This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to day three of our look together through Romans chapter nine. Today
we're going to be looking together at verses 19 to 23 of this incredible
chapter. I'm sure that by now three days in you're scratching your head a little
bit thinking "Wow, I do not understand everything that's in this chapter.

" Listen, there have been tens of centuries of Christians who've tried to figure
out everything in this chapter and still have not been able to explain it all.
So obviously in ten minutes we're not going to be able to explain everything or
figure it all out. But here's the goal.

The goal is this as we walk through Romans chapter nine. Goal number one is to
look at the character, the awesome character of God. Because this chapter raises
up for us, helps us to focus on the greatness of God.

Do not miss the greatness of God in your questions. Let your questions drive you
to God's greatness instead of missing his greatness. The other goal that we have
as we walk through this is to think together about these questions that are
asked.

Paul is unafraid to ask tough questions in this chapter. So don't be afraid to
ask tough questions. But then don't be afraid to listen for God's answers.

Sometimes when we ask tough questions we want our answers. No? Here's the tough
question and here is God's answer.

So another tough question beginning in verse 19. Paul writes, "One of you will
say to me, 'Then why does God still blame us for who resists his will? '" You
see what he's asking in this verse.

He's saying if we can't resist his will, if it's all depending on God's mercy,
God's will for his mercy, then how could he say to anyone, 'You are condemned.
You are separated from me because you have not chosen me. ' Who resists his
will?

Well, here's Paul's answer beginning in verse 20, "But who are you, O man, to
talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you
make me like this? ' Does the potter have the right to make out of the same lump
of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?

'" Here's this question. Why does God blame us? And Paul has an answer.

It's not a question of blame, he says. It's a question of sovereignty, of God's
power, the fact that God is in control. The answer to this dilemma, who resists
his will, is to recognize who you are and to recognize who God is.

You are a creation of God. God is the creator. The picture here is you are the
clay and God is the potter.

Paul's answer reveals that many of the problems that we come up with in our
minds with these unsolvable dilemmas arise when our image of God is distorted.
If I get the right image of who God is, if I work on that, then even though
these questions are tough, there's a spiritual sense to them that helps me to
see, "Oh, this is what this means. " If my image of God is distorted, if I don't
see him for who he really is, then when you ask these kind of tough questions,
you come up with bad answers.

So what do you do? You work on your image of God. Who are you and who is God?

First, he says, "Who are you to talk back to God? " Well, that says something
about me and that says something about God. God's in control.

I can trust God. All the time I hear people, I talk to people who somehow feel
like it's effective to talk back to God as if their anger at God is somehow
going to accomplish something in their lives and in the world. God's a loving
father and he understands our anger and he's patient with it.

If you've talked to God in that kind of way, he is patient with your anger. But
at some point, the anger has to be worn out and you have to come to the
realization, "I am the creation and God is the creator and either I can trust
him or I cannot. " You can trust him.

You can trust him. He also asks in these verses, "Shall what is form say, 'Why
did you make me like this? '" I find a lot of people asking that question.

Why did God make me like this? Why am I this tall? Why am I this short?

Why do I have this ability? Why don't I have this ability? Why was I even born
in this place?

God is in control. And once I settle that, once I get the distortion out of
that, then I'm able to better see how God wants to work in my life. You can
spend the rest of your life beating yourself up against the truth that you're
not all that you would want to be, but no one is in this world.

You can focus on yourself and see what's lacking or you can focus on God and see
what is there. He talks about the potter and the clay. Does the potter have the
right to form the clay?

Well, of course, and God has the right to work in our lives. These are personal
questions with personal answers, but he's also talking about a deeply
theological truth here. Why does God blame us?

This is all about God's will. So look very closely with me at verses 22 to 23.
These are verses that are easily confused and that when understood can lead you
to understand the greatness, the sovereignty, the power of God.

Let me read those verses, 22 and 23. What if God, choosing to show his wrath and
make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath prepared
for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to
the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory, even us, whom
he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

In these verses he talks about objects of wrath and objects of mercy. He says
those who are objects of wrath make God's power known, those who are objects of
mercy make God's glory known. What bothers us is that everyone is not an object
of mercy, that everyone doesn't experience God's mercy and go to be with him
forever in heaven.

That's what we all want. That's what God wants, I believe. The Bible tells us in
Timothy that Jesus came and gave his life for all so that all could come to know
him.

That's God's desire for all to come to know him, but it's not everyone's choice.
There is an implication in these verses, 22 and 23, that God's patience with
these objects of wrath not only delays the judgment, it also keeps the door of
opportunity open even longer. But, by keeping the door of opportunity open, it
also makes the ultimate judgment, the ultimate outpouring of his wrath even more
dreadful when it comes.

There's just an indication of that in these verses. In the mind of God, I don't
know how to figure all that out, neither do you. No one does.

But, I do know that he talks in these verses about some who are prepared for
destruction and others that he has prepared for glory. It's interesting to me
that he does the preparing for glory, but when it talks about preparing for
destruction, that verb that's used there is used in a voice in the Greek
language that means fitted for. They're fitted for destruction.

The middle voice that's used in has the idea that not only is God creating this
lump of clay, but they are also choosing. Pharaoh fitted himself for destruction
by his choices, but God also fitted him for that place that he wanted to use him
in human history. This bothers us as human beings because we think somehow it
means God is sitting up in heaven playing chess with our lives and that we're
all pawns.

When we think that way, we're missing the point. We're missing the reality of
who God is. God made us.

He doesn't treat us as pawns. He made us in his image. He created us with this
ability to choose.

If he wanted us to be pawns, he could have made us that way, but he did not make
us that way. God made us with this ability to choose. No doubt about that, but
that does not take away the fact that God is totally, absolutely sovereign.

And if we're honest, we don't always like that. For some of us, the word
sovereignty is always connected with tyranny. We don't trust anyone who has that
kind of ultimate power.

The very Constitution of the United States is based on the presumption that no
one should have ultimate power. No one can be trusted with ultimate power. Well
God can.

No human being can be trusted with ultimate power. We are imperfect. God can be
trusted.

He is perfect. He is the imperfect being in all the universe. So when you read
verses like verses 22 and 23, and your mind begins to think, well, does this
mean that God somehow created people intending to punish them, intending to
destroy them?

Well, of course not. It's clear from the book of Genesis on that God's creation
of us was to have a relationship with us. But these verses remind us that even
those that have chosen not to relate to him, even those that stubbornly refuse
him, God uses even those people in his plan.

He knew it would happen from the beginning. He chose for it to happen. That's
the greatness of God.

He doesn't take away our choice. But that does not mean he also lets us have
control. God is sovereign.

God is in control. That is the focus of these verses. It's interesting as I read
through this chapter, if I focus on all the questions about how things have
happened in human history, I end up scratching my head.

But as soon as I lift my eyes above human history and focus on God and who he
is, I see what this chapter is all about. God is a God whose word can be
trusted. I can trust his promises.

He is faithful. God is a God who is a God of mercy. He has chosen to give us
mercy.

I can count on that. Because mercy is not dependent on my choice, it's dependent
on his. And because it's dependent on his choice, it'll never be taken away.

And God is a God who is sovereign. He is in control. So let's thank him right
now in prayer that he's in control.

God thank you that you're in control this day. We're looking at human history.
We're looking at centuries.

But the truth is you're in control of every day. So whatever I'm facing today, I
thank you that you're in control. However out of control I might feel, I thank
you that you are in control.

However else I might feel that some other person is in control. The truth is
God, in the end, you are in control. And so I choose to rest in that truth.

I choose to trust in that truth. I choose to follow you. God thank you that you
can be trusted.

I thank you that as a God who has made me, created me, formed me, fashioned me,
you are a God that I can trust with each day of my life. I trust you with this
day of my life. In Jesus' name, amen.

Tomorrow we're going to take a closer look together at this question of God's
sovereignty and our choice, our free will.