Absolutely God is Sovereign

Transcript

GR 2242
6/14/2020
Absolutely God is Sovereign
Romans 9:19-24
Gil Rugh

We’re going to Romans 9 in the section where God is directing Paul to deal with the issues regarding the nation Israel. We’ve talked about the basic issues regarding our salvation, our sin, our condemnation, our justification, our sanctification, and we’ve been told that Jew and Gentile alike are all in the same condition as lost, under the judgment of God, and in need of a salvation found in the Messiah, Savior Jesus Christ. But what about God’s plan for Israel as a nation? Beginning in chapter 12 of Genesis and through the rest of the Old Testament, it’s about the nation Israel. Other nations are dealt with, but it’s in the context of the nation Israel. What about all those promises? All those prophecies? The covenants? Are they just washed out and done away with?

Are the people of God, the nation Israel, now just rolled over into the church and we have one grand people of God, as some title it? Is Israel’s identity as an independent nation with their own promises no longer operative? Paul is answering that in Romans 9, 10, and 11, and he has a great burden. This all brings us to the issue of the sovereignty of God, and He rules over all. He is sovereign, and it’s His purposes that are being accomplished, and progressive revelation, which is simply when God reveals more of His will and His workings with the passing of time until we have our completed word of God… That doesn’t tell us everything. It tells us everything God says is necessary for us to know, but it doesn’t tell us every detail about everything that God is doing or will do.

So, Romans 9, 10, and 11 is putting things together for us, how Israel fits in the overall plan of God. And, as progressive revelation does, it can add additional information to what had been revealed before, but it does not change prior revelation. So in that sense, nothing has changed in the Old Testament revelation regarding the nation Israel. Paul is unfolding what is happening, and we need to understand it’s consistent with what God did in the Old Testament, His revelation there. Paul is simply giving further clarity to these matters so that there is no confusion.

We’re in the section dealing with God’s sovereignty, and this probably causes as much challenge to us believers as any portion of the Word. God is absolutely sovereign. Let me read you what one man wrote, who is the head of a whole series of little commentaries on the New Testament, which can be very helpful. He was recognized as perhaps the greatest New Testament Greek scholar of his day. William Barclay. He died in the 1970’s, I believe, late 70’s. He writes on the Greek words and language, and they’re insightful. But you have to be very, very careful with his theology because he probably was not a believer, a saved man. He was a Universalist. We’re going to be in a section and before we go into this, let me tell you what he wrote about it. Paul’s going to use the analogy of a potter and clay. God is the Potter; we are the clay. He molds and shapes the clay. He basically says, “Paul says that man has no right to argue with God. When a potter makes a vessel, it cannot talk back to Him. He has absolute power over it. Out of one lump of clay He can make one vessel for an honorable purpose and another for a menial purpose. The clay cannot speak to it.” He took this analogy from the Old Testament. Jeremiah. There are two things to be said about this analogy, number one, it is a bad analogy. “One great New Testament commentator…” and he doesn’t say who he’s quoting, “…has said that this is one of the very few passages which we wish Paul had not written. There is a difference between a human being and a lump of clay. A human being is a person; a lump of clay is a thing. You can do what you want with a lump of clay because it’s a thing. Maybe you can do that with a thing, but you cannot do what you like with a person.” And he goes on to say why you can’t and so on. “That would be the mark of a tyrant, not of a loving heavenly Father. It is a basic fact of the gospel that God does not treat men as a potter treats a lump of clay. He treats them as a loving father treats his child.” Now, I just explained that this man has written commentaries on the whole New Testament. But you see he comes to a place, very intelligent? One of the most knowledgeable of the Greek language of the New Testament… He just disregards it! Paul’s just made a mistake.

He got carried away emotionally, that’s his second point. “We must remember one thing. It was out of anguish of heart that Paul wrote this. His argument is not good. It is one thing to say that God used an evil situation to bring good out of it, but it’s quite another thing to say He created it to produce good in the end. We must remember this is not the argument of a theologian sitting quietly in a study thinking things out. It’s the argument of a man whose heart was in despair to find some reason for a completely incomprehensible situation.” Basically, Paul was wrong. He got emotionally carried away. It’s a bad analogy. God doesn’t exercise that kind of sovereignty. Sad, William Barclay had great knowledge of the Greek language, but he did not have a great understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you do use his commentaries, you will want to be very careful of the theology that is taught there.

“The fact of the matter is, we come to the word of God to find out what God does, and we find out He is absolutely sovereign.” And Barclay is wrong. “We do not have the right to challenge God. We do not have the right to question God, and that is what is being said in Romans 9.” So, Barclay correctly reads what Paul says. The issue is not with what Paul says. Barclay says it’s just that Paul’s wrong. What does that do with the word of God? Well, you have a Greek scholar who has now put himself above the word of God and then you have to go to him and he’ll tell you when the word of God is reliable and when it’s not. He also had trouble with many other doctrines, like the virgin birth. Sometimes you wonder, why would a man spend his life studying and teaching and writing on a book that he feels is filled with errors and is not reliable? There is no consistency in that.

We’re talking about the sovereignty of God. You know the problem with it? It’s very humbling. We’ve seen this already. For us to be told that we are sinners, worthy of an eternal hell, unacceptable to a holy God, and we can do nothing to make ourselves right before God. It’s humbling. That’s the basic problem we have in sharing the gospel with people. It’s humbling. Don’t tell me I’m a sinner. Don’t tell me I deserve to go to hell. Well, could God tell you that? Basically, no. They will do it their way. We had one man who was a politician who died not too long ago, and at his funeral he claimed to be a believer, but it seems the evidence says otherwise. And what was one of the great hymns they sang at his funeral? “I Did It My Way”. That’s not a great hymn! That’s the testimony of the world. Some people have sung that and it would be a testimony of their life, but it’s not the testimony of a believer. I did it my way. No, a believer, to the best of their ability, wants to do it God’s way.

We’ve come down in Romans chapter 9 to where Paul is dealing with a couple of questions. Verse 14, “What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there?” That’s a question that comes up and comes out of the fact that the Old Testament Scripture said, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” Wait a minute, does that mean God is unjust to love one and hate another? Paul has answered that. No! And he makes it clear to begin with. Let’s just get something straight. This is not a new doctrine I’m teaching you, Paul said in verse 15. We looked back into the Old Testament when God told Moses what? “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” That’s God’s right. It’s His authority, it’s His sovereignty. He used Pharaoh as an example, I raised you up to demonstrate My power. Barclay says God wouldn’t do that. Now we have to decide, who’s right? This commentator or God? Something of the audacity of it causes you to step back. Verse 18 summarized that. “So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.”

Now remember, what is the definition of mercy? It is something undeserved. So you can’t deserve mercy. Part of the problem is we don’t agree with God regarding our sinfulness. That’s the basic issue. Do we agree that we are sinners, justly condemned by God to an eternal hell? If we believe that, then we have to say it would be right. It would be God’s prerogative to sentence every one of us to hell. Is He obligated to provide salvation to sinners? No. Has He? Yes. Does He have to? No. Does He have to then save every sinner? No. He doesn’t have to save any sinners. Anyone who would be saved is saved because of mercy, grace, that which is undeserved, unearned, unmerited. Part of this as we move along in our theology is to remember our theology, our doctrine of sin, where we’ve come in the book of Romans to this point. If all, every Jew and every Gentile, as we concluded in the first major section of our sinfulness, that we are under condemnation, everyone, Jew and Gentile, then God can deal with us as He wills. He can have mercy on whom He desires and He hardens whom He desires.

Remember what happens? We looked at these verses, God is hardening, not causing people to sin. They are sinning by their own choice. They are sinners by birth and by choice. God hardens them by exposing them to revelation and allowing them to respond according to their own sinful desires. We looked at Romans 1, and we’ve been in there a number of times. God gave them over. God gave them revelation, man rejected the revelation. God gave them over. Man rejected God’s revelation. God gave them over. God gave them over. That hardening process is just exposing them. As we looked into 2 Corinthians 2, verse 15, “…we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing...” A fragrance of life to life and death to death.

You share the gospel with people and for some, it just confirms them in their settled opposition to God, and they become more hardened. But in the mercy of God, He intervenes to soften some and draw them that they might believe. That’s an act of mercy. He doesn’t have to do it for anyone. What does that leave a person when you deal with people, and some people use this argument, well, it doesn’t matter what I do? That’s what we’re coming to in verse 19, “You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?’” God is absolutely sovereign. He raised up Pharaoh to do His will. God’s in total control of everything and everyone, so why does He find fault with me? I’m just doing what He planned.

Pharaoh was part of God’s plan, and even his rebellion was part of God’s plan. That’s a natural question, same as the natural follow-up questions asked in verse 14 in response to, “‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’” In verse 13. Does that mean God is unjust to love one and hate another? “May it never be!” Verse 18, “So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.” He had mercy on Moses and He hardened Pharaoh. Well, it’s a logical question. “You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault?’” The argument would go. ‘Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?’” So, even Pharaoh, when he sinned and rebelled and wouldn’t let Israel go was still doing God’s will. Do I get credit for doing God’s will? Why would He find fault with me? It’s God’s will. I didn’t have any choice, but see, that’s where we’re going to have a problem.

I love the way that God answers it through the apostle Paul. We think, well, here we are. I didn’t get my answer to the first question quite what I thought, but I’ll get it on the second. Who resists His will? Paul doesn’t say, let’s explain this to you theologically, how it all fits together perfectly. And I love the way it’s put in the Greek text. Remember you can rearrange the language. We put it in order in English, according to our grammatical structure. In Greek, they could rearrange the words and the form of the words and so on because they knew where they were in the sentence. “‘Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?’”

You know how that next verse 20, for emphasis, an answer, begins? “On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God?” Get it right out there. Let’s get this straight right now. O man, you are a man, a human being. On the contrary, God doesn’t owe you an answer. He’s not responsible to you; you are responsible to Him. I just love the way God puts us in our place. Remember we sometimes remind ourselves, He is God. We are not. I am man. He is God. So, let’s put this in perspective. He’s the Creator, I am the created. He tells me, I don’t tell Him. Now we chafe under that. We say, well, I have my will. I have my responsibility. I do, and I am accountable and God does not make me sin, but He does not have to cause me not to sin. The problem is, I use my will always in conflict with Him.

Let me say something before we move into this. Both of these objections would be nonexistent if God was just using foreknowledge, looking ahead and seeing what would happen. Then He’s not sovereign. He has more knowledge about the future than other people have, but if He’s just making all of His decisions on the basis of what He looked ahead and saw, what we would do? Then it’s still our decision. We had that with Jacob and Esau, neither had done good or bad. Well, they hadn’t done it yet. But if God looked ahead and saw what they would do, then it would still be on the basis of what they would do. So foreknowledge is ruled out by these very questions. It’s not a matter of God just knowing the future, it’s the matter of God being sovereign over the future and determining what the future will be.

Okay, let’s look at a few of these verses, verse 19. “You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?’ On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God?” We have no right to challenge God, remember Job. He said, O, if only I could talk to God face to face, I would challenge Him on this. I would tell Him of my rights. Job says, I didn’t know what I was saying. I was being a fool. I repent! You tell me and I will learn. That’s the way we have to come to the word of God. I don’t have to understand all this fully, God, but I have to understand it as far as You have revealed it. I don’t have to solve God’s problems, if I can say that with respect. I mean, if He just stopped here, the answer to verse 19 being, “…who are you, O man, who answers back to God?” Period. That would be good enough, right? He’s God! I cannot call Him to a count. I can’t say, You owe me an explanation until You give me a satisfactory explanation. It will not be good enough. Well, we wouldn’t say it like that, but basically, that’s what we say.

That’s what this commentator said. Paul just made a mistake, got emotionally carried away, because that’s not the way I think that God would function. Well, when’s the last time he was in the presence of God? It’s humbling. That’s the biggest hurdle. That’s why we play down the issue of sin. Let’s not start out sharing the gospel by telling people they’re sinners. I don’t have a problem if we introduce it some way to make a point of contact. But if you don’t get to the issue of sin, you haven’t gotten to the gospel because what are they going to be saved from? What did Christ come and die for? Are we going to let them bring their pride to the cross? I’m coming as a pretty righteous person, but there are just some things that may be cobwebs and need to be cleaned up. But overall I’m pretty good and I’m here to trust Christ to sort of get a tune-up, to get completed. People don’t get saved that way. The problem is, and we recognize it, it’s humbling. You’re lost and on your way to hell.

Alright, what does he do? Look at Romans 9, verse 20. “The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this,’ will it?” We’re coming into the analogy of the potter and the clay. God is the Creator; we are the created. God can do with His creation as He chooses, as long as it’s consistent with His character. Now be careful. We say, well, it wouldn’t be consistent with God’s character to love one and hate the other. Now wait a minute. You know, bad theology catches up to you. That’s where, if we’ve got a weakness or error in our theology back here, then it grows as we move further along with our theology. Because we’ve already preconditioned ourselves for a wrong answer. He created us, and He did not create us sinful, but now what He is working with, that’s the thing. The thing molded, the thing He is molding, won’t say to Me… The clay doesn’t answer back. God can do with the clay what He wills.

Verse 21, “Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make…” and you may have this underlined from previous studies we’ve done, “…from the same lump…” You ought to mark that. It’s key in understanding this. I have a chart for when we get to the end that pictures this. “…from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common (dishonorable) use?” Now that’s an analogy drawn from the Old Testament, repeatedly.

Come back to Isaiah 29. Remember these chapters in Romans, 9, 10, and 11 particularly, but the prior chapters as well, presume a working knowledge of the Old Testament even though the church of Rome would have been a Gentile church. That doesn’t mean there weren’t Jews who had been saved, but it’s primarily a Gentile church. We’re going to Isaiah 29 and look at verse 15. “Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the Lord, and whose deeds are done in a dark place, and they say, ‘Who sees us?’ or ‘Who knows us?’” Man acts and thinks that what he’s doing is totally secret. Verse 16, “You turn things around! Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay, that what is made would say to its maker, ‘He did not make me’; or what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding’?”

You think you are in control because you have secretly worked this out? How foolish can you be? The foolishness of man goes on. He thinks he’s in charge; he makes it happen. Men fight for power and they’re sure that they’re in charge. They can persist in rebellion against God but they cannot defeat God. They cannot alter or change God and His plan. So that picture of the potter and the clay… And again, it’s humbling. Who decides what will be made here? Not the clay! The potter molds the clay. Well, did the clay give him some ideas? No. The potter decided, and he may have used certain kinds of clay for certain things, but he’s sovereign over the clay.

Come over to Isaiah 45, and here God is dealing with earthly nations. We talked about this in a recent study. In chapter 44 verse 28, God says, “‘It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd!’” You know, Cyrus won’t even be born for over 150 years, But God says he will come on the scene long after Isaiah and his contemporaries are gone. Do you know what his name is going to be? Not even his nationality, his name? Who’s in charge here? Chapter 45 opens up, “Thus says the Lord to Cyrus His anointed…” We have to work through the Assyrians and the Babylonians and then get to the Persians and then we’ll have Cyrus. Empires will come and go, but God is already telling you, down to the individual person and even his name, and He’s talking about how this fits His plan for Israel. All this is going on, we won’t repeat all that we have looked at before, but I encourage you to read through these chapters where God emphasizes His sovereignty here.

Come down to verse 9. “Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker…” You have in the margin of your Bibles, his Fashioner. “An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’” Or act like the potter has no hands? He’s not really the one doing it. I mean, it is so absolutely stupid! That’s the way it’s dealt with. What do you say here? It’s like you’re talking to a two-year-old, spiritually. The sovereignty of God has to be the foundational assumption. An extensive dictionary, the most extensive on the Greek words and the New Testament, runs volumes, and would be comparable to the Oxford dictionary of the English language, this is Kittel’s dictionary. But the word Lord is used as a title for God because any concept of God has to involve sovereignty. Otherwise, the word God is an empty, meaningless word. The very word God implies He’s Lord, He’s sovereign. He rules over all, and it’s just basic. Yet people come to the idea that they’re in charge, and if you say God is in charge and He’s sovereign over all the details, well….

Come to chapter 64 of Isaiah. You can see why Paul brings this up and assumes a knowledge of the Old Testament, and a belief in the Old Testament, so that he’s not bringing in new revelation in the sense this is totally altering everything we’ve had before. No, this ought to be foundational to understanding what I’m telling you. Isaiah 64, look at verse 8, and this is in the context, verse 6. Let’s talk about this lump of clay in a moment, but look at verse 6 in the context, “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all of our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” “…all of us”… keep in mind, that’s the lump of clay that God’s dealing with. That’s why we are dealt with in mercy. We’re already condemned. Verse 8, “But now, O Lord, You are our Father, we are the clay, and You our potter; and all of us are the work of Your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, O Lord, nor remember iniquity forever.” Look on us as Your people, Israel. We’re crying out for mercy. It’s the only claim that we can come with. But God is a merciful God, like we were talking about in Psalms earlier. When we lose our perspective on our trophies of God’s grace for eternity, as Ephesians tells us… When I’ve been in heaven for trillion years, serving in the presence of the eternal God, I’ll be a trophy of His grace. That won’t be forgotten. I’m there because of grace, grace, mercy, that’s what He’s about.

Probably the basic passage that people think of when we think of the potter and the clay is Jeremiah, just after Isaiah. Jeremiah 18. This commentator I read to you from, references Jeremiah 18 as the background for what Paul is saying. I guess he thought it was a poor analogy in Jeremiah, too. He doesn’t elaborate on Jeremiah. Verse 1, “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, ‘Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I shall announce My words to you.’ Then I went down to the potter’s house…” The potter’s house was where they made pottery, where they would be working on the wheel and that’s where he’s going. “…and there he was, making something on the wheel.” And we’ve seen that, we’re not as involved as they would have been in biblical times, but we’ve all seen it. You’ve seen it on television programs and some of you visit places and they’ll show you how they’re making a pot. They’ll put it on and it spins and they mold it with their hands, and what they can do, and it’s amazing what comes out of that lump of clay, something useful.

“But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, (note this) as it pleased the potter to make.” You see now, he’s doing with the clay what he decides to do. “Then the word of the Lord came to me saying…” Here’s where we get to the problem. “‘Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?’ declares the Lord. ‘Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.’” And then he goes on. “At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it…” If that nation repents, then I show it mercy. “…I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or plant it; if it does evil…” I speak to tear it down, and on it goes. Where he’s coming to is to show Israel, you don’t deserve mercy. But, He offers it. It’s in Isaiah in the context, we didn’t read the broader context, but you can go back and read it in the context like Isaiah 64. God goes on to say to Israel, turn back! Turn back! They won’t. Even the call to mercy is rejected.

Come back to Romans chapter 9 now, and let’s see what we’re saying here. The potter doesn’t have to ask the clay, what should I do? The potter has power and authority over the clay. We come back to this word in verse 21. “Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump…” What is the lump of clay? A vessel for honorable use and another for common use? Where did we start in Romans? “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23. That’s our condition. “There is none righteous, not even one...” Now God has a lump of clay. It’s sinful humanity that He is dealing with. That’s all there has been since Genesis chapter 3. He’s dealing with the lump of fallen humanity. Now what is He obligated to do with that lump? Well, He created the angels, and as Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 talk about Lucifer, he was perfect in the day he was created until iniquity was found in him. Now what is God’s obligation as God? He is righteous, He is holy. He exercises justice. He must punish sin. Okay. So He punished the angels who sinned, and condemned them to an eternal hell. We’ve talked about this, we keep bringing it up, Hebrews 2. Did in mercy He choose to provide salvation for those fallen angels who sinned? No. Was He unfair, unrighteous? No. He has power to do what is consistent with His character, all that righteousness, justice required. He used those, piling words up. It is a fit punishment, an eternal hell. You can’t deserve mercy. So if we keep in mind the lump He’s dealing with is fallen humanity; that’s every person, from our original parents Adam and Eve, Genesis 3. They sinned, and then that was passed on. That’s where Romans 5 was.

Part of the problem we have, when we come to dealing with God’s absolute sovereignty even over the eternal destiny, is we let go of the opening chapters or we didn’t do our diligence in our study of them, to have a clear understanding of the doctrine of sin. That’s why Paul so stressed it. We have demonstrated that all are under sin, every Jew, every Gentile. Then we get to Romans 8 and, that’s not fair. I mean, God has to love everyone in the same way. Why? God has to show mercy to everyone the same way. Why? We don’t deserve it, and this is where we as Christians begin to get soggy in our theology if we’re not careful, because somehow we begin to think what? Are we more righteous than people who aren’t saved? I was more deserving of salvation?

The Arminian view is that God shed prevenient grace as a result of the death of Christ; He gave enough grace to everyone that they could be saved if they wanted to. And so, those who exercise their will… What are you saying? They obviously weren’t as depraved as those who didn’t? If you get dependent on the individual and you choose to believe and the other didn’t, you obviously were making better choices, and there was something you had. If you have the same grace as everyone had, then those who respond positively did it out of being a better person? The whole point comes down to this. No! God is free now. I’m dealing with sinful humanity. I could make a vessel for dishonorable use, and ultimately, worthless. I can make a chamber pot or I can make a valuable vessel. I can do what I want. It’s the clay. The value is not in the clay. The value will come in what the maker decides to do with the clay. He can take that same lump of clay, one vessel for honorable use and another for common use.

Verse 22, “What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?” This is where we get the two kinds of vessels from the same lump, verse 21, “…one vessel for honorable use, and another for common use...” Verse 22, “vessels of wrath”, “vessels of mercy”, verse 23. So, He can take that same lump of clay, sinful humanity, and shape it to be a vessel of wrath fit for destruction. It will be destroyed. I made it for that. It’s for a use that is only good for destruction. “And He did so in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called…” You see, he takes us back again to the sovereignty of God, and the process. We don’t get credit. He called us, to do with us what He chose to do in making us. “…which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.”

It’s going to be the same for Jews and Gentiles alike because it’s the same lump of clay, sinful humanity. Now, the Creator who created the clay to begin with, but Adam rebelled. We had to deal with that in Romans 5. That brought the Fall upon all humanity, so God, from Adam on, is working with a lump of sinful clay. Can I make anything good out of that? Well, I want to manifest My glory, magnify My mercy, make My grace evident through eternity. I’m going to take that worthless lump of clay and out of it I’m going to make a vessel of honor. Well, that’s just a testimony of My grace. I’ve put up with the other vessels. They are what they are from the beginning—sinful, hell-deserving. We want to be careful, I don’t want to become hardened in this, in an unbiblical way. God, in grace, has provided a Savior for all. But the reality, I know in my theology, only those, some I’ve been praying for, some I’ve shared the gospel with, even this past week, but I know God, my prayer was that as I went to church, they’re in Your hands. Only You can touch that heart.

That doesn’t absolve me from my responsibility, we’ll talk about this in chapter 10. Jesus says, go into all the world and all the nations, and make disciples. What did Paul do everywhere he went? He presented the gospel. “For I endure all things for the sake of the elect that they might come to salvation.” Ultimately, but unless God touches that heart, it’s not going to change. Well then, they’re not responsible. No! They’re making the choice they want to make. They’re taking the choice that they decide to make. That’s the point. We’re accountable for our decisions. We’re wrestling with this with the country. We’ve raised people to think you’re not accountable, you’re not responsible. Somebody else is to blame. When people think of that, I’m not accountable, but we are accountable! Ultimately, to God. When we set that aside, and think, I’m accountable to no one, and we can sing, “I Did It My Way,” that’s the broad way to an eternal hell that leads to destruction.

So, that’s what he’s talking about here. Verse 22, “What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath (they are vessels of wrath) and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?” It was never God’s intention to save Pharaoh. He didn’t make Pharaoh sinful, but nor did He decide to change Pharaoh’s heart and make him a vessel of mercy. He let Pharaoh be where Pharaoh wanted to be, just like we started in Romans 1. People don’t want God.

Let’s put up that first chart that I think reflects a little bit of what we’re saying here, then we’ll have a little bit of further explanation. This is a chart that I start out scratching for myself, and then ended up with a chart that I think will maybe help you. This helps me think about it. There’s the Potter, who is God. There’s the clay, they’re sinners. That becomes key here. Some would make the clay innocent human beings, but we don’t start in Romans 9, we start in Romans 1, and Romans 2, and Romans 3. There is no such thing as an innocent human being. We saw that in Romans 5 when we have Adam as our father. We touched on that, just read it in Psalm 51, verse 5, in our earlier study today when David said, “…and in sin my mother conceived me.” That doesn’t mean that the sexual act of conception is sin, it means that when conception takes place, sin is passed along. That’s the point of Romans 5. So, the clay represents sinners, sinful humanity. Then the split. What is the Potter going to do with the clay? Well, He’s going to make vessels of wrath, dishonor, destruction, and He’s going to make vessels of mercy, honor, glory. Well, why should I be a vessel of mercy and someone else be a vessel of wrath? I have no answer to that. No one does. Because you know why? God doesn’t give us the answer. Except, come back to Ephesians. We looked at this.

Come to Ephesians 1. The Scripture is consistent, but the challenge comes for us to bring our thinking, theologically, in consistency with the Scripture. Verse 3 says, God “…has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ...” How do we come to that? Well, He made us a vessel of honor. He “…chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.” That comes about by what? Being brought into a relationship, a saving relationship, with Christ and His work. “In love He predestined us to adoption as sons…according to the kind intention of His will…” I think there again you have where the translators may have wanted to soften it. Good pleasure, the good pleasure of His will. You have that in your margin, literally, good pleasure. “…to the praise of the glory of His grace…” That’s what we have in Romans 9, “He endured with much patience vessels of wrath…” What? So He could show mercy to the vessels of mercy. “In Him we have redemption…the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace…”

Let me take this back, where does it go to? His good pleasure. God is the Potter, and this is what He decided to do. In grace, He didn’t condemn the whole lump and make it all vessels of dishonor. So, it’s grace, which He lavished on us. And verse 9, “He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, the summing up of all things in Christ…” Verse 11, “…also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of…” Our wills? No! “…His will…” This is the sovereignty of God. I either bow before it or I continue to fight against it. Those are the only two options. There’s no other way to God.

Well, maybe God realized I have some say in this. I have a will. I’m free to make my decisions. Well, you are free in the sense you’re accountable, but you’re a slave to your sin. “There is none who does good, there is not even one.” They’ve all turned aside, they’ve all gone their own way. We’re back to Romans 3, which is quoting from the Old Testament. It’s humbling, and it ought to remain humbling for us. This is why this morning I was examining Psalm 41. It was about what? Mercy. Mercy, because when God’s people began to lose that perspective, you see what happened to Israel. We have it as a right. We are that nation that belongs to God, and they become offensive to God and self-righteous. And believers can drift that way if we’re not careful. I can lose sight of that I’m a trophy of grace, and in a hundred million years, I’ll be the same thing—a trophy of grace. Everything about my life is a testimony to grace. As Paul said, by the grace of God I am what I am. This ought to be theology 101AA! This is the beginning point. God is sovereign, I am not. I am O man, He is God. That’s the whole point.

So, this is as far back as we can go. God, in the counsel of Himself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Well, try to think what God would be thinking if He did that. Why would He do that that way? Now, if I could only elevate myself to God. You know, there are things God hasn’t revealed. In a hundred trillion years, you understand, you won’t know everything God knows. I won’t either! Because He’s infinite, we will always be finite. He will always be the Creator God, we will always be the created man. That won’t change. Well, I know I’ve got a lot to learn, but I think a hundred million years, even a slow learner like me will have a pretty good grasp of things. You may have, but there will still be an infinite number of things you don’t know because God is infinite. I can’t even get my arms around that because I have a finite mind. Everything has a beginning and an end.

While you’re in Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” This sovereignty of God over it all is a most comforting, encouraging doctrine. It’s what enables us to come in prayer and say, God, I don’t understand. I don’t know. But You do, and I trust You, and I am doing what You’ve instructed me to do, and I leave the outcome in Your hands. That’s where it is. Well, I prayed for my kids, my grandkids, my great-grandkids, but I don’t have control. I trust God is doing what He and He alone has determined is right and consistent with His will. They’re in His hands. It will be good. It is right. That’s where I would want it to be. I hate to think that their eternal destiny rests in their sinful hands. There’d be no hope for any of us.

Come back to Romans 9, I think we have worked down through verses 22, 23, and 24, but we’re not done. So he’s going to further explain this and we won’t be done because the real thing here is Israel, and how Israel fits, but you understand the sovereignty of God. That’s back where we read the Old Testament prophecy. God’s sovereignty assures that Israel will come out at exactly the place that God promised and even the sinful rebellion doesn’t frustrate God’s plan, because He has made the nation Israel to be a vessel of honor among the nations in that sense of the earth. They stand out. His sovereignty applies to the nation as well to the individual. We saw that with Jacob and Esau. Individuals, but nations come out of that. They’re heirs, same with Abraham being chosen of God. But the nation Israel, his physical descendants in the line of the faith of Abraham, are a chosen nation. Thus, a vessel of mercy for honor, even in this time when they are under the judgement of God. As unbelieving, experiencing the judgement of God and the consequences of that, but it can’t frustrate the eternal plan of God.

That’s our eternal security as well as believers. This doesn’t disappoint me, and doesn’t disappoint Paul. It doesn’t make me want to share the gospel less, it makes me want to share it more. Paul says my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is their salvation, and he understands God’s plan, God’s working. So, don’t give up on people. We all rejected the gospel along the way. So, just because someone rejected it and may reject it for some time, doesn’t mean God won’t intervene in His time. It’s not like, well, if I don’t get them here, then they’ll be too hardened to be saved. We’re all too hardened to be saved, except for the mercy of God, and that mercy that brings God’s power to impact a life, that all comes to hardened hearts and that’s why Paul says, I’m an example. I was the chief of sinners. I was as bad as you could get and God what? Crashed into my life with His power and saved me. That’s why we don’t give up. I shared the gospel with them a hundred times, I know they won’t get saved, it’s been years. Well, who knows what God’s going to do? Maybe He just wants to testify to how great His grace is by letting how hard their heart is become as manifested as it could be. That’s what He’s going to do with the nation Israel. It’s been thousands of years of rebellion and you know what? In the end, God wins, which means His eternal purpose is accomplished.

Let’s pray together. Thank You, Lord, for Your grace, riches of grace, lavishness of mercy, words that we pile up and sometimes forget the true significance. We gather to worship You as trophies of grace, vessels of mercy, testifying that You are a God of love, God of kindness, a God of patience. Lord, these are days of salvation and still the opportunity is there for men, women, and young people to turn from their sin, their stubbornness, their hardened hearts, and place their faith in Christ. Lord, every time someone hears that message of the gospel is an opportunity and our desire is the Spirit might touch their hearts in a way that will cause them to see and believe the truth that is shared. Bless us in the week before us, Lord. May we live as Your children in all we do. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.