Sunday Sermon: He Has Mercy on Whomever He Wills (Romans 9:17-18)

You're listening to the preaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast we feature teaching through a New Testament book, an Old Testament book on Thursday and our Q &A on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to present our sermon series. Here is Pastor Gabe.

God’s Glory in Exodus 33–34 and Romans 9:14–18

Let us come back to read once again Romans 9, verses 14 to 18, that we may see the glory of God even in all that he has purposed. Josiah Schutt, the 17th century Puritan said, beware if God is not first in his glory, our own glory will be our downfall.

So let us seek God with our whole hearts this morning. If you would please stand for the reading of the word of the King. This is Romans chapter 9, verses 14 to 18. Hear the word of the Lord. What shall we say then?

Is there injustice on God's part? 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. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.

For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I have raised you up that I might show my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. So then he has mercy on whomever he wills and he hardens whomever he wills.

You may be seated as we pray. Heavenly Father, what blessed truths we have come to embark upon as we open up this text and have read in this deep chapter. One that we who has reformed on our church sign might take a great deal of pride in and want to challenge those who don't hold the beliefs that we hold with passages such as these armed to go out and therefore practice our own personal apologetics in talking down the free willer or the Arminian or the otherwise.

But that is not our purpose here. Our purpose here first and foremost is that we would see you and your glory and your purposes accomplished. These passages do not arm us for battle as much as they comfort us in our weaknesses.

Indeed, every word that we read from the word of God is the sword of the spirit, but Lord may it pierce our hearts first. And we see these things not as, well that person really should have been here to hear this today, but we are here that we may hear this today.

That this word may govern over us and our circumstances. That we see God who is perfect in all of his ways and purposes. And Lord we give you the praise and the glory. In our every rejoicing and in our every trial knowing that you are sovereign and you have promised to deliver us into your presence forever.

It's in Jesus name that we pray and all God's people said, amen. I begin by coming back to the passage that our dear brother Alan had read to us last week from Exodus chapters 33 and 34. In our Sunday school class this morning we had just come into Exodus 33 and this chapter of course not as famous as the chapter that comes before it, but we recognize it as being on the heels of this wicked saga that had just taken place in Israel where they had worshiped a golden calf.

They had heard the voice of God from Mount Sinai. They heard God himself giving the Ten Commandments and even saying, you will have no other gods before me and you will not raise up a graven image. And yet what did Israel do?

Took off the very treasures that they had come out of Egypt with by the blessing of God, melted the gold down and had fashioned for themselves a golden calf. The absurdity of it played out for us in Exodus 32 to the degree that Aaron even says something as dumb as, well I put the gold in this fire and out came this calf.

And we laugh, but how absurd is our own covetousness or our own idolatry when we turn to things of this world feeling like God does not do enough for us. And after this wicked thing had happened, God had said to Moses, I'm going to wipe them out and I'm going to make you a great nation.

Moses intercedes on behalf of Israel and God relents from his anger. This being a picture of the greater Moses who was to come as we read about in the book of Hebrews, Jesus Christ who intercedes for us on our behalf.

Now as God has said that he will be with Moses and he will deliver this people into the land that he had promised to the descendants of Abraham, Moses says, I want to see your glory. I want to know even more fully that you are with us.

Let me see your face. And God says to Moses, no one can see my face and live. But while my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by.

Then I will take away my hand and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen. Now that's the way that chapter 33 ends. Chapter 34 begins with Moses making new tablets. He had broken the tablets that God had first given to him in anger against Israel and it had thrown them down at the base of the mountain.

So he fashions new tablets and the Lord descends in the cloud and stood with him there on the mountain and the Lord proclaimed the name of the Lord. The way that it would more literally literally read in the text is that Yahweh proclaimed the name of Yahweh.

And this is a fabulous passage, a beautiful couple of verses because we get to hear God describe himself. This is who God is as he passes before Moses. And we read this in Exodus 34 verses six and seven.

Yahweh passed before him and proclaimed Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious. Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

But who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. This is in the same conversation where God had also said to Moses, end of chapter 33.

I will make my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, Yahweh, and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will show mercy on whom I will show.

Mercy.

The very passage that we see quoted for us in the section of Romans nine that we're looking.

At today.

And then God does that very thing, proclaims himself before Moses as he passes by, saying that he is a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and thankfulness. And that's the part where we go, yes, amen.

That's the God for me, the one who keeps steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But what else does God say about himself? We go on to read that God says of himself, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation.

When I came face to face with this text at a young age, I remember reading this in verses six and seven, reading God proclaim himself as he passes by Moses. And I was faced with a very real question to myself.

Even as a child reading this text, I found myself asking, is this the God you worship? Do I worship the God who is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness? And also pours out his wrath on the wicked.

Is that the God I worship? Or do I only want the fluffy, comfortable things that I can grapple with and not all of the holy and righteous anger that he will pour out on those who rebel against him? Have I fashioned a God in my mind of my own making?

Or do I worship God for who he says that he is? And my friends, as we come into this text in Romans 9, where this section of Exodus is even quoted for us, that we may know who God is and the wonderful things he does for us.

We also read of some hard truths here in this section in Romans 9, 14 to 18. And so I put for you that same question, is this the God you worship? He is the God who is merciful and forgives. But he is also a God who is just and pours out judgment.

Last week, as we looked at Romans 9, we focused on mainly verses 14 to 16. And I read that again for your benefit. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? Because once again, if before Jacob and Esau were born, God had a purpose of election for one and excluded the other one.

Jacob, I have loved, but Esau I have hated before they were born and had done anything good or bad. Paul even spells it out right there. And so if that's the case, we are inclined in our humanness and our human weakness to want to say, then is there injustice on God's part?

Is that not fair? That God would choose one and not the other before they had even done anything good or.

Bad?

And Paul's response to that being by no means, for he says to Moses exactly what we read in Exodus 33. I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. And as we considered last week, it is God's choice to love whom he will love and to judge whom he will judge.

And verse 16, so then it depends not on human will or exertion. It's not our choice and it's not by our duty or merit that we have somehow earned God's choosing, but rather it is on God. It is on God who has mercy.

God chooses to whom he will show mercy and from whom he will withhold it. And so we come into the next portion of this passage today, which is verses 17 and 18 for the scripture says to Pharaoh, exactly as our brother Allen had read for us this morning from Exodus chapter nine.

For this very purpose, I have raised you up that I might show my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. And by the way, that is the thesis statement for the entire book of Exodus.

This is why I have done this, that my name might be proclaimed in the earth. And then verse 18, so then he has mercy on whomever he wills and he hardens whomever.

He wills.

Now, as we look at this text today, I'm going to divide this up into three parts. Verse 17, we read of God's purpose. And that's stated very plainly in the words of God to Pharaoh for this very purpose, I have raised you up.

We will consider that first. Secondly, we're going to consider God's prerogative. Prerogative, by the way, is a right or a privilege that is specific to a particular individual or class. And God has a prerogative that is specific to God.

And we see that in verse 18 at the beginning. So then he has mercy on whomever he wills. Well, into verse 17, going into verse 18, that my name might be proclaimed in all the.

Earth.

So then he has mercy on whomever he wills. And then finally, number three, we will consider God's power. And that's the last portion of verse 18 after the comma. And he hardens whomever he wills. God's power being proclaimed in this, which will then be expounded upon in the next section of Romans 9, which we'll look at next week.

So first of all, God's purpose in verse 17. Secondly, God's prerogative. Last half of verse 17 into verse 18. And then finally, the last portion of verse 18, God's power, purpose, prerogative power. As we look at this today, let's come back to verse 17, where we read once again.

For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose, I have raised you up that I might show my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. Pharaoh was a despot. Pharaoh was a wicked man.

He was the Hitler of his time. He was the most powerful ruler on the earth in the most advanced and widespread kingdom or empire. As much as we talk about the vastness of the Roman Empire, Egypt at that time was that era's Rome.

And Egypt and the empire of the Pharaohs lasted a really long time. Outlasted even Rome in the breadth and the depth of the empire. Outlasted even the depth of Rome in its coverage on the earth. Pharaoh was even more powerful than we know Alexander the Great to have been.

And he had enslaved the Hebrew people who had come into that place because Joseph had been there by the providence of God. That Joseph would be placed in that place through such unjust means. But remember, as we've read, even going through Romans, when we were talking about the providence of God in chapter 8, Joseph saying to his brothers in Genesis 50 -20, what you intended for evil, God intended it for good.

That many people might be saved as Joseph's brothers were. And even through the line of Judah, we get to the Savior. Judah's preserved so that Jesus can be born and we're saved even by what God providentially had done thousands of years ago through Joseph in Egypt.

And so because Joseph was positioned there as the second in command to Pharaoh to oversee the gathering of food and then the distributing it in the seven years of famine. So all of Joseph's brothers and family therefore came to Egypt and they are there and they are fruitful and they multiply for the next several hundred years.

They become a great population and Pharaoh enslaves them for his purposes. Now the Pharaoh that's being talked about here in this passage wasn't that Pharaoh. It actually was who was likely his grandfather.

But you see the slavery that was going on there in Egypt for generations upon the Hebrew.

People.

And they were subject to such great tortures, even genocide, as we read about in Exodus. Pharaoh trying to control the population of the Hebrews because he was threatened by them and he didn't want them to raise up and come against the Egyptians.

Or if some enemy were to come against Egypt, they would try to recruit the slaves. We don't want the Hebrews to side with our enemies. So we need to control the population. And so Pharaoh had ordered that all of the baby boys that were born would be thrown into the Nile to not only control the population but even that the strongest among them, the men, would not be able to rise up against Egypt.

Horrible slaughter that was going on. And however many thousands or tens of thousands of babies were murdered in that period of time, the scripture does not tell us. But what a monster Pharaoh was. Why would Pharaoh be given such a position to have such rule even over the people of God and even have so much power and so much will that he would deny God when God sent Moses to Pharaoh to tell him, let my people go so that my people may worship me.

And then plague after plague after plague comes upon Egypt. And yet Pharaoh remains obstinate. And though we do have those occasions in which he says, OK, fine, tell your God to take away the plague and I'll let you go.

Moses does it. And then Pharaoh goes right back to his hard heartedness again and keeps the people enslaved. And we see this over and over and over again. Why would God even allow or purpose this to happen?

We have the answer given to us. And when Paul cites this here, he's referencing something that's not new. Like we've seen this again and again from Paul as we've been in Romans 9. Paul will make references to Old Testament scriptures to show people, hey, listen, I'm not presenting to you a new doctrine that God has just decided, well, I've changed my mind and now we're going to teach this instead.

This is the way God has established it from the beginning. And so Paul references this passage from the second book of the Bible so that you would know this is how God has worked in creation. And he has even said to Pharaoh through Moses, for this purpose, I have raised you up.

He even said it. Here's why you have the rule in the reign that you have. Because I'm going to show myself more powerful than you. I have raised you up that I might tear you down and that my name might be proclaimed in the earth.

And to this very day, my friends, we still proclaim the name of God because of what he did in Egypt. Even unbelieving, sinful sodomites in Hollywood think this story is amazing and want to make movies out of it.

Because even they recognize the power of God that's demonstrated through Pharaoh in all of the mighty plagues that came upon Egypt, just as God had said to Pharaoh that he was going to do, just as God had told Moses that he was going to do.

You have the burning bush episode in which God is telling Moses that he's going to send him back to Egypt and you're going to tell Pharaoh, let my people go. And God tells Moses, but I will harden Pharaoh's heart and he will not let my people go so that my wonders will be seen throughout Egypt.

The incredible miracles and plagues that will come upon this people because of Pharaoh's hardened heart. And there's all kinds of debate over, you know, all the different times it said there in Exodus, Pharaoh hardened his heart or Pharaoh's heart was hardened or God hardened.

Pharaoh's heart.

So who did what?

Maybe Pharaoh hardened it first and then God came along and hardened it. Who was, which came first, the chicken or the egg? God says it to Moses there in the burning bush. I will harden Pharaoh's heart.

He told him the pattern that was going to happen. But what was Moses reaction whenever Pharaoh hardened his heart? Why'd you bring me out to do this? God had told him exactly what was going to happen.

And Moses would go, the people of Israel would complain and then Moses would go complain to God. But all of this was happening by God's sovereign hand. There wasn't anything in this process that God himself did not have control over.

It was all happening exactly as he said that it was going to happen. He would even raise up Pharaoh and he would even harden Pharaoh so that the power of God would be demonstrated in this wicked obstinate man.

The Pharaoh of Egypt thought of himself as a God. In fact, if you've seen the artifacts of the Egyptians and the headdress that Pharaoh would wear, that very headdress itself was a proclamation of Pharaoh's divinity.

It was this large gold helmet looking thing. You know what I'm talking about? And that gold, whenever you see pagans that would crown themselves with gold, pagan rulers that would wear gold upon their heads, this was their fashioning for themselves a halo.

Look at how glorious and mighty I am. So that it would make you cower to even look into the face of this ruler because of this gold shrine that would be right there upon his crown. Pharaoh also had another symbol right there in the middle.

A serpent. And that also among pagans was a sign of their divinity. Now we know because of what the scripture says, the serpent is Satan. And the man is actually proclaiming himself to be a servant of Satan.

Not recognizing that he is not really who he pretends himself to be. But even despite his own personal notions of grandeur and his elevating himself, God puts him there for the purpose of tearing him down to show his might is greater than even the greatest ruler on the planet at that time.

This is why Pharaoh is elevated to that position. And this is why he does all the wicked things he does. This is why even that his heart is hardened so that he will not let the people of Israel go. For this very purpose I've raised you up that I might show my power in you.

My friends, it goes all the way to the 10th plague. And the 10th plague is the death of the firstborn. And Pharaoh loses his heir to the throne before he finally relents and says, get out of my sight.

But God purposed that it would be exactly like that. So that we would look at Passover and we would see the sign of the coming of our Passover lamb, who is Christ. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, for Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.

And everything that happened right there at Passover with the angel of death coming through and striking down the firstborn of those who did not have the blood of the lamb over their doorposts, God was using that even to show us the savior who would come, our Passover lamb, so that all who are under his blood will not perish under the righteous judgment of God.

But we have been delivered as we have read here by his mercy and his compassion. I will have mercy on whom I have mercy. That is a wonderful comforting promise. And I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.

All of these things taking place that we would look at Christ. My oldest daughter, Annie, turns 18 on Tuesday. God help me. I look at her and I don't think, man, I'm getting too old for this. I look at her and I think, I'm not old enough for this yet.

I have an 18-year-old daughter. Annie has always thought way ahead of her age group. If you've ever looked at her and you thought, what a mature young lady. I tell you, she's always been that way. By the blessing of God.

When she's four, she's speaking in such ways that everybody goes, what a lovely nine-year-old you have. No, she's four. And I remember one time when I believe her Sunday school class was going through the plagues in Egypt.

And my little girl, no more than about five years old at this time, comes to me and says, why didn't Pharaoh just let the people of Israel go? Why did it take plague after plague after plague? Death after death after death.

Pharaoh himself suffering with boils and all the gross stuff that he got. Why did it take all the way to 10 plagues before he finally let the people of Israel go? Now, I know the answer to this from Romans 9.

But I'm thinking to myself, my five-year-old daughter is not going to be able to grapple with some of these advanced, deep concepts that we get to Romans 9. So I need to give her the fluffy free will answer, right?

So I say to her, well, sweetheart, you know, sometimes this is just the way people are. They choose to do the stupid thing. I mean, even if it costs them, even if they have to suffer the consequences and they know that they're going to suffer the consequences, but they just keep on doing it.

And her response to that was not, oh, I see. Her response to that was, but why? And as much as I continue to say that, you know, she wasn't old enough yet to recognize people doing sinful, dumb things.

And here I am trying to grapple with, you know, sometimes people just choose to do the wrong thing. And finally, after the, but wise, but wise, but wise, I take her to Romans 9. And I read to her, this is what it says in the scripture.

God says in Romans 9, 17, for this very purpose, I raised you up that I might show my power in you and my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. God put Pharaoh there and hardened his heart to rebel against God so that God's power would be demonstrated through Pharaoh.

And I said this to my five-year-old daughter and she goes, oh. And was perfectly fine with that answer. And here I am, reformed dad, thinking that I can't give my five-year-old Romans 9, but these same passages that give answers to us are sufficient enough for a child to know that God is going to have mercy on whom he has mercy.

And he's going to have compassion on whom he has compassion. Now I wrote about that in my blog. And I wrote about that from the standpoint of, don't be afraid to give difficult concepts to your child.

They can understand it. My child understood it. And it is just as it will be a comfort and a teaching to us. So it will be to your children as well. I wrote that in my blog. I had not been a pastor for this, of this church for very long.

And a young man in my church, whose name was Ben, came to me in my office and he said, Pastor Gabe, I was really troubled by some of the things that you wrote in your blog. And I said, okay. And he goes, are you a Calvinist?

Now at this particular time, I was not calling myself that. I was not wearing that label. I had never self-attributed it, that label to myself at that time. And the reason why was because I don't want you to hear Calvinism when I preach.

I want you to hear the word of God. And so I looked at Ben and I said, why are you asking me that? And he said, some of the things that you said to your daughter, according to your blog,.

Are just there.

It's troubling. And I replied to him, it's troubling that I gave my daughter the word of God. A couple of years later, there were a couple more couples, two couples in the church that right as I was coming into preaching Romans for the first time, so this was in 2015, they came to me and accused me of changing my doctrine.

Like you're not the same man that we thought you were when we first became members of this church. That's what they were accusing me of. And one of the wives, in fact, said to me, your doctrine has changed.

And I replied to her, no, it's not. And to prove it, go talk to Ben, who was no longer a member of that church, because he left over the way that I read scripture. There are those who will read this response to Pharaoh in Romans 9, and they will find it a sufficient answer.

Like my daughter Annie found it a sufficient answer. But there are others that will read this and they will say, I can't handle that. And those who wrestle with these things, I'm not saying that those couples who came to me, I'm not saying that Ben who came to me are not saved.

That's not what I'm saying. But I would still put before them the same question that I'm asking you this morning. Is this the God you worship? Can you handle this? To recognize that there are those whom God will draw to himself, and there are those whom he by his sovereign hand won't.

And in fact, will even actively harden. We read here of the purpose of God in verse 17. We go on to read of his prerogative in the rest of 17 and into 18. God does this so that his name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

My friends, he has saved you or has not saved someone else for the same reason. So that his name might be proclaimed in all the earth. And are you proclaiming the name of God as your savior to others?

Remember that when Jesus was in the temple teaching and the people were praising his name and singing his praises, quoting the Psalms and doing so. The Pharisee said to Jesus, tell them to be quiet. And Jesus replied to them was, I tell you, if these were silent, the very rocks would cry out.

Would the rocks cry out because you were silent? Or have you like Bill this morning, stood up and proclaimed the wonderful love of God on your heart and the salvation that you've been given through Christ.

Who, as we have heard about here, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy. And I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. And as we see at the end of 18, he has mercy on whomever he wills. It's whoever God has willed.

In John one, again, Jesus came to his own, but his own did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, he gave the right to become children of God who were born, not of blood, nor of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

And he has saved you. He has saved you that his name might be proclaimed in all the earth. This is God's prerogative. His glory and his majesty. I'm taking my students in my Bible class right now through Psalm 23.

We're actually in Colossians. That's where our main lessons are. But I'm having them memorize Psalm 23. And you know how Psalm 23 begins. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want everything that I could ever need or have.

I am completely satisfied in my savior. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. All these wonderful things that God does for me. And indeed, my friends, he does love us with an unfathomable degree of love.

How could we ever comprehend the depths of God's love for us? We know God's love for us all the more when we look at how sinful and wretched we are. And I am not deserving of the love of God. I deserve to be judged.

And yet he has lifted me up out of that place and seated me with him in the heavenly places. As said in Ephesians chapter 1. What greatness of the love of God. We'll spend all eternity studying the love of God and still not come to the end of it.

But why ultimately does God do all of this? End of verse 3. He leads me in paths of righteousness.

Why?

For his name's sake. It is ultimately, again as said in Ephesians 1 .6, to the praise of his glorious grace. And he has saved you, my brother or sister, so that you would praise God. And more than this, that his name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

When 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 talks about Jesus coming in the judgment of God with angels of fire with him, it says that he's going to pour out his judgment on the wicked and those who did not believe the gospel.

So that he may be marveled at by those who did believe and are saved and will be delivered by the coming of Christ. We read in Philippians chapter 2, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

And also the reason for this in verse 11, to the glory of God the Father. Even Jesus did all that he did for the glory of God. Out of love and compassion and care for us. Yes, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy.

I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. But God's ultimate prerogative is that his name might be proclaimed in all the earth. So then he has mercy on whomever he wills. But then lastly, we have his power in the last portion of verse 18.

We've heard of the purpose in verse 17. We've heard of the prerogative and now the demonstration of power. And he hardens whomever he wills. Just as he demonstrated this power in Pharaoh. So he continues to demonstrate this power in all those who continue to rebel against God and will even perish in judgment.

It is all according to the will of God. He has mercy on whom he has mercy. He has mercy on whomever he wills. And he hardens whomever he wills. That, and we come back again to what was stated in verse 11.

In order that God's purpose of election might continue. Not because of works, but because of him who calls. Now, as we get to the end of verse 18 here, he hardens whomever he wills. That is leading us right into the next section that we're going to get into next week.

You will say to me then, why does he still find fault for who can resist his will? The next question that Paul anticipates and he responds to and he answers. And so we will expound upon this demonstration of his power as we get into the next section.

So I'll save that until next week. But let me give you three applications as we kind of bring this to a close. Three applications for you. Number one, I encourage you to be reverent with your questions.

Let me start with that one. I'll come back to it here in a moment. Number two, be humble in your approach to these doctrines that we've read about today. And number three, be confident in your witness.

So first of all, be reverent with your questions. Now, I was thinking about this this past week. Because remember, we're coming right off the question in verse 14. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part by no means?

Okay.

Now, somebody's asking that question combatively. Oh, okay. So if God's choosing Jacob and Esau before they're even born and can do anything good or bad, then is God unjust in that? So they're being combative with that question.