Romans 9:1-24; Exposition/Applications #2

Introduction: The Sovereignty of God and Spurgeon's Perspective

0:00 We come tonight to the eleventh message in our series on the general theme of the sovereignty of God. As I was thinking of how I would introduce the subject again tonight without becoming tedious in my review, my mind turned to a collection of sermons on this theme by the great preacher of a hundred years ago, Charles Haddon Spurgeon of London, and he said the following, and I believe it's the best introduction and brief review that I could give to get our thoughts moving in the direction that I trust they will for our study tonight. He said of this great biblical theme, divine sovereignty, that there is no attribute of

0:44 God more comforting to his children than the doctrine of the divine sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in their most severe troubles, they believe that sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that sovereignty overrules them, and that sovereignty will sanctify them all, and every Christian has to say amen to that. There's nothing for which the children of God ought more earnestly to contend than for the dominion of their master over all creation, the kingship of God over all the works of his own hands, the throne of God and his right to sit upon that throne. On the other hand...

1:27 On the other hand, there is no doctrine more hated by worldlings, and I might add by much of professing Christendom, no truth of which they've made such a football as the great stupendous yet most certain doctrine of sovereignty. Men will allow God to be everywhere except on his throne. They'll allow him to be in his workshop to fashion the world and to make stars. That's all right.

1:54 He can be the God of creation. They'll allow him to be in his workshop to fashion the world and to make stars. They'll allow him to be in his almonry to dispense his alms and bestow his bounties. God stands as a great giver of good gifts, sending rain upon the just and unjust, and men say, well, we'll have that.

2:09 That's nice. We'll have that. They will allow him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars thereof or light the lamps of heaven or rule the waves of the ever-moving ocean, but when God ascends to his throne, his creatures then gnash their teeth. And when we proclaim...

2:28 Man enthroned God and his right to do as he wills with his own, to dispose of his creatures as he thinks well without consulting them in the matter, then it is that we are hissed and execrated, and then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us, for God on the throne is not the God that they love. They love him anywhere better than they do when he sits upon his throne with his scepter in his hand and his crown upon his head. But it is God upon the throne that we love to preach. It is God upon the throne whom we trust.

3:05 It is God upon his throne of whom we've been singing this morning, and it's God upon his throne of whom we shall speak in this discourse. And so Charles Spurgeon's introduction is mine tonight. When we speak of the sovereignty of God, we are simply affirming the scriptural truth of the God who's upon his throne. He not only made...

Review of Divine Sovereignty in Grace and Romans 9 as a Pivotal Passage

3:28 He not only made his universe, but he rules it. He not only made his creatures, but he governs them. And we are particularly considering in these evening studies at this point in our development the sovereignty of God in the realm of grace, that God acts sovereignly in saving rebel sinners. We have looked at the key words which teach this doctrine, and if the words elect, found about 50 times in the New Testament, the word predestinate, the word foreknow, and the word called, if those words mean anything, if they have any true spirit-intended meaning, then they teach with absolute clarity that God is sovereign in the realm of his grace.

4:12 Then we've looked at the key passages in which our Lord taught this doctrine, and if John chapter 3 and John 6 and John 17 and Matthew 11 teach anything, they teach according to the words of our Lord that spiritual life is all God's work. And that that life is given according to God's purposes. We are presently considering the key passages, not in the express words of our Lord, but in the words of our Lord through his inspired apostles. And last week, we began an introductory study to Romans chapter 9, which is the pivotal passage in the writings of the inspired apostles on the subject of divine sovereignty in the realm of grace.

4:56 Now you'll remember, when God gives an account of creation, he begins in chapter 1 of Genesis by giving a general statement of all of creation, and then in Genesis 2, he recapitulates, he goes back over and expands upon the creation of man. Now I've tried to find some warrant for what I'm going to do tonight, and I've come up with that. I'm going to preach on Romans 9 again tonight. But just like Genesis 2 gives you the account of creation again.

5:26 It's not going to be a repeat of last week's message. But it's going to be a recapitulating and an expanding of certain aspects of the core of this passage. And I told someone the other night, if anyone had told me five years ago that I would preach several sermons from Romans 9 and do it with delight, I would have said, I can't believe it. For this was one of those passages that caused me great consternation.

Paul's Burden for Israel and the Concept of an Israel Within Israel

5:52 One of those passages that I wish the telephone would ring when I was reading it in my devotional. I'd wish the kids would cry or someone came with a problem because this passage caused me such terrible problems. But how I bless God that in his grace and mercy, he has made it one of the precious portions of his word to my heart. Now the general thoughts, as we saw them last week, verses 1 to 5, the apostle Paul introduces this subject by speaking of his great burden for his fellow Israelites, the great part of whom...

6:26 ...are going on in their sins in spite of the fact that Jesus Christ has been freely offered to them as he stood before them and laid his claims and offered his mercy.

6:38 And so the introduction of this is a pastoral theme. Here's a man with a broken heart. He views the great mass of the Israelites having rejected the gospel and he says, I have a great heaviness and burden of heart. And then he says in verse 6...

6:55 ...introducing a new thought, I don't want you to think that because the great majority of the Israelites have rejected the message that God has in any way failed.

7:06 Verse 6, it is not as though the word of God came to naught. And he says the answer is in recognizing this truth, that there is an Israel within Israel, for they are not all Israel that are of Israel, neither because are they Abraham's seed are they all children. But he says...

7:24 ...the promise of God...

7:25 ...to bless a multitude through Abraham was not given primarily to national Israel, but to a spiritual Israel.

7:34 And the spiritual Israel are those who are the children of promise. In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, it is not the children of the flesh that are the children of God, but the children of the promise. But someone says, what makes a person a child of promise?

7:51 It's obvious. It's simply because a man had Abraham as his father physically. This was no guarantee he'd be saved. And it's obvious that Paul teaches here that those who are included in the blessing of Abraham are the children of promise.

The Illustration of Jacob and Esau: Divine Election and Uncaused Grace

8:06 But what makes a man a child of promise? And Paul proceeds to answer that question through the illustration of Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau. And he says in terms that are unmistakable, notice verse 11, for the children not being yet born, neither having done anything good or bad. Now, he says that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works, but of him that calleth.

8:31 So as you follow Paul's train of thought, and I trust that every one of you would be able to give this kind of a summary of this first section of Romans 9. Here's Paul expressing his great burden of the hardness and unbelief of the nation. But he says, God's word is not failed when God promised that he would bless Abraham's seed. Speaking of an Israel within Israel, children of promise.

8:57 And who are the children of promise? Those that are made thus by the divine election of God, as illustrated in Ishmael and in Isaac. God made a selection, and then particularly with Jacob and Esau, where it specifically says, One father, born of the same parents, before they came to the place where there could be any merit or demerit in their own activity, the children having done neither good nor bad, it was said the elder shall serve the younger. For what purpose?

9:29 That men might know that in God's dealing with the children of promise, he deals not according to anything in them, but according to the purposes of his own grace that are locked up in his own gracious heart. So this is the drift of the argument of Paul. Now let us expand one part that we did not touch on. We did not touch on in any detail last week.

9:52 We are recapitulating here. We are doing Genesis 2 to Genesis 1. Notice now his statement in verses 11 and 12. For the children, being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, as conscious individuals, they fell in Adam with the rest of the world.

10:10 Paul is not contradicting in Romans 9 what he taught in Romans 5. In Adam all die. He is not canceling that out. In Adam all sin.

10:18 But he means as in, individual entity as a responsible individual, the children having done neither good nor bad as creatures in time and space. He says that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger, even as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau I hated. Now where is it written?

10:47 Will you turn with me to the book of Malachi? The last book of the Old Testament. And we see the very passage from which the Apostle Paul, by the inspiration of the Spirit, draws this quotation.

11:06 Malachi chapter 1 and verse 1.

11:14 The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.

11:19 I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, this is God's message to Israel now, wherein hast thou loved us? And now here's God's answer. Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord?

11:35 And what's the answer? Yes. In fact, he was his twin brother, conceived by the same parents, born of the same woman, born into the same environment. Well, the answer is obvious, of course.

11:51 Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob, but Esau I hated, and made his mother, mountains of desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, Edom, the sons of Esau, we are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, they shall build, but I will throw down, and the men shall call them the border of wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever.

12:31 Beloved, if the scripture, does not teach us anything, it teaches that the words of Romans 9 are not to be interpreted in some weak way to water down the obvious truth that God had a disposition of love and affection to Jacob, and his heart burned with righteous and holy anger and hatred to Jacob. For remember, Jacob and Esau both deserved what? God's wrath and his anger. God could have no one, ascend to his throne and accuse him of injustice if he had said, Jacob have I hated and Esau have I hated.

13:12 Why? For the scripture says, Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. God is angry with the wicked every day. And yet isn't it strange that in the wonder of his grace, God should set his love upon one who is naturally hateful and men would rise up and say, wait a minute, God, you've got no right to do that.

13:31 Isn't it strange? Isn't it strange? Isn't it strange? Yet it's true, is it not?

13:40 And so Paul, in seeking an illustration from the Old Testament, that the children of promise are that elect chosen seed to whom God's grace has come freely, to whom his love comes uncaused. He uses this illustration of Jacob and I love, Esau have I hated, but we must remember Jacob and Esau were not two innocent people and God saying, all right, I'm going to love this innocent one and hate that innocent one. Jacob and Esau, both the fallen sons of Adam, as Ephesians 2 says, children of wrath by nature. Men and women, all of us here tonight, we will never be able to embrace the teaching,

14:23 the obvious teaching of Romans 9 with delight, for God doesn't want it embraced with reluctance. Some people would say, well, I'm a Christian. I believe the Bible. I guess I got to believe it anyway.

14:35 No, no, no. We will never embrace it with delight. And with holy awe until this truth has been burned into our hearts that Jacob and Esau and all the Jacobs and Esau's here today, all of us deserve nothing but his wrath and his holy indignation and his pure and righteous judgment.

Addressing the First Objection: 'Is There Unrighteousness with God?'

14:59 And that there should be any who are the objects of his mercy and his love is an act of pure and free grace. Now, objection number one, we looked at it briefly last week. Now we want to recapitulate and expand it. Verse 14, what shall we say then?

15:17 You know what I'd like to do if we had the time? I'd like to just say, what do you say to this then? And I wish I could get everyone sitting here to be perfectly honest and tell me with your lips what you're saying to me in your mind right now. What shall we say then?

15:35 Well, I imagine some are saying what the next phrase says. Is there unrighteousness with God? This isn't right. It isn't right.

15:44 It isn't right. It isn't right. It isn't right that God should love Jacob and hate Esau. It just isn't right.

15:50 By my standards of right and wrong, God doesn't measure up. So, since he doesn't measure up to my standard, I just won't worship that God. I'll make a God who does measure up. No, no, may God deliver us from such.

16:05 But Paul anticipates that this would be the natural reaction of the natural heart. And how does he answer? Notice carefully. God forbid.

16:15 He uses the strongest negation that he can use in the Greek language. This is a vehement response. God forbid. Perish the thought.

16:26 Abolish the thought from your mind that the infinitely wise and holy God would do anything that is contrary to what is perfectly right. God forbid. Take the thought out of your mind. Far better to leave your questions unanswered than ever to entertain for a moment the terribly viciousness of God.

16:45 The terribly vicious thought that our God would ever do anything that isn't right.

16:51 Then Paul gives us what to him is the core of the answer. And I'm convinced with all of my heart that he by the Spirit has struck the root of it. What does he say? He says in essence, notice, For he saith unto Moses, quoting from the Old Testament, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

17:13 So it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God. That hath mercy. What's he saying to this objector? Get the picture now.

17:21 Paul has been speaking. Let's picture now not writing, but speaking these words to one of the saints there at Rome. And he's trying to lead this saint on to spiritual maturity by unfolding not only the precious truths of Romans 1 to 8, but Romans 9 as well. As the dear saint listens to Paul speaking of the fact that there's an Israel within Israel, that the true seed are the children of promise, and the children of promise, are the elect of God.

17:49 And he sees the frown break across the brow of that person. And he sees him beginning to raise his hand and say, Ah, but Paul, isn't that unrighteous? And Paul says, God forbid. Sir, you know what your problem is?

18:02 You know why what I've told you in verses 1 to 12 and 13 seems unrighteous to you? Sir, you've never understood what mercy means. If you could just understand what mercy is in a biblical context, what divine mercy is, you wouldn't ask that question. Instead of asking, is there unrighteousness with God, you'd fall down and say, what a wonder that a holy God could love the likes of a Jacob and love the likes of me.

18:32 He said, the very fact that your mind is preoccupied with God's rejection of Esau is an indication that you haven't been struck dumb with the wonder of his love to Jacob. The thing that should cause amazement is not that God hates with a pure and holy hatred sinners. Sinners who deserve his wrath, that shouldn't cause amazement. What should cause amazement is that he loves any such like that.

18:59 So he said, now you've got to understand the true nature of mercy. And what is it? True mercy is only understood when you circle the words will. Will you circle them, please, in your mind, if not in your Bible?

19:11 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom. I will have compassion. What is he saying? He's saying, mercy is free.

19:28 Mercy is uncaused. Mercy is distinguishing.

19:33 Mrs. Starrett played a hymn while the offering was being received. Charles Wesley's famous hymn, And can it be that I should gain an interest in my Savior's love? Can it be that I should gain an interest?

19:49 You know how the natural heart sings that song? And can it be? Can it be that I should fail to gain an interest in the Savior's blood? See?

19:58 There's the whole difference of perspective. One is viewing mercy as something we can't understand. How could it be that God could do anything but damn the likes of me? He stands amazed.

20:10 And can it be? Is it real? I've got to pinch myself that I should gain an interest. The person who says, wait a minute, it's not right for God to love Jacob and Hades.

20:19 So you know what the problem with that person? He doesn't understand mercy. He thinks mercy is something. He thinks mercy is something that God owes to men.

20:27 Rather than viewing mercy as something God freely wills to give to men according to the good pleasure of his will. And once you begin to see mercy, not as something that is drawn forth from God because I deserve it. Poor little me. I wasn't there in the garden when Adam got me in this foul mess.

20:49 So I think God kind of owes it to get me out of it. No. I realize though I cannot understand. Fully the implications and the ways and means.

20:59 But when I realized that if God judges me in Adam in some way, I was there in Adam and guilty of that foul revolt against God. I have amened and ratified that fall and that sinful nature with which I was born. I have amened and ratified it a million times by my own deliberate volitional sin. Then I say, can it be?

21:25 If God would do anything to any of the sons. Of Adam, except pour out upon them his righteous and his holy wrath. And so instead of quibbling with his mercy, which is free and is given to some and withheld from others. I stand amazed that it's given to any, even to me in Jesus Christ.

Excluding Human Will: 'Not of Him That Willeth'

21:49 Ah, but someone says, but in there a little place left for my own will in all of this. Well, let's see what the apostle says. Notice. Will you compare the last part of verse.

22:01 11 with verse 16. And I never saw this till preparing for the message tonight. Notice. For the children being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God, according to election might stand.

22:14 Now notice the contrast. Not of works, but him that call it. In other words, why is one chosen and another not chosen? Well, it's not of works, their works, actual or foreseen or anything else.

22:28 Not of works, but of him that call it. But someone says, well. But choosing him isn't a work. Choosing to believe on him isn't a work.

22:35 Well, look at verse 16. So then it is not of him that what? Willeth.

22:42 You see, he even excludes the exercise of our own will as being the cause of God's choice. So it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy. So we have on one side works, willing, running. On the other side we have God.

23:03 God that shows mercy. God that calls. And Paul puts them as mutually exclusive things. Now he said, you've got to take your pick.

23:11 There you are. If I am a child of promise, because of any works that I perform, because of any running I have done, or because of any willing they've exercised, then my being a Christian is not rooted solely in him that calls, or of him that shows. He calls me with mercy. Paul puts free will and free grace as opposites.

23:39 Now, lest some misunderstand, when God is drawing the sinner, he doesn't draw the sinner while he's hanging like this. As the old confession says, he so works in us of his spirit that we come most freely and willingly. We come, we believe, we repent. Ah, yes.

23:57 But now here's the answer, the question I ask, and Paul would ask. Ah, yes, you repented, the Lord didn't repent for you. You believed, he didn't believe for you. But let me ask you one question.

24:07 Did God choose you because he saw you'd repent and believe, or did you repent and believe because God chose you? See the difference between the two? Is your faith in repentance the cause of election, or is your faith in repentance the fruit of God's election? Can't be both, beloved.

24:33 And I think my Bible answers the question very clearly. Oh, when Paul writes to the church at the Thessalonians, he says, in chapter 2 and verse 13, God be thanked that he hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. He says your belief of the truth is the result of his choosing and not the other way around. Ah, but you say, pastor, we're just simple folks.

25:00 Why get involved in such nice distinctions? Are these just nice, fine distinctions? Oh, beloved, this is the core of the gospel. This is the core of the gospel.

25:12 But salvation is either this, or all of God's grace, and therefore unto him, and to him alone is ascribed the glory and the praise and the honor. And all of our worship will be framed by that concept. All of our service will be shaped, and our methodology will be determined by our understanding of this. And conversely, if we feel that God's children of promise or those that he saw would will to choose him and would will to believe on him, then there's left in the corridors of heaven, a little place where man can shut himself in and look in the mirror and lift up his heart in praise to himself.

25:55 For what he's saying is, I make myself to differ. When the scripture says, who maketh thee to differ? What hast thou that thou didst not see? For of him, through him, and unto him are all things, to whom be glory forever and ever.

26:12 And so Paul answers the first objection. It's not right by saying, oh, my friend, when you understand mercy, you won't talk about what's right. The only thing that would be right is for God to damn us all. When you get in the realm of mercy, throw the word right out.

26:30 It just doesn't belong there. Mercy and right. That's like talking about a warm, hot, cold room. I mean, you just can't put those things together.

26:38 It's like a black, white piece of paper. It's either black or white. See, the room's hot or cold. And so when the scripture would lay before us the cause of God's grace, he locks it up in mercy that is free.

God's Hardening and Judicial Judgment

26:52 Then he develops that thought in verse 17 with another illustration to carry on this thought even further. Notice, for the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, For this purpose did I raise thee up, that I might show in thee my power, and that my name might be published abroad in all the earth. So then, not only does he have mercy on whom he will, notice, beloved, he says, when mercy comes, it's according to God's will. But the next thought is added, and whom he wills, he hardeneth.

27:30 Now, who's he dealing with? Innocent people or rebel, hell-deserving sinners? Who's he dealing with? Who does he show mercy to?

27:39 Sinners. Whom does he harden? Sinners. Gotta keep coming back to that.

27:47 Because if I don't, you know what happens? You begin to read every verse. Through the eyes of the pride of the human heart, that says, well, I'm just not quite so bad as the Bible says I am. The Bible says I'm a child of wrath.

27:58 Isn't that what it says? The Bible says that I drink iniquity like water. The Bible says I love darkness more than light. The scripture says that my heart, my carnal mind, is enmity against God.

28:09 It isn't subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be, so that they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Polite, cultured, educated, religious flesh cannot please Him. So when we read in this verse Paul developing the theme, he says to this objector, not only is God's mercy dispensed according to His will, but whom He wills, He hardens. But the one upon whom He shows mercy is a sinner who doesn't deserve mercy, and the one whom He hardens is a sinner who deserves nothing but this judicial hardening of God.

28:43 And if you check it through, you'll see in the example of Pharaoh, that God told Moses, Moses, you go down into Egypt, and you tell Pharaoh, let my people go. And he told him, I will harden his heart. Now how did God do it? Consistent with the actings of Pharaoh as a responsible creature.

29:01 God gave him light, and Pharaoh rejected, and God gave him up. God gave him more light. Pharaoh hardened his heart. God gave him up.

29:08 So this hardening of God is not an arbitrary hardening, but it's a hardening of God that is judicial. Romans chapter 1, you read three times, God gave them up. God gave them up. God gave them up.

29:20 God gave them up. That's a hardening. So don't picture man standing on a neutral plane, innocent, and God says, I'll show mercy to this one, and I'll harden this one. No, get the picture.

29:31 It's man with his face down, his back away from God. I need my blackboard. His face down, loving darkness rather than light. Romans, John 3 says, He will not come to the light, and the light comes through conscience.

29:45 The light comes through the gospel. The light comes through the word. And man turns his back upon light. He moves in the direction of sin and self-destruction.

29:54 And here's the whole mass of humanity moving in that direction, dead in sin, under the wrath of God, justly exposed to his judgment. Out of that mass, God according to his own purposes says, I will set mercy upon a Jacob. I will set mercy upon an Isaac. I will set mercy upon a Jacob.

30:17 You put your name there. You've known the sweet kiss of his forgiveness. What does he do with the others? Those whom he wills who persist in their sin against the overtures of his grace and his mercy, he even withdraws some of those common graces, and the conscience becomes seared, and the will becomes more and more enslaved and in bondage to its own lust and passions until God gives a man up and hardens his heart.

Addressing the Second Objection: 'Who Withstandeth His Will?'

30:46 In that way that the scripture describes it again and again. All right then, the poor man, after he hears Paul with this, he says, now Paul, my first objection was this isn't right. Now he said, I've got another objection. That doesn't sound fair to me.

31:04 Notice the next verse. Thou wilt say then unto me, why doth he still find fault? For who withstandeth his will? If men are hardened according to his will, and men are saved according to his will, how in the world can he ever judge us in the day of judgment as responsible creatures?

31:24 If everything's determined by his will, how can he deal with me as a responsible creature? That's a pretty good question, isn't it? Or is it? You ever ask that question?

31:37 Oh, beloved, I wrestle with that thing day and night, sometimes for weeks on end. But I wouldn't read the next verse. How does Paul answer that question? Here's the objection.

31:52 First objection, it's not right. This objection, it isn't fair. If everything is traced back to the will of God, how can I be responsible? I'm just some little puppet being moved along the stage of human existence.

32:05 Paul's answer, notice it. Nay, no, but, O man, who art thou that replyest against God? The first answer is this. Has God revealed that everything depends upon his will?

32:22 If so, remember you're a student of the word, not a judge of the word.

32:29 Oh, beloved, if God could but teach us that. I have to say honestly before you, it wasn't until the Holy Spirit bent my proud heart to see that truth, that the great and glorious and obvious doctrine of election became a precious truth to me. God never called me to be a judge of the divine mind. He called me to be a student of his revealed will.

32:57 You got it? And that's what Paul's saying. Who are you to reply against God? Does the Scripture say that God has mercy upon whom he'll have mercy?

33:06 Does the Scripture say whom he wills, he hardens? Then Paul says, remember, the Scripture is God speaking. Who are you, little man? Who are you, little man?

33:20 Always strut around and say, Ah, but I've got my reasons. Yeah, but your reason wasn't given to discover divine truth. Your reason has many wonderful, wonderful uses, but one of them is not to work its way up to God. God has brought divine truth to us.

33:37 How? By revelation, not by reason. But what does the Scripture say? For after that in the wisdom of the world, the world by its wisdom knew not God.

33:49 1 Corinthians 1. It pleased God by the foolishness of a message preached to save them that believe. I have not seen, ear hath not heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them that love him. 1 Corinthians 2.

34:07 But God hath, what's the next word? Revealed them. Revealed them. The action is not man moving up to God, even Christian men, to discover the ways of God.

34:21 It's God breaking in upon man and opening up his ways. That's a whole different perspective. And Paul says to these people, Who art thou that replyest against God? Circle the two words.

34:36 Man, God. Who art thou, O man? Sinful man, finite man, darkened man, stumbling man, foolish man, God, infinite in wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth, eternal, unchangeable in the heavens, man, God. Get the infinite chasm.

34:59 Man is to be the student, God to be the teacher. Man to be the recipient of revelation, God the giver of revelation. Though when once we assume that posture, it becomes comparatively easy to embrace the glorious truth of his word. And he goes on to develop the thought.

35:22 Having said, in the first place, just remember who you are. Then he says, Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why didst thou make me thus? He said just a simple lesson in the creator creature relationship will help you people. He said, Are you objecting against the ways of God?

35:48 He said, How foolish. You go into your workshop and you make a little bird house and just as you're about to put your hands on it to hang it up in a tree, it dances a jig all over the table. He said, I don't like the way you made me. That's what Paul's saying.

36:02 How stupid. Now that would probably make most of us faint if we saw that. But all kidding aside, it's enough, I think, to justly provoke the pure wrath of God when we little creatures dare dance around the table and say, God, I don't like the way you made me. That's what Paul's saying.

36:22 Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why didst thou make me thus? Why did you make me a creature with moral responsibility and yet all of that responsibility is charged within the framework of divine sovereignty? I don't like it, God. God says, Like it or not, that's the way I've made it.

The Potter and the Clay: Vessels of Wrath and Vessels of Mercy

36:42 You can either bow to the fact that that's the way it is and learn the blessedness of being a creature and letting me be the creator, or you can dash yourselves upon the rocks of rebellion and stubbornness. Then he uses an illustration to emphasize a third thought. Or hath not the potter a right? This is the day of civil rights.

37:07 This is the day of individual rights, of states' rights. Everybody's talking about his rights. Paul, the only place he uses the word right is with God. Up till now, that's the problem of the objector.

37:20 He says, Don't I have a right to have mercy given to me? Don't I have a right to have God choose me? Paul, nowhere he even uses the word right. Now when he talks about God, he uses, Hath not the potter a right over the clay from the same lump to make one a vessel to honor, another to dishonor?

37:39 We went into that last week. And then we didn't go into the next several verses, which I want to do as we draw this to a close tonight. What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, Oh, you mean God is determined not only to reveal to the world his love, but his power and his wrath? Yes.

38:00 Notice. What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known? You see, beloved, we've been brainwashed into thinking that the only attribute of God that God is determined to reveal to the world is his love. That is not scriptural.

38:20 What if God, willing to make his power known, his wrath, and his power, as well as his love and his grace? And Paul has been extolling his love. He ends chapter 8. What shall separate us from the love of God?

38:37 And the same Paul now says he's going to reveal his wrath and he's going to reveal his power. Isn't that clear? Isn't that clear? What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, he endured with much long-suffering vessels of wrath committed to destruction?

38:58 Here's the picture of God looking down upon vessels of wrath. Those who by nature deserve his wrath and instead of bringing the stroke of his wrath and blotting us all out, he endured with much long-suffering. He let men live out there three score and ten years and he allowed them to end up in the place that they dug by their own rebellion, even the pit of eternal destruction. And why has God allowed some men to go on in that course?

39:27 Because he chose to make known his wrath and his power. Who's responsible for the course they took? They are. Who will be held accountable for that course?

39:36 They will. The wages of sin is death. And Paul says it's God to be called into account because he's allowed many of humanity to go down that course for which they've prepared and fitted themselves and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy. Notice, which he aforeprepared unto glory.

40:04 Not only is God determined to make known his power and his wrath, but he wants to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy. Now you see, you've got two vessels. Vessels of mercy, vessels of wrath. And this is in the context of the potter.

40:22 Out of the one lump of humanity, all of us fallen, all of us lost, all of us deserving wrath, God allows some amongst that lump to go on and ultimately be destroyed. And others he takes and prepares them and makes them vessels of mercy. Now this brings us to the practical conclusion. How can I know if I'm a vessel of wrath or a vessel of mercy?

Practical Application: Knowing Your State and Evangelistic Appeal

40:48 He tells us in verse 24, even us whom he also called. You see, God's eternal purpose to make some vessels of mercy and leave others as vessels of wrath, that purpose is hidden in his own heart. How can I know if I'm a vessel of mercy? He says, even those whom he called.

41:11 You see, if I've been called and that word called doesn't mean just summoned as we saw in our study of it. It means actually not only summoned but powerfully brought out of darkness into marvelous light. 2 Peter 1.9 He hath called you out of darkness.

41:26 Excuse me, 1 Peter 2.9, isn't it? 1 Peter 2.9?

41:30 You're in, Peter. Isn't it 2.9? Who has called us out of darkness into marvelous light?

41:35 Well, it's 2.9 in either 1 or 2 Peter. But the calling, you see, is an actual work of God in bringing men unto himself. And how is calling manifested?

41:46 Initially, when we see ourselves lost and undone, we see Christ as our only hope of mercy. And in repentance and faith, we embrace the offers of mercy. That's the effectual call of God. How can I know if I'm a vessel of mercy?

42:01 I've turned in repentance and faith and I've laid hold of Jesus Christ. God's eternal purpose, which is hidden, comes to light in my repentance and faith and in my subsequent obedience and holiness of life. So those of you who sit here tonight, and you can say, yes, by the grace of God, I am a repenting, repenting and penitent Christ. I am a believer and a believing man.

42:31 What does God want you to do? He wants you to trace your present state of grace back to your calling. It was God who called you out of darkness into light. And when you've gone back to your calling, He says, now trace your calling back one more step to God's eternal purpose to make you a vessel of mercy.

42:50 Now what does it say to an unsaved person here tonight? And to me, this is glorious. I've never seen how beautifully this truth becomes an evangelistic appeal. God tells you to trace back the other way.

43:01 We've been looking tonight at God's eternal purpose to make some vessels of mercy and leave others vessels of wrath. You say, what does that say to me? I'm not a Christian. I'm not saved.

43:10 I've not been born of the Spirit. What do I do? God says, move back from that eternal purpose and ask yourself the question, have I been called? Have I repented?

43:20 Have I believed? And if you haven't repented and believed, that moves us back one more step to the command of God that you repent and flee to His Son and embrace the offers of mercy so the Christian who knows that he's here, saved. God says, trace back to your calling. Trace your calling back to God's eternal purpose.

43:43 Those of you who stand over here say, I don't know if I'm included in that purpose. Look back to the matter of calling and if you don't have the marks of a called man, go back one step and set this night to crying to God for mercy. Set yourself this night to turn from your sin and look to Christ alone as He's offered in the gospel. For you see, the God who out of one lump of clay makes some vessels of mercy and leaves others to be vessels of destruction is the God who stood among us in Jesus Christ in the same hands that shaped the vessels who are pierced upon a cross.

44:20 The same hands that shape the destinies of men are the hands spoken of in the latter part of chapter 10, notice verse 21. But to Israel, he says, all the day long did I spread out my hands. Oh, beloved, that's this God, the God of eternal electing purposes who has shaped and formed according to His own sovereign will vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy. It's the God who revealed to us in Jesus Christ had His hands pierced and now stands with outstretched arms and says, come.

45:01 And He appends that invitation with the promise hymn that comes unto me, I will in no wise cast out. That's a glorious truth, isn't it? And if you've come, and if tonight you know Him as your own, trace that coming back, the fact that you were a child of promise and you're a child of promise because of eternal purpose. And so there is in this passage great consolation for the saint, very practical direction for the sinner.

Reconciling Sovereignty and Responsibility: The 'Two-Armed God'

45:35 And it is my unembarrassed declaration to you, beloved people, the prayer of my heart is that as God has called us together and called us out into this new relationship, that this assembly shall be known, among other things, as an assembly where the pure, holy, high doctrine of God's absolute sovereignty shall be loved, shall be preached, and shall be one of the main streams of our worship to our God. Now thank God when we come to those passages in the Bible that speak clearly of man's responsibility, I hope to preach them just as faithfully

46:18 as I preach this passage that sets forth His divine sovereignty. Ah, but you say I can't reconcile that. And I answer you with Charles Spurgeon's words, you don't reconcile friends, you only reconcile enemies. So I'm not trying to reconcile them either, because they're friends.

46:37 The God who stretches forth His hands of mercy is the same God who shaped with those hands the destinies of men. And if you're going to worship the God of the Bible, beloved, you better not be worshiping a one-armed God. Churches have gone to absolute barrenness who merely worshiped a God who had an arm and a hand that shaped the destinies of men. All they saw and preached and thought of was divine sovereignty and never held out the offers of God's mercy.

47:08 They've gone to seed. But, beloved, if anything is sent modern evangelicalism to seed, it's a one-armed God who's stretching out His hand in mercy, mercy, mercy, but a God who's not been proclaimed as the God of absolute sovereignty. I say it reverently, I want to worship a two-armed God, the God who stretches out the arm of mercy and the God who shapes the destinies. May God give us a bold and a strong faith to embrace all that is revealed in Himself, to revel in His truth, and by the help and strength of the Spirit, to walk in it.

47:50 You're here tonight and you're not a Christian. I hope you go away not thinking, ah, this perplexes me. Is it perplexing to hear the words, come, all you that labor and are heavy laden, repent and believe the gospel? Are those perplexing words?

48:10 Those are God's words to you. Those are God's words to you. Mercy isn't held in your hands, it's held in His. And He dispenses it according to His own good pleasure.

48:22 Thank God His pleasure is revealed in His promises. Him that comes unto me, I will in no wise stop. God doesn't owe you mercy. The best thing that could happen to some of you people is go home tonight and soberly reflect for the first time in your life, I don't have a right to God's love or mercy.

Closing Prayer and Benediction

48:40 For the first time, you might begin to worship the God of the Bible whose mercy and love is free, undeserved, distinguished. O Lord, our God, we worship at Your footstool tonight. We do love You as the God upon a throne, scepter in hand, crown upon Your head. O Lord, we worship You tonight.

49:19 Grant that those who've been called by Your grace shall heartily acknowledge that they've been called not according to their own works or their own willing, but according to Your own purpose and grace given in Christ Jesus before the world began. For those among us tonight who are not joined to Your Son, O Lord, as the enemy would seek to get them involved in their thinking with Your eternal purposes, will You not by Your Spirit drive them to see their sinfulness and their present duty to flee from sin and embrace Jesus Christ as He's offered in the Gospel?

50:03 O Lord, bless this word to saint and sinner tonight. Build us up in the most holy faith. Now, if it please You, our Father, take us safely to our homes, cause us to meditate upon Your word, to search the Scriptures daily to see if these things be so, and then use us this week to bear witness in this community to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray, amen.

50:32 Our Father, that Your Spirit may attend the words that has been proclaimed today, and that whatever has been true to the mind and the Spirit may bear eternal fruit. Whatever has been wood, hay, and stubble of the thoughts of men may be brought to naught. Hear us in our prayer and dismiss us with Your blessing, we ask through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen