Verse 11, he said, For the children being
not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according
to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, that is,
Rebekah, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, have I loved, but Esau have I
hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. For the scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. Hath he mercy on whom he will
have mercy? The Apostle Paul is quoting from
the book of Exodus when our Lord answered Moses. Moses said, Show
me thy glory. And he said, You're not able
to see the full glory and majesty. I'll put you in the cleft of
the rock. I'll pass by and I'll let you
see my hinder parts." God made that solemn declaration. I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. And this 18th verse is part of
this. statement that he made to Moses
of old. Therefore hath he hath God, Paul
says, mercy on whom he will have mercy. The sovereignty of the grace
of God, the sovereignty of the mercy of God, cometh from the
hand of a sovereign Thou wilt say then unto me, Why
doth he yet find fault? for who hath resisted his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou
that replyest against God? who argues with God, who dares
call into question God, who disputes with God. Who art thou that replies
against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over
the clay, Of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour,
And another unto dishonour? What if God willing to show his
wrath, To make known, endured, to make his power known, endured
with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted or made up to
destruction, that he might make known the riches of his glory
on the vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory. Verse 20, O man, who art thou that replies
against God? Who calls God into account? Who disputes with God who questions
God. Who are you? Well, let me begin by saying
that the sovereignty of God in dispensing His grace to whom
He pleases is a bone of contention now, has been in the past, is
now in the present, and will be in the future. The sovereignty
of God is the point of man's rebellion. people, men who are in out and out rebellion
against God, who have self-righteous hearts, with man. And what that amounts to is replying
against God. Men that will put conditions
on God. If you do this, then God is obligated
to do something else. That's the bone of contention.
That's where you get in trouble. You can talk all day long about
Jesus, but when you start talking about the sovereignty of God, then men will reply against God. It can't be that way. How many
times in my lifetime have I heard, My God is not like that? Does
not God give every man a chance? God can't do that. I won't let
Him. You think you know everything. Well, they call into question the ways
of God with man, how God deals with man. They wind up disputing with God
as though he did not have a right to do with his own as it pleases
him. Dispute with God and question
God as though he did not have the right to do with those that
he formed as it pleases him. Just because man does what he wants to, he thinks
then he has the power and the authority to make God do as he
does. But that's not so, as though he did not have a right
to do with his own what he will and bestow his favors upon those
that he pleases to bestow his favors on. Over in the book of Genesis, in the third chapter and the
fifth verse. The devil, who is the father
of lies. Remember our Lord said, Ye are
of your father. You are a liar. He was a liar
from the beginning. And you are like unto your father,
the father of lies. over here in this third chapter
of the book of Genesis, the father of lies, the originator of lies,
the chief enemy of God and man, this father of lies said to Adam
and Eve, The woman said unto the serpent,
in that second verse, the serpent is the father of lies, who beguiled
Adam and Eve, deceived them, lied to them. The woman said to the serpent,
we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. He begins in the first verse
by saying, Now the serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he
said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat
of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent,
we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but the
fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God
hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it,
lest ye die. And the Father of lives, who
hath already created doubt, in the mind of this woman. The serpent
said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. She said that
God had said, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden,
but not eat of the tree in the midst of the garden. He said,
Well, now that will not take place. The serpent said, Ye shall not
surely die. Now, God will not go to that
extreme. Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the
day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye
shall be as gods. Now, the only problem with that
is Adam and Eve believed They believed the devil's lie
when he said, Ye shall be as gods. If you eat of that tree,
the reason he doesn't want you to eat of it, the fruit of the
tree in the midst of the garden, that you'll be God. You'll be
like God. And they believed that, and that
plunged them into destruction as well as all that they represented. Nature and depravity comes because Adam and Eve believed the devil's
lie. Ye shall be gods, knowing good
and evil. They believed him. There's a poet one time said,
and he said it in a sarcastic way, to the repliers and questioners
and disputers with God. He said, snatch from his hand
the balance and the rod. Rejudge his justice. Be God of God. Paul here puts a question to
them. in this text that I read to you,
who art thou that replies against God? I was talking recently to a fellow
where he was having a casual conversation in regard to the Bible, and he said
some things that I agreed with. But when I said some things,
he didn't agree with me. He got upset. He began to tell
me about what the Bible had to say concerning
certain things. So he told me, he said, Do you
marry People who are living with one another,
if a fellow came to you and said, well, I want you to marry me,
and he told you that he was living with a woman out there, and now
he thought it was time to get married, would you marry him?
Well, I said, it is all, I'd have to consider the whole thing,
who they were, And what I, if I was able to be there at the
time or be useful at the time that they wanted me to be, I
don't know. I'd have to judge each case as
it came before me. But if you're asking me, have
I married people who were living together, I'd have to tell you
yes. Well, he said, that's not right. You're not supposed to
marry that. They're living in adultery. And
I said, Well, I know that. Well, he said, You know that the Bible says
thou shalt not commit adultery. And I said, I know that too.
But I said, The Bible also said thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart and all thy soul. And he said, Yeah, it says that.
Well, he said, I asked my preacher, would you marry so and so? My
neighbor up here is living with this woman and he wants to get
married. Would you marry him? And my preacher
said, no, I won't marry one who's living in adultery. Well, I said,
would you rather for him to continue living in adultery? Would you
rather that he just continued to do that? Or would you attempt to at least
make it legal in his own eyes? Well, he said, you just don't
know the law. He said, what you're talking about is the law of men.
He said, you don't know the law of God. One thing led to another, and
I said, well, let me tell you this then. I said, There's only three licensed people in
the whole wide world that is qualified to marry people. And
I said, That's the captain of the ship, or the judge, minister of the gospel. And I
said, Every minister of the gospel must become a servant of the
state in order to be qualified to marry anybody. Well, he wanted to know what
I meant by that, and I said, Well, I must go to the courthouse and
apply for a license to perform the marriage ceremony. And I must give my bond. Someone must go my bond. And when that takes place, then
I'm qualified. And I said, a man and a woman,
if they want to get married, they've got to go to the courthouse
and get a license to do so. They've got to—in our state,
I think, they have to have a blood test. They've got to have a blood
test and they've got to make applications for a license. And
when it's reviewed and considered, I suppose, comes back in two
or three days, and then they're eligible to get married. They're
qualified to get married. They've met the demands. So they
both, the preacher and this couple, are both servants of the state. So I said the Bible hadn't got
anything to do with marriage. I said to be qualified to be
married, You've got the minister that performs the ceremony must
come under bond by the state. And then he operates as a servant
of the state. And the man and woman that's
going to be married, they've got to have a license, and it
comes from the state. So you say that you don't believe
that the preacher ought to marry you. man, woman to living in
adultery, you ought to do that. But I said, maybe so, maybe not,
but what if this man comes and says the state has viewed my
case and qualified me and this woman, give us a marriage license,
and I come to you who are bonded by the same state that give me
these licenses. How can you forbid to marry that?"
Oh, he said, you just don't know what you're talking about. You've
got the law of God and the law of the state all mixed up. And
he began to rail and contend. And I thought then, who are you
that replies against God? You'd rather these people live
in out-and-out adultery all her life, then at least try to make
them legal before the law." Well, he said, my preacher won't marry
him. I wouldn't marry him if I was a preacher. One thing led
to another. Paul put the question to them. He said, Who are you? Who do
you think you are that replies against God? And he demands an
answer from these people. The Lord God in the sovereignty
of the grace and with the glory of his majesty issues this proclamation
from the throne in heaven and he says, as I've already read
to you, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I
will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. Now,
who are you that dares to question and reply against God? To question you question God
and his authority. You, who are you? You are a worm
of the dust. You are a creature of the day. You are born like a wild ass's
colt, without understanding. By nature you are a child of
wrath, dead in trespasses and in sins, blind to your own existence,
a vain fool, how dare you exalt your ignorance and display
your hospitality to the God of glory by opening your mouth against
His ways and against His truth? You need to remember that in
the Bible it says, Woe unto the man that strives against his
Maker. Who are you to reply against
God? I talk about the sovereignty
of God in the sovereign grace of election, Men say, God is
unfair. God must give everybody a chance. All men are created equal, in
the Constitution maybe, but not before God. God is sovereign. He does what he will, according
as it pleases him. He shows mercy unto some, and
he hardeneth others. It is what he says here, anyhow,
in the book of Romans, chapter 9. He says, What if God is willing
to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction,
or made up to destruction, that He might make known the riches
of His glory? on the vessels of mercy which
he had aforeprepared unto glory." Who are you? Who is a human being that dares
question God and reply against God? Who is he? He ain't much. And when you think about it a
little bit, you and I have absolutely nothing that we can properly
call our own. Everything we got, we got from
a higher power. The only thing that you and I
have got is sin. That's all we've got is sin,
nothing else. We've got sin. And sin is the
parent of ignorance and pride. And we've got plenty of ignorance
and we've got plenty of pride. We are a product of the dust. And you and me and our corrupt
reason replies against God. and says
to him, What doest thou? We who have forfeited all rights
and claims on God in our rebellion against God, we forfeited that
right to the favor and the mercy of God. If we experience any
blessing from on high, it comes from God. Whether we are saved
or lost, the rain falleth upon the just as well as the unjust. There are favors that fall upon
the unjust, the rain and the sunshine and so forth. I like to ask some of these folks
if they thought that there was any good thing in their nature
to entitle them to be an object of God's pity and God's mercy. The Bible says they are dead
in trespasses and in sin, willfully, whatever they do. they do according to their nature,
and their nature is sin. It is a principle within them that
they got from Adam and Eve, who forfeited their claims upon God
and believed the devil's lie, that they would be gods Sin is this principle inside. This act of sin outwardly is
the effect and the result of our condition before God that
we are sinners. Sin is in us. That's all we've
got, and it's all of our own. And we have no title. We have no title to the mercy
of God. And if we experience the mercy
of God and the favor of God, it's because of the sovereignty
of His grace. What if God is willing to show
His wrath and to make His power known? Endures, with much longsuffering,
the vessels of wrath fitted Who are you, O man, that replies
against God? Paul said, I want an answer from
you. I want an answer. Who are thou, O man, that replies
against God? Shall the thing form? You are
from the dirt. Your living dust is all you are. just living dust. God formed
you. Who are you to call into question and say, What are you doing? Why are you doing this? You reply, Shall the thing form? Say to him that formed it, Why
hast thou made Why? You're just a man, living dust, a piece of clay,
little breathing dust is all you are, a contemptible worm. You can argue with your neighbors
if you You can take up matters with the government if you want
to. You can question the president
if you want to. You can lord it over your family
if you want to and make certain demands, but you can't argue
with me. You can't reply against me. You
can't tell me what to do and what to do. I formed you. I formed you. I made you a vessel
of destruction or a vessel of life and life. You can't reply
against me. Who are you? Paul said. Answer
me this question. Who are you? You reply against
God. Do you know what God can do and
what He can't do? You can't do it, can you? How dare you call into account
your maker, and question him, and dispute him. Shall the thing
form? Say to him that formed it, Why
have you made me like I am? Verse 21, he says, Has not the
potter, that's God, power over the clay? of the same lump, the lump of
clay as a whole, of that same lump to make one vessel unto
honor and another unto dishonor. Who are you that replies against
God? Blessed be the name of God, that He hath made known to you
and I this morning, and in days gone by, the nothingness of ourselves,
and that we have no claim on God except the Lord Jesus Christ. which entitles us to the claim. What if God is willing to show
His wrath? What if He makes His power known,
endured with much long-suffering, the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction, that He might make known the vessels or the riches
of His glory on the vessels of mercy." Then up here he says in the tenth verse of this same chapter,
eleventh verse, tenth verse, "...not only this, but when Rebekah
also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac. For the children not being yet
born, Isaac and Jacob, still in their mother's womb, That's what that means when it
says, "...for the children being not yet born, they were still
in their mother's womb, neither having done any good or evil."
That's in their mother's womb. "...that the purpose of God according
to election might stand, not of works." You remember over
there in the book of II Timothy where it says, not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy hath
he saved us, that the purpose of God according
to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was
said unto her, Rebekah, The elder, the oldest, shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, and Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? Is God wrong in doing this? And Paul says, God forbid. Why? Because he said to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then, it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that shows mercy. For the Scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up. This is
the reason why I put you in Egypt, caused you to be born down there
in the lap of luxury and made you the potentate of all the
land. That's the reason I've raised
thee up, that I might show my power in thee. My name might
be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore he hath mercy
on whom he will have mercy." Oh, my soul. He'll have mercy
on whom he will have mercy, and he'll harden it on whom he will
harden it. What do you have to say about
this? What's your reply? Well, by nature, all of us say,
well, I didn't think God was like that. That's not my God.
But this is the way the true and the living God is. God is
sovereign in his grace. Sovereign, you can't make him
give you grace if he gives you grace to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. If he does that, That would be
a wonderful thing, but you cannot make Him do it. You can't make
Him do it. Who art thou, O man that replies
against God? Oh, bless the name of God Almighty
that has given us favor with Him according to His good pleasure.
He has given us favor. That ought to bring forth from
us hallelujahs and praise unto His dear name. We sing that hymn sometimes. While on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by. the Lord did not pass us by, made known unto our souls the
Christ of God whom he sent to redeem his people, to meet all the requirements
that the holy law of God demanded. the Lord Jesus, who is God manifest
in the flesh, who is the giver of the law, as well as the fulfiller
of the law, as well as baron of the curse of the broken law
in our flesh, in our stead, in our world. That's favor. That's the favor of God. God
gave us favor in Christ. before the world ever was. We
who are nothing but breathing dust, dead in trespasses and
disease, have He quickened because we found favor with Him according
to His good pleasure. We've got nothing. It renders
us hopeless and helpless in light of any goodness that we could
bestow upon ourselves or find any reason whatsoever in ourselves
that God would choose us, God would grant us favor. We are nothing, come from nothing,
come from dirt, flesh and blood going back into the dust, no
claims on God whatsoever. Entitled to nothing, but we gained
favor. He showed favor to us. And in
his sovereign grace put us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not because
we were better than someone else. For the most part, we were worse
than everybody else. But he showed us favor. He hath mercy on whom he will
have mercy. Aren't you glad this morning
that God had mercy on you? You never deserved mercy. You didn't have any money to
buy mercy if it was up for sale because you're penniless. You
owed 18 pounds and you didn't have a penny to pay. But God
showed mercy. because it pleased him to show
mercy. And he showed mercy. And he wrote your name down in
the Lamb's Book of Life. He showed mercy and put your
name down there. Preserved you. And here in time,
he sent someone along. to tell you the good news of
the gospel. And when you heard that good
news, God gave you ears to hear it and made you willing in the day
of His power to bow before, in your heart and soul, to the Lord
Jesus Christ for showing you mercy. all of God according to
His good pleasure. Who art thou that replies against
God? Who are we to question God, to
look up into the face of heaven and say, why did this happen
or why did that happen? Who are you to reply against
God? Well, the Lord bless us and help
us.