Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Romans chapter 9 and verse
23. Verse 23. And that he might make
known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which
he had aforeprepared unto glory. Romans 9 verse 23, specifically
the words vessels of mercy. Continuing a series on the theme,
the illustration of vessels in the Word of God. And this evening
it is to consider the people of God, men, women, children,
that are described as vessels of mercy. Those that hold in
their earthen tabernacle, in their mortal body, they hold
the treasure of mercy. They have received mercy, received
mercy, saving mercy, from God and in turn they themselves show
mercy and show the reality of their receiving of it by showing
it to their fellow mortals. Now the Apostle Paul here begins
the chapter with expressing a heaviness and sorrow of heart concerning
the Israelites, those of his own kinsmen, according to the
flesh. And he makes the point that there
are many of them that were not saved. Many of them, they perished. Many of them were not believers. They proved to be reprobate.
They proved to be cast away. And in this setting, he sets
forth the mercy of God. We would remember of how it is
set forth in the gospel according to John, the opening chapter
there, that those that are born, or born again of the Spirit,
to be sons of God, are born not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, that is God's
will. So, just because, and this is
what the Apostle says here, just because they are of the seed
of Abraham, remember the children of Israel, they descended from
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Jacob's 12 tribes were the 12 tribes
of Israel. But not all of them, not all
of that line of that family were saved. And he uses the illustration
first with Abraham because Abraham had a promised seed and that
was to be Isaac. He was born a miraculous birth
by Sarah in her old age and Abraham too. Abraham and Sarah had tried
to have a child, as it were, with a surrogate, with Hagar,
and they had Ishmael. And Ishmael was blessed and favoured
in this life, yet it wasn't through him that Christ should come. It was through Isaac. And then we have, even closer,
when it comes to Isaac's children, Isaac and Rebekah, they had twins,
Jacob and Esau. And the promise was, Jacob have
I loved and Esau have I hated. And the apostle is pointing out
of God's sovereignty in that he can choose one and not another. And really, the background of
this is to realize that every one of us, every one on this
world, all the descendants of Adam, we are all deserving of
eternal death. We are under the sentence of
death. We do not deserve anything at
God's hand. If God did not instigate a way
that any could be saved, none would be saved at all. all would
be condemned, all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. And this point must be made,
that the way of life, the way of salvation that God has ordained,
He sovereignly can choose to whom that life is given and to
whom it is not. And you might say that if everyone,
were saved, then where would be the thought that there would
be a hell, that there would be a division in mankind, there
would be a complacency, and solemnly it is so in some denominations
today. They will openly say, Christ
has died, he's put away sin, so what's the trouble? Everyone
is going to heaven. And it results in a life where
there is no fearing of God, there's no seeking him, no walking by
faith, there's no attendance at the means of grace, no delight
in his word, in meeting his people, but just fulfilling all of the
desires of the flesh and of the world, just with the thought,
well, sin is put away, we can do what we like, we'll get to
heaven at last. But God's people are brought
to realize that we are under the sentence of death, and what
we need is a personal faith to be personally chosen, personally
blessed, and personally prepared for glory, for heaven, for an
eternal dwelling with the Lord. And this is what then is set
before us here, that he might make known the riches of his
glory on the vessels of mercy which he had aforeprepared unto
glory. There is a glory, there is a
heaven, There is eternal life and God has chosen a number to
that. And while they are on this earth,
he prepares them for that glory. prepares them for that place
that He has prepared for them. It has been said that those that
are saved are a prepared people for a prepared place, whereas
those that are lost and those that will go to hell, they are
an unprepared people for a prepared place. And this is what is said
before us here, The vessels of mercy, they are known. They are known by God's preparing
them for working in their hearts and in their lives. And the way
He prepares them is actually set forth in this verse as well,
that He is making known to them the riches of His glory. And He's making known these riches
of His glory on the vessels of mercy. If you and I are to know
that we are a vessel of mercy, then this text, it gives us the
token of it. It gives us the evidence, not
only of being a vessel of mercy, but also of being prepared for
heaven, prepared for glory. And our text, it is set against
a contrast, the previous verse, where we have other vessels. These are not vessels of mercy.
These are vessels of wrath, and they are fitted to destruction. And what God says concerning
them through Paul is that he endures with much longsuffering
on them. He lets them go. He allows them
to have health and strength and riches and all of this world's
goods. And they go on without a care,
just going on fulfilling up the desires of the mind and the lust
of the heart. And what is known of God in them
is how long-suffering He is. He doesn't suddenly cut them
off in wrath. May we ever remember this because
we read that because a sentence is not executed against an evil
work, the heart of man is fully set in him to do evil. And we know that with a child
or really any that are doing wrong. If a child is doing wrong
and he gets away with it, then you do more and you do it again
and again and you keep doing it. And we have this. Men are thinking, well, we can
walk in these ways. We know it's contrary to the
word of God, but we'll keep doing it because God hasn't done anything.
He hasn't cut us off. He hasn't made us ill. He hasn't
judged us. They don't realize that there
is a judgment to come and that they are just being allowed and
permitted to go on and on in a way totally contrary, opposite,
alienated from God until that last solemn judgment day after
death. May we never just think, because
God doesn't strike us down, that, well, we must be doing things
right or we won't be judged at the last day. Our actions and
our lives should be governed by the Word of God, And we should
discern from that what we shall have to give an account of at
the last day. All must stand before God's judgment
throne. But here we have then vessels
of mercy. And on to then divide them. subject this evening into three
points. Firstly, vessels of mercy being
prepared for glory. The very fact that they are being
prepared for glory. The second is the evidence of
preparation. What actually is being done,
that evidence is that this actually is preparation. The third thing
is that vessels of mercy, they show mercy. that firstly vessels of mercy
being prepared for glory. May we be very clear that there
is a world to come, there is life after death, heaven is a
real place, hell is a real place, not just a frame of mind when
we die, Not just an imagination, but a very real place. And that in that glory, that
there shall be nothing that enters in there that offends, that loves,
that makes a lie. And without holiness, no man
shall see the Lord. And in glory, we shall see the
Lord. Paul says that We shall be known
even as we are known. God knows us now, but we do not
know Him. He sees us, yet we do not see
Him. You might think of an illustration
where there is a one-way glass. You can look through it. Often
they use this for interviewing techniques. If someone is being
interviewed because of a crime or something, and they sit at
a table and being interviewed, and it seems like the wall is
just a blank wall and one of the walls, but actually behind
that wall, which is a glass, there are people observing, observing
the body language, listening, without the person being interviewed
knowing that they're actually being seen. And we would be mindful
that is how it is with us. We cannot see God, but God sees
us. And he hears us. He observes
not only outward things, but our thoughts. And not only our
thoughts, but the intents of our minds. And those things that
here are hidden from us in heaven we are told we shall see we shall
know there won't be a veil between there won't be that separation
there is then a place that how we are born we cannot possibly
come there we are sinful We go forth from the womb speaking
lies. We are unclean. Our lives are
lives of unrighteousness. We have been banished as Adam
was from the Garden of Eden, from the presence of the Lord,
and we are not in a fit state at all to enter into heaven how
we are born. We need a preparation. We need something done in us
and to make us to be ready to enter into glory. We are mindful of many things
of which we need preparation. Here below If one is to go into
university, for instance, then their studies of the child in
their secondary education, they've got to attain a certain grade
before they can go into university. They can't just go straight into
it and many jobs. They need training before They
can go. Someone's going to be a carer
in the community. They need to be trained. They
need to be prepared for that before they go into it. And there's many things like
that. We think of even a preparation
of readiness of mind. We have aged people's homes,
but many that maybe would be much better off in those homes
They don't want to go. They're not prepared to go. In
their minds, they're all right as they are. They don't need
help. And by nature, we're just like
that. We are just all right, we say,
of our own. We don't need any preparing.
We don't need help. And yet, a soul in that condition
does need help, does need preparing. We are used to many things in
life where we cannot just go straight into it. If you're going
to be a sportsman, if you're going to excel in that way, many,
many hours of training to build up the muscles first in preparation. If you're going to be a bandsman,
those who have played in the recent funeral of LA Queen, they
didn't just go straight and grab an instrument onto the, into
the procession and many many hours of learning and training
and to think that it would be any otherwise to be prepared
for heaven when it is so evident we are unprepared to walk with
God. We are alienated from God. The
heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it? We come forth from the womb speaking
lies. And so when we think of our nature,
we think of the fall, we think of how corrupt and unlike God
we are, we need a preparation. a preparation for glory. It's a solemn thing to go through
this life and just go straight to death with no thought of God,
no mindfulness of our sins, nothing that answers to the description
in the Word of God of being prepared. Our text says that he might make
known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which
he had aforeprepared unto glory." So those that are men, women,
children, described of vessels that have to be put into those
vessels, the riches of God's glory makes known to them They
are those that are going to glory. They are those that are being
prepared and it is all mercy. The title this evening and the
description of the people of God are vessels of mercy and
maybe remind ourselves that mercy can never ever be earned. It's like grace in one way. Grace, grace can, is totally
opposed to works. The original describes grace
as being pure, pure mercy, pure grace of God, not in any way
mixed with works. And mercy is like that. If mercy
could be deserved, then it would not be mercy. May we always remember
that. And the mercy of the Bible is
a mercy through blood. It's not just an indiscriminate
mercy, but it's mercy through the precious blood of Christ. In other words, Christ pays the
debt of these vessels of mercy. He pays their debt. He endures the wrath of God. He suffers in their place and
then He lets them go free. Then He shows mercy upon them. And that mercy that is shown
is a very sovereign mercy. very sovereign mercy. May everyone
that is prepared and is being prepared by God realize that
what they are being shown and given is very, very sovereign
of God. In verse 14, after the Apostle
is given the examples of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Esau,
He then says, he asks the question, is there unrighteousness with
God? And he answers his question,
God forbid. And he says, and he quotes what
God said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. And so we have set forth in those
verses down to verse 18, Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will
have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. This preparing
work is a sovereign work of God, a work that God begins. He which
hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day
of Jesus Christ. and it is through nothing in
that person whatsoever why God chooses to do that for them and
to bless them with this preparing work. So I want to look then
secondly at the evidence of preparation. The evidence of preparation. And what I want to say first
of all in this is that it is not so that that vessel of mercy
thinks, well, I'm quite a good person. I do charity works, and
I think good thoughts, and I have a good life, and I'm very sanctified
and set apart for the Lord. And therefore, that's the preparation. No, the preparation is not becoming,
in especially one's own eyes, to be holy and to be godly. In fact, where there is a preparation,
we may say those that are prepared, of all people upon the earth,
they feel their sins the most, they feel their need of mercy
day by day. They realise that if God would
mark their iniquities, their sins, then they could not stand. They are those that do really
mourn over their sins. They are those that really feel
their sinnership. So what is it then? What is it
to be prepared? Well, the apostle, in one way,
He gives the answer in verse 24. He says, even us whom he
hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. So immediately we know that those
that are being prepared, we don't just look for the line of Abraham.
We don't look for any line. The word of the gospel and God's
preparing is unto every nation, kindred and tongue. What is it
to be called? Well, the Apostle Paul himself
is an example of this. He was once thinking himself
an upright, a godly man, in great zeal. He was persecuting the
Church, believing that they were wrongly lifting up the Lord Jesus
Christ, who he viewed as an imposter, and he hated Christ, and he persecuted
his people. And we read of him, Paul, who
was first Saul, and what his life was like as a man that was
full of pride for his own good works. He couldn't see his own
sin. And we are told in the word of
God, how he was changed, how he was called, how he was given
the new birth, calling, new birth, conversion, they're all really
same words describing the same thing, giving eternal life. The Lord Jesus Christ says, I
give unto them eternal life. And that is what is the very
first thing that these vessels of mercy in their preparation
have They are given life, eternal life here below. In other words,
they are given spiritual eyes, spiritual ears. They are given
an appetite that they didn't have before. They are drawn to
the Lord Jesus Christ. They are given a teachable spirit. They are given a submissive spirit
to God and to His Word. and to his people. They are humbled. Their pride is brought down and
humbled in the dust. And Paul is an example of that. And he often refers to himself
that he found mercy. And if he found mercy, then there
is hope for any because of how evil he was and because of what
his life was like. His life was a witness of preparation
making a real change. Repentance was given him, a real
change of life. Repentance toward God, sorrow
for his past life, and a turning from that past life to the Lord
Jesus Christ, to walk according to the word of God. The apostle
says, be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ, a prepared
vessel, a person that is prepared, will be following not their own
evil heart, not the world, not man, but following Christ. Thou be of those that seek to
follow Him here below and to be with Him The Thessalonians,
when the Word of God came to them, that Word was blessed to
them. They received it as the Word
of God. That is an evidence of preparation,
that we receive the Word of God, we receive the Bible as the Word
of God. Most solemnly today, there are
many, even professed Christians, that do not receive from Genesis
to Revelation as the holy, inerrant, infallible Word of God. They
would say of this chapter, well, Paul wrote it, that's Paul, God
says something different. No, all Scripture is given by
inspiration of God, not just some, and that is vital. It's the most solemn thing. You know, our Lord in His day,
He said to the scribes and the Pharisees, the religious leaders
of his day, those that stood at the corners of the streets,
praying openly, testifying to everyone that they were godly
people, the Lord said to them that publicans, harlots, sinners,
prostitutes, they would go into the kingdom of heaven before
them. They were so far from God, don't ever be deceived by thinking
just because we are religious we will be saved, or trusting
in our religious works, our charity works. That is not the preparation
for heaven. One mark of the preparation,
the evidence of preparation, is receiving mercy, seeking mercy,
and receiving it As the publican did, our Lord spoke a parable
of the publican and the Pharisee in the temple. The Pharisee was
praying with himself, thanking God he was not like other men,
even like the publican or tax collector that was before him.
And yet the publican beat upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful
to me, a sinner. Our Lord said that that man went
down to his house justified, that is, free from condemnation
rather than the other. Because we have in our text that
he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of
mercy. Now the riches of God's glory
are these things. Mercy is one of the riches of
God's glory. Calling, is one of the riches
of God's glory. It is those riches that belong
to the Lord Jesus Christ that He bestows upon and makes known
to His people, the love of God. We read in Jeremiah, I have loved
thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. That is one of the riches of
the glory of God, the everlasting love of God. Our Lord says, the
Father himself loveth you, and we love him because he first
loved us. At the end of Psalm 107, when
we read of the very different changes in the psalmist's life
and experience, who so is wise and will observe these things
even they shall understand the loving kindness of God. So one
of these riches of glory, of His glory, that is made known
on the vessel of mercy on His people is the love of God. The love of God shed abroad in
the heart by the Holy Ghost. The love of God that is bestowed for them in His teaching, long-suffering,
and in His mercy. Love is inscribed upon it all,
the everlasting love of God, and that is made known on the
vessels of mercy. If you and I are to know we are
a vessel of mercy, we will know something of the love of God. who know something of being called
and turned and changed in our life, who know something of the
value of mercy, which if we are to value mercy, we'll view our
own works as not being worth anything before God's bar, and
yet wonder at how it could be that God could show mercy and
yet be righteous and holy and just. And the Holy Spirit will
lead and teach us the reason why God can show mercy is because
of Calvary, because of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, because
of his death, because of his sufferings, because of what he
endured. That is why he can show mercy. and that is made known on these
vessels of mercy. They are shown why God can show
mercy. Their prayer then will be like
the hymn writer, mercy through blood. I make my plea, God be
merciful to me. They will also know the glory
of God's power. We have it here, the power God
had. in choosing some and rejecting
others, the power over Pharaoh in verse 17, God's power in creation,
God's power in that which was done at Calvary, the earth quaking
as our Lord yielded up his breath. the power of God in raising him
from the dead and raising him to his throne in glory. And we'll know that we need that
power of God. The apostles, they were bidden
to go and preach to the whole world, but then they were told
to tarry or wait at Jerusalem until they were endued with power
from on high. And those vessels of mercy, they
will know something of the power of God. One of our hymns says,
my heart will move at thy command. Many of us, we feel how hard
our hearts are, how unmovable, how cold, how unaffected by judgments
or mercies. But when we have the power of
God, then the heart melts and softens and is brought down. And that's what we need. We need
it in the ministry. We need it in our souls. The
power of God. You think of that last great
day, the end of the world when the dead in Christ shall be raised
first and the Lord shall work that power and work and wonder
that all the dust of all that have ever lived shall be raised
up again and given a celestial body either for eternal life
or eternally dying. What power is that? I often think
of it in the springtime when winter has left all our trees
so dry and barren and sticks. And then it comes to spring and
you can't hear anything. You can't even notice it happening. And yet slowly all the trees,
they become green. The shoots, they spring forth.
How many times have we gone along a pavement that has got tarmac
on it? And there, some of the stones
and tarmac has been pushed up. And what's underneath it just
looks like a little plant growing, a little weed growing. And yet
it's got power to lift those stones and that tar. And you
think, What power has God put in His creation even? So silent,
so quiet, and yet it doesn't. And God has that power. He has
that power over men. He has it over nature. He has it in the stars and in
the heavens. The powerful, almighty God. And the people of God know something
of that power moving them. softening them, giving them repentance,
changing their hearts. They'll know something also of
the glory of God in holiness. God is holy. We read in Peter's
epistles, be ye holy for I am holy. Yet we feel our unholiness
and yet the Lord has a holiness to impart to his people that
though perfection in this life we never will know, yet he does
impart to us that which does sanctify us, set us apart, make
us to desire those things that are pure, holy, and the vain,
vile, profane, filthy things of this life will be a grief
and a sorrow to us and will be of those that hunger and thirst
after righteousness, desiring what we are not, but what we
will be in glory hereafter. He says that he might make known the riches of his glory on the
vessels of mercy. Riches of wisdom, riches of the
glory of the God of salvation, the crown that is on the head
of the Lord Jesus Christ is his name. Thou shalt call his name
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. And it will be in this life,
sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the
law, but you If you and I are vessels of mercy,
there'll be things made known to us. And it will be the riches
of His glory. We'll see a glory in Christ that
we did not see before. We'll see a glory in Christ that
we will know many of our fellow mortals do not see. Their lives evidence it. Their
mouths evidence it. They don't see any glory in the
Lord. They take His name in vain. They
tread Him and treat Him with contempt. And yet this people,
these vessels of mercy, we read in the Psalms, God is greatly
to be feared in the assembly of the saints, to be had in reverence
of all them that are about Him. And that doesn't come about just
suddenly. It comes about because the riches
of His glory are being made known to this people. That which was
not known, they are shown and revealed these things of the
things of God. Bless the Lord for all that He
has made known to us of His glory. that which lifts him up in our
esteem, that which magnifies him in our own eyesight. John Baptist said, he must increase,
I must decrease. He says that the one that cometh,
I'm not worthy to loose his shoes off his feet. He had such high
views of his glory. When the Lord was in the ship
and rose and rebuked the winds and the waves, the disciples,
they said, what manner of man is this, that even the winds
and the waves obey him? And they were shown something
of his glory, something of his majesty and his power. And instead
of others which said, what, Jesus, he's the son of Joseph, the carpenter's
son. And they despised him. But others,
they saw his glory. They spoke of his glory. It affected
them, affected their lives. May we be a vessel prepared unto
glory according to that which is described in the scriptures
and in our text here, that God himself is making known the riches
of His glory on us. And He's making it in such a
way that He is preparing us before glory, before heaven, preparing
us to go there and to be there. And it is this revelation of
His glory that is being used to prepare us. And note in all
ways, the crown is placed on His head, the beauty is seen
in Christ, the loveliness is in Him, and not in ourselves. Less in our own esteem, Christ
more in our esteem, but our own works, our own ways, we are ashamed
of them and as we grow in grace in that way we'll grow less in
our own esteem and Christ will grow more in our esteem and that
is the preparation that you and I want is Christ alone That is
the only name given among men, whereby we must be saved. It
is the only precious blood that is shed. It is the only way of
salvation that is made known in the Scriptures. What a solemn
thing, to spend our lives fighting against what God has revealed
in His Word because we don't agree with it. and making out
a different way of being saved that does not accord with what
is in the Word of God. Such will never stand at the
last day and will never answer to a preparation for glory."
Well, I want to note as thirdly, vessels of mercy showing mercy. Vessels of mercy showing mercy. Our Lord pronounced a blessing
in the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5 and in verse 7. Blessed are the merciful for
they shall obtain mercy. So he links together the mercy
that is received and the mercy then that actually is given. If we go to the Lord's Prayer
as recorded again in Matthew, in Matthew chapter 14, we read
an explanation of what is in verse 12. Verse 12, and forgive
us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And again, there's the
linking together of our forgiveness and us forgiving others. And this is clarified in verse
14. For if ye forgive men their trespasses,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive
not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your
trespasses. And so the linking together of
mercy received and mercy shown. And we have this also illustrated
in the 18th chapter of Matthew and verse 28. And we read this,
a servant that was shown mercy and yet that same mercy, same
servant that was loosed from a great debt He went out and
found one of his fellow servants, which owed him a hundred pence.
And he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying,
Pay me that thou ow'st. And his fellow servant fell down
at his feet and besought him, saying, Have patience with me,
and I will pay thee all. And he would not, but went and
cast him into prison till he should pay the debt. And the
Lord said to him, though thou wicked servant, I forgave thee
all that debt because thou desirest me. Shouldest not thou also have
had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on
thee? And then he was dealt with for
what he'd done. And we have a summary at the
end of that chapter So likewise shall my Heavenly Father do also
unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother
their trespasses. And James, he takes this up as
well in his epistle. And chapter two, verse 13, he
says, For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed
no mercy, and mercy rejoiceth against judgment. And so, in
Luke, our Lord says, Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also
is merciful. One of the then other evidences
when we're thinking of a prepared people is that these vessels
of mercy do not only receive mercy, but they pour out mercy,
that is, to their fellow creatures. And if we think of the illustration
of a vessel, a pot, a container, we put water in it, And if someone
had given us water and we had someone that had nothing to drink,
wouldn't we pour out of what we had received so that they
could also drink? And the scriptures make this
very clear as a evidence of being a vessel of mercy in a two-way
thing. We will receive it and we also
give it and show it. and the scriptures make it very
clear that it is those that value and seek mercy that receive mercy. Some have a wrong view of this
and they think that, well, they must show mercy on their fellow
creatures, immortals, and those are not seeking mercy. In fact,
they're saying that we deserve that you should forgive us, or
that you should just turn a blind eye to all that we've done, because
we haven't done anything. And they're not asking for mercy. They're not wanting mercy. And this applies to us. If we're
seeking from the Lord mercy, then we'll ask for it, like the
publican did. And if there are those that are
asking for mercy, and they have injured us, they have done wrong,
but they acknowledge it, they feel it, they can't repay it,
but they just, they ask for mercy. That is when it is rightly shown
and given. May we be consistent in the receiving
of it and in the giving of it. vessels of mercy. May we truly
be such a person. May this describe us, the word
of our text, and that he might make known the riches of his
glory on the vessels of mercy which he had aforeprepared unto
glory. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.