Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Would you open up your Bibles to please.

Last week, Pastor Rich walked us through .

He showed us how God’s blessing is not a human entitlement based on ethnicity or qualification, but upon faith in his Promise, which is ultimately faith in His Promised Son, Jesus Christ .

We saw that “No one can lay claim to the promises of God that has not first been claimed by Christ on the cross.”

What this means for us is that God is not a respecter of persons–His grace and mercy invades hearts of all ethnicities and statuses.

It is all His grace and calling that brings us into His family, and He is to be forever praised for this.

Now, we continue with a hard word in .

May it continue to be true, as Pastor Rich said last week, that “A hard word in season can lead to a lifetime of grace.”

I pray that would be true for us today.

May we have hearts that are willing to trust God, even when His truth might be beyond our full comprehension.

And may it drive us more and more to dependency on Him and His grace, knowing and agreeing with that “His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.”

Let’s pray.

Would you read with me.

14 What shall we say then?

Is there injustice on God’s part?

By no means!

15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, 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 Israel 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,

q“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,

we would have been like Sodom

and become like Gomorrah.”

14 What shall we say then?

Is there injustice on God’s part?

By no means!

15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, 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 Israel 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,

q“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,

we would have been like Sodom

and become like Gomorrah.”

Here’s the big idea in the text that we’re going to work through today–

Here’s the big idea today :

Only in God’s sovereignty are we saved, secured, and sent.

We see that God is sovereign – that is, He is in control.

Now we’re gonna look at four aspects of God’s sovereignty – His sovereign purpose, perspective, patience, and plan.

God’s sovereign Purpose – He is just in his ways.

(v.

14-18)

This question is in response to v. 13, where God is the one who decided, in His good pleasure that Jacob, not Esau, would be the vehicle of God’s promised salvation in Jesus to those who believe.

The natural feeling and question when we hear that God has mercy on whom He has mercy, and compassion on whom he has compassion is to question God’s justice.

The natural feeling and question when we hear that God has mercy on whom He has mercy, and compassion on whom he has compassion is to question God’s justice.

It’s natural

Is there injustice on God’s part?

Is God doing what is morally wrong?

Is God fair?

I think another similar (maybe what we really mean) question is, “Is God fair?”

We find ourselves wanting to measure God by our measuring stick.

But I wonder if us, as flawed, imperfect, sinful humans who constantly disobey the only One worthy of obedience, might not have the same measuring stick as God.

We want to be the deciders of just-ness and righteousness, but that’s not really within our abilities.

One pastor notes, “ We are not holy enough to judge God’s holiness, wise enough to judge God’s wisdom, good enough to judge his goodness, all-seeing enough to judge his plan.”

One pastor notes, “God says that He is free to have mercy and harden however He wants.

We are not holy enough to judge God’s holiness, wise enough to judge God’s wisdom, good enough to judge his goodness, all-seeing enough to judge his plan.”

So, do we measure God’s justice by our standards or by His Word?

Because human standards all throughout history waver and change.

God and His perfect Word is the only unchangeable thing.

Another thing that clouds our ability to trust God’s justice has to do with our view of ourselves.

Society tends to think of people as morally neutral, who then go throughout life making decisions to be ‘good’ or ‘evil.’

Therefore to hear that God “Will have mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills” (v.

18) makes us feel like God is pushing us down this path, either good or bad, that we didn’t intend to go.

Therefore He is not just (acting right) for pushing us down a bad path.

The other thing that clouds our ability to deal with this has to do with our view of ourselves.

Society tends to think of people as morally neutral, who then go throughout life making decisions to be ‘good’ or ‘evil.’

Therefore to hear that God “Will have mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills” (v.

18) makes us feel like God is pushing us down this path, either good or bad, that we didn’t intend to go.

Thus, He is not just (acting right) for pushing us down a bad path.

Family, as we’ve seen throughout Romans, and throughout the Scriptures, that couldn’t be further than the truth.

The Scriptures clearly point that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” () and that “there is none righteous, none who seeks God, all have turned aside...” (, ), and that we were all “dead in the trespasses and since in which we once walked...” ()

and that “there is none righteous, none who seeks God, all have turned aside...” (, ),

So it’s not as if we’re morally neutral humans and God himself is sending us to damnation.

(In fact, we’re going to look at God’s sovereign patience later.)

We are broken and sinful by nature.

To illustrate–

My car has a significant drifting problem.

Not like “Fast and the Furious” drifting where I slide around corners going 100mph, but a drifting problem where my car drifts off to the right, always.

I set the steering wheel straight, but the moment I take my hands off of the wheel, my car fades off to the right.

This is most likely because there is a wheel alignment problem.

There is a fundamental flaw in the way my wheels are set up.

Likewise, humanity has a fundamental ‘heart alignment problem.’

See, we, too, like my car, have a fundamental drift towards sin and destruction and away from obedience and love for God.