Let's turn our Bibles again to
Romans chapter 9. Titled the message this morning,
lessons learned at the potter's house. Like for us this morning
to take a short trip to the potter's house like Jeremiah of old did.
And look in the window, God's grace and mercy. See something
about the potter working with that clay. May the Lord be pleased
to teach us something about what we are and who he is. That's my prayer this morning. This is the gospel of God's free
and sovereign grace. This is the gospel that Paul
has been declaring to us in these previous verses that we've seen
in our study here through Romans. In eternity, Almighty God chose
a people to save. God's character is a character
of mercy. He's sovereign, and He sovereignly chose a people
that He would display the riches of His mercy upon. They didn't
do anything to deserve it, just the contrary. But God chose to
have mercy on them. God chose to save them because
that's who God is. And Paul has told us it's God's
crown rights as king to show mercy to whoever He will show
mercy because God is God. He told us that in verse 15.
For he saith to Moses, this is what God says about himself.
So this cannot be an error. This must be true. I'll have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. That's God's rights to do because
he's God. So salvation has to be by the
will and the purpose of God, not by the will and purpose of
man. Salvation has got to be by the mercy of God, not because
a sinful man or woman can earn it. Salvation cannot be earned. Salvation is by mercy. And God
saves sinners because God is merciful. Verse 16, that's what
he says. So then it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but the whole thing, the whole
of salvation is of God that showeth mercy. God has a purpose of mercy
for his people. And God's going to bring that
purpose to pass. And we saw something about this in our lesson this
morning. that God will use any means that he chooses. He'll
use any man, even wicked men, God will use to accomplish his
purpose for his people. We saw an example of that with
Pharaoh. Look at 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 hardened. I think
everyone here knows the story of Pharaoh, Moses going into
Pharaoh and telling him, God said, let my people go. You know
that story very well. You know, the scripture says
Pharaoh hardened his heart. Pharaoh heard what Moses said
and he hardened his heart. God sent a plague and Pharaoh
got scared. Pharaoh said, oh, you know, I'll
let my people go. And as soon as the immediate pressure was
taken away, Pharaoh hardened his heart, wouldn't let the people
go. And you know how eventually scripture says, God hardened
Pharaoh's heart. God told Moses, you go in there
one last time, Moses, you tell him what I said, but he's not
gonna hear you. For I will harden his heart. All God had to do
to harden Pharaoh's heart is leave him alone. You know, you
and I are already born. We already carry in us a hard,
dead, stony heart. And all God's gotta do is leave
us alone. If God leaves us alone, if He
leaves us to ourselves, we're still going to have a cold, hard,
dead, stony heart. All God has to do is withhold
His softening grace and we'll remain with our hard, cold, dead,
unbelieving heart. And it's God's sovereign right
to show that softening mercy on whom He will and to pass by
everybody else. That was the lesson from Pharaoh.
Now, the apostle Paul knows full well the objection of the natural
heart to this truth. Verse 19. Thou wilt say then
unto me, why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted
his will? Now the natural heart says, God
made me this way, so how can he find fault with me? God didn't give me, God can do
whatever he wants, and God didn't give me a nature capable of being
perfect. So why would God condemn me?
If everything I do fulfills God's purpose, then how can God find
fault with me? I'm just accomplishing his purpose. If God's in control of everything,
even my wrath, how can he blame me for being angry at him? I
love Paul's answer to this question. His answer is this. Who do you
think you are? Verse 20. Nay, but O man, who
art thou? Who do you think you are that
replies against God? Show the thing form, say to him
that formed it. Why hast thou made me thus? Who do you think
you are? I think we ought to ask ourselves
that question quite often. Just who do you think you are
before you start getting too big for your britches? Who do
you think you are? Who do you think you are to question God? Who do you think you are that
you think you have some hope of understanding God, understanding
why God does what he does? You're finite. God's infinite. You're the creature. He's the
creator. You're ignorant. God is all wise. How arrogant do you have to be
to sit in judgment of Almighty I mean, that's what we're doing
when we say, God, why'd you do this? We're sitting in judgment. God, why'd you make me this way?
We're sitting in judgment on God like we would know a better
way to do it. Who do you think you are? That's
why Paul says that. Where do we think we got the
right to be able to ask God why he did with us what he did? Where
do we think we got that right? Where do we think we got the
right to ask God, why are you using me this way and him that
way? Where do you think you get the right to question God? God can do what he wants with
me. Because it's God. And that's just all there is
to it. And whatever God does, it's going to be right and it's
going to be fair. Because God is holy in all of his ways. God
is working everything out in this creation for His glory. So God will use men. He'll use
all men. Wicked men, men who believe,
He'll use all men for His glory somehow. In one of two ways,
and Paul's gonna show us this in a minute. In one of two ways,
God's gonna use all men to bring glory to His name. Solomon said,
even the wrath of man shall praise Him. God will use everything. for His glory. Now, let me tell
you up front, I can't explain it. I can't understand it, and
I don't feel the least bit compelled to try to explain this. And besides that, just a hypothetical
question, you have to make a real leap of logic here. Suppose God
would explain to you and me what He's doing. We couldn't begin to understand
what he's doing. But listen, listen. We all, this
is just our nature. I'm sure you're like me. I want
to understand, don't you? I want to understand why everything's
going, why is this happening? But we don't have to understand.
We don't need to understand why God is doing what he's doing.
Nowhere in scripture are we told to understand. We're simply called
upon to believe. Just believe. Just rest in Him. Even though you can't understand,
just rest in Him. He knows what He's doing and
He's doing right. That'll answer every question. That'll answer everything we
ever need to know. Just rest in Christ. Just rest
in Him. Trust Him. Parents, now we're fallible. But we can safely tell our small
children, no more questions. Just do what
I tell you. Trust me, it's right. The five-year-old can't understand,
and we don't bother trying to. If you try to explain yourself
to a small child, you've just gone down the rabbit hole. No,
I don't feel the need to explain myself to my children. When they
were little, I just said, do it, because I said. And they
got a little older, I'd say, do you trust me? And they'd say,
yeah. I said, then just do it. Maybe you understand someday.
All we're called on to do is believe. Just rest in it. Maybe
someday, after this life is over, maybe we'll understand something.
Maybe. But it don't matter. It won't matter if we understand
or not. All we'll be taken up with in
eternity is not trying to understand. It's worshiping Him. So why don't
we start that now? We don't need to understand.
Just believe Him. And it will go down like Jeremiah
bowl. We'll go down to the potter's house. Paul tells us here in
this text, three lessons we'll learn. We'll just go down to
the potter's house and see what the Lord will teach us there.
Here's the first lesson we learned to potter's house. God does with
his own what he will. Verse 21, hath not the potter
power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel under
honor and another under dishonor? Now God owns everything and everyone
in his creation. Well, then it's only right God
use everything and everyone in his creation to accomplish his
purpose. It's just right. God's just using
what belongs to him to accomplish his purpose. God can do with
his own what he will because he owns it all. And Paul gives
us an illustration that is impossible to misunderstand. The potter
and the clay. Potter comes to work one day,
there's a big old lump of clay sitting on his table. And he
divides that clay in half, into two pieces. He takes one lump
and he puts it there on his wheel and he starts spinning it and
putting his hands on it and doing whatever Potter does, you know.
Little bit, you're just shocked. Look at that, that's, wow! He's made him a toilet bowl.
And you look at that toilet bowl and say, you know, that'll work.
He did a good job making that. I can tell exactly what that
is. It's going to work. It's going to accomplish the
purpose that it needs to accomplish. It's a toilet bowl. He sets it
over there. He takes that other lump. He
puts it down his wheel. He gets his hands in the water.
And he starts turning that wheel and doing what he will with it.
And lo and behold, he's created this beautiful vase. You say,
boy, I'd like to have that on my table, putting flowers in
it and make a beautiful centerpiece. And everybody just amazed at
the skill of the potter to make that toilet bowl and that vase. They're just amazed. And everybody's
standing there watching. It never crosses anybody's mind
to ask that potter, what are you doing? Why did you take that
lump and make it out of a toilet bowl? That's awful. Nobody would
ever think to ask that. Nobody would say, well, that's
not fair. You made that a vase and that a toilet bowl. That's
not fair. That wouldn't cross anybody's mind ever. Because
all you've got to do is compare the potter and the clay. The clay is just clay. There
it was, this big old lump. It was ugly. It's just clay. And you get your hands in it,
and it's wet, gross and just ugh. It's clay. The clay's dead. The clay can't do anything. The
clay is not capable. Not only does it not deserve
to have any input, it's not capable of having any input. It's dead
clay. And the potter, this guy is a
master artist. The clay doesn't have any rights.
It's not intelligent enough to do anything. But the potter,
he's skilled. He's intelligent. He knows what
needs to be done. He knows so-and-so needs a toilet
bowl, so I'll make it for him. He's skilled and he's intelligent
to be able to do it. Now that's the illustration.
You can't mistake what Paul's teaching us here, what the Holy
Spirit's teaching us. God is the potter and you and
I are the clay. We're clay. We're dust. Just
wait till these bodies die. It's going to go back to clay.
It's just going to go back to dust. We're all part of the same
lump of clay. The same lump of fallen humanity,
fallen Adam. And just like that clay, we're
dead. We're lifeless. We're dead in
trespasses and sins. We're spiritually dead. Don't
ever mistake physical life for spiritual life. Just because
we're alive physically doesn't mean we're alive spiritually.
What say the scripture? Scripture says spiritually we're
dead in trespasses and sins. Well, if we're dead, we're just
lifeless laying there. We can't mold ourselves into
something different, can we? We can't mold ourselves into
something other than dead sinful flesh because we're spiritually
as lifeless as that clay laying on the potter's table. And all
we can do is sin. It's all we can do. Just like
the clay, all it can do is be clay. All we can do is sin because
that's what we are. The clay can't decide to move
from this place to this place unless somebody with power and
intelligence and life comes and takes it and moves it. The clay
can't do that. The clay can't say, you know,
I don't like the form that I'm in. I don't like this big blob.
I want to be in a shape of something useful. The clay can't decide
to do that. The clay can't make that happen.
It can't change its form unless somebody with power and intelligence
comes and takes it and molds it into something useful. The
clay doesn't get any input in what would be made. It's just
clay. That's you and me by nature. All we can do is see. That's all we can do. And we
can't be changed into something else. We can't change ourselves
into being something else. You can try that all you want.
Make all the decisions you want. Walk all the aisles you want.
Get dunked in all the pools that you want. Read all these useless books
on morality that you want. Just be utterly determined to
be a better person and hope you'll be good enough for God to accept
you all you want. You're going to fail. You can't change what
you are. We're just fallen, dead, sinful
flesh. Unless God, the one with the
power and the intelligence and the mercy and the grace, moves
upon us and creates in us a new man, causes us to be born again,
we'll never be molded into anything different. And we don't get any
input in the matter. We can't decide, OK, God, it's
time for you to make me new. No, we we don't get any input
in the matter. Now, listen. I'm not saying are you listening
to me? I'm not saying that you just sit there and do nothing
and oh, well, God's going to save you can save me. No, sir.
No. You beg God for mercy. You do
that. You can beg God for mercy. We
ought to do that. But we don't get any input to
decide whether or not God's going to do it or not. He's the one
that makes the decisions. He's got the power. He's got
the intelligence. So that does away with us making
a decision for Jesus, doesn't it? Salvation is not our decision.
It's his. That's us, the clay. Dead, lifeless,
ugly, useless clay. And the potter's God. Almighty
God is the one who makes every decision. And because he's God,
he's got the right to take one of those lumps, take that clay
and divide it into different lumps. And he's got the right
to take one of those lumps of clay and make it into a vessel
of honor. That's what he's done for his
people. God chose to take some people. You know what he did? He chose. to make them just like His Son. He looked at His Son. Oh, this
is my beloved Son. I'm going to make a people just
like Him. A people that will please me.
A people that will delight me. I'm going to make them just like
my Son. Can you imagine what an honor
that is? A vessel of honor made just like
the Lord Jesus Christ. God's got the right to do that.
He's got the power. He's got the intelligence to
do that. And God also has this right. He's got the right to
pass everybody else by. That's how he makes them. God
doesn't actively make them a vessel of dishonor. He just leaves them
alone. He leaves them in their sin and
their shame. And by nature, they're a vessel of dishonor. And God
has that right. The word power here Paul uses
means right or authority. God has all the authority. He
has all the rights in this thing because He's God. God has every
right to do with His own what He will. Who can argue with that? You and I belong to God. He created
us. He gives us life. He gives us
breath. He feeds us. God owns us. Then can't He do
with us as He pleases? I mean, I own nothing. But whatever it is that I own, Nobody's going to question me
doing what I want to do with it. It's mine. Why can't God do with his own
what he will? Well, he can. Why don't we think that? Because
we're falling dead clay. That's why. Look at Jeremiah
chapter 18. This is what Jeremiah learned.
God called him to the potter's house to learn this lesson, to
declare this truth to Israel, that God's the potter and we're
the clay. And he's going to do with his own what he will, so
that he will accomplish his purpose of mercy for his people. Jeremiah
chapter 18, verse one. The word which came to Jeremiah
from the Lord saying, arise and go down to the potter's house
and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Jeremiah, you
go down there and I'm going to teach you a lesson. I'm going
to teach you something you need to know. This is the message you'll declare
to Israel. Verse three, Then I went down to the potter's house,
and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel
that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter, so
he made it again another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter
to make it. Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter saith
the Lord? Behold, as the clay is in the
potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel. You're
in my hand and I will make you what I want. That's God's right
to do with his own as he will. Right back in our text, Romans
nine. Here's the second lesson. God
teaches us at the potter's house. God's going to make his holy
wrath against sin known. Verse 22. What if God willing
to show his wrath and to make his power known Endured with
much long-suffering, the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction."
Now, this word, what, here, you'll notice it's in italics. That
word is not in the original. When you see those words in italics,
it was added by the translators trying to help us understand
what that verse is saying. And in this case, they did harm
to this verse. There's no what in this statement.
This is not a hypothetical statement, and it's not a question. This
is what God will do. God will make his wrath against
sin known. God will make his power and authority
known by punishing sin in hell forever. Now, everyone wants
to talk about how God is love. Make no mistake about it. God
is love. But don't ever forget this. God's holy. He's holy. God is just. God must punish
sin. God is wrath against sin. The
scriptures tell us God's angry with the wicked every day. He doesn't love them. He's angry
with them all of the time. And God's going to show that
wrath. He's going to show that his wrath against sin outside
of his son and will never end. Never. When the father made his
son sin, the father You know, he loves his son. He spoke from
heaven to this, my beloved son, you hear him. The father loves
the son, giving everything into his hand. The father made the
son sin. The father destroyed him. He
turned his back on him and the father thrust the sword of justice
into his fellow, into his own darling son. The sacrifice of
Christ reveals to us the truth of God's wrath against sin. Well
then what makes you and me think God's going to overlook my sin?
What makes me think I'm so special? God destroyed his son. He'd certainly
destroy me for my sin if I'm not in his son. God will damn
everyone who does not bow to Christ. Everyone who will not
submit themselves under the righteousness of Christ, God's going to damn
them to make his wrath known. God doesn't have to do anything
to make them damn. All God did was leave them alone.
It's not God's fault that they went to hell. It's their own
fault. God just did what's right and
fair, a just response to sin. But God finds no pleasure in
this. He endured with them a long time. He was so long suffering with
these rebels, so patient with them, didn't destroy them quickly. Isn't Pharaoh a good example
of that? God sent the prophet Moses to Pharaoh. You try to
imagine Pharaoh's life. We just can't even fathom the
riches and the comforts and the power and how much better Pharaoh
lived than anybody. And Pharaoh comes to him and
says, you've got these people enslaved. That's wrong. God said, let them go. How many
times did Moses come to Pharaoh and say, God said, let my people
go. God sent a plague and he'd take it away. He'd send another
one and take it away. He'd send another one and take
it away. How many signs and wonders did Pharaoh see? I mean, well, he's just dead. I mean,
that's all you can say about it. He hardened his heart. He
saw Moses turn all the waters in Egypt to blood and then he
saw him turn them back to water. Yet he hardened his heart. He
would not submit. He just would not bow to Christ.
He would not bow to God. He hardened his heart time after
time after time. Then God told Moses, I've hardened
Pharaoh's heart. He's not going to hear you, but
you go tell him. He's hardened his heart. Now
when God hardened Pharaoh's heart, what did he do? He just left
Pharaoh alone. He left him alone. His heart
was hardened. Pharaoh did what he wanted. When
God first came to Moses, He said, you go down there to Egypt and
lead my people to freedom. He said, oh Lord, I can't do
that. Here Moses stand in front of Pharaoh and said, let my people
go. What's the difference? God didn't let Moses alone, did
He? God didn't let Moses have Moses way. God softened his heart
and he went, he went, he bowed. God hardened Pharaoh's heart
and gave Pharaoh what he wanted. Then He killed Pharaoh's son
and destroyed Pharaoh and his army to Red Sea. Does anybody
think that wasn't fair? Does anybody here think that
was not fair? After all the warnings God gave
Moses, or God gave Pharaoh, is that unfair? Well, of course
not. Of course not. Look how many
warnings God gave him. How many more should he have?
All right, that's fair. Let's talk about you. God has
sent us preachers. You think of that. In this little
nothing area, God sent us preachers. And most of you have heard many,
many, many good ones, many good preachers. How many gospel messages
have you heard? I tried to just estimate, I bet
you I've heard 9,000 gospel messages in my lifetime. Maybe some of
them I slept through some of them or, you know, daydreamed
about a girl or something, I don't know. I was physically present,
I bet you, for 9,000 gospel messages. counting what I would listen
to on tape and in person. How many gospel messages have
you heard? How many declarations of the truth do you need? How
many illustrations of God's grace have we seen? This makes me shake in my boots.
Why haven't we believed? Why haven't we believed? I'm
so thankful God's not like me. I never would have saved me.
I'd have sent me to hell. This kid sitting here listening
to all this gospel preaching, being taunted at home. Boy, he's
Calvinist and he hates Christ. I'd send me to hell. Why haven't
we believed? How many more times do we think
God ought to tell us? I mean, really? Oh, I pray. constant, constant prayer that
God be merciful. God be merciful to your people. Be merciful to people from this
area, from people that come to this building and you're preaching.
Be merciful, Father. Let us be faithful to preach
your word to them, because faith cometh by hearing. But if the
Lord's not pleased, be merciful. We've got to admit, we've got
nobody to blame but ourselves. Is that right? In the day of
judgment and throughout all of eternity, God's going to make
this known just how much he hates him. Pouring out his wrath on
these vessels fitted to destruction. Now, like I said, God didn't
fit them or fashion them into vessels of wrath. God didn't
do anything to them other than be long-suffering to them. No,
they fitted themselves to destruction by their own sin. Anything that's
full of sin is just fit for destruction. It's the right end for it. Everything
we do deserves destruction, doesn't it? It's just fitting. It's just
right. That's why I told you when God
sends somebody to hell, nobody can say it's unfair. He's giving
them just exactly what they deserve. God's judgment is never arbitrary. Ever. It will be what sin deserves
because God's holy in all of his ways. God will even use the
rebellion, the wrath of man, to His glory. Let me show you
that Proverbs chapter 16. God's going to use their rebellion
to make all men know this, to see His glory in this, His holy
wrath against sin. Proverbs chapter 16, verse 4. The Lord hath made all things
for himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. God's made
the wicked for the day of evil so that he'll get glory. So people
will see his glory and his holy wrath against sin. All right,
now here's the third lesson. God's going to make his wrath
known, but God's going to make the riches of his mercy and grace
to his people known too. Verse 23. and that he might make
known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which
he had aforeprepared unto glory." Now, you know why God puts up
with these vessels of wrath? God puts up with them so that
he can show mercy to his people. See, God's got to show his wrath
before we'll ever see the glory of his mercy. The only way you
ever see the glory and the brightness and all the vivid colors of a
rainbow is if they're against black storm clouds. Well, this
is what Paul is telling us. The only way we see the glory
of God's sovereign grace for his people is to see the black
backdrop of God's holy wrath against sin. The glory of the
riches of God's mercy is seen in this and how he prepared the
vessels of mercy. The vessels of wrath, all he
had to do to make them fit in for destruction is leave them
alone. But now something had to be done to these vessels of
mercy to make them fit. In eternity, God chose to save
a people out of the fallen lump of Adam's humanity. God determined
to save them, but God did not ignore his holy justice. He's
going to make his wrath against sin known. Well, God didn't ignore
his holy wrath when he chose those vessels of mercy and prepared
them for glory. God prepared the vessels of mercy
by sending his son to obey the law for them, that they be made
righteous through Christ's obedience to the law. The father prepared
those vessels of mercy by taking their sin away from them and
putting it upon his holy son. And then the father made his
wrath known. He poured out all of his holy
wrath against that sin that was found on his son, the sinner's
substitute, and the son put it away. God fully punished his
son so that there's no more fury left in him. That's what he said.
Because of the sacrifice of Christ, there's no more fury left in
him. And God did that so he could show his mercy to these vessels
of mercy and justice. And then God, that's what God
did for him. Now here's what God does in him. Then the Holy Spirit comes through
the preaching of the gospel and he makes those people fit vessels
of mercy. by making them to be born again.
In the new birth, God the potter makes a new man. He makes a new
man that wasn't there before. And that new vessel is fit. It's
fit to hold God's mercy. It's fit to hold God's grace.
It's fit to hold faith. It's fit to look to Christ. See,
God had aforeprepared them unto glory. God elected them to salvation. He predestinated them to be conformed
to the image of His Son. And then the Holy Spirit came
And he prepared them, he made them new, in the new birth so
that they're fit to hold God's mercy. And God did that for a
people. He did that for a people, not
because they were better than anybody else, they were just
exactly the same as everybody else. In Noah's day, Noah was
just like everybody else. All his thoughts and imaginations
of his heart were only evil continually. The only difference between Moses
and, or between Noah and somebody that died in the flood was this,
this one thing. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. It's the only difference. That's the only difference between
the saved and the lost. God's rich in mercy. The only
difference. Oh, though the riches of His
mercy for His people. What riches! That He'd take a
fallen lump of clay and make it into a vessel fit for mercy,
just like His Son. And God's sovereign mercy. God
having mercy on whom he will, never keeps anybody out of heaven.
Never, don't ever think that. God's mercy, sovereign mercy,
having mercy on whom he will, will never make anyone lose hope
of salvation. Verse 24, even us, even us, whom he hath
called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles, as
he saith also in Hosea, I will call them my people, which were
not my people, and her beloved, which was not beloved." God's
mercy is for sinners. Even us. Even sinners like us. Even us Gentiles, the worst of
sinners. God is so rich in mercy that
he purposed to make the worst of sinners just like his son. God's so rich in mercy He purposed
to make the Gentiles, those who are aliens from the Commonwealth
of National Israel, he chose to make them part of spiritual
Israel, make them his children. God is so rich in mercy. He calls
those ugly rebels loved. He calls those unlovable rebels
beloved of God. God's sovereign electing mercy
is so great. that it makes sinners like you
and me, children of the living God. It doesn't take away our
hope, it gives us hope. Look at verse 26. And it shall
come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them,
you're not my people, there shall they be called the children of
the living God. How do you know if you're a vessel
of mercy or a vessel of wrath? I'm interested in knowing that.
But the key word here is called. God calls every one of his children
to Christ, and he does it through the preaching of the gospel.
Is this gospel of salvation in Christ? Is this gospel of mercy
for sinners? Is that good news? Do you find
some good news for your soul in that? If you do, you're a
child of God. This gospel is only good news
to a sinner, to a child of God. God has already made you a child.
He's made you an object of His mercy because He's given you
an interest in and a need for sovereign mercy. He's given you
an interest in Christ and a need for Christ. God having mercy,
His sovereign mercy, having mercy on whom He will, opens the door
wide to salvation for sinners. It doesn't open the door wide
for the self-righteous, but it opens the door wide to salvation
for sinners. Earlier I asked you to make a
leap of logic. We're going to do that again.
Just suppose God said, all right, I'm going to save everyone who
keep my law well enough to be saved. We'd say that's better. And then suppose, and this cannot
happen because God's holy, but suppose God lowered his holy
standard. Say if you can keep 90% of the
law, 90% is the lowest A you can get. If you can get 90, if
you can obey 90% of the law, I'll save you. But if you keep
less than 90% of the law, I'll damn you. The natural man would
say, I'll sign up for that every day. The natural man say, that's
fair, that's fair. The door to salvation, the natural
man say, would say it's open. I suppose it would be open, but
nobody's ever going to go through it. The bar's set too high. We can't keep the first commandment
of God's law, much less 90% of it. God will bring you into his
presence if you obey his law perfectly. So in that sense,
the door of salvation is open if you can keep the law perfectly.
But that closes the door. smack in the face of every sinner
down there. I can't be saved that way. The
bar is set too high. I cannot go in. That message
would be no good news for me. That message would have nothing
for me. Nothing but wrath. But God's showing mercy to whom
He will show mercy. You know what that means? The
dead, helpless, vile, depraved, filthy sinners can be saved because
of God's mercy. And they will be. Every one of
them will be. Everyone who needs mercy will
be saved. And there can't be any argument
with that. That's good. That opens the door for salvation
to sinners. And in closing, let me ask you
this question. Has God softened mercy? God will
have mercy on whom He will. God is going to make his wrath
known. God is going to make his mercy known. He has the right
to do with his own what he will. He's going to have mercy on somebody,
on his people. There's no chance those people
will be lost and they can never perish. God's going to save them. They're his vessels of mercy. How do you respond to that? How should we respond to that?
I know how the natural man's going to respond to that, but
how should we? respond to that. I tell you how we should respond.
Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, you said you can have mercy
on somebody. Could you please be merciful
to me? Lord, you said you're the potter. You make vessels
of honor. Or would you make me a vessel
of honor? I can't do anything for myself,
but would you make me a vessel of honor? Would you show your
mercy on me? Lord, I'm in your hands to do
with as you will. And I'm begging you for mercy.
I know you ought to just cast me aside. I know you ought to
just leave me a vessel of dishonor. I'm in your hands and I'm asking
you, would you be merciful to me? I'm going to wait right here
at your feet, begging for mercy. I'm in your hands. I'm not going
to try to go anywhere else. I'm begging you for mercy. That's
how we should respond to sovereign mercy. I can show you that in
Isaiah chapter 64. This is how we should respond
to God's sovereign mercy. Everyone who begs him for mercy
like that's going to get it. Isaiah 64 verse 4. For since the beginning of the
world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, neither
hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for
him that waiteth for him. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth
and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways.
Behold, thou art wroth, for we have sinned, and in those is
continuance, it's all we've done, continually sin. We shall be
saved. See, salvation is only for sinners,
those who only continually sin. Salvation's for sinners. Verse
six, we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. We all do fade as a leaf, and
our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. There's none
that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold
of thee. We're just the dead clay laying there. Thou has hid
thy face from us and has consumed us because of our iniquities.
That's what we deserve. But now, O Lord, thou art our
father. We are the clay. Thou our potter. And we're all the work of thy
hand. Lord, you're the potter. I'm
the worthless clay. I'm in your hand. That's the
relationship with God and us. He's the potter, we're the clay.
And that leaves us begging for mercy. Gene, that's pretty good
ground though, isn't it? Oh, being a begging for mercy
from the God of all mercy, the one who's sovereign in mercy.
You're not begging somebody for mercy. Can't do it. No, he can
do it. He's got the right. He's got
the power, the authority to show mercy. God helped us. Let's bow in prayer. Our father, how we Thank you
for this lesson at the Potter's House. Lord, teach us this lesson
in the heart. Would you be our teacher this
morning? Apply your word to our hearts. Give us some idea of
how lost and dead and corrupt and filthy and unattractive we
are. Just a fallen lump of clay. Give us, Lord, some idea. of your sovereign almighty power,
your sovereign mercy to your people that you cause us to beg
for mercy. Lord, would you be merciful this
morning. Be merciful to this people that
you've gathered here together this morning. We're not here
by accident. Father, the same glorious light
that softens the heart hardens the clay. Lord, don't use this
to harden our hearts. but use it to soften our hearts.
Cause us to be objects of your mercy. Make vessels of honor,
vessels of mercy this morning. We pray. Father, we leave these
things, all these cares or worries or begging for mercy or need
of thee, we leave them all in thy hand. And we wait at thy
feet to show mercy. Father, show mercy for your glory's
sake. In the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, for his glory, his sake we pray and give thanks.