God's Sovereignty in the New Testament

Romans 9 and the Sovereignty of God in the New Testament

In Romans chapter 9 I'd like you to go to verse 21, and that's where I'm going to read in just a moment. But before I read I'd like to give just a few preliminary comments about what we're going to look at.

A .W. Pink was a tremendous theologian. I mentioned him earlier. He's written several books, and one of those books is entitled The Sovereignty of God. And in that book he says this, The sovereignty of God is an expression that once was generally understood.

It was a phrase commonly used in religious literature. It was a theme frequently expounded in the pulpit. It was a truth which brought comfort to many hearts and gave virility and stability to Christian character.

But today, to make mention of God's sovereignty is in many quarters to speak in an unknown tongue. Were we to announce from the average pulpit that the subject of our discourse would be the sovereignty of God, it would sound very much as though we had borrowed a phrase from one of the dead languages.

Alas that it should be! Alas that the doctrine which is the key to history, the interpreter of providence, the warp and woof of scripture, and the foundation of Christian theology should be so neglected and so little understood.

We've already heard two powerful messages today on the sovereignty of God. And as Brother Andy has said, and I will echo what he did say, I'm very thankful for the elders here and the men with whom I serve.

We've heard about God's sovereign hand as it was expressed in the Old Testament. We have seen God's sovereign hand as it is expressed in the Psalms. And now we turn our attention to God's sovereignty in the New Testament to see how this subject is addressed.

God Does Not Change Between the Old and New Testaments

And I hope to show you that there is a uniformity and a continuation of this subject in the New Testament. It is not as if God stops being sovereign between Malachi and Matthew. You see, there are some who believe that God is different now.

There are some who believe that God is different in the New Testament than He was in the Old Testament. Often this is regarded in the disposition of His goodness. They'll say, well, the God of the Old Testament was stern and vengeful, and the God of the New Testament is kind and compassionate.

You ever heard someone say that? That's not true. In fact, it's so wrong because God is shown to be full of loving kindness in the Old Testament, and God is shown to be clearly wrathful in the New Testament.

Romans chapter 1 tells us that the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. It's constantly being revealed.

Malachi 3 .6 tells us, I the Lord do not change. God does not go from being angry and vengeful in the Old Testament to being good and nice in the New Testament. No, God is as He always has been, and God has always been sovereign.

And that's another area that people think God has changed. They'll say, well, surely God was sovereign in the Old Testament. Surely God operated with a certain amount of hands-on-ness in the Old Testament.

Surely He was working out His will in the Old Testament. But when we get to the New Testament, it's all about free will. It's all about what we do, and we're the governors. We're the masters of our fate.

The best example of this is in the subject of divine election. Everyone can clearly read the Old Testament and see that God chooses people in the Old Testament. God chose Abram. Abram was an idolater.

Abram lived in a family of idolaters. Abram had nothing within him that was worthy of being called, and yet God called him. God called Isaac, not Ishmael, not Eleazar of Damascus, Abram's adopted son, and none of the sons of Keturah, the later sons that came after the death of Sarah.

God chose Jacob, and Jacob was a scoundrel. Among Jacob and Esau, he was the one willing to lie to his father and steal his brother's birthright. He was the one of whom we would say there was little virtue.

So we can't say God chose him because he was better, but God chose him. And everybody's fine with that. Everybody's fine with God making a choice until we get to the New Testament and we say, put the brakes on, God don't do that no more.

We get to the New Testament and the concept of sovereign election becomes hotly debated. Why? Because we don't want to be the objects of God's choice. We want to be the masters of our destiny. We don't want to submit to the sovereignty of God.

We want God to submit to the sovereignty of me. My purpose today is to show that God has not set aside His sovereignty. He had His sovereignty clearly displayed in the Old Covenant, and He continues to clearly display it in the New.

So, excuse me, I need a little water. Which one of these was mine? I promise to take a sip, brother. Andy pointed out to me earlier that often I open the water, talk, and forget to take a drink and just put it back.

So I'll try to make sure I take a sip. I've chosen for my text Romans chapter 9, and if you have any familiarity at all with the history of the debate of God's sovereign election, then you know Romans 9 is right in the crosshairs of the argument.

This is the text. This one chapter has been used to turn many men's minds regarding the subject of God's eternal purpose in His election because it expresses the sovereignty of God in clear terms that are so unmistakable that many people don't even study this chapter.

If you go to many Baptist churches where they have a Sunday school curriculum, they want you to go through Romans 9, 10, and 11 in one 30-minute class. They want you to run through it as quickly as you can.

They don't want you to stop and think about the severity and the reality of what this text says. They don't want to preach verse by verse. They don't even want to go chapter by chapter. They want you to dive over it so that it doesn't grab a hold of you.

And it will. This text will grab you and hold on to you. The clarity of this text is unmistakable. The question I have for today and the question of my message is, has the potter ride over the clay? And that's the text we're going to read, Romans chapter 9, verse 21.

And it says here, Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use.

And another for dishonorable use?

May God add his blessing to the reading and to the hearing of his word. May God write its eternal truths upon our heart. And may God keep me from error as I preach.

Amen.

The Golden Chain of Redemption in Romans 8

If time permitted, I would simply begin in Romans 9, chapter 1. Actually, I'd go back to Romans 8, verse 28. And I would begin at Romans 8, 28 and I would carry you down and I would show you the argument that the Apostle Paul is making that begins all the way back in Romans chapter 8.

And I would show you how there's a continuation of the argument which continues all throughout. But because of the lack of time today and because I do want to focus on verse 21 of Romans 9, I want to simply give you a little brief overview because I do think it's necessary, but I can't stop at every point.

I'm just going to give you the quick overview. At the end of Romans 8, we have something called the golden chain of redemption. The Apostle Paul is talking, he says, God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

That's the great promise of sovereignty, right? God causes all things to work together. Joseph's brother, Solomon to slavery. And Joseph looks at him and said, you know what? What you meant for evil, God meant for good.

Same verb. God meant it in the same way they meant it. God had a purpose for it. God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love him for who are called according to his purpose. And you say, well, who are the called?

He tells us. For whom he foreknew. That means who he saw and loved. Whom he loved, he predestined. And whom he predestined, he called. And whom he called, he justified. And whom he justified, he glorified.

We call that the golden chain of redemption. It's an unbreakable chain. From eternity past when God looked and saw me and he knew who I was and he chose me and he predestined me.

And he did that without my approval.

And without my participation. Whom he predestined, he called.

He called me.

He justified me.

He glorified me.

Because in the manner of speaking, God's glory and his glorification of me is so perfect and so final, it's as if it's already happened even though I'm not yet glorified. And then it goes into that great security passage where the apostle goes on and he says and now that you know that you have been justified and you will be glorified, there's nothing that can separate you from the love of God.

Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, your Lord.

That's the great promise.

And it's based on what?

The sovereignty of God. Only a sovereign God can say nothing can separate you from me. Only a sovereign God can say nothing can snatch you out of my hand. Only a sovereign God, who knows no enemy that can overtake him.

We talk about sovereign nations. Now I understand what sovereign nation means. And yes, we should have sovereign borders. But that's a conversation for another time. Here's the issue I have. No nation is truly sovereign because God can bring nations up and God can bring nations down at his choosing.

Don't ever think that America is too grand to fall.

We're not like General Motors.

Nobody's gonna come bail us out if God comes a-callin'. God is sovereign. So we get to chapter nine. And the big question that comes to the Apostle Paul's mind is, well, what about the Jews? Because aren't they God's chosen people?

And if we're talking about election, wouldn't God be concerned about the Jewish people? And so the question comes up in Romans 9, chapter one. The question is, what has God done with his people who he chose?

The people who he covenanted to save. Has God forsaken them? And the answer is no. Look at verse six. It is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who descend from Israel belong to Israel.

Very important passage. He goes on to say, and not are all children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but through Isaac shall your offspring be named. And what he's showing there is he's showing that when God chose Abram, which was an act of divine election, he also chose one of Abraham's sons, which again was an act of divine election.

Remember Abraham tried to circumvent God's plan? God promised me a son. My wife can't give me a son, so I'll go into the handmaiden and I'll make a son. Because God promised it to me, I'll go ahead and I'll make it my way.

What did God say about Ishmael? This is not the one I promised you. He's not the son of the promise. God chose Isaac, not Ishmael. And then from Isaac we have this wonderful situation where Rebekah, Isaac's wife, has twins.

In her belly. And those twins are as alike as any two people. They're born on the same day, born of the same mother, born at the same time. And yet, what does he tell us? Beginning at verse 9. For this is what the promise said, about this time next year I'll return and Sarah shall have a son.

And not only that, but also Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac. Though they were not yet born and had done nothing good or bad. In order that the purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls, she was told the older shall serve the younger.

As it is written, Jacob I loved, Esau I hated. What's the point? The point is this. There was two children in the womb and God chose them before they were born. And He chose one to be an object of His mercy and grace.

And He chose the other to not be an object of His mercy and grace. He chose one to be a son of the promise and the other to not be a son of the promise. People take great issue with that. And you know what people really take great issue with?

Jacob I loved, Esau I hated.

I don't like that,.

Because I don't like to think of God hating anyone. And a lot of people say God didn't really hate Esau. But what this is, is this is the nation of Edom. Because this is a quote from Malachi chapter 1.

And in Malachi chapter 1, when He says, Jacob I loved, He's speaking of Israel. And when He says Esau I hated, He's speaking of Edom, which is the nation of Esau, the nation that came out of His womb.

And so people will say,.

See, God didn't just hate a person, He hated a whole nation.

Wait a minute, that didn't make it any better.

It didn't make it any better.

If you want to argue that He's not talking about individuals, He's talking about nations,.

All you do is exasperate the problem. He went from hating one guy,.

Which was too much for you to handle, and now He hates a whole nation of people.

And you say, whoop.

And by the way, if you take the context of the Apostle Paul, he's clearly talking about Jacob and Esau, not the nations. Even though he's quoting from Malachi, the Apostle Paul gets a right to determine his own context.

And his context is before they were in the womb. Before they were in the womb, God had already chosen one, not the other.

We don't like that.

We don't like it.

People take great issue with it.

But is it not what it says?

Jacob I loved, Esau I hated. And somebody will say, but wait a minute, that means,.

When it says God hated him,.

What that means is God loved him less. Okay. There is a passage where Jesus said, if you come after me and hate not your father and mother, you have no place with me. And I do believe that that means that we must love Jesus more than we love our parents.

It doesn't mean that we're supposed to hate our parents because if we hate our parents, we're violating the fifth commandment, which says to honor your father and mother.

Right?

So I do believe that there is a sense in which the word hatred can mean to love less. But here's the issue with that. It still doesn't solve the problem because you still have a God who chooses one over the other and chooses to love one differently than the other.

You ask the average evangelical today, does God love everyone equally?

They'll say yes.

You say, how do you interpret Romans 9 .13, where it says, Jacob I loved, Esau I hated. They'll say, well, he loved Esau less. I say, wait a minute. Back up. Let's do this again. Does God love everyone equally?

Yes. How do you interpret Romans 9 .13?

He loved Esau less.

Wait a minute. We're going to do this one more time because at this point, you are being inconsistent. And you know what the thing is with modern evangelicals? They are very inconsistent. God loves everyone absolutely the same.

And yet, God has an elect people that He chose to lavish His love upon. But He doesn't love them any differently.

That's foolish.

That's not true. It's not the way the Bible is. Do you know what the Bible says about Israel? Amos 3 .2, when God speaks of Israel, He says, you of all the nations have I loved.

You of all the nations.

Do you think God treated Israel the same way He treated the Canaanites? Do you think that God treated Israel the same way He treated the prophets of Baal? If you do, you're a fool. You haven't read your Bible.

And you say, but wait a minute.

The Bible says God shows no partiality. Here's what that means, just in case you're wondering. When it says that God shows no partiality, what that means is God does not choose based upon your merit. God doesn't show you partiality because you are white and man and whatever you are.

We're not that good of friends, so I can't go. He doesn't choose you because you like to fish. I don't know if you like to fish, but I know He does. That's what it means when it says God shows no partiality.

It means when He makes a choice, He makes the choice according to His divine purpose and will. According to His counsel. God doesn't participate. We don't participate in the counsel of God. We don't get a seat at the table.

People don't like that.

People want their seat at the table. People want to feel like they have something that they can manipulate this king. They forget that He is king. So we start to have questions. I said I wasn't going to go through it,.

And here I am going through it. Sorry.

I've got a lot to do. Because in verse 14, He anticipates a question. Paul is a great teacher. If you don't know this about the Apostle Paul, the Apostle Paul is a great teacher. You know how you can always notice a great teacher?

A teacher anticipates the objection. He anticipates what his hearer is going to hear and then answers the question before it's asked. What's the question in verse 14? Well, if God loves Jacob and hates Esau, does that mean God's unfair?

That's verse 14. Look at it. It says, what shall we say then? Is there injustice with God?

By no means.

Now here's the thing. If we have understood this incorrectly, this would be the perfect time for Paul to clear it up. But listen to what he does say. Is there injustice with God?

By no means.

For He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. I like to let that one sit in the air for a minute. Because the answer to the question of the objection is God unfair is no.

Because God can do what He wants. You can't claim unfairness with somebody who's completely free. You can't say He's unfair when you don't deserve anything. Imagine a king who goes away on a journey and he returns and his entire kingdom has been overrun by vandals.

His entire kingdom has been burned and pillaged. And all of the creations that he had built up in his kingdom, all of the walls had been splattered with dung, and all of the interior had been destroyed and pulled down, and all of his wonderful works of art had been smashed into the ground.

And that king comes back. And that king says,.

I want every one of them now brought up and killed. Would he be right? Yeah, he'd be right.

Because he's the king. And he has the right to do what he wants. And they have violated the king. They deserve his wrath. But what if the king said, Go in and take out a number of them. And upon them we will show mercy.

And the rest of them, we're going to burn it down.

You say, well, that's unfair.

No, that's not unfair.

That's mercy.

Because he didn't have to give mercy to anyone. He didn't have to give it to anyone.

And the fact that he showed mercy to anyone is an expression of his goodness.

He could have burned it to the ground.

Your heart beats in your chest because God has commanded it to beat, and at any moment it could stop beating. You belong to God. Who are we to say it's unfair? He will have mercy upon whom he has mercy.

He said that to Pharaoh. Or he said that of Pharaoh to Moses.

He said to Moses,.

I will have mercy upon whom I have mercy. And I'll have compassion upon whom I have compassion.

It's mine to give.

The next objection comes in verse 19. Well, you will say to me then, who can resist his will for who... Or excuse me, why does he still find fault for who can resist his will? Now, this one's a little bit of a deeper objection.

Because the objection of verse 19 is this. Well, if I got to do what God makes me do, then how does he find me responsible? I don't mean to be sounding like I'm making fun of people. I'm just sort of, this is the way the questions are often asked.

Let me ask a question.

If God's in charge, why am I still responsible? That's an important question. I'm not making fun of the question. It's an important question. But notice Paul's answer. It is not to satisfy the mind of the hearer, but rather to remind him what he is.

Who are you, O man? To answer back to God.

Who are you, O man?

This reminds me of Job. Brother Andy mentioned Job. I like that you called him Brother Job.

I thought that was kind of cool.

Brother Job.

He was a brother.

Brother Job.

He goes through this terrible ordeal. And by the way, he didn't know about the interaction between God and Satan before it happened. You understand, when you read Job, we get insight that Job didn't have.

His life falls apart. His children die. His property is destroyed.

What happened?

And his friends come and they do what? It's your fault. Divine retribution, retributive justice. This is your fault. At the end of Job, he's getting a chance to speak to God.

And what does Job want God to do? Justify this by what you've done to me.

You know what God says to Job? Were you there when I laid the foundation of the earth? Can you put a hook in the mouth of the Leviathan? You know what he's saying? Who are you, O man? To answer back to God.

We don't like that. We don't like that God doesn't have to answer to us. We want a God that we control. That was the very part of the first sin.

If you eat of this tree, you'll be like God.

And you see, that has been the desire ever since then.

We don't want God over us. We want God answerable to us. And God answers to no one.

He doesn't have to. And that's what brings us to verse 21. Because verse 21 is in the midst of the answer. Are men robots? Are men puppets? Are we just doing what we have to do? Why does God find fault if He's in control?

I want to say something. I hope that this doesn't create any consternation or frustration. I'm like Brother Mike. If I say something that offends you, you can tell me later. I do not believe men are robots.

I believe men have wills, fallen wills. Of course, we've already discussed this. But I want you to consider for a moment. And I kind of wondered if I was going to say this. But I'm going to say it. Even if we were, it wouldn't matter.

Because God would still be God. We're not, and I'm not saying that we are.

But even, you know, the people are like,.

Whoa, whoa, you're just saying we're all robots.

So what if we were? God would still be God. I'm not saying we're robots.

And don't take for a minute that I would be.

But the point is, even if you were,.

Who are you, old man, to answer back to God? Think that we get to object. We think it's our right to question the Almighty.

As you can tell, this is something that gets me going. I feel like Andy now. I'm getting a little hot under the collar. Andy's usually the emotional one, in a good way. I'm not as much, but I am today.

Praise the Lord.

Because honestly, I've dealt with this so many times. I've had this conversation with so many people. And it always comes back to the same question. Well, I just don't want God to be that way. It always comes back to the same objection.

Well, what? That just means that I'm a puppet. Or that just means that I'm a robot. Or that just means... Here's the thing I want you to consider. Most people are so concerned with their free will that they never consider God's free will.

Most people are so concerned over their freedom, not being violated, that they're willing to violate the freedom of God.

Yes, I have complete free will,.

But God doesn't have the freedom to choose anyone.

I have complete free will,.

But God doesn't have a choice in how He loves. I can love you and you and not love you.

I do love you, but I could...

What I'm saying is I have a choice in how I love,.

But God doesn't.

I promise if you come back, I'll treat you better. Brand new, first day.

But the point is,.

I love my wife more than anybody in the world. That includes my children. That includes my parents. That includes anybody else in the world. I love my wife more than anybody else in the world. Am I wrong for that?

No, because the Bible tells me, love her as Christ loved the church. Notice it says Christ loved the church. You say, but wait a minute, the Bible says God so loved the world. Yeah, but finish the sentence.

God so loved the world that He saved some. That ain't what it says. Listen to it. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him... Is that everyone? No, it's not.

Whosoever believeth in Him will not perish. God loved the world so much, He decided to save some. Nowhere says He decided to save all, even in their favorite verse. There's limitation even in John 3 .16.

The Potter, the Clay, and the Freedom of God

In verse 21, the freedom of God is expressed in the clearest way possible. In the entire Bible, the freedom of God is expressed clearly in verse 21, I would say, more clearly than maybe anywhere else.

Because in verse 21, he asks the question, has the potter, and the potter is God, we know this based not only on this passage, but on Isaiah 64 .8, O Lord, You are the Father, we are the clay, You are the potter, we are the work of Your hand.

Paul is clearly referencing an Old Testament symbol here that God has been used, the metaphor of the potter and the clay. Clearly, Paul is referencing that. And he says, Has the potter no right.

Over the clay.

To make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and one for dishonorable use? I want to point out.

What we learn about God.

And what we learn about man in this passage. Three things about God, three things about man. In regard to God, we learn three things. Number one, we learn that God is the creature and we're the creator.

Excuse me, let me back that up.

Because that was wrong.

God is the creator and we are the creature. And that's the distinction that's made. The language of potter and clay harkens back to creation. In Genesis 2, man is made from what? Dust of the ground? Without that act of intentional creativity, man would never be.

Man is not the product of natural processes. Amen? He is not the result of millions and billions of years of chance, evolution, and change. Man is the product of God's creative genius and God's glorious purpose.

We would not exist if He did not create us. But consider that the next time you want to question God. Consider the fact that when you question God, you wouldn't be here without Him. Consider what Romans 9 reminds us.

Who are you, old man?

Why do you think it says,.

Who are you, old man?

Because it's comparing you to Him and there's no comparison. People want to think God is like us, but the Bible tells us God is not like us. And the biggest distinction between us and God is God is creator and we're creature.

God's the maker and we are the ones made. God is the author of life. He is the one who made it. He's the one who created it. We are the benefactors, the beneficiaries. We are the ones being made. We see that here.

He's the potter.

We are the clay.

And we're reminded,.

The second thing that we're reminded of is the freedom of the potter to do with the clay what he wants. I want you to consider for a moment how much of your life you had nothing to say about. Did you choose where you were born?

Did you choose to whom you would be born? Did you choose the ethnicity to which you were born into? Did you choose the nation to which you were born into? Did you choose the state? Did you choose the century?

I'm so glad I wasn't born in like the 1400s when there was no air conditioner. I mean, I really think about that. This is God's grace. Just being born after the birth of AC. I ain't built for hot. People want to claim freedom without realizing how much of their life was determined even before they were born.

The picture of the potter and the clay is a picture of God being free to do as he chooses with us. We all have certain abilities, certain proclivities, and certain things that are gifts. They're woven into us.

They're part of our DNA, and we didn't do that. My wife and I have this talk all the time. I have no fear of speaking in public. Never have. From a very young age, and I see it in my daughter Hope, running up and standing up and talking, singing, dancing, even as foolish as I may have looked.

I was never afraid.

It's part of how God made me. My wife, on the other hand, does not like to talk to large crowds. She's one of the best in one-on-one conversation. She's a wonderful counselor. She's a wonderful interactor with people.

She loves to listen and ask questions. She has those great interrogative questions that gets people talking, and that's why people love her. But she can't do what I do, and really, I don't do what she does.

I'm not real good. I don't like small talk. I don't like that kind of thing. I'm okay, but it just ain't my... I would rather... People say, you know,.

What are you good at?

I like everybody over there, and I'm over here.

That's just...

That's the way I was designed.

God made me like that.

He didn't have to,.

And I didn't ask for that. This shows God's hand in our lives. Can I do things in my life? Can I become a better speaker? Yes. Could I be slimmer? Maybe. I could do a lot of things, but God is still sovereign even in those things.