This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to day two of our daily drive time devotions through
the book of Romans chapter nine. We looked yesterday at the beginning of this
chapter of the Bible that some have called the most difficult chapter in all the
Bible to understand. It's difficult to understand because our logic can't get
around everything that's in here.

But as I said yesterday, it's also I think honoring to us that God would share
with us these truths. Truths that we can trust even though we can't totally
logically understand. Why can't we logically understand them?

Because they're too great for our minds. It's not that they're illogical. It's
because they're too great.

They're too big for us. They can be understood and seen in the mind of God. And
God trusts us with saying here's who I am and here's how I work.

Let me say that sentence again. And God trusts us by saying here's who I am and
here is how I work. Yesterday we took a look together at God's word and the fact
that we can rely on it because God is faithful.

There's another question that Paul asks in these difficult questions in Romans
chapter nine. Beginning in verse 14, going through verse 18, he asked the
question is God unjust? And this is not so much about God's word as it focuses
on God's character.

What kind of a God is this? In this chapter there are a lot of tough questions
and the solid answer is always I can trust God. We're going to take a look at the
fact that we can trust God's word, God's character, God's will, God's ways, all
of those things we can trust as we walk through these chapters.

You will never understand everything about God. But you can trust everything
about God. Now how can I trust what I don't understand?

Well you do it all the time. You probably don't totally understand electricity.
Even electrical engineers don't totally understand electricity, most of us
understand very little about electricity and yet we trust it all the time to
turn the light on and to work and to not electrocute us when we touch that
little switch.

You probably don't understand everything about your car and yet you trust it to
start every morning when you turn the key. If you happen to be driving on the
freeway right now you probably don't know a lot about the drivers that are
around you on the freeway yet you are trusting them not to swerve into you, not
to crash into your car. Maybe false trust but you're trusting them not to crash
into you.

You get on an elevator, you don't know how an elevator works yet you trust it to
take you to the 53rd floor. We trust things that we don't understand all of the
time. And honestly, most of our problems with not trusting God are not with what
we don't understand but what we do understand.

We do understand that if we're going to trust God our lives will change and that
can make it difficult to trust because we tend to get comfortable with where we
are and so it's hard to trust. We can't say, you know, the reason I don't trust
is I am unwilling to change and so we make up other reasons. I've done this,
I've talked to many people who have done this who are able to be intellectually
honest with themselves.

We find other excuses, other reasons to say we don't trust God. And in chapter
nine there are some of those reasons that people say they don't trust God. And
Paul in essence is saying, okay, let's deal with those other reasons because for
a few people they are the real reason that they have a hard time trusting and
because for the majority of us we need to get past these excuses, get them out
of the way so that we can deal with the real reasons.

I don't want to change the way I do my business practices. I don't want to change
the way that I think about sex. I don't want to change the way that I handle my
character life.

I don't want to change the kind of friends that I have. That's where it really
gets down to it. But behind all of that there are some very deep questions you
and I have to face in life about God and his character.

And in these verses Paul talks about the justice of God. Beginning in verse 14,
that question, is God unjust? The question of God's character.

He says, what then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all.

For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have
compassion on whom I have compassion. It does not therefore depend on man's
desire or effort but on God's mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, I raised
you up for this very purpose that I might display my power in you and that my
name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

Therefore, God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he
wants to harden. The question is about God's character, is God unjust? And Paul
says, no, no, no, God is not unjust.

God is merciful. He's a God of mercy. Now, why a statement about mercy following
right after a question about justice?

Because we want justice with mercy. If God dealt with us only with justice, we
would all be condemned. He deals with us with mercy because he's chosen to.

Yesterday we learned from Isaac some things about God's character and our
spiritual heritage. We learned from Jacob and Esau that it's not by our works
but by God's will, that he chooses us. And here we learn from Moses.

Here we learned that it depends on God's mercy, not our merit. That God has
chosen to have mercy on us is the reason we can know Christ. The truth is, it's
not a wonder that some are saved and some are not.

It's a wonder that anybody is saved at all. God did not have to send Jesus into
this world but he chose to. God did not have to offer a salvation but he chose
to.

That is simply mercy. I didn't deserve it. You didn't deserve it.

No one deserves it. But God chose it simply because of his mercy. That's a
fairly easy truth, I think.

As you look at that truth, I understand that. But then Paul begins to talk about
Pharaoh and he gets into some deep spiritual waters. From Pharaoh we learn, from
Pharaoh we learn this truth, that even man's resistance is used in God's plan.

Even man's resistance is used in God's plan. The scripture says to Pharaoh, "I
raised you up for this very purpose, "that I might display my power in you "and
that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. " And then the Bible tells us
that God hardens whom he wants to harden.

And he shows mercy to whom he wants to show mercy. We begin here to get into
these truths of God's sovereignty and man's choice. And the questions that
people have that revolve around these verses is, does that mean that Pharaoh had
no choice at all?

That he had to choose to not follow God? Well, of course not. That would disavow
many of the verses in the Bible where the scripture clearly tells us that God
has given us a choice by, earlier in the book of Romans, by everything that he's
made.

He's shown us who he is and gives every one of us a choice. So we're without
excuse. So these verses are not saying that Pharaoh was without a choice.

It's talking instead about the choices that Pharaoh made. And as God gave
Pharaoh opportunity after opportunity to choose him, Pharaoh in every
opportunity chose to abandon that opportunity to trust God and instead to settle
in on his own stubbornness. God hardened Pharaoh's heart and then he eventually
abandoned him to his own stubbornness.

It's a reminder that one of the ways that God punishes evil is to allow human
beings to do exactly what they want to do. If you take a close look at Exodus
chapter seven to 14, the story from the Old Testament of God's battle with
Pharaoh, or actually Pharaoh's battle with God. He's the one that lost.

You see that sometimes in those passages, it is Pharaoh who is the one who is
hardening his heart and others times the scripture says that it is God who is
hardening the heart of Pharaoh. But the fault, the choice is with Pharaoh. The
same sunlight that melts the ice can also harden the clay and his heart was
hardened because he chose against God and chose for his own stubbornness, his
own selfishness, his own self.

The point of this passage is not so much about Pharaoh or Moses or the stories
from the Old Testament. The point of this passage is about God and to bring out
for us who God really is. God is a God of mercy.

And the truth is, if God had not chosen to be merciful, apart from any choice of
mine, I would not be experiencing God's mercy. If I ever get the idea in my mind
that it was some choice of mine, that it was something that I did that caused
God to want to, to desire to be merciful to me, I have missed out on how deeply
I need the forgiveness and grace of Jesus Christ, but also I've missed out on
how deeply God loves me. Mercy is simply given by God's choice.

God has chosen to show mercy to us because of Jesus Christ. If you've not yet
accepted that mercy, you can accept that mercy because God is a God who is
merciful. And tomorrow we're going to take a look together at Romans chapter 19 to
23, continuing to look through these difficult truths of the scripture and we're
going to unwrap it just a little bit more.

I'm sure you're being left with some questions right now as we've talked about
Pharaoh. But as we close this time together, let's close by thanking God once
again for who he is. And then although we don't understand everything, he does.

And God who understands everything and sees it all has decided to be merciful to
us. Let's thank God for his mercy. Our Father, we thank you for the mercy that
you've shown us in Jesus Christ.

You are a merciful God. You are a God who has decided, even though you would
have been within your rights, it would have been just for us to be punished for
our sins, not just individually, but as an entire human race. God, you decided
instead to show us mercy and you provided a way.

You sent your son so that we could get to know you, so that we could experience
your forgiveness and not only experience your mercy in this planet, in this
earth, but also experience it all the way out into eternity. God, thank you. We
do not believe we deserve your mercy.

And so we are grateful. We are thankful for your mercy. Help me to live today as
a person who's experienced your mercy and is grateful.

In Jesus' name, amen.