WWUTT 1296 I Will Have Mercy on Whom I Have Mercy (Romans 9:14-15)

God has chosen to save some by His mercy and His grace and His love, and others

He has reserved for destruction to demonstrate the full range of His glory when we understand the text.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of Romans 9, and today we're going to begin reading in verse 14 and go through verse 24.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, 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 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 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. We return to this beautiful chapter regarding the sovereignty of our

Lord God, His having chosen some for righteousness, but hardening others reserved for destruction.

In verse 14, What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part by no means?

And this is immediately following the apologetic that Paul has laid out regarding those whom

God has chosen for salvation. Anyone who is saved, anyone who has fellowship with God, God has chosen from sinful man to bring those persons to himself.

All of mankind is fallen. All of mankind is deserving of the judgment of God. But God has chosen some that He might show the full range of His glory by reserving those for His mercy and His love and His grace.

And then there are others who remain under His wrath. And frankly, that's going to be the majority of mankind.

Though God is certainly merciful and gracious, those who are saved are going to be few compared to those who go to destruction.

Because we are fallen, we have a sin nature that rebels against God.

That's the way we are from the moment of our birth, because we have been descended from Adam and we have inherited his sin nature.

So we do what we only know in our nature to do, and that is to rebel against God, to not look after God, but to look after ourselves, to not obey

God's word, but to go after our own passions and our own desires. And all of mankind, made in the image of God, who blaspheme

God in this way by exalting their own glory instead of praising the glory of God, we are all worthy of the judgment of God.

But God, by His grace, is saving some for His own glory.

And if you have come to salvation in Christ, all glory goes to God. It is not because you did anything, but because God has chosen you.

Now, the example of God's choosing that Paul has used so far has come strictly from Israel.

We've talked about Abraham. We've talked about Isaac. We've talked about Jacob. We ended with that statement in verse 13, as it is written,

Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. We tend to bristle at the fact that God would ever hate anybody.

But the reality is that all of us are under God's judgment, that God would love anybody is really where we should be asking the question.

Not why would God, who is love, hate anybody? No, the real question is, why would God choose to save anyone at all?

See, we think in terms of why would God hate anybody? Because we think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think.

We think of ourselves as being better than we really are, that we're good people, that we can be holy and righteous if we just concentrate hard enough to decide to do good things.

But if you do good things that is not to the honor and praise of God, then you are self -righteous.

You're pursuing your own righteousness. And compared to God's holiness, it's really no holiness at all.

A verse that I've quoted to you many times is Isaiah 64, 6, where it says, even our best deeds are as filthy rags before a holy

God, even the best things that we do. So we cannot do anything to earn fellowship with God.

He's not going to receive us into heaven and go, oh, you did so well helping your neighbor or that lady across the street, you know, something to that effect.

That's not going to be what God is going to say. The righteousness by which we enter the kingdom of God is not ours but Christ's.

And by believing in Jesus, we receive his righteousness. And receiving his righteousness, we have fellowship with God.

We have adoption that we've talked about in Romans 8. We have the sanctification that we are receiving as we're growing in holiness and righteousness.

We are justified. And on that day that we enter into the kingdom of God, we will experience being glorified as well.

And all of this by God's choosing, and it's all to his glory.

So what's shocking here is not that God has hated Esau. The shocking thing is that God has chosen to love

Jacob. And that love, that choosing to love, has been demonstrated through this succession that Paul has laid out.

First to Abraham. And not all who are children of Abraham are his offspring.

But through Isaac shall your offspring be named. So Isaac is the child of promise. Between Isaac and Ishmael, though Isaac was not the firstborn, yet he is the one that God had chosen.

And through the line of Isaac would eventually come the Savior. Isaac and Rebekah had two sons, and they were

Jacob and Esau. But the older would serve the younger. Jacob, who was born, they were twins, but he was born after Esau.

God's favor was upon Jacob, though they had not done anything good or bad.

As it says in verse 11, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad.

In order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger.

As it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. So here's what we're having laid out here.

God having chosen for himself whom he would save and whom he would not save and would therefore go to destruction.

So then on verse 14 we say, what shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part?

If he's choosing whom he will save and he's going to destroy the rest, then isn't

God being unjust? He's choosing to hate Esau before Esau is even born and has done anything good or bad.

But he's putting favor on Jacob and hatred on Esau. Does that not make

God unjust? By no means. We have in Romans 9 14, my good

Noita in the Greek, which is the strongest statement of refusal that Paul can make.

Verse 15 for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom

I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. This comes from Exodus 33 19 and this is before God passes in front of Moses to demonstrate his glory to Moses.

Are you seeing the connection now? So God is showing the full range of his glory by choosing to save some and destroy others.

You have the glory of God demonstrated in his mercy and his love and his grace to those whom he has chosen to save and his wrath and his judgment and fury, the glory of God, even in these things upon those whom he has chosen to destroy.

And he does this all in righteousness and in holiness. Those who are destroyed are unrighteous.

They are unholy. Remember back to Romans 3, they have made themselves worthless because they blasphemed

God in whose very image they were made. And I don't mean to say this in categories in terms of like, exalt yourself because you're saved and snub your nose at those who are going to be destroyed.

You were worthy of that destruction. You were there. You were walking in the same sin and foolishness that the rest of the world was walking in.

There is never been a person who is known sinlessness except Jesus from the moment of his conception.

He was perfect. He was spotless because he wasn't conceived of the seed of man.

He was conceived of the Holy Spirit. And so when he was born, when he walked sinlessly because he was sinless, though he was tempted, he did not transgress.

He kept the law of God perfectly. And he did so even on our behalf so that he might be the perfect lamb for a sacrifice that all who believes in him who was sacrificed on the cross for our sins, we have our sins forgiven.

The righteousness of Christ transferred to us, imputed to us and our sin and unrighteousness has been imputed to Christ so that he perished in our place.

He took the wrath of God upon himself in our place. His body died.

It came to destruction. But then as he said in his dying words into your hands,

I commit my spirit and God received the sacrifice of his son for us so that all who believe in him would be saved.

We are saved from the judgment of God that is coming against all the unrighteousness of men. We would have perished with all the other unrighteous men.

If it not were the fact that God had chosen us for salvation, God intervened.

And by his doing, we are saved. Everyone is sinned. All have fallen short of the glory of God, but we are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

So God's glory is demonstrated in his mercy and also in his wrath.

When we are talking about the glory of God in his mercy, God was about to show his glory to Moses.

And he says to him, Romans nine 15, for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom

I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. And again, this is from Exodus 33.

And what's happened in what's happened in Exodus up to this point is, of course, God had given the law to Israel.

Israel responded to hearing the voice of God from the mountain. They couldn't stand to hear the voice and see the presence of God descend upon Mount Sinai.

And so they made this deal with Moses. Hey, let's go back to this thing where you go talk to God and you tell us what

God said, because this is terrifying and we can't stand it. God's voice is literally going to melt our brains out of our skulls.

And so Moses goes up to the mountain to talk with God. He receives the law.

And when it ends up happening down at the bottom of the mountain is they don't even think Moses is coming, is coming back.

He's gone up to the mountain and he's been consumed in the fire of God because we knew that we couldn't stand in that presence.

And so we need to make for ourselves gods to worship that are a little easier for us, a little easier on the eyes, a little easier on the senses.

And they gave their gold to Aaron, the gold that they left Egypt with.

This is what they plundered Egypt for. And they gave that gold to Aaron who melted it down and came up with this golden calf.

And they started worshiping the golden calf. And Aaron even presented it to the Israelites as, behold, your gods who led you out of the land of Egypt, giving the glory of God to created things.

They worshiped the created rather than the creator. Just as Paul had said earlier back in Romans chapter one.

And so because this had happened, God said that he was going to destroy Israel and he would make

Moses into a great nation. But Moses interceded for Israel.

Moses said to the Lord, this is Exodus 33, 12. See, you say to me, bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me.

Yet you have said, I know you by my name and you have also found favor in my sight. Now, therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight.

Consider too that this nation is your people. God has said that he's going to destroy

Israel so that he could perfect Moses as their intercessor. Verse 14.

And he said, my presence will go with you and I will give you rest, God says to Moses.

And Moses said to him, if your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.

For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight? I and your people.

Is it not in your going with us so that we are distinct, I and your people from every other people on the face of the earth?

What makes us distinct from every other people on earth is what Moses is saying to God. Is it not because you are with us?

That's what makes us distinct. That's what makes us holy. It's because God is with us.

Of course, God knows that. Moses is not telling God anything that he does not know.

But Moses being perfected is an intercessor for the people of God. And this even a type of the one who was to come.

Jesus, who is the greater Moses, according to the book of Hebrews. So all of this is even foreshadowing the coming of Christ, who intercedes for us before the father.

And so Moses is interceding for the people of Israel before God. And he says, what makes us different from every other people on earth is because God is with us.

God has chosen us out of every other people on earth. And my friends, as Christians, as followers of Jesus, that's the same for us as well.

What makes us different than every other people on earth? What makes you different from the people among whom you live in the culture in which you exist?

It is God. It is your faith in Jesus and his righteousness that has been given to you.

So you might live in a Christ -like way, even among this people that you dwell within.

You are set apart. And as it says in 1 Peter 2 .9, you are a holy nation, a chosen race that has been called out from all the other people on earth to be holy and consecrated unto

Christ. You are part of his church for whom he died and is purifying, sanctifying for the day of glory.

It is because Jesus is with us. That is what makes you different from the people among whom you live.

And again, all this is to God's glory. That doesn't mean you walk outside your house this morning and you thump your chest and you go, oh, how great

I am because I'm different than all of you. No, you probably live in the same looking house that all the people on your street live on.

By the eyes, it doesn't really look to many people at all that you're all that different. But then it's going to be in our behavior.

It's going to be in our righteousness, in our desire to live in a godly way, in a

Christ -like way, in our words, in our actions. It's in these things that people are going to see.

There's something different about that guy. There's something different about that woman, this person.

They're different because they serve the God of heaven instead of the

God of this world. What sets us apart is Christ. Moses comes to recognize that.

And in Exodus 33, 17, the Lord said to Moses, this very thing that you have spoken,

I will do for you have found favor in my sight. And I know you by name.

Moses said, please show me your glory. And God said, I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, the

Lord. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom

I will show mercy. Now, that's slightly different than the statement that we have it in Romans 9, 15, where it says,

I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. In the

Exodus 33, 19 verse, it doesn't use the word compassion. It says, I will be gracious and I will show mercy.

Why the difference? Because Moses was quoted was quoting from the Septuagint, which is the

Greek translation of the Old Testament. And in the Greek translation, this is the way that it comes out the way that we read it in Romans 9, 15.

We have an Old Testament that has been translated from Hebrew so that we're getting as close to the original documents as we possibly can get.

And so in the English translation of the Hebrew, it comes out,

I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Let me finish up Exodus 33, and there's something else

I want to mention about this verse in Romans 9 as well. So going on to verse 20, but God said, you cannot see my face for man shall not see me and live.

And the Lord said, behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock. And 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.

And then when we go on to Exodus 34, God passes in front of Moses and proclaims his own glory by saying, the

Lord, the Lord, 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.

And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. And he said, if now I have found favor in your sight,

O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us. For it is a stiff -necked people and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for your inheritance.

We as the church are the inheritance of Christ and we have a glory that is even greater than the glory of Moses.

For as Moses came down off the mountain, his face was shining since he had been in the presence of God. A veil had to cover his face, but eventually that shining went away.

The glory that we have in Christ endures forever. And this is a point that Paul made with the

Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 3, 12. Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses who would put a veil over his face so that the

Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened for to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted because only through Christ is it taken away.

Yes, to this day, whenever Moses has read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the

Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

And we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

For this comes from the Lord who is the spirit. Amen to that.

This is the glory that we receive in Christ Jesus. And we are being transformed all the more into his likeness as we grow into sanctification until we join him in glory forevermore.

I said there was one more thing that I wanted to mention about this phrase that we have in Romans 9, 15. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom

I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. You know, really these words, mercy and compassion are verbs here.

They're not nouns, they're verbs. In the Greek is what I'm saying. They're written as verbs.

So it's actually I will mercy whom I mercy. And I will compassion whom

I compassion. God's showing his goodness to us by his will and not our own.

And praise God for that. Because if left up to our will, we would never know the glory of God through his mercy, grace, and forgiveness.

We would only know the glory of God in the justice and judgment and wrath that is going to be poured out on all who have done wickedly instead of loved

Christ. We only know the mercy and grace of God because he has willed to give it to us, to mercy us, to compassion us.

And we have these things in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you.

Thank you for this salvation. And may we never think too highly of ourselves but giving all glory to God.

May we never think that we've done anything to earn this or that you owe us something somehow because we did something in a right way.

You have shown your mercy to us that your name would be praised and your glory would be proclaimed.

We do so today in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the

Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website www .wutt

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