The Sovereignty of God — Mack Tomlinson

Thanks ought to be expressed to all the Heart Christ staff and the staff and members of Waldo Road Baptist Church for hosting this conference. Thank you so much. All the work that Darren and John and Amanda and others that I can't remember their names right now, all that they do and others do to provide this for us is so, so wonderful.

Romans 9 and the Sovereignty of God

Thanks be to God. I would like to ask you to turn to the ninth chapter of Romans as we take up this subject of the sovereignty of God. The ninth of Romans. We will read verses 14 through 23, Romans 9, 14 through 23.

The context here, Paul is dealing with Israel's rejection and God's purpose, Israel's rejection and God's justice. And then he applies it universally. Verse 14. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?

Certainly not. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. So then it is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.

For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose have I raised you up that I may show my power in you and that my name may be declared in all the earth. Therefore, he has mercy on whom he wills and whom he wills, he hardens.

You will say to me then, why does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will? But indeed, oh, you 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 here's the crux of the matter. The question in verse 21. Does not the potter have power, that is the right or authority, over the clay? From the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor.

What if God, strongly desiring to show his wrath and 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 has prepared before for glory.

Worshipful Humility Before the Attributes of God

Let's pray. Our Father, every one of our hearts need to hear thy voice. Every one of us desire for you to speak, for the words thou speakest, they are life. So would you help us in our need, in our weakness.

Would you spare us from drowsiness, from distraction. Holy Spirit, bless thy Word, for the glory and honor of the Lord Jesus Christ is our prayer. Amen. There is a real danger in doing what we're doing this weekend.

In thinking about the attributes of God. It's a danger because God is primarily not to be explained, but primarily to be worshipped and adored and loved. We are called throughout Scripture to an everlasting, as Tozer said, an everlasting preoccupation with God.

But our little minds are a poor container for pure and accurate thoughts of God. We can only think a little bit about one attribute of God. Say for instance, the eternality of God. That this God is a person, a personal being, who never had a beginning.

Who forever in eternity passed, if past you want to call it, He dwelt alone and never came into being. When I dwell on that for very long, I just begin to short circuit. Our minds are such a small container for thoughts about God.

In one of his letters to Erasmus, Luther said, Your thoughts of God are too human. Well, so are ours. When it comes especially to viewing God's attributes. And among His attributes, especially His sovereignty.

Because there is no doctrine more hated by worldlings and by religious people than the sovereignty of God. When they really hear what it means. One has said this, men will allow God to be everywhere except on His throne.

They'll allow Him to be in His workshop, fashioning worlds and making the stars. They'll surely allow Him to dispense His gifts and give blessings. They'll allow Him to sustain the earth and rule the ways of the oceans.

But when God ascends His throne in relation to man, His creatures then gnash their teeth and turn a deaf ear. For the enthroned God is not the God they love. The sovereign God who reigns over all. Now when those who truly believe in God's sovereignty deal with this truth, our attitude is of the utmost importance.

It's not a truth you swing like a sword to cut off someone's ear like Peter did in the garden. Or to be argued in heated intellectual debates. It is a doctrine that humbles us, that puts us in the dust, that makes us worship and adore this God, who being sovereign would have mercy upon us.

In the beginning, what? God. There was a time, if time it could be called, when God dwelt all alone. There was no heaven, think of it, there was no heaven where His glory is now particularly manifested.

There was no earth to engage His attention. There were no angels even to sing His praise. There was no universe to be upheld by the word of His power. There was nothing, no one, but God from everlasting.

Nothing. Eternally, God was alone. He was there, self-satisfied, self-sufficient, self-contained, in need of nothing. Had a universe or angels or men had been necessary to Him at all, they would have existed from all eternity.

The self-existent, sovereign God. Now what do we mean by sovereignty? When we talk about the sovereignty of God, what are we talking about biblically? We're talking about the exercise of His supremacy.

The exercise of His supremacy. That God does what He wills to do. He always does what He wills to do. Think about this. The power of God, when the power of God is displayed in the Bible or in history or in revival, is the power of God nothing more than the expression of and the manifestation of the sovereign purpose of God.

The sovereignty of God is the exercise of God's supremacy. Being infinitely elevated above the highest creature, God is subject to none, influenced by none, absolutely independent of everything. And He does as He pleases, only as He pleases, always as He pleases.

And whatever He does, He is pleased with, because whatever He does is good and just and right and wise, and it's perfectly good because He does it. This sovereign God, He reigns supreme, He reigns alone upon His throne, and He's Lord all by Himself.

God’s Sovereignty Over Creation, Nations, and History

But we're living in a day when even the most orthodox at times seem afraid to admit the proper godhood of God. That God is not God in name only, but in reality and administration and the outworking of everything.

That God is ruling the entire universe, from atoms to all the planetary systems, from the tiniest molecules to the largest mountains, that all nature, all nations, and all the affairs of men, He's ruling over, directing all things, working all things after the counsel of His own will.

Before Him, presidents and popes, kings and emperors are less than drops in the bucket. In fact, the Bible says all the nations are less than drops in the bucket. So what does that make individuals to be?

God's supremacy over the work of His hands is vividly, is it not, depicted throughout all of Scripture. Think of this. At His pleasure and according to His will, the Red Sea suddenly divides and two walls of water are erected and the Bible says they went across on not damp land, but on dry ground, supernaturally.

Every drop of water was sucked from that river and it was all in those walls and they went across on dry land. At God's pleasure that happened. In Numbers 14, the earth opened her mouth and guilty rebels went down alive into the pit.

When God so ordered, the sun stood still in its course. And on another occasion, Isaiah 38 tells us that on the dial of Ahaz, the sun went back ten degrees. To exemplify His supremacy, He made ravens daily carry food to Elijah.

He made iron to swim on top of the water. He made the hungry lions to be tamed that Daniel spent the night with. He made blazing fire to not hurt three Hebrew children in the flames of the furnace. All that God does, all that He is designed to do, He does.

All that He decrees, He performs. And there are many Scriptures that state this directly. Let me just give you some as we begin this thought about God's sovereignty. They are so wonderful. And we ought to remember that this is God telling us about Himself in these Scriptures about God's self-revelation.

To us, 1 Chronicles 29, 11 says this, Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the majesty. For all in the heavens and in the earth is Yours. Thou art exalted as head above all. Thou reignest over all.

There's God's supremacy. Job 4 .23, Job said to God in his affliction, I know that You can do everything and that no thought of Yours can be hindered. Or as another translation translates that verse, no purpose of Yours can be frustrated or thwarted.

Job 12 .10, this is such a marvelous Scripture. In whose hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. That's a pretty big hand, isn't it? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.

Isaiah 46 .10, God says, My counsel shall stand, I will do all of my pleasure. Daniel 4 .35, He does according to His will in the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay His hand.

David said in Psalm 115, verse 3,. But our God is in the heavens, He has done whatsoever He has pleased. Solomon said it in Proverbs 21,. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water.

He turns it whithersoever He wills it to go. Psalm 135, verse 6,. Whatsoever the Lord pleased that did He in heaven and in earth and in the sea and all the places. When we think about God exercising His supremacy, especially when arrogant men exalt themselves at a certain point, God says, that's it, it's all over and He takes no more.

For instance, in Daniel chapter 3 and 4, Nebuchadnezzar, After he was supernaturally humbled by God, his testimony was this, That the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdoms of men and He gives it to whomsoever He wills.

Herod in Acts chapter 12, We remember him exalting himself before the people that day in royal robes arrayed on his throne and the people began to cry out that he must be a god. The Bible says, Immediately the angel of the Lord smote him and he was eaten up with worms.

Why? Because God is the king of all the earth, the Bible tells us. And He rules supremely. Daniel 2, verse 21 says this,. He changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and He sets up other kings.

God’s Rule Over Evil, Nature, and Human Actions

Other scriptures that come to mind. Think of these, Amos chapter 3, verse 6,. Shall evil befall a city and Jehovah has not done it? Now, we won't get on CNN tonight and get asked about that scripture, I promise you that.

Shall evil befall a city and has not Jehovah, has He not done it? Habakkuk 1, verse 6, God says this, For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, that marches through the breadth of the earth to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.

God says, I raise them up as instruments of judgment to work His purposes in the earth. The absolute supremacy of God is affirmed equally in the New Testament. From a single bird are not two sparrows sold for a penny, and yet not one of them shall fall to the ground without your Father.

From a single bird all the way to the very death of the Son of God. For of a truth in this city, it says in Acts, Luke writes under inspiration, Both the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel predestinated to come to pass.

In John 19, 11, the Lord Jesus said to Pilate, There would have, that you would have no power against me, except it were given to you from above. Now, think about this and let it sink deeply into our hearts.

Think of all that God rules over. For instance, He rules over all nature and all weather. Jeremiah chapter 10, Jeremiah said, He makes lightening for the rain and brings out the wind from His storehouses.

Nahum 1 .3, Jehovah does His will in the whirlwind and in the storm. The hymn says that there's not a plant or flower below, but makes thy glories known. And clouds arise and tempests blow by orders from thy throne.

God rules over all nature and all weather. This is why Jonathan Edwards loved to walk during lightening storms. I don't like to do that yet, but he did because he knew that God ruled over nature and over all the earth.

God rules over kings and nations. Read Daniel 2 especially on that one. God rules over people and their hearts. Remember Genesis 20. In Genesis 20, Abraham met Abimelech, the king of Gerah. And Abimelech had taken Sarah for his harem.

Remember that? But before he came near her, God warned him in a dream, she is a man's wife. And then God said, but I withheld you from sinning against me therefore I didn't let you touch her. God rules over the hearts of people when they know it and when they don't.

He's in control. Shemai in 2 Samuel 16 cursed David on the street. Remember when David was coming in? Shemai goes along cursing him. And David's men want to take him out and David says, let him alone and let him curse me for so has the Lord ordered it.

How about that one? He rules over the closing and opening of the womb. In 1 Samuel 1, speaking of Elkanah, the Bible says to Hannah, he gave a double portion for he loved Hannah, although the Lord had closed her womb.

God rules over destructive animals, 2 Kings 17. The Bible says, therefore the Lord sent lions among them which killed some of them. Now there are many scriptures that talk about God commanding birds and bears and donkeys and large fish to do his bidding.

God rules over all of it. He rules over man's evil and everything man calls evil. God governs it and he rules over it. Genesis 50 verse 20, Joseph said this, you meant it for evil, but God purposed it, meant it for good to bring to pass the saving of many people.

God rules over life and death, Deuteronomy 32. He says, see to it now that I, even I am he and there is no God but me. I kill and I make alive and there is no one who can deliver out of my hand. Our God reigns supreme in his will.

The Bible makes it obvious and how it's amazing to think that how a regenerate mind could not read the Bible honestly with a teachable heart and see it, that God really is sovereign and controlling all things.

Pharaoh and the Offense of Romans 9

But perhaps, perhaps the most glaring revelation of God's supreme sovereignty in the Bible very well may be Romans 9 where we read, and let's look back there as we think about this, in the life of a particular ruler of a mighty land, the land of Egypt.

His name was Pharaoh or perhaps we should say his position was that of Pharaoh over the land of Egypt. And as we go to the 9th of Romans to take a look at the life and experience of this one man, we realize that he is truly a representative of an individual and of a ruler.

This entire story of Pharaoh is found in Exodus 5 through Exodus 14. And Paul takes up the subject and the example of Pharaoh in Romans 9 to speak about God's attribute of absolute independent sovereignty.

Now Romans 9 has been made difficult by men. God has not made it difficult. You don't need to know Greek to understand the message of it and believe it and rejoice in it. It's difficult not because it's complex, but because it is strongly offensive to the natural man and to the religious mind.

But because a thing is difficult or seems difficult or is offensive doesn't mean we can change it or avoid it. Paul the apostle never does that with truths in Scripture. He takes it on. He faces the issue.

He examines it. He gives his answer to it. We must not avoid these difficult or offensive areas of truth. Rather, God, who is sovereign, who is our Father, who has given us the Holy Spirit, wants to lead us into all these truths and cause us to understand them and rejoice in them and apply them in our lives.

What should our attitude be as we approach a passage like Romans 9? Humility, reverence, teachableness. As Martin Lloyd-Jones said, when you approach this chapter, take your shoes off your feet. And isn't that what Paul does at the end of this section in Romans 11, at the end of chapter 11?

He does that. He says, Oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments! And His ways are past finding out. Take our shoes off when we think about these things.

Romans 9, God's ways and His purpose with Pharaoh. We're going to concentrate on verses 15 through 21. Paul is teaching some major theology in this chapter to show us God. In fact, isn't that what the whole Bible is?

God in the whole Bible is showing us Himself. And here in Romans 9, He is showing us His sovereignty. Let's remind ourselves of the high points of Paul's teaching here. We read it. Go back to verse 15, and we're going to look down through the passage over the next few moments.

But I want to emphasize the major truths that Paul gives us here. First truth. First truth. God is not merciful to all. God is not merciful to all. Verse 15 and 16. For He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I want to have mercy upon, and I will have compassion on whomever I want to have compassion upon.

So then it is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who chooses to show mercy. God is not merciful to all. Now, in verse 15, Paul is quoting Exodus 33, verse 19, where God said this to Moses on the mount.

God said to Moses directly in Exodus, I will have mercy on whom I choose to have mercy upon, and I will have compassion. I will extend my compassion to those I choose to give my compassion to. God said that directly to Moses.

And the same thought continues here. Verse 18. Therefore, he has mercy on whom he wills. And verse 21. Has not the potter authority over the clay to make a vessel unto honor? A vessel of mercy. God does not choose to have mercy upon everyone.

Could He? Could God save everyone in New York City this afternoon? No problem. No sweat on the brow. No effort. God could do that. But the fact of the matter is, Paul is saying in Romans 9 that God does not choose to have mercy on everyone.

It's only upon some. It is faulty belief to think that God has to have mercy to all or to anyone simply because He's shown mercy to some. He doesn't. We must think clearly about God's attributes at this point.

God is always wise. God is always holy and powerful and true. But here in Romans 9, God is telling us that He is not always, in every situation, He's not always merciful. That is, He oftentimes shows mercy to some, but not to others.

He is by nature gracious and loving in His essence and in His being. But He is sovereignly free to extend that mercy to whom He chooses to. And we must recognize that. I will have mercy on whom I choose to have mercy to.

Christ’s Teaching on the Sovereignty of Free Mercy

The sovereignty of God's mercy. Now, the first sermon our Lord Jesus Christ preached preached after His anointing, His baptism, His baptism of the Spirit at Jordan, His going into the wilderness to be tempted.

He came out, the Bible says, He came out of the wilderness in the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit. He went to Nazareth and He preached the first time. Isaiah 61 was fulfilled. You know what He declared there in that first sermon?

The sovereignty of God's free mercy. He said there in Luke 4, there were many widows in Elijah's day, but Elijah was sent to none of them except one in Zarephath. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha, but none of them were cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.

You know what the Bible says in the next verse? When they heard that, they were filled with anger and rose up and put him out of the city. You know, Jesus is not the only preacher who has ever been put out of a place for preaching divine sovereignty, but He did at the beginning of His ministry.

God chose to have mercy upon one widow and one leper in those situations. He does not extend mercy to all, but only to some. Now, that's a major truth Paul is telling us when we want to understand God's sovereignty.

We must view Him that way if we want a right perspective and a right theology about this God that we worship and that we love. He does not show mercy to all. Second major truth Paul gives us here in verse 17, and it's this, God raised up Pharaoh sovereignly.

God Sovereignly Raised Up Pharaoh

God raised up the man Pharaoh sovereignly. Verse 17, God says to Pharaoh, and how did God say it to Pharaoh? Through the mouth of Moses. Moses stood before Pharaoh and out of his mouth came these words, God said to Pharaoh, for this purpose have I raised you up.

This phrase, I have raised you up, is an amazing phrase. It's not the idea of creation. Though we know God created him. It's not the idea of God creating Pharaoh or especially creating him for evil or that God made him evil.

That's not what it's saying. It's the idea that God took this lump of clay that was a part of all the fallen sons of Adam, all the fallen clay of Adam. God took this one piece of fallen clay and that God directed him and caused him to appear in this position and to be brought forward onto the stage of human events right at this particular moment.

Charles Hodge translated it this way, for this purpose I have raised you up and placed you where you are instead of cutting you off quickly. God raised up this man Pharaoh for his purposes. It's the idea that God was dealing with a fallen man who's already wicked and evil, fully intent on his own course and God takes this lump of clay, this potsherd named Pharaoh and placed him at that point in history to use him to fulfill God's purpose.

For this purpose, God told him, I have raised you up. Has not the potter power over the clay? That's the question. So the second major truth that just ought to be clear to us is that God sovereignly raised Pharaoh up.

Go back and read again with freshness and wonder Exodus 5 -14 and it's astounding how God sovereignly engineers and controls all things right down to the fact that when they came out of that land, all those millions, not a single dog barked and opened its mouth.

God was in such control of the whole event. Truth number three, God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Verse 17 -23, "...so then he has mercy on whom he will, and whom he wills he hardens.". Can God do that with a person?

The Hardening of Pharaoh’s Heart

It is the hardening that's the offensive thing, isn't it? Is this difficult for you this afternoon? Do you shy away and say in your heart, well, I don't like that. I can't understand it and I don't like to think about it.

I just want to leave that stuff in the Bible alone. That, dear friend, is spiritually fatal. It's dishonoring to God who's revealed the truth. Because you're saying that there are parts of God's Word and some truths that you don't care about knowing.

Let's face these things. We're not dealing with man's opinion or even Paul's opinion. It is God Himself who has said to us that this is what He does at times for His own purposes. This word hardens. It means to render one stubborn, who's already stubborn.

To cause one to progress in their resistance and in their stubbornness. Whom he wills, he hardens. Now, remember, God didn't create Pharaoh evil or make him wicked. It's the idea that God was dealing with a fallen lump of creation who is already wicked.

So God, for His purposes, chooses to actively render Pharaoh more obstinate, more stubborn, and causes him to be stubborn in refusing to let Israel go. God did that. God so worked upon and with Pharaoh to actively progress His hardness to bring about divine ends and divine purposes.

But here's where a difficulty comes in. The Bible says in Exodus 8 that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. It says it twice. Verse 15, Pharaoh hardened his heart. Verse 32, Pharaoh hardened his heart. How do we understand this?

Ask Charles Leiter at supper. Ask Paul tonight at the Q &A. Well, some say, well, God didn't really harden him. God simply backed off and allowed him to become what he naturally would have been. Well, there's a little problem with that.

Because the words used in Romans 9 and in Exodus are words that are active, not passive or permissive. It does not say that God allowed Pharaoh to harden his heart, simply permitting him to be what he would have been naturally, but that God actively progressed and worked on his heart to cause him to be more stubborn.

It's clear that God rendered Pharaoh more stubborn and obstinate and caused him to continue in his hardening. It's almost funny. After the Exodus and all the plagues have destroyed Egypt and all the firstborn are dead and they're out of the country, wouldn't you think the whole nation would just dance and shout for joy and say, man, they're finally gone.

But what does Pharaoh do? Suddenly, he says, what is this thing that I've done? I mean, it's like, well, duh. You've only gotten rid of your worst nightmare of all these weeks. What do you mean? What have you done?

And Pharaoh, then, his heart was turned to pursue him. God was actively controlling him. It's clear that God did it in Exodus and in Romans. The Scripture specifically puts the cause as God Himself for the hardening.

Now, also, another proof of that is that God already told Moses beforehand that he was going to do this. Exodus 4 .21, God says to Moses, but I will harden Pharaoh's heart so that he won't let you go.

God announces to Moses, here's my plan. Here's my M .O. I'm going to harden his heart and he's not going to let you go. Exodus 14, verse 4, same thing. I will harden Pharaoh's heart that he will follow after them.

Fulfillment of it, verse 8. And God hardened Pharaoh's heart and he pursued after the children of Israel. So question, did Pharaoh harden his own heart? Yes. Did God harden Pharaoh's heart? Yes. Both are equally true.

We don't have to reconcile them. Let them stand. It's true. Rejoice in it. Believe it. God hardened the heart of Pharaoh. Pharaoh hardened the heart of Pharaoh. God ordained and purposed that Pharaoh would be there at this point of history in order that through him God's attributes of justice and righteousness and great mercy would display to all the earth through the redemption of his people and the judgment of the Egyptians.

God got glory for himself upon Pharaoh. Now, you find the same thing in other scriptures, this thing of God hardening men at times for God's purposes. Psalm 105, verse 25, for instance. He turned their hearts, meaning the Egyptians.

He turned their hearts to hate his people and deal severely with them. God is not like you and me, folks. We wouldn't do that to people. Would you turn the hearts of the wicked in the Middle East to hate Americans and act severely toward us?

You wouldn't do that. We pray against it. And yet God at times does that. Romans 11, verse 8, Paul said, God has given them a spirit of slumber and stupor, eyes that should not see and ears that should not hear.

God does this at times with individuals. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, Paul speaking of those who would not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. Paul says this, For this reason God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie.

God’s Purpose in Hardening Pharaoh

Thus, Paul teaches us here, whom he wills, he hardens. Truth number four, God's purpose in hardening Pharaoh's heart. God's purpose. God had a purpose. He always does. God's purpose in hardening Pharaoh's heart was to display his own power and his own glory.

That was his purpose. Verse 17, For this very purpose have I raised you up, that I might show my power in you, so that my name might be declared in all the earth. Now there, he's quoting Exodus 9, verse 16 again.

And God says, For this purpose have I raised you up, that I might make my glory seen and known and displayed. Exodus 14 again, God tells Moses, I'm going to harden Pharaoh's heart so that he will pursue them and I will gain honor upon Pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord.

Romans 9, verse 22 says the same thing. What if God, strongly desiring to show and reveal his wrath and make his power known. That's his divine purpose in sovereignly dealing with people. It's not unclear.

It's not complex. It's clearly revealed here. God hardened Pharaoh in order to display his power and his glory in the redemption of his people. God extends at times hardening or he extends mercy and grace for his own glorious purpose.

And it's not about man. It's about his fulfilling his purpose in all of history. Such is God's sovereignty with Pharaoh. Now let's summarize this. Think back through it. Number one, God, Paul tells us, does not have mercy on all.

And it was God that raised up Pharaoh and put him where he was to be who he was for God's purpose. Then God, to display his justice and his glory, God rendered Pharaoh more stubborn and more stubborn so that he would not let the people go.

And God did that for the purpose of displaying his power. That Romans 9 passage is a clear display of the absolute sovereignty of God. He has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills, he hardens. Now, God works through history to show his attributes, doesn't he?

The Potter, the Clay, and God’s Justice

He has always done it. Because God is holy, his anger burns against sin. Because he's righteous, his judgments fall on the earth and upon those who rebel against him. Because he's faithful, the solemn threatenings and promises of his word are always fulfilled.

Always. Because he's omnipotent, none can successfully resist him. Because he's omniscient, no problem can even challenge his wisdom in any way. And because he's sovereign, he exercises his supremacy.

Now, when understood, does this truth, does it not produce a response in people's hearts? Usually one of two things. I love it. Or, I hate that. It's usually one of two. Those always arise up as philosophers and judges and say, either with their words or at least in their hearts, that isn't right, it's not fair, this is wrong.

If what is really being said, if I understood, if I heard you right, if that's what it means, no one can stand against God. Finally, what right does then he have to punish anyone? What right does God have to harden someone's heart or to send someone to hell?

God is unjust and unfair. Well, we know that Paul takes this up here in this passage, doesn't he? In 19 through 21. How does he do it? He does it by quoting Isaiah 45 verse 9. Woe to him who strives with his Maker!