These verses in Romans chapter
9 utilize, as Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit, utilize what
we might refer to as a parable from the Old Testament that's
found in Jeremiah 18. And you might mark that on top
of your lesson there just to go back and read that in Jeremiah
18. And it's the parable of the potter
and the clay. And as the apostle back in verse
20 when he said, oh man, who art thou that replies, that argue
and debates with God? Who do you think you are? That's
what he say. Over these issues of God's sovereign
mercy and sovereign grace, God made it clear he has mercy on
whom he will. He has compassion, he's gracious
to whom he will. Because God has determined that
in this matter of salvation, He alone will get all the glory. And he will not share his glory
with another. He's not going to do it. When
it comes to the ground of salvation, when it comes to the means of
salvation, when it comes to the gifts of salvation, there's not
one area at any stage that you and I as sinners saved by grace
can boast that we made the difference. That's true. In perseverance. It's in our preservation. We're
not going to be able to brag and boast. It's of God that showeth
mercy, he says. And then he goes back into the
Old Testament. He mentions Pharaoh. Even for
this same purpose have I raised thee up. Pharaoh, who was one
of the most powerful kings that ever lived on earth, but also
one of the most evil men that ever lived on earth. God said,
I raised you up for that purpose. And what purpose? It wasn't just
to do evil, which Pharaoh did. And that was well within the
sovereign purpose of God. Now, God's not the author of
evil. But it was well within his purpose
and his plan. Even in Pharaoh, he's working
all things after the counsel of his own will. I mean, he said
it to Isaiah. He said, look, he said, my purpose,
I'll do it. I'll fulfill it. Nobody's going
to turn it back. And this is one of these areas
where I've often told you the gospel itself is a simple message,
but the Bible is a difficult book sometimes. If you go over
and read those passages in Jeremiah 18, he talks about the potter
and the wheel, and that's what he uses here. He says, look at
verse 20, shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why
hast thou made me thus? Why did you make me like this
way? And that's a way of man blaming God for his evil, And
yet God in his sovereign word here, he says, well, verse 21,
look at it. Hath not the potter power over
the clay? He said of the same lump to make
one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. Think about that. This is God speaking out of his,
from his sovereign throne and his right. You know, we're so
big on human rights. And when it comes to our relationship
with others on this earth, that's okay. You know, the forefathers
talked about inalienable rights, the right to pursue life, liberty,
and happiness, and how we're born equal with each other as
far as our rights. But when it comes to a relationship
with God, that's not the case. We as creatures, God is, listen,
when God created this world, man was part of this creation.
And God created man in his own image, and what that refers to,
I believe, is the communicable attributes of God, such as knowledge
and wisdom and love, things like that. God has incommunicable
attributes. In other words, there are attributes
that God cannot recreate. For example, immutability. God
cannot make something that is immutable, because creation itself
means change. But God is not mutable. If you
read that Jeremiah 18 passage when he talks about the potter
and the clay, and how the potter makes one vessel into honor and
one into dishonor, He tells him, he said, now, if you'll repent,
he said, if you'll turn to the Lord, I'll repent of the things
that I thought of you. That's a statement that puts
man's accountability in order there. But in other passages,
it tells us God is not a man that he should repent. In other
passages, it tells us that God is immutable. He says, I am the
Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. And all the time that Jeremiah
is talking there in his prophecy in Jeremiah 18, God knows, he
knows that Judah and Jerusalem, they're not gonna repent. Now
it's not because he looks down through a telescope of time,
he's not a crystal ball gazer. And it's like I said last week,
God is not some kind of cosmic chess player. He makes his move,
you make your counter move, and blah, blah, blah, we'll see who
wins in the end. That's not the way it is. This is the determinant
counsel and foreknowledge of God, and that before the foundation
of the world. You say, well, how can I wrap
my mind around that? You can't. I'll tell you why
you can't. You're not God. And that's what this passage
means. Who are you to debate with God? All I know is what
God has revealed to us, all right? And here's what I know. God has
revealed that we, that he is righteous and we're not. And in order to have a right
relationship with God, we must be righteous. But there's no
way, now this is what God has told us. He said there's no way
that you can be made righteous by your works or your will. Look back up at verse 16. It's not of him that willeth,
You cannot will yourself into righteousness. There's no such thing as, quote,
free will, unquote, in the scriptures. Our will is in bondage to sin.
When we fell in Adam, we fell wholly. Not H-O-L-Y, W-H-O-L-L-Y. Completely, we fell. Not just
part of, not just all of us except our wills. Man, the Bible reveals,
God tells us, we don't have that spark of goodness that false
preachers talk about. We don't have that. There's none
good, no not one. There's none that seeketh the
Lord, no not one. That's us by nature. And if left
to ourselves, that's the way it'll stay. So it's not of him
that will, nor of him that runneth. Now this is what God has revealed
about us. You see, this is the doctrine
of sin and depravity. What is total depravity? It's
just the biblical doctrine of sin. It tells me what I am by
nature as I'm naturally born into this world. And it tells
me that not only am I alienated from God, but that if God leaves
me to myself, I will not choose him. I will not believe him.
I will not repent. So God reveals, he said he's
righteous and we're not. And we cannot be made righteous.
We cannot will ourselves into righteousness. When Adam fell,
he fell out of favor with God. But the Bible also reveals to
us that before this world was ever created, God had a plan
and a purpose to save a people of his choice through Jesus Christ
by his grace. A salvation given unto his people
in Jesus Christ before the world began, 2 Timothy 1, 9, and 10,
Ephesians chapter 1, and other passages. So when you read passages that
seem to indicate that God will repent or change his mind, understand
that God cannot change his nature. He is who he is. Listen, change
means either for the better or for the worse. And if you change,
it's gonna be one way or the other. Well, God cannot get any
better. He's holy and he's perfect. He's
complete. And he's certainly not gonna
get any worse. But he had sometimes, and I really believe this, and
I think most of you will agree with me, there's sometimes that
God simply, and it's because of our limitations and our mental
capacities, and I'm not saying we're all dumb or anything like
that, I'm just saying because we are human. And even the Einsteins
are humans. And because of our finiteness,
I guess that's a word, because of our limitation, and then especially
because of our sin, God has to talk down to us. And he has to
put things that are eternal and immutable into human terms, and
that's difficult. In fact, you may even say it's
impossible. That's why, you know, all these
arguments over time and eternity, sometimes they get really crazy.
What God purpose, you know, nothing ever changes in the mind of God. Nothing ever changes in the mind
of God. Well, we're all about change. I mean, everything I
know is change. I've been changing. And the Lord lets me live much
longer, I'll change more too. That's all we know, isn't it?
And anytime we even speak, you know, when we even speak of the
eternality of God, sometimes we speak in terms of time. Brother
Jim Byrd up there, a lot of times he'll talk about an old eternity
or an eternity past. That's the way we have to speak.
We talk about God made a covenant before the foundation. It's almost
like there was a point in time that God got up out of bed and
he said, well, let's make that covenant. Well, that's not the
way it happens. But how are you going to describe that? I don't
know. There's no other way. It's an
eternal, everlasting covenant. So here's Pharaoh. God's revealed
this. God revealed to Pharaoh that
he's the God of this universe. And he said, Pharaoh, let my
people go. And the Bible says two things.
It says God hardened Pharaoh's heart. And then it says Pharaoh
hardened his own heart. We know God's the first cause
of all things. And right here he says, He says
in verse 17, 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 through all the earth. That's an awesome thing. Now
a man comes along, he says, well that doesn't seem fair to me.
Well, that's the key. Doesn't seem fair to you, doesn't
seem fair to me, but to God? He's the potter, we're the clay. God has revealed, according to
his sovereign purpose, that he would restore mankind through
a remnant that he chose upon which he would make righteous
through the blood of his son, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he reveals this, there is
absolutely no other way of salvation but by his grace through the
righteousness of his son. There's no other way that a sinner
can be made right with God but through Christ. That's what God's
revealed. That's his purpose. That glorifies
him. We'll look back at verse 21 again.
He says, hath not the potter power over the clay of the same
lump? Now, who's the lump there? That's
humanity. Even before the foundation of
the world. And then when we fell in Adam,
what happened to the lump? Well, we all fell into sin and
death. So here's a lump of clay, and
that's what he calls humanity, clay. Somebody said, well, we're
not robots. No, we're clay. We're a lump
of clay. Somebody said, well, we're not
puppets. Well, either we're puppets or God's puppet, the puppet.
No, we're a lump of clay. This is scriptural language.
And so God, in his sovereign purpose, took some of that clay
and determined to show his glory in one way, in his justice, based
upon their sins imputed to them and their damnation. And then
he took another lump of that clay and fashioned it by his
grace for the salvation of his people. He says, the same lump
to make one vessel under honor and another under dishonor. Now,
the same lump, if we realize that, We'll realize then that
if we're part of that lump whom God prepared under glory, vessels
of mercy, we don't have anything to brag about or boast about
over the ones whom he fitted for destruction. Look at verse
22. What if God, willing to show
his wrath, now, Turn to 2 Peter chapter 3. Now modern day religion tells us that God is not willing
that anybody should perish, meaning, what they mean by that is any
person at all. And they use this verse here
in 2 Peter 3 and verse 9. Now listen to this. It says in
verse nine, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise. Now first
of all, you gotta know what the promise is, but hold on. As some
men count slackness. Now this is an objection that
was raised against the fact that the Lord had not come back yet
and destroyed this world. God promised that he would destroy
this world. Well, is he slack, he's not come
yet, has he? Was he slack concerning that
promise? But there's another, this involves another promise
that's right in line with that. We'll get to that in a minute.
But he says, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise,
as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to usward,
there's your key, not willing that any should perish, but that
all should come to repentance. And false preachers, they use
that verse to say, see, God doesn't want anybody to perish. God's
not willing that any should perish. Well, look at Romans 9 again,
verse 22. He says, what if God, willing
to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath, fitted, made up, or
prepared to destruction? Bible teaches us that God is
willing. in that sense, to show his wrath
against sinners to whom sin is imputed, to whom sin is charged. Look back at that 2 Peter. Turn to 2 Peter chapter 1. First
of all, now what was Peter saying when he says God is not willing
that any should perish but that all should come to repentance?
Well God's talking about his elect. His chosen people in Christ
who were marked out and fitted and prepared under glory before
the foundation of the world, whose names were written in the
Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world. Look
at verse one of chapter one of 2 Peter. Simon Peter, a servant
and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like
precious faith, now who's he talking about here? That's believers.
Faith is the gift of God, he said, with us through the righteousness
of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. That's Christ's righteousness
imputed, and that faith comes out of the life of Christ. And
he says in verse two, grace and peace be multiplied unto you
through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Look at
verse three. He says, according as his divine
power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life
and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to
glory and virtue. This letter's written of sinners
saved by the grace of God, believers who've been brought to repentance
by God. And so, look back at verse one of chapter three. Look
at chapter three again of 2 Peter, verse one. This second epistle,
beloved, I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your
pure minds by way of remembrance." Who's he talking to there? The
beloved. And who are the beloved? That's
the elect of God. That's believers who are brought
to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works. All of that. And then he tells them in verse
nine, he said, now the Lord is not slack concerning his promise.
God is not slack in any promise that he ever made. Especially
his promise to save his people from their sins. All those promises
of God are in Christ, yea, and in him, amen. And he says, so
God's not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness,
but his long-suffering to us-ward. Who are the us-ward there? Who
is the us? That's a pronoun. I'm not gonna
give you an English lesson today, but a pronoun has an antecedent.
What is the antecedent? That's the ones whom the pronoun
refers. Who is the usward? That's the
ones he identified in 2 Peter 1, 2 Peter 3. Not willing that
any should perish, any of the usward, any of his people, but
that all should come to repentance. God's gonna bring his people,
his children, the redeemed of the Lord, his elect, to repentance. Now how's he gonna bring them
to repentance? Through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He'll
turn them to Christ, and he'll turn them away from everything
else. That's how he does it. So back here in Romans 9.22,
what if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power
known, endured with much longsuffering? You know, when Adam fell, God
did not immediately destroy everything. He didn't immediately destroy
Adam. When Pharaoh, when God first
started dealing with Pharaoh, I mean, God could have just come
down and whacked Pharaoh out without saying a word to him.
But he sent Moses there, and Moses revealed things. Moses
stated things. Moses gave the command of the
Lord to Pharaoh, let my people go. But God suffered long. And this, you know, somebody
said, When it comes to people who live and die in unbelief,
that it's the grace of God that God doesn't immediately destroy
them, no, it's not the grace of God, it's the long-suffering
of God. If you go through, think about,
I always think about Methuselah, because he lived 969 years. Now, We're not told anything about
Methuselah other than he lived 969 years. We know something
about him because of his name, which was a prophecy of the flood
coming. And he died, I think most scholars
believe that Methuselah died in about the same year maybe
that the flood came or closer thereof. And that's probably
true. But all it says, there's three
words you can say about Methuselah other than his name, and he died. He died. Well, if he lived his
life in unbelief and then perished in the end, look how long, how
much did God suffer along with Methuselah? 969 years. Others cut down in the prime
of life. Some live long lives. But all
of this, even in those who live their lives and die in their
sins without Christ, without the blood, without his righteousness,
What is happening there? Well, God's making his power
known, making his justice known. Now, we're not to take a self-righteous
attitude towards that and say, ha, ha, ha, look at what happened
to Methuselah or anybody like that. No, no, no, no. Here's our attitude. It's like
that old pilgrim said. But for the grace of God, there
go I. Whoever lives and dies and perishes
in eternal damnation, here's what I know about me. I don't
deserve and have not earned anything better. So look at verse 23. What if
God, He's willing that he might make
known the riches of his glory. And I believe the riches of his
glory is showing us this. And whatever he's going to tell
us about this, this is the Shekinah glory. You've heard that term
Shekinah? That's the highest manifestation
of the glory of God. And what he's saying, God makes
his glory known, makes his power known, in the vessels of wrath
fitted, prepared, made up for destruction. God makes his glory
known, but he makes his highest glory, his greatest glory known,
the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had
aforeprepared unto glory. If you're a believer, what does
that tell you? You're a product. of the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God before the world began, and
you're a product of His grace through the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what it tells you. Amazing grace, that's what that
means. Why am I not with that company
that was fitted to destruction? Because that's what I deserve
and that's what I've earned. But God has determined to make
the riches of His glory. And how does that come about?
Well, in the damnation of those to whom God charges with sin,
He shows forth His power, even His wisdom and His justice. but
in the damnation of those. In the salvation of his people
by his grace through Jesus Christ, you can see every attribute of
God's nature working consistently together to save a sinner from
his or her sins. That's the Shekinah glory. That
was pictured back in the Old Testament at the mercy seat because
there in the holiest of all, Behind the veil where the high
priest went once a year on the day of atonement, that was the
greatest. You know, that whole tabernacle
showed forth the glory of God. And there were other things in
God's dealings with Israel that showed forth his glory. But in
that holiest of all was the highest manifestation of God's glory.
That was the Shekinah glory. Because that's where God revealed
how he could be both a just God and a savior. and it was based on the blood,
the blood of the lamb. It was based upon Christ's righteousness
imputed. That's what it was all about.
So here's where the apostle takes us now. He doesn't stop and say,
well now, let's be fatalist. Let's sing along with Doris Day. Que sera sera, whatever will
be will be. Let's take that attitude. Well,
if God's done it that way, then it doesn't matter what I do.
Is that the way we're supposed to? No. Now listen to what he
says in verse 24. And this is gonna be expounded
upon, really, from here on to the end of chapter 11. He says, he's talking about the vessels
of mercy, which God had afore, before now. And it's before the
foundation that were prepared unto glory. even us whom he hath
called." The person says, how do I know if I'm a vessel of
wrath fitted for destruction or a vessel of mercy aforeprepared
unto glory? How can I know that? How can
I know if I'm one of God's elect? How can I know if I'm one whom
he has justified by his grace through the righteousness of
Christ and that I have Christ's righteousness charged to my account?
That my sins were charged to Christ and he redeemed me on
the cross. How can I know that? How can
I know if I've been born again? Even us whom he hath called.
And what is that calling? It's the calling of the gospel
in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring a sinner to see his
absolute sinfulness and depravity in the light of God's holiness
and justice. To see that he has no, nothing
to recommend him unto God. No work I do, no choice I make
can recommend me unto God. To see that if God were to give
me what I've earned and deserved, no matter if I've been an Eagle
Scout, that if God ever gave me what I've earned or deserved,
it would be eternal death and damnation. And to see the glory
of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ, that Christ is
my only hope, that his blood is the only thing that can wash
away my sins, that his righteousness charged to me is the only thing
that can justify me before a holy God. To see that even the faith,
which I believe, is a gift from God. And to bring me to repentance
and to look to Christ. That's the calling. And then
he says in verse 24, it's not of the Jews only, but also of
the Gentiles. This thing has nothing to do
with your nationality, your ethnicity, whether you're male or female.
It has nothing to do with that. But it's only to them who are
called. Called of God by the power of
the Spirit. Look at 1 Corinthians 1 and then
I'll close with this. Verse 18 of 1 Corinthians 1.
Here's where Paul makes this, as he's inspired by the Holy
Spirit to make this grand division here. In verse 18 it says, for the
preaching of the cross. Now that is a full phrase. What is the preaching of the
cross? Well, it's the preaching of the, it's not preaching a
piece of wood. It's not wearing one around your
neck. It's the preaching of the glorious person and the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ to redeem his people from their
sins, to bring forth that everlasting righteousness. Now that preaching,
which excludes boasting in all of us, which exposes our, what
we highly esteem as being an abomination, that kind of preaching,
is to them that perish, or literally who are perishing, it's foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
or are being saved, it is the power of God. And then jump down
to verse 23, or verse 22. He says, for the Jews require
a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. That's lost humanity. It's what we do. We want signs.
We want human wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified
under the Jews a stumbling block and under the Greeks foolishness,
but under them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God and the wisdom of God. That's the difference,
isn't it? Is the preaching of the cross,
the preaching of Christ crucified, what is it to you? What is it
to me? Is it foolishness? Is it not worth my time? Worth
my thought? Or is it Christ the wisdom and
the power of God? Listen. Listen. You want wisdom? Here he is,
the embodiment of wisdom. You want power? These old false
preachers are going, I want power with God, you know, and they
hit people on the head and they fall backward and all that. That
ain't power. Christ the power. Preach Christ
and him crucified and risen from the dead. Preach his blood and
righteousness. That's the power of God. Okay.