Ruler of Mercy (Part B)

God did not make Pharaoh wicked. He did not make him stubborn, but he used those two things. Those were the resources, some of the resources handed to God. God punished him for his defiance, allowing Pharaoh's evil nature to drive him to death, as I mentioned.

Pharaoh now makes a fit example of those who refuse God's mercy, and therefore, by default, subject themselves to his ultimate justice. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Book of Romans.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Romans chapter 9 is the text Pastor Rick will be teaching from today on this edition of Cross Reference Radio. Pharaoh is an example of willful opposition to God. And so, where he says, of course, in the beginning of verse 17, for the scripture says, there's where Paul goes for his authority, he then says, for this very purpose I have raised you up, raised Pharaoh, that has tolerated him, that has used him, and then finally judged him. And those three things God allowed. God did not just simply choke Pharaoh out. He gave him ten clear opportunities to repent.

He came that close, and he ends up dead on the seashores of Yam Suph, the Sea of Reeds. That's where his obnoxious defiance towards God took him. He was not created for destruction, but allowed to be an example of destruction.

Pharaoh's choices handed God all the resources he needed to make Pharaoh a poster boy for the ages to come on what a hard heart looks like. God uses those who hand him the resources for either good or evil, for example, in the negative. God uses Satan for his purposes, but God did not make Lucifer a devil. God causes no sin. I'll come back to that statement about God not making him a devil in a moment, but one of the stellar things about Job is that he did not charge God with wrong, because God does not cause sin.

He may allow it, he does allow it, and he also uses it, but he does not engineer it. Job chapter 1, in all this, Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong. And if you were to say, well, God caused the sin, then you're charging him with the wrong. When God saves, it is a sovereign act of mercy, which no enemy can block.

Somebody coming to Christ, Satan can't stop them. It's between God and them at that point, a shield around them. He will try, and that person can succumb, but it will not be something that you can blame God for. God gives enough rope for people to either hang themselves or pull themselves out with his assistance, because we can't save ourselves and not possible. But we can allow God to save us or not, and Pharaoh refused to let God be God.

He decided everything he saw was not worthy of counting as valuable. Eventually, God will not interfere with man's resistance, which is the story of Balaam. It's the story of Judas.

God began by interfering with Balaam's wayward way, getting in the way of him using a donkey to say, Balaam, what are you doing? He did it anyway. And then, of course, God used the treachery to his glory of Judas Iscariot. Jesus could have went right out to the mob and just said, here I am, go ahead, arrest me. He did not.

He let it play out. He let Judas become the traitor that he was. Judas handed him the resources, fulfilling the prophecies, giving Judas again, as you've heard me quote often, a chance right up to the end by calling him friend. So God turns over people to the resources of their choosing. Romans 1, even as they did not retain God in their knowledge, there would be your atheists. God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. God says, fine, this is how he hardens the soul.

He backs off. 2 Thessalonians 2, and for this reason, God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth because they had pleasure in unrighteousness. That's Pharaoh.

That's Balaam. And that's just a few scriptures because there are many more that say the same thing in the Old and New Testament. And now we come to verse 19. Again, you have to see this ninth chapter in its overview format that Paul is answering why Gentiles are now coming in and Jews are now going away from God.

That's where they were in history at this time, and largely, we are there still. Verse 18, Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills to he hardens. Now we get, you know, we think that there are those that will blame God for people going to hell.

That to me is something to preclude, to rule out of your thinking. That is not what the scripture said. I could not have read Revelation 22, 17. Whosoever wills, let him come. How can I come if I've been damned? Well, if everyone is saved, then God is not holy and he is not just. Universalism teaches that, oh, he's going to save anybody. Then where's the justice? You know, people getting away with evil, not repenting, remaining evil still, and they get rewarded? That's not just.

We cry out, there's no justice, and rightfully so. If, on the other hand, none are saved, then God is not loving and God is not merciful. But he is just, and he is loving and merciful. And he does invite and he does damn. And those situations where you don't have an answer for it, remember that you don't have the answer for it.

Don't fill in the blank and think you're going to get that one right. Default to shall not the God of all the earth do right. He will. What Paul is saying is election is by faith.

That is the solution. And Pharaoh had his chance, as did Balaam, as did Judas, as did any criminal in Scripture that I can think of at the moment. I have to put that disclaimer there unless you get me later, and I hate being wrong. God had mercy. Here's an example of that election and that rejection. God had mercy on Rahab, but Balaam's mercy ran out because of Balaam. And we know why. And so the people of God slew him on the battlefield. And whom he wills he hardens. Again, how?

By leaving them as they insist on being left. I don't want to hear your gospel anymore, Mr. Christian. I don't believe it. I don't want it. Leave me alone. So the demon said, what do we have to do with you, Jesus, as he was delivering a man from his handicap condition?

The sun can melt ice or it can harden clay. Which heart have you? Have you a heart that is just hardened against God?

Or have you had one that has confessed its sins and has melted in his presence and you're not resisting because we're talking about a hard heart. Through Ezekiel, God promises to give his people a heart of flesh and not of stone. Pharaoh, upon witnessing the actions of Moses' rod, swallowing up his magician.

I almost said musicians, but they could have been musicians who were magicians. Pharaoh witnessed that and he could have repented. He could have said, wow, now that is the God I want to serve.

And he did not. Depraved he was, but not totally. Otherwise, there'd be no need to harden his heart.

If he was totally depraved, he would have just, there would have been no chance for him. But God, again, hardened his heart by simply withdrawing himself as insisted upon. Now Paul did not insist on God withdrawing from him as he was persecuting Christians. And the Lord came after Paul and confronted him. Paul did not harden his heart.

That heart melted in the presence of the Lord. What would have happened if Paul said, no, I don't want to hear it? These people are violating Moses' law. Then he too would have been like Pharaoh. God does not create man in order to destroy them. God did not make Pharaoh wicked and he did not make him stubborn, but he used those two things. Those were the resources, some of the resources handed to God. God punished him for his defiance, allowing Pharaoh's evil nature to drive him to death, as I mentioned.

Pharaoh now makes a fit example of those who refuse God's mercy and therefore, by default, subject themselves to his ultimate justice. And that's why we put so much energy into praying for lost souls, into preaching for lost souls, into having a church where people can come in and say, well, I could tell you this, there's no weirdness going on. You get the word and you get to go home and you get to go home with whatever the Holy Spirit put on your heart and you get to do something with it. That now is between you and God. So, taking full responsibility for allowing a man to become what a man chooses to be, that's God. God says, you want to blame me for something? Blame me for letting people be what they insist on being. Do not blame me with jamming the gospel down their throat.

I stand at the door and I knock. And do not blame me for sin, which they were going to launch at Paul had he not given this defense. They were accusing him of these things and so let's get to some of it. Verse 19, you will say to me, why does he still find fault for who has resisted his will?

Are you kidding me? Paul knows they're going to ask this kind of question. He's been through this since the letter to the Galatians. Romans comes much later.

He's been around the block quite a few times with this and now he's putting it in print. And remember, his point is God's sovereignty, not man's salvation. He's really not, and that's part of it, but that's not the primary. He's saying God has a right to bring these Gentiles in and not make them Jews.

That's the whole argument. Scripture or no scripture in your background, this is what's going on. So he anticipates their silly objection as though no one has ever resisted God's will. I mean, come on, the prophets are full of rebukes toward the people who resisted the will of God.

So you say, well, where does this happen in real life? Well, if you've ever watched some of these campus debates with the students, you're shocked at their ignorance is so deep that it has morphed into evil. It is not just, oh, you poor thing, you don't know up from down. It has now become evil because of what they're doing with their ignorance. They stand by their points with nothing to back it up, and once they're flayed in the debate, they remain obstinate. So we shouldn't be surprised that there are people that will ask sneaky questions like, well, where they're trying to go with this is trying to destroy Paul's teaching that God has the rights and the Gentiles now do also.

Cannot stress that enough. This is a stumbling block, one of them. They stumbled over who Christ is. Now they're stumbling over how Christ saves souls.

And so he sees their bogus challenge coming. How about all the Herod's? They resisted God's will, murdering the babies of Bethlehem, beheading John the Baptist, pushing Christ towards the cross.

The evidence was everywhere. The scripture, of course, affirms God's divine sovereignty and man's responsibility at the same time, and that's where also Paul is going. This is an interesting story about King Abimelech. I was talking to another pastor this week, and we were talking about this. We're talking about integrity, and he brought up Abimelech in this section of scripture, and he was doing pretty good. I'm saying to myself, you must have just taught on that, but I didn't want to ask him because we had other parts of the conversation to go.

But as I went back to prep, this kept coming back to my head. I love this story. This is a story where Abraham, he goes to Gera, a place between Cades and Shire, and he's afraid they're going to steal his wife, Sarah. He says, listen, once they take one look at you, they're going to kill me to get you.

So tell them you're my sister, which is a half-truth. He could see it in their eyes, and it was part of the culture back then. Well, they get to Gera, and the king confiscates Sarah, just to get to the point. But God does not let the sin take place, and he confronts Abimelech the king. And we pick it up in Genesis 20, and Abimelech is in dialogue with God. Now, this is a pagan king, and he's in a dialogue and a dream. But Abimelech, verse 4 of Genesis 20, But Abimelech had not come near her, and he said, Lord, will you slay a righteous nation also?

Because God was putting judgment on them, and he's confronting him. And I can't read it all, but we'll get to the good part. Did he not say to me, she is my sister?

And she even herself said, he is my brother. And here's the part. In the integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands, I have not done this. So he's saying, I'm not sinning. I didn't commit anything wrong. I'm in a bad city. I was framed!

This kind of a thing. There's the responsibility of man. He was acting upon supposed innocence. But God then replies, and God said to him in a dream, Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart, for I also withheld you from sinning against me.

Therefore, I did not let you touch her. Then he goes back to Abraham. Abraham, you made a mess here. Go pray for him. I guess you don't see the irony of the whole thing. The man that created the mess had to still pastor.

Oh, I don't want to be in that spot. And the man that could have blamed the pastor had to submit so many lessons in the scripture about how God does business. Anyway, the responsibility of man, and of course, the sovereignty of God.

They go hand in hand. Verse 20. But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God?

Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, Why have you made me like this? And he's chopping them down. He is saying to them, Who are you to set terms for God? Blocking the Gentiles because you want them to have Sabbath days and circumcision and not eat things. Who are you to interfere with the prophecies that have said this was coming?

That's how he's dealing with them. You don't dictate the terms to contradict God. Here it says, who reply against God in the New King James Version.

In the Greek, it's a single word. And it means contradict. It's not just talk back to God.

There's nothing wrong with talking back. But to contradict him is a problem. You can ask God questions. He invites us. Come, let us reason, though your sins are red as scarlet.

I will make them white as snow. Peter, he decided he was going to contradict Christ. All these might forsake you. I'm not going to forsake you. And you're not going to the cross either. And what did Jesus say?

Get behind me, Satan. You're not mindful of the things of God, but of the things of men. That is a defiant question or reply. And so Paul is saying to them, who are you to contradict God? And that's the scriptures coming in. So Jesus says, ask, seek, knock, and it will be open to you. The invitation is there.

When Paul was converted, who are you, Lord? What do you want me to do? So of course we can ask questions. But don't hold your breath on waiting for the answer.

I've learned that. Sometimes, God, we will find out. So will the thing formed say to him who formed it, why have you made me like this? Because if you can say that, then it's God's fault. You made me like this.

Don't go blaming me. What if the king had said to Bimelek, well, you made me this way. So it's not the place of the created thing to hand off the blame to the creator.

The opposite is actually true. Ezekiel 28, verse 14. Concerning Satan. I said I'd get back to Satan. Well, here we are. This is what God says of Satan. You were created.

Back up. You were anointed, the cherub who covers. I established you. You were on the holy mount of God.

You walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones. And he continues to develop that. And yet he becomes the devil. But God says, when I made you, I made you beautiful, and I established you. You say that in Judas Iscariot. Jesus established him, sent him out to do miracles and to preach the gospel, to preach the kingdom.

And yet what did he do with it? James said, let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. God does not inject the evil, but he uses Satan. And the way he uses Satan, by not writing a script for him, but controlling the script that Satan writes. No villain can blame God for being a villain. Psalm 139, verse 14, I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. That's the Christian view.

Not, you know, I will blame you because you made me this way. The matter is one of sovereignty, which they were resisting, and why, again, they did not heed their own scriptures and found themselves on the outside looking in, and that's what Jesus said. When you see the righteous in the kingdom and you yourselves left out, it'll be your doing. Verse 21, does not the potter have power over the clay? From the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor. Now let's stay consistent with the metaphor of the potter. The clay has to respond to the potter. The metaphor is from Isaiah, twice in Isaiah, and once in Jeremiah 18, which is one of the most beautiful passages of Scripture concerning God's care, and God saying to Jeremiah, you see all this judgment coming, you see all this evil around you, I'm not twiddling my thumbs.

I'm still doing stuff. That's the point of Jeremiah 18, one of the main points. Anyway, had this metaphor been applied to a loveless God, then we are left with a different God and a different Bible. But this metaphor is applied to a loving and merciful and sovereign God, and his love is not unjust because love is not unjust, 1 Corinthians 13. Speaking of love, he says, it does not behave rudely, thinks no evil. We have no right to say, but that is beautiful, and I accept that. I'm going to try not to behave rudely or think no evil. But God can be rude, and God can be, no he can't.

That would be a double standard, and that's not the truth. The truth is that God does not behave rudely, and he thinks no evil. He is aware of it, he knows all about it, but he does not concoct it.

It says here, from the same lump of clay. So the metaphor is saying that we're created with equal ingredients, not talents, but we're made in the image of God, albeit a fallen image at this point in humanity, to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor. Now, it does not say that God determined the vessel's honor or dishonorability. He's made the vessel. What you do with that vessel afterward, who is that up to? Well, if the potter decides to keep the vessel, then it's up to him. But if he sells the pottery, which he's going to do, then it's up to the possessor. What are you going to do with that?

Are you going to make it a bowl for salad or a spittoon? Honor or dishonorable. He's saying God is in control of the whole thing. The honor or dishonor remains up to the one in possession of the vessel. 2 Corinthians, We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power of God may not be of us.

Why not? Because we're vessels filled with the Holy Spirit, versus those not filled with the Holy Spirit, such as Caesar Nero. Nero wasn't filled with the Holy Spirit. He was filled with the evil spirit.

Christ made quick work of the unclean spirits that had filled the lives of so many people around him. What we allow God to do with us makes a difference between honor and dishonor, and that's what we read in 2 Timothy 2, but in a great house that you can say the church. There are not only vessels of gold and silver. I'm gold.

I just want to claim it for anybody else. Okay, that was six-year-old-ish of me, but the vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood clay, some for honor, some for dishonor. But it doesn't say how they get there.

Well, we know how they get there. The Scripture does say the honorable vessels are metaphor applied to those seeking the filling of the Lord. The dishonorable are disinterested in God's filling. Luke 5, verse 38. But the new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both will be preserved. What do you put in them?

How do you do it? God could not pour into Pharaoh honorable things. Instead, Pharaoh poured out from his own self dishonorable things called persecution.

Korah and his dunce colleagues, Dathan and Abiram, on. They rebelled against Moses in number 16. God didn't pour that into them. God is pouring into the Gentiles his prophetic work.

Will these Jews allow it? Many of them did. Barnabas did. Silas did. Verse 22.

What if God, wanting to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had prepared beforehand for glory? Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross-Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.

We're currently going through the book of Romans. If you're in need of hearing this message again or want to listen to others like it, head over to crossreferenceradio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast, too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. On our website, you'll be able to learn a little more about the ministry of Cross-Reference Radio, so make a note of it, crossreferenceradio.com. That's all we have time for today, but thanks so much for listening. Pastor Rick will be back next time in the book of Romans here on Cross-Reference Radio.