Open your Bibles with me to Romans
chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. This morning I want to talk to
you about this subject. Vessels of Mercy. Vessels of
Mercy. And I've been going through Romans
9. I want to just back up and Just read this portion beginning
at verse 15. This is the Apostle Paul writing
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, quoting the Old Testament. And
you understand that much of Romans 9, 10, and 11 is nothing more
than quotations from the Old Testament. And he's talking about
God speaking to Moses, this is from Exodus 33, when Moses asked
the Lord, show me your glory. If you could ask the Lord, show
me your glory, your honor, your majesty, that which identifies
and distinguishes you from all other so-called gods, which are
all idols, what do you think God would say? Well, here it
is. Right here. You don't have to
wonder about that. It's right here. And he says in verse 15,
for he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have
mercy. And I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. Now over in Exodus 33, it's stated
this way, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. Mercy
and grace, that's the idea here. And of course, it's the nature
of mercy and grace that neither one can be deserved. Neither
one can be earned. Now you understand that. And
God has made it clear from his word that any mercy and grace
that he shows towards sinners is that which comes through in
and by the Lord Jesus Christ. And based upon the cross. the blood that he shed, the righteousness
he established as the substitute, the surety of his people. There
is no mercy from God in salvation, in forgiveness, in blessing,
in acceptance apart from Christ. I don't care what anybody else
says about other religions now. If you're going to go by the
Bible, now that's what I'm talking about, God's Word. I was talking
to somebody last week about someone who didn't agree with the gospel
that we preach. And they just come to the conclusion
that the Bible is not totally right. There's some parts of
it that are right, some parts that are wrong. And, well, if
that's what you believe, then my advice to you is just put
the whole book up. Because you don't have the wisdom
to figure out what's wrong and what's right on this thing. But
I believe the Bible is God's word from Genesis to Revelation.
I believe all scripture is God-breathed. And I know about people finding
contradictions. I was one of those people. I
found a bunch of them. But they weren't really contradictions.
The contradiction was right here. I was like that poem, a walking
contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction, taking every
wrong direction on his lonely way back home. Never knowing if believing was
a blessing or a curse. That was me. This is God's word. And if it's not, we might as
well close it up and go home now. I'm not being just, I'm
not just trying to be, give some kind of shock value here. I'm
just telling you the truth. It either is or it isn't. But
he'll have mercy. This is God's glory. The fact
not only that he'll have mercy and grace, but that he'll have
it on whom he will. And that's his sovereignty. Do
you know that, you know, somebody says, well, why do you preach
so much on God's sovereignty? Well, God said that's his glory.
What are we here for? To glorify God. You gonna leave
that out? You think you have that right?
Well he says in verse 16, so then it's not of him that willeth,
it's not of the will of man. Now we have wills, we're not
robots, we have a will. The problem with our will by
nature is our will is just as fallen as anything else about
us. Our hearts, which is the mind,
the affections, and the will. We're born dead in trespasses
and sins. We fell an atom. We desire things,
but we don't desire the things that glorify and honor God. We
may think we do. Man's religious by nature. I'll
give you an example of what I'm talking about. Somebody will
say, well, we were talking about this earlier. Somebody says,
well, it doesn't matter where you go to church, just so you
go to church somewhere. Now, I want to tell you something.
That is not biblical. You must go to church, if you
want to put it that way, where God is glorified in His truth.
If they don't preach His truth, you know what you're doing? If
you go someplace where God is not spoken of, as He identifies
and distinguishes Himself by the truth of the Bible, you know
what you're doing? I'll tell you what it is. That's
idolatry. That's not glorifying to God. And that's why we're
to be students of the Word. We're not just to be churchgoers.
I'm going to go to church. Well, I've got to get in church
somewhere. Don't think like that. That's the world. That's man's
religion. That's self-righteousness. Go
where the gospel is preached, where they tell the truth about
God, who He is, His holiness, His sovereignty, His majesty,
His justice, as well as His love. Yes, God is love, but His love
is in Christ, friend. Don't you claim it outside of
Christ? That's so. Go where they tell
the truth about man. What are we by nature? We're
sinners. A lady told me one time, she
says, you never have anything good to say about us. I said,
thank you. I'm not here to say good things
about you. I'm here to say good things about
Christ. Because He's my only hope. She
didn't mean it as a compliment, obviously. Go where they tell the truth
about Christ, who He is. God in human flesh, what He did. He accomplished redemption for
His people. He didn't come here and try to
save people if they'll let Him. In fact, if you read the Bible,
it tells you nobody would let Him. If that were the case, it's
not of him that willeth, look at it, nor of him that runneth.
Now running describes a path of life that you have chosen. And it's another way of saying
the works of man. It's not of the will of man.
It's not of the works of man. But here's how it all is. It's
of God that showeth mercy. And he said, I show it to whom
I will, and I'll be compassionate, gracious to whom I will. Then
he uses the example of Pharaoh, verse 17, for the scripture saith
unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up,
that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might
be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore, hath God mercy
on whom he will, have mercy in whom he will, he hardened it.
Now that's what it says. Some people say, well, God only
hardened Pharaoh's heart after Pharaoh hardened his. That's
not what the Bible teaches. Somebody says, well, I don't
like the other way. Well, I'm not taking a vote this morning.
This is not a democratic process, folks, to figure out what truth
is. And even old Thomas Jefferson,
who was not a Christian, said that the majority are very rarely
right. Well, in this case, the majority
is always wrong. Let God be true, and every man
what? A liar. Romans chapter 3. So, and he's talking about in
these areas of religion who God is. God told Moses before Moses
ever went to Egypt that he was going to harden Pharaoh's heart.
Did you know that? Read it. It's in Exodus. You
say, well, God just looked down through the telescope of time.
There's nothing in the Bible that presents God as a crystal
ball gazer. The Bible says, Ephesians 1.11,
he worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. Well,
now here it comes. Now, here's the objection. Now,
verse 19. This is where my text actually
begins this morning. He says, thou wilt say then unto
me, why doth he yet find fault? Who hath resisted his will? How
can God find fault with us? Who resists his will? That's
the question. Now, You want the answer to that
question? Here it is, verse 20. Nay, but
O man, now he starts off putting us in our place. Man, that's
what we are, we're human beings. That means a bunch of limitations,
and not only that, it means sinful. Nay, but O man, who art thou
that replyest against God? That word reply, If you look
in your concordance, you might see it says, answer again. The
way we would translate that in our modern English would be,
talk back. Who are you to talk back to God? And then he goes on to say, he
said, who that replies against God, or dispute with God, argue
with God. He says, shall the thing formed
say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Now we're
the thing formed. God is the thing that formed
us. He's the one who formed us. He's
the creator. We're the creature. And so he
says in verse 21, hath not the potter power over the clay? That's a common analogy in the
scripture concerning the majesty, the power of God in contrast
to the weakness of man. He says of the same lump to make
one vessel an honor. Now that lump there, that's a
lump of clay and it's a sinful lump. You understand that now?
And he says to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. That's God's business. Brother
Aaron read over there in Isaiah 45 about it. Just turn your Bibles
back to there. Isaiah 45, listen to how he says
it. God establishes Himself as the
sovereign Lord and Creator of this universe, of man himself. Verse 9, He says, Woe unto him
that striveth with his maker. That's replying again, that's
arguing, that's talking back to God. Let the pot-shard strive
with the pot-shards of the earth. You know what a pot-shard is?
It's a broken piece of a pot. You know, the potter and the
clay. Now here's a pot and it's a broken pot. That's us. We're
pot shards by nature. And if you want to argue, argue
with each other. You don't argue with God. Back
in the, I don't know how long ago it was, quite a long time
ago, there was a man who was a philosopher and he wanted to
write a poem revolving around the book of Job. And the poem starts out like
this. It says, young man, young man, your arm's too short to
box with God. That's it. Your arm's too short to box with
God. Let the pot shard strive with
the pot shard. Now you can argue and fuss and
fight amongst each other, but your arm's too short to box with
God. You can't argue with God. You're
not on the same plane as God Almighty, are we? Somebody said, told a preacher
one time, he said he was gonna preach from Romans 9 on a Sunday
morning, and another man said, he said, I wouldn't touch that
with a 10-foot pole. And he said, especially on a
Sunday morning. Because those people that come on Sunday morning,
they can't take stuff like that. Y'all believe that? Well let me tell you something,
I'll keep it simple for you. God is God and we ain't Him. God is on the throne, He's in
control and we're not. Is that simple enough? And there's
only one hope of salvation for sinners like us who cannot and
cannot save ourselves and don't want salvation God's way and
that's through Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And the only way
you're going to be drawn to that is by the power of the Holy Spirit
through the preaching of the gospel. That's it. But look at Isaiah 45. He says,
He says, Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth what makest
thou, or thy work, he hath no hands? Woe unto him that saith
unto his father, What begadest thou, or to the woman, what hast
thou brought forth? You see that? That's what Paul's
teaching over here in Romans 9. Go back now. You read Romans 9 and it does
beg some questions. How is it fair of God, for example,
we talked about up here in verse 13, he says, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. How is it fair of God to love
Jacob and hate Esau even before they were born? That's what it
says, even before they'd done any good or evil. How is that
fair? If salvation does not depend
on man's will or man's works, then how do we obtain salvation?
That's a good question. Do we just sit around and wait
for God's grace to hit us like a lightning bolt? Is that what
the Bible tells us to do? And if God has mercy on whom
He desires and hardens whom He desires, then how can He judge
the one whom He hardens? How can He do that? And I can remember listening
to this, I can remember reading this. And I'd put on my boxing
gloves and I'd get in the ring with Paul. I'd say, now we're
going to go at it. I felt that I was able to spar
with Paul until I got to verse 19 here. Yeah, Paul, that's a good question.
Give me the answer. Listen to it again. Why doth
he yet find fault? For who has resisted Israel?
That's a good question, Paul. I want to ask you that. And then I found the answer in
verse 20. Nay, but, O man, who art thou
that replyest against God? Who are you to talk back to God? Well, I didn't think I was talking
back to God. I thought I was arguing with Paul. But it says here, who are you
to reply against God? Your argument's with God. That's
what he told me. Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it? Why have you made me thus? I
felt like Paul was just dodging the question. Then I realized
I'm not boxing with Paul. I'm boxing with God. And I realized that God was telling
me here, I gave you the answer. There it is. You just don't like
it. You just don't want to believe
that. Read it again. Look at it. Nay,
but old man, who art thou that replyest against God? Shall the
thing form say to him that formed her, why hast thou made me thus?
You remember that's basically the same answer that God gave
to Job about all that Job went through. Why? Why? Why? Why is
this happening to me? Why is this going to do? You
remember where Job had to come from? And where he got to by
the Holy Spirit? He basically said, God's everything,
I'm nothing. I repent and sackcloth and ashes. Thank God He made me realize
that my arms were too short to box with Him. The Word of God
has established the absolute sovereignty of God in the salvation
of sinners. And that God is not unjust or
unfair in choosing some to be saved by His mercy and leaving
others to themselves. He used Pharaoh as an example
here. Listen, here's what the Bible teaches. The sovereign
God has the right to deal with sinful creatures in a way to
display His glory both in judgment and in mercy. And that's His
business. Well, if God has mercy on whom
He desires and hardens whom He desires, then are we just robots?
Don't we have the free will to choose right and reject wrong? To choose? or reject God? If we don't, then how can he
judge us fairly since we're just acting as he programmed us to
act? Is that what it is? Well, you know, that would have
been a perfect place for Paul to stop and say, wait a minute
now, your question shows that you've misunderstood me all along
here. I didn't mean that people can't
resist God's will, that deny our free will. What I meant was
God has mercy on whoever he foreknows. would trust him, and he hardens
all those whom he foreknows would reject him." Now, if that was
the answer, and that's what most people think, isn't it? Wouldn't
this have been a perfect opportunity for Paul to have set the record
straight and say it that way? But he didn't. He didn't say
that at all. He said, nay, but O man, who
art thou that resists, replies against God. You're talking back
to God. You're the thing formed. Are
you going to say to the him that formed it, why have you made
me this way? Verse 21, hath not the potter
power of the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto
honor and another unto dishonor? Doesn't God have that right? The man says, well, what about
my rights? We have no rights. We're sinners. We sinned against God. We deserve judgment. We deserve
damnation. That's all we deserve. That's
all we deserve. Paul's answer here, by inspiration
of the Spirit, shows that God has the sovereign right to display
His power and to have His name proclaimed throughout the whole
earth by dealing with Pharaoh in judgment if He chooses to
do so. But, it goes on to say, that God has the same right to
display the riches of His glory. He's free to love Jacob and to
show mercy to Moses and others. Think about it. The sovereign
God has all the rights to deal with sinful creatures as He chooses
and sinners have no rights. Can you believe that? You say,
well, I don't want to believe that. Well, let the pot shards
of the earth strive with the pot shards of the earth. You
say it's too hard. Well, it may be hard, but it's
the fact. That's the way it is. The old
boy says it is what it is. You can't change it. You can't
tweak it. And you can try to bring God
down off his throne and try to argue with him, but it's like
I've been saying, your arms are way too short to box with God. You know, for example, listen,
it's true that God ordained the fall of man and Adam. That's
true. I've told you the story about
it. I was preaching on TV down in Albany and a fellow wrote
me an email and he said, I can't believe you believe God ordained
the fall of man in Adam. And I wrote him back. I said,
well, I can't believe you believe that Satan sneaked up on God
and took him by surprise. What does the Bible say? Well,
God ordained the fall of Adam. Jesus Christ was set up to be
the Savior, the Scripture says, before the foundation of the
world. Is that not right? The Savior of what? To save us
from what? Well, we don't know. Just something,
you know. Just the Savior. No! To save
us from our sins. The scriptures speak in 2 Timothy
chapter 1 of a salvation that was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. Salvation from what? From the
fall, from sin. So it's true that God ordained
the fall of man and Adam, but it's also true that God did not
make us to be sinners. The human race was plunged into
sin when Adam sinned. Someone says, well, oh, you see
then, it's not my fault. I didn't have anything to do
to say about the matter. Adam did it. Let's blame Adam.
Well, to say that, first of all, is to contend with the all-wise
sovereign God who assigned Adam his role as the head of the human
race. Who made Adam the head? Who created
Adam? God did. The first man, Adam,
who created him? God did. Who assigned Adam the
role of being the head, the representative of the whole human race? God
did, all right? Adam's action affected the entire
race. We fell in Adam. Just as, all
right, for example, if the president takes the nation into war, doesn't
that affect the entire nation? You bet it does. Adam fell and
he brought the whole human family down into sin. And I want you
to think about this. To challenge the fact that you
sinned in Adam, in other words to say, well, it's not my fault,
it's Adam's fault. To challenge that fact is arrogantly
to imply that you would have done better. Boy, I wish it had
been me in that garden instead of Adam. Because I would have
done better. You see that? You really believe that? You
wouldn't have done any better. And it's to dodge the obvious
fact that whether you're guilty in that or not, you've got plenty
of guilt in your own track record to condemn you. I do too. We've
all sinned and come short of the glory of God. We cannot win
the argument with God as to how He sovereignly deals with us
or any other sinner. And to blame sovereignty for
our sins and unbelief is nothing but human pride and rebellion. It's like a mass murderer blaming
his parents. They didn't raise me right. They
spanked me one too many times. They gave me a curfew. They had rules in their house.
So I went up and shot up campus. How does that affect you? Blaming society for the crimes. My environment made me what I
am. And I'm not saying environment
doesn't affect people. It does. But sin is sin and we're
held accountable. And so he goes to the potter
and the clay. Remember this clay symbolizes
the fallen mass of humanity. All who deserve damnation for
sin, we fell in Adam. We've all sinned. We've all come
short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death. The
only argument that sinful, fallen, deceived men can come up with
against this is to assert what they think is their own free
will to the point of denying God's sovereignty. And you know
what they promote? Listen, I'm not just trying to
use big words. It's called dualism. That's what
that promotes. In other words, it says, well,
there's an evil power that disrupted God's plan and God is doing the
best. God is the good power and He's
doing the best to win this thing. But He's not succeeded yet because
you haven't done your part. That's dualism. That's not Christianity. You don't think people promote
that? Well, I heard a preacher say on TV. He's talking about
election. God chose a people. And here's
how he said election goes. He said God cast his vote for
you, Satan cast his vote against you, you cast the deciding vote. That's dualism. He might not
even know what that word is, but that's what it is. Let me tell you something, Satan
is not the evil equal counterpart to God. In fact, Satan is on
God's leash. Read the book of Revelation.
Read the book of Job. God works all things after the
counsel of his own will. Turn over to 2 Timothy chapter
one with me. 2 Timothy chapter one. Verse eight, listen to this.
He says, Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our
Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel. Now the gospel is the good news.
It's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it.
According to the power of God, who hath saved us and called
us with an holy calling. Who are the subjects of that
holy calling? The saved, God's people, the
elect. Not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. You see it? Now go back
to Romans 9. Now look at verse 22. When I say it, here's the simple part. God is God and we're not Him.
God's in control. God does as He wills, as He pleases,
His purpose. He works all things after the
counsel of His own. We're sinners! And we deserve nothing but damnation. But there is hope. Where? In Christ. Now listen to this,
verse 22. What if God, Romans 9, 22, what if God, willing to
show His wrath and to make His power known, endured, that's
His longsuffering with much longsuffering, the vessels of wrath fitted or
made up or prepared to destruction. Now what does that teach? It
teaches the doctrine of reprobation. Now people don't like that. Reprobation doesn't mean that
God imparted or infused any principle of sin into anybody, but here's
what it does mean. It means God leaves them to their
selves. That's why I pray all the time.
And you should too. God, do not leave me to myself. If He leaves me to myself, I'm
in trouble. But that's exactly what it says.
But look at verse 23. And that He might make known
the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy. That's what
I want to be. A vessel of mercy. Which He had
afore. That means before. prepared unto
glory. I want you to think about this.
Think about the death of Jesus Christ. Do you know the Bible
teaches that God predestined the death of Christ on the cross,
which included the most sinful acts of mankind in the history
of the world? Look at Acts chapter 2. including in that predestination
of the death of Christ were the most sinful acts of mankind in
the history of the world. And yet God did not impart into
any human being their hatred for Christ. It's there naturally
due to the fall. Look at verse 22 of Acts 2. Ye
men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, the man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God
did by him in the midst of you as you yourselves also know.
Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. Now, if anybody thinks that foreknowledge
there means God looking down through the telescope of time
and foreseeing what would happen, read the words before that. The
determinate counsel. That word foreknowledge in the
New Testament means foreordained by the determinate counsel. The
counsel of God is the product of his infinite wisdom and power. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked
hands have crucified, in slang. You see that? The reason for
the cross is the sinfulness of God's chosen people. And yet
God's not the author of sin. Now we can try to figure this
all out for the rest of our lives and make it fit with our own
human reasoning, but it won't change what God reveals here
in the Bible. God has the right to deal with
sinful human beings the way he chooses, and sinful human beings
have no right. So where do we go? What do we
do? Well, the sovereign God deals
with sinful creatures in such a way as to display His glory.
And He does it in one of two ways. We read it back here in
Romans 9. He does it in His long-suffering
toward those fitted or prepared for destruction. That's reprobation. Or He does it by making known.
Now look at verse 23 again. That He might what? Make known. The riches of His glory. on the vessels of mercy which
he had aforeprepared unto glory." Am I a vessel of mercy? Or am
I a vessel of wrath? What is this, making known? You
know, when God makes it known, it means more than you just hear
it in a sermon or read it in a book. When He makes it known to you,
You know it for sure from His Word by the power of the Holy
Spirit. This making known here is Holy
Spirit conviction. Where God reveals Himself to
you. And shows us what sinful creatures
we are. Who deserve nothing but damnation. But thereupon leads us to Jesus
Christ for mercy. For forgiveness. for righteousness,
for eternal life and glory. He reveals himself, the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He shows us that our works and
our efforts cannot make us righteous before God. That our works and
our efforts, our religious activities, even our prayers cannot wash
away our sins. Only the blood of Jesus Christ
can wash away my sins. There are vessels of wrath, there
are vessels of mercy. Which am I? Look at verse 24. He says, even us whom he hath
what? Called. Not of the Jews only,
but also of the Gentiles. Here's the question. What has
he made known to me? What do I know to be true from
his word? I know God is God. I know God's
in control. God has the sovereign right to
do with me as He will. I know that. I know I'm a sinner. And if God
would deal with me strictly on the ground of His justice in
giving me what I deserve or what I earn, it would be eternal damnation. I know that. I know the best
that I can do will still fall short of holiness and righteousness. So that the best that I can do
cannot save me or keep me saved. And I know that Jesus Christ
and Him crucified and risen is the only hope for a sinner like
me. If I find mercy and grace in the sight of the Lord, it's
going to be at the mercy seat. Jesus Christ and Him crucified
and risen. If I find righteousness, look
down at verse 31. But Israel which followed after
the law of righteousness hath not attained to the law of righteousness,
wherefore or why? Because they sought it not by
faith. Now what is it to seek righteousness by faith? It's
to seek it in Christ. Here's the thing. The Bible teaches
that there's none righteous, there's none that doeth good.
It even says this, it says there's none that seeketh after God. I know that's so. There's none
that seeketh after God. And then all of a sudden, I don't
know when, I'm not even concerned with the time, I found myself
seeking God. How? Why? Was it because I'm
better than the ones who didn't seek God or won't seek God? No. I know better than that. He's
made that known to me. What does He say? He says this, wherever
you find a truly seeking sinner, You're going to find out that
there was first a seeking Savior. You know how he says it in John
6? All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. This is the will of
him that sent me that of all which he hath given me I should
lose nothing but raise it up again. Don't you sit there and
wait for lightning to strike you. The only thing lightning is going
to do is kill you. You seek the Lord. You seek Christ. You beg for
mercy. God has the right to do with
you what He wants to do. Whatever will show His glory. That's what He's going to do.
That's His secret will. But here's His revealed will.
Here's His commandment. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you'll be saved. You seek Him now. Don't wait
another minute. Seek the Lord. Rest in Him. Cling to Him. He's your only
hope. Alright. Let's sing hymn number
310 as our closing hymn. Whiter than Snow. 310.