WWUTT 1298 Who Are You O Man to Answer Back to God (Romans 9:19-20)

Romans 9 and the Potter-Clay Argument for Sovereign Election

Romans 9 .20 says, Who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, Why have you made me like this? You will be held accountable before God when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's Word, that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will. For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. We're back to our study in Romans 9. And I'm going to begin reading in verse 19. And we'll go through verse 29. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome. You will say to me then, Why does he still find fault?

For who can resist his will? But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, Why have you made me like this? 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?

What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory?

Even us, whom He has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles. As indeed He says in Hosea, Those who were not My people I will call My people. And her who was not beloved I will call beloved.

And in the very place where it was said to them, You are not My people, there they will be called sons of the living God. And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, for the Lord will carry out His sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.

And as Isaiah predicted, if the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah. These verses here in Romans 9, verses 19 through 23 or 24, this is my favorite section, at least as far as the convicting message of Romans 9 goes, because this was really the section of Scripture that showed to me God's sovereign election, the doctrine of God having chosen from before the foundation of the world whom He would save and those whom He would not save, that He is reserved for destruction.

This is by God's choosing and no one is able to stand in the presence of God and point the finger at Him and say that He has done anything wrong. Consider the apologetic that Paul has laid out up to this point.

He has talked about how God chose Abraham of everyone on earth. God chose Abraham who was from Ur of the Chaldeans and brought him to Canaan and said that this was the land he would give to his posterity as an inheritance.

From Abraham, God chose Isaac, not Ishmael, who was the oldest son, but from Sarah, God would give Abraham a son and he would be the child of promise. That was Isaac. Isaac married Rebekah and from Isaac and Rebekah, you had Jacob and Esau, the twins.

God chose Jacob. He loved Jacob. If God has chosen to fellowship with one, He has demonstrated love for that person. So the fellowship that God has with one is the love that He has for them. The affection that He placed on them even before they were born.

We who were foreknown by God as we had talked about earlier in Romans chapter 8. The one that God does not choose, He hates. His wrath remains on Him. John 3, 36, whoever has the Son has life, but whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Will God pour out His wrath on those whom He loves? Absolutely not. Paul says this to the Thessalonians, you have not been destined for wrath. If we are in Christ, we are not destined to suffer wrath, but that we would participate in His glory for all eternity.

When we are welcomed into His heavenly kingdom, those who are not chosen, they remain under the wrath of God because that is the default state of every man and woman. We are born of the line of Adam. We have inherited his sin nature.

It is in our nature to rebel against God. So our default position is under the judgment of God. God chooses whom He will save. We do not choose to be saved. God chooses to reveal Himself to us. And those whom He has revealed Himself to know God and He knows them.

You have in Matthew chapter 11, Jesus prayed this, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. I've read this many times. I know we've even looked at this over the course of our study of Romans, but I call this to mind again.

Romans 11 verse 25, Jesus prayed, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, meaning the wise and understanding by worldly standards or the wise and understanding by their own standards.

And you have revealed these things to little children. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. It's by the will of God that we see the will of God. It is by His grace that He reveals Himself to us.

Listen to what Jesus says next. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.

If you know God, if you have fellowship with God, it is because God has chosen to reveal Himself to you, not that you were seeking God and that you decided on your own that you were going to become a follower of God, but because God chose you to follow Him.

Jesus has said to His disciples, You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit. Now, there are some that will take that statement that Jesus made to His own disciples, and they will say, well, that's to a disciple or that's to a prophet, because you have in Jeremiah chapter 1 it being stated to Jeremiah that he was appointed before he was born to be a prophet to the nations.

Or the Apostle Paul, Galatians 1 .15, saying that he was set apart before he was born and called by the grace of God. And there are those who will say, well, that's a prophet or that's an apostle that doesn't apply to everyone.

Well, Paul uses the same language when he addresses the Thessalonians. In 1 Thessalonians 1 .4, he says, We know, brothers, loved by God, that He has chosen you because our gospel came to you not only in word but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

So if they're convicted over their sin and they repent of sin and believe in Christ as Savior, that is the evidence that we see in a person's life that God has chosen them. Not because they believed, God chose them to believe.

The Apostle Paul said in Titus 1 .1, in the beginning of his letter to Titus, he says that he's an apostle for the sake of the faith of God's elect, so that by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, those whom God has appointed to salvation would hear and believe and so be saved.

It is not for you and me to know who the elect are. God knows that. We must be faithful to go out and preach the gospel without prejudice toward anybody. Charles Spurgeon once said if it was easy enough to go out and look for those whom God had marked for salvation, like they had a red X on them somewhere, you just look for the X.

Like, okay, well, that's the person that I'm supposed to preach to. Well, that would make it a whole lot easier, but we don't know that. It is not for us to know that. So we have been told to go and preach the gospel to everyone, so we must.

And though God has chosen before anyone has done anything good or bad, this does not make God unjust. And we went through various scriptures yesterday highlighting how this doctrine has been consistent through the Old Testament and the New that God has chosen for himself those whom he would save from sinful man.

He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. Verse 18, so then he has mercy on whomever he wills and he hardens whomever he wills. And in between those two passages, we had the example of Pharaoh, whom God had hardened, and through the one whom he had appointed for destruction, Pharaoh himself, God even demonstrates his glory through him.

So then we get to verse 19, which we started with in today's lesson, with Paul again anticipating the question of the person who's going to argue with this apologetic that he's laying out. You will say to me then, why does he still find fault?

Why does God find fault with anybody? For who can resist his will? If it is by God's will that a person receives mercy, or a person receives wrath? If a person's heart is softened to love God and follow him, or a person's heart is hardened to rebel against him, if that's God's decision, if he's the one who works that in the heart of a person, then how can he still find fault with anybody, since God is the one who did it?

For who can resist his will? And Paul's answer to this, verse 20, is, but who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Who are you to answer back to God? Who are you to say that God doesn't know better and you need to do it my way?

None of us have any moral ground by which we can say that, because we're not holy. We are not righteous. We do not even compare to the holiness and righteousness of the one who has created all things and set forth his law, that we might see his holy character in his commands and precepts and the written word that has been given to us.

No one, no person can ever say to God or blame God for any wrongdoing on his part. And by the way, Adam tried this. You go back to the story in Genesis, chapter 3 of the fall, where the serpent tempts Eve to eat the fruit.

She eats it, hands it to her husband who is with her, and he eats the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which God told them not to eat from. And their eyes are open and they realize they're naked.

So they sow fig leaves for themselves. They try to hide. God calls out to them. They come out and God says, what is this that you have done? Have you eaten from the tree that I told you not to eat from?

And what is Adam's response? The woman you put here with me gave me some of the fruit and I ate. Adam is pointing the finger at God. Now, he's certainly throwing his wife under the bus as well. I can't imagine that they were really in the best of spirits, even within their own marriage when they were cast out of the garden.

You see the picture of Adam and Eve being cast out of the garden. You know, the paintings and the drawings and the etchings that have been done. And it always shows them like arm and arm. They're with each other and they're like sad because they're being cast out of the garden.

I really don't think it was like that. Adam threw his wife under the bus in the presence of God when Adam was the one that was supposed to protect Eve from the temptation of the snake. And he didn't do that.

And yet he's throwing her under the bus. But really, in that response, we often miss that Adam is pointing the finger at God. The woman you put here with me gave me some of the fruit and I ate. If you hadn't given me this woman, I wouldn't have sinned against you, God.

Who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, why have you made me like this? It's you who either softened my heart or hardened my heart. But who are we, the clay, to answer back to God?

And anyone who tries to argue against the doctrine of God's sovereign election in this way is falling in the category of this person that is arguing against what Paul is teaching. I have a Nazarene friend whom I've known for, oh goodness, twelve not twelve years, eight or nine years, something like that.

We've known each other for a long time. We've gone out and done evangelism together and things like that, reaching out to high school students in particular. And he and I have had these conversations before, because as a Nazarene, he's fully Arminian.

And his response to this, whenever we start talking about sovereignty and things of that nature, God having predestined, God having chosen, Calvinism, whenever that word comes up, whenever we start talking about these things, his response will be, well, if God wanted me to be a Calvinist, then he would have made me one.

If his, he thinks that this is a foolproof argument. If predestination is real, then God would have predestined me to be a Calvinist. He doesn't realize, and I've tried to show this to him, but he doesn't see it as being the same.

He doesn't realize that his response is, God made me this way. I'm not a Calvinist because God made me not a Calvinist. And I've tried to show him that that's exactly the argument that Paul is responding to in verse 20.

Well, not exactly, but it falls into that category. And he just refuses to see it. No, no, no, I'm not saying the same thing that the person in Romans 9 20 is saying. And of course he tries to dismiss that as anyway, we're talking about something national here because this just has to do with Israel.

It doesn't have to do with me. But when we get down to verse 24, Paul says, even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles. So it's not just about Jews in this section, it's Jews and Gentiles.

And we've had the example of both Jews and Gentiles. God having chosen his elect, and then you have a Gentile that God had raised up for destruction, Pharaoh, and hardened his heart that his power might be demonstrated in him.

So we're not just talking Jews. We're not just talking a national ethnic sort of a thing that is going on here in Romans 9. We're talking those whom God has chosen from before the foundation of the world.

And the response here is, oh man, but who are you, oh man, to answer back to God? That's not the Jew. That's any man. Who are you, oh man? Like the Gentile would not be able to stand before God in judgment and say, well, you gave the law to the Jews.

I didn't even know what your law was. So why are you condemning me according to a set or standard of rules that I didn't know because you only gave it to one nation? Will the Gentile be able to say that in the presence of God on judgment day?

Absolutely not. And we talked about that when we were going through Romans 2. There we have an address to oh man as well. Romans 2 .1. Therefore you have no excuse, oh man. Every one of you who judges, for in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself because you, the judge, practice the very same things.

Nobody, Jew or Gentile, will be able to stand in the presence of God and accuse him of any wrongdoing. You didn't give me the law. You gave it to these people. I never had the gospel preached to me. So why are you condemning me for something that was never even offered me?

Nobody's going to be able to say that. Who are you, oh man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, why have you made me like this? You have heard the gospel of Christ. I'm speaking to you, listener.

You have heard me preach the gospel. Jesus died on the cross for sins. He rose again from the dead. He is seated at the right hand of God. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. He is returning and he will judge the living and the dead.

Turn from your sin and believe in Christ. You've heard the message of the gospel proclaimed to you. If you don't believe it, you will not be able to say on the day of judgment, well, God, you made me not believe it and that's why I didn't believe it.

Nobody's ever going to be able to say that. You have the responsibility now to turn from your sin and believe in what it is that I have preached to you or what any evangelist has ever preached to you.

And you will be held accountable for what you did. That's in Romans 14, 12. Each of us will give an account of himself to God. And you will not be able to say on that day, well, it's your fault that I didn't believe it.

You have heard me preach it. You have the responsibility now to turn from your sin or God will judge you on the day of judgment. Put your faith in Christ and you will be saved. God has created all people for his glory.

He will show his mighty power through you. How may God use you to demonstrate his glory and goodness? He will do this either by destroying you in his righteous judgment or by delivering you in his grace and mercy.

And this he has predestined from before the foundation of the world. Yet every man will be held accountable for his own actions and no man has any basis upon which to accuse God with wrongdoing. We're coming to the end of our devotional lesson today.

We're going to come back to this section again next week. But here we've had it stated to us. Will what is molded say to its molder? Why have you made me like this? 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?

What if God desiring to show his wrath and make known his power has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy which he has prepared beforehand for glory?

This is not the only place in scripture that this argument has been made and that's what we're going to come back to next week. We'll do some more cross-referencing and understand even further this doctrine of God's sovereign election.

Five Practical Applications of God's Sovereign Election

But let me give you some practical applications for this. Why is this so important to believe? Well, because it's in the Bible and we are to believe every word of scripture, that should be reason enough.

But let me give you five applications, five practical applications here. Number one, so your prayers would not be hindered. If you have a limited understanding of who God is, your prayers will also be limited.

Second, so that you would be relieved of your burdens. If you believe that your salvation is dependent upon a choice that you have made, or that keeping your salvation is dependent upon your continued choices, then you are being weighed down by an unnecessary burden strapped to your back by bad doctrine.

As I have been presenting these arguments, as Paul has been presenting these arguments, as we have looked at them in God's word, I hope that you have been able to see from the scriptures that salvation, including faith and belief and even repentance itself, is not the work of man.

Salvation is from beginning to end, the gracious work of God. Trusting in the sovereignty of God will give rest to your souls. Third, so that you will be more considerate of others. Think about this. Sovereignty means supreme governance.

Autonomy means self-governance. When you fight for your own autonomy, or free will as it's often termed, then you oppose the sovereignty of God. This is not only a conflict with God, you cause strife between yourself and others.

Your autonomy versus their autonomy. Consider others' needs as Christ considered our need by being obedient to the will of his Father, as stated in Philippians 2 .11. Number four, fourth, so that you would understand your sin rightly.

If we do not have a right understanding of our sin, we are prone to think more highly of ourselves and less highly of God. The more we make of God, the less we make of us, the more we see His holiness, the more we're aware of our own depravity and need for a Savior.

Then you will praise Him all the more for the goodness that He has shown to you. Fifth, number five, and this is my last one. Fifth application in understanding the doctrine of God's sovereign election.

Fifth, so that you may worship God appropriately. It is important that we worship God for who He has said that He is, not for who we want Him to be. May we understand His theology according to His own words that we have here in the Bible, and not try to fit Him in our box or impose our ideas onto His.

As John the Baptist said, John 3, 30, He must increase, but I must decrease. And we'll come back to these lessons again next week. Tomorrow we continue with our study in Proverbs for our Old Testament study.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for the goodness that You continue to show us through Your Word, and I pray that we would become better worshipers of God, that we would see You for who You are, as You have demonstrated Your goodness through Christ, who died on the cross for us, who rose again from the dead, the mercies that are continually shown to us every day.

May we be convicted of our sin. May we never be comfortable with our sin. But we desire holiness and sanctification, that we would be renewed, that we would pursue God, that we would desire to be more like You, growing in godliness and Christlikeness daily.

Forgive us our transgressions. Deliver us from temptation. May Your will be our greatest desire. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.