Go back to Romans chapter 9, the potter and the clay. If we could get a hold of that, we could ever really understand who the potter is and who the
clay. who the clay is, what we are. It would alleviate a lot of problems,
and we would begin to worship God. Now, Paul has established in
the first part of this chapter that not all that were of the
seed of Abraham were the promised seed. You can go over to the Middle
East, and all those Arabs and Israelites, and they all say,
we are the seed of Abraham. And others say, no, we aren't.
Well, they're all the seed, but that's fleshly descendants. They're
all fleshly descendants, but not all are the promised seed
of Abraham. Not all of them. And that's what
Paul says forth here In this chapter, he says, neither because
they are the seed of Abraham are they all children. That doesn't
make them all children of God. The Israelites believed that
because of their ancestry, their connection to Abraham, they had
an automatic seat, front row seat, in the kingdom of God. But that's not so. Those who believe the gospel
among the Jews and Gentiles, they are the promised seed of
Abraham. Not the fleshly descendants,
but those born of God. They are the promised seed of
Abraham. Now, Paul knew that this truth
of God's sovereignty, God being the potter and we the clay, He knew that
there would be some who would object to this truth. There would be unbelievers who
are going to raise an objection to God choosing whom He will,
and God passing by whom He will. Do you know anyone else better
to make the choice? Do you know anyone wiser? God is infinitely wise, infinitely
good, holy. He can make no mistakes. If we
had this thing turned over to a committee, no one would be
saved. So, I know this guy. No, no, we don't want this one.
Then we'd be trying to pull the family members in. Then we'd
be showing favors, respect of persons. God's no respecter of
persons. God saves whom He saves wisely,
and He does it in a righteous manner, and He does it sovereignly,
according to His mercy, not according to any merit in any way, shape
or form that he sees in us. So Paul knew he was going to
meet with some objections. He says here in verse 14, what
shall we say then? He knew someone was going to
raise this question. Is there unrighteousness with
God? Can you imagine that? But there are some who's going
to raise this question. Is God unjust for loving Jacob
and hating Esau? Is God unjust for doing that
before they were born? Before having done any good or
evil? Is God unjust for loving Jacob and passing by Esau? Now, the natural mind can't handle
that. A natural man cannot handle that. But those who believe God, bow
to God, bow to this truth and really love it. Love it. Love the fact that God is sovereign
and he has control over all and that he does show mercy. He does
show mercy. But the way Paul answers this,
he says, God forbid. God forbid that anyone of his
creatures should charge God with folly, with sin, with unrighteousness. God forbid. The one thing we
must remember is this. All that God does, all that He
will ever do is consistent with His holy nature. It's consistent. The judge of the earth shall
do right. I don't have to understand why
He's doing it. I don't have to understand it.
But He does right. He does no wrong. In anything that he does, in
anything he brings our way, he does no wrong. Whether I understand
it or not, there's no wrong in it. Not on his part. Not on his
part. The judge of the earth, that's
what it says over in Genesis 18, 25, the judge of the earth
would do right. Now, Paul does not try to defend
God's sovereign mercy. And we don't do that in our preaching.
We don't try to defend it. We proclaim it. We just proclaim
it. That's what Paul does here. Here's
what Paul does. He reverts, he points to the
Word of God. For he said, God said to Moses,
and this is where Paul points these people who are going to
object to God's sovereignty in this matter of salvation. He
points them to the Word of God. He says, for he that is God said
to Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. Is that
enough? Is God's Word enough? He said, I'll have mercy on whom
I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. And I'm telling you, for the
believer, for the one who's born of God, that is enough. That's enough. We know from the Word of God
and by experience that if God did not choose, if God did not
give sovereign mercy, if He did not exercise sovereign mercy,
His sovereign grace, we'd all perish. We would all perish. The Word of God teaches us that
we all died in Adam. None love God by nature. I was
not born into this world in love with God. And all men, unless they are
born of God, count the things of God as absolute foolishness. Foolishness. So if that's so,
if all men are dead, If all men hate God by nature, if all men
when they hear the gospel say that's foolishness, then the
only conclusion that we can draw from this is verse 16. It's not of him that willeth,
if that's the case. It's not of a man's will that
he is saved. I was not saved by my will. I
was saved by the will of God. Of His own will begat He us with
the word of truth. It is not of a man's will that
he is saved, nor is it because of his efforts. But it solely rests on God's
sovereign mercy. I have family members who believe
the gospel. One day I sat down and heard
Brother Henry, our pastor, preach and I heard the gospel. And they
have heard him. They have heard him on television.
Some of them came down when we were over there at 13th Street
and they heard him. And no interest. No interest. God gave me an interest. You
know what I attribute that to? Sovereign mercy. Sovereign mercy. It's not that
I was any better at all than my brothers
and sisters. I gave my parents the hardest
time. I did. Gave him the hardest time of
all the kids. It's not that that was any better, any smarter,
just that God showed mercy because He purposed to do so. And I'm
glad He did. I love sovereign mercy because
if not, I wouldn't be around at all. Salvation has never been
by the will of man, but by the will and purpose of God. That's why you're here. If you
believe the gospel, that's why you believe it. You believe it
by the will and purpose and power of God Almighty. No man has ever
attained salvation by his own works of righteousness. No man,
only one man has ever impressed God. This is my beloved son. Hear him. This is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased. That is the only man that God
ever said that about. One man has impressed God. One
man. uses another example of God's
sovereign right to do as he will with whom he will. And he speaks
of Pharaoh there in 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. What's he talking about? That
I just might show Pharaoh how strong I am? I mean, what would
God be impressed with showing Pharaoh anything? He's just a
maggot. He's just a worm. God said, I
raised you up. I put you on the throne. Everything
about Pharaoh was of divine appointment. But here's why I raised you up.
That I might show my power indeed. That I might show that salvation
is of the Lord. that my people, my people, might
see that salvation is in my power and mine alone to save. That's
why I raised you up, Pharaoh. That's why I put you on the throne.
And when I'm done with you, I'm going to take you off the throne.
Is that all right? I reckon so. It's his. He's the potter. We're the clay. He said, Pharaoh, I raised you
up that I might show the salvations of the Lord. That I might demonstrate
my power to save my people through you in spite
of you. In spite of you. Everything that
exists is for God's purpose and for God's glory. Even, he said,
the wrath of man shall praise him, and the rest he will restrain. Therefore, seeing that God is
sovereign in his dealings of mercy, then it only stands to
reason he saves whom he will. And that's all right. Now, Paul, he knew that his first
objection, if most of Israel perishes and the word of promise
has failed, he knew he would face that. He knew that the second
one is that God is unjust to choose some and pass by others.
He knew he would face that. And he knew he would face this
one also. If God shows mercy to some, and none can resist
His will, then why does He find fault with
sinners? If the wrath of men is under
His control and serves His purpose, then why does He blame the sinner?
And I like the way Paul answers this, because he's writing, first
of all, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The first
thing Paul says is this, O man, O man, he's going to put O man
in his place is what he's going to do. That's the first thing
that has to happen. God has to put O man in his place.
O man, who are you to dispute with God? Just who do you think you are
to sit in judgment against the wisdom and the righteousness
of God? Now, how high does a man have
to think of himself and how low does he have to think of God
to come up with any objections to God's sovereignty? We know this kind of reply is
due to ignorance. Men do not understand the true
relationship between God and His sinful creatures. Man has
forfeited, if we could just get this across, man has forfeited
all his rights. It's the goodness of God. that
it rains on the just and the unjust. He could withhold that
rain and starve us out. He could starve out the unjust.
And he'd be of every right to do so. But the sun shines on
those unjust people, those who do not believe. It rains on their
garden like it does those whom he saves. Man has forfeited all rights
to God. It is His prerogative to save
whom He will and to pass by whom He will. It is His royal prerogative to do so. God has the same right as a potter
has over his clay. Could you imagine Taking a lump
of clay. That's what God did when he made
Adam out of the dust of the ground. He took dust, dirt, red clay,
red earth, and he made a man, Adam. And he breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life. But could you imagine taking
a lump of clay, and that clay telling you what to do? Saying,
this is the way I want you to make me. And I'm telling you,
that would never end. We would be the right height. And we would get the glory when
it ended and not God. It would all be about us. But
He's the potter and we are the clay. And however He wills, whatever
He wills to do with us is right. It is right. Teach that to your
children. What God does is right. What
He does with me is right. Even though I don't understand
it. I don't quite understand it.
You go back. Joe Terrell and he and I were talking the other
night. We were talking about Job. It says there in chapter 1 of Job. If you look at that a minute. Job chapter 1. You can read this. It's like one thing after another
just kept on coming. Just kept coming. And it says in the last verse
of that chapter 1, in all this, Job sinned not, nor charge God
with foolishness. Foolishly. He didn't charge God
foolishly. Well, have you read the rest
of the book? When the trial kept going, it
got down to the root of Job and the problem. Look over here.
I'll show this to Frank. Over here in Job 34. I was reading
this the other night. 34, 35, 36. Well, on to the rest
of that chapter the other night. Let me see if I can find it again.
This is Elihu. You know, after all those other
friends finally shut up. Job said, miserable comforters
are you all. You just adding to my trouble.
You know, they sat there for seven days and didn't say a word.
And he probably wished they had sat there for all that time and
not said a word because they didn't say one thing that helped
him. But when Elihu, this fourth person, sat there quietly, didn't
say anything. He finally spoke. And you read,
to get time, read what Elihu had to say. That man had some
things to say. But in verse 35 of chapter 34, Job hath spoken
without knowledge, and his words were without wisdom. My desire
is that Job may be tried to the end. because of his answers for
wicked men. For he, Job, addeth rebellion
unto his sin. He clappeth his hands among us
and multiplieth his words against God. In that first chapter, he
didn't charge God with folly. But as that trial went on, he had a tough time. He had a
tough time. And that's why I was saying that
God's right. What He does is right. Even though I don't understand
it. When you try not to charge God
with folly, get angry, you get angry with Him. If He ever hits
you hard, He will. You ever find out, you get angry.
But He's right. He's right. And He says here
in verse 21, hath not the potter power Right over the clay. Does he not own it? The potter
here is God. The clay is, well, it's humanity. And it's all that belongs to
him. Really, it's all that belongs to him. He's the potter. He's the owner. And it's up to Him, His will,
to do with it as He will. And He's going to do with it
what is right and what best serves His glory. And you know what? That's right. Whatever serves
His glory is right. It's right. The word power here
denotes right. He has the right to do with his
own as he will, and his power is always exercised in a way
that is consistent with his righteousness and his glory. That's so. You don't have anything else
to hang on. You can hang on to that. You know that that's so.
You know that whatever He does is right, and it's consistent
with His righteousness and glory. And the chief end of man is to
glorify God, therefore God has the right to do what best serves
His glory. And we bow to it. We bow to it. He says back here, and I'll close. Back here. He says, now what
if God willing, Well, let me read verse 21 again. Hath not
the potter power over the clay? Listen, of the same lump. You
and I came out of the same lump, same humanity. We came out of
this humanity. You got one lump and he takes
out of this one lump and he makes a vessel of mercy and he leaves
one and makes it a vessel of wrath or leaves it alone. of the same love to make one
vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. When I read this, I'm serious,
it makes me want to just absolutely bow before the throne of His
grace and say, make me a vessel of honor. Make me a vessel of honor, because
He said over in Jeremiah, if that nation will turn and repent,
I'll do them good. I'll do them good. Lord, make
me a vessel of honor. But what if God, now this is
a question, this is a what if. 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? He endured this
world before the flood. He said it repented Him that
He made man. Sodom and Gomorrah. He endured with much long-suffering. They had light. Read the first
chapter of Romans. They were given light after light
after light. And they despised Him. And that's
the way it will be unless He shows mercy and creates within
us a new heart and a right spirit. And that He might make known,
this is what He's doing here, He might make known the riches
of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He had aforeprepared
unto glory. Even us, whom He hath called
not of the Jews only, but also the Gentiles. He's shown mercy
to us. You know, there was a time that the Gentiles didn't have
any of this. They were left in darkness. Our
ancestry was left in darkness. And now here we stand preaching, hearing, and believing
the good news of the gospel. God sent it to us. As he saith
also in Hosea, I will call them my people which were not my people.
That's us. And her beloved which was not
beloved. And it shall come to pass that in the place where
it was said unto them, ye are not my people, there shall they
be called the children of the living God. You just try and put God in a
box, and you're going to find out it won't work. He's sovereign. He's sovereign. He does as He will, with whom
He will, when He will. He saves whom He will, and He
passes by whom He will. And that's the God of this Bible. And I pray, I do, I pray, Lord
show mercy to me. Show mercy to me. He'll show
mercy to anyone that wants it. Anyone that wants it, it's evident
he's already shown mercy. It's evident. All right, Mike.