Talking Back

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INTRODUCTION

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14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. 19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” 21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
Romans 9:14-21 (NIV)

Today’s message is taken from 11 words found at the beginning of verse 20 from this passage. I want you to notice particularly two words at the middle and the one word at the end. “O man” and “God.” “But who are you, O man, to talk back to God?” Here, man and God are contrasted deliberately, God in His infinite greatness and wisdom and man in his limited smallness and ignorance. There is also a strong emphasis placed on the “you”. “Who are YOU, O man, to talk back to GOD?” My hope is today that God will brand those words upon our memories so that we shall never be able to forget them nor get away from them. “Who are you, O man, to talk back to God?”

There are some pretty crazy things that have been done by different individuals among mankind. Going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Leaping off of a dizzying high bridge with some strands of elastic strapped to his feet. Being strapped inside a rocket filled with enough potential energy to cook a few hundred thousand cows instantaneously and then blasted into the vacuum of space where a chunk of rock the size of a marble could cause enough damage to prevent him getting back!

However the most insanely daring thing that any man can do, the most exceedingly foolish thing any man can do, the most desperately wicked thing that any man can do, is to talk back to God, to have controversy with God, to criticize God, or to condemn God. Yet that the very thing that many people are doing.

How many of you know what I mean when I mention “talking back”. Those of us as parents understand that word perfectly well. When you hear a little child talking back to his father or mother, criticizing or condemning them it will quickly bring a shake of the head and a frown of disproval. It is something that should not be tolerated for one moment. When a small child questions their parents judgment, disobeys their parents instructions, or verbally abuses their parents caring direction a good parent will quickly remind their child of his place!

But why then, should any mere human being, an mere creature of the dust such as all of us are, talk back to, criticize, have controversy with, or try to prove wrong the infinite and eternal God? It is the most foolish and wicked thing a human being can do. I want to share with you four reasons why it is foolish to do so.

The infinite majesty of God.

The text itself contrasts the majesty of God against the smallness of man. It reads, “But who are you, O man, to talk back to God?” Yes, who are you anyway? And who is God?

You are one out of over 6.5 billion people living on this world today. And what is this globe that you and I live on? The earth is so small apart of the already known universe that if the sun were hollow, you could pour into it over 1 million earths like ours and still there would be room enough left for them to rattle around in it.

Yet, the sun itself is very, very small in comparison with the some other stars whose diameters have been measured and there are now an estimated 1024 stars in the known universe. That is 10 followed by 24 zeros. God, with whom so many have controversy with and criticize and condemn, made them all.

God made two great lights–the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.
Genesis 1:16 (NIV)

“But who are you, O man, to talk back to God?”

With today’s increasingly amazing technological advances and availability of incredible knowledge – with the ever advancing understanding and exploration of the vast universe and multiple galaxies in the heavens man is sometimes tempted to be puffed up because a few great leaders and scientists and investigators among us are beginning to come up with convincing and fascinating arguments and explanations for the way the universe works. But what about the God who planned it and made it? Our increasing discoveries of the vastness of the physical universe ought to fill us with an increasing sense of our own nothingness in comparison with the infinite greatness and majesty of Him who planned and made the universe! Yet, unfortunately, often these discoveries seem only to puff us up with pride that we are so wise as to understand a small part of the ways and power of almighty God.

The Infinite and absolute holiness of God.

The second reason for the foolishness and desperate wickedness of talking back to God is the infinite and absolute holiness of God.

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
1 John 1:5 (NIV)

God is the One in whose presence the seraphim themselves, those angelic beings of which the Hebrew word “seraphim means “burning ones”, burning in their own intense holiness, must veil their faces and feet in the infinitely holy Presence of Almighty God and keep continually crying,

And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”
Isaiah 6:3 (NIV)

God is the One in whose presence Isaiah, the holy prophet we read about in the Old Testament, covered his face and cried,

4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” 6
Isaiah 6:4-6 (NIV)

God is the One in whose presence Job, who is described as a one who is “blameless and upright”, Job, who had stoutly maintained his integrity before the persistent and united accusations of his so-called friends, when he got one glimpse of God face to face, overwhelmed with the sense of his own nothingness and vileness in comparison with the infinitely holy One, cried,

5 My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. 6 Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”
Job 42:5-6 (NIV)

This is God. “But who are you, O man, to talk back to God?”

What are we all, even the very best of us? Vile, the best of us is a loathsome sinner. You might not yet realize the fact, but it is true. Our being is riddled with sin. Don’t buy into that deceitful lie of the enemy that would convince you that every human being is inherently good. We have been made in the image of God yes, but the curse of sin has warped, marred, and slashed that image. Sin makes us despicable. Yet you undertake to stand in the presence of this Holy God, in whose presence the seraphim veil their faces and their feet, and talk back to Him, suggest to God what He ought to do, criticize Him for the things that He has seen fit to do, and seek your way above His?

The infinite wisdom of God

The third reason for why it is foolish and wicked of talking back to God is because of His infinite wisdom. God is not only a Being of infinite majesty and holiness. He is also a Being of infinite wisdom. We look up at the starry heavens above our heads, we look at these wonderful specks of light that sprinkle the heavens. We think of the overwhelming things about their immensity and the incredible distances between us and them, we think of the incredible speed and momentum of their light as it rushes through space, and as we look up at them, if we are wise, we say, “O God, what a Being of infinite wisdom as well as majesty You are that You were able to place each star and each heavenly body in it’s place.” Or think about the intricate orbits within our own solar system; The planets that make their way around the sun, the moons around those planets, the asteroids and smaller bodies and comets etc; Think of the speed and interactions involved in all of their orbits and the simple fact that there has not been a earth shattering collision. If we are wise, we say, “O God, what a Being of infinite wisdom as well as majesty You are that everything is placed in such a fashion that the one planet you chose to create life on is safe in the midst of seeming chaos.”

Yet, many of you here today do not hesitate to look up at that Infinitely wise God who made the heavens, who guides the whole universe in its wonderful, stupendous and bewildering course, and attempt to tell Him what you think He ought to do! You fool, are you mad? Nothing could be more insane! “But who are you?” The wisest man on earth is but a child; the wisest philosopher does not know much; the greatest man of science knows but very little. What he knows is almost nothing in comparison with what he does not know.

How much does the wisest scientist know even about this small planet? What does he really know, for example, about earthquakes, or tornadoes, or hurricanes, or volcanoes? Have you ever stopped to think of the fact that what was the most confidently believed science of 300 years ago is considered foolishness today? Or what about what’s happened in the last 150 years. Listen to some of these quotes…

This “telephone” has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a
means of communications. – Western Union Internal memo, 1876

Everything that can be invented has been invented. – Charles H. Duell,
Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899

But … what is it good for? – An engineer at IBM, commenting on the microchip
in 1968

If we are to judge the future by the past, the most confidently believed science of today will be regarded much differently then. The best scientific knowledge of today and the future and yesterday is but a speck of the infinite wisdom of God.

Suppose some child of eight or nine took a book on philosophy recognized as the greatest writing of the best philosophic thought of today and began to criticize it, page by page. What would you think? Would you stand and look at the boy and say with admiration, “What a bright kid that is?” No, you would say, “What a conceited idiot he is at his age and with his limited knowledge, to criticize the best philosophic thought of today!” But he would not be so conceited an idiot as you or I if we were to attempt to criticize an infinitely wise God. We are far less than children compared to Almighty God.

The most profound philosopher of today is but a little child compared with Almighty God. And yet people today, who do not make any pretensions of being a philosopher at all, take God’s Book, like a little child, like an infant, take this Book which represents the bet wisdom of God, and sit down and turn it, page by page, and try to criticize it, and others stand and look at them and admire and say, “What a scholar!” But the angels look down and say, “What a fool!” And what does God say? “But who are you, O man, to talk back to God?”

The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.
Psalms 2:4 (NIV)

The infinite goodness and love

This is the fourth reason why it is foolish and wicked to talk back to God. He is not only a Being of infinite majesty, holiness, and wisdom, but also a being of infinite goodness and love. The truth is, you owe everything you have in the world to God. You owe your very existence to Him. You owe to Him your power to see, your power to hear, your power to taste. You owe to Him your power to breathe, to live, to walk, to work, your power to enjoy this wonderful world which He has made, in which He permits and enables us to live.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
James 1:17 (NIV)

The poorest of us, the most unfortunate of us, has a tremendous number of reasons to be thankful. You who think you have very little have an overabundance in comparison with nothing. Are you blind? Well, you can hear and taste, can you not? Are you deaf, dumb, and blind? Well, you can eat and enjoy your food, can you not? The man who has all five senses would be just as reasonable if he were to complain because he has not six as the man who has four senses would be to complain because he has not five. Thank God for what you have, rather than complain against God for what you don’t have!

Not only that, but on top of what the things we have that we can be thankful for, we also must realize that every one of us has trampled God’s law under foot; every one of us has been a sinner justly condemned before God. But God, instead of dealing with us in stern wrath and judgment, as we all deserve, has not only blessed us, but, in addition has given His own son to die on the Cross of Calvary in our place. He has given us His best, His beloved, His dearest, His only Son. But in spit of all that wondrous love that did not stop even at the sacrifice of His own Son, some of you presume to criticize God, who gave His Son to die for you. “But who are you, o man, to talk back to God?”

Oh, the desperate wickedness, the confounding foolishness of talking back to a God of infinite majesty, infinite holiness, infinite wisdom, and above all, infinite love.

Who Talks back to God?

But who is it who talks back to God? Who criticizes him or condemns Him. As I share with you four different groups of people, listen carefully to observe if you should happen to fall into one of these groups.

Those who complain of God’s Sovereign Will.

I’ve heard people say, I’ve read from people who write, “I think God is cruel.” “Why do you think He is cruel?” The reasons are numerous. For some it is God has taken away a loved one, for others it is the fall from financial prosperity to ruin, for others it is simply a tragic disaster that they have read about or seen on the news. In light of these calamities they say, “I think God is cruel”.

You do? You do? You think God is cruel? Who is God? A Being of infinite majesty, a Being of infinite holiness, a Being of infinite wisdom, a Being of infinite love, a Being who gave His own Son to die that you might be saved! “But who are you, O man, to talk back to God?”

To be fair, some say that they don’t understand it. Why should you understand it? Who are you? If you were really wise, you would not ask to understand it. If you had really good sense, you would not feel any need of having it explained. You would say, “I know God is infinitely good and infinitely wise. I know He is infinitely loving, too. I know He gave His Son to die for me, and though I cannot understand it, nevertheless I know that God is in control and everything will be okay.

Job writes,

and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.”
Job 1:21 (NIV)

This is not blind faith, this is knowing trust. It is impossible for us to understand everything and divine the reason for all things – there comes a point where we must place our trust in the One who does based on what we know about Him – a Being of infinite majesty, a Being of infinite holiness, a Being of infinite wisdom, a Being of infinite love. I am perfectly content to put my trust in Almighty God.

Some of you are passing through trials which, if the rest of us knew, would fill our hearts with sympathy and pain. But you are murmuring against God, and that is wicked, that is incredibly foolish. “But who are you, O man, to talk back to God?”. But you say, “I don’t understand it.” Why should you understand it? Why should you ask to understand it? Who are you that God should explain it to you? Oh friends, it is so important that we keep in mind who God is, and who we are; what God is and what we are!

Those who refute God’s Word

This second group of people talking back to God are those who criticize the Bible and try to rip it to pieces. The Bible is God’s written Word. That is thoroughly established. When you criticize the Bible, you criticize its Author, who is God. When you criticize the Bible, you criticize God. But then there are those who say, “I don’t believe it is God’s Word.” That does not alter the truth that it is. It is His Word, there is abundant proof that it is His Word. I have spoken and taught many times about the Bible being the written Word of God. This Book is God’s Word, and whoever ventures to criticize it ventures to criticize God. Never forget that. I repeat it, whoever criticizes the Bible criticizes God, and the one who criticizes God is guilty of abundant foolishness and desperate wickedness. You may say, “I don’t like that” Well, I’m sorry that you don’t, for it is true, and I always feel very sorry for the man or woman who does not like the truth. They are being deceived.

16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV)

Those who deny the reality of Hell

The third group of people who talk back to God are those who complain of the biblical doctrine of the penalty of sin, the doctrine of spiritual death and everlasting punishment in a place called Hell. Nobody likes to think that Hell is a real place. Even many Christians cover over the reality of hell and its horrifying picture. This is not something I thought up. This is not a man-made creation. Some say that the doctrine of Hell is a medieval thought. No its not. It was not originated in the Middle Ages. It is a teaching of Jesus Christ, taught by Him, not in the Middle Ages but in the first century.

Jesus Christ says very clearly in Matthew 25:41 that at the judgment of the nations living on the earth when He comes again He will say to those on His left hand,

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Matthew 25:41 (NIV)

And, five verses farther down, He says,

“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Matthew 25:46 (NIV)

Now, I did not invent that. That was in the bible before I was born! Jesus said it nineteen centuries before I was born. I simply read it in the Bible and preach it because it is there.

There are some that don’t like the doctrine of Hell and would rather it not be taught because it makes God a “monster”. Whoever says that this doctrine makes God a monster is himself one who is far from God, for it is God’s doctrine. Some say, “I have trouble thinking that a God of love should leave anybody to everlasting punishment.” The reply is, why would you be able to understand how a God of love should leave anybody to everlasting punishment. It seems to have never entered your mind that anything you cannot understand could be easily understood by someone who knew more than you. If a person has even a small amount of common sense, such person would realize that even though with our very limited intelligence we might not be able to understand it, an infinitely wise God might have a thousand reasons for doing it, even though we might not see one.

It has never dawned on some people that God could quite possibly know more than they know – that an infinitely wise God might possibly have more knowledge and understanding than them. If you ever get that though, that an infinitely wise God may possibly know more than even you do, and that God in His infinite wisdom might have a thousand good reasons for doing a thing when you cannot see even one, you will have learned one of the greatest theological truths of life – one that will solve many of your perplexing problems in the Bible.

Men try to lay hold of infinite wisdom and think that they can squeeze it down into the capacity of their 3lb minds. But because they cannot squeeze infinite wisdom into their three pound minds, they say, “I don’t believe that the Bible is the Word of God, because it has something in it that I cannot understand.” Why should you understand everything in the Bible? Who are you anyhow? How much of a mind do you have anyway? How long have you had it? How long are you going to keep it? Who gave it to you?

It is not our business to understand everything, It is not our business to have a reason for everything. It is our business to hear what God has to say, and when He says it, believe it, whether you can understand it fully or not. Now I am not saying it is wrong to seek understanding, and to pursue reason, or to thirst after wisdom. But please, please, oh please, in the face of the mystery of God and the wonder of His majesty – don’t discard everything you do know about Him simply because you encounter something you don’t understand!

As my children grow I’m learning that when they are small and ignorant, there are a lot of things that I tell them that I can not explain to them because of the limitations of their minds. There are a great many things that even God cannot explain to you or to me because we do not know enough yet to have it explained to us. God is too wise, I say it reverently, to try to explain some things to a person who does not know more than you do.

Those who make excuses and deny Christ.

The final group of people talking back to God that I want to refer to today are those who instead of accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior and surrendering to Him as their Lord and Master and openly confessing Him as such before the world, are making excuses for not doing it.

Jesus says,

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.
John 6:37 (NIV)

God says,

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.
Revelation 22:17 (NIV)

Anybody can come to Christ, and anybody who does come will be received and saved. Yet many people, instead of coming, are making excuses for not coming. By every excuse you make you are talking back to God, you are criticizing Him, to are arguing against Him, and you are condemning the one who invites you to come. You cannot frame an excuse for not coming and accepting Christ that does not reject God. Every excuse that any mortal makes for not accepting Christ, in its ultimate analysis, rejects God.

For example, some say, “I am too great a sinner to come. I am just to bad of a person for God to want me.” But God says through His follower, Paul,

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners…
1 Timothy 1:15 (NIV)

And when you say, “I cannot come because I am too great a sinner,” you contradict God. He says you can.

Others say, “I cannot come because I am too weak to live the Christian life.” But God says via Jude that He is,

…is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy–
Jude 1:24 (NIV)

You say, “I cannot live for God” He says He can live through you. When you say He cannot, you make God a liar and condemn God.

Others say, “I cannot come because I don’t feel right about it” But God says, “whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life” God says, “You can come,” and you say, “I cannot” and that excuse rejects God.

Every conceivable excuse a sinner makes for not coming to Christ at once ultimately rejects God, and every man and woman who, instead of coming right to the Lord Jesus and accepting Him, surrendering to Him, confessing Him as Master and going forth to serve Him – everyone who is making an excuse of any kind instead of accepting Christ is talking back to God.

Who are you, O man, to talk back to God?