The Bible's open there to Jeremiah
chapter 18. I am quite confident Sean did not
know where I was led to preach from this morning. I believe
the only person who knew was Janet, I told her. And the song
that he picked out for us to sing, have thine own way, thou
art the potter and I am the clay. I believe, I'm right in saying, the Lord
has something he intends for us to hear this morning. I've
entitled the message, Can I Not Do With You As I Will? Now that question is at the very
heart of the gospel. Can God do with you, can God
do with me as he will? Now this is an issue that must
be saddled in our hearts. Who's in control here? Who's
the one that should decide this issue of salvation and righteousness
and eternal life? Who should decide who's in control
here? Is it me or is it God? Is it God or is it man? More to the point, is it God
or is it me? I'm not just talking about everybody
out there. Is it God? Or is it me? Who settles this
issue? Is it you? Or is it God? We need to find that out. The
Lord took Jeremiah down to the potter's house to answer that
very question. Who's in control here? At the
potter's house, the Lord teaches us it is the Lord who is sovereign
in salvation. Salvation is all up to the will,
to the doing, to the keeping, to the applying of God alone.
And there are three elements to the Lord's illustration here
that will show us this truth that salvation is of Lord. God
does with his own as he will. And then I want us to show us
this truth applied in real life. At first, there's the potter. The potter is a picture of almighty
God. He is in control of everything. And the illustration the Lord
uses is the potter having power over the clay. The potter has
the right to choose what he's gonna do with that clay. He has
the right to choose what he's gonna make out of it. He can
take that lump and he can divide it into two lumps. He can take
that first lump and he can make a chamber pot out of it. He didn't
really paint it up very pretty or anything. It's just a chamber
pot used to hold you know what. And he can take the other lump,
put it on his wheel, and he can make a beautiful flower vase
out of it. That's his right. And nobody
would ever dream of telling that potter, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
wait a minute. That's not fair. You shouldn't
have made a chamber pot out of that first lump of clay. You
know why nobody ever say that? Because it's clear. The potter
with the power and with the skill to do something with that clay
has the right to choose to make whatever he wants. He can make
whatever he wants. He can make whatever it is that
best suits his needs. If he needs a chamber pot, he's
gonna make a chamber pot. If he needs a flower pot, flower vase,
he's gonna make a vase. At the potter's house, here's
what the Lord is teaching us, that all of us are what we are
because the almighty potter made us that way. Whatever physical
abilities and talents that you have, you have them because God
gave them to you. And if you don't have them, you
don't have them because God didn't give them to you. I do not have
the ability to play a musical instrument. I don't care how
many lessons I took, I could never in the rest of my life
do what Carrie just did. I could never. It's a mystery
to me how she does that. I mean, how you can look at two
different lines and your hands, two hands doing two different,
it's a complete and utter mystery to me because God didn't give
that to me. That's why I cannot play a musical
instrument. And if you have the ability to do that, you know
why? It's because God gave it to you. Each of us will have
the exact number of days on this earth that the Lord was pleased
to give us before time began. We will have the blessings that
the Lord determined to give us before time began. We'll be as
tall as God determined for us to be. That was a big issue to
me when I was a teenager. I so wanted to be six foot four,
I couldn't stand it. And there was nothing I could
do to make myself grow that tall. I mean, I just couldn't do it.
I'm as tall as the Lord gave me inches before the time began. And we're gonna have the trials
And we're gonna have the heartaches that the Lord determined to give
us before time began. And we're gonna have the blessings
and the comfort in those things that the Lord determined before
to give us. You see, Almighty God has the
crown rights to do with his own as he pleases. He has the right
to do that because he's God. We belong to him. because he's
our creator. We get our life and our breath
and our existence from him. So we belong to him. And God
has the right to do with me and mine what he will. And I don't have the right to
question. God has the right to do what he will, with whom he
will, because he's God. And we need to learn this. God's
not our equal. God is not our buddy. God is God. He's the sovereign,
he's the creator, he's the ruler, he's God. Therefore, God has
the right to do with us what best serves his glory. Just like
the potter, choosing what it is he needs to make for his purpose,
God has the right to do with us as he pleases, whatever best
serves his glory. You know, the Lord has the right
to make a Florence Nightingale or an Adolf Hitler. The difference
between those two people is what God made them. That's true physically,
and that's true spiritually. The Lord has the right to, by
his grace, make an Apostle Peter. And he has the right to make
a Judas Iscariot to serve his purpose. That's right. The Lord
has the right to save, and he has the right to damn. because
he's God, because he's the judge. The Lord has the right to show
mercy, and the Lord has the right to withhold mercy, because mercy
is his to give. Isn't that what he told Moses? Moses, I'll have mercy on whom
I will have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. The choice is God's because he's
God. God is the potter, and he's gonna make each person in the
whole human race He's gonna make them what will best serve His
glory. The Lord will take one person,
one lump of clay, and He's gonna make that person an object of
His mercy. And He's gonna make them an object of His grace.
You know why? So God will be glorified. Every
object of mercy is a trophy of God's grace. Look what God did. Look what God did with this sinful
rebel. Look what God did. He made him
just like his son. Look what God did. That shows
all of creation, God's redemptive glory that's in his son. That's
why God saves sinners. It's so his son will be glorified.
It's not so God can do something nice for you and me. It's so
that his mercy and his grace is glorified. Now there's another
lump of clay and God will leave that person alone. He will give
them exactly what they want. They've devised a way of salvation.
It's not according to the word. It's not according to what God
says, but they've devised their way of salvation and God let
them have it. They say, this is why I want.
God says, okay. Left to themselves, that person will never believe
on Christ. They'll never trust Christ. They'll never come and
beg God for mercy for Christ's sake. And in the judgment, when
God damns that person, you know why he'll do it? to the praise
of the glory of his justice. God's justice was satisfied. God will give that person exactly
what they deserve. No more and no less. God's justice
will be glorified in that person. So here's what we learned from
the potter. God has the crown rights to do with you and me
as he pleases. And whatever he does, it's right
and it's good just because he does it. and we never have the
right to question it. All right, the second thing we
see is the potter's wheel. The potter puts that clay on
the wheel and he spins it and makes something out of it. That
spinning wheel is a picture of God's providence. Everything
that happens in time, I mean everything, every event, every
move of every molecule, everything, everything that happens in time
is God's eternal purpose being carried out in time. It's not
that a man decided to do something, God said, oh, better make an
adjustment here, you know, keep everything on track. No, everything
that happens, God determined before to be done. Everything,
everything. You can't take that too far.
Everything. Before God created anything,
He purposed how every event in human history would unfold. God
purposed all of those events to happen just the way that they
happened. so that God can accomplish his will, his purpose. And here's
his purpose, that his son will get all the glory in saving his
people from their sin. That's why God arranges all these
events to happen just the way that they happen. That's what
the wheel pictures. You and I was a boy, I don't
know, maybe went to a festival or something to my horror, we
went to the most boring place in the world to a young boy,
Shaker Town. There's no baseball, there's
no basketball, there's no, you know, fun. Just all these crafts,
you know. But I remember there was a potter.
They, you know, they do everything like they did back, you know,
a million years ago. And that potter, but they had that spinning
wheel. Put that clay on it and it pumped
her foot and it made that wheel just turn, turn, turn, turn,
turn, turn, turn, you know. And it was just happening so fast.
I couldn't really tell what was going on. I mean, that potter,
she just moved her fingers just a little bit. I mean, I couldn't
tell what was going on, but all of a sudden, out of that lump
of clay, just up comes this whatever it was, you know, that she was
making. But it happened so fast, I couldn't tell what was happening
in the potter's hand. I just saw the end result. That's
all I saw. That's how the wheels of God's
providence turn. They turn in such a way that
you and I cannot comprehend. everything that God is doing. You know, sometimes we say, oh,
I see what God's doing here. Well, maybe we see part of it,
but we hadn't seen the finished product yet. There are events
that happen in our lives, in our world that, you know, they're
dark. They're painful to us. They're
things that are full of sin and full of rebellion. And we wonder,
Why? Why does God allow this? There are events that we see
as a blessing. This weekend, all our kids come
home. We sat around the table last night, looked at all of
them. That's such a blessing. God ordained that from the foundation
of the world. I sure enjoyed it. And there are events that
we see as a curse. This is bad. This hurts. This is painful. I don't possibly
see. How can God bring good out of
this? How is that even possible? Well, I don't know, but this
is what I know. God did it. God did it. Look at Isaiah chapter
45. You know, I tried to best I can never stray off the path
of what I do know. And what I do know is come from
God's word. And here's what I know. God did it. Isaiah 45 verse five. I am the Lord and there is none
else. There's no God beside me. I guarded
thee though thou hast not known me that they may know from the
rising of the sun and from the west, from east to west, that
there is none beside me. I am the Lord and there is none
else. I formed the light. and create darkness. I make peace
and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. Drop down ye heavens from above
and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open up and let
them bring forth salvation and let righteousness spring up together.
If that happens, I, the Lord, have created it. Now look at
verse nine. The Lord did it. Let's not ask
questions. Woe unto him that striveth with
his maker, that the pot-shirred strive with the pot-shirred of
the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, what
makest thou? Are thy work? He hath no hands. Let's not question God. God did
it. God did it. And here's the second
thing I know. Now I'm staying on the path here
of what I know. I know God did it. And I know
all of these events that happened. All of them that God did, light
and darkness, peace and evil. God brings all of them together
to accomplish his purpose. Now, you and I can't understand
it. We don't have the skill to do it, but God does. God did
it. Only the sovereign God can take
all of those things, peace and evil, light and darkness, and
make them work together to accomplish the salvation of his people.
so that his son gets all the glory for doing it. There are
too many examples in scripture to talk about them all. I'm gonna
talk about two. Number one is the fall of man. Now Adam's sin,
him taking that fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil and eating it in open rebellion against God, that's
Adam's sin and Adam's just depravity, rebellion. It's Adam's fault. Adam did what he wanted to do
and there were consequences for that, wasn't there? But you know
that didn't take God by surprise. God already knew what Adam would
do because God determined before that Adam would do it. God did
more than allow Adam to sin. God purposed Adam's sin without
God ever being the author of sin. Now, I feel No requirement
whatsoever to explain that to anybody because I can't explain
God. That's just so. God purposed
for Adam to do what he did. Would Adam have done something
God didn't purpose for him to do? Of course not. No, Adam did what
God purposed for him to be done without God ever being the author
of sin. And I got at least some light
on why God purposed for Adam to sin. Let me tell you. It's
so that there would be fallen sinners for his son. come to
save from their sin and get all the glory in doing it. God worked
Adam's sin to bring about God's greatest glory. Sovereign mercy
to sinners. The second example, this is an
obvious one, is the cross. At the cross, leading up to the
cross, men did the most wicked things they could think up to
do. And their sin and their rebellion
was theirs. Peter told them, you did it.
You have taken by your wicked hands and crucified and slain
son of God. If you want to know what does
man really think about God? What does man really think about
God? I know what scripture says and you may not believe me, but
man hates God. The nature of man hates God. And the proof of it is the cross. On Golgotha's Hill. One time. God took the restraints off.
And let mankind do to his son what they wanted to do. And what
did we do? We slaughtered and tortured the
son of God in the most painful, humiliating way we can think
of. There's not anything that's ever happened on earth more perverse
than that. The creature putting the creator
to death. The cross is the most obvious
display of the depths, the dark, horrible depths of man's sin
and depravity. But God meant it for good. God
meant it for good. God brought the best out of it.
Because of the sacrifice of Christ, because he died on the curse
tree, all of God's people are set free from the curse. All
of God's people are justified from their sin. They're all made
the very righteousness of God in Christ because of the sacrifice
of Christ on the cross. His sacrifice, his precious blood,
his death put away the sin of all of his people. Oh, no, wicked
men did exactly what they wanted to do. I mean, they're not puppets.
They did exactly what they wanted to do. And God told us before
time what they do. They did what they wanted to
do. And when they did, they didn't accomplish their purpose at all.
Their purpose was, let's get rid of this Jesus once and for
all. And the opposite happened, didn't it? No, they accomplished
God's eternal will and purpose. The Father raised Him from the
dead and glorified Him to the heights of glory on the throne.
at the Father's right hand. Now, only God could take the
worst sin ever happened on the face of this planet and bring
such glory and good out of it. The potter's wheel teaches us
this, and oh, I want to remember that. I want to remember it,
I hope you remember it too. When things in our world seem
to be spinning out of control, remember the potter's wheel.
When you start wondering what is going on, Go back to the potter's
house. Here's the almighty potter. Everything's
in his hand. And here's his wheel, teaching
us that everything that happens is God's eternal will and purpose
being carried out in time. And God's doing all of that to
save his people from their sin so that one day he can gather
us all together and we're gonna sing the praises of our savior
eternally. That's what the wheel teaches us. All right, the third
thing we see at the potter's house is the clay. Now the clay
is man, it's all of us. The clay is the whole lump of
Adam's fallen race. Now clay, I mean have you ever
seen clay? It's just useless and worthless by itself. It's
dirty, it's ugh. It's just dirt. Dirt doesn't
have any right. doesn't have any say in the matter
of what it's gonna become, what it's gonna be used for. It's
dirt. It's useless. By itself, it's useless, isn't
it? Our problem is we don't think we're useless. We think we can
do something to please God. We think we're pretty good. We
don't see ourselves as useless, but that's what we are. How are
our bodies made? From the dust of the ground.
the red dirt of the ground. And there's that clay. It's lifeless.
You set that clay right there on the countertop or whatever
it is there in the potter's house, and there it's going to stay
forever. It's not going to change shape. It's not going to move.
It's not going to do anything because it's dead, useless clay. And that clay didn't move. It
doesn't do anything until the potter lays hold on it. And he's
going to make something out of it. Now, this is very interesting. This is going to back up what
I said a minute ago. Jeremiah saw the clay marred in the hand
of the potter. See that? Let's look back here
again. It was marred in verse 4. And the vessel that he made
of clay was marred in the hand of the potter. So he made it
again another vessel as seemed good to the potter to make it. Now this is a picture. Man fell
in the hand of God by the purpose of God. The reason Adam fell
wasn't that God made a mistake. Now, in watching the potter,
maybe the potter made a mistake. Put one finger in too far or
something and cause the whole thing to get out of whack and
he had to start over again. Adam didn't fall because God
made a mistake. You and I aren't ruined in sin because God didn't
make us right. God's not the author of sin.
But I do know this, like I said a minute ago, God purposed Adam's
fall. So there'd be a sinful, vile
people for his son to come save. By his sacrifice for them, he's
gonna save them. He's gonna wash them, them white
as snow. And that's such an amazing thing.
The universe in eternity is gonna be amazed. The son of God became
flesh to do that for them? The ones down there at the worst
at the bottom of the merges clay? He suffered and died for them?
He found the ones that were the dirtiest, most vile, most filthy
of all, and He washed them in His blood? They're black with
sin. He made them white as snow. Oh,
He's got to be so glorious that He'd do that. That first of all,
He'd do it for the likes of them. And second of all, that He could
do it. Oh, His power and His compassion. He came to save his
people by himself. Now Adam, he was created upright. Adam was created innocent. But
Adam sinned. And when he sinned, all of us
sinned in him. All of his race would sin in
him. And we became useless, useless clay. Unable to make anything
out of ourselves because we're just dead, fallen, sinful flesh
and that's all we'll ever be. That which is born of the flesh,
It's flesh. It can't make itself anything
different than flesh. But God's purpose, God's purpose was to
make some of that clay into vessels of honor. God laid hold on some
of Adam's fallen race and he redeemed them by the blood of
his son. And he made them again as it pleased him. Vessels of
honor. And someone will think, well,
that's not fair. My girls were growing up, Janet
never allowed them to say that. Never allowed you to say that's
not fair, did she? Never allowed it. Because she never wanted
them to say that to God. That's not fair. I want my chance. Well, brother, let me tell you,
if Almighty God gave all of us a chance, we'd all perish in
hell. Because we do not have the ability
or the spiritual life to come to Christ for life. We're dead
clay. Look over at John chapter five.
Let me show you that. John chapter five. Beginning in verse 39. Here our Lord is talking to the most
educated man, the most well-taught in the scriptures. And he tells
them, search the scriptures. You do search the scriptures.
For in them, in just that ceremony of searching the scriptures,
you think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify
of me. And you will not come to me that you might have life. You will not. You and I, all
the human race, will never come to Christ, left our own devices,
because we're just as dead as that lump of clay sitting in
the potter's workshop. We can never move, we can never
do anything, until God does something for us. We will not, we refuse
to come to Christ for life because we think we can do it ourselves. Our nature is so stubborn and
rebellious. We will not come to Christ. And
I'll tell you something else. We cannot, we will not. And we can't both are true. Look
across the page or next page over John six, verse 43. Jesus therefore answered and
said unto them, murmur not among yourselves, no man can come to
me except the father which has sent me draw him and I'll raise
him up at the last day. Well, how does somebody come
to Christ? It's because God draws them. It's written in the prophets
and they should be all taught of God. Every man therefore that
hath heard and learned of the father, they come to me, but
left to their own devices, they cannot come to Christ. You and
I cannot come to Christ because we're dead. We're dead. Dead people can't do anything
but stink. That lump of fallen man will not and cannot come
to Christ. It's an impossibility. So you know what God did? In
His great sovereign mercy, He reached way down and He laid
hold on some of Adam's fallen race. And just like that potter,
he made new creatures out of them. God laid hold on the objects
of his mercy. You know what he made out of
them? They're natural born rebels. He made them sons and daughters
of God. He made them joint heirs with
Christ. He laid hold on those objects
of mercy and he made them righteous by the obedience and sacrifice
of his sons. He laid hold on those objects
of mercy. They're full of sin, that's all
they are is sin. And God justified them, made
them without sin by the sacrifice of his son. God slaughtered his
son so he could have mercy and justify his people, the objects
of his mercy. God laid hold on those objects
of mercy. All their sin is willful sin
against God. It's willful. You can't say,
oh, I didn't mean to do it. No, we meant to do it. Every sin,
we meant to do it. And God forgave their sin. Now he didn't forgive
their sin just by ignoring their sin. God forgives the sin of
his people because he made his son, his holy son, to be guilty
of all of the sin of all of his people. And when the father made
him guilty, the father punished his son fully for that sin. He punished him until that sin
was gone. He punished him until the debt was paid. The sin of
God's elect is forgiven them because Christ, our substitute,
satisfied justice for us. The sin of God's elect is forgiven
because the blood of Christ blotted it out so that if Christ died
for you and the father looks for your sin, he said, I don't
see any. It's blotted out under the blood of my son. Who can
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Oh, if God justified us, no charge
can be brought against us, can it? God is merciful to his people. He has objects of mercy, and
he's merciful to them. You know why? You know why he
doesn't give them what they deserve? Because he gave Christ our substitute
what we deserve. And now God, all that's left
for him to show to his people is mercy and grace and a smiling
face, never the face of judgment. Now that's grace. That the father
would do that to his son so that he could redeem the likes of
you and me, that's grace. Now if I can ever find a sinner,
that'll be good news to him. Oh, that's good news to me. I
just, this week I was looking at that and thinking what God
did to His Son for the likes of me. I just laughed out loud. You couldn't believe such a thing
if God didn't write it in His Word. Tell me more about that. Tell me about that again. I don't
know, I'm never going to get tired of that. Tell me about that again.
Sovereign grace. Not me having a chance now. That's
not, me having a chance is not good news. But sovereign grace? That God would do for me what
I'd never do for myself? Tell me more about that. God's
saving me without any input from me. That's the only hope that
I have. Because I'm dead, useless, lifeless
clay. And if I'm ever going to be anything,
God's going to have to make me. He's going to have to make me
that against my will with my full consent. Alright, that's
what the Lord taught Jeremiah. down at the potter's house. Now,
is that true? Has God carried that out in time
and in the lives of people on the planet? Well, let's look
and see. Look at Romans chapter 9. I'll
show you two examples of this. God's sovereign will, sovereign
mercy being carried out in real life. Romans 9 verse 13. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. Now, what should we say then?
Is there unrighteousness with God? Is God unrighteous to say,
I'm gonna love Jacob and hate Esau? Paul says, God forbid. Paul heard the same objections
that we hear today. Well, that's not fair. That's
not fair that God would hate one and love another. I want
my chance, you know, to be loved. And Paul's answer is, now remember,
God's the potter. God forbid that we'd say such
an awful thing and think that we have the right to question
God. Who do you think you are to question
God? Read on verse 15. Here's why
Paul says, God forbid that we would ever question God. For
he said to Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And
I'll have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then
it, this matter of salvation and righteousness and eternal
life It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, not
of him that worketh for it, but it's of God that showeth mercy. God says, I'll have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom
I will have compassion, and you better be glad because none of
us can ever deserve it. God said, I'm gonna do it, I'm
gonna be merciful anyway. I'm gonna be compassionate anyway. God has the crown right to do
that because he's God. Here is an example of that. 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
he mercy, on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth. God raised Pharaoh up. He raised
him up to be the most powerful man in the history of the world
at that time, maybe even today. He rose to such power, to such
fame, to such riches that everybody in the world knew who Pharaoh
was. They knew about his might and
his wealth. They knew about the might of his army. God says,
I raised you up so I can get glory by destroying you. See,
the potter made him to get glory to his justice by destroying
him. Now it says here, God's gonna harden whom he will harden. You know what you gotta do to
harden clay? Leave it in the sun, just let it alone. It'll
harden. You don't have to do anything,
it'll just harden on its own. But it says here, God hardened
Pharaoh's heart. Now let me ask you, this is not
a trick question, I already gave you the answer. Was God wrong
to do that? The hardened Pharaoh's heart?
Was He wrong? No, He wasn't wrong. Let me show
you that in just a few pages. Exodus chapter 8. Exodus chapter
8. In Exodus 8, there was a plague
of frogs. I mean, frogs were everywhere.
You couldn't go anywhere if frogs weren't there. They were gross,
just to find on everything. They were everywhere. Exodus
8 verse 12. Moses and Aaron went out from
Pharaoh. Moses cried unto the Lord because of the frogs which
he had brought against Pharaoh. And the Lord did according to
the word of Moses. And the frogs died out of the
houses, and out of the villages, and out of the fields. And they
gathered them together upon heaps, and the land stank. But when
Pharaoh saw there was respite, when he saw the frogs were gone,
he hardened his heart. And hearken not unto them, as
the Lord had said. The Lord told him he's gonna
harden his heart, and that's just exactly what he did. Pharaoh
hardened his heart. Now, further on down in Exodus,
chapter eight, there's a plague of flies. I mean, flies everywhere.
You couldn't go anywhere without flies in your dishes, in your
food, in your eyes, in your nose. There are flies everywhere. Verse
30. And Moses went out from Pharaoh
and entreated the Lord, and the Lord did. according to the word
of Moses. And he removed the swarms of
flies from Pharaoh and from his servants and from his people,
there remained not one. And Pharaoh hardened his heart
at this time also. Neither would he let the people
go. You'd think this is such a miracle. Pharaoh would, oh,
he'd tell Moses, beg God he'd show mercy to me. Instead, Pharaoh
hardened his heart. Pharaoh did that his own self.
Then the Lord sent a plague of fiery hail. Hell was flying just
down all over the earth and running across the ground and fire running
everywhere. In Exodus 9, verse 27. And Pharaoh sent and called for
Moses and Aaron and said unto them, I've sinned this time.
Maybe I didn't sin all those other times, but I've sinned
this time. The Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked
and treat the Lord for it's enough that there be no more mighty
thunderings in hell and I'll let you go. and you shall stay
here no longer. I'm gonna kick you out of the
land of Egypt. Well, verse 33, Moses went out of the city from
Pharaoh and spread abroad his hands unto the Lord and the thunders
and hail ceased and the rain was not poured upon the earth.
And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunders were
ceased, he sinned yet more and hardened his heart and his servants. Then in a little while, There
was a plague of locusts everywhere. Locusts just blew in and destroyed
everything in the land. All the crops, just everything.
There were locusts everywhere. Just all over the place. In Exodus
10, verse 18. And he, Moses, went out from
Pharaoh and he entreated the Lord. And the Lord turned a mighty
strong west wind, which took away the locusts and cast them
into the Red Sea. And there remained not one locust
in all the coast of Egypt, But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart
so that he would not let the children of Israel go. The Lord
hardened Pharaoh's heart. Pharaoh had hardened his own
heart for a while, hadn't he? And then the Lord hardened Pharaoh's
heart. The Lord showed Pharaoh all his works, all his power
and his plagues, and he hardened his heart. And then the Lord
hardened his heart so that he would not, under any circumstances,
let the people go. And you know how God did that
as a picture, how he's going to deliver his people from Egypt,
the bondage of sin through the Red Sea. And the Lord hardened
Pharaoh's heart just by giving him what he wanted. You see that?
That's what Pharaoh wanted and the Lord gave it to him. So the
Lord was right. And at the same time, the Lord set Israel free. He made the Egyptians give them
all their gold and their silver and their jewels, and he set
them free. Now the Israelites, they're just
lumps of clay just like the Egyptians. The Israelites are no better
than the Egyptians in any way. You just read through the history
of Israel after the Lord showed them all his wonderful works.
After the Lord gave them his word and his prophets and the
temple and the priesthood, what did they? Idolatry ran rampant
over and over and over again. Just like Pharaoh, they're cut
from the same dead lump, aren't they? What made the difference between
the Egyptians and Israel? God made the difference. He told
Moses, I'm gonna do this so people will know. The whole world's
gonna know. I made the difference between the Egyptians and my
people Israel. The Lord chose to make Israel
an object of his mercy. He made his people vessels of
mercy because he enacted his sovereign will upon them. See,
the only way dead lumps of clay like you and me can be made righteous
is if God in His sovereignty, His sovereign power, makes us
righteous by the sacrifice of His Son. The only way we can
have spiritual life, we're a dead lump of clay, the only way we'll
ever have life is if God acts in sovereign power and gives
us life. He's got to give us life spiritually
the very same way He raised Lazarus from the grave. He goes and stands
and says, Lazarus! Come forth! And just as loudly, even though
it's silently in the heart, but just as loudly, just as powerfully,
through the preaching of the gospel, he calls his people and
says, come forth. And they come forth. They come
forth. Salvation is of the Lord. Now it's all of the Lord's doing. If he doesn't do it for us, we'll
not be saved. That's what that's teaching. I mean, anybody that
even doesn't believe the Lord can see that's what that's saying.
Now you might not believe it, but you say that's what it's
saying, can't you? And what should my reaction to
that be? Am I gonna harden my heart? Or am I gonna beg God for mercy? If God will have mercy on whom
he will have mercy. Tell you what I'm gonna do, Matt.
I'm gonna beg God for mercy, how about you? He'll have mercy
on whom he will. Then I'm gonna beg God for mercy
because God's mercy is the only hope any sinner has. And if I
can impress this upon you, don't leave this place without begging
God for mercy. I was gonna tell you, go home
and beg God for mercy. Don't wait that long. Don't leave
this place until you've begged God for mercy. That's what the
Potter's House is teaching us. All right, I hope that'll be
a blessing to you. Let's bow together. Our sovereign, almighty, holy,
heavenly Father, how we thank you that it's pleased you to
get glory to yourself by your sovereign mercy to sinners. Lord,
we're sinners here. Every last one of us, we're sinners.
Lord, would you have mercy on a sinner like me? Would you be
pleased to have mercy on people here this morning? We've heard
your word, heard who you are, heard how you save sinners, heard
what your purpose is. Lord, have mercy on us. Reveal
Christ to us and in us. Draw us to yourself that we might
run to Christ and find in him everything we need. Lord, I beg
of you, that be your purpose for us here this morning. It's
in Christ's name, for his sake and his glory we pray, amen. All right, Shawn, come lead us
in a closing hymn, if you will.