Paul declares God’s Sovereign Will with Man on the
Earth, 2nd Why does God find Fault?
Romans
9:19-21 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has
resisted His will?” But indeed, O 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?” Does not the Potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make
one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? NKJV
Paul now confronts the second objection that he no
doubt heard made of God the Father on numerous occasions by Jews and Gentiles.
Paul just finished saying in verse 18 that God the Father will have mercy on
whom He wills or desires and He will harden also whom He wills or desires, but
we closed the last study by concluding that God the Father only gives to each soul
what it is that the soul desires. The men and women left hardened in their sin
and rebellion are those who choose or desire to remain hardened and
consequently God the Father obliges them by withholding His Grace from them
which is the only source in the entire Universe to lift them out of their enslavement
to sin and lawlessness. This brings us to the question Paul must have
confronted at many turns doing his missionary trips. Why does God find Fault
with sinful man? Why doesn’t God just save everyone seeing that we all are
sinners in His Sight? If He is God who can resist Him? Paul being a good
disciple, pupil, student, or learner and taking a lesson from our Lord Jesus
Christ answers these questions with one of his own. Paul wants those who would
question God’s Sovereign Will in the matter of salvation to some and damnation
to others to see the futility in even entertaining such thoughts.
Man is the product of God’s Creation made by God for
Himself and without God man would not even exist in His Universe (Genesis 1:26-27). It is utter
foolishness for the finite which means limited (man) to question the infinite
which means unlimited (God). Personally I often like to say to people who
question God as I witness to them (if we are outside, day or night) to look up
and see how large and great the sky above us is and then to look at us way down
here and how small and puny we are in comparison. I say the One who created all
of this must be huge and mighty and magnificently powerful. It would be like a
tiny ant looking up to an elephant and shaking his puny fist in the elephants
face defiantly when the elephant only has to take one little step and obliterate
the ant. So it is with man vs. God or Israel vs. God for we are the ant and He
is the Elephant who only has to step and wipe man off of His Earth. Who are we
to question God or Who is Israel to question God? It is God who made man and
chose Israel and it is God who decides which men and women (since all are
guilty of sin) will He give power to become His children and live with Him
forever (John 1:10-13).
God is the Potter and man is the clay and only the
true believers (Jew or Gentile) are vessels of honor while those who reject,
refuse, or resist in unbelief are the vessels of dishonor (Isaiah 45:5-9). This earth is the great house that God the Father
has created for Himself and also created man and some in His Great House are
vessels of honor while the other vessels of dishonor. Listen to what our Lord
Jesus Christ said in the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard when at the end
of the story one of the hired hands who worked all day in the sun complained
that the men who worked only part of the day should not get paid the same denarius
as they did and this is what the owner of the Vineyard in the Parable said, Matthew 20:15 “Is
it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil
because I am good?” NKJV The will of every individual man or woman
is never coerced or overpowered or forced by God the Father to believe the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and neither was the Nation Israel forced to
believe that Jesus Christ was the True Messiah because forced love is not love
at all, it would be an aberration of love.
Isaiah
29:15-16 Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the LORD,
And their works are in the dark; They say, “Who sees us?” and, “Who knows us?” Surely
you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; For
shall the thing made say of him who made it, “He did not make me”? Or shall the
thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”? NKJV
Daniel
4:35 All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does
according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, “What have You done?”
NKJV
Romans 9:22-24 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to 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 had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? NKJV
Paul now makes a remarkable point that I dare say none
of the Old Testament greats like King David or Joseph would have comprehended
because David was hounded by King Saul having to hide in the rocks and caves
for 13 years fleeing for his life. Joseph likewise was despised and hated by
his own brothers and sold into slavery and spent 13 years in either slavery or
in prison falsely accused. Paul says that God the Father has revealed to him
(remember what Peter wrote of Paul, 2
Peter 3:16) that He knowing the vessels of dishonor even before He founded
the world bears with them to the point of showing His Sovereign Power by using
them that will never receive His Grace and Mercy to accomplish all of His
Divine Will on the earth, as we demonstrated in the previous study with the
Pharaoh of Egypt who was one of those vessels of dishonor used by God the
Father to show to the entire Nation of Egypt the futility of their vain idol
worship compared to Him the One and Only True God. The Egyptians were brought
to the truth that their false gods were just that false and no gods at all and no
match to the One True God (Exodus 11:8).
Remember the words of our Lord Jesus when He said, Matthew 5:44-45 “But I say to you, love your
enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for
those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your
Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and
sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” NKJV
Our Lord suffers long with the vessels of wickedness
prepared for His Wrath and requires us to do likewise even though it is hard
and difficult for us, but Paul in this passage says that God the Father and our
Lord also bear with them with patience giving them time on the earth and still
being good to them while they remain in time, knowing that they are prepared
for damnation. Our Lord suffers because these are some of the human instruments
(goats) used by His adversary (the devil) to harass and persecute us His little
children or sheep in His pasture. It is the reception of grace that we receive
that redeems us from our slavery to sin that distinguishes us as His vessels of
mercy because sin is humanities greatest enemy (Colossians 1:27). Therefore, to receive from God the Father through
the Death, Burial, and Resurrection from the Dead God the Son by the Power of
God the Holy Spirit this great gift of salvation by grace through faith freely
given to us without any merit within us at all is to know the riches of His
Glory to us His adopted children, Jew and Gentile equally (1 Thessalonians 5:9 & 1 Peter 2:9-10). Finally, Paul backs up
all he has said in Romans 14-24 by
quoting these following Old Testament Prophets for Israel’s Rejection and the
Gentiles reception by God was long ago foretold:
First Hosea said, Romans 9:25-26 “I will call them My
people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved.” “And it shall come to pass in the place where
it was said to them, ‘You
are not My people,’ There they shall be called sons of the living
God.” NKJV
Finally
Isaiah says the following as he cries out concerning Israel, Romans 9:27-29 “Though
the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, The
remnant will be saved. For He will finish the work and cut it
short in righteousness, Because the LORD will make a short work upon the
earth.” “Unless
the LORD of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We would have become like Sodom, And we
would have been made like Gomorrah.” NKJV
“The
eternal damnation of sinners will be an abundant demonstration of the power of
God; for He will act in it Himself immediately, His wrath preying as it were
upon guilty consciences, and His arm stretched out totally to destroy their
well-being, and yet at the same instant wonderfully to preserve the being of
the creature. In order to this, God endured them with much long-suffering
- exercised a great deal of patience towards them, let them alone to fill up
the measure of sin, to grow till they were ripe for ruin, and so they became fitted
for destruction, fitted by their own sin and self-hardening. The reigning
corruptions and wickedness of the soul are its preparedness and disposedness
for hell: a soul is hereby made combustible matter, fit for the flames of hell.”
Matthew Henry
“God
the Father has left Himself a small portion amongst the Jewish Nation and He is
presently calling out a people (by proclamation of the gospel) for Himself from
amongst us Gentiles who will be vessels of honor He molds and shapes for His
Glory, while at the same time the majority of Israel will perish in unbelief
and there will be a large portion of Gentiles that will remain vessels of
dishonor still holding on to their sin (John 5:40).” Clifford D. Tate,
Sr.
If you do not
know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your
heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus,
I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You
shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead
proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my
sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my
life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...
Sincerely
in Christ,
Author
of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and
Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into
Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s
Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod,
Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners,
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