God’s Rights | An Expository Sermon Based on Romans 9:19-23

Scripture

• Romans 9:19–23

About this sermon

Introduction: The issue that Paul has been addressing, in the larger context, is the question of God’s ability to bring to pass what He has promised. The faithfulness of God to execute His own plans and purposes. To be precise, Paul is answering what he often heard from some who wondered how Paul’s gospel could be true, or, how the Christian’s security could be true, given the massive unbelief found in the people of Israel? The question he addresses could be asked by unbeliever and believer alike. The unbeliever might wonder how the Christian gospel could be true when most of the people whom God invested so much in, rejected Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah? The believer might be troubled, looking for answers, about how to understand Christian security based on the same seeming failure. Does Israel’s unbelief represent something gone wrong? Paul would answer both concerns the same way. His answer is the doctrine of election. His answer is that God’s purpose, according to election, is being fulfilled 100% of the time. It was never God’s plan to save every Israelite. But everyone whom the Lord foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ, and every one predestined, He calls, and every one He calls He justifies, and everyone He justifies is as good as glorified. God’s purposes regarding Israel have not failed. God’s purposes regarding the security of His people will not fail. IT IS THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION, THE DOCTRINE THAT ANSWERS THAT BIG PICTURE QUESTION, THAT NOW BECOMES THE ISSUE. The doctrine of election raises its own questions. Paul has already answered one. Is God choosing to show mercy to some and not to others, injustice? He answers no, and he offers abundant Scriptural evidence. The second question is related to the first. If God has truly revealed Himself free to treat nations and individuals as He sees fit, if it is true that the destinies of people are determined by God, THEN HOW CAN JUDGMENT REPRESENT JUSTICE? “IF WE ALLOW THAT GOD’S CHOICES DETERMINE THE DESTINIES OF PEOPLE, IF WE GRANT YOU THAT, PAUL, DON’T WE STILL FIND OURSELVES WITH A CONUNDRUM?” HOW CAN GOD JUSTLY JUDGE MEN FOR WHAT HE HIMSELF DETERMINED? John Piper frames the objection well when he writes: “The objector reasons like this: If, as you say, a person’s hardness is owing ultimately to God’s will and not to a man’s “willing or running,” then it is unrighteous of God to condemn a man for that very hardness. In your view, Paul, nobody has ever successfully resisted the divine will, because even when they are resisting God’s commands (as Pharaoh did), they are still fulfilling God’s secret purposes. So God is wrong to find fault with men, since without the freedom of self-determination men cannot justly be condemned for their choices.” We began dealing with this question this morning and talked about man’s spiritual nature due to the fall. We talked about the idea that man has a will that only has freedom so far as its spiritual and moral capacities. We explained how God’s mercy is free, and yet man is still responsible. In the verses we look at tonight, we see the fulness of Paul’s answers to the question of verse 19. HOW DO YOU ANSWER WHEN MEN DISPUTE WITH GOD’S RIGHT TO BE SOVEREIGN? HOW DO YOU ANSWER WHEN MEN SAY THAT IF GOD IS SOVEREIGN, HE FORFEITS THE RIGHT TO JUDGE SINNERS? GOD’S REBUKE FOR IRREVERENT QUESTIONS (vs.20a) What Paul does, in verse 20, is most instructive. The true answers for genuine questions about God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility will ALWAYS REQUIRE HUMILITY to be received.