I did choose the Lord Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neiberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyberg. The Lord willing, both this week
and next week, I'm going to bring two messages from Romans chapter
9, and I dare say you have never heard sermons upon these verses
of Scripture. Preachers will not touch these
verses, and it's not because they don't understand them, they
do. And they know that what these verses say runs clean contrary
to everything they say, and they would fear that they would empty
out their churches if they preached messages from these verses of
Scripture. So I want you to ask the Lord
to give you hearing ears so you can hear what's being said, and
ask the Lord to give me a word from Him. This is God's Word. Now, first in Romans 9, verse
17, it says, 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. He hath mercy on whom he will
have mercy, and whom he will, he hardens. Thou wilt say unto me, why does
he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Nay, but O man, who art thou that replyest against God? Shall the thing form, 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 honor and another unto dishonor. Now I have entitled
this message, Who Do You Think You Are? Paul says in verse 17 or verse 18, therefore
hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy. And what is that
therefore, therefore? It's because of what he said
in verse 17, speaking of Pharaoh. For the Scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised you up." God raised
Pharaoh up, and God wasn't trying to change Pharaoh's mind when
he kept sending the plagues. He wasn't trying to get Pharaoh
to respond. The opposite, he continued to
harden his heart. That's what the Bible says. God
wasn't trying to get Pharaoh to let the children of Israel
go by bringing these plagues. He was actively hardening Pharaoh's
heart. 15 times in the scriptures, it
says God hardened Pharaoh's heart so he wouldn't let the children
of Israel go. 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, therefore hath he mercy on whom he will
have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Now that is the word of God.
Now the first thing that I would like for us to consider is who
is this one who has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and
whom he will he hardens? Well, this is God, the creator
of all things. Him who is holy. That word holy means other. That means he's not like me and
you. He's altogether different from
me and you. He's sovereign. That's what the
Bible says of Him. He reigns. He's all-powerful,
therefore has the power to do whatever He wills to do. He has
a will, and He always does His will. He's in absolute control
of everything. He's even in control of the thoughts that are going
through your mind right now. God is absolutely sovereign. He is all-wise. He's never been
given any new information. He knows all things. He's all-powerful. Is anything
too hard for the Lord? Whatever He wants, He does because
He's all-powerful. He's omnipresent. He's not bound
by space or time. You can't go anywhere where He's
not. He is absolutely just. He will punish all. All sin. Not one sin will go unpunished
because He is just. He's immutable. He can't change. Whatever He was yesterday, He
is today. And whatever He is today, He
will be tomorrow. He's eternal. He never began
to be. He's infinite. And thank God
He's merciful and gracious. He's good. God is good, and none
is good but God. I love it when the rich young
ruler came to the Lord and said, good master, what good things
shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he was coming to Christ
as one good man to another good man who is a better man, and
what can I do to lift myself up to your goodness? And the
Lord said, why callest thou me good? There's none good but one
only, that is God. Only God is good. When Abraham was pleading for
God to spare Sodom, if only ten believers could be found, he
said, shall not the judge of the earth, and that's who he
is, the judge of the earth, shall not the judge of the earth do
right? Yes, he will. Now, he has mercy. The scripture
says in verse 18, therefore hath he mercy. on whom he will have
mercy. He delights in mercy. Jacob has shown mercy. Jacob
have I loved. He delights in mercy. Oh, thank God he's a merciful
God, a gracious God, full of compassion, full of mercy. And beloved, it's sovereign mercy.
He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy. whom he will, he
hardened. He had mercy on Jacob, but you
know, he didn't have any mercy for Esau. He passed Esau by as
an act of his irreprehensible justice, and Esau went to hell.
But God chose to not show mercy to Esau. Let me remind you of
that scripture, Romans 9, 13, quoted in Malachi 1, God said,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." Romans 9.11 says,
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. Now, Pharaoh was
raised up to be destroyed. God said, even for this same
purpose have I raised thee up. to show my power in you, and
that my name might be declared throughout all the earth." He
hardened Pharaoh's heart. Now, remember in this thing of
hardening, the same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay. And all God has to do to harden
a man's heart is nothing. If he leaves me or you to ourselves,
we will become as hard as granite in our hearts. And he hardened
Pharaoh's heart as an act of his irreprehensible justice. Now, look in verse 19. After
saying, therefore, hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy and
whom he will, he hardens. Verse 19 says, and Paul's anticipating
the objection he knows we'll have. Thou wilt say unto me,
why does he yet find fault? For who has resisted his will?"
Now, what Paul is saying is this is the objection men will have
when they hear that God has mercy on whom He will have mercy and
whom He will. He hardens. He passes them by.
They're given over to a reprobate mind. He doesn't save them. People
will say, well, how can He hold me responsible for my sin and
find fault with me if He's the one who hardened my heart? That's
what Paul's saying. How can He hold me responsible
if He is the one who hardened my heart? How can that be fair? It's ultimately His fault I did
what I did. If He wouldn't have hardened
my heart, I wouldn't have done it. Therefore, it is God's fault. That sounds eerily similar to
what Adam said in the garden. The woman that you gave me, she
gave me of the fruit and I did eat. The implication obviously
being if you wouldn't have given me that woman, this wouldn't
have taken place. This is ultimately your fault. Now listen real carefully. Anytime
we fail to do what we're responsible to do, that we're commanded to
do in God's Word, and we comfort ourselves with, well, I was unable
to do it because of my sinful nature, and God chose not to
give me the grace to do it. We're saying the same thing Adam
did, the same thing this man in Romans 9 says. Now, let me
give you these two things that are true. Number one, me and
you do what we want to do. We're not coerced into doing
anything. When we sin against God, we chose to sin against
God. We can't blame God. We can't
say, well, God could have kept me from it. No, we do what we
want to do, and we are held by God responsible for our actions. You can't blame God like this
man tried to do. Why? Why does he yet find fault?
Who has resisted his will? We're responsible, personally
responsible for everything we do, and we do what we want to
do. That is completely true, and
this is completely true as well. It's completely true that God
is sovereign over everything we do, including our uncoerced
actions. When we do what we want to do,
God is in absolute control of that. I think of what Joseph
said to his brothers. He said, you meant it for evil.
You had a wicked intention in doing what you were doing, but
God meant it for good. You see, God is in control of
everything. Those men who crucified Christ.
What a wicked thing to do, and they did exactly what they wanted
to do. But the Scripture says, him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and with
wicked hands have crucified and slain. Now, listen to Paul's
response to this objection. How can I be held responsible
if he has mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he
hardened? How can he find fault with me if he's the one who hardened
my heart? I shouldn't be held responsible.
Look how Paul answered this. He says in verse 20, nay, but
old man, who are you to reply against God? Who do you think
you are? Paul answers this objection by
not answering it. Who are you to find fault with
God? Who do you think you are? Do
you have such a high opinion of yourself that you think God
is answerable to you? Does he have to explain himself
to you? Are you his judge? Do you believe
yourself to be competent to call into question his fairness? Who do you think you are? What
audacity, what arrogant presumption to call into question the rightness
of anything that God does. I think of what God said to Job.
Now Job had been questioning God's fairness. Now you think
about what had taken place with him. He lost his health, he lost
his wealth, he lost his family. He lost everything. And throughout
the book of Job, he's questioning God's fairness. His buddies were
saying, you must have done something sinful or this wouldn't have
happened to you. And Job was trying to defend himself and
saying, I did not. This is not fair. How could this
be happening to me? How could God let this take place?
And then all of a sudden, God says, Who is this that darkeneth
counsel with words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a
man, for I will demand of thee. Answer thou me. Where was thou
when I laid the foundations of the earth? And he goes on to
ask a series of questions to Job. Now, who are you, O man,
to reply against God? Let me remind us of who we are. I'm not speaking down to you.
I'm talking to myself as well. Let me remind us who we are. We're sinners. We're weak. We're frail. We're ignorant. We're mutable. We're evil. We're fallen. We're liars. We're hypocrites. We're actors.
The fact of the matter is, all we have ever done is sin. That's it. Even the good stuff
is sin. Scripture says our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. For me or you to sit in judgment
on anybody is an act of hypocrisy. But to sit in judgment on God? Who are you to reply against
God? Who do you think you are? Now, the living God is He that
sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof
are as grasshoppers. Now, let's see. Do you believe
yourself to be morally qualified to set in judgment upon Him? Really? The audacity of a man
to reply against God, it is preposterous. Now, Paul quotes a couple of
passages of Scripture from Isaiah. Let's go on reading. Nay, but,
O man, who are you to reply against God? Shall the thing formed say
to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? This is two
quotations from Isaiah 45 and Isaiah 29, where the thing formed
says, Why did you make me this way? Says that to the potter.
Verse 21, Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same
lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? Now the potter has power over
the clay. I want to read a verse of scripture
in Jeremiah chapter 18, the word which came to Jeremiah from the
Lord saying, Arise and go down to the potter's house and there
I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the
potter's house, and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels,
and the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of
the potter. So he made it again another vessel,
as seemed good to the potter to make it." That's the way the
potter operated, what he wanted to do, he did. Then the word
of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, can I not
do with you as this potter, saith the Lord? Behold, as the clay
is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. Hath not the potter power over
the clay? Authority, right to do as he
pleases. There are no boundaries, no limits
to his power. He's the potter. We're the clay. I think of what Pilate said to
the Son of God. He said, speakest thou not to
me? Knowest thou not that I have
power to release thee, and I have power to let thee, or crucify
thee? And the Lord said, thou couldst
have no power at all over me, except it be given thee from
above. Men have no power. No control. All men fit that description. And he has all power and all
control. Hath not the potter power over
the clay? Yes, he does. To make of the
same lump one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. Now, that same lump is fallen
humanity. Do you know that all men fell
in Adam? When Adam rebelled, you and I
rebelled. When Adam sinned, you and I sinned. We fell in him. Now somebody
says, now wait a minute, you're going to tell me that I'm responsible
for somebody else's sin? How could that be? Well, number
one, let's leave Adam out of the picture for just a moment.
How have you stood on your own? Let's say if you had no connection
with Adam's sin, you still sinned against God, so it doesn't do
you any good if Adam's sin's not charged to you. But the fact
of the matter is, Adam did what he did as a representative. He,
when He sinned, all of the human race sinned in Him. When He died,
all of the human race died in Him. In Adam, all die. What He did, He did as a representative. And the reason I'm born into
this world was the fallen natures because I'm born into this world
with the fallen nature of my father Adam, a sinful, totally
depraved nature. I can't believe, I can't love,
I can't repent, I can't do any of those things with regard to
God. Oh, I can love my mom and my dad and my children and my
wife, and it's a selfish love, but the love spoken of, the love
of God, I don't have that, and you don't either, by nature.
We fell in our father, Adam, and the great proof of the sinfulness
of man, this one lump of fallen humanity, is the cross. The one
time men were allowed to do what they wanted to do, they put the
Son of God to death. And the throne of God would not
be safe for a moment if it were in your power or my power to
pull Him from His throne. The natural man has no love for
God. Oh, they might love the God they've
made up. But I'm talking about the God of the Bible, the God
who has mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will
He hardens. Why, this makes men angry. They
start finding fault with this God, saying He's not fair, He's
not right, and thus become His judge rather than His worshiper.
But let me say this also. You will only worship an absolutely
sovereign God. and deep down you know what I'm
saying is so with regard to God. He's God. It's not an empty title. He's God and He is in absolute
control and He has the right to make of the same lump of fallen
humanity one vessel unto honor and another vessel unto dishonor. Now all men beginning right here,
deserve to go to hell. God is just. And if a man goes
to hell, that's what he's earned. God doesn't send men to hell
simply to inflict pain upon them. Men have sinned against God.
God's justice demands the punishment of sin. And all men deserve to
go to hell. And if God didn't save me, if
he passed me by and let me go to hell, I would be getting exactly
what I richly deserve. And my friend, the same thing
is true of you. Somebody says, well, how can
a loving God send a man to hell? Well, a loving God doesn't. Everybody
he loves, he saves. But a just God does send a man
to hell because he's just. But the potter also has the right
and the authority and the ability to make one vessel unto honor. Now what a thing that I, that
any believer, that I should be a vessel unto honor, a vessel
for God to pour his grace and mercy in and actually make me
honorable. Someone worthy of the acceptance
and the love of God. And that's what Christ accomplished
on the cross. He put away my sin, it's gone. He gave me his very righteousness
and now I'm a vessel unto honor. What amazing grace that God would
give His Son to die for this sinner. What unparalleled love,
what grace and compassion that He would give His love for this
sinner. You know, some questions are
appropriate. How could He love me? I'm so
amazed by that. How could He give His Son to
die for me? Why would He choose me? Why me?
If there's anyone that didn't deserve it, it's me. Why me? I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how He could love me, a sinner,
condemned, unclean. Oh, what amazing grace that he
would make any son of Adam who has been so wicked that they
would put to death the Son of God. And every one of us are
that bad. If left to ourselves and all the restraint was taken
away, we would have been those people crying, crucify him, crucify
him. And that God would love a sinner
like that. Amazing grace. Amazing grace. but he can make some vessels
unto dishonor. He leaves others to themselves,
he hardens their heart. Now a hard heart is a dry heart,
an unloving heart. He hardens their heart He executes
His justice against that sinner in hardening His heart. And if
God hardens my heart or your heart and sends us to hell, it
will magnify and glorify His holiness and His justice. You see, God is God, and He's
not answerable to me. He's not answerable to you. He's
going to do what pleases Him to do. Now, He is pleased to
have vessels of mercy. Out of that same lump, vessels
of mercy, vessels of honor, and also vessels of dishonor. Now,
how should you and I respond to this? read that the potter
has power over the clay, of the same lump, to make one vessel
unto honor and the other unto dishonor. I would like to close
by reading a passage of Scripture from Isaiah chapter 64. Isaiah says in verse 6, but we
are all as an unclean thing. And all our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags. And we all do fade as the leaf. And our iniquities, like the
wind, have taken us away. And there is none that calleth
upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee.
For thou hast hid thy face from us, and thou hast consumed us
because of our iniquities." Now, would that describe you? Do you
believe that your righteousnesses are as filthy rags? Look what Isaiah says, but now,
O Lord, thou art our Father, we are the clay. and thou our potter, and we are
all the work of thy hand. Be not wroth very so, O Lord,
neither remember iniquity forever. Behold, see, we beseech thee,
we are all thy people." And here's what someone does who believes
themselves to be clay in the potter's hand. They say, Lord,
have mercy on me. I'm in your hand and you can
do whatever you're pleased to do, but oh, that I might be seen
as one of your people. I'm your work. I'm clay in the
great potter's hand. Will you have mercy on me? Will you save me for Christ's
sake? There's nothing in me that's
savable as far as me being able to work out my salvation. Would
you, as the mighty potter, completely sovereign over me, will you command
my salvation? Will you do something for me?
Now, if that comes from your heart, you're a vessel of honor.
If all you do is fight and kick against this and say you don't
believe this, well, that simply shows you to be a vessel of dishonor. Now, I want to be a vessel of
honor. I want to sue for mercy at the feet of Christ. Now, we
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