Alba 3-13-2022
THE CHOICES GOD MAKES
Romans 9:6-33
It's not fair! That is a cry from many people about situations that don’t go their way! Today in our society there are many who have taken this to a new level!
Someone will say, “It’s not fair that little Johnny’s team has to lose, so let’s just not keep score!” Or, “It’s not fair that little Susie didn’t make all stars, so let’s give them all a trophy! Or, “It’s not FAIR that Joanie got the promotion instead of me; I have been here much longer than she has been.”
But when we examine those statements, we can easily see why these things happen. Little Johnny’s team lost because the other team was better, sports is about competition and doing our best. And sometimes others do it better! Choices must be made.
Little Susie didn’t make all stars because Susie was not good enough, others were better. Why would we think it is a good thing to reward those who do not achieve the same as those who do achieve? Choices must be made.
Joanie got that promotion because she was willing to do what was needed, or she has a skill set that was more valuable. A job is about the needs of the company providing the job. And choices must be made.
And let’s face it, some people are just better than we are at some things. There will always be someone better! It is not a question of fairness, but choices must be made.
Scripture uses the term “the elect” to describe Christians. That word (eklogç) has the meaning of picking or choosing. Christians are the chosen ones of God. He made the choice, and He set the standard for the choice.
Romans 9:6-33 explains that we serve a sovereign God who has the right to make the rules and set the standard. God is the boss. His choices are His choices, and none of them are based on human intervention. God’s decisions are his own!
Verse 21 of Romans chapter nine asks, “Does not the potter have power over the clay?” God is the potter and we are the clay. God is absolutely sovereign; He can do whatever He pleases. He answers to no one for what He does, and He has no obligation to explain to anyone the reasons for His actions.
As the potter, God can mold the clay in any way He desires. He can make one pot for a noble use and another for a menial use. In Psalm 115:3 it says, “God does what He pleases!”
If someone disagrees with God's choices, Romans 9:14 asks, “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? And answers, Certainly not!” This is the apostle Paul’s way to declare that any thought of God seeming to be unfair in His choices is absurd.
Like it or not, the fact remains: God is the potter and we are the clay. He has a right to do as He pleases, and in His wisdom, He will always do what is best.
These verses in Romans 9:6-33 tell of the choices God has made. Choices that affect us, and also bless us.
First we see that out of all people on earth...
1. He Chooses the Children of Promise as His Own
Romans 9:8 says, “those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.”
A person does not enter God’s family by physical birth. You do not enter His Kingdom according to the flesh, or natural advantages. God does not “choose” people for salvation according to race, religion, ancestry, or ability, but according to His Will and Calling.
Verse eight makes it clear that not all of those who are children of Abraham (his decendents) are the true spiritual children of God. God has made the choice that His people are the people of promise.
Verse seven says,“In Isaac your seed shall be called.” Issac was a child of promise; the promise given to Abraham and Sarah that they would have a child, and through that child all nations of the earth would be blessed. That was God's choice.
But the story continues. Issac and Rebecca have twin sons, Jacob and Esau. Once again, God made a choice between them. Had the usual rules of inheritance applied, it would have been the God of “Abraham, Isaac, and Esau”.
The firstborn was supposed to be the heir. That’s how it had been for a long time. And yet God allowed Isaac to be the heir of the promise from Abraham, and Jacob to be the heir of the promise from Isaac. That was God's choice.
Esau was the one with the birthright, and was in the line of the spiritual patriarchs of the family. But Esau despised the birthright. He saw it as worthless. So he sold it for a bowl of beans, or for whatever was in that porridge.
He traded eternal blessing for temporary satisfaction. Esau was only concerned with what satisfied him, right now. He never wanted spiritual things.
Esau’s rejection of the unseen and intangible (spiritual things), for the sake of immediate self-gratification, is largely a symbol of humanity today.
We can get so consumed with the things of the world, and what makes our flesh happy, that we forget that all of what we see here is temporary. Nothing here is eternal!
Verse 13 says, “Esau I have hated.” God hated Esau simply because Esau loved carnal thing more than spiritual things. So we should ask ourselves, what are we wrapped up in? What is important to us? What desires motivate us?
Verse 13 also says, “Jacob I have loved.” The wonder is not so much that God hated Esau. The wonder is that God loved Jacob, often a conniver and a cheat. But there is an even greater wonder. It is that God loves you and me... And we love Him because He first loved us.
God loved Jacob not because Jacob was so holy and righteous, but rather because there was something in Jacob that wanted God.
Jacob became the patriarch instead of Esau because he had a desire for spiritual things. He didn't always get it right, but He always knew where to turn. He always turned to the God of his fathers.
Something in him always brought him back to Jehovah.
And God had a plan. In God's sovereign plan, He chose Abraham to put His plan of salvation in motion. He chose Issac to put His plan of salvation in motion. And He chose Jacob in order to continue His plan of salvation for us.
Our salvation is based on grace. Salvation is based on God’s promise of the Savior. Salvation isn’t based on the traditions of the Church. Our genealogy does not save us.
We are saved through faith in Jesus Christ, not through our family. It doesn’t matter where we come from, who our family is. It’s about Jesus Christ crucified and raised from the dead. That is God's choice.
God's right to choose is seen not only in His right to choose who are His people, also...
2. He Chooses Who Will Receive Mercy
Verse 15 quotes the Lord saying, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”
God is revealing that His actions toward humanity will be true to His character of love, justice and mercy. The integrity of God's character governs His actions.
Verse 17 says, “For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.'”
Verse 18 says, “Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.” The actions of Pharaoh show that rebellion (sin) against God demands it.
If you read the entire story about Pharaoh and the ten plagues against Egypt in Exodus 8-13, you have to shake your head in wonder: How could anyone continue to turn from God’s severe warnings time after time?
Over and over again, Pharaoh is moved by the miraculous events that overtake him, only to revert, once the impact wears off, to his arrogant attitude of resistance to the Lord's demands. Repeatedly, he hardens his heart (Ex. 5:2) until finally God hardens it for him (Ex. 7:3).
In the Exodus account, Scripture records twenty times when Pharaoh's heart was hardened—ten times in which God hardened his heart, and ten times in which Pharaoh hardened it himself.
Understand, that when God hardened Pharaoh's heart, He was only confirming Pharaoh's own decision. I think it’s important to recognize that God is never said to harden anybody who did not first harden himself.
The grace and mercy of God does not place hardness in anybody’s heart, it just reveals the hardness that’s there. The same sun that melts ice, hardens clay. God allowed Pharaoh to follow his own unbelief without restraint.
God has not predetermined anyone to sin. James 1:13-15 says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
“14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
The unrepentant person always deserves God’s wrath and punishment. And what does God deserve? God always deserves Godly Glory! That glory does not come from a hardened heart. We must guard against allowing that to happen to our hearts.
John Stott said it well when he said, “The wonder is not that some are saved and some are lost, but that anybody is saved at all. For we deserve nothing from God’s hand but judgment.” (Romans, p. 269).
But God is merciful, not wanting anyone to perish. Verse 23 says that God did all of those things in the past that, “He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy.”
There’s a song that says,
“Mercy came running, like a prisoner set free,
past all my failures to the point of my need.
When the sin that I carried was all I could see
when I could not reach mercy, Mercy came running to me.”
Thank God that He chose mercy. For we all deserve nothing from God but judgment. But thankfully God is a God of mercy. Our Sovereign God chooses to have mercy on those who believe and follow Jesus.
Which brings us to the most important choice God has made.
3. He Chooses Those Who Are In Jesus
Verse 33 quotes verses from Isaiah 8:14 and 28:16, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”
We know that Jesus is that stumbling stone because the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:23: “but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.”
Today, some people stumble because they cannot deal with the idea that they are sinners! Something within them refuses to admit “I am a sinner!” Instead of running after righteousness, many are sliding into sin.
Others just cannot see their need for a Savior. Instead, they believe that somehow they will be able to do enough good things to balance out the bad, thinking they can modify their performance and pass the test. But there is only one way.
We can have salvation because Jesus did all the work. He paid the price for our sins. And it’s a gift, and what we need to do is receive it. Even though we are sinners, we can trust Him for our salvation and we can also trust Him with the stresses of our lives.
Here is what we must keep in mind: The central point of this passage of scripture, the one thing we must know, is that God’s choice is for salvation! I Timothy 2:4 tells us that God, “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
Because of Jesus, we who were not His people, are now His people, and we can be called His children; children based on His promise of mercy and grace.
Because of Jesus, we can pursue righteousness, the righteousness of faith. Because of Jesus all who respond to God's call can come to Him through what Jesus has done for us on the cross.
Because of Jesus we can take refuge upon that rock, the Rock of Christ. For those of us who believe, it is a stepping stone, not a stumbling stone.
No one comes to the Father except through Jesus. That's God's choice. Some may think that is not fair, but God’s plan is to offer salvation to everyone, and it is up to us to make the choice if we will accept or reject it.
God has chosen to leave that choice up to us. Depending on the choice made, Jesus is either a Rock of Refuge or a Stumbling Stone. Lets stand on the rock of salvation and not stumble.
Are we embracing the Savior with simple trust in the One who died in our place? That is where I hope we all are. By believing and obeying Him we will never be put to shame for having made a wrong decision.
Then we can trust in the promise that because we seek the righteousness of faith that comes from Jesus, we will receive God's mercy, and we will be His people.
CONCLUSION:
In deciding whether or not we are in line with the choices God has made, we can't be like that little boy who told his mother he was seven feet tall.
She questioned him and he said, “I am, because I just measured myself with my own little ruler.”
Many people have their own rulers in life as to what is good and what is evil. What is right and what is wrong. How to get to heaven and avoid hell. And how they measure up with God.
But according to the truth of God’s Word, He sets the standard. He is in charge. He is sovereign. He made the choice for our salvation.
The choice of how we get to heaven isn't ours to make.
But to choose the way to heaven is available and offered to all.
God's love draws us to His offer. And His love draws us to Jesus.
