God’s Authority Over Humanity

Transcript

GR 1451
11/24/10
God's Right and Authority over Humanity
Romans 9:19-23
Gil Rugh

This morning we're in Romans 9. We're talking about the sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God, the subject of the total absolute sovereignty of God is one of the more difficult subjects we grapple with, as we study the word of God. It's a subject that causes a lot of confusion and a lot of tension among people. The reason being we are jealous for our own sovereignty. It's a difficult area for us to consider that we must be humbled before the God who is the creator of all, who is the ruler of all, who is the One who is working His will in the world today. We like to think that we are independent beings, we are in charge of ourselves, our lives, our destiny. As we make reference too often, we like the son, I Did It My Way. We admire the person who makes something of himself, the successful person, the person who came from nothing to be someone. Now we come and talk about a God who says He is sovereign over all, and He does with us what He pleases. More than that, He's going to say we are just like a lump of clay, and He's the potter, and He molds and shapes us to do what pleases Him. And it's not by our decisions primarily that things happen, but by His decision.

How do we get into this? Well Paul is unfolding the gospel, the good news that God has revealed about Jesus Christ. He started talking about sin and condemnation, then talked about righteousness provided by God in justification, and then sanctification, how we live as God's people. But there is a question, what about Israel? God made solemn, clear, firm promises to the nation Israel, but even at this early stage with the establishing of the church, and now Paul is writing to the church that is in existence in Rome, it's primarily Gentiles who are experiencing salvation, who are responding to the message of the gospel. What about Israel? What about the promises of God to the nation Israel? Paul has been demonstrating in Romans 9 is that in His sovereign purposes God never promised, nor had He ever planned that every single physical descendant of Abraham would experience the wonder of His salvation. He had made sovereign choices. He chose Abraham. Then He chose one of the sons of Abraham, Isaac through whom the promised blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant would come. Abraham had a son, an older son, Ishmael. God did not choose Ishmael to receive the covenantal blessings that He had promised Abraham, but Isaac. Furthermore, Isaac had two sons, twins, and God chose the younger twin over the older twin, Jacob over Esau. Demonstrating what? God makes sovereign choices. So that Jew and Gentile alike would understand that God never promised all the covenant blessings that He gave to Abraham to every single physical descendant of Abraham. God is sovereign and He had made choices.

In Romans 9, that brought us down to verse 13 where Paul quotes from the Old Testament book of Malachi where God says, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” We read that and all of a sudden we stop short. God speaking and saying, I loved one of the children and I hated the other? That raises questions. So what happens in verse 14, and will carry us down through verse 23, is Paul digresses a little bit to talk about the matter of the sovereignty of God. And he goes broader than just the issue of His choices within the framework of the nation Israel. But demonstrating how God sovereignly acts in all that He does, how God sovereignly acts in the salvation of all men. Then he'll come back in verses 24 and following, and we'll focus more specifically again on Israel's situation, which is the overriding subject of Romans 9-11 – God's sovereignty in dealing primarily with the nation Israel.

Certain things we have to keep in mind, and we keep reviewing. We don't want to forget where we have been in the book of Romans. We are picking up in what we have as chapter 9 of the book of Romans. You know what that means. There are eight chapters preceding this. We don't want to forget what Paul has taught us to this point. He started out by demonstrating that each and every person is a guilty sinner, under the condemnation of a holy God. That includes all the Jews, that includes all the Gentiles. There are no exceptions. “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” he said in chapter 3. Now that's a background. He moved from there to talk about the righteousness provided in Christ and then the provision for holy living. But when we pick up on chapter 9 we're just not starting the first chapter of a book or a letter. So he's taking into account what he has said to this point. Keep that in mind.

Also keep in mind that we don't have to understand everything about God and His ways. We are responsible to understand what He has revealed in His word, what He has given to us. But I cannot resolve every issue, and I never will be able to. I am a finite being, God is infinite. Through all eternity we will be learning more and more and more of the living God. We will never exhaust the knowledge of God because we will always be finite beings and He is the infinite God. So, the fact that even when we are done studying the sovereignty of God in these chapters, we won't walk away and say, “Now I understand it all, the details fit together and it is simple.” We will understand, hopefully, as much as God has revealed. So Deuteronomy 29:29 will again be called upon. The secret things belong to God and the revealed things are for our knowledge and understanding.

What about the statement, Romans 9:13, “Jacob I love, but Esau I hated”? That raises a question. “What shall we say then? [Verse 14] There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!” And we looked at verses 14-18. There is no injustice with God because God is free to have mercy on those that He chose to have mercy on, He is free to harden and show His wrath against people He doesn't show mercy to. We say, “How can that be?” Remember the background. We are not dealing with innocent, neutral human beings. We are dealing with a humanity that is corrupted and infected by sin, both by birth and by choice. So in God's dealing with sinful beings, He is sovereign. He can choose to show mercy, He can choose to withhold mercy. Mercy, by definition, is something you cannot earn or deserve or merit. Just like grace is something undeserved, unearned, unmerited.

So God says that He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and He will have compassion on whom He has compassion. Verse 15, we quoted from the book of Exodus, where God had to deal with Pharaoh. So verse 16 said, “It does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.” When we first think about that we say, why try? But isn't that what we tell people about salvation? A person says, “I'm a good person, I'm trying to be a good worker, a good parent, a good husband. I go to church, I've been baptized, I give money.” We say, “Wait a minute, you can't earn your way to heaven, you can't be saved by your works.” That's all verse 16 is saying. “It does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.” Apart from the mercy of God you cannot gain salvation. There is nothing you can do to acquire it in your own effort and energy.

God raised up Pharaoh, the next example, verse 17, that we looked at. What did he say? “I raised you up so I could demonstrate My power in you.” Keep that in mind, we're going to come to that again in a moment. So then He has mercy on whom He desires and He hardens whom He desires. Basically saying the same thing, “Jacob I have loved, and Esau I have hated.” To be loved of God is to experience the mercy of God; to be hardened of God is to be under the wrath of God. We'll talk more about this in a moment. God makes the sovereign choice. He chose to have mercy on Moses, He chose to harden Pharaoh.

Well that raises another question and that brings us to verse 19: “You will say to me then, why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” If God is sovereign and it doesn't depend on what we do, but what He does, and He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires, and even raised Pharaoh up to accomplish His work, and even in his rebellion Pharaoh was accomplishing what God planned for him to accomplish, why does He find fault with me? It's not my fault, He planned it. His will is always done, isn't it? Then why are you finding fault with me? I'm not to blame. God had a plan, I'm living out His plan. It's not my responsibility, is it?

So the question is natural, verse 19: “You will say to me then, [someone who would oppose this] Why does He still find fault?” Why is God finding fault with me? It's His plan, He is sovereign. Even Pharaoh's rebellion was part of His plan. What could poor Pharaoh do? Who resists His will? His will is being accomplished in every detail of life and every situation. So who resists His will?

Well now we finally get the question I want answered, so let's get the answer (v. 20). “On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God?” Oh, that's a big help. What? You don't have any right to challenge God. That's the answer. It's not the answer I want. Well now we're back to who is in charge. I want to say to God, “If this is the way You are working, quit finding fault with me. It's not my responsibility, it's Yours. Don't blame me.”

Now what's the answer to that? You are man and He is God, and you don't have any right to challenge God. That's not what we like to hear because I think I deserve answers. On the contrary, [note the contrast here] who are you, O man, who answers back to God?” The contrast here, between man and God, man and God, man and God. It's difficult, it roots in arrogance, pride. I mean, it gets to the root of everything. What did Satan do when he rebelled? I will be like God, I will be like the Most High. We think God has to answer to us and give us answers that are acceptable to us. Rather, God just tells us the way it is and we had better submit and respond properly.

“Who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, 'Why did you make me like this,' Will it?” So what he's going to do is give an illustration that causes its own problem to some people. The problem will be a potter and the clay. So he says at the end of verse 20, “The thing molded will not say to the molder.” So here you have a potter making a piece of clay, making a pot. The pot doesn't say to the potter, “Why did you make me like this?”

Verse 21: “Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?” There is the example, and in it, it is humbling. You know, the very difficult thing about the salvation of God and becoming a recipient of that salvation is, it's a very humbling process. We are not negotiating with God as equals here. I am humbled if I am going to receive God's salvation, to be told I am a sinner, I am already justly condemned. I am an object of His wrath and I am on my way to an eternal hell. Now God offers His salvation and His mercy, but it's a humbling thing. That's why Jesus said, “It is harder for a rich man to enter into heaven than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle,” (Matthew 19:24) because the more we have, the more successful we are, the more powerful we are, the more arrogant we become, the more self-sufficient, the more difficulty, the more problem we have with humbling ourselves, even before God.

“Does not the potter have a right over the clay?” Let me read you what one commentator wrote on this in his commentary on Romans. The commentator is William Barclay, who wrote commentaries on just about all the book of the New Testament, I believe. He was one of the foremost authorities on the Greek New Testament during his life. He has been dead for about thirty years or so. And what does he say about this analogy of the potter and the clay? “It is a bad analogy. One great New Testament commentator has said this is one of the very few passages 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, and a lump of clay is a thing. Maybe you can do what you like with a thing, but you cannot do what you like with a person. Clay does not desire to answer back, does not desire to question, cannot think and feel, cannot be bewildered and tortured. If someone has inexplicably suffered some tremendous sorrow, it will not help much to tell him he has no right to complain because God can do what He likes. That is the mark of a tyrant and not of a loving Father. It is the 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. His argument is not good. It is one thing to say God used an evil situation to bring good out of it, it is quite another to say He created it to produce good in the end.”

That one statement, “Maybe you can do what you like with a thing, but you cannot do what you like with a person.” We ought to be very careful telling God what He can do and what He cannot do. I take it that's the very argument of Romans 9, the right and authority of God. Now for William Barclay, he tended to handle scripture that way. When he gets to a portion that he doesn't like, he acts as though he were God. He just writes it off and says, “I don't believe it, it's not good, it should never have been written like that.” That would be all right if he is God, but he is not. He has forgotten who is God.

“Does not the potter have a right?” That word right, akousia, means to have authority, to have power. He has the authority, it is His right. He has the power over the clay as the potter. Did you ever see a potter there sitting and working the clay on the wheel, talking to the clay? Maybe you have, but he's not waiting for the clay to respond and tell him something. He maybe saying to the clay, I'm going to mold this like this, I'm going to shape it like this. I'm going to make a beautiful flower pot. Then I'm going to make, we don't have them today, a chamber pot or a spittoon, or things like that. Just make all kinds of things. It's a lump of clay, I can take this lump and break off a piece here and make something beautiful, desirable. I'll break off a piece of that same lump and I'll shape it and make it for common, dishonorable use. That's the potter's right over the clay. This is not even a new analogy.

To say Paul got it wrong here, is to say the prophets got it wrong also. Come back to Isaiah 29. We're just going to look at several passages. In fact, it's not even clear which of these passages Paul had in mind when he wrote what he said in Romans 9, because there are several passages that use the same analogy. In Isaiah 29:15: “Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the Lord, whose deeds are done in a dark place and they say, 'Who sees us or knows us?' People think they can do things in secret. You turn things around. Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay, like the clay, that what is made would say to the maker, you did not make me. Or what is formed say to him who formed it? He has no understanding. You who think you can keep something from the Lord, you do something in secret, you hide it. How silly are you? You are the clay, He is the potter. He knows everything, He is in control of all. Same picture.

Come over to Isaiah 45. This is a series of chapters here in Isaiah demonstrating the absolute supremacy of God. Verse 6: “I am the Lord, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these [things].” Verse 9: “Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker--an earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, 'What are you doing?' Or the thing you are making say, 'He has no hands'?” I mean, let's put this in perspective, He is God and we are not. And “Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker.” You are a lump of clay in His hands, and you don't challenge Him.

Go over to Isaiah 64. These chapters, if we read the broader context, are in the sovereignty of God and the dealing with sinful people, and so on. Verse 6: “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all 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.” You see the sin of man, and it includes all of us, all of us, all, all--we are a sinful people. 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.” You see, here is the sovereign God dealing with sinful people according to His purposes.

One other prophet, Jeremiah 18:1, this is the most extensive portion in this analogy. “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, 'Arise and go down to the potter's house, [go down where the potter works, making the clay pots] and there I will announce My words to you.' [Verse 3] Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make. [The application, verse 5] Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, '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 hands, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy,'” and so on. You see His sovereignty as the potter over the clay.

So when a person rejects what Paul says in Romans 9, and says that is just a bad analogy, we wish he had never used it, then you have to go back and say, it's a bad analogy the prophet used. The people refuse to submit themselves to the authority of God and His word and displayed in this attitude.

Come back to Romans 9. So to the question, verse 21: “Does not the potter have a right [the authority] over the clay to make [I want you to underline or highlight this] from the same lump” of clay, so we don't have different lumps here, we have one lump of clay. The potter is going to break off a piece of this lump and make one kind of vessel and then the other piece of that same lump he's going to make another vessel. He makes “one vessel for honorable use and another for common use.” Same lump of clay. The honorable use, the dishonorable use. Down at the end of verse 22, you could underline “vessels of wrath”; the middle of verse 23, “vessels of mercy.” So if you have one lump, the same lump, you could make one for honorable use and one for common use; one is a vessel of wrath, one is a vessel of mercy. Key here is “the same lump.” The difference is not in the lump of clay, the difference is in the sovereign will and purpose of the potter. We have the same lump. These are not different kinds of clay, good quality clay and bad quality clay, clay that is especially good for making fine pottery, and clay that is not as good and so is used for poor quality pottery. No. This is the same lump of clay. What is the lump of clay? The lump of clay is not humanity, period. The lump of clay is sinful humanity, the only kind of humanity there is. Remember, we started in Romans 1 where in verse 18, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” Went on, over the rest of chapter 1, through chapter 2, and down through the first 20 verses of chapter 3 demonstrating, “there is none righteous, there is none who does good. All have sinned, all have turned aside.” They are all under the wrath of God.

So the lump of clay is sinful humanity. Now, I say that because some people get worked up here, and think these are poor, innocent human beings. There are no such human beings. We have already been pronounced guilty by God, under His condemnation, the object of His wrath. Now from this lump of sinful humanity God exercises His sovereignty to do as He pleases. In our previous study, we looked at the fact that God is not obligated to provide or save sinful beings. We used the example of the angels who sinned, we went back to Hebrews 2. And there we were told that God never provided the opportunity for angels who sinned to be saved. He didn't. There's no salvation for angels who sinned. What is God obligated to do with sinful beings? Deal with them justly. That's true to His character, He is a righteous God. “Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?” is the question of Abraham as he bowed before God. Not challenging God, but acknowledging God would always act according to consistency with His character. Of course, what does He have to do with sinful beings? Bring them to a just punishment. Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels, Jesus said in Matthew 25 (v. 41). He is not obligated to save them, that would be mercy. He chose not to show mercy to fallen angels.

All right we have the lump of clay, sinful human beings. What is God obligated to do? Act according to His just and righteous character. That means if He sentences every single human being to an eternal hell, we'd say He is a just God, He is a fair God, He has dealt with us according to what justice requires. No problem. No problem regarding the character or action of God. A real problem for us, God has chosen to show mercy and grace, and make some vessels vessels of honor. The problem is, how can you do that? How can He make one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? If justice requires condemnation, then we all ought to be condemned, just like every angel who sinned ought to be condemned, and was.

Come back to Romans 3, God explaining how He could do it. Remember? We have moved from showing that every single person is a sinner under condemnation, and thus doomed to an eternal hell. Now with Romans 3:21, he begins to explain through the rest of chapter 3 through chapters 4-5 how God provided righteousness and a way of salvation. It's not through keeping the Mosaic Law, because we couldn't do that, we are already condemned. It can't be by works, we're already guilty. I mean, if I murdered thirty people and did a lot of other crimes, and then say I'm going to be good from here on, even if I could be good from here on, I couldn't resolve the fact that I'm already guilty. It's too late.

So now, “Apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, [verse 22], even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified [there is our word, it means to declare righteous] as a gift by His grace [that is multiplying terms, remember, it's a gift, it's by His grace, it's something unearned, undeserved] through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation [a satisfaction] in His blood through faith.” In other words, Christ died on the cross to satisfy what the righteousness of God required. “The wages of sin is death.” God provided One who satisfied the demands of His righteousness, so that those who believe in Him could be declared righteous, because the penalty that Christ paid is credited to their account when they believe in Him.

So verse 26: “For the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, [this work of God in providing Christ to die to demonstrate His righteousness] so that He would be just, [God would be just] and the justifier of [God would be both righteous and the One who can declare righteous] the one who has faith in Jesus.”

So the issue to be grappled with is not, how can God hate some, pour out His wrath on some and send them to an eternal hell. That's clear. The question that has to be resolved is, how can God save anyone and still be a righteous God? He provided His Son. So then, why doesn't He save everyone? Because it is not His purpose. What else can I say? I'm not God. He's the potter, I'm not; He's the potter, you're not. We think we can come up with another alternative, or a question that boxes God in.

That's why when we come back to Romans 9:19, that question, “You will say to me then, 'Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” That question is put in a way of challenging God. We can ask questions of God, and we find many people through the scripture that do, and God graciously answers. We cannot challenge God. I cannot think that I can come before God and we are two equals now, and He has to answer my questions. No, no. He is God, He is the potter and I am the clay. He doesn't have to give me an explanation, He doesn't have to respond to me. He has to act consistently with His character, because He always does. He is the God who cannot lie, for example. He is the God who is always righteous in all that He does, and so on. But He doesn't owe man answers. He graciously has revealed Himself and made things known.

So verse 21: “Does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump [of sinful humanity] one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, [God willing to pour out His wrath now, He could do it, and destroy sinners, but He] endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?” I want you to note here some of these vessels, sinful human beings, have been prepared by the Maker for ultimate destruction. Now, He didn't make them sinful. He didn't take those who wouldn't have gone to hell and made them vessels to go to hell. Remember the sinful humanity, that is the lump of clay. We are no different who have experienced God's saving grace in character. The difference is the mercy of God.

So if God, “willing to demonstrate His wrath to make His power known, [but] endured with much patience vessels of wrath,” that's back to verse 21, a vessel for common use, dishonor, made from part of that lump of clay. He was patient, but they're not going to respond, they won't respond. It's not God's fault they don't respond because they are sinful beings. Remember Jesus said to the people of His day when He walked this earth, “You will not come to Me that you may have life” (John 5:40). We fail to appreciate what the Bible says about the slavery of sin, the hold it has on the mind, the thinking, as well as the actions of people. They are vessels prepared for wrath, they are vessels of wrath, they are the objects of God's hatred. We noted in a previous study, when He said, “Esau I have hated,” that's saying the same thing as being under the wrath of God. Those who are the objects of God's hatred will experience God's wrath. That's not fair. Why? They are sinful beings. What do sinful beings deserve? The wrath of God. He is a holy God, of course He hates sinners. We looked at other verses that showed God declared His hatred of sinners. Vessels of wrath. They are prepared for destruction.

Back up to Romans 2. This is serious business. Churches become something light and entertaining and fun, and a failure to grasp the seriousness of God, His holiness, His majesty, that we are created beings, and even as the redeemed we come to bow in His presence with reverence and awe. Look at verse 4, “Do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” Every day you live is a day of God's grace and provision that you could believe in Him. Why haven't you? Sinful man doesn't. Verse 5: “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” What's happening? God is patient. Do you know what is happening with His patience? Every day adds more to the storehouse of God's wrath against the sinner who is unrepentant. Every day, storing up wrath. Well I'm thinking about it, I think I'll trust Christ later. Do you know what happens? There is a hardening, a hardening, a hardening. We've looked at this. A person who was interested two years ago today doesn't even have time to talk about it, for example. Storing up wrath.

Back up to John 3. We are familiar with John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Verse 18, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” Look down to verse 36, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life, he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” See the clarity of it?

Come over to Revelation 14. We see the ultimate realization of the wrath of God in an eternal hell. Revelation 14, talking about a special group out of the coming tribulation, they become worshipers of the beast, their fate will be the same as others who do not come to faith in Jesus Christ. And note what he says in verse 10, and you'll note the individual here, “he,” that's applying people individually. “He also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, [it's like a glass of wine and it's filled with God's wrath. And you drink of the wine of the wrath of God] which is mixed in full strength [not diluted at all with God's mercy, God's grace, God's compassion] in the cup of His anger; [Again we build this up with piling on. Now you understand how serious this is. It's the cup of the wind of God's wrath, it's mixed in full strength, it's in the cup of His anger. What does it mean?] he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” Serious issue. You see the wrath of God, they are storing up wrath, and the ultimate pouring out of that wrath will come at the Great White Throne, as it is unfolded in detail in Revelation 20, and people are sentenced to an eternal hell.

So you come back to Romans 9. And you'll note, he does not say God created them evil. He has taken fallen, sinful humanity, and in that lump of humanity He is breaking off part of it, making vessels for wrath. What if they want to get saved? Call upon the name of the Lord and you'll be saved. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him might not perish.” God commands “all people everywhere to repent, for He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness,” (Acts 17:30, 31) and so on. Do it. Why don't you? Well I'm not one of those vessels of mercy. Well, God says whosoever will call on Him will be saved, right? We talk about this repeatedly. “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). But you won't. So who is to blame? You are. Well, God didn't choose me. Believe on Him. You don't want to, you refuse to. As we read in Romans 2:5, God says it is “because of your stubborn, unrepentant heart that you are storing up wrath for yourself.” No one will ever blame God for their sin. He is not tempted by sin, and He never tempts anyone to sin. And no one will ever be able to find fault with God for dealing righteously with sinners. So He is free to deal with sinners according to His good pleasure.

Come back to Romans 9:23. He deals a certain way with the vessels of wrath and, “He did so [verse 23] to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory.” So God has taken the same lump of clay, sinful humanity, shaped some vessels for wrath, and some vessels for mercy. “Vessels of mercy,” they are not any different in character than the vessels of wrath.

Come over to Ephesians 2. The chapter opens up and we've come here a number of times in our study of Romans, “You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. [You know that all of us were in the same boat, children of the devil, doing the will of the devil.] Among them we all too formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, [now note this] and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. [We all came from the same lump of clay, sinful humanity. We were all by nature as sinful beings the objects of God's wrath. What's the difference?] But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, [now note this] so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Again, you have this piling up of emphases. “In the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches,” not just riches, but the overflowing riches of His grace. Not just grace, but grace shown in kindness toward us. The awesome thing is that God has provided salvation, and those who are the objects of His wrath can now become the subjects of His mercy, and experience His love in salvation. How amazing is that! People get hung up and say, “I can't believe He is going to send people to hell.” I can't believe He has made provision for people to be saved from hell! That's amazing!

That's why the Bible warns about the danger of not believing. In Hebrews 10, we are told God has provided His Son to be the Savior of the world. And when you refuse to believe in Him, Hebrews 10 says God looks at it as you trample underfoot the death of His Son, you treat it as an unclean, unholy, worthless thing to you, and you reject the Spirit that would bring God's grace to your life (v. 29). So all the responsibility for being lost is on us, all the credit for salvation is given to God. In Ephesians 2:7 we are told throughout the coming ages our salvation, our presence in the presence of God will be a display of the greatness of God's grace, and your being there will be an eternal reminder that God is a God of great grace. There is Gil, he was the object of God's wrath, he was by nature the child of wrath, he was serving the devil. Look at him, here he is in the presence of the God who is completely holy, completely righteous, and he is completely forgiven. He has been credited with the righteousness of Christ, he was delivered from a certain hell to spend eternity in a real heaven. God was gracious when He saved him. That's what will be. That's why we say God saved us so we could be trophies of His grace for all eternity. He is the sovereign God. The fact that anyone is saved is an evidence of God's grace. No one will be saved without the intervention of His grace. Do you know why? You don't want to be, I don't want to be, unless God intervenes. We're too busy, we have our own cares, we have our own thinking. “There is a way that seems right unto man; but the end thereof are the ways of death,” the Bible tells us (Proverbs 14:12). They did it their way.

But there is a way, a way of life. God, in grace, has provided salvation. Did He choose you? Did He determine that you would be shaped to be a vessel of mercy? I don't know everyone here, I don't know. I know He has been merciful and gracious in bringing you to hear the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Why would you reject that? Why would you not believe in Him? Makes no sense when you think of it, does it. God says, here is a free gift, eternal life, forgiveness of sins, you become My child for all eternity. It's free. No thanks. And we say it wouldn't be fair for God to send people to hell. What is He going to do with sinners? What would be right? The Judge of all the earth will be right (Genesis 18:25). Sinners will be sentenced to hell, God has sovereignly determined He will do what pleases Him with sinful beings. We claim His grace. You'll know if you place your faith in Christ, you'll understand then that it was the mercy and grace of God that reached down to you, opened your eyes, you understood and believed that Jesus Christ is the Savior. At that moment in time salvation comes, you are cleansed, you are forgiven, you are made new. But it's all part of the sovereign plan of God. That is our confidence, that's our security, that's how we are sure that everything is being carried out according to the purpose of the One who planned and designed, and sovereignly overrules it all.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, that You are a God of righteousness. There would be no hope in this world if that were not so. Lord, our confidence is You are the sovereign God, things are not out of control. Man is not doing his will, his way to accomplish his purposes with no higher overruling authority. You are sovereign and You are a God of great grace. You have brought us together today to hear your word. You have brought us together so we hear again Your grace in providing salvation in Your Son. How gracious You are to offer this salvation to all who will call upon You, to all who will believe in Him. How kind You are to give it freely without charge, to invite all, to command all to believe in Him. How sad it is that we are stubborn and hardened in our sin, and refuse to turn to You. But God, we are here as testimonies of Your grace. You have been merciful to us. We have come to believe in Your Son, not because we are better than others, we come from the same wretched lump of clay, but You are a God of mercy, and You have called us to Yourself. For that we give You praise. In Christ's name. Amen.