:45.260 |
His power, has endured with much patient vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order 00:32:50.340 |
to make known the riches of His glory for the vessels of mercy which He has prepared 00:32:59.020 |
He said, "God dealt patiently to demonstrate His wrath and His power. 00:33:06.420 |
He was patient in judging them in order that those who are prepared for mercy may see His 00:33:14.240 |
What is the ultimate purpose of everything that He does? 00:33:22.720 |
Now as I said before, if you're unconverted and you've never tasted the goodness of God, 00:33:33.280 |
You've never really seen the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:33:36.240 |
What God says, what Paul says in this passage, may disturb you. 00:33:43.240 |
You want me to worship a God who allows people to suffer for His glory? 00:33:57.400 |
He's unjust for condemning people who He hardened their heart. 00:34:08.440 |
All that Paul is saying in this passage is in response to what he said at the end of 00:34:12.440 |
verse 18 when he says, "He has mercy on whom He has mercy and He hardens whom He wills." 00:34:17.800 |
And he's specifically in that context referring to Pharaoh. 00:34:22.680 |
So when he's talking about here how he was dealt patiently, those who have been prepared 00:34:28.640 |
for wrath, the immediate context is talking about Pharaoh. 00:34:33.780 |
So let's look at Pharaoh and what he's referring to. 00:34:38.040 |
God shows up and He's about to deliver the nation of Israel. 00:34:41.200 |
And He goes through this drama of these ten plagues. 00:34:44.760 |
Now why does He go through these ten plague drama? 00:34:52.840 |
In fact, He prophesied that if you go there and tell them that He's going to harden His 00:34:58.360 |
heart and God says He's going to harden Pharaoh's heart, Pharaoh's going to harden His heart, 00:35:03.200 |
and He goes through this drama of nine plagues. 00:35:10.640 |
And it isn't until the tenth plague where He finally does His final act and they're 00:35:17.540 |
Why not just the final plague to begin with and just be done with it? 00:35:22.120 |
Each one of those plagues represented a God in Egypt. 00:35:28.320 |
And so what God was doing was demonstrating His power and His wrath over these idols that 00:35:33.080 |
God is much more powerful than anything that Egypt was using against them. 00:35:39.320 |
So He says, He was demonstrating, He was patient with them. 00:35:42.640 |
Instead of squashing them in the beginning, He said He was patient with them, demonstrating 00:35:46.480 |
His power and authority over every idol that Egypt was worshiping to demonstrate to the 00:36:02.920 |
He was preparing them to walk out into the desert so that they could have confidence 00:36:07.700 |
So in this immediate context when He says, "What if? 00:36:11.640 |
What if God was patient in His wrath, in His judgment, in demonstration of His power for 00:36:20.960 |
To reveal His glory to those who are prepared for mercy. 00:36:29.920 |
And again, our man-centered way of looking at everything, everything is seen, how does 00:36:40.960 |
When the beginning of maturity and beginning of salvation is recognizing that we are not 00:36:49.800 |
God's ultimate purpose of human history is for His glorification. 00:36:56.000 |
Now again, even for Christians, that may not sit well. 00:37:00.080 |
But let me explain why this is so important and why that's the best thing for sinners. 00:37:08.220 |
You have a child who grows up and one of the worst things that you can do is to give him 00:37:15.540 |
He grows up thinking that he's the center of the universe. 00:37:18.400 |
And you think that that's best for him because you're helping and you're giving them. 00:37:21.920 |
They're always happy because you're giving them everything they want. 00:37:31.360 |
Not only is he spoiled, he's going to be very difficult to like. 00:37:37.760 |
Everybody outside of you is going to have a very difficult time. 00:37:39.620 |
So you basically set him up so that everywhere he goes people are going to hate this kid. 00:37:44.880 |
Because he thinks he's the center of the universe. 00:37:49.160 |
When Jesus was going to the cross, He didn't say, "It's time for me to go to the cross 00:37:58.800 |
When He was going to the cross, He didn't come and say, "You know what? 00:38:05.680 |
"Father, it's time to glorify your Son and for the Son to glorify you." 00:38:15.000 |
Glorify means taking something that is valuable and putting it in display so everybody can 00:38:20.960 |
So you guys know that our entrance on this side and our entrance in the front, they decorated 00:38:29.080 |
We had a lot of brothers and sisters who sacrificed and came and they took literally all day putting 00:38:37.920 |
All that nice reclaimed wood and design and all that, their skills and everything that 00:38:43.120 |
they had, they took literally, I think probably 14, 15 hours they were there. 00:38:48.960 |
Why don't we do it back over here or in the storage? 00:38:56.140 |
This is where there's going to be the greatest traffic. 00:39:02.120 |
If you haven't walked upstairs to the entrance, the second floor entrance, our brother Phillip 00:39:20.040 |
And if you've seen it, every single person that walked into the front entrance is wowed 00:39:31.720 |
I'm not exactly sure what a hipster is, but it sounds good. 00:39:35.200 |
But he put it at the entrance because it's purpose of displaying something for everybody 00:39:43.240 |
So when Jesus says, "It's time for you to glorify the Son," what is he putting on display? 00:39:56.240 |
Because at the cross, you know, we typically think about his mercy and sacrifice, but that 00:40:00.720 |
cross wouldn't make any sense without God's wrath because his wrath was being poured out 00:40:09.640 |
So the greatest and the most perfect display of God's holiness and his compassion and mercy 00:40:20.200 |
In no other place in human history, past or the future, where we see the most glorification, 00:40:28.000 |
most perfect glorification of the identity and the nature of God is greater than at the 00:40:36.320 |
So that's why Jesus says, "It's time to glorify your Son, and now it's time for the Son to 00:40:56.340 |
Because God did not make us images to be worshipped. 00:41:00.760 |
God made us to be bearer of his image, that we may worship him. 00:41:06.520 |
So when we recognize who he is, when he is magnified and glorified, it is no longer about 00:41:11.000 |
us, and we no longer evaluate everything based upon how it personally affects me. 00:41:16.520 |
See, a sanctified mind, a sanctified life evaluates everything based upon does he get 00:41:47.600 |
Jonathan Edwards, in his own words, and it is a short part of a larger writing that he 00:41:53.760 |
has on this subject, but let me read why he believes evil is necessary. 00:42:01.120 |
So evil is necessary in order to the highest happiness of creature and the completeness 00:42:06.640 |
of that communication of God for which he made the world. 00:42:10.300 |
Because the creature's happiness consists in the knowledge of God and the sense of his 00:42:15.360 |
So that the knowledge of him be imperfect, the happiness of creature must be proportionately 00:42:22.560 |
That the perfect knowledge of God, not a portion, not a part, not certain things that make sense 00:42:27.440 |
to us, but when the perfect manifestation of his knowledge, when he is glorified, he 00:42:32.680 |
says the greatest happiness for the creatures, it will also increase. 00:42:39.120 |
Let me again, as I wrap up this morning's message. 00:42:42.440 |
You know, obviously I preach every Sunday, you know, and I, you know, preparing sermons 00:42:50.200 |
and every text in the scripture is valuable, obviously. 00:42:55.080 |
But every once in a while I come across a text that I'm meditating on and it just takes 00:43:07.220 |
This is the text where God says, "Who are you, O man, to talk back to God? 00:43:15.900 |
What if, what if in God displaying his wrath and his power dealt patiently in order that 00:43:27.080 |
he may be manifested, his glory may be manifested to those who have been prepared for mercy. 00:43:38.020 |
But I was meditating on this and thinking about it and I can't properly articulate 00:43:52.740 |
There's a lot of stuff that I can't explain to you and even this, like I can't perfectly 00:43:59.740 |
All I can tell you is that's what he says and why it makes perfect sense to me. 00:44:07.240 |
And not only does it make perfect sense to me, I feel alive in the presence of his glory. 00:44:16.780 |
When God manifests himself as he is, I can't articulate it. 00:44:22.700 |
I can't explain to you how or what I've seen. 00:44:30.860 |
But in the presence of his perfect knowledge as he is, it's breathless. 00:44:41.820 |
The moment we try to compromise and make impalatable to our taste, you diminish his glory. 00:44:52.820 |
In his full glory, he is vengeful, wrathful, merciful, faithful. 00:45:02.260 |
And when he is manifested as he is, when we see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, 00:45:09.580 |
That's why the devil is trying so hard to blind the mind of the unbeliever so they do 00:45:20.920 |
And I pray that each one of us would approach the scriptures with humility, that this is 00:45:25.660 |
the God of the universe that we're approaching. 00:45:29.140 |
And the big question that we ought to live with every single day is, why does he care 00:45:53.700 |
Whatever it is that you're struggling with, whatever trials or frustration or annoyance 00:46:00.200 |
or personal conflicts that you may have, I can't explain to you how Jesus is going to 00:46:09.000 |
I can't explain to you what he's going to say, what passage, what counseling that can 00:46:16.520 |
All I know that Jesus says, "I am the way and the truth and the life. 00:46:24.600 |
The only way that we can have access to the author of life is to come through Christ. 00:46:40.120 |
Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us.