Well, I appreciate all those
kind words, but all this humility is just about
to kill me in here, I'll tell you. Thank you, Gary. I feel
the same way about you, and I feel that way about your mind. I feel the only thing mine's
good for is to just fertilize it for my hair, but that's about
it. It's a delight to be back here
among these brethren and see some friendly faces, to appreciate
that song. That's one of my favorite songs
ever written. And I appreciate singing it and
you playing it. Wonderful job. I appreciate the
words of my brother, who can say more in 15 minutes than I
expect I can say the rest of my lifetime. Now it's my turn
to be humble. Romans chapter 9. The title of my message tonight
is, No Choice, No Decision, and No Will. We begin reading Romans chapter
9 and verse 18. We'll read through verse 24. Speaking of just what our brother
has spoken about, Therefore hath God mercy, on whom he will have
mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For
who has resisted his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou
that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter the power over the clay of the same lump to make one
vessel unto honor and another to dishonor? What if God, willing
to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction
or made to destroy? and that he might make known
the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he has
aforeprepared to glory, even us, whom he hath called, not
of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles." I think it was Martin Lloyd-Jones
who said when he was preaching from Ephesians
chapter 2 that The Bible is wonderful and one
of the wonderful things about it is it sets things in order.
It puts things where they should be and people where they should
be. Now there's hardly any passage
or chapter in Scripture which does that more precisely. than this chapter of Romans chapter
9. It is a chapter that settles
forever much of the doctrine of what men refer to of election
and predestination. And the entire chapter is primarily
about God executing His power in the demonstration of His sovereign
loving mercy and grace to whomsoever He hath pleased." That's basically
the whole chapter in a nutshell. Showing that He acts according
to the dictates of His own will and no other will in any shape
or form is involved at all. You'll read these words and not
find another will save for God's will in this passage. Further,
it is the declaration that in this manifestation of sovereign
grace and mercy, the creature, that's us, the creature, mankind,
has no input. He makes no decision. He has no choice and no exercise
of His will in the accomplishment of the things that are spoken
of in this passage of Scripture. What this is, is God being God. God being God, the true God,
the sovereign God, answering to no one, neither giving account
of His matters to anyone, doing as He pleases in heaven and earth
and all the deep places, doing as He pleases when He pleases,
and with whom He pleases. Except for verses 20 through
24, everything in this chapter is about God dealing sovereignly
with men in time. In time. Verses 20 through 24
is about that, and verses 20 through 23 is the explanation
of time, declaring that it is a segment, a small segment of
eternity, that's all time is, of the eternal purpose of God
that stretches forever however long God has been, time is a
little blip on his radar. And this is what he's discussing
in verses 20 through 23. And the reason why verses 20
through 23 are inserted in this chapter is because, and listen
very carefully what I'm going to say, is because men understand
the meaning of predestination. It is because men understand
the meaning of predestination. They by nature despise it, They
disown it. They disallow it. They try to
explain it away and seek to apply human logic to its equity because
they get it. They get what predestination
means and it does not bode well with their puffed up delusion
of their own presumed power. But they do get it. People who
rebel against rebellion rebel against it because they get it.
They get what this means. Pusillanimous, vacillating, squishy
preachers say it's a complex doctrine and a confusing doctrine
and high doctrine that is better left to the ethereal minds of
the theological academe rather than the poor ignorant masses
that occupy the pews. However, it is the poor ignorant
masses that occupies the pews that God has given an unction
from on high And they know all things. It is those whom He has
made spiritually alive who discern all things. And men who oppose
predestination and election do so because they understand it. They get what it means. The fact is that predestination
is plain, it's simple, and it's in no way a confusing principle. You used it, I would say, probably
30 to 40 times before you got here tonight. Didn't you? Or did you just sit in your living
room and wait for you to suddenly appear at the church? No, that
ain't what you did. You said, I'm going to a meeting
tonight. In order to go to a meeting tonight,
I better have some gas in my car. And I'm going to get in
my car, and I'm going to turn on the key, and I'm going to
drive down X road, and I'm going to get to another road, and then
I'm going to get on Highway 53, and when I see that sign that
says Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, I'm going to turn in.
Then I'm going to get out of my car, and I'm going to come in
that building, and I'm going to sit down. Every bit of that is predestination. And you get
it. Every bit of that is predestination. Whatever is done, whatever takes
place is done because it is determined beforehand to be done. What's
not to understand? Men by nature just simply do
not want it to mean what it means. They don't want it to mean what
it means because it asserts that men, all men, every man and woman
and child have a destiny that they will fulfill and they have
no power to cause that or to change that and though galled
by it, they are galled because they get what it means. The reason that men have such
a visceral reaction to the mention of predestination is because
it summarily removes them from any input into the salvation
of men's souls. Summarily removes them out of
the equation. That's why when men preach the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, when men set forth the absolute
salvation accomplished by Him on Calvary's day by His substitutionary
death wherein He satisfied God's law and justice for His people.
And they alone are those for whom He died. When they hear
that, they think you say that they're
not saved. Why do they think that? Because
they get what it means. They get what it means. Even
if they care not for the things of God and not a slightest interest
in salvation, they respond to this truth negatively because
it strips them of the deified notion that they have of themselves. The proof that men understand
the consequence of predestination is found in this very passage
of Scripture in verse 19. After predestination, an election
is set forth in no uncertain terms. That God raises some men
up just for the reason to cast them down, as He did with Pharaoh.
And some men He has mercy upon, and other people He hardens.
Somebody gets it. They get what that means. For
they say in verse 19, Why does He yet find fault if it's all
predestinated? I couldn't have resisted His
will. I couldn't have resisted His will. That's what they say.
They understand what it means. Then it does mean that. It does
mean that. Two things stand out here. This man gets salvation, or gets
predestination, and he doesn't like it whatsoever. God has laid
it out very clearly in these previous verses. Before Jacob
and Esau were born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of election would stand, and prove that salvation was
not by works, but by the grace of God. By God's calling, God
said to Rebekah that the firstborn shall serve the younger because
he has loved Jacob and hated Esau. He loved Jacob and hated
Esau. He says, I have loved and have
hated even before they were born assuring that this loving and
this hating were both eternal. Second, there is no reason given
for this love and hate, except that God says, that's how it
is. Just like our brother said, that's how it is. He said to
her. You see, the why is that He said
it. He said it, and that's the why
of it. I have spoken it, and it shall stand. I have purposed
it, and who shall disavow it or turn it back? God goes on
to declare that men are His property. Men are His property. He is the
sole proprietor of humanity. He owns all His creation and
you and I are His creation. And His creation, all His creation
are used. People say, I just don't like
to be used. Get used to it. You're being
used. You've always been used. You're
going to be used. That's what this is about. All used according to His purpose
to make His power known in the exercise of His mercy, and the
exercise of His grace, or the exercise of His wrath. And once
all His creatures have fulfilled their course, they will be kept,
some will be kept, Some will be discarded. That's what this
is talking about. And it will be just as it pleases
God to do it. Man's response, being in the
egocentric whiner that he is, reveals that though he does not
understand it, he does understand what it means. Most assuredly
he understands the ramifications of these truths, the consequences
of them. If God's like that, what am I
to do? I can't do nothing. You're starting
to learn something. You're starting to learn something.
Well, if God shows mercy or hardens men according to His purpose,
and I'm hardened, well, how can He find fault with me? Because
if that's the case, I'm merely what He made me. That's the response. And it's a logical and a human
and a reasonable response. And much of it is true. Hardened, hard-hearted pulpiteers
and pew occupiers sometimes respond to this truth by saying things,
clever little ditties like, human logically drivel actually like,
why preach or why pray? To this our sovereign ruler and
proprietor and employer of all that is says, Hush now, little
formed thing, you never had a say in it. In your mind you may think
yourself something, but you are clay. You are like clay. You are like moistened mud in
the potter's hand. Now, that is metaphorical language.
We know we're not clay. We're flesh and blood. But the
Lord calls us that, and there's a reason why He calls us that.
Because clay, first of all, is an inanimate thing. And we'll
get to that in a moment. To make this truth even more
understandable, our Lord leaves time and uses an understandable
temporal relationship to explain how He has eternally asserted
His sovereignty over His property. He's going to tell us how He
asserted His sovereignty over His stuff. that He made and owns,
and it belongs to Him. He uses the relationship of the
potter and the clay. He uses these created things,
a potter and his clay, to explain the relationship of God and all
of His creatures, not just some of them, all of His creatures. Everybody here tonight, for example,
and everybody who rides up and down Burgaw Highway, and everybody
who lives in Jacksonville and Cherokee, and every Baptist,
and every Methodist, and every Presbyterian, and every Muslim,
and every Buddhist, and every Sovereign Grace believer, and
every unbeliever, and everybody, everybody. His relationship to
His creatures. He speaks of them as Vessels
made from clay, as created vessels, as things that are inanimate
objects. What is an inanimate object?
Well, I know that men talk about men's wheels, and man does have
a wheel, and it operates really well within the constricts of
its realm. It does what it does. But here,
our Lord is not talking about people having yet been created. And He addresses them as if,
or addresses about them as if they were inanimate objects.
Do they have a will? No, they're inanimate. That's a hanky. Gentlemen still carry handkerchiefs,
you know that, don't you? When I was four years old, I told
my mother I wanted to be a preacher, and she said, what do you need
to be a preacher? I said, a pipe, a wallet, and a handkerchief. That's an inanimate object. Now,
I can say to what I want to that thing. I can say, won't you come? Won't you believe? Won't you
take the first step? Won't you? Please? I beg of you,
won't you let me into your heart? I can say all kinds of things
to it. It's inanimate. Our Lord addresses His future
to be created vessels as inanimate objects. They're just clay. That's all they are. They're
just clay. That means if they're clay, if
they are going to be something or be used as something, they
must be acted upon because they cannot act. They cannot act. They must be
acted upon. We have a... These flowers are...
Don't put these on Scott Richardson's grave. Scott said, don't ever
put no plastic fires on my grave. Flowers. We give them human qualities. We say of them, they follow the
sun. And if you put a flower in a
window and the sun comes up in the morning, the flower will
lean toward the sun. And as the sun moves across the
sky, the flower will follow the sun until it sets in the west. And we say, the flower follows
the sun. But the flower doesn't follow
the sun. The flower is made up of specific
tissues. And on the outside cells of the
stem of the flower, there are two types of cells. Photo cells
and helio cells. Those two cells react to light
and to heat. And when the sun comes up in
the east, the cells on the side of that stem contract. And the flower It bends over. And as the sun rises, the photo
and the heliocells begin to expand and the flower stands up. And
then as it moves over here, the cells on this side begin to contract
and the flower begins to bow toward the sun again. What's
happened? The flower has been acted upon by its maker who made it to act
that way. Clay must be acted upon. It has
no action. That's why the Lord says what
He says in this passage of Scripture. He uses these created things,
the potter and clay, to explain his relationship to men. He speaks
of men as created vessels. Paul said that God's people are
earthen vessels, so that the power of God would be found in
God and not in men. David, in a state of sorrow and
anguish, said in Psalm 32, I am a broken vessel. I'm a broken
vessel. Vessel in the original language
simply means goods or stuff, but is often interpreted to mean
a bowl or a jar. The Greeks often referred to
the human body as a vessel and so does Paul here in relation
to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Regardless of the case,
however, these vessels are made solely at the discretion and
the power of the potter. Remembering that God is answering
a silly question that's been made by this man in verse 19. Our Lord says that in the matter
of human employment, that as the potter has power over the
clay, so he has power over humanity. As the potter has power over
the clay to out of the same lump make one vessel unto honor and
another to dishonor, so has God the power to do this with humanity. Honor and dishonor have to do
with use and value placed on the vessel by the potter or what he has made it for. A
vessel of honor is one that the potter makes to use and to keep
and to display. A vessel of dishonor is one that
the potter makes to use and discard. after it has served the purpose
that he made it for. That's what those two elements
mean. The vessel of honor is a Ming vase. The vessel of dishonor is a purple
soloka. The use and employment of these
vessels as it relates to God, The potter of humanity is one
vessel is made to destroy. It's made to destroy. Fitted to destruction. The other
is made for glory and for honor. And that vessel is to be kept. The one is to be discarded, the
other is to be kept. Both, however, are made for his
glory. One for wrath and justice, the
other for grace and mercy. For example, Jacob have I loved,
and Esau have I hated. Notice that's in the past tense.
One vessel it says he endures with much long-suffering. He
tolerates, he puts up with, with much long-suffering. The other
he prepares for glory, and neither vessel has anything to do with
what function they are made for." You believe in grace, really?
I mean, really? Oh, we all say, I know I'm saved
by grace. You know what that means? You
had no merit. There was nothing meritorious
in you whatsoever that caused God to be gracious to you. Well,
we all believe that. Everybody can say amen if we
was in an amening outfit, couldn't we? We could all say that. Bible says we're kept by grace. Our brother brought a wonderful
message, you know, that his so-called Bible study was great. Your pastor
stands up there and preaches several times a week. Brother
Rupert. Brother Rupert prayed. And we
joined in with his prayer. And his word became our words
as he spoke and honored God. Anything to those things? Any merit in them? Not if we
are kept by grace. You believe in grace? That's
what this is talking about. It ain't no easy thing. In fact,
it is absolutely impossible in the flesh to believe in grace. Neither vessel has anything to
do with the function for which they were made. We, men, may
not be able to explain it. But I know this, we know what
it means. We know what it means. The things I say tonight will
either float your boat or drown your dinghy. One or the other
is going to. You see, God is not really talking
about clay except as it relates to the heritage of humanity.
What we were in God's mind as to our destiny before we existed
or before the world existed. One man said our genealogy runs
thus, our father was Adam and our grandfather was dirt and
our great-grandfather was nothing and that's true. But this is
not talking about, this is not talking about a world already
formed. This is not talking about Adam
walking on earth and sinning against God. Now what this is
talking about He's talking about something that happened way long
before that. Since our Lord refers to this
creation as a principle of purpose, using Jacob and Esau as examples
and asserting that his choice of Jacob and his disregarding
of Esau took place before they were born and had nothing to
do with whether they had done any good or evil that the purpose
of election might stand, not according to works but according
to Him that calleth, the same applies to these disparate vessels. Humanity metaphorically referred
to as one big lump of clay. One big lump of clay. It was formed for a specific
function before the world was. And all for the purpose of the
glory of God's grace and everything exists for that purpose. Not
just our salvation. Everything. Every sin that has ever been
committed will somehow glorify God's grace. I don't know how.
But it will. Everything is for the glory of
God's grace. And this strips humanity of any
input in the matter because when the purpose was initiated, humanity
was but a thing that was yet to be created. Therefore, the
religiously high-acclaimed, exalted choice, decision, will, or opinion
of men did not enter into, whether it was a vessel of honor or dishonor,
because humanity did not exist except in purpose, as if it were
clay, clay in the potter's hand. Know ye that the Lord, He is
God. It is He that has made us, and
not we ourselves. But preacher, How can I know
which one I am? That's really important to me.
Am I a vessel fitted to destruction or a vessel fitted to mercy,
which God at the poor prepared to glory? Well, Paul, thankfully,
by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, does not leave humanity
in the lurch. I could stop here and I expect
we'd all just say, why did he stop there? Paul does not leave us in a lurch.
There is a single thing that is attached to predestination
and election to salvation and glory to vessels of honor and
vessels of mercy throughout the Word of God. A single thing.
Verse 24. Even us whom he hath called. Even us whom he has called. For the promise is unto you and
your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as
the Lord our God shall call. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified,
and whom He justified, them He also glorified." God, who has
saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Jesus Christ, before the world began. We are bound
to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of
the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth,
whereunto He called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everybody here, since before
the world began, is either a vessel of honor, a vessel of mercy,
or a vessel of wrath. Everyone here is being used and
will be used until God is finished using you on earth. And He will
either set you on His shelf as a trophy of His grace or He will
discard you in a pile of useless potsherds. Why? Because He's God. Father, bless
us through our understanding, we pray in Christ's name, Amen.