Pharaoh's Hard Heart (Exodus 6:10-7:13)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer. I am one of the pastors here. We're going to be in Exodus chapter 6 verse 10 through 713 as we continue to travel through Exodus together. So in college, my wife and I started dating our junior year.
So we were best friends before and we started dating February of my junior year. And it was taking a chance. Dating your best friend was serious enough. By the time the summer came along, it was even more serious. But that summer before senior year, we both spent the summer apart.
I was down in Myrtle Beach doing a summer beach project with a campus ministry and she was working for a camp. And we only got to see each other once in that period about halfway through the summer she came down and visited. That summer was big for me. I was thinking through a lot, processing a lot of bigger questions. And then about a week before she came down, I reached out to her and said, hey, listen, we need to talk. I've been thinking and processing some things and just we'll talk when you get down here.
And then the whole week, she was like, oh, no, this isn't good. Because back then, I don't know if it's still popular now, but like younger Christians would do the whole like breakup thing where it's like, I feel like God's just calling me to like a season of singleness. Or like, like over spiritualize that kind of stuff. And she's like, oh, has he gone down there for four weeks and God's worked in his heart and all of a sudden. So the whole week she's sitting on that.
And then she comes down and visits and I didn't waste any time. I said, let's go for a walk. So I went for a walk and I just said, listen, I've been I've been thinking a lot this summer and I finally have some clarity on something. For years, I've been wrestling with the sovereignty of God and man's free will. And I just I finally I don't know. I have a piece about it now.
And I just started to talk about how I got just been searching the scriptures and I finally had some peace. And she's like, what? Are you serious? She's like, I thought you were going to break up with me. I said, break up with you. Where did you get that crazy idea from?
No, I was falling in love with her. I was I was. No, that was not how that was going down at all. But I let her on and she was very upset. And it's been a joke ever since. We're a high loader with that.
But a couple of weeks ago, we were in Exodus four. And we came across this bigger theological question that showed up in 421 when it says, 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 you go. Let the let the people go. So that question I've been wrestling with is a question that many Christians have wrestled with.
When you come across passages like this, where it says he hardened the heart of Pharaoh. So what do you do with that? A couple of weeks ago, I said we didn't have the space to cover it that week. But we would in a couple of weeks. And now we are here. So we're going to take a look at this subject matter, what it means with this language of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart.
Because many Christians have wrestled with this. That if God hardens the heart of Pharaoh, if he makes Pharaoh do a thing, does that make Pharaoh responsible for his own sinful actions? Like how does that work? People ask, how is that fair? Or how is that just? These are some difficult questions to approach in the scriptures.
And this phrasing of God's heart and Pharaoh's heart shows up over and over and over again in the first half of Exodus. So it's front and center of our passage today. We're going to take a look at it. We're going to look at this passage. And then I want us to, as we work through it, take a step back. And then approach this bigger theological question in light of the rest of the story.
Now, I don't promise to resolve all the tension that's been held for 2,000 years as the church has tried to understand this. But I do believe if we take a far enough step back, we'll actually see this as really good. And we'll be able to find some peace about all of this. So, let me pray. And then we'll jump in. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would bless our time.
And your word is sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces the division of soul and spirit, of bone and marrow. It reveals the thoughts and the tensions of the heart. God, I pray that you would use the word of God to do that in us this morning. And that we would respond in faith and worship and delighting in you. We ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen. All right, so let's jump in in verse 10. So the Lord said to Moses, Go in. Tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the people of Israel go out of his land. But Moses said to the Lord, Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me.
How then shall Pharaoh listen to me? For I am of uncircumcised lips. But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about king of Egypt to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. So as we saw a couple of weeks ago in Moses' calling, he has doubt. And this doubt seems to continue. He has a doubt.
He's like, how am I going to convince Pharaoh? I can't even convince the people. See, we left off in verse 9 of last week. And it said they had a crushed, a broken spirit. Because they first approached Pharaoh and then it didn't go as well. And Pharaoh afflicted heavy burdens on the people.
And now they're crushed in spirit. He's like, I can't even convince the people. He says, I'm a man of uncircumcised lips. Which is just a way of saying I have unclean lips. I'm not good enough. If I can't convince the people, how in the world am I going to convince Pharaoh?
Pharaoh. Now we know, as we're going to see next week, how God is going to convince Pharaoh through his wondrous, mighty Acts. He says, no, go to Pharaoh. And they're about to. And 10 through 30 is all one big chunk that's together. All of a sudden, it seems to come out of nowhere as a genealogy.
Which I know is everyone's favorite. It's a genealogy that just kind of shows up out of nowhere. I think a couple of reasons. I think it's there. I think it's to break up the story of Exodus. I think act 1 is the calling of Moses and him coming to Egypt.
And then act 2 is going to start with God performing his mighty, wondrous Acts. Also, this genealogy is Moses and Aaron centered. It doesn't go through all the tribes of Israel. It goes all the way up to Levi, which is the tribe of Moses and Aaron. And in a lot of Old Testament passages, it's told in the form of chiasm. That's a nerdy biblical word.
But what it is is basically this. This 10 through 30 section is Moses, then Moses and Aaron, leading up to the genealogy. Then it flows backwards, Moses and Aaron, and back to Moses, some of the exact same phrasing. So that's what's happening here in this genealogy. It's really legitimizing and verifying this is the Moses and Aaron who God used to do this. So, pick up in verse 14.
These are the heads of their fathers' houses. So, we've done genealogies before. We did it in Matthew. Genealogies are not like Ancestry.com. It's not catching every single person in the line. They're told thematically and theologically.
They're hitting major figures. And that's what happens in this because they're skipping lots of different people in the line. These are the heads of their fathers' houses. The sons of Reuben. Here's the first tribe. The firstborn of Israel.
Hanak, Paulu, Hezron, and Carmi. These are the clans of Reuben. The sons of Simeon. Jemuel. Jamin. Ohad.
Jachin. Zohar. And Shaul, the son of the Canaanite woman. Which, that's some commentary. That Shaul's dad married the wrong woman. He didn't marry Canaanite women.
Canaanites were pagans. They did things like sacrifice their children to foreign gods. That's just some commentary there. The son of the Canaanite women are the clans of Simeon. Verse 16. These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations.
Okay, so this is where we get to Moses and Aaron, their tribe. Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. The years of the life of Levi being 137 years. The sons of Gershon, Libni, and Shimei by their clans. The sons of Kohath, Amram, Mali, and Mushi. Sorry.
The sons of Kohath, Amram, Izahar, Hebron, and Uziel. The years of the life of Kohath being 133 years. Then verse 19. The sons of Merari, Mali, and Mushi. Which, those of you that want children's names and you want to alliterate your children's names. Those three are winners.
Okay. Keep going. These are the clans of the Levites according to their generations. Verse 20. Amram took as his wife Jochebed his father's sister. And she bore him Aaron and Moses.
Okay. Let me read that again one more time. Amram took as his wife Jochebed his father's sister. And she bore him Aaron and Moses. Okay. A little gross.
Okay. The Bible is not. Just being honest. The Bible sometimes is descriptive and not always prescriptive. Okay. This is before the Old Testament law that prohibits ancestral relationships.
And that is what happened here. So for those of you that were like, oh, genealogy is so boring. I bet you didn't know that Moses' mom was his great aunt. That's a thing. Which also I feel like had to be a little bit awkward in Leviticus when Moses is receiving the law from God. And we get to Leviticus 18 and it forbids ancestral relationships.
And it specifically in there lists a bunch of them. And it says, don't sleep with your aunt. I mean, that's just probably just thinking, man, I'm glad mama's gone. But daddy's a little younger. So he's going to take it real hard when he hears this.
Anyways. The years of the life of Amram being 137 years. Keep going. The sons of Izahar. Korah. This is the Korah who leads the rebellion against Moses.
Spoiler alert. It doesn't end well for him. Then we've got Nephag and Zichri. The sons of Uziel. Mishael. Elzaphon.
And Sithri. Verse 23. Aaron took as his wife Elishabah, the daughter of Amminadab and the sister of Nashon. She bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. The sons of Korah. Asir.
Elkanah. And Abiaseth. These are the clans of the Korahites. Verse 25. Eleazar, Aaron's son, took as his wife, one of the daughters of Pudiel. And she bore him Phineas.
We'll later see that Phineas, he ends a rebellion against God with zeal and a spear. These are the heads of the fathers, houses of the Levites by their clans. All right. Now we're going backwards in the Chiasm. Verse 26. These are the Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, bring out the people of Israel from the land of Egypt by their hosts.
It was they who spoke to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, about bringing out the people of Israel from Egypt. This Moses and Aaron. And then we end with Moses. Verse 28. On the day when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, the Lord said to Moses, I am the Lord. Tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I say to you.
Here's that phrasing again. But Moses said to the Lord, but behold, I'm of uncircumcised lips. How will Pharaoh listen to me? Okay. So that completes that section.
Then we move into chapter 7. Now, what I want to do first is I want to walk through the story. Walk through the story. Then we're going to come back and work through this bigger theological question of God's sovereignty and man's free will. So, verse 1. And the Lord said to Moses, see, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.
So Moses is the mediator, the prophet of God. And then he goes on to say, you shall speak all that I command you. And your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart. So there it is.
That's the phrasing. We're going to come back to that. And though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. So let me pause there for a second. He says signs and wonders. When you think about the ten things that happen that Moses performs to the power of God, what is the word that usually comes up in your brain?
Plagues. Plagues is only used once. That's more of how the Egyptians would have received them as plagues. It's more called five times wonders and then signs and wonders. It's just a very curious way we've learned that. Pharaoh will not listen to you.
And I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my host, my people, the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by great Acts of judgment. So he calls them my hosts, which is military language, my people, my children. And he's going to bring them out by bringing judgment on the Egyptians. Verse five. Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them. So God is going to have the showdown with Pharaoh.
With the king of Egypt. And as we saw last week, which was walking us through chapter five and chapter five, Pharaoh says this. Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? He arrogantly says that. And as we're going to see, we know exactly who this God is. And fair, you are about to find out who he is as he brings judgment.
On you and your people. Verse six. Moses and Aaron did so. They did just as the Lord commanded them. And Moses was 80 years old and Aaron 83 years old when they spoke to Pharaoh. So I mentioned this a few weeks ago and I'll mention it again.
God doesn't raise up a young, valiant, strong warrior. No, he calls Moses, who's 80 at this point, Aaron, 83. He uses men who are in the latter years of their life to accomplish his purposes. Just a really beautiful thing. So, verse eight. Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, when Pharaoh says to you, prove yourselves by working a miracle, then you shall say to Aaron, take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh that it may become a serpent.
So this is what happened at Mount Horeb. When God was showing his power to Moses. Through down the staff, it became a serpent. The serpent, which is going to be key, as it shows up here in a moment. The serpent is actually, the snake is actually a sign, a royal sign for Pharaoh. That's why sometimes we see Pharaoh tombs.
They have a snake here. This is part of the royal sign. And God is about to flex his power over this false God, Pharaoh. Verse 10. So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded.
Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants and it became a serpent. So he cast it down before the royal court, before Pharaoh. And then verse 11 says, then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers. And they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. For each man cast down a staff and they became serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs.
So in every ancient Near Eastern royal court, a king would have different, different people in his court that had different arts. Magi, magicians, sorcerers. They had all kinds of people. And we were in teaching team this week. And Isaac, who's on our teaching team. He said, were these like, like sleight of hand?
Like almost illusionist type tricks? Or was this like dark, kind of satanic power they were tapping into to mimic, to answer what Aaron did with the staff? To which Chet said in true Chet form, it's a secret. Read the text. We don't know. We don't know if this was just sleight of hand or if this was deeper, darker satanic forces.
But they answer and counter with staffs that turned into serpents. And then as we're going to see in all of these wondrous works, God's power is greater. The snake swallows up their staffs. And then we get Pharaoh's response. Still, verse 13, Pharaoh's heart was hardened. And he would not listen to them as the Lord had said.
So, Pharaoh's heart was hardened. We are going to spend the rest of our time looking at that phrasing that shows up over and over again. So, let me state what I believe is the most biblical position on this. God, because he is the sovereign God and ruler over all things. God hardens Pharaoh's heart for his purposes. And Pharaoh is responsible for his own sinful choices.
That God, because he is the sovereign ruler over all things, God hardens Pharaoh's heart for his purposes. And Pharaoh is also responsible for his own sinful actions. Which in saying that, I know can raise some immediate questions. How do you reconcile those two statements? How does this work together? How do you understand this?
Another question that people ask is, how is this fair? How is this just? We can get to some of those questions. But in order to approach those, we have to do what we do with any question from the Bible. We have to look at the Bible and start there. What does the Bible say about this?
So, I first want to look at Exodus. And see what Exodus says. And then we're going to hopefully see what it means. So, let me put some back-to-back passages. 7.3 says, But I will harden Pharaoh's heart. That's God actively saying, I will harden Pharaoh's heart.
Then you get to verse 13 of chapter 7. And it says, Still, Pharaoh's heart was hardened. That's describing the passive state of his heart. And then in 15, it says, But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart. Now, that is Pharaoh actively hardening his own heart. So, that begs the question, which one is it?
Did God harden Pharaoh's heart? Or did Pharaoh harden his own heart? Now, folks that are uncomfortable with the idea that God hardens anyone's hearts, lean more into, no, Pharaoh hardened his own heart. That is something that I used to do for years. I was very uncomfortable with this idea that God would harden anyone's heart. That he would violate their will.
And for years, I leaned into 8.15. This passage, 8.15. It seemed to be the trump card here. But I came to realize this answer is incomplete. But there are Christians that hold to this.
The late, brilliant theologian, John Stott, once commenting on all of this, said that Pharaoh hardened his heart against God and refused to humble himself is made plain in the story. So God's hardening of him was a judicial act, abandoning him to his own stubbornness. What he just said was, is that, look, the text makes it plain. That Pharaoh hardens his own heart. So what's happening here is that Pharaoh, independent from God, is hardening his own heart.
And basically what God is doing in his justice is just letting him do it. It's pushing him into his own, let him go into his own stubbornness. And that is something that I would have defended years ago because that certainly fit the philosophical understanding of how God works with our will. But the problem is, that's not what Exodus says. That's not what Exodus says. And that argument ignores the rest of the scriptures because that's not how the scriptures treat Pharaoh.
Pharaoh certainly hardens his own heart. He does. Absolutely. But he does so because God ordained it to be that way. So to answer the question, did God harden Pharaoh's heart?
Or did Pharaoh harden his own heart? Yes. Both are true. But Pharaoh's hardening of his own heart doesn't negate the fact that God's plan was to harden his heart all along. But this is the plan from the start.
It was God's plan to bring judgment upon Egypt. He was not waiting for Pharaoh to make the first step. This was the plan all along. And we caught this as early as chapter 3 in Exodus in Moses' calling in verse 19 when it says, But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I, God, will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it.
After that, he will let you go. God says, I know that Pharaoh will not let you go unless compelled by my mighty hand. And when I've performed all of the wondrous Acts that I'm going to perform, I will make him let you leave. Then you will be free to go. And that picks up and continued in chapter 4. Verse 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. God is going to harden his heart. Now, some folks will try to play word games with that word harden. Some will say, Oh, that's just poetic language. It's not meant to be interpreted literally. Others will say, Well, actually, the Hebrew word for harden here, when it's used in other places, means to strengthen or to encourage.
So, for that first argument, this is not poetic language at all. That's the weakest argument there is. This isn't poetry. This is historical recounting. It is not poetic. And the second, it says, Well, the Hebrew word, when it's used elsewhere, means strengthen or encourage.
There are actually two Hebrew words for harden in Exodus. The way it's used in 7-3, but I will harden Pharaoh's heart. That word for harden only, always, means to harden, to stiffen. That's only how it's used. Now, the second word for harden, look at 7-13, it says, Still, Pharaoh's heart was hardened. That's the one that folks will play word games with because it is true.
When that is used outside the book of Exodus, it can mean to strengthen or to encourage. However, even if you take that meaning of strengthen or encourage and bring it into this passage and the other passages that's used in Exodus, what is Pharaoh being strengthened or encouraged to do? He's being strengthened or encouraged to disobey God's command to let the people go. That's what's happening here. That is why every single English translation I could find for 500 years of English translations, all of them translated the same. Harden.
Harden. Harden. Every single one. So, in 4-21, God tells Moses that he's hardening the heart of Pharaoh. That ultimately, Pharaoh's going to resist the command of God and he's going to bring wrath on and judgment on the Egyptians. And then you can go through the rest of Exodus and how this is used.
In 7-3, it says, I will harden Pharaoh's heart. That's God talking. In 7-13, it says, Pharaoh's heart was hardened. 7-14, Pharaoh's heart is hardened. Then in 8-15, it says, Pharaoh hardened, he hardened his heart.
That's Pharaoh actively hardening his own heart. Then in 8-19, but Pharaoh's heart was hardened. Then we get two more uses. We're in 8-32, it says, but Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also. And then it says in verse 34 of chapter 9, he, talking about Pharaoh, hardened, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart. So showing, Pharaoh hardening his heart, sinning against God.
Then, the rest of the story, 9-12, but the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh. 10-20, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. 10-27, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. 11-10, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. 14-4, I will harden Pharaoh's heart. 14-8, the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh.
14-17, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so they will go in after them. So not just Pharaoh, but the Egyptians too. Only three times does it mention that Pharaoh actively hardened his own heart. The rest is a mountain of evidence that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh for his own redemptive purposes. God is in control of the situation and it is going to come out in the way that he ordains it to be. Over and over and over again, Exodus tells us that God hardened Pharaoh's heart.
And then when you get to Exodus 9, as God is pouring out his judgment through signs and wonders on the Egyptians, this is what 9-16 says, but for this purpose, this is God talking, I have raised you up, to show you my power, show Pharaoh my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. God raised up Pharaoh so that God might display his power through judgment on a regime that has enslaved his people for 400 plus years. That all the earth would know the power of God. That's the rest of the Old Testament right there. Looks back to the event of Exodus. The surrounding nations of Israel and then the promised land, they know who this God is because of what he did to Pharaoh and to Egypt.
And that theme flows throughout the rest of the Old Testament. And it shows up over and over and over again. God, because he is the sovereign king, the ruler over everyone and everything, God hardens Pharaoh's heart for his purposes. And Pharaoh is responsible for his own sinful actions. And the Bible teaches that over and over again. Which can still leave us staggering, lingering with questions.
How do you reconcile those two statements? How do you reconcile those two truths? How does that work? Some will say, how is that fair? How is that just? And for many, that's not an academic question.
It's not. For many, that's not a question that gets debated in coffee shops and ivory tower conversations. There are real faces and real stories and real people attached to that question. You have sons and daughters and brothers and sisters. You have friends and neighbors and family and co-workers, people that you love. That's not an academic question for many at all.
It's a personal one. And when you have that greater theological question and you fast forward and say, what does that mean for our own salvation? What does that mean for us? Then you get to the New Testament. Then you get to the book of Romans chapter 9.
And in chapter 9 of Romans, God, through Paul, uses Exodus and Pharaoh to explain how this works as it relates to our own salvation. So what does all this hardening language in Exodus mean? And the New Testament gives the answer. Verse 14, chapter 9, Romans. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part?
By no means. The forceful by no means. God is not unjust. And then he gives an example. 4, verse 15. 4, 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, verse 16, it depends not on human will or exertion but on God who has mercy. Does it depend on the will of man? It depends on the mercy of God. Verse 17, 4, the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this 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. That's quoting what we just read in Exodus 9. Verse 18, so then, he has mercy on whomever he wills and he hardens he hardens whomever he wills.
So what do you do with that unbelievably difficult teaching? I have four biblical truths to end with. I have four biblical truths that would be helpful for us to humbly submit to and believe in light of all of this in Exodus and all of this teaching in the scriptures. Here's the first. We are responsible for our own sin. The Bible makes that abundantly clear.
We are responsible for our own sin. Just because God is sovereign over everyone and everything and God chooses us to harden whom he hardens and give mercy to whom he gives mercy to that does not absolve us of human responsibility. We are responsible for his own sin. You saw that in Exodus 9. In Exodus 9, 34 it says, but when Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and the thunder had ceased he sinned yet again and hardened his heart he and his servants. It's taught in Exodus.
He's responsible for his own sinful actions. And then you get to the New Testament. James 1. James 1 says, let no one say when he's being tempted, I am being tempted by God for God cannot be tempted and he himself can't be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one. And then he goes on to make it clear that each person is tempted when he's lured and enticed by his own desire. His own desire.
We are responsible for our own sin. Our own sin tempts us. God does not. 1 John 1.5 says, this is the message that we have heard from him and proclaimed to you that God is light. In him there is no darkness at all. There is no sin in God.
And he does not tempt and lure anyone into sin. The Bible makes that clear and abundantly clear. We are still responsible for our own sin. God does not make us sin. We sin and incur condemnation all on our own. That's the first biblical truth that we should humbly submit to.
The second is this. It is God's divine right to be sovereign over us. It is God's divine right to be sovereign over us. God is God and we are creatures. He made us. He rules over us.
Now, as Western Americans who celebrate freedom, independence, autonomy, as a birthright, that's what we celebrate as Americans. It is a birthright that we are free, autonomous, independent, human beings. We don't like that teaching at all. It's not something we're naturally accepting of. But God is God and he rules over us.
We are not autonomous. We are not independent. We are not free. The Bible makes this argument very clearly. You are either a slave to your own sinful desires. That you either obey your own sinful flesh and follow it to where it goes or you are a slave of God.
That God is your master. And in servitude to God there is joy and gladness and unbelievable blessings. But there is no middle ground. You are either a servant of one or the other. You are not free. And part of us wants to object and say, how is that fair?
Some will even use the language, I can't believe in a God who would work like this. I can't believe in a God who would do this. How? How can these two truths coexist? And God's answer to that is also in Romans 9. Pick up where I left off in Romans 9.
This is how God answers that. You will say to me then, why does he still find fault? Why does he still find faultness? For who can resist his will? That's the question that we have. Verse 20.
Here's the answer. But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Well, what does molded say to its molder? Why have you made me like this? Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? So God answers us.
He says, who are you, a mere pot, to question the infinite potter? Who are you, limited by design, human, to answer the infinite God? the response here is humility, humble yourself, you are a pot. That's fairly blunt. And the reality is, and the Bible also teaches this, that if you want fairness, and I think fairness in the way that people mean nowadays, which there really means justice, you want fair. Fair is that everyone gets condemnation, and everyone gets the wages of sin, which is death. Everyone gets hell. because everyone is responsible for their own sinful actions.
And I know how that sounds to some of you. I know. Like, I know the part of you that's like, I just know. Like, I used to rage against arguments like this. I could not for the life of me reconcile how God could be completely sovereign and we're responsible for our own, how does that work? And for me, it was not an academic exercise.
In the slightest, I had family that did not believe, I had friends that did not believe. Like, I understand that the inner turmoil of the soul and trying to wrap our minds around this, and then something just clicked in a way that's not unique to me at all. It has clicked for millions and millions of followers of Christ when they finally have discovered this third truth that I would encourage you to humbly submit to, and that is this, God's sovereignty and man's free will is a mystery to behold. God's sovereignty and man's free will is a mystery to behold. So the question is, how do you reconcile those two ideas?
We don't have to. We don't have to. You know why? Because we're not God. We don't have to know how all this works. We don't have to know.
It is a mysterious paradox that we're never meant to understand. A paradox is two seemingly contradictory ideas, two seemingly opposed truths that happen to both be equally true. Both of those are biblically true. They may seem contradictory, they are not. We don't know how it all comes together, and we don't have to. It is not a puzzle for mere human minds to solve.
It is a mystery that we're meant to behold. And wrestling with it and trying to understand it is like looking at the sun and trying to behold the sun for all of its power. That's what J.K. Chesterton says about mysteries. Sometimes it's like you're trying to understand the sun and all of its power and you look at it and it's blinding you. It's too much.
You can't take it in, but if you just would look at everything else, the sun lights up. Just behold the sun for what it is and its power and just look at everything else, then everything else will be seen more clearly. If you try to understand this mysterious truth and behold it and try to quantify it, it blinds you. But if you just would look at the Christian life with that lens and just accept the mystery, everything else is more clear. It is a mystery to behold and if you can arrive at that conclusion, then I submit to you a fourth truth that I think is beautiful. The sovereignty of God is meant to lead us to worship.
Four, the sovereignty of God is meant to lead us to worship. We don't have to try to reconcile everything, we don't have to counter debates. And even for those of you that may accept this, there's an arrogance that comes with it that tries to dogmatically go after other people. That is not what this is meant for. It is meant to humble us in worship. It is meant to humble us in worship.
The opposite of a hardened heart is not free will or volition, it is God's mercy. It is the mercy of God. That's what Romans 9 taught for. He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, 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.
The opposite is mercy. And those that want to reject this, I just would humbly submit to you, we don't need free will, we need the mercy of God. And when you realize that beautiful truth, in light of our own salvation, that is when you see how merciful our God is. The path of redemption and spiritual Exodus was not found by God taking judgment on Pharaoh, ultimately it's found in taking judgment on himself at the cross. And then when he takes judgment on himself on the cross and he conquers death at the empty tomb, he redeems and he shows mercy over and over and over again. And he pours out mercy on those who don't deserve it by his own sovereign choice.
I understand how that's hard to hold in your head. I do. Let me ask you this. A lot of times you'll see Christian families. They're a wonderful, Jesus-loving husband and a Jesus-loving wife. And they have two kids.
And they raised those kids in the exact same Christian household. Those kids heard the same teachings. They sat under the same Bible stories at night. They sang the same hymns. They were part of the same kids' ministries, the same student ministries. Their mamas prayed.
Their mama prayed every day for both of them that they both might taste and see that the Lord is good and abide in him forever. They are raised in almost the exact same ways. And you will watch one who furiously follows Christ and serves the kingdom of God. Another one rejects him outright. What do you do with that? What's the difference?
Was the other one more, were they wiser? Were they smarter? Were they morally better? No. It is the mercy of God. And when you realize how beautiful that truth is and how merciful our God is, you just get to worship.
You stop trying to figure all this out and you just say, thank you, Jesus. I don't know why you saved me. I don't know why you showed me mercy, but I'm going to praise you and worship you. And that's what we get to do now.