The Bible Baptist Church located
at 2015 Beulah Road in Madisonville, Kentucky would like to invite
you to listen to a message of the sovereign grace of God in
the Lord Jesus Christ by their pastor David Edmondson. My text this morning will be
taken from the book of Romans, chapter 9. Many in religion today
give some mental assent, anyway, to God being in control. Men
and women alike profess to believe that God alone created the heavens
and the earth. They claim to believe that God
made man out of the dust of the ground and woman out of the man
and breathed into them both the breath of life and they became
living souls. Men have no problem with that.
Women have no problem with the issue of creation. Most everybody,
it seems anyway, prays to a God in whom they have confidence
in whom they believe can grant their desires, fulfill their
needs, and all who pray believe God to be both willing and able
to accomplish the things that they ask for. It seems these
days that religion is at an all-time high, and for the most part,
there are a multitude of people who claim to believe in a higher
power whom they affirm to be God. So in that sense, most people
believe that God is in charge and in control. Yet I'm telling
you in the matter of personal redemption, the saving of sinners,
most folks who merely profess to believe that God is almighty
seem to think that God has forfeited his sovereign power. They believe
that God's left the matter of salvation up to the choosing,
deciding, and free will of man. And I'm telling you as sincerely
as I know how, that is not so. God in his word strongly and
passionately disagrees if God is sovereign, if God be God,
if God be the powerful potentate that his word claims him to be,
he's doing whatsoever he's pleased in the heavens and in the earth
and in the seas and all deep places, that's what David said,
then you can most certainly be assured that that includes the
matter of salvation. Now, some will say, no, no, no,
God has left salvation up to the sinner, giving the sinner
a say, a choice, and a vote in the matter. God allows sinners
to exercise their free will, making a decision to receive
God's love, mercy, and grace. And I declare to you now that
that be so. Any, without any reservation,
I tell you, None will ever be saved. Some might wonder why
I would say such a thing as that. Jesus Christ, God the Son, who
took on human flesh, very plainly said when he walked upon this
earth that we cannot come and that we will not come to him
that we might have life. We have neither the will or the
ability to believe. to decide or to do anything to
save ourselves. Why? Because we're spiritually
dead. His words were very easy to understand
when he spoke about this matter. He said, no man cometh to the
father, but by me. They don't have the will. They
don't have the ability. They cannot. No ability. They will not. No will come to
the father only in, by, and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And the
Bible is just full of declarations by God who proclaims that without
him, you and I can do nothing. If God almighty would enable
you and I to honestly consider the verses of scripture before
us this morning, I believe that when I'm through, you too will
agree that salvation is of the Lord without any help, without
any granting of the will of man. Now here in Romans 9, that's
my text, Romans 9, verse 11, the apostle Paul, by the inspiration
of God the Holy Spirit, tells us about two boys, not yet born,
neither having done any good or evil. Now, why is the Holy
Spirit through the Apostle Paul telling us about these unborn
twins? I'll tell you why. He's teaching
us something about the purpose of God in the salvation of sinners. Why is the Spirit of God bringing
these unborn brothers to our attention? To put away any doubt,
all doubt, about how God alone gives life eternal to those who
are spiritually dead. Now these two unborn children
obviously hadn't done any good or bad before they were born. Nothing they had done that would
cause God in any way to be partial to one and prejudice to the other. You know, when you talk about
election to some folks about God choosing, his people before
the foundation of the world, they'll say, well, you know,
God looked ahead in time and he saw who would believe, he
saw who would be good, who would be bad, and he chose them upon
the basis of their own righteousness. Well, that's, that's so, that's
works. That's salvation by works. God
saves sinners for no reason outside of his own will. God has mercy
for no reason other than it just pleases him to do so. And why
that upsets folks, I don't know. Isn't God God? Doesn't God have
the right to do what he will with his own? He said that himself.
Christ again, plainly tells us why God the Father, the Lord
of heaven and earth has hidden these great truths of redemption
from the wise and the prudent and revealed them unto babes.
Here's the reason. Even so, Father, it seemed good
in thy sight. Now Paul here is writing to believers
and in verse 11, he says, for the children being not yet born,
neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of
God, according to election might stand, not of works, but of him,
they call it. God's purpose in saving anyone
is according to election, election being His choosing, thus making
salvation stand not in, of, or by the work of the sinner, but
of Him that calleth. The salvation of sinners is determined
by God. Whom God saves is His prerogative. It's his right, and it's his
entitlement as God. It's essential for us to understand
that all of us by nature are in the same state and in the
same condition, and that's being dead. The Bible is very clear
that all of us are dead in trespasses and sin. All of us are dead to
do anything that might cause God to be mindful of us. Isn't
that what David said? David said, what is man that
thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visiteth
him. And again, Lord, what is man that thou take as knowledge
of him or the son of man that thou make us to count of him.
You can read those passages in the book of Psalms. David is
asking God how he could have bestowed his love, his mercy,
his grace and favor upon those who are so utterly insignificant. unknown and worthless. What is man? Oh, has God shown
you what you are? Has God shown you what you are
before a holy God? What is man? That's what Job
asked. You remember what Job asked?
He said, what is man that thou shouldest magnify him? And thou
shouldest set thine heart upon him. What would cause God to
set his heart upon such worms as us? What is man that he should
be clean, and he which is born of woman that he should be righteous?
You see, David and Job both knew that it was God alone who saved
sinners. For no reason outside of himself,
it just simply pleased him to do so. Friends, the purpose of
God according to election is going to stand. When time shall
be no more, every man and every woman that has ever lived will
confess that to be so. In the end, all, all will say
and give thanks always to the mighty creator. Why? Because
God hath from the beginning before time ever was, chosen his people
to salvation. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse
13. And that glorious truth is going
to forever stand. Now you'll either confess it
to be so now or you'll confess it to be so then. You'll either
bow to that truth in this life Or when you stand before God
on that great day of judgment, you will continue to forever
profess your redemption to be of God, either in eternal glory
or in eternal hell. But this great truth is going
to stand forever. Why? Because God gets all the
glory in the salvation of sinners. All of it. All the elect of God
will profess their salvation to be of the Lord. Do you dare
doubt that the sinner's salvation is of the Lord's choosing? Look
at verse 13. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. Here God declares to love one
of these boys and not the other. And this verse certainly disproves
the common belief that God loves everybody. Now some will think
that this means that God loved Jacob and he loved Esau a little
less. That God loved Esau just not
as much as he did Jacob. I wonder if free will works religionist
will ever take notice of the plain language that God uses
in the Bible. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. You see, the real truth is, is
that God should hate all of us. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. We're all gone aside. We are
all together become filthy. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. God shouldn't love any of us.
It's only by his mercy and grace that he would. Every one of us
has gone back. We are all together become filthy. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. As it is written, there's none
righteous, not a one. Listen to what God says about
us in Romans chapter three. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. They're all gone out of
the way. They're all together become unprofitable.
We just read that. There's none that do it good.
And he reiterates by saying, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher,
that being a grave or a tomb, and with their tongues they've
used deceit. The poison of asp, serpent, is
under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing. And that don't mean those little
four little words that people use, that means Words of pride
and arrogance and rebellion and unbelief in God's ability to
save and in God's providence. Our mouth is full of bitterness.
That's speaking of those bitter words that we use when we shake
our fist at God and let him know how we really feel about all
the things that he sovereignly brings to pass. And speaking
of us, God says their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction
and misery are in their ways. These are our ways. Does this
describe you? We're destructive to ourselves
and to others. And the way of peace, have they
not known? By nature, we don't know the
way of peace. God has to show it to us. There's no fear of
God before their eyes. There's no fear of God before
our eyes, because friends, by nature, we're ignorant of who
God is. We don't know who God is. In verse 13, God says, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. And some ask, how could God hate
Esau? He hadn't done anything wrong.
However, the true child of God, the one whom God has enabled
to see something about themselves. Oh, speaking of their own sin
and spiritual deadness, they ask a very different question.
They ask, how could God love Jacob? Now in verse 14, we see
that men and women are always gonna say, well, that's not right,
that's not fair. That's what Paul's saying here.
He said, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Is God unjust, wrong, and loving one and hating another?
God forbid. There's no way that God can be
unrighteous, not and still be God. That's why in verse 15,
he says, for God said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy. And I'll have compassion on whom
I have compassion. Don't these words here in verse
15, strongly imply that all deserve breath. All are in need of mercy. All are dead and trespasses and
sin all are in need of compassion and forgiveness for God is angry
with all the wicked every day so then Look at it verse 16. So then it now it being the sinner's
redemption our redemption is not Not Of him that will it nor
not of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Now, let me ask you after hearing
and seeing these things in your own Bible, do you dare believe
that you, by your own free will and choice through a work of
righteousness that you've done, make yourself to differ from
those who are yet lost? It's not of him that willeth.
It's not of him that runneth. But salvation is of God that
showeth mercy. Now look down at verse 21. Hath
not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make
one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? Now here is the
question that the Holy Spirit is asking. Does God, as the potter,
the sovereign creator, not have the power, the right, to make
one sinner honorable while at the same time leaving Another
center in their dishonorable state. See, we're all born dishonorable. The Lord Jesus said, he that
believeth not is condemned already, already condemned, born condemned,
not born free as the old song used to say, born in bondage
to sin. The answer to this question is
resounding yes. Yes, the potter has the right. He has the right to fashion the
clay however he sees fit. And what a truthful comparison
verse 21 makes when it compares you and I, the sinners that we
are, to impotent lumps of lifeless clay. And truly this verse gives
evidence that there's no difference in any center, but the difference
that God makes, we are all clay of the same lump. How well that
agrees with what Paul also wrote in Ephesians chapter two, verse
three, he said, we, that we are all by nature, what children
of wrath, even as others. We're all the same. One vessel's
made unto honor and another unto dishonor. Some are vessels of
wrath fitted to destruction, and others are vessels of mercy,
which God hath afore prepared unto glory. Oh, dear friends,
the Bible clearly teaches us that the destiny of every individual
is decided by the will of God. I don't want you to take my word
for this. I want to show you again what
God says about this in the Bible. Turn with me if you have your
Bible to the Old Testament book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter
18. Now in verse one, we read, 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. Now, when a word comes to a sinner
from the Lord, notice those words, from the Lord, it will always
be effectual and successful. The scriptures say, I, the Lord,
have spoken it. It shall come to pass. I will
do it, the Lord says. Now, do you believe that? God's
people will always humble themselves under the mighty hand of God.
God's people say, oh yes, Lord, I believe that, no doubt. God's word to Jeremiah was effectual
and he believed it. How do I know? Because verse
three says, then I went down to the potter's house. Jeremiah
didn't go down to the potter's house until God made it effectual
to him. And he did so immediately. He
said, then I went down to the potter's house. Oh, let's don't
put the emphasis on the potter's house. Jeremiah's obedience,
let's put the emphasis on God's effectual command. All with the
command, he gives the ability to do so. No man can come. Lazarus
come forth, he's dead. He's dead in the tomb, hasn't
been four days, he stinketh. How does he come forth? By the
power of God, which is given with the command to come. Oh,
God's word to Jeremiah was effectual. Then I went down to the potter's
house and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. Now, when
Jeremiah went down to the potter's house, he immediately saw something. What did he say? He saw a work
that the potter was doing. That's very important. The Lord
didn't tell Jeremiah to go down to the potter's house to do a
work. The Lord in verse two said, arise and go down to the potter's
house and there I will cause thee to hear my words. That's
my only hope of redemption, that God might cause me to hear his
word. Have you ever seen a potter's
wheel? Well, if you have a marginal Bible, you might have noticed
that the word wheel here means frame or seat. The potter's sitting
on a seat that's attached to a frame that has a wheel at foot
level, and that wheel is connected, or part of a shaft, that comes
up and is connected to another wheel that's at hand level where
the person, the potter, is sitting on the seat where the clay is
placed. And when the potter would turn the bottom wheel with his
feet, the wheel at the top would also turn so that the potter
could form and fashion the clay in order to make it into something.
I think we've all probably seen a potter and a potter's wheel.
So Jeremiah is watching the potter do a work on the wheel. Then
in verse four, we see something concerning the clay that the
potter is forming and fashioning into making something. And it
says in the vessel that he made of clay, now this is important. The vessel that he made of clay
was marred in the hand of the potter. I've read this passage
in Jeremiah 18 many times, and I don't know why I always thought
that the potter marred the clay. That's not what happened. That word marred means ruined,
disfigured, defaced, deformed. But that's not what it says.
It doesn't say that the vessel was marred or disfigured by the
potter's hands. It says that the vessel was marred
in the potter's hands. Now there are many who claim,
many who are enemies to the sovereign grace of God that believe that
we who believe in sovereign grace preach that somehow God finds
pleasure in the perishing and condemnation of the wicked. Some
think that we believe that God mars men and women, that he hates
certain men and women so that he might destroy them. That couldn't
be further from the truth. We know better than that. In
Ezekiel chapter 33, verse 11, the Lord says, as I live, saith
the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but
that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye
from your evil ways, for why will you die? Old House of Israel,
there was already something in the clay, something wrong with
the clay, something that made that clay inconsistent and stiff,
unworkable. Maybe it was a stone in the clay
which caused the vessel to be marred. I'll tell you this, that
marred clay is a picture of all sinners. We're all by nature
stiff, inconsistent, unworkable, unpliable. We're just clay that
has a dead heart of stone in us. We've been marred, we've
been ruined, we've been disfigured and deformed by sin. And the vessel, verse four, and
the vessel that he, the potter made of clay was marred in the
hand of the potter. Now watch this. So he made it
again, another vessel. It seemed good to the potter
to make it. God made, fashioned and formed
the first man out of the clay of the ground. He breathed into
him the breath of life and that clay became a living soul, a
perfect vessel created after the very image of God himself. Adam was made a vessel of honor
unto the Lord. However, that vessel of honor
became marred, ruined, disfigured, stiff, and inconsistent when
Adam disobeyed God and sin entered into the world. But never forget
that though Adam was now a sinner, now a vessel of dishonor, he's
still in the potter's hand. Just because mankind fell into
sin and was lost, doesn't mean that God has lost his control
over man. No, sir. They're still, all are
still in his hand. Marred? Yes. Ruined and disfigured? No doubt. Stiff and inconsistent? That's correct. With desperately
wicked and deceitful hearts? for sure, but they're still in
his hand. And God, the sovereign potter,
if he so desires, makes that marred clay into another vessel,
either one of honor or one of dishonor, but always as it seems
good for him to make it. That's the key. God is in control. Salvation is of the Lord. Verse
five, then the word of the Lord came to me saying, O house of
Israel, Can I not do with you as this potter? Saith the Lord,
behold, as the clay is in the potter's hands, so are ye in
mine hand, O house of Israel. Oh friends, let man strive with
his maker if he will. The fact remains that he's nothing
more than clay in the heavenly potter's hands. And while we
know that God would deal justly with his creatures, that the
judge of all the earth will do right, nevertheless, he shapes
his vessels for his own purpose and according to his own pleasure.
God claims the indisputable right to do as he wills with his own. And not only does God have the
right to do as he wills, with his own hands, as the sovereign
potter, but he exercises that right. And nowhere is that seen
more plainly than in his sovereign predestinating grace. Before
the foundation of the world, God made a choice, a selection,
an election, He predestinated some to be conformed to the image
of His Son, and He ordained them unto eternal life, and that's
the only reason that any of them are saved. You have been listening
to a message by David Edmondson, the pastor of Bible Baptist Church
in Madisonville, Kentucky. If you would like a copy of this
message, or to hear other messages of God's free, sovereign grace
in Christ, you can write to our mailing address at P.O. Box 652
Madisonville, Kentucky 42431. or log on to our website at FreeGraceRadio.com. If you would like to come and
worship with us, we meet at 2015 Beulah Road, Madisonville, Kentucky,
and our service times are Sunday morning Bible study at 10 o'clock
a.m., worship services begin at 11 o'clock a.m., Wednesday
evening services at 7 o'clock p.m. Please tune in again next
Sunday morning at 10 o'clock AM for another message of God's
free and sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus Christ.