Well, this sermon is for anyone who has an objection to God's doctrine of Election, maybe you don't have an objection; you're just confused. What does this mean that God is choosing?
And I want to invite you to open your Bible and turn with me to Romans, chapter 9, and I want you to see that in Romans 9:11, we looked at this last week, God has a purpose of election, God is choosing to set his love on his people. And how does that really work? We got to this line, Jacob I loved, Esau I hated. What does that mean? And so, that might be where the objection comes in. And so, let's look at it together. We want to address this question that a lot of people have about God's election. And Paul is anticipating that there would be an objection to what he just said, Jacob I loved, Esau I hated. And he addresses this objection in Romans 9:14-18. That's the text we're going to look at together. And so, this could be a very exciting day if you feel like I've never really understood what that means that God is choosing his people, that he's electing them. Well, we're going to really get into that right now. And out of respect for God's Word, I'm going to ask if we would all stand up for the public reading of Scripture. And I'm going to ask you if you would give this your full and undivided attention because this is the Word of God. I’ll read our text for us. Romans, chapter 9, verses 14 to 18. Please follow along as I read.
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.
That's the reading of God's word. Please go ahead and have your seat. So, as we're going through Romans 9, and this idea that God chose the Jews, and then how does that work out where God has chosen people to be saved? Well, there's these statements that kind of raise a bunch of questions, these statements that are hard for us to understand one of them. We saw in Romans 9:13, what do you mean that you love Jacob, but you hated Esau? And so, we had to dive into that we're not talking about Jacob and Esau necessarily when they're babies? No, these are two nations of people. And God chooses Israel to be his people. And Esau becomes Edom, who are the rivals of Israel. And so yeah, one of them is God's people. One of them is not. And maybe you feel that same way at verse 18, where it's like, What do you mean God's giving mercy to some, but he's hardening other people? That makes me feel uncomfortable. I'm not sure about that. I object.
Well, before we even get into it, will you turn with me to 2 Peter, chapter 3. Paul, Paul is writing Romans. Romans is Paul's masterclass on the gospel. And Paul understands some people might have a hard time with this. So, he's going to really explain it to us, and Peter, he says something in 2 Peter 3:15 that I want all of us to look at. Because Peter, when he's writing here, he actually talks about Paul's letters, and Romans is perhaps Paul's most famous letter. So, we could be referring to Romans, but he's definitely referring to Paul's writings here in 2 Peter 3:15, where Peter, he's been talking about the new heavens, the new earth, and he says, “Count the patience of Our Lord as salvation.” The fact that God is long suffering with sinners, and that Jesus hasn't come back yet so more people can get saved, more people can repent. And then he says this in middle of verse 15, “just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you, according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand.” Here's Peter, basically saying, Yeah, have you read Paul's stuff? Yes, some of that stuff is tough, right. Some of it is hard to understand. And then he gives a real strong warning here, “which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction.” It makes sense that when you read the Bible, you're going to come across things that are hard to understand. Because the Bible is revealing to us who God is, and God's ways are higher than our ways. Can I get an amen from everybody on that? God's wisdom is beyond our comprehension. And so yeah, God, if we're talking about the things of God, some of that might be hard for us to understand. Well, let's make sure we don't then twist it. That's what he warns us here. And then he says this, “they twist it to their own destruction, as they do the other Scripture.” So, I love this. Peter is affirming that Paul's letters are Scripture. And even in Scripture, just because you open the Bible and read, it doesn't mean that you're all going to get it right away. No, some of it might be hard to understand. And that's the kind of passage we have come across.
We're here to talk today about God's ways, and God's name being proclaimed in all the earth. And you might have questions, you might even have an objection. Well, let's go back to Romans 9. And let's try to make sure we really get what Paul is saying. And Paul brings up then a question that people might have, because when he says, “Jacob I loved, Esau I hated,” quoting Malachi chapter 1, where he goes, right in verse 14, “What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part?” And then he gives a strong answer here, “by no means.” So, he's ready to see your question. He's ready to answer your question. But he just wants you to know, if you're trying to say that God is doing something wrong in his election, that's not what's happening.
And so, if you if you do have the handout there in the bulletin, and you're ready to take some notes, we want to start with the objection. And the objection is this question, “Is God unrighteous?” That's the question, is God doing something wrong in this work of his purpose of election? Is it wrong for God to choose Jacob? Is it wrong for God to give mercy to some people and other people get hardened? Is God not doing what is right? That's maybe a question that come to your mind. That's the objection that Paul is going to address. And a lot of people have spent a lot of time talking about the doctrine of Election. Sometimes it's called predestination. People, they really debate this a lot. Maybe you've heard some of these conversations. I've heard them growing up going to church. And I've heard a lot of people refer to their logical reasoning, oh, you don't understand it. Let me explain it to you. And they try to understand God's ways, in ways that make sense to us. So, a lot of people appeal to logic, and a lot of people they just get into a good old fashioned debate. I don't know if you've ever seen two brothers in the same fellowship group or two brothers in the same small group, arguing with one another, debating with one another, both throwing out Bible verses and I don't even know what they're thinking. Like somebody's Bible verses are going to beat somebody else's Bible verses, like I'm not even sure what the point of these conversations are sometimes. We need to see very clearly here today that when Paul wants to address the objection to God's election, he does not refer to logical reasoning, even though Paul was a very smart guy. And he does not start a debate, even though I bet Paul won most of the debates that he got into. Look what Paul does to answer the question, look at Romans 9:15. He quotes what God says to Moses, look at verse 17. Look how it begins, “For the Scripture says,” and we tried to highlight there on your handout to answer the objection. Paul's got us turned into two passages. In Exodus. If you're talking about the things of God and your Bible is not open, then you're doing it wrong. You can't just try to figure out how God does it. And you can't just start arguing with somebody else, your side versus their side, we should all open up the Scripture and let God speak it to us, we should let God reveal it about himself. And so if Paul who's teaching a masterclass if he's not even appealing to logic, and he's not even starting to debate, maybe we should all take notes that Paul thinks the way that you and I are going to learn about God's purpose of election is. Let's go back to the case study in Exodus. Let's go back to Moses. And let's go back to Pharaoh because God's already shown us how this all works. So I need everybody well, you grab your Bible and go to Exodus 33:19. That's the first verse that Paul brings up to answer the question Is God unrighteous. Exodus 33, verse 19. And we have already in our study of Romans, chapter nine, we have seen that Paul is quoting a lot of Scripture to prove that the word of God has not failed. He's using scripture to prove his points about God's purpose of election. And when Paul quotes a scripture, he usually just refers to a little piece of the Scripture. And he's assuming I think that his readers are familiar with the Scripture and understand the context of the Scripture. So, I encourage you, when you're reading some book of the Bible, or one of Paul's letters, or the writing of Peter, and you can tell that they are quoting a scripture, I encourage you go look up the Scripture they're quoting. Because if you look up Exodus 33:19, you see that there's even just more to this one verse than the part that he quotes. So, let's read the whole verse. This is God speaking to Moses. And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name the LORD.” And whenever you see LORD capital letters, it's YHWH. And then he says, the part that's quoted in Romans 9, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” So, the point right away, when you turn to this passage, what do you see the point is? God, making his name known. This is the fundamental purpose of life is that God wants his name to be hallowed, the need name to be made holy, set apart, lifted high. God wants everybody to know who he is. And this is why it's hard for us to figure out things like God's election, because you are not the center of the universe.
I'm sorry to tell you that if that's your first time here and at all right. The purpose of life on planet Earth is not your personal story. The purpose of life on planet Earth is the glory of God. And when we say God's name, we are referring to all of God's attributes, we are referring to the completeness of his character, like really knowing and enjoying and worshipping who God is, that is the purpose of life, because God is the center of the universe, and you were made to worship him and make much of him, not yourself. And so, God said, hey, I want to tell you who I am, Moses, I want to proclaim my name to all my people. And here's what I want my people to know, I give mercy to whoever I want to give mercy to. God wants you to know that he sits on a throne in heaven, and God does whatever he wants to do. And one of the things that God wants you to know that he delights in doing is giving people his mercy, showing people his grace. Now, God is saying this to Moses, what is the context here? We'll go back to Exodus 32, the chapter right before this, and what's the heading there in Exodus 32. It is the golden calf. So if you know the 10 Commandments, God told them, “have no other gods before me,” make no images, and what do they do just a few days later, they make up a golden calf image to worship as God, they immediately disobey God and commit the sin of idolatry. Who read Exodus with our Church recently, raise your hand if you read Exodus. May God bless all of those people who just raised their hand. May your pets live long on planet earth. All right, God bless you. And if you did not read Exodus with us, by his mercy and grace, God has given you a second chance to study Exodus with us here this very hour. So look at verse 30, of Exodus 32. This is the conversation that Moses is going to have with God, that we just jumped into the middle of the next day after they commit the idolatry of the golden calf. The next day, Moses said to the people, you have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the LORD, to YHWH, perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. So, God is ready in his judgment, in his righteous anger, God is ready to just consume these people because he just told them to do something, and they deliberately disobeyed him. And so, Moses is now going to go beg God for mercy. Please don't judge your people. Please continue to go with your people and take us to the land you promised us. So that's the whole conversation that Moses is having with God here in Exodus 33. And Moses goes before God and he says, hey, if I'm your guy, and I found favor with you, and you know being by name, then you need to, you need to go with us to the promised land. And God's like, Okay, I'll send my presence with you. And Moses is like, don't just send your presence. You have to come with us, we need you coming with us. That's what makes us your people. That's what makes us distinct out of all the nations. And so God's like, okay, Moses, I’ll go with you. And then Moses says, no, no, no, now please show me your glory. I want to know who you are is what Moses says. And so, God says, okay, Moses, I’ll make my goodness pass before you. And I'm going to let you know who I really am, I'm going to proclaim to you my name. And I'm going to show you that I can have mercy on whoever I want to have mercy. And this time, I'll give my people mercy here, even though they committed idolatry. And then look what happens in Exodus 30. For the very next chapter, God gives this Hello, my name is moment, this introduction. Here's God's bio on himself, and Exodus 34:6-7 that YHWH passed before him and proclaimed YHWH, God. And notice what is the first thing that God says about himself, A god that is merciful.
That's our theme for this morning. God is merciful, and he's gracious. He's slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. God is 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. When Paul, in Romans 9, quotes Exodus 33:19, he's taking you right back into the moment where the whole nation of Israel's judgment was on the line. And Moses came to speak to God, and God gave them mercy. God introduced himself as a God who is merciful to his people. So with that context, now, go back to Romans chapter 9 and look at Paul's commentary. He quotes that verse in Romans 9:15. And then Paul makes a very definitive statement here in Romans 9:16. He says, Okay, well, here's what we should then learn from the mercy of God, then, that God can give his mercy to whoever he wants to give it to. So, then you're in verse 16, of Romans 9, so then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. If you are saved, if you are a believer in Jesus, if you have been born again by the power of the Spirit, the only reason that you are a saved person, it is not because you want it to be a saved person. It's not because you exertion here, the Greek word is “you ran,” you tried hard, you did the work. No, the only reason you are saved is because God wanted to give you mercy. That's what it says right here.
And so, let's get this down for our answer. Is God unrighteous? “No, but God is merciful.” That's point number one. No, no, this isn't about God being unrighteous. This is about God being merciful, that God is choosing to put his mercy upon sinners, not because the sinners want to be saved, and not because the sinners are doing things to be saved. But just because God's will is to give them mercy. So, a lot of times when you're trying to study the deep things of God, people want to bring up, but what about our will? What about what we want to do? Romans 9 is not about what you want to do. Romans 9 is expressing to you God's will God's purpose of election. And so, the emphasis here is, we have a God who is giving people mercy. And mercy, if you want a definition, a very basic definition of Mercy. Mercy is to withhold judgment. People who deserve judgment are not getting it, because God is giving them mercy instead. And why is God doing it? Well, it's not because the people want it. And it's not even because the people are doing things to get it. This is just who God is. You want to know God's name. You want to know who YHWH really is? He is YHWH, merciful God, that's who he is. And so that's what he's highlighting here. Wow, can you see the mercy of God? Can you see that the reason you are not being judged is because God is merciful? Now, then he goes on.
There's another side to it that he wants to talk about in Romans 9:17. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, yeah, it wasn't just Moses in Israel in the story back there. Let's talk about Pharaoh. So, we got to turn back to Exodus 9:16. And there's a whole lot about Pharaoh to learn in Exodus. Pharaoh is kind of the case study of what does it mean that God is hardening whoever he wills, that God is hardening somebody's heart. Maybe when you hear that you're like, yikes, that's kind of a cringy feeling you might get. Why is God hardening people? That doesn't sound good? Well, if you really want to know what that's about, you’ve got to go back to Pharaoh. Pharaoh is where we learn about that hardening work that God does. And so here in Exodus 9:16, it's just dropping us right into the seventh plague. If you know about the ten plagues that happened there in Egypt. Well, we're on the hail plague right now. And if you've read this, this is not just your ordinary hail, there is fire mixed with this hail, making it in my humble opinion, the coolest hail that ever hailed here. And so, look at verse 16. We're jumping right into something that God wants Moses to say to Pharaoh, But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power.” So that here it is, underline it, circle it, write it down. If you're taking notes, this is the purpose “so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” Okay, you've got an objection to God. Well, let's just make sure you understand this isn't about how it works out for you or how it makes sense to you. Both passages he takes us back to Exodus, they refer to God's name being known throughout the earth. And so, something's happening with Pharaoh that is even beyond Pharaoh. It's so that God's power and glory can be made known, to not just the Egyptian nation, but to all peoples and all nations throughout all time. Now, look at the very next verse. Why is God hardening Pharaoh? Well look at what it says in verse 17, “You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go.” Pharaoh thought he was God. Pharaoh thought that he got to decide what happened in Egypt. And so, he wasn't listening to what God said, he wasn't interested in YHWH. Pharaoh thought he was in control and that he was the center of what was happening. He's exalting himself rather than letting God's name be proclaimed. Pharaoh is exalting himself against God. And look at verse 15. Look at the verse right before are quoted verse, verse 15, here and says, for by now, this is the seventh plague, “for by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth.”
So when you actually really think about this, the fact that God is hardening Pharaoh and keeping Pharaoh involved and showing his glory and his power through Pharaoh. Well, God could have already been done with Pharaoh after plague number one. God could have already judged Pharaoh a long time ago. If you're like, I don't know about God, hardening people, well really, the question we probably should be asking is why is even God allowing people to continue to exist at all when God could just cut them off and judge them and he would be right to do so right now. So, Pharaoh, I'm keeping you around for a purpose. I could have cut you off a long time ago. That's the truth. In fact, look back at the plague right before it the sixth plague it says here. Look at chapter 9:12, the sixth plague was boils, I don't know about you, I think I would have given up after boils for sure. But in Exodus chapter 9:12, it says but YHWH hardened the heart of Pharaoh. Okay, so YHWH hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them as the Lord YHWH had spoken to Moses. So, sometimes, I feel like maybe my reaction or your reaction could be like, ooh, God hardening people who maybe it doesn't really say that, maybe it's just the people are hardening themselves. No, let's just all take notice that in Exodus 9:12, it says that YHWH hardened Pharaoh's heart. And if the Scripture is not ashamed to say that God hardened his heart, I want to encourage you don't be ashamed of things that the scripture is proclaiming about God's name. So maybe we're just thinking wrong about what it means to harden Pharaoh's heart. See, I think what we're thinking when we hear the word hardened, is almost like Pharaoh's heart maybe was neutral, or Pharaoh's heart maybe was soft. And then God came along, and God took something that was kind of maybe okay, and then God hardened it and made it bad. But that's actually not what hardening means. I mean, Pharaoh's heart was already hard. start from the very beginning. And Pharaoh would have been overwhelmed by these plagues if God hadn't kept hardening his heart. So, he could keep saying no, but no was always what Pharaoh wanted to say.
So, we have to understand what when the Scripture is saying that someone is getting hardened, what that means is that evil desire within them is continuing, the stubbornness that's within them is going on. That's what it means. It's not like God's taking a neutral person, and then he's hardening them or twisting them. No, this person was already looking at it twisted, and now they're just continuing in their twisted way. That's what it really means. When it says hardened, like here in Exodus, this is all written in Hebrew. And the word here where it says hardened, is this Hebrew word hazaq. And when we looked up that word, and we dove into it, when we read through Exodus, we found out that you could also translate hazaq to strengthen. So, Pharaoh already has a hard heart, and God is just strengthening his hard heart so he can make it through the ten plagues and get to the parting of the Red Sea. That's what's really happening. God's not twisting Pharaoh's heart, Pharaoh was already twisted in his thoughts about God from the very beginning. So that's what it means when God is hardening someone, God is continuing them in their stubbornness. That's the idea. He's not changing their heart; their heart was already that way.
Go to the beginning of the story with Pharaoh back in Exodus 4:21. This is what before we even meet Pharaoh, this is what YHWH says to Moses about fair. So, Exodus is teaching us that YHWH hardened Pharaoh's heart; God did it. But what does that mean that God hardened Pharaoh's heart? Exodus 4:21. “And the Lord said to Moses, when you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh, all the miracles that I have put in your power, but I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.” If God didn't harden Pharaoh's heart, it's quite possible, we would have only had three plagues or four plagues. Pharaoh would have lasted as long as ten plagues. Hey, so God is just continuing the disposition of Pharaoh's heart against God.
Look over at Exodus 5:2, this is Pharaoh's raw first reaction to Moses. Moses comes and he says, let my people go, we need to go worship and serve God. Here's what Pharaoh says in Exodus 5:2. “But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.” And, moreover, I will not let Israel go. So that's Pharaoh's heart. I don't want to know who YHWH is, I don't believe in YHWH, and these Israelites, they are slaves, they ain't going anywhere. That is what Pharaoh thinks. And so, God, he continues to harden his heart, to strengthen his heart, so that Pharaoh can go through all ten plagues. And if you know, what's the last plague? What's the worst one? It has to do with the Passover, where you put the blood on the doorposts. And the angel of the Lord comes through Egypt. And if you have blood on the door, then the angel of the Lord will pass over your house. But if you don't have blood on the door, then what's going to happen, everybody? The firstborn son is going to be killed. And so, what happens when Pharaoh sees his firstborn son killed? I mean, as parents the death of a child, is there a greater grief? And now Pharaoh is going through that? And what does Pharaoh say? Fine. Get out of here, go worship your God, leave us and go serve him. But just wait after all of Israel leaves and they start to go off towards the promised land? What does Pharaoh get back to after they leave? No, I actually want our slaves back. And what does he do? He says to the Egyptian army, get in your chariots and go chase them down. And that leads to perhaps one of the most astonishing, most marvelous things that has ever taken place in all of human history where God parts the Red Sea, so that his people can go across on dry ground. And then when the mighty Egyptian army comes chasing after them with their horses, and chariots, the water falls upon them. And I will sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously. His name is proclaimed in all the earth, because the horse and the rider have fallen into the sea. And this was all about God's glory. This was all about God's name being proclaimed, and he gave mercy to his people, and Pharaoh's heart got hardened, but that was always how Pharaoh was. So, God was just keeping Pharaoh strengthening Pharaoh in the way. He was so the whole story could play out for God's glory.
Now with that case study from Exodus, go back to Romans chapter 9. And what is Paul's commentary on that Scripture? So, you can see an answer to the objection, “is God unrighteous.” We get an example of God's mercy from Exodus that he says to Moses, and then we get the example of Pharaoh and how God hardened him. And then Romans 9:18, says, hey, let me tell you what God's able to do. So then, God has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. So, God is deciding, hey, if he wants to give mercy, if he wants to harden somebody, this is what God is able to do. And see, that's where I think the objection comes in. Well, I don't think that's good that God is hardening people. I don't know if that's right for God to do that. Well, if you start thinking that at this point in Romans, maybe you need a review of what we've already learned in the book of Romans. Go back to Romans chapter 3 with me and look at verse 5, because this is another time where it talks about this idea of “is God unrighteous?” Is God doing something wrong? In Romans 3:5 it says that “If our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say that God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us?” So, let's just think through what that verse is saying. The verse is saying that we are actually not right before God, and God is actually right to judge us. And so, if our unrighteousness actually reveals the glory of God in his righteousness, well, then is it wrong for God to judge us when our unrighteousness is actually showing his righteousness? And then notice in verse 6, he gives the answer that seems to be the answer to all of his questions in the book of Romans: “by no means.” No, God is right to judge the world. God is right to judge those who are unrighteous. And when you're ready to say that God's unrighteous, no, no, no, who's actually the one who's unrighteous. It's not God. It's me.
I'm the one who's not right before God. That's what Romans 3 made abundantly clear. Look at verse 9, “What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all.” For we have already charged that all whether you're a Jew, or whether you're a Gentile, a Greek, all are under sin. As it is written, none is righteous. No, not one. So, this idea that you've read all of Romans 1 through 8, and now when you start hearing about God hardening people in Romans 9, you're going to say, God's unrighteous to do that. Well, then it's like you just threw the first 8 chapters out. Because the first I mean, Romans 3, when we went through that it was emphatic, it was explicit. It's taken together, all of these greatest hits from the Hebrew Bible. You think you're good? No, there's not one who's good. You think you seek God? No, there's not one who seeks God. You actually think you're a righteous person? You can't even speak to the people that you say you love in a righteous way. Here you are blessing somebody, and you say, I love you. And then with your same mouth, you curse the person that you claim to love, even the people that are closest to you. You have said evil things. Look at what you say. Romans 3 goes on, look at the fruit of your life. Look at the paths of ruin and misery, how you've ruined relationships, how you had choices, and you made the wrong choice. Look at all you've done in your life, are you really going to claim that you are right before God? No, all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So, this idea that people are morally neutral or people are good, and they were doing fine until God hardened them. That's not the way we should think about God hardening people at all. People are unrighteous, and then God is just giving them over to their own unrighteousness. Hardening means they're just staying in their stubbornness.
So, let's get that down for point number two. The second thing we found out is no God's not unrighteous, “you are unrighteous.” If God's hardening you he's hardening an already hard heart. He's hardening an already sinful disposition. He's hardening something that is already evil from the very beginning. So, God's not changing who you are. You're just staying who you are if your heart is being hardened. Pharaoh was saying no from the jump, everybody, and Pharaoh he's I guess a good bad guy as far as stories go because he has no character. He's against it from the beginning, all the way to the end. That's what it means to have your heart hardened. God's not doing something to twist your heart, your heart was already twisted. Does anybody want to say amen to that? I mean, that's what we've learned in Romans. So, I think we come upon this and, and I was talking to a guy after the last service and this guy, God bless him, he's trying to look it up in the original languages. And he's looking it up in the Greek and he sees the word here for hardened. And it says, to make hard. And see, when you see that they're just trying to put an English definition on the Greek word. And when it defines it, like may card, it could give you the impression, oh, it wasn't hard until God made it hard. But that's not what we're learning. No, it was already evil. And God, he hardened it to continue it in its evil way.
So, I've got a chart there at the bottom of your handout. And I want to just highlight “mercy” on one side, and I want to highlight being “hardened” on the other side. Because what our passage is saying is God can do whatever he wants with the people that he's created. And he can give them mercy if he wants to. And he can harden them if he wants to. So, we got these two options of mercy or hardened. And I think when we hear that we think it's like the same thing is happening, God's doing the same thing to the person he gives mercy to. And he's doing the same thing to the person he hardens. And I want to show you actually how different it is if God gives you mercy. Or if God hardens you. For example, let's start with Mercy. Mercy is “not what we deserve.” That is the definition, a good definition. It's withholding judgment, you are not getting what you deserve with God's mercy. This was one of the great things that was taught to me when I was just a boy, growing up going to church. I was so blessed as a child because I had a dad and a mom that left me with two things that have defined my life. My dad and my mom, they showed me how to read the Bible. And they took me to church. And through those two things, God really taught me about himself. I got to know God's name, even as a child. And one thing that God taught me about myself is that I deserved judgment, I had even as a child, I could see that I had thought, said, and done things that were not right. In fact, I could even tell that I wanted things that I should not want. And there was something wrong going on inside of me. Even as a child, I learned something that might sound intense for children to learn. But I learned that I deserved to go to hell. That was one of the best things I ever learned in my life. Because when I saw clearly who I was, and who God was, and the punishment that waited for me, that I would be judged according to what I had done. That's when I could beg God for mercy. Oh, Father in heaven. Please don't give me what I deserve. Please, out of your goodness out of your grace out of your love, please, will you be merciful? Please don't treat me like I deserve to be treated. Please treat me according to your love. And that became the foundation for my life, that became the cry of my heart, that became the cry of my heart, that became that when I woke up in the morning, I could celebrate that today. I'm not getting what I deserve. Today, I'm celebrating God's mercies that are new every morning. See. Mercy is you're not getting what now, if you're hardened, hardened, is what we deserve. A hardened is just God letting our sin continue to play out in our lives. And the Bible is very clear how judgment is going to work, you are going to be judged according to what you have done, or anyone who is judged if you don't receive mercy. And your heart does get hardened. Well, whatever you do, it's like everything you do is getting written down in a book. And that book will be evaluated, what have you done, and the punishment will fit the crime. That's how God's righteousness is going to play out. And so, it's not like, oh, that poor person, they were so innocent or pure, or they were okay until God hardened them. No, they were already sinful. They were already not righteous. They were already saying evil things out of their evil heart. And when God hardened them, all that happened was they stayed stubborn. And they continued in their sinful ways. So that person if they stay hardened all the way to the end, they're just getting what they've reaped up for, they're going to reap whatever they've sown up for themselves, they're going to get the wrath that they've stored up through their own sin. Another thing about mercy we'll throw it up here on the screen is it mercy leads to a “change to our will.” When we realize that God loves us, what do we learn how to do? We love him because he first loved us. When I find out that God will forgive me for my sin. There is a change of heart where I no longer want to continue in my sin. But I want to throw myself on the mercy of God, I want to trust in his grace, I want to celebrate his love, like God and I now have a relationship and I want to grow closer to him. Well, the person who's getting hardened, see, there's no change.
Let's get that down here. There's “no change to our will” when we get hardened. No, our will was already towards sin and hardened is just the increasing of sin in our life. So, see, when God shows mercy, that person is getting a huge blessing to not get what they deserve, and to have their sin forgiven to experience the love of God. That's an amazing thing, the hardened person, well, they're just kind of continuing on in the way that they were already going. Let me show you a passage on mercy and a passage on being hard. And let's go to Psalm 51, a great example of God's mercy to somebody who has sinned. And Psalm 51, hopefully, you're familiar with it. Let's all turn there. This is something King David wrote. And King David if you know that he was God's chosen king. He was a man after God's own heart. But King David sinned in one of the most notorious ways of all sin. He committed adultery with Bathsheba and then he committed murder with her husband to cover it up. And so, what happened after David sinned in this way is God sent his prophet Nathan to go and confront David. And Nathan told David a story about a rich man and a poor man. And the rich man came and he stole the poor man's little lamb. And that was all this poor man had. The rich man, he had all kinds of things, but he took from the poor man, and took that lamb for himself. And as Nathan's telling the story, David is getting outraged. And David is saying that that's not right, what that rich man did to that poor man, and that man deserves to be judged. And then Nathan, he looks right at David, and he says, “You are the man” and you've sinned against God. Now, I've heard a lot of people at church talk about David's sin. And they say, see David's a man after God's own heart. Well, let's just make it very clear when David sins, which he did do, David repented of his sin. And a lot of people will claim that they have sinned like David. Well, who's repenting like David? What we get here in Psalm 51 is we get to see a man after God's own heart who has sinned and how he then responds to the reality of sin in his life. Look what it says to the choir master, a Psalm of David. When Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba, what does David get to right away? First thing out of his mouth? Have what everybody? See, this is my question for you is, when did you thank God for mercy in your life? When did you see that you were unrighteous before a righteous God, and that you needed God to not give you what you deserved. And so, you said, God, have mercy on me, please don't judge me as I should be judged. But please choose to be merciful to me, because of your grace and your patience and your love. That's where David goes, have mercy on me. Oh God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin. Now look how this guy owns his sin right here. ‘For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me and against you, God, you only have I sinned.” I have done what is evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Here's a man saying to God, you would be right to judge me. You would be righteous if I was punished according to what I have done, because I have done things worthy of judgment. You're the Righteous One. I'm the unrighteous one, please be merciful to me. We got way too many people at churches these days praying, God, I thank you like I'm not like those liberal people in America. God, I thank you so much that I'm not woke. I thank you so much, that I'm not like my fellow Americans. God thank you for making me the way that I am. You know what, we need a lot more people in churches. Pray in these days. God be merciful to me, a sinner like me, because you are righteous and I am not. And the only hope I've got, the only chance I've got is you not given me what I deserved because I definitely deserve it. Have you owned that in your life? Have you begged God for mercy like that? That's what David does. He says, God, you would be right to give it to me. And I'm asking you not to give it to me. I'm begging you for mercy. In fact, look, he owns it all the way back to the beginning. Look at verse 5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me,” I have always been my biggest problem. I have always been from the beginning. We weren't born cute and innocent. We were born in sin. We were conceived in sin. And we have to own that about ourselves. And David here, he gives an example. Can I just read to you some of this prayer, and I hope this is a way that you've prayed in the past or that you've learned how to pray, when you sinned? Look at what it says, starting here in verse 6, “Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, you teach me wisdom in the secret heart, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence. Take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.” God, I'm begging you, I'm needing you. Please, God, will you come and do something in me, wash me cleanse me by your mercy. Please, Father, don't give me what I deserve. Now I want you to see verse 17. If everybody could jump down to verse 17, because this is kind of a summary statement of David here. It's a statement that I think kind of transcends this one moment of sin with David and Bathsheba and her husband. And I think it kind of goes to all people at all places, at all times when it says in verse 17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not”… What does it say there, everybody? So, see, here's what David said that when somebody comes to God about their sin, and when that person is really broken, I'm not saying just that person's like, busted, or that person got caught, or that person feels bad because their life's not working out the way they were hoping and their sin is kind of ruining their life. But I'm talking about when someone is contrite like that. That's a word that gets to this idea of godly sorrow, like I'm really actually broken and sorry about the fact that I have sinned before a holy God. When somebody comes to God with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, it says, you will not want to that person, you won't despise them. You won't look down on them. You're not going to like they push that person away. So, if you're confused about God's election, if you have an objection to God's election, maybe you think that people are coming to God for mercy, and they're not receiving mercy. That's not what we're learning here in Psalm 51:17. Anyone who comes to God with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, they will not be sent away. They will not be cast out. They will not be despised.
We're in Romans 9 right now, we're going to get to Romans 10. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be what everybody will be saved. So, when it comes to Mercy, let's get this down: “No one is turned away.” No one is turned away. If you think election means that people are coming to God and being rejected. That's not what it's saying. No, God, he's giving mercy out to people and anybody who comes to him confessing their sin, owning up to what they've done, genuinely sorry, with that godly sorrow that leads to repentance, where I don't want to keep living this way. I want to turn to you. None of those people are being despised. Anybody who's got a broken heart and a contrite spirit, God's not sending them away. God will give them mercy and forgive their sin. That's the good news. God's mercy is a good thing. Don't get it twisted. This is amazing that God is not giving us what we deserve.
Now go with me to Hebrews chapter 3, where it talks about the hardening of hearts and it actually quotes another Psalm, Psalm 95, here in Hebrews 3:7. Okay, we've looked at an example of mercy. Let's look at an example of hardening. And this is actually God's own people of Israel. God gives them mercy after the golden calf, and he goes with them out into the wilderness towards the promised land. But then what happens when they get to the promised land? They don't have faith to go into the Promised Land. And so, God then has them wander for forty years in the wilderness until that generation dies off. So, look what it says here in Hebrews 3:7, quoting Psalm 95. “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in rebellion.’” I remember what happened to God's own people of Israel, where they harden their heart. Well, if you can hear what God's saying today. Today, if God's given you the ears to hear, make sure you don't harden your heart. So, “mercy” and “hardening” actually work very differently. Because if you receive mercy, you don't get mercy because you want it. And you don't get mercy because you try really hard, and run really hard to get it. The only reason you get mercy is what God wants to give it to you. But if your heart gets hardened by God, guess what? You're hardening your heart. That's a hardening works both ways. Mercy is just received. God just doesn't give you what you deserve. And then that leads to love in your heart towards God. But hardening is just you not wanting God, you still wanting your own way. And so, you're hardening your own heart, and God is hardening your heart. So, you can't really blame him for hardening your heart when you're choosing to do that yourself. Look what it goes on to say that it really defines it very well here in this quote in Hebrews 3, look at verse 10. “Therefore, I was provoked with that generation, and said, they always go astray in their heart.” Man, if you're taking notes, write that down. That's a good verse to define what it is. What is the hardening? Well, it's people “going their own way.” All, we like sheep have gone astray. And then notice what it goes right to, “they have not known my ways.” The people who are hardening their heart are choosing their own way, rather than God's way.
So, let's get that down here under “Harden”. And this is we “go our own way.” So, the hardening that God's giving to somebody, it's just that person continuing to go their own way, rather than humbling themselves and turning and going to the LORD's way. No, they don't know God's ways. They just keep going their own way. And so, then the call goes out today, if you can hear God's way, and God's proclaiming his name, and God's telling you, I'm a merciful God, I'm a gracious God, I'll give mercy to whoever I want. And everybody who comes to me, they can receive mercy today. If you hear his voice, don't keep going your own way today; turn to God's way today. That's the message. Stop blaming God when you're hardening your own heart, and turn to God hear his voice. And there's like this call like, don't put this off. Don't think, well, I'll live my way, and then I'll learn God's way later. No, no, no, your heart might become so hard, you might be numb by that point. Your conscious might be seared by that point. No. Can you hear what God is saying today? Can you hear that there's mercy being offered to you today. Today, if you hear is what don't put it off till tomorrow. You may not have tomorrow. You could be cut off from the earth tomorrow. Today, can you hear who God is? Can you hear that? There's a God of mercy. And anyone who brings the sacrifice of a broken spirit and a contrite heart, God will not despise that person. Can you hear about God's mercy today? Well, please don't leave here and harden your heart, then. Don't continue to go your own way. When God's saying I've got ways of mercy and grace, I'm a God who abounds in steadfast love. See that's what's happening. God is giving mercy to who he wants to give mercy to, and God is hardening whomever he wants to harden. But don't just try to blame God about this. No, you can beg God for mercy here today. Or you can just continue to live your own way. And here in Hebrews 3, look what it says in verse 12. This is really important. We all need to look at this together, especially as we're going to prepare to take communion here in a few moments. It says, “Take care, brother,” so this is talking to the to the church. This is talking to a group of believers. “Take care of brothers, lest there being any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God, but exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” So, you may be so far in this sermon, it sounded pretty clear like there's people who get mercy, and there's people who get hardened, and you're either one or the other. And maybe you're thinking, well, I'm on the mercy side, because God It's going to not going to give me what I deserve. And maybe there's a few people here among us who know that you've hardened your heart against God. And you need to hear his voice today and turn to his way. But see what this is saying. And this is what we need to watch out for. This is what we need to take care of brothers. Hey, if you think you're a Christian, and you think you're on to Mercy, well, this is saying even people who think they're one of God's people need to watch out because even you could be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. You can know all about God's mercy. But if you're still walking in your own ways, if you're still choosing sin, instead of God's mercy, well, you could be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
See, sometimes, I think, when I'm preaching a sermon like this, and I'm saying, Hey, you could have the mercy of God, or you could be hardened. Which one or which one are you? There might be some people who are like, Oh, I'm in the Mercy side. But you need to check yourself as what it says. You need to watch out because people think they're on team mercy, but really, they're still being hard. And that's how deceitful sin really is. I remember this one guy that I knew a long time ago now. And this guy, he was a high school student who seemed to be by all accounts on fire for the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember at our church, this was at the church that sent us up here to Huntington Beach, the church in Aliso Viejo. I remember adults telling me that they wish they could be like this high school student that was in our youth group, because he was on fire. He was bringing all his friends to Jesus, he was walking down the halls of his high school proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ. And everybody's like, yeah, you know, that guy, he's on fire. Well, as the years went on, that guy stopped going to church, stopped reading his Bible. And unfortunately, he went straight back to the old sins that used to define him. When I met him in the first place, I mean, this guy who everybody thought was the guy on fire for Jesus, he was hardened. And he fell away from the living God, and it broke my heart to see this happen. And I remember, I went over to the guy's house, and I knocked on his door, and he let me in. And we sat there in his patio area, right outside of his house, and I said to him, hey, man, how could this happen? How could you be so like on fire, and you thought God was so awesome to save you? And you were proclaiming God's name of his love and mercy and grace? And now you're here and you're openly just choosing sin, instead of God? Like, how could this be? How could this happen to you? And he said, something to me that I've never forgotten, so profound. He said, you know, all those times you were preaching and all those times you're warning us to check our hearts. Watch out, we could fall away. That whole time you were saying that I thought you were talking about somebody else. And that could never happen to me. See, what he was actually saying that I thought was very insightful was that he looked back on a sermon like this one. And he heard about God's mercy. And he thought, yeah, I already know about that. And he didn't check his own heart to see, am I actually hardening my heart through the deceitfulness of sin. And then that led to him falling away. So, I have seen this happen. And I want to say to everybody here today, hey, let's take care brothers, this hardening thing you can know about it. And even if you understand it rightly, you still need to watch out that you're not doing it right now in your life, because you can know the truth about God. But if you're still going in the ways of your own heart, then you need to turn to God's ways. And you need to beg for God's mercy. There are people in this room here today in this service, you need to cry out, have mercy on me, Oh, God. And we need to make sure that we stop accusing God of being unrighteous. I understand. Maybe you have that thought, maybe you had that objection. Maybe you were confused. But as we're going through it, can we all agree now that God is the righteous one? And we are the ones who are unrighteous? Because even I have seen people who are hardened in their heart that walk out of church and want to blame God. I'm telling you, that more people are ready to accuse God of being the bad guy right now in America than I've ever seen in my life. Even people who go to this church, I've heard more people start to accuse God, like when something bad happened in their life. It's God's fault, and God's not doing what is right. I can remember a conversation I had right out here in the courtyard after a service where a guy was telling me that God was wrong, and he was telling me that God was wrong because his wife had had a miscarriage. And a miscarriage, one of the roughest experiences that you can have, that you go from this joy of the hope of a baby being born to the brutal reality of death. And it's a silent sadness that many couples go through. Even here at our church, many people have experienced the tragedy of a miscarriage. And so, I was trying to show this guy compassion, I was trying to empathize with him, and I wanted to hear his pain. And I wanted to weep with those who weep. And so, I was listening to this guy, this was a long conversation, and I was listening, and I was trying to bear with him. But he kept going back to blaming God, that his son had died. And he kept acting like it was God's fault. And God's the bad guy. And God really didn't do what is right. And he said it one too many times for me, I couldn't take it anymore. And I said, hey, man, I’ve just got to make this very clear to you right now that you're blaming God for the death of your son, and you're angry at God, like he did something wrong. You want to know what God really did. God loved you so much that he killed his own son for your sin. That's actually what happened. So, stop blaming God for something he didn't do. And let's open our eyes to see what God actually did do that for all the unrighteous sinners. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son and see, this is how mercy really works. God just can't say, oh, well, we'll overlook your sin, or I'll just erase it. And we'll pretend it didn't happen. That's not how a righteous God works. Because you've sinned, somebody has to die. Blood has to be shed, because of what you deserve because of what you have done. And so, God can't just give you mercy and not give you what you deserve. Somebody has to get what you deserve. And God decided to give what you deserve to his one and only Son Jesus. That's actually what happened. God was pleased to crush his son, so you would never get judgment. God was pleased to kill Jesus so that you could have eternal life. Yeah, Mercy is something we receive freely, but it was not free. It costs the life of Jesus Christ sacrificing his body, shedding his blood. And you know what Jesus got when he was on that cross? He got all the wrath that you deserved for what you had done. That was poured out on Jesus. So, let's stop blaming God. Like God did something wrong. When the righteous God judged his Son Jesus for our sin.
And so, we're going to remember what God has done here when we take communion. So hopefully it's there in the seat back in front of you, you can see those two elements, the little wafer that represents the body, the little cup that represents the blood of Jesus. And so, we want to take some time right now, to prepare our hearts to remember that if you have received mercy, it's because Jesus took your judgment. And we want to take a moment to examine our hearts. Take care of brothers, lest there being any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away. Hey, you can say you're getting mercy. But are you actually hardening yourself and continuing in sin? Examine yourself. Watch out. In fact, I want to make an appeal right now to anybody who knows that you are hardening your heart. I want to say to you that today, if you hear his voice, please don't leave here and keep hardening your heart. But this moment, right now while we while we have this next song sung while we all prepare our hearts for communion, this moment right now could be a moment for you to cry out, have mercy on me, O God. And you can call on the name of the Lord. If you know that your heart is hard. Please beg God for his mercy here right now. So, I'm going to pray for us and then you have a chance to prepare your heart for communion. And communion is for the brothers and the sisters; it is for the believers to remember what Jesus has done, that we have mercy because he paid for our sin. And if you have not really trusted in Jesus, you don't need to take communion with us. You need to put your faith in Jesus and ask God for his mercy to forgive you for your sin. And you need to see today maybe for the first time that the reason that you could be forgiven is because Jesus paid it in full; he laid down his life and his body, and he shed his righteous blood to ransom your soul to pay for your sin. So, this is a moment for us to go before God in prayer. Pray with me.
Father in heaven, we want your name to be proclaimed in Huntington Beach here today. So Father, we just confess that some of these things are hard for us to understand. We confess that we want to make it about us. And this idea that it's about your will, and you're giving mercy to whoever you want to give, and you're hardening whoever you want to harden. See, Father, that's hard for us, because we want to have control of ourselves. And what this says is that you are the God who rules over the heavens and the earth, you rule over our lives. And so, I pray that today, your name could be proclaimed. And we would say, not like Pharaoh, I don't want to know who YHWH is, but that we would all want to grow in our knowledge of you. And that we would want to respond to you in worship, and that we would be able to come before you now as your people, or people who are not your people, but have been major people, or people who had not received mercy, but now have received mercy. And Father, I want to thank you that every single day of my life, you have not given me what I deserve. Father, I want to thank you, that instead of giving me what I deserve for my son, you gave it to your son Jesus instead. So, let us all of your people, let us remember that we received mercy because Jesus paid for our sin. And let us give him thanks. And let us love Jesus. And let us worship Jesus in this place. And I pray for those who deceived that you will open their eyes to see that they're claiming mercy, but they're still hardening their heart in sin. And today, Father, let people hear your voice today. Let people stop hardening their heart and let them cry out for your mercy that you can freely give anyone who comes to you with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, you will not despise. So let today be a glorious day of salvation and let your name be known by more souls, and let all of us who know who you are, let us thank you right now for your mercy upon us. Let us thank your son Jesus for the blood that he shed for us. Let this be a moment that we respond to you in worship. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.