Lamentations 3:22 says, "Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness." People quote these verses quite often. Romans 9:15 says, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy." People don’t quote that verse very often. Why not? For some reason that verse doesn’t seem to convey the same assurance. It seems to contrast with Lamentations 3:22. On one side you have, "the Lord’s mercies are . . . new every morning," and on the other side, "I will have mercy on who I choose to have mercy on." Which side do you come down on? "Great is your Faithfulness?" or "I will have mercy whenever I want to?"

My goal in this message is for you to come down on the "Your mercies are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness" as you read the verse, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy." We are not trying to strike a balance between these two opposites. We are trying to notice that these two apparent opposites are emphasizing the same thing! In fact our passage today is emphasizing the incredible mercy of God.

14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion." 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth." 18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.

Look at verse 15. People get the idea that this is an arbitrary statement – sort of like, "If I feel like it I will have mercy whenever I choose, and not a moment before." We are going to find out today that the truth is the opposite of that notion. As we demonstrated last week, you have to understand these quotations in light of their Old Testament context. "Jacob have I loved" is from Malachi, the last prophet in the Old Testament, and is speaking of the nation of Israel, not an individual. "The elder shall serve the younger" is talking about the two nations that were in Rebecca’s womb.

The danger in verse 15 is that you could think that Paul is saying, "be careful here because God doesn’t have mercy on all." "You’d better hope for the best because He may overlook you in dispensing His mercy." After all, He will have mercy only on who He wants – and it may not include you.

Paul is answering the question, "is God unrighteous?" "Is He unrighteous for loving Israel and hating Edom?" As we showed last week from Genesis 29:30-31, the word "hate" doesn’t mean that God literally hated Esau. God hates no one. He loved the world. But He definitely didn’t treat Esau in the same way He treated Jacob. Is that unrighteous? Absolutely not. Why? Because the degree of His mercy to all people goes way beyond what anyone could possibly expect. Two examples, Israel and Pharaoh.

A. God gave Israel extra mercy (14-16). The quotation is from Exodus 33. Do you remember what happened? The context is crucial. In Exodus 32, Israel fell into an awful, national sin by worshiping a golden calf.. You remember that Moses was up on the mount getting the print out of the 10 commandments when God said, "We are going to have to interrupt this meeting because your people who you brought up out of Egypt have corrupted themselves and made a golden calf and have worshiped and made sacrifice to it, and now are starting a big calf party.

When Moses got close to the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, he threw down the tablets shattering them at the foot of the mountain. He then pleaded with God to forgive his people, and says, "if you can’t forgive them, then blot me out of the book you have written." God said to him, "whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin." And the Lord struck the people with a plague.

In this context, where Moses is asking for forgiveness and God is saying, "Go," Moses asks, "will you show me your glory?" The Lord responds, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion" (Exodus 33:19).

Do you see the story line? Who is God choosing to have compassion on? Israel! Is there any question that He has already had compassion on them? He has demonstrated enormous amounts to them. But now, after having received His mercy, after having received freedom from Egypt, after getting the 10 commandments, they turn and plunge into idolatry exactly like the Egyptians, Canaanites, and other nations of the world have done. And God chose to treat them differently than other nations. Why didn't God give Israel the same punishment as the others? Because He chose to have additional mercy on them. Moses had no right to claim God's mercy, but the Lord graciously displayed His longsuffering and patience" which leads Paul to his conclusion of vs. 16. "It was not based on the will of the people, or the running of Moses; it was based on the compassion and mercy of God. He chose again, for the thousandth time probably, to forgive them. One of His incredible, unmatched characteristics, is MERCY. That’s the only reason we are here today – God’s Mercy.

Verse 15 is not talking about God picking and choosing as to who He will show mercy toward. Paul is going to say in 11:32 that he intends to have "mercy on all." But it is picking and choosing who He is going to add more mercy to after He has been unbelievably merciful already!

B. This was true in the case of Pharaoh (17-18). How was God merciful to Pharaoh? The very purpose for the signs and wonders performed by Moses on Egypt was MERCY. God intended with them that Pharaoh recognize His power, soften his heart, and let His elect people go. The opposite took place. Pharaoh hardened his heart in response to God’s mercy – which seems to happen quite often in the economy of God – His blessings have the opposite effect of their initial intent. Romans 2:4-5 "Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? 5 But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,"

That’s what Pharaoh did. He hardened his heart. Then it says "God hardened his heart." When did God start hardening his heart? In plague number six. In the first five plagues, Pharaoh did all the hardening, But when he was still resisting after the sixth plague, we read for the first time, that "the Lord made firm the heart of Pharaoh" (9:12). Even after this there was room for Pharaoh to repent, because after the seventh plague we read again (9:34) that "Pharaoh made heavy his heart." Only after the eighth plague do we see that God alone hardens Pharaoh’s heart.

Why did God take any back talk from Pharaoh? Why didn’t He just push him out of the way and free His people? He could have. Two reasons: (1) Mercy on Pharaoh – God gave him time and room to repent, and (2) to demonstrate His might and glory to the entire earth. After Pharaoh had hardened his own heart a number of times, God chose to judge him by strengthening him in his obstinacy, so that God would be able to perform all ten plagues on Egypt.

To me, the very fact that it states that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart is striking. There is a theological position, which I call hyper-Calvinism, that believes that God makes all the decisions. God decides who goes to heaven, who goes to hell, what choice you are going to make here and there. R. C. Sproul, who believes this, says, "if there is one atom out of place in the universe, then God is not God." We call this position, "determinism." God determines everything. We basically move around fulfilling God’s will. When R. C. Sproul gets to this passage he says rather dogmatically of verse 16, "this is the coup de grace to Arminianism and all other non-Reformed views of predestination. This is the Word of God that requires all Christians to cease and desist from views of predestination that make the ultimate decision for salvation rest in the will of man. The apostle declares: It is not of him who wills. The non-Reformed views must say that it is of him who wills. This is in violent contradiction to the teaching of Scripture. This one verse is absolutely fatal to Arminianism" (Chosen by God, 151).

I don’t view myself as an Arminian, in fact I don’t view myself as very far from R. C. Sproul, a brother in Christ, but the issue, which I don’t think he defines, is in the word "it." "IT is not of him who wills." What is "it?" Salvation? That’s what our brother would have us believe. But the mercy was given to a nation which was already "saved." What they needed was mercy and forgiveness for their national sin. What they needed was the presence of Jehovah to go with them. And God granted both.

But what about verse 18 – "He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens." The statement that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart clearly implies that it was something unusual, something extraordinary – and that there were times when Pharaoh hardened his own heart. How would that fit Sproul’s position since Pharaoh’s personal choice to harden his heart would be an "atom out of place in the universe?" Does Pharaoh possess the ability to harden his own heart? The fact that God is expressly identified as hardening Pharaoh’s heart 10 of the times, clearly identifies the other 10 as occurring by some other hardening agent. I find that very interesting. If nothing is accomplished by humans by "willing" (verse 16), it looks like Pharaoh "willed," at least in a negative sense.

The point is that even though God had been longsuffering with Pharaoh, there was a point where He judged him by strengthening him in his rebellion. And that point may have been different than the point at which He judged Israel. He chose to be merciful to Israel 20 chapters later, when they bowed to the golden calf.

Instead of talking about how fickle God is, this passage talks about how generous God is, especially to Israel, the nation that is complaining about God’s treatment of her.

Think of why you are still alive. Have you had any close calls? How many times have you almost gone to sleep while driving? Have you ever said to yourself, "I should probably be dead?" Then what reason did you give for being alive? That you were better than others? That God still had something for you to do? That you had finessed that situation by your (skill, brains, luck, preparation)? What’s the true reason? The MERCY of God. The reason you and I are still alive is the mercy of God. It’s not because we ran fast enough or willed it hard enough, but because God is merciful to us. We would have died earlier because of our sin, like Israel. We would have died earlier because of the hardness of our hearts, like Pharaoh. We would have died earlier because of our sheer stupidity, but God is merciful. MERCY is simply a delay in all the things that could have naturally happened – judgment, physical injury, death. According to Webster’s dictionary, mercy is "compassion that forbears punishing even when justice demands it" (Webester’s 7^th, 530).

Your God is a God of MERCY. Do you want to become like Him?

II. God is merciful to those who resist His will (19-24).

A. He can choose to design people for any purpose He wants (19-21). 19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?" 20 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?" 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

In answering the question, "who resists His will?" Paul first implies that no one can because we are only the creations, not the creator. We are the clay, and the potter makes the choices as to how we are shaped and what comes into our lives. Your ears are too long? You were never given a voice to sing? Or your voice to sing was taken away by an senseless accident? Have you thanked the potter that He knows best and is shaping and molding you into His perfect purpose?

The point is that the potter has to make a choice as he creates his pots. And he may choose to design two pots for the White House and 50 pots to be sold at Walmart. And the pots can’t say, "why am I being sold at Walmart?" "Why can’t I be in the White House?

I don’t think it is possible to get out of this analogy what a Determinist says – that God designs some of his pots for beauty and others for destruction – i.e. that God predestines one pot to heaven and one to hell. That would have to be like a potter designing half his pots for good use and the other half to be smashed against a wall and burned. What potter could stay in business doing that? This picture is not talking about eternal destiny. It is talking about how people and nations are designed for a certain use, given a certain talent. The point is simply that a potter has the right to design one vessel for flowers and another as a spittoon. He designed Jacob and the nation of Israel for the promised land, and He designed Esau and his people for the desert. In the same way it was God’s righteous right to begin judging Pharaoh after he had hardened his heart 5 times, and to delay His punishment on Israel when they had probably hardened their hearts 10 times and were now worshiping a golden calf.

B. God can choose to endure the rebellion of those who oppose His will (22-24). 22 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, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

Verse 19 asked, "can anyone resist His will? You would think the answer would be "no." After all, He is the potter and we are the clay. But verse 22 speaks of God "enduring with much longsuffering, certain vessels He has created. Why? Because they are resisting His will – and He is being patient with them and even ENDURES their rebellion!

In other words, "what if God waited when He didn’t have to wait. He wanted to destroy these vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, but He waited, so that He could bless others with His mercy." This idea begins with God’s response to Pharaoh in verses 17-18. "Who has resisted His will?" Pharaoh did. And God endured Pharaoh’s hardening of his heart – so that He could be gracious to the nation of Israel and bring them out. In the same way, God has been patient with other "vessels of wrath," that He might demonstrate His mercy.

Don’t think that this passage claims that God prepares some vessels for destruction and others for glory. There are at least two reasons why this conclusion doesn’t fit. (1) "Vessels of wrath prepared (ripe) for destruction" is in the middle voice, which implies that they have prepared themselves for destruction – by their rebellion, disobedience, and hardness of hearts. (2) If God designed these vessels of wrath for destruction, why would He have to "endure" anything? If He has determined their character and destiny, what is there to "endure?" Did He not like His design? Did He have a purpose that included difficulty for Himself? That concept doesn’t fit the passage. You endure something that is brought on you by others. You don’t "endure" what you create. There is only one reason why God would "endure" vessels prepared for destruction – His love and mercy for them. As Peter says, "the Lord is longsuffering . . . not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (II Peter 3:9).

Who are these vessels of wrath fitted for destruction? These must be really bad people. Here are the people that are "resisting His will." Here are the people He could banish from the earth in a minute, but He doesn’t. Who are they? The clue comes in verse 24, "not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles." "Jews only" implies that what God had been enduring for many years has been the rebellion, disobedience, hardness of heart of Israel. They had prepared themselves for destruction by their continual insolence, defiant unbelief, and rejection of their Messiah. And God waited, and delayed their judgment time after time. But now the break has come; God has sovereignly chosen to put Israel on the side track of His program for the world and focus now on "one new man," the body of Christ, composed of both Jews and Gentiles in Christ.

Why did God delay His judgment of Israel? So Messiah could come, so the world could be prepared. Galatians 4 says, "in the fulness of time, God sent forth His son..." So He could "make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which he (God) prepared unto glory." This is God's incredible divine purpose – to be MERCIFUL! What an awesome concept: God takes the garbage and the junk from His creations, putting up with disobedience after disobedience, why? To be merciful! Isn’t that where you live as a parent? You put up with the trash talk, you put up with the lack of respect, you put up with the blatant acts of rebellion – so you can be merciful, so you can help your child when he or she needs real help. At least that is the way we are supposed to be! And that is God’s character.

If you have said "no" to God a couple of times; if you have pushed Him out of your life, you may ask why you are still alive. Because He has every right to judge you and remove you from this life. But He is patient. He endures your rebellious attitude because He wants to help you, wants to supply what you need, wants to save you. Now, this doesn’t mean that He will put up with it forever. There are plenty of warnings in the Bible to repent. But God can tolerate corruption in people’s lives because He is merciful, He wants His grace to operate in them.

III. God’s judgment of Israel has been merciful (24-29).

24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? 25 As He says also in Hosea: "I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved." 26 "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." 27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, The remnant will be saved. 28 For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth." 29 And as Isaiah said before: "Unless the LORD of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We would have become like Sodom, And we would have been made like Gomorrah."

Paul quotes from Hosea and Isaiah to show that all that has happened to Israel recently was clearly prophesied in the Old Testament. God has always had one purpose, even as He called and worked with one people – to reach His world. God wants the world to be blessed with His mercy. Through Abraham back in Genesis 12, He intended to "bless all families of the earth" (12:3). The prophets repeatedly warned Israel that God’s choice would fall on those who were designated as "not My people." God would re-define the category of "elect" to include both believers from Israeli religious-ness and Gentile paganism.

God has judged Israel. How do we know? They have offered no sacrifices in a temple or tabernacle in Israel for almost 2000 years now. An excellent question to ask an unbelieving Israelite today is, "so how are your sins forgiven? Your Bible says, that without the shedding of blood (of a sacrifice that is your substitute), there is no remission for sins." "Your rabbi says that God forgives sins because of His mercy. Where is that in your Bible?"

Does this mean that no Jewish person can get saved? No, not at all. But it means that a Jewish person needs to find his forgiveness in the sacrifice of his Messiah, Jesus Christ, the One His nation rejected. Does this mean that God has "dumped" Israel? No, He still has a program for them in the future.

Even in His judgment of them God has protected them!

IV. God has been merciful to Gentiles (30-33). 30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; 31 but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. 32 Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. 33 As it is written: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."

We now see the end result of God’s mercy and judgment sovereignly bestowed – you and me sitting in chairs at BBC. Gentiles, who historically weren’t interested in the things of God, who weren’t religious, transformed by the Grace and Mercy of Israel’s God!

Now we have Gentiles who have "attained to righteousness!" That includes you and me. Gentiles have become "my people," and "beloved" (25). How did this come about? By "faith" (30). We had made no profession of pursuing righteousness and yet we "attained" it because we received the gift of God by faith.

On the other hand, Israel, which nationally made promise of pursuing God’s righteousness, has somehow missed it. What happened? (1) They didn’t seek it by faith, but by their own ability. In other words, they set out to establish a righteousness they could regard as their own achievement (Lee, 148). They foolishly believed they could fulfill the Mosaic commands by their own ambition, which was what put them out of God's blessing. As a result (2) they stumbled. The very One sent as their Messiah, the One who came in fulfillment of their prophets, was the One they missed. Thus His presence for them became a "stumbling stone" and a "rock of offense," because they refused to believe on Him and accept Him.

Notice the incredible motive behind God's actions: 11:30 "For as you [Gentiles] were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their [Israel’s] disobedience, 31 even so these also [Israel] have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you [Gentiles] they [Israelites] also may obtain mercy. 32 For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all." God’s amazing plan is to spread his mercy to all, Jew and Gentile, in spite of their disobedience.

In addition, Israel is still elect and beloved (11:28) even though they are "broken off (11:17), "cast away" (11:15), "hardened" (11:7), "blinded" (11:8, 10), and "fallen" (11:12). God is the incredible God of mercy! Such a thought causes Paul to exclaim, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!"

Ephesians 2:4: "but God, who is rich in mercy . . ."

Psalm 103:4: Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, 8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. 11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him."

Jeremiah was absolutely right when he said, "Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness" (Lam. 3:22-23).

Remember Hannibal and Mr "T" from the "A" Team? He almost always ended the show with "I love it when a plan comes together!" There are only two ways for a plan to come together – either on TV, the movies or in books, or by the incredible merciful purpose of Almighty God. Paul looks over what God has done with his kin, how He has treated them in their persistent rebellion and declares, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" (11:33). Some day, you will be able to say exactly the same thing as you look over your life, because God has the same plan for you that He has for Israel, and the Gentiles, and everyone. We are on the receiving end of incredible mercy! What should that do for us? How can we say, "thank you?" Romans 12:1: "I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice . . ."

07/10/05, BBC am