The Bible Baptist Church, located
at 2015 Beulah Road in Madisonville, Kentucky, would like to invite
you to listen to a message of the sovereign grace of God in
the Lord Jesus Christ by their pastor, David Edmondson. Romans chapter nine, verse 15. For he, God, saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then, we must conclude, it
is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. If it is God that has mercy on
whom He will, and if it is God who shows compassion on whom
He will, then salvation cannot be of man's will, it cannot be
of man's work, It can only be by the mercy of God and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Verse 17 of Romans 9, 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
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt then say to me, Why
doth he yet find fault? for who hath resisted his will? Now, this is why folks have a
problem with this great truth. They don't think that it's right.
They don't think that it's lawful for God to do what he will with
his own. The Lord said that. He said,
is it not lawful? Is it not right for me to do
with what belongs to me? Folks' argument on this, if God
is sovereign and if none can resist his will, then how and
why doth he yet find fault? In these verses, does Paul find
a need to defend God? Does God find the need to defend
himself? Absolutely not. Verse 20, Nay,
but, O man, who art thou? Who are you that replies against
God? Listen carefully, "...shall the
thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made
me thus?" And then God, through the Apostle Paul, gives us the
very reason why man does not have the right to argue about
God's power and right to do what he wills. So let's again go down
to the potter's house. We start with a very important
question. Hath not the potter power over
the clay? The entirety of God's word says
that he does. After all, what is clay? The
English dictionary defines clay as stiff, sticky, fine-grained
earth. How suitable a picture that is
of you and I. We're stiff. We're unbendable,
unchanging in our ways. We're sticky. Everything we touch,
we leave our sinful mark upon. And everything we touch, we endeavor
to keep for ourselves. Sticky. You know, when clay is
wet, given the water of life, it can be molded, formed, and
fashioned. But when dry, without Christ
the fountain and tried with fire, we are hardened and good for
nothing. And the question is, hath not the potter power? whatever God, as the divine part
of purposes to do comes to pass. And not only that, but every
purpose of the Lord is done in wisdom. Now, many men on earth
today have authority, but they do unwise things. God's authority
is always consistent with wisdom. The question is asked from the
scripture, shall not the judge of the earth do right? Friends,
he does all things well. He cannot do wrong. The Lord
not only does with His own what He wills, the Lord does with
His own what is best. He does that which best serves
His glory, that which is good for His people. Yes, the potter
has the power over the clay. And again, verse 21, the divine
and sovereign potter can of the same lump make one vessel unto
honor and another unto dishonor. Now here in Romans chapter 9,
we see a two-fold purpose of God. First, His purpose is to
show His power. And secondly, that his name might
be declared. And that word means glorified.
Again, verse 17, this is why God raised Pharaoh up, 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. There's the two
things right there. Now, verse 22, 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,
and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the
vessels of mercy which he had aforeprepared under glory. And there we have the second
thing, God making His glory to be known. How does He do so?
By bestowing the riches of His glory on vessels of mercy which
He had aforeprepared unto glory. Now God could have left me to
myself. He would have been no less holy,
righteous, or just. He would have been no less God
if He had. And that's what I deserve. Anything,
anything short of eternal wrath, judgment, and eternal condemnation
is the result of God's long-suffering to vessels of mercy. Well, I
could and should have been a vessel of mercy. That's exactly what
I deserved. Why didn't I get what I deserved?
Because God gave me what I didn't deserve. He had mercy. Glory to God, that's what a vessel
of mercy is. Now let's make a few observations
about these vessels of mercy. First, vessels of mercy are made
out of the same lump as the vessels of wrath. You look back, to the
hole from which you and I were dug. Look back to the miry clay
from which we were made. There lies nothing in us that
differs from another. There's nothing in you or I that
merited mercy. Believers are miracles of God's
love and distinguishing grace, nothing more. If God had left
us to ourselves, If God had left us Christless, we would have
been eternally damned. Why, we all are from the loins
of Adam. We all share the same mother
as Cain, the murderer. It is said that Demas forsook
the Lord Jesus and Judas who betrayed the Lord for 30 pieces
of silver, they all had the same first parents that we did, Adam
and Eve. We are all from the same lump. Secondly, from our text, we see
that these vessels of mercy are entirely in the potter's hands. Had the potter willed to leave
the lump of clay alone and untouched by His gracious hand, it would
have been a vessel of wrath. There's no power in the lump
of clay itself that could have made itself fit for honor, only
dishonor. And clay vessels, apart from
the divine potter, fit themselves for destruction. You see, only
grace can prepare a soul for glory. No vessel of clay will
be saved apart from the distinguishing grace of the divine potter and
his work upon the wheel. The salvation of every vessel
of clay is in the hands of the potter, God himself, and we all
lie in God's hands. And if any be saved, any, any
man or woman be saved, it'll be by mercy, pure mercy, sovereign
mercy. Thirdly, our text speaks of God's
chosen ones being vessels. A vessel is nothing but a receiver. A vessel is not a fountain. A
vessel is not a creator of water. A vessel can only hold what is
put or poured into it. A vessel can't pour into itself. At one time, these vessels of
mercy were full of themselves, but grace, God's grace, emptied
them. God made them empty vessels,
and then He filled them to the brim. And He filled them with
mercy. and they became vessels of mercy.
And the amazing thing is, is that God had to give them the
power to receive this mercy. When did they receive it? The
scripture says, in the day of his, God's power. We can only work out what God
has worked in us, and we're only receivers. Only that which is
poured into a vessel can be poured out of it. And we come to God
singing, nothing in our hand we bring, simply to Christ's
cross we cling. Fourthly, this is why we are
vessels of mercy. The sovereign potter made us
so. He formed us and he fashioned
us to be vessels of honor. Only he could. The only qualification
to be a vessel of mercy is need. In order to be clothed, we have
to be naked and in need of a covering. In order to be made completely
clean, we must see that we are entirely filthy and in need of
cleansing. And only Christ's perfect righteousness
can clothe us. Only Christ's precious blood
can cleanse us. Saved sinners are not vessels
of merit. but vessels of mercy. Sinful
men and women are in need of a perfect covering of righteousness.
Filthy wretches are in need of the cleansing of the blood of
Christ. Now the question is, do you have
need of clothing? Do you have need of righteousness?
Do you have need of washing, of cleansing? If your answer
is an overwhelming yes, then you are a vessel of mercy. We must be filled with misery
before we can ever be filled with mercy. And we've looked
at the vessel here, so let's just quickly consider the potter
and his work. When the potter places the clay
upon the wheel to turn into fashion, he does not leave to chance what
the vessel becomes. The potter has a purpose in mind.
He knows what kind of vessel that he's about to make. So does
the divine potter. As a mass of clay, he takes the
poor sinner and he puts them on the wheel. And as it revolves,
he sees something that he desires to fashion and make. There's
something that only appears to the great creator's eyes. You
know, John wrote this, it does not yet appear what we shall
be. What we shall be, will never appear unto us until we see Christ
as he is, and we shall be like him. He will not leave one sin,
God will not leave one sin of his people unpardoned. Only the
potter can complete these vessels of mercy. Philippians 1 verse
six, being confident of this very thing, that he which hath
begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ. Colossians 2 verse 9 and 10. For in him, Jesus Christ, dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in
him, which is the head of all principality and power. Friends, Christ is the divine
potter. And it's in Him that we are made
vessels of mercy. The only hope that you and I
have of ever being saved, having our sin put away, and being in
heaven forever is found in Jesus Christ. Being in Christ. is being a vessel of mercy. Are you a vessel of mercy? If
you see Christ as your only hope of salvation, then you are most
certainly a vessel of mercy. You have been listening to a
message by David Edmondson, the pastor of Bible Baptist Church
in Madisonville, Kentucky. If you would like a copy of this
message, or to hear other messages of God's free, sovereign grace
in Christ, you can write to our mailing address at P.O. Box 652
Madisonville, Kentucky 42431. or log on to our website at FreeGraceRadio.com. If you would like to come and
worship with us, we meet at 2015 Beulah Road, Madisonville, Kentucky,
and our service times are Sunday morning Bible study at 10 o'clock
a.m., worship services begin at 11 o'clock a.m., Wednesday
evening services at 7 o'clock p.m., Please tune in again next
Sunday morning at 10 o'clock AM for another message of God's
free and sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus Christ.