TEXT: ROMANS 9:1-33
TITLE: “DIFFICULT QUESTIONS”
INTRODUCTION: A. How do you answer these questions?
1. If humans evolved from monkeys and apes, why do we still have monkeys and
apes?
2. Is there another word for “synonym”?
3. What do you do when you see an endangered animal eating an endangered plant?
4. Would a fly without wings be called a walk?
5. Why do they lock gas station bathrooms? Are they afraid someone will clean them?
6. If the police arrest a mime, do they tell him he has the right to remain silent?
7. What was the “best thing” before sliced bread?
8. If you try to fail, but succeed, which have you done?
B. Life is full of difficult questions.
1. There just doesn’t seem to be answers to all of our questions.
2. Some of the most difficult questions come when we don’t understand what God is
doing in our lives.
3. Through Paul’s teaching about Israel, we can find some answers to some very
perplexing questions.
I. HAS GOD FAILED?
--Rom. 9:4-13 – “the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants,
the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is
traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen. It is not as though God’s
word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his
descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will
be reckoned.’ In other words, it is not the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of
the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. For this was how the promise was stated: ‘At the
appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.’ Not only that, but Rebekah’s children had one and
the same father, our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in
order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls—she was told, ‘The
older will serve the younger.’ Just as it is written: ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’”
A. The Jews were confused
--They wanted to know why God had turned His back on His chosen people.
1. If they were supposed to be the chosen people, why is God now allowing Gentiles to receive His
blessings?
2. If they were supposed to be the chosen people, why is it that not all Jews are considered
saved under the teachings of Jesus Christ?
3. Why didn’t God follow through on what He said He was going to do?
B. God was faithful in what He promised.
--Look at the blessings He brought through the Jewish people (vss. 4 & 5):
1. Adoption as sons
a. God had called a man we know as Abraham to become the father of a special people and God was
known as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
b. This special people would be set apart to serve God and His purposes on this earth
2. The divine glory
--Shekinah
3. The covenants
a. The covenant with Adam
b. The covenant with Noah
c. The covenant with Moses
d. The covenant with Abraham
4. The receiving of the Law
5. The Temple worship
6. The promises
7. The patriarchs
8. The Messiah
C. Paul then explains that the bloodline means nothing
1. It’s not physical descent that makes you an heir of the promise.
a. Abraham’s first son was Ishmael but he wasn’t the son of the promise
--Ishamael was a product of human effort to run ahead of God
b. He had six other sons born to him by Keturah, the woman he married after Sarah died
--Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah
c. Only Isaac was God’s plan and only Isaac was the son of the promise
2. It’s God’s plan that’s most important.
--It’s being faithfully obedient to that plan that verifies your status as an heir of the promise.
D. Paul also explains that God does things the way that He sees is best.
--Not the way we see best
1. Solomon tells us in Eccl. 11:5 – “As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed
in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.”
2. God says in Is. 55:8-9 – “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’
declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.’”
a. Only God can see the end from the beginning.
b. Only God knows all the information.
c. Only God knows what direction He’s taking things.
E. Maybe you’ve been to a professional baseball game. Every once in a while, between innings, they put
a little puzzle on the scoreboard. They use the outline of a baseball player and they ask a trivia question.
Your goal is to guess who the player is.
They start off by filling in one piece of the puzzle, and it’s usually the bill of a ball cap. Nobody can
figure out who it is. Everybody is trying to figure out who it is.
As the pieces come together people start to talk. An excitement begins to mount. Why? The begin to
see a face, and they’re beginning to figure who that baseball player is.
1. In our lives, we only get one piece of the puzzle at a time.
2. We might not be able to put everything together and it makes us say, “I don’t understand what’s going
on in my life. Why is this happening? How’s it going to end? Why is God doing it this way?”
3. James Dobson, When God Doesn’t Make Sense: “The Lord can be trusted even when he can’t be
tracked.”
F. God has not failed
--In fact, God has gone out of the way to fulfill His promises even when we didn’t deserve it and weren’t
faithful to Him
1. God showed His faithfulness in all those blessings that Paul names in vss. 4-5
2. God has always been faithful and we can trust that He “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask
or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” (Eph. 3:20)
II. IS GOD UNJUST?
--Rom. 9:14-18 – “What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, I will have
mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ It does not,
therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: ‘I
raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be
proclaimed in all the earth.’ Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens
whom he wants to harden.”
A. Why does God sometimes do what He does?
1. One preacher tells the following story:
Our three-year-old daughter, Rena, sat with us during the baptismal service last Sunday night,
which was a new experience for her. She exclaimed in surprise, “Why he pushed that guy in the
water? Why, Dad, why?”
My wife tried to explain briefly and quietly, but Rena just wouldn’t be satisfied. Later that night we
tried to provide an answer that a child’s mind could comprehend. We talked about sin and told Rena
that when people decide to live for Jesus and “do good” they want everyone to know. We then
explained that water symbolizes Jesus’ washing people from sin; when they come out “clean,” they are
going to try to be “good.”
A moment later, we realized we’d have to work on our explanation a bit. Rena had immediately
responded, “Why didn’t Pastor Bob just spank him?”
2. We just don’t seem to comprehend why God does what HE does.
--We’re human beings with finite minds trying to comprehend the infinite mind of almighty God
B. It would seem that if God can pick and choose whatever HE wants and whoever He wants, that it seems
unfair.
1. On the contrary, God owes us nothing.
--We’re in debt to Him
2. We have no standing to question what He does.
--Even though Job tried to remain faithful throughout his trials, he still had some questions and his
faith began to waver
a. When he had the chance, he confronted God about the “whys and wherefores” concerning
everything he’d been through: suffering the loss of his material wealth, suffering the death of all his
children, suffering ill health, listening to a nagging wife, and enduring the feeble counseling efforts
of well-intentioned friends
b. In the last two chapters of Job, God answers Job’s questions by basically saying, “I’m God and
you’re not. And I know you don’t understand but trust me.”
C. So what about freewill?
--Are we at the whim of some powerful despot who just does whatever He wants and doesn’t give us any
choice in the matter?
1. One of the illustrations that Paul uses is that of Pharaoh during Moses’ day
--Did God harden his heart so that he had no choice?
a. If you’ll go back and read that narrative, there is just as many mentions that Pharaoh hardened his
own heart as there are that God hardened his heart.
b. God doesn’t harden our hearts against our will
--He allows us to have our own way, even when it is abject rebellion against the Holy God of the
universe.
1). God lets us choose, even to the point where we become set, irrevocably set, in our way, and
that’s what happened to Pharaoh.
2). God gave Pharaoh opportunity after opportunity to let Israel go
--chance after chance to do the right thing
2. God doesn’t want anyone to fail for eternity
--He’s provided a way for us to rise from failure and walk by faith through His Son, Jesus Christ
a. God asks a rebellious nation in Ezek. 18:23 – “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked?
declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?”
b. 2 Pt. 3:9 – “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is
patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
4. The key to understanding what happened with Pharaoh is earlier in Romans.
a. In Chapter 1, Paul talks about those who continually refuse to acknowledge God and His will for their
life. Paul says that “God gave them over….”
b. Pharaoh chose 10 times to reject and rebel against God.
--To say God hardened his heart is simply to say that God allowed him his own will
1). God will provide opportunity after opportunity for you to come around.
2). But there comes a time when He will stop giving opportunities.
III. WHAT’S MY RESPONSIBILITY?
--vss. 19-29 – “One of you will say to me: ‘Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?’
But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? ‘Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, Why did
you make me like this?’ Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some
pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? What if God, choosing to show his wrath and
make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?
What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared
in advance for glory— even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?
As he says in Hosea: ‘I will call them ’my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ’my loved
one’ who is not my loved one,’ and, ‘It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, You
are not my people, they will be called ’sons of the living God.’ Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:
‘Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. For the
Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality.’ It is just as Isaiah said previously:
‘Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have
been like Gomorrah.’”
A. Our rebellion against what God is doing does not bother God
1. Who are we to question Him?
--We’re the creation not the Creator
2. What if God doesn’t do something to our liking?
-- A young man in college was out of money and wrote to his father to send him some funds. He
thought it might be better to be creative so he sent the following note to his dad: No mon, no fun,
(signed) Your son.
His dad, knowing that his son tended to squander money on things not necessary to his
education sent the following reply: Too bad, so sad, (signed) Your dad.
B. We’re all undeserving of God’s grace.
--We only have what we have out of the kindness and mercy of God and God can do whatever He
wants
1. Paul has already spent considerable time on God’s grace and mercy toward us earlier in Romans
a. Rom. 3:23 – “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
b. Rom. 6:23 – “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord.
c. Rom. 5:8 – “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ
died for us.”
2. Our responsibility is to be thankful for what God has done for us.
a. Our responsibility is to live our lives according to His will and not our own.
b. Our responsibility is to love and serve Him.
IV. WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING?
--vss. 30-33 – “What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have
obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not
attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled
over the ‘stumbling stone.’ As it is written: ‘See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a
rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.’”
A. The most important thing is faith
1. Faith is not a blind leap in the dark.
2. Heb. 11 tells us that faith has substance and evidence.
--Light switch/water faucet
B. Simon Birch (a movie based on the novel A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving) is the story of a
12-year-old boy named Simon Birch who, despite his physical handicaps, believes God has a plan for
his life. Simon was born tiny and with an abnormally small heart. He was expected to die within the
first 24 hours of his life. He surprises everyone, though, when he lives to be an adolescent.
A disappointment to his parents and the target of many childhood pranks because of his miniature
size and odd-sounding voice, Simon has every reason to question his worth and purpose for living. But
he embraces his condition and believes that God will use him in a unique, possibly even heroic, way.
Joe, Simon’s best friend, doesn’t believe in God, and he’s not the only one who doubts that God has
a plan for Simon. His schoolmates mock him relentlessly, believing his assertions are one more
indication of his strangeness. On one occasion his Sunday school teacher hurriedly tries to hush him so
he won’t ‘frighten’ the other children with his musings.
The small town’s forlorn minister also doubts that God could have a plan for small Simon Birch. In a
poignant conversation between Simon and the minister, Simon asks, “Does God have a plan for us?”
The minister hesitantly replies, “I like to think he does.” Simon enthusiastically says, “Me, too. I think
God made me the way I am for a reason.” The minister coolly states, “I’m glad that, um, that your
faith, uh, helps you deal with your, um, you know, your condition.” “That’s not what I mean,” Simon
states. “I think I’m God’s instrument. He’s going to use me to carry out his plan.”
Dumbfounded by Simon’s confidence, the pastor says, “It’s wonderful to have faith, son, but let’s
not overdo it.” With that he waves for Simon to leave, shakes his head in disbelief, and whispers with
an air of cynicism, “God’s instrument.”
A short time later Simon is riding with his classmates in a school bus traveling down an icy road.
Suddenly the bus driver veers to avoid a deer, loses control, and the bus plunges into an icy lake.
Everyone in the front of the upright bus quickly evacuates out the door, but Simon and a handful of
other students in the back of the bus are trapped as the bus begins to sink.
Simon takes charge. He opens a window and commands his classmates to climb out. Last of all,
Simon escapes through the window. In the hospital following the accident, Joe assures Simon that all
the kids are all right. Simon asks, “Did you see how the children listened to me because of the way I
looked?”
Joe, with tears in his eyes, replies, “Yeah.” With satisfaction, Simon says, “That window was just
my size.” “Extra small,” Joe utters with a smile. A few seconds later, Simon dies, knowing that God
used him. But what Simon doesn’t know before he dies is that because of his unwavering faith, his
friend Joe now believes in God.
Some 20 years later, standing at Simon’s gravestone, Joe says, “I am doomed to remember a boy
with a wrecked voice, not because of his voice or because he was the smallest person I ever met…but
because he is the reason I believe in God. What faith I have, I owe to Simon Birch…it is Simon who
made me a believer.”
CONCLUSION: A. Why does God do what He does?
1. Sometimes there is an answer that we can understand
--Sometimes not.
2. We have to understand something very important
--Evil is not God’s fault. God is not the author of evil. He is not the author of
tragedy. He is not the author of sickness. He is not the author of Satan’s work. He
is not the author of sin and rebellion.
a. Sometimes we bring our own bad times
--We’ve been rebellious to what God has wanted us to do and we’re reaping what
we’ve sowed
b. Other times, we’re just facing the results of living in a fallen world
--God made a perfect place for us to live. Sin brought a fallen world full of sinful
people, sickness, and bad circumstances
3. But Paul has already taught us in Rom. 8:28 – “And we know that in all things God
works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.”
--God doesn’t cause it but He can use it to accomplish His purposes..
4. Do you love Him? Have you been obedient to His call and purpose for your life?
B. In all of our difficult situations and questions, we need to look to the One who loved us
and died for us for the example of what to do:
1. Elisabeth Elliot, Keep A Quiet Heart: “It is always best to go first for our answers to
Jesus himself. He cried out on the cross, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?’ It was a human cry, a cry of desperation, springing from his heart’s agony at the
prospect of being put into the hands of wicked men and actually becoming sin for you
and me. We can never suffer anything like that, yet we do at times feel forsaken and
cry, ‘Why, Lord?’ The psalmist asked why. Job, a blameless man, suffering horrible
torments on an ash heap, asked why. It does not seem to me to be sinful to ask the
question. What is sinful is resentment against God and his dealings with us.
2. Is your trust in Christ this morning?
