The Riches of God's Glory 120819

Romans 9:14-24, What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 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 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?

Our passage begins with Paul asking a question in reply to people who are arguing with him about God choosing some and not others. When they say, "it is not fair!", Paul replies, "Is there injustice on God's part?". Then he quickly answers his own question, "By no means!" He then sets out to prove his answer. The Apostle uses God's reply to Moses and then God's treatment of Pharaoh to explain this simple fact, God may do as he chooses with his own creation. And, No, it is not fair! "Fair" would be far worse than reality.

"Fairness" is a human concept based on social standards not on the word of God. In order for God to be fair and all to be treated the same we would be in serious trouble. Because the condition of all mankind is the same! We all deserve death and hell and any variation from that is the mercy of God. If it were not for God's grace and goodness we would have no hope of life and peace. There is no injustice on God's part when he chooses to save some out of lost humanity. Paul begins his explanation with a story very familiar to his Jewish readers. The story was of a time in the wilderness when the people of God rebelled against him and set up an idol to worship. Turn with me to Exodus 32…

Moses was seeking God's glory.

Israel had rebelled. Exodus 32:7-10, And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”

As we read this account there are two or three things that stand out. God, instead of calling them his people, calls them Moses' people. Almost like when daddy comes home from work and mama begins her first sentence with, "Your son…" And you know that that is not going to be good for the boy in question. Then God says something very interesting. "Now therefore let me alone," something is going on between Moses and God even before this statement. Moses appears to be appealing to God on behalf of the people. Moses' intercession is an important part of his pastoral leadership of the congregation in the wilderness. A little further on we find Moses interceding for them…

Moses interceded for them. Read with me, Exodus 33:17, And 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.”

God's relationship with Moses is very intimate. First, he directly answers Moses' intercession with, "This very thing that you have spoken I will do," and the reason is given, "you have found favor in my sight," and, "I know you by name." I believe we can safely say that God knows all of us by name. But this is a special "knowing". Moses was chosen by God as part of the grand scheme of salvation. He was allowed to be raised in the house of Pharaoh, then stripped of all his honors, driven out of Egypt, spent 40 years raising sheep, then, and only then, was he called out to lead God's people. Every part of his life was preparatory to his being the leader of the Exodus of millions of people out of slavery into the freedom of God. Moses, like Abraham before him, and David after him was a man after God's own heart. If anyone had the right to ask God for a special manifestation of his glory it would have been Moses. But no one has that right. No one can do any more with God than to request and await his response in his wisdom. But Moses did ask something let's read on…

God's glory. Exodus 33:18-20, Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he 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. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”

Moses did say, "Please", and God did respond graciously. Moses was asking for more than a personal vision of God's glory. He wanted a manifestation of God's glory to all the people. He was not going to get that! God had already shown himself with the fire and thunder on top of the mountain. Now, he would not waste his glory on all Israel but he would show favor to his friend. He would show Moses what man can see but that is all. You see, God says here, "Man shall not see me and live." Instead, God had Moses stand in a certain place where he could be shielded from God's glory. Covered with God's hand, Moses would be protected as God passed by and then Moses could see God's "back". Not being a scholar in the Hebrew language, I cannot say exactly what this means, but I have been told it could mean the fading of God's glory.

God shows his glory to whom he chooses. He is God and will be gracious to whom he chooses to be gracious to and he will show mercy to whom he will show mercy. We have no rights to claim nor privileges. God is in charge!

Paul then moves on to another example, Pharaoh! You see…

Pharaoh as an example.

God had a purpose. Read with me, Exodus 9:13-14, Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.

We need to remember that God always has a purpose in everything that happens. Slavery in Egypt was part of God's plan. In speaking to Abram hundreds of years before the Exodus God plainly told him that his descendents would go into a land that is not theirs and be afflicted for 400 years. The land promised to Abram was occupied by the people generally called Canaanites and though they were ungodly people they were not yet bad enough to be removed by God. What he said to Abram was, "the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."

So, Joseph was sold into slavery, raised up to be the Prime Minister of Egypt, brought his family to join him and there they settled! Or if you want to think that way God parked them in Egypt until the people living in the promised land were evil enough to be destroyed. Had God been unjust there would have been no reason for Egypt and slavery. He could have just wiped out the people in Canaan and turned the land over to Abram and his descendents. That would have been unjust. He waited until their natural iniquity was evil enough and then called in his people. In the meantime several more things were happening. Israel grew to be a large nation disciplined and organized by slavery. At the right time God called them out. And he did it in such a way that the whole world would come to know about it. In our rebellious human nature we could say that using Egypt and Pharaoh like that was not fair and Pharaoh did not deserve what happened to him. Well, we need to remember that what we all deserve Pharaoh also deserved.

What Pharaoh deserved. Romans 3:23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, & 6:23, For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

These two verses speak to the condition of the human race. All have sinned! Not some — ALL! The Bible says there is none righteous no not one. The standard we are measured by is the glory of God and we fall short of it. Now, by comparing ourselves with someone else we might not look too bad. That is, if we choose carefully who we're going to compare with. But looking good in a human to human competition still leaves us in common danger. We all descend from Adam and Eve and as such we are all sinners. The wages, or pay, for sin is death. That is eternal separation from God. That is what we all deserve and that is what Pharaoh deserved. What he got was a little more complicated and drawn out on his way to death and hell.

What Pharaoh got. Let us look at three passages of Scripture, Exodus 7:3-4a, But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you.; 8:32, But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go. & 14:1-4, Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.

Nineteen times in the book of Exodus there is a reference to a hardened heart on the part of Pharaoh. It is easy to say that God caused Pharaoh to have a hard heart. Nothing could be further from the truth! Pharaoh had a hard heart. God did not have to give him a hard heart he simply worked with what he had. You see, God is over all, he is almighty, all-powerful and rules the universe. He can use evil to display his own glory. Romans 9:17 clearly says that God used Pharaoh to display his own glory. Quoting from D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, "God took Pharaoh as he was, and aggravated and accentuated what it was; he hardened his heart, in order to serve his own purpose."

The story goes this way. When Moses and Aaron approached Pharaoh and asked him to allow God's people go back to their land Pharaoh said, "No". In his hardened condition he made the work harder for the slaves and entered into a contest of wills with Jehovah God. Now, he could have been persuaded to give in at the first level and it would have been an historical event but it would not have been what God intended it to be. Ten times God confronted Pharaoh and the Egyptian magicians. Each time he defeated part of their religion. He thoroughly laid waste the land of Egypt in such a manner that it would have taken generations for them to recover. In the end he destroyed the standing army of Egypt and left the country open to its enemies. In the process he withdrew his people from slavery, molded them into a nation that could conquer their enemies and rule the land he had set aside for them.

Before crossing the Red Sea God called out the Egyptian Army and lead it into the Red Sea behind the nation of Israel. His announced purpose was, "and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord". We need to remember that God has a plan for all occasions. Let us look at part of…

God's sovereign purpose.

The potter and the clay. The example Paul uses in verses 20 and 21 is drawn from both Isaiah and Jeremiah. God sent Jeremiah to the potter's house to watch him work. It was a normal day at the potter's house and in the course of making a vessel from clay it was marred. The potter was not upset he simply reshaped it as he had done many many times before. Then God asked the question, "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done?" Then God went on to explain that he could pull a nation down or he could raise one up whenever he wanted to. Then he told that he was shaping disaster against them. He called on them to repent and return to him but they would not. Disaster soon came to pass.

Many have said that unless America soon returns to God a similar disaster will occur here. We need to remember that the events of the Old Testament unfolded over a period of time. God's patience and compassion carried men forward generation after generation. Thousands of years passed before his hand of destruction came upon the world.

Remember, God waited 400 years for the people in the land of Canaan to become sufficiently evil that he would destroy them. America has been a nation for less than 250 years. The rejection of God in our society and in our government, depending on which event you measure from, has only been going on for about 50 years. And for that number I use the Supreme Court case involving Madalyn Murray O'Hair resulting in the end of Bible reading and prayer in the public schools. Ten years later, in Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court opened the door to the approval of abortions resulting in the death of millions of unborn children. I wont even attempt to list all the other evidences of spiritual decline in America. The list goes on and on but the timeframe is very short compared to the biblical accounts of the decline and fall of God's people. God is sovereign and has a plan that includes America but I honestly can say I do not know how America fits into God's plan. In the midst of everything God has a way of taking care of his people. Remember…

God endured with patience. Read with me, 2 Peter 3:8-9, But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Paul reminds us that God endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. And now Peter shows us how indifferent God is to time. One day equals a thousand years; a thousand years equals a day. This is not a math problem or some kind of secret code to help you determine the end times. This is a simple statement of fact. No period of time has any effect on God.

Remember, God is love! In that beautiful description of love found in 1st Corinthians chapter 13 we find the first characteristic of love is this, "Love is patient".

Everything we know about God tells us that he is righteous and just but also loving, patient and kind. He placed man in the Garden of Eden, permitted him to sin and covered that sin. He could have ended it all then, but remember, mankind on earth is not a social experiment of a benevolent God. God had a purpose and a plan.

God had already taken into consideration Cain killing Abel. He knew Seth would be born and he knew that man would become more and more evil until it was time to destroy the earth with a flood. He knew that he would begin again with Noah, his three sons and their wives. He also knew that man would continue in his rebellion. From the very beginning he had seen a man in the land of Ur, whose father was a pagan idol maker, named Abram. He knew that that man would listen when he spoke and would leave his family and his human heritage to follow the Lord wherever he called. He would rename that man, "Abraham" and he would become the father of the faithful. He knew that Abraham's descendents would become slaves in Egypt and be led out with a mighty hand. He knew that those former slaves would conquer Canaan and build a kingdom. He knew that there would be a shepherd boy named David who would become king of Israel. And hundreds of years later he knew that a baby would be born who would be called "the Son of David". He knew that baby would be God himself, Immanuel, "God with us". He knew that that man would take the sins of the whole world on the cross so that mankind could have the opportunity of salvation. He persisted in patience because he had a plan of salvation. He did this…

In order to show his mercy. Read with me, Romans 2:4, Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

God's kindness is meant to lead man to repentance. There are many reasons why God tolerated evil for so long. One, it demonstrates his long-suffering, his compassion. Ezekiel 18:23, Reads like this, Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? Looking further into Ezekiel we find God saying, Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 33:11)

God's patience takes away man's excuse. The evidence of history is that man cannot save himself and it has been proved over and over again. In the final judgment man has no choice but admit that God was patient and long-suffering with the human race.

We should be amazed when we think that God saved any of us. What we deserve is death and hell! Instead, as Paul wrote to Titus, “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:3-7) Who are we to talk back to our Creator who has given us the riches of his glory?

All Scripture references are from, The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.