Our Citizenship is in Heaven

By the way, I had fun doing this. I haven't been up here in seven weeks. This is a whole new thing for me. So I thought, well, I'll start with a question that always works, doesn't it? What would you say is the theme of the Book of Romans? Nobody raised their hand. So the answer is pretty simple. The whole theme is the righteousness of God. That's what it's all about, from start to finish.

30 verses in Romans that refer to God's righteousness. And we'll take a look at some of them today that aren't in the verses that we're focusing on, but I wanna make that point clear as we go through this because God's righteousness is the issue. So, I went back to Romans 1, 18, 19, and 20. And for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. There's that word righteousness, only this time it's unrighteousness.

Because that which is known about God is evident within them. And we spent a lot of time talking about that. for God made it evident to them. And what I'm trying to set up here is that when God decides to show mercy on somebody or not show mercy on somebody else, he's in very good territory.

He does not, he's never in a position where he's acting against who he is as a righteous God. Verse 20 says, for since the creation of the world, now watch how this goes, his invisible attributes, Okay? His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, clearly seen, being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse. So these three verses set up what we're going to talk about in chapter nine. that man, I, you, as just men, don't have an excuse. We can't say to God, well, I didn't know. He says, yes, you did. And here's how you know.

So in this part of Romans then, what's happening here? God's righteousness is being challenged. He's being asked questions, Paul is being asked questions about how can God be righteous if he does A? Or how can he be righteous if he does B? What authority does he have? Verse 14 says, what shall we say then? Is there injustice or unrighteousness with God? Is there?

And Paul's answer is, may it never be, or put it in contemporary vernacular, you say, no way, no way. So we find out as we deal with God and his righteousness and his character, We find that the circumstances under which God spoke to Moses so he could see the righteousness of God's sovereignty and mercy. So I wanna read a little bit from Exodus.

Then Moses said to Aaron, got the players, Moses, Aaron's his brother, and Aaron is, they're both from the tribe of Levite, so they're both priests. So he says to Aaron, what did this people do to you that you brought such great sin upon them? Aaron said, do not be angry with me, burn. He said, do not let the anger of my Lord burn. You know the people yourself that they are prone to evil.

Really? For they said to me, now watch how he passes the buck here. For they said to me, make a God for us who will go before us for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt. We don't know what has become of him. He's been gone for a month.

This is hysterically funny if you see it for what it is. So Aaron says to Moses, so they gave it to me, all of their gold, And I threw it in the fire and guess what came out? A calf. It's like, oh really? You just kind of dropped them in there and then over here came out a calf. So you have to say, okay, this is a huge violation of their standing before God because they challenged God's righteousness. So the next question is, is God fair?

Is God just in doing what he did with the Jews? Well, we've all seen that not all Israel is Israel. In other words, if you're an ethnic Jew, it doesn't mean you're automatically saved, story of Nicodemus. And not all the children of Abraham are ethnic Israel either. Since God has made these distinguishing selections, is he therefore unjust to the ones who have been excluded? So as an example, let's say both Phil and I are ethnic Israel, sons of Abraham. I'm excluded, he's in.

Is God fair in doing that? Well, it's a great question because mercy is not based on physical birth. It's based solely on God's character, solely on God's character. So next question is, why does God have the right to be merciful in the Old Testament? How did he get that right? Because everybody was, the Jews were against him. Therefore, is God unjust? The answer, no. Why? Because if justice was always given, everyone would be condemned, including ethnic Israel.

In other words, if God walked in here or got on television tonight and said, I've decided that the only thing I'm gonna do is be righteous, how many people get saved? Zero. Zero. I don't think we quite understand that because we're believers and we're under grace and we're so favored. But if God is only righteous, that's the only asset he has, nobody gets saved.

Because he said to Moses, look, I will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy and I'll have compassion on whom I'll have compassion. So God is always just. He's always having the freedom to show mercy to whom he desires. Here's the reason, because of the cross of Christ. That's the reason he can be merciful, because his righteousness has been satisfied by what the Lord Jesus did.

Now it's future at this point, but he is acting within the framework of his righteousness knowing that when he and the son decided that the son would become a man and die for the sins of the world, it was a done deal at that point. And we live in time, space, God lives in eternity.

So were there consequences because of the Golden Calf incident? Answer, yeah, 3,000 Jews died, bang, like right now. So Exodus 32, 33 says, the Lord said to Moses, whoever has sinned against me, I'm going to blot them out of my book. And then in 35, then the Lord smote the people because of what they did with the calf, which Aaron had made.

So pretty, pretty definite that God wasn't messing around. So Aaron's excuse, as we've talked about, I had to do this twice because it's, if any of you made this kind of ridiculous argument, especially when you were kids, you went to your parents and said, I don't know, we just threw it in a fire and it came out a calf. My dad says, right. So what's the issue here?

Hebrews 3.7-10 says, therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, today if you will hear his voice, if you'll do that, don't harden your hearts as when they provoked me, as in the day of the trial in the wilderness, that same incident, where your fathers tried me by testing me, and they saw my works for 40 years.

When they decided not to believe God, what happened? They did a U-turn at Kedush Barnea, and they went out into the desert as a nation, and every one of the Jews that didn't believe them died in that 40 years. So when they came back to go into the promised land, all those non-believers weren't there.

Therefore, I was angry with this generation and said, they always go astray in their heart. And this is a key thing. They did not know my ways. They did not know my ways. That's key. God exercises mercy on all for God has shut up all to disobedience so that he may show mercy to all. He stops the wheel and he says, I'm gonna show mercy because I've decided to and I can do it legitimately and righteously because of my son. Without that event, I couldn't do it. You'd all be condemned. So how did Moses find favor with God? Moses is quite an interesting character. The way he found it is in Exodus 33. Now, therefore, I pray you, if I have found favor in your sight, let me know your ways.

We believers, this is a big deal in my mind, we believers want to be theologians, we want to be smart, we want to be able to answer all the questions in Sunday school, and we want to act nice. But how many of us want to know God's ways? I want to know, because you can see that in a relationship with somebody you really love. What are you after? I want to know their ways. And you want them to know your ways. I want to know how do they act? How do they react in certain circumstances? I know who they are in the core of their being.

And that's what God says. That's what Moses says to God. I want to know you in the very core of your existence, that I may know you so that I may find favor in your sight. You ever think about that? If I'm going to go to the Lord and say, I want to find favor in your sight, how do I do that?

Well, you know, some genius comes along and says, well, read your Bible. Well, OK, I read my Bible, but unless the Spirit of God begins to show me God's ways, I'm going to have trouble finding favor because God is a gracious God. He's not a God of law and punishment, but he's righteous. He's righteous.

So the Lord said to Moses, I will also do this thing which you have spoken for you have found favor in my sight. And I have known you by name. In other words, he's saying to Moses, I know your ways. I know you. Then Moses said, I pray you show me your glory. And he said, I myself will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. When you proclaim the name, you're showing your ways. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion. That describes God's ways. That's His ways.

So then in verse 16, so then it, talk about it, does not depend on the man who wills or on the man who runs, but it's on God who has mercy or shows mercy. The word it refers to the fact of participation in God's grace and mercy. Who decides about that? that participation in God's grace and mercy is not because someone desires mercy, nor runs after it to earn it, that is, works as hard as they can for it. God is never, never placed under obligation by man's will or his human work. But we, you know, Reformed theology has put that concept in our mind that we can work and will to put God under an obligation to show mercy towards us. That isn't how God works.

He decides. He does it. A participation in God's word, mercy, is dependent upon God's sovereign will alone. Sovereign will alone. Now, I recognize that In a lot of cases, you kind of get nervous about that because you think, well, what am I, I'm supposed to do something. He'll show you what to do. Important thing is to learn his ways. So how does man obtain God's favor and mercy? How does he do it? In the Old Testament, contrast between how people view the obtaining God's mercy and favor and how one actually obtains it Faith in Christ. Faith in Christ.

William Newell said this, I thought this was great. This great verse should sink into our hearts, and into our very hearts, perhaps no statement of all scripture, so completely brings man to an utter end. Man thinks he can will. and decide Godward, and that after he has decided and willed, he has the ability to run, or as he says, to hold out. If you've been watching the Olympics, that's the attitude of every athlete there. That's what they think. So to declare to be the God that has mercy, Human responsibility is not rejected in that statement. Man should and will, he should will and he should run.

But the motivation isn't based in me, it's based in the resurrected life of Christ. But we are all nothing but sinners and can do and will do neither unless God comes forth to us in sovereign mercy. And as we saw in 118, we are in such bad shape with God that if he doesn't make a move, a move doesn't get made. So 17, we finally got to the scriptures I'm supposed to work on today.

For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this reason or this very purpose, I raised you up to demonstrate my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth. So I want you to notice a couple of things here. Pharaoh had said back in Exodus 5, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I don't know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go. Well, Pharaoh didn't understand. That was a big mistake.

God had a dual purpose in this verse of raising Pharaoh up. And when we talk about raising him up, we're not talking about Pharaoh existing. We're talking about God made him Pharaoh. put them in a position of authority. So as you look at our country, as you look at any country in the world, those people that are sitting in a place of position, this is the reason they're there. They're there so that God can demonstrate his power and his name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth, even though it doesn't look that way initially. So God is intent to declare his name in all the earth. So how did God do this?

God allowed Pharaoh, a rebellious and godless king, to survive the first six plagues. Therefore, he deserved to die for his rebellion. In other words, Pharaoh hardened his own heart in the first six plagues, and God allowed him to do that. I'll go back to the premise. God is going to use this to show his power and to spread his name. What if Pharaoh had said after the first plague, okay, I give. Go ahead and take them. Would God have demonstrated his power? Answer, yes. Would he have spread his name? Yes. But rebellion caused God to do it six more times. Pharaoh didn't realize if he would just shut up and let them go, there'd have been five times that he wouldn't have done it.

And then, God then completed the remaining plagues on the most powerful nation in the world to deliver his people. I think we need to appreciate who Egypt was. We think we're the most powerful nation in the world and that we don't bow to anybody. Well, that's the way Egypt was in this day. They were it. Nobody messed with Egypt.

And yet God destroys that entire civilization in a couple of weeks. destroys them, and then he marches their workforce right out of town. So God is always just, and he has the freedom to show mercy to whom he desires, because man doesn't deserve it, and he demonstrates he doesn't deserve it. He has the freedom to harden if it advances his purposes. His goal was to bring about his promised deliverance of the nation of Israel. That was his intent.

So, Exodus 9, 15. For if by now I had, he says to Pharaoh, if by now I had put forth my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, you would have been cut off from the earth. In other words, if I decided then to do it, you'd be out of here. But indeed for this reason I've allowed you to remain in order to show my power and in order to proclaim my name throughout all the earth. And still you exalt yourself against my people by not letting them go.

This passage has nothing to do with salvation or election. It has everything to do with a demonstration of who God is, his power, and it goes all the way back to Romans 1.18. It is about God raising Pharaoh up to his position.

Exodus 9.12 says, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had spoken to Moses. He told Moses ahead of time, this is what I'm gonna do. So, how was God's name declared in all the earth?

They didn't have CNN. They didn't have starlight satellites. You know, they didn't even have a Denver Post. Joshua 2.9, and this is Rahab going to the spies at night.

And here's what she says to them. I know that the Lord has given you the land. Now this is 40 plus years after the wandering in the desert. I know. How did she know? Has given you the land and that the terror of you has fallen on us and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. Oh, for we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed." I think she got the message.

1 Samuel 4, 5 and 7. When the Philistines heard the noise and the shout, they said, what does this noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews mean? Then they understood that the ark of the Lord had come into the camp. Now, the ark of the Lord had come into the camp. When they heard it, their hearts melted. The Philistines were afraid for they said, God has come into camp. into the camp and they said, woe to us for nothing like this has happened before.

You think God through Pharaoh got his name spread out and also his power? I think so, he did a pretty good job. So notice one other thing. This verse says, for the scripture says to Pharaoh, the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose, I raised you up to demonstrate my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.

Scripture says, the word says here is in the present tense, which means it's ongoing all the time. There is an element of persistence in this statement. If the scripture ever spoke, Weiss says at all, it continued and continues to speak today. It has never been struck dumb.

Weiss quotes Denny to show that while in verse 16, the experience of God's mercy does not depend on man's resolve or effort, verse 17, on the contrary, The contrary phenomenon is seen that of a man who does not and cannot receive mercy. The point is, Scripture speaks. Who told Pharaoh about what God had said? It was Moses. But because it's God's word, it's considered Scripture, and it never stops speaking. For Scripture says, the same authority says concerning all use of Scripture here. It's the Scripture the burden of proof is laid here. And in verse 15, for he says to Moses, Scripture, when the Lord speaks it, it's Scripture.

I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom I will have compassion. A Jew might come along though after all of this and answer the argument Paul uses here. And if they were Paul's own opinion, but the scripture Pharaoh or anyone else can make no reply. What are you going to say if it's scripture?

Scripture silences everybody, even where it does not convince you. You get that part? Scripture silences everyone even where it does not convince you. And it silences you and you begin to listen because it is God's word. So then, verse 18, he has mercy on whom he desires and he hardens whom he desires. God has a right. to harden the hearts of the people of Israel who had already hardened their own hearts towards him.

If you look at John 1.11, he came unto his own, who are his own, the Jews, and those whom were his own did not receive him. Who rejected who first? They rejected him.

God is just in setting aside or hardening ethnic Israel temporarily to show mercy to the Gentiles. The scripture plainly says that God has shown mercy to us Gentiles because the Jews had hardened their hearts and they were set aside. Romans 11, 11 is gonna say when we get to it, I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? In other words, God didn't wipe them out, did he? May it never be, but by their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles, you and me, to make them jealous, to make the Jews jealous. So then, So then as a participle expressing sequence or consequence is rendered then, the idea of coming to a conclusion here.

In conclusion then, unless Jehovah shows mercy, Israel must all righteously perish. There is no resource left in any man to go to God about, to say, here I am. God whose name is love must come out to man and come in mercy or it's all over for man. He has to come in mercy because he can't come in righteousness.

Grace and mercy will accomplish in the heart that which it carefully, which values it carefully, that reconciliation of the sovereignty of God with God's love and grace is possible alone to faith. It will also enlighten the mind concerning God's dealing with Israel as recorded in these three chapters in Romans. The point being is that God's grace, we were on Monday night, I'm sorry, we were talking about Titus and our friend Brian White is teaching Titus in his church.

And he got to Titus 2.10 or 2.11 where grace has appeared. And what does appearing of grace, what does grace teach us? It teaches us how to live. It teaches us the awesomeness of God. It teaches us our position and it teaches us from that position that the life of the Lord Jesus is to be manifested through us, not me imitating him. So we've seen that it was not necessary nor justifiable to make God the author of pharaoh's stubbornness. He wasn't the cause. It's also incorrect to insist that if God be a God of love, he must save everybody, as all sorts of universalists claim.

Exodus 7.13, yet Pharaoh's heart was hardened and he did not listen to them. As the Lord had said, the Lord said, he's not gonna listen to me. He's gonna harden his heart. He's gonna do it.

Exodus 7.14 says, when the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh's heart is stubborn, he refuses to let the people go. Stubborn there means it's heavy. God's report of Pharaoh's heart condition For God sees the heart and Pharaoh's heart was hardened and was strong against God. And he hearkened not unto him as Jehovah had said he wouldn't.

So then he has mercy on whom he desires. So God had a perfect right to allow Pharaoh to remain. where we all would be reminded or remained apart from divine sovereignty and mercy in a disobedient, God-defying attitude. You know, that's a big pill to swallow for all us really nice Christians, that we have a sin nature that is so against God, even today, that if it wasn't for God's grace and mercy and he let us go, that's what we would do. We would defy him. What God's word tells us as to his dealing with Pharaoh, he explains, he hardens, but nothing other than a subjected heart of faith will enter with reverence into the words whom he will, whom he will. Ask yourself, is it okay with you if he wills to bless you? And we say boldly that the believer's heart is not fully yielded to God until it accepts without question and without demanding softening, this 18th verse, Paul, and the spirit shoots down the natural operation of man's proud heart.

So God has rights high above all of our weak comprehension of what he is. We know that God will always act righteously. We are not to judge God. We're not his judges. No godly person would challenge God's right to show mercy or act righteously. And godly people must reverently bow to that.

What's interesting is you think, well, Maybe I don't bother that because God won't deal fairly with me. He doesn't deal fairly with you. Ever think about that? He deals graciously with you. If he was fair, you guys would all be at a basketball game right now. So can you now say, you Jew and we Christians, ask ourselves the question, will you be willing to be dealt with God on the basis of righteousness? Raise your hand if you say yeah. Raise your hand if you say no. Some of you got it.

No, you would not. then do not even think about it until you can go to God on the footing of grace and mercy. That's the only standing you have, is grace and mercy. If you have a conviction of sin that stops your mouth from all about righteousness and so excludes all arrogance, you will rejoice in the mercy and compassion of God who retreats to his own sovereign righteousness. that he may know how to spare because of this sovereignty, he can show mercy.

And I wrote from down there and actually I was talking to Roger about this and I thought it was Newell's, it's not, this is John Darby. So in conclusion, I think these verses really tell us by using the example of Pharaoh that Pharaoh was a man that God raised up put him in charge, made him a great man in the world, but he went against God. And God said, well, I raised you up for that purpose because I'm gonna demonstrate my power to the whole world through you. And I'm gonna make my name known through you.

So if God wasn't gracious, If that wasn't one of his attributes and he satisfied his righteousness via the cross of Christ, so they could demonstrate mercy and grace to us, we would all be lost, but we're not. We're positioned in Christ for all eternity. So let's close. Father, how we thank you for your word. We thank you for how gracious you are, how careful you are to cause us to be conformed to Christ, who is the one man that totally satisfied you. And we're thankful for him and we pray in his precious name. Amen.