SPRINGCREEK FELLOWSHIP
Sunday, May 31, 2026
Acts 2:42CSB
- Nobody Loves Me Like You
Psalm 119:97–104LGCYSTNDRDBBLSB
- The Lord's Prayer (It's Yours)
- I See The Lord
- Is He Worthy
- IntroductionWithin (Romans 9:6-33) there are FOUR MAIN QUESTIONS (the first one implied, and the remaining three direct) that will serve as an outline of our study:(v.6) - “Has the Word of God failed?” (Implied)(v.14) - “…Is there injustice with God?”(v.19) - “…Why then does he still find fault?”(v.30) - “What should we say then?…”This morning we come to the THIRD QUESTION which is asked in TWO PARTS in (v.19)
Romans 9:19 CSB You will say to me, therefore, “Why then does he still find fault? For who resists his will?”Paul ANSWERS those questions by ASKING FIVE MORE QUESTIONS in (vv.20-24), followed by THREE QUOTATIONS from the OT (from HOSEA and ISAIAH)!I. The TWO-PART QUESTION! - (9:19)A. The OCCASION: “You will say to me, therefore…”The question arises because, as we learned last week,Romans 9:18 CSB So then, he has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden.BOTH illustrations of MOSES and PHARAOH reveal the MERCY of God!MOSES - Confessed the sin of the people and God showed him His glory!PHARAOH - God could have destroyed ALL of Egypt with the very first plague, but He only punished Pharaoh and his army!Proverbs 29:1 CSB 1 One who becomes stiff-necked, after many reprimands will be shattered instantly— beyond recovery.Proverbs 28:13 CSB 13 The one who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.THIS WHOLE SECTION is about the SOVEREIGNTY and MERCY of God!David Hocking - “The real miracle is that God saves anyone at all! If we all got what we deserved, we would be in Hell!”B. The TWO-PART QUESTION: “…Why then does he still find fault? For who resists his will?”Since the implied answer to the latter is, “NO ONE!”, then the first question is valid: “How can a just God find fault if everything that happens is His will?”Which is why I am not a Calvinist!II. Paul’s FIVE-QUESTION ANSWER! - (9:20-24)In considering the five questions Paul asks in order to establish God’s authority to “…find fault,” the first two addresses…A. Our Right to CHALLENGE God - (v.20)(v.20a) - “On the contrary, who are you, a human begin, to talk back to God?”R.A. Knox - “…to bandy words with God?”Isaiah 45:9 CSB 9 “Woe to the one who argues with his Maker— one clay pot among many. Does clay say to the one forming it, ‘What are you making?’ Or does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?(v.20b) - “Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”Isaiah 29:16 CSB 16 You have turned things around, as if the potter were the same as the clay. How can what is made say about its maker, “He didn’t make me”? How can what is formed say about the one who formed it, “He doesn’t understand what he’s doing”?Not only is the ANSWER to BOTH questions, “NO!” Paul is saying, WE DON’T EVEN HAVE THE RIGHT TO SPEAK!The next two questions deals with…B. God’s Right to INTERVENE in the Course of History! - (vv.21-22)1. The CONTEXTBEFORE we consider the next two questions, it’s important to remember the CONTEXT in which they are asked.Paul is talking about God’s INTERVENTION in the lives of individuals—and the people they represent (illustrated previously in Moses and the Israelites; and Pharaoh and Egypt), in order to bring about His ultimate will of righteousness being available by FAITH to both Jews and Gentiles! - (vv.30-33)!2. The QUESTIONS:(v.21) - “Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor?”“…no right” - from ἐξουσίαν - ‘authority, power, right’(Jeremiah 18:1-12)NOTE: “…the clay became flawed in the potter’s hand” - (v.4a)If God is absolutely sovereign and nothing happens apart from His will, then how did the clay become ‘flawed’ in His hand?Does God’s SOVEREIGNTY PRECLUDE man’s free will/agency?NOT according to the lesson of the POTTER! - (Jeremiah 18:7-10)“How do you explain God’s sovereignty and human agency/freewill?”You DON’T. I believe in free will/agency; but I also believe in God’s authority to choose!Mounce - “Human logic cannot harmonize divine sovereignty and human freedom, but both are clearly taught in Scripture. Neither should be adjusted to fit the parameters of the other. They form an antinomy that by definition eludes our best attempts at explanation.”(v.22) - “And what if God, wanting to display his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath prepared for destruction?”“endured” - from ἤνεγκεν - ‘to carry, to bear, endure’“much patience” - μακροθυμίᾳ - a compound word: macro - ‘long’; and thumos - ‘heart, mind.’ I love the picture of something that is “long on your heart and mind!”I believe in this question is a reference to PHARAOH in (v.17)!“Why did God endure him so long?” To show His POWER and to PROCLAIM HIS NAME in the whole earth!The TRUTH is, God’s “endurance” and “patience” is part of who HE IS!Psalm 145:8–9 CSB 8 The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and great in faithful love. 9 The Lord is good to everyone; his compassion rests on all he has made.Ezekiel 33:11 CSB 11 Tell them, ‘As I live—this is the declaration of the Lord God—I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked person should turn from his way and live. Repent, repent of your evil ways! Why will you die, house of Israel?’The FINAL question addresses…C. God’s REVELATION of “…the riches of his glory on objects of mercy”! - (vv.23-24)(vv.23–24) - “And what if he did this to make known the riches of his glory on objects of mercy that he prepared beforehand for glory—on us, the ones he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?”Someone once said or wrote (I don’t remember which), “Though I may not know His mind or see His hand, I can always trust His heart!”My friends, if the only reason God gives for His actions is to “…make known the riches of his glory on objects of mercy,” is not that enough?Ephesians 1:3–6 CSB 3 Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. 5 He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One.Ephesians 2:3–5 CSB 3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!III. Paul’s SUPPORT from the OT! - (9:25-29)(v.25a) - “As it also says…”Paul is not introducing something NEW!God is working out His plan of salvation (v.24b) - “…not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles!”A. The Lesson from HOSEA! - (vv.25-26)There could not be a more REMARKABLE occasion of both God’s INTERVENTION (asserting His will) in the life a prophet, AND His ILLUSTRATION of His plan for Israel, than in the marriage of Hosea to Gomer and the naming of their children!The story begins with a WEDDING, but NOT one that will be featured on the Hallmark Channel!Hosea 1:2 CSB 2 When the Lord first spoke to Hosea, he said this to him: Go and marry a woman of promiscuity, and have children of promiscuity, for the land is committing blatant acts of promiscuity by abandoning the Lord.Not just a wedding, but CHILDREN—and the LORD NAMES THEM AS WELL!Hosea 1:4 CSB 4 Then the Lord said to him: Name him Jezreel, for in a little while I will bring the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu and put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.Jezreel - ‘the hand that grasps and casts away’Hosea 1:6 CSB 6 She conceived again and gave birth to a daughter, and the Lord said to him: Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel. I will certainly take them away.Lo-ruhamah - ‘no mercy or compassion’Hosea 1:8–9 CSB 8 After Gomer had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and gave birth to a son. 9 Then the Lord said: Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not my people, and I will not be your God.Lo-ammi - ‘no people’If these kids all lived up to their names, this had to be the most disfunctional family in history!“Why did God do this?”David Hocking - “All three of these children are demonstrating God’s judgment on Israel!”HOWEVER, the story doesn’t end with verse nine!Hosea 1:10 CSB 10 Yet the number of the Israelites will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. And in the place where they were told: You are not my people, they will be called: Sons of the living God.QUOTED IN Romans 9!Hosea 1:11 CSB 11 And the Judeans and the Israelites will be gathered together. They will appoint for themselves a single ruler and go up from the land. For the day of Jezreel will be great.What appeared to be a ‘casting away’ will in fact be a great harvest!AND in a very PRACTICAL way, by the time of Jesus, God’s casting of the Jews throughout the Roman Empire was like the sowing of seed for the spread of the early Church!Hosea 2:1 CSB 1 Call your brothers: My People and your sisters: Compassion.What was ‘no compassion’ and ‘no people’ will one day be reversed—God is NOT THROUGH with Israel!Hosea 2:23 CSB 23 I will sow her in the land for myself, and I will have compassion on Lo-ruhamah; I will say to Lo-ammi: You are my people, and he will say, “You are my God.”1 Peter 2:10 CSB 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.B. The Lesson from ISAIAH! - (vv.27-29)Whereas the previous passage in Hosea was concerning “…the Gentiles” (v.24b), Paul’s usage of Isaiah is specific to Israel!(v.27a) - “But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel…”“What does Isaiah say?”Romans 9:27–28 CSB 27 But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, Though the number of Israelites is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved; 28 since the Lord will execute his sentence completely and decisively on the earth.WHICH is nearly word-for-word quotation of the LXX - (Isaiah 10:22-23)!Romans 9:29 CSB 29 And just as Isaiah predicted: If the Lord of Hosts had not left us offspring, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah.Isaiah 1:9 CSB 9 If the Lord of Armies had not left us a few survivors, we would be like Sodom, we would resemble Gomorrah.The immediate CONTEXT of the above passages is Isaiah’s prophecy concerning the Assyrian invasion which occured in phases between 740 BC to 701 BC, in which Israel was greatly reduced in number!John Walvoord and Roy Zuck write in the Bible Knowledge Commentary:The passages quoted […] make it clear that in God’s judgment on rebellious Israel He by sovereign choice preserves and saves a remnant. Those promises were fulfilled in the Captivity and Exile of both Israel and Judah and in the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and will also be fulfilled in the national end-time deliverance of Israel (Rom. 11:26–27). Even today the same principle is true. Jews who become members of the church, the body of Christ, are what Paul later called “a remnant chosen by grace” (11:5), which included himself (11:1).NEXT WEEK: The FINAL QUESTION - (9:30) - “What should we say then?” Romans 9:19LGCYSTNDRDBBLSB
Romans 9:18LGCYSTNDRDBBLSB
Proverbs 29:1LGCYSTNDRDBBLSB
Proverbs 28:13LGCYSTNDRDBBLSB
Isaiah 45:9LGCYSTNDRDBBLSB
Isaiah 29:16LGCYSTNDRDBBLSB
Psalm 145:8–9LGCYSTNDRDBBLSB
Ezekiel 33:11LGCYSTNDRDBBLSB
Ephesians 1:3–6LGCYSTNDRDBBLSB
Ephesians 2:3–5LGCYSTNDRDBBLSB
Hosea 1:2LGCYSTNDRDBBLSB
Hosea 1:4LGCYSTNDRDBBLSB
Hosea 1:6LGCYSTNDRDBBLSB
Hosea 1:8–9LGCYSTNDRDBBLSB
Hosea 1:10LGCYSTNDRDBBLSB
Hosea 1:11LGCYSTNDRDBBLSB
Hosea 2:1LGCYSTNDRDBBLSB
Hosea 2:23LGCYSTNDRDBBLSB
1 Peter 2:10LGCYSTNDRDBBLSB
Romans 9:27–28LGCYSTNDRDBBLSB
Romans 9:29LGCYSTNDRDBBLSB
Isaiah 1:9LGCYSTNDRDBBLSB