Verse 22 this morning of Romans
9. We'll read the next three verses
together beginning with 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 and that he might
make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy,
which he had afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom he hath
called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?" Question
mark. All of that was one question.
Paul had a way of writing a sentence, one sentence that would be very
inclusive. And this is one of them. And
here in this three verse passage of scripture, this question,
Paul declares that God has done exactly what those who hate him
and his truth object to him doing. Nowhere do we have such a concise
revelation of God's purpose of grace. The word vessels he used twice
in this question. in verse 22 and verse 23, and
it goes back to verse 21. Hath not the potter power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel? These are men,
sinners, or vessels. To make one vessel of the same
lump, one lump of clay, and God has power, authority to make
two different kinds of vessels from that one lump, one unto
honor and another unto dishonor. And here in this question that
we consider this morning, it's further revealed what the Lord
did with these vessels, who they are, and why he did what he did. First, let's look at why. God's
motive is revealed here, at least one aspect of his motive, to
show and to make known. This teaches us something about
God. He's revealing himself. He has done what he has done
with sinners and sending his son into this world to have mercy
on sinners. and how he deals with lost, reprobate
sinners. He does what he does to show
himself, to make known himself. With regard to the vessels of
wrath, he was willing to show and to make known his wrath and
his power. You see that in verse 22, that
he would, what if God willing to show his wrath and to make
known his power. Two things. In showing his wrath,
he displays the fact that he is holy and sin cannot go unpunished
by him. Every sinner found in his sins,
every sinner who has not the Lord Jesus Christ and stands
before God sinful, defiled, and wretched must be punished. There must be, as Paul puts in
this question, destruction. It's the only thing for a sinner,
a sinner outside of the mercy of God in Christ. Destruction,
and he displays his wrath upon them. He shows therein his holiness
and the seeding sinfulness of sin. In showing his power, upon
them. What does he mean by showing
his power upon them? He displays that he is the irresistible,
invincible God. You can't fight God and win.
You can't oppose God and be victorious. There's enmity between you and
God and you lose. We don't have to wait to see
what the outcome is. You lose unless there's mercy. He both executes the penalty
of his own law, which he must because he's holy, and he vindicates
and avenges his chosen beloved people. That's what he does when
he displays his power. With regard to the vessels of
mercy, God makes one thing known. The riches of His glory. Have you ever just sat and thought
about what that is? The riches of the glory of God. What God is doing here is showing
how glorious He is. How in the world is He going
to do that? How is He going to reveal to every creature that
has eyes and understanding Every creature that can see, every
creature to whom he can make known himself. How is he going
to make known to them how glorious he is? What does God do in order
to show every creature throughout all eternity what it means to
be God? Here's what he'll do. Here's
what he did do. He came to this earth and gave
himself in order to save those that he loved. That's how he
displays the riches of his glory. You want to see the glory of
God? Moses did. And God revealed this to him,
I will have mercy. I'll have mercy. This is the twofold theme of
the Saints in Glory. both the justice and wrath of
God and the glorious grace of God. Revelation 19, 1. And after
these things, I heard a great voice of much people in heaven saying, Alleluia, salvation and
glory and honor and power unto the Lord our God. We attribute
all these things unto him. Salvation belongs to the Lord.
Glory belongs to the Lord alone. Honor, he alone is honorable. And power, what did he say he
was gonna make known? The riches of his glory and his
power. And how is he doing that? Unto
the Lord our God, for true and righteous are his judgments. For he hath judged the great
whore. which did corrupt the earth with
her fornication and hath avenged the blood of his servants at
her hand. This is false religion. If you
look at the context and know the scripture concerning this,
the teaching concerning this, this is false religion. And all
of the multiplied millions throughout the ages who have been deceived
by false religion. And they said again, hallelujah. And her smoke rose up forever
and ever. God judged and punished false
religion forever and ever and his people said hallelujah. And
attribute all glory to his name. God is enduring with long-suffering,
with much long-suffering, Paul said, these vessels of wrath
now, or at least some of them, the ones whom he has not yet
put out of business. But they are, and always have
been, according to our text, fitted to destruction. The word means prepared. Prepared
before, just like he said, concerning the saints, whom he aforeprepared
unto glory." These ones are aforeprepared to destruction. And when they
get what they deserve, when God damns them, his people will sing
his praises. That's hard to imagine now. We're
not to delight in the destruction of the wicked here. We're to
beseech those. who hate God, be ye reconciled
to God. Paul said, we beseech you by
the word of God, as Christ's ambassadors, be ye reconciled
to God. But when all is said and done,
and God who does all things well, will have done all things that
shall be done. We'll praise him for it. We'll
praise him forever for it. But there's another song in heaven.
Revelation 5 9 listen and they sung a new song say Thou art
worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof For you
were slain And has redeemed us to God by
your blood and out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. In verse 12 of that same passage,
worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and
wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. He's going to make known his
wrath and power And he's going to make known the riches of his
glory. And when he does, we're going to shout hallelujah. We
might just do that today, just contemplating these things. When God fully makes known to
us the riches of his glory, when He fully makes them known now,
because even though now we may be, and by God's grace we are,
those who know Him, we're the vessels of His mercy now. We don't yet see fully the riches
of His glory. But this is what glory is, I
know that. This is what glory is, this is
what heaven is, when He fully makes known. Himself. When we are with Him and we see
Him as He is, that's what glory is. He said in John 17, 24, Father
I will. Now Paul said in Romans 9 that
what we're talking about is what God is willing to do. What if
God willing to show and to make known His wrath, power, and glory.
He did it because He was willing to do it. And here's the Lord
Jesus Christ saying I will. This is God the Son expressing
his will. I will that they also whom thou
hast given me. There's those vessels of mercy. If God the Father has given you
to his Son, you are a vessel of mercy. And I will, he said, that they
also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. Why? That they may do what these
ones that we just read of in the book of Revelation were doing.
And shall do forever. That they may behold my glory. Which thou hast given me for
thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. That is what the
vessels of mercy are aforeprepared unto. Glory. Glory. And glory is to be with the one who is himself the very
glory of God. The express image of God and
the brightness of his glory, Paul said in Hebrews 1. Christ
himself is the brightness of God's glory. To be with him who is the glory
of God and to behold his glory face to face is what is the very
definition of glory. And we are aforeprepared unto
that glory. What if God, what if before you
were ever born or ever did anything, much less make a decision or
walk an aisle or do anything, God said, I love this one. What
if he did that? As I said, we cannot, we do not
behold his glory fully now, but think about this, this gospel. that Paul sets forth in this
very passage and that we, by God's grace, try to declare every
time we step behind this pulpit. This gospel is the message, the
truth revealed of the riches of God's glory. God is willing to show the riches
of his glory And right now, if you want to know something about
that today, you're going to have to hear the gospel. You're not
going to know it any other way. You're not going to know Him
any other way. You're not going to have any inkling of the riches
of the glory of God any other way. We don't see fully now Him
or His glory. We see as through a dark glass. because of the limitations of
this sinful flesh. But to know this gospel, that
is to know Christ and what he has done for sinners, is to know
the greatest thing that in this life can be known. Do we take
that for granted? Oh, you bet we do. You bet we
do. We're not going to know anything
different then than we know now. We're just going to know it better.
Do we have any understanding of that? What we have, what God,
the gift that God has given us, the gift of faith in his son. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by this gospel. We are going to know better what
we know now and we're going to be in the very presence of the
one who gave himself for us according to our gospel. We'll bless him forever as those
did that we read about. May God give us grace to bless
his holy name here while we're here, while it's day, and to
serve him as we ought. Let's bow in prayer.