God's Sovereignty in the New Testament

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In Romans chapter 9, I'd like you to go to verse 21, and that's where I'm going to read in just a moment.
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But before I read, I'd like to give just a few preliminary comments about what we're going to look at.
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A.W.
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Pink was a tremendous theologian.
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I mentioned him earlier.
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He's written several books, and one of those books is entitled The Sovereignty of God, and in that book he says this, The sovereignty of God is an expression that once was generally understood.
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It was a phrase commonly used in religious literature.
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It was a theme frequently expounded in the pulpit.
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It was a truth which brought comfort to many hearts and gave virility and stability to Christian character.
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But today, to make mention of God's sovereignty is in many quarters to speak in an unknown tongue.
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Were we to announce from the average pulpit that the subject of our discourse would be the sovereignty of God, it would sound very much as though we had borrowed a phrase from one of the dead languages.
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Alas that it should be! Alas that the doctrine which is the key to history, the interpreter of providence, the warp and woof of scripture, and the foundation of Christian theology should be so neglected and so little understood.
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We've already heard two powerful messages today on the sovereignty of God, and as Brother Andy has said, and I will echo what he did say, I'm very thankful for the elders here and the men with whom I serve.
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We've heard about God's sovereign hand as it was expressed in the Old Testament.
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We have seen God's sovereign hand as it is expressed in the Psalms.
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And now we turn our attention to God's sovereignty in the New Testament to see how this subject is addressed.
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And I hope to show you that there is a uniformity and a continuation of this subject in the New Testament.
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It is not as if God stops being sovereign between Malachi and Matthew.
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You see, there are some who believe that God is different now.
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There are some who believe that God is different in the New Testament than He was in the Old Testament.
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Often this is regarded in the disposition of His goodness.
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They'll say, well, the God of the Old Testament was stern and vengeful, and the God of the New Testament is kind and compassionate.
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You ever heard someone say that? That's not true.
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In fact, it's so wrong because God is shown to be full of loving kindness in the Old Testament, and God is shown to be clearly wrathful in the New Testament.
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Romans chapter 1 tells us that the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
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It's constantly being revealed.
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Malachi 3.6 tells us, I the Lord do not change.
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God does not go from being angry and vengeful in the Old Testament to being good and nice in the New Testament.
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No, God is as He always has been.
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And God has always been sovereign.
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And that's another area that people think God has changed.
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They'll say, well, surely God was sovereign in the Old Testament.
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Surely God operated with a certain amount of hands-on-ness in the Old Testament.
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Surely He was working out His will in the Old Testament.
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But when we get to the New Testament, it's all about free will.
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It's all about what we do, and we're the governors.
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We're the masters of our fate.
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The best example of this is in the subject of divine election.
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Everyone can clearly read the Old Testament and see that God chooses people in the Old Testament.
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God chose Abram.
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Abram was an idolater.
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Abram lived in a family of idolaters.
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Abram had nothing within him that was worthy of being called, and yet God called him.
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God called Isaac, not Ishmael, not Eleazar of Damascus, Abram's adopted son, and none of the sons of Keturah, the later sons that came after the death of Sarah.
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God chose Jacob, and Jacob was a scoundrel.
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Among Jacob and Esau, he was the one willing to lie to his father and steal his brother's birthright.
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He was the one of whom we would say there was little virtue.
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So we can't say God chose him because he was better.
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But God chose him.
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And everybody's fine with that.
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Everybody's fine with God making a choice until we get to the New Testament and we say, put the brakes on, God don't do that no more.
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We get to the New Testament and the concept of sovereign election becomes hotly debated.
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Why? Because we don't want to be the objects of God's choice.
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We want to be the masters of our destiny.
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We don't want to submit to the sovereignty of God.
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We want God to submit to the sovereignty of me.
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My purpose today is to show that God has not set aside His sovereignty.
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He had His sovereignty clearly displayed in the Old Covenant, and He continues to clearly display it in the New.
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So, excuse me.
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I need a little water.
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Which one of these was mine? I promise to take a sip, brother.
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Andy pointed out to me earlier that often I open the water talk and forget to take a drink and just put it back.
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So I'll try to make sure I take a sip.
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I've chosen for my text Romans chapter 9, and if you have any familiarity at all with the history of the debate of God's sovereign election, then you know Romans 9 is right in the crosshairs of the argument.
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This is the text.
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This one chapter has been used to turn many men's minds regarding the subject of God's eternal purpose in His election because it expresses the sovereignty of God in clear terms that are so unmistakable that many people don't even study this chapter.
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If you go to many Baptist churches where they have a Sunday school curriculum, they want you to go through Romans 9, 10, and 11 in one 30-minute class.
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They want you to run through it as quickly as you can.
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They don't want you to stop and think about the severity and the reality of what this text says.
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They don't want to preach verse by verse.
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They don't even want to go chapter by chapter.
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They want you to dive over it so that it doesn't grab a hold of you.
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And it will.
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This text will grab you and hold on to you.
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The clarity of this text is unmistakable.
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The question I have for today, and the question of my message, is has the potter ride over the clay? And that's the text we're going to read, Romans chapter 9, verse 21.
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And it says here, Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? May God add his blessing to the reading and to the hearing of his word.
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May God write its eternal truths upon our heart.
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May God keep me from error as I preach.
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Amen.
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If time permitted, I would simply begin in Romans 9, chapter 1.
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Actually, I'd go back to Romans 8, verse 28.
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And I would begin at Romans 8, 28, and I would carry you down.
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And I would show you the argument that the Apostle Paul is making that begins all the way back in Romans chapter 8.
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And I would show you how there's a continuation of the argument which continues all throughout.
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But because of the lack of time today and because I do want to focus on verse 21 of Romans 9, I want to simply give you a little brief overview because I do think it's necessary, but I can't stop at every point.
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I'm just going to give you the quick overview.
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At the end of Romans 8, we have something called the golden chain of redemption.
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The Apostle Paul is talking, he says, God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.
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That's the great promise of sovereignty, right? God causes all things to work together.
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Joseph's brother, Solomon to slavery.
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And Joseph looks at him and said, you know what? What you meant for evil, God meant for good.
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Same verb.
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God meant it in the same way they meant it.
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God had a purpose for it.
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God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love him for who are called according to his purpose.
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And you say, well, who are the called? He tells us.
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For whom he foreknew.
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That means who he saw and loved.
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Whom he loved, he predestined.
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And whom he predestined, he called.
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And whom he called, he justified.
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And whom he justified, he glorified.
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We call that the golden chain of redemption.
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It's an unbreakable chain.
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From eternity past when God looked and saw me and he knew who I was and he chose me and he predestined me and he did that without my approval and without my participation.
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Whom he predestined, he called.
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He called me.
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He justified me.
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He glorified me.
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Because in the manner of speaking, God's glory and his glorification of me is so perfect and so final, it's as if it's already happened even though I'm not yet glorified.
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And then it goes into that great security passage where the apostle goes on and he says, and now that you know that you have been justified and you will be glorified, there's nothing that can separate you from the love of God.
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Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, your Lord.
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That's the great promise.
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And it's based on what? The sovereignty of God.
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Only a sovereign God can say nothing can separate you from me.
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Only a sovereign God can say nothing can snatch you out of my hand.
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Only a sovereign God, who knows no enemy that can overtake Him.
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We talk about sovereign nations.
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Now I understand what sovereign nation means.
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And yes, we should have sovereign borders.
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But that's a conversation for another time.
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Here's the issue I have.
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No nation is truly sovereign because God can bring nations up and God can bring nations down at His choosing.
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Don't ever think that America is too grand to fall.
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We're not like General Motors.
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Nobody's going to come bail us out if God comes a-callin'.
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God is sovereign.
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So we get to chapter 9 and the big question that comes to the Apostle Paul's mind is, well, what about the Jews? Because aren't they God's chosen people? And if we're talking about election, wouldn't God be concerned about the Jewish people? And so the question comes up in Romans 9, chapter 1.
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The question is, what has God done with His people who He chose? The people who He covenanted to save.
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Has God forsaken them? And the answer is no.
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Look at verse 6.
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It is not as though the word of God has failed, for not all who descend from Israel belong to Israel.
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Very important passage.
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He goes on to say, and not are all children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but through Isaac shall your offspring be named.
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And what he's showing there is he's showing that when God chose Abram, which was an act of divine election, He also chose one of Abraham's sons, which again was an act of divine election.
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Remember Abraham tried to circumvent God's plan? God promised me a son, my wife can't give me a son, so I'll go into the handmaiden and I'll make a son.
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Because God promised it to me, I'll go ahead and I'll make it my way.
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What did God say about Ishmael? This is not the one I promised you.
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He's not the son of the promise.
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God chose Isaac, not Ishmael.
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And then from Isaac we have this wonderful situation where Rebekah, Isaac's wife, has twins in her belly.
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And those twins are as alike as any two people.
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They're born on the same day, born of the same mother, born at the same time.
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And yet, what does He tell us? Beginning at verse 9.
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For this is what the promise said, About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.
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And not only that, but also Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing good or bad.
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In order that the purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls, she was told the older shall serve the younger.
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As it is written, Jacob I loved, Esau I hated.
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What's the point? The point is this, there was two children in the womb and God chose them before they were born.
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And He chose one to be an object of His mercy and grace.
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And He chose the other to not be an object of His mercy and grace.
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He chose one to be a son of the promise and the other to not be a son of the promise.
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People take great issue with that.
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Do you know what people really take great issue with? Jacob I loved.
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Esau I hated.
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I don't like that because I don't like to think of God hating anyone.
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And a lot of people say God didn't really hate Esau.
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But what this is, is this is the nation of Edom.
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Because this is a quote from Malachi chapter 1.
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And in Malachi chapter 1, when he says Jacob I loved, he's speaking of Israel.
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And when he says Esau I hated, he's speaking of Edom, which is the nation of Esau, the nation that came out of his womb.
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And so people will say, see, God didn't just hate a person, He hated a whole nation.
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Wait a minute, that didn't make it any better.
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It didn't make it any better.
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If you want to argue that He's not talking about individuals, He's not talking about nations, all you do is exasperate the problem.
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He went from hating one guy, which was too much for you to handle, and now He hates a whole nation of people.
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And you say, what? And by the way, if you take the context of the Apostle Paul, he's clearly talking about Jacob and Esau, not the nations.
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Even though he's quoting from Malachi, the Apostle Paul gets a right to determine his own context.
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And his context is before they were in the womb.
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Before they were in the womb, God had already chosen one, not the other.
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We don't like that.
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We don't like it.
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People take great issue with it.
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But is it not what it says? Jacob I loved, Esau I hated.
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And somebody will say, but wait a minute, that means, when it says God hated him, what that means is God loved him less.
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Okay.
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There is a passage where Jesus said, if you come after me and hate not your father and mother, you have no place with me.
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And I do believe that that means that we must love Jesus more than we love our parents.
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It doesn't mean that we're supposed to hate our parents, because if we hate our parents, we're violating the fifth commandment, which says to honor your father and mother.
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Right? So I do believe that there is a sense in which the word hatred can mean to love less.
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But here's the issue with that.
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It still doesn't solve the problem, because you still have a God who chooses one over the other, and chooses to love one differently than the other.
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You ask the average evangelical today, does God love everyone equally? They'll say yes.
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You say, how do you interpret Romans 9.13, where it says, Jacob I loved, Esau I hated.
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They'll say, well, he loved Esau less.
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I say, wait a minute.
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Back up.
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Let's do this again.
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Does God love everyone equally? Yes.
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How do you interpret Romans 9.13? He loved Esau less.
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Wait a minute.
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We're going to do this one more time.
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Because at this point, you are being inconsistent.
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And you know what the thing is with modern evangelicals? They are very inconsistent.
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God loves everyone absolutely the same.
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And yet God has an elect people that he chose to lavish his love upon.
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But he doesn't love them any differently.
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That's foolish.
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That's not true.
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It's not the way the Bible is.
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But do you know what the Bible says about Israel? Amos 3.2 When God speaks of Israel, do you know what he says? You of all the nations have I loved.
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You of all the nations.
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Do you think God treated Israel the same way he treated the Canaanites? Do you think that God treated Israel the same way he treated the prophets of Baal? If you do, you're a fool.
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You haven't read your Bible.
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And you say, but wait a minute.
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The Bible says God shows no partiality.
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Here's what that means, just in case you're wondering.
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When it says that God shows no partiality, what that means is God does not choose based upon your merit.
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God doesn't show you partiality because you are white and man and whatever you are.
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We're not that good of friends, so I can't go.
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He doesn't choose you because you like to fish.
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I don't know if you like to fish, but I know he does.
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That's what it means when it says God shows no partiality.
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It means when he makes a choice, he makes the choice according to his divine purpose and will.
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According to his counsel.
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We don't participate in the counsel of God.
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We don't get a seat at the table.
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People don't like that.
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People want their seat at the table.
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People want to feel like they have something that they can manipulate this king.
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They forget that he is king.
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So we start to have questions in Romans.
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I said I wasn't going to go through it.
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Here I am going through it.
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Sorry.
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I got a lot to do.
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Because in verse 14, he anticipates a question.
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Paul is a great teacher.
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If you don't know this about the Apostle Paul, the Apostle Paul is a great teacher.
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You know how you can always notice a great teacher.
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A teacher anticipates the objection.
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He anticipates what his hearer is going to hear and then answers the question before it's asked.
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What's the question in verse 14? Well, if God loves Jacob and hates Esau, does that mean God's unfair? That's verse 14.
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Look at it.
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It says, what shall we say then? Is there injustice with God? By no means.
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Now here's the thing.
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If we have understood this incorrectly, this would be the perfect time for Paul to clear it up.
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But listen to what he does say.
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Is there injustice with God? By no means.
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For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.
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I like to let that one sit in the air for a minute.
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Because the answer to the question of the objection, is God unfair? Is no.
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Because God can do what He wants.
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Can't claim unfairness with somebody who's completely free.
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Can't say He's unfair when you don't deserve anything.
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Imagine a king who goes away on a journey, and he returns, and his entire kingdom has been overrun by vandals.
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His entire kingdom has been burned and pillaged.
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And all of the creations that he had built up in his kingdom, all of the walls had been splattered with dung, and all of the interior had been destroyed and pulled down, and all of his wonderful works of art had been smashed into the ground.
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And that king comes back.
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And that king says, I want every one of them now brought up and killed.
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Would he be right? Yeah, he'd be right.
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Because he's the king.
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And he has the right to do what he wants.
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And they have violated the king.
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They deserve his wrath.
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But what if the king said, Go in and take out a number of them.
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And upon them we will show mercy.
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And the rest of them, we're going to burn it down.
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You say, well that's unfair.
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No, that's not unfair.
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That's mercy.
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Because he didn't have to give mercy to anyone.
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He didn't have to give it to anyone.
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And the fact that he showed mercy to anyone is an expression of his goodness.
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He could have burned it to the ground.
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Your heart beats in your chest because God has commanded it to beat, and at any moment it could stop beating.
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You belong to God.
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Who are we to say it's unfair? He will have mercy upon whom he has mercy.
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He said that to Pharaoh.
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Right? Or said that of Pharaoh to Moses.
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He said to Moses, I will have mercy upon whom I have mercy.
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And I'll have compassion upon whom I have compassion.
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It's mine to give.
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The next objection comes in verse 19.
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Well you will say to me then, who can resist his will for who...
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Excuse me, why does he still find fault for who can resist his will? Now this one's a little bit of a deeper objection.
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Because the objection to verse 19 is this.
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Well if I've got to do what God makes me do, then how does he find me responsible? I don't mean to be sounding like I'm making fun of people, I'm just sort of, this is the way the questions are often asked.
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Let me ask a question.
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If God's in charge, why am I still responsible? That's an important question.
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I'm not making fun of the question, it's an important question.
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But notice Paul's answer.
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It is not to satisfy the mind of the hearer, but rather to remind him what he is.
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Who are you, O man? To answer back to God.
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Who are you, O man? This reminds me of Job.
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Brother Andy mentioned Job.
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I like that you called him Brother Job, I thought that was kind of cool.
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Brother Job, he was a brother.
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Brother Job, he goes through this terrible ordeal.
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And by the way, he didn't know about the interaction between God and Satan before it happened.
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You understand, when you read Job, we get insight that Job didn't have.
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His life falls apart.
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His children die.
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His property is destroyed.
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What happened? And his friends come and they do what? It's your fault.
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Divine retribution, retributive justice, this is your fault.
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At the end of Job, he's getting a chance to speak to God.
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And what does Job want God to do? Justify this! Justify what you've done to me! You know what God says to Job? Were you there when I laid the foundation of the earth? Can you put a hook in the mouth of the Leviathan? You know what he's saying? Who are you, old man, to answer back to God? We don't like that! We don't like that God doesn't have to answer to us! We want a God that we control! That was the very part of the first sin! If you eat of this tree, you'll be like God.
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And you see, that has been the desire ever since then.
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We don't want God over us.
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We want God answerable to us.
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And God answers to no one.
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He doesn't have to.
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And that's what brings us to verse 21.
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Because verse 21 is in the midst of the answer.
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Are men robots? Are men puppets? Are we just doing what we have to do? Why does God find fault if he's in control? I want to say something.
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I hope that this doesn't create any consternation or frustration.
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I'm like Brother Mike.
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If I say something that offends you, you can tell me later.
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I do not believe men are robots.
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I believe men have wills, fallen wills.
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We've already discussed this.
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But I want you to consider for a moment.
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And I kind of wondered if I was going to say this, but I'm going to say it.
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Even if we were, it wouldn't matter.
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Because God would still be God.
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We're not, and I'm not saying that we are.
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But even, you know, the people are like, Whoa, whoa, you're just saying we're all robots.
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So what if we were? God would still be God.
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I'm not saying we're robots.
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And don't take for a minute that I would be.
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But the point is, even if you were, who are you, old man, to answer back to God? Why do we think that we get to object? Why do we think it's our right to question the Almighty? As you can tell, this is something that gets me going.
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I feel like Andy now.
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I'm getting a little hot under the collar.
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Andy's usually the emotional one, in a good way.
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I'm not as much, but I am today.
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Praise the Lord.
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Because honestly, I've dealt with this so many times.
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I've had this conversation with so many people.
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And it always comes back to the same question.
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Well, I just don't want God to be that way.
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It always comes back to the same objection.
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Well, that just means that I'm a puppet.
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Or that just means that I'm a robot.
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Or that just means...
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Here's the thing I want you to consider.
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Most people are so concerned with their free will that they never consider God's free will.
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Most people are so concerned over their freedom not being violated that they're willing to violate the freedom of God.
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Yes, I have complete free will.
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But God doesn't have the freedom to choose anyone.
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I have complete free will, but God doesn't have a choice in how He loves.
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I can love you and you and not love you.
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I do love you, but I could...
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What I'm saying is I have a choice in how I love, but God doesn't.
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I promise if you come back I'll treat you better.
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Brand new, first day.
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But the point is I love my wife more than anybody in the world.
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That includes my children.
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That includes my parents.
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That includes anybody else in the world.
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I love my wife more than anybody else in the world.
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Am I wrong for that? No, because the Bible tells me, love hers Christ loved the church.
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Notice it says Christ loved the church.
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You say, but wait a minute, the Bible says God so loved the world.
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Yeah, but finish the sentence.
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God so loved the world that He saved some.
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That ain't what it says.
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Listen to it.
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For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him.
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Is that everyone? No, it's not.
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Whosoever believeth in Him will not perish.
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God loved the world so much He decided to save some.
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Nowhere says He decided to save all.
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Even in their favorite verse.
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There's limitation even in John 3.16.
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In verse 21, the freedom of God is expressed in the clearest way possible.
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In the entire Bible, the freedom of God is expressed clearly in verse 21, I would say, more clearly than maybe anywhere else.
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Because in verse 21, he asks the question, has the potter, and the potter is God, we know this based not only on this passage, but on Isaiah 64.8, O Lord, You are the Father, we are the clay, You are the potter, we are the work of Your hand.
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Paul is clearly referencing an Old Testament symbol here that God has been used, the metaphor of the potter and the clay.
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Clearly, Paul is referencing that.
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And he says, Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and one for dishonorable use? I want to point out what we learn about God and what we learn about man in this passage.
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Three things about God, three things about man.
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In regard to God, we learn three things.
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Number one, we learn that God is the creature and we're the creator.
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Excuse me, let me back that up because that was wrong.
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God is the creator and we are the creature.
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And that's the distinction that's made.
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The language of potter and clay harkens back to creation.
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In Genesis 2, man is made from what? Dust of the ground.
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Without that act of intentional creativity, man would never be.
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Man is not the product of natural processes.
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Amen? He is not the result of millions and billions of years of chance, evolution, and change.
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Man is the product of God's creative genius and God's glorious purpose.
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We would not exist if He did not create us.
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But consider that the next time you want to question God.
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Consider the fact that when you question God, you wouldn't be here without Him.
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Consider what Romans 9 reminds us.
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Who are you, old man? Why do you think it says who are you, old man? Because it's comparing you to Him.
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And there's no comparison.
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People want to think God is like us, but the Bible tells us God is not like us.
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And the biggest distinction between us and God is God is creator and we're creature.
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God's the maker and we are the ones made.
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God is the author of life.
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He is the one who made it.
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He's the one who created it.
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We are the benefactors, the beneficiaries.
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We're the ones being made.
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We see that here.
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He's the potter.
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We are the clay.
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And we're reminded, the second thing that we're reminded of is the freedom of the potter to do with the clay what he wants.
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I want you to consider for a moment how much of your life you had nothing to say about.
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Did you choose where you were born? Did you choose to whom you would be born? Did you choose the ethnicity to which you were born into? Did you choose the nation to which you were born into? Did you choose the state? Did you choose the century? I'm so glad I wasn't born in like the 1400s when there was no air conditioner.
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I mean, I really think about that.
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This is God's grace.
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Just being born after the birth of AC.
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I ain't built for hot.
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People want to claim freedom without realizing how much of their life was determined even before they were born.
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The picture of the potter and the clay is a picture of God being free to do as He chooses with us.
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We all have certain abilities, certain proclivities, and certain things that are gifts.
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They're woven into us.
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They're part of our DNA, and we didn't do that.
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My wife and I have this talk all the time.
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I have no fear of speaking in public.
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Never have.
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From a very young age, and I see it in my daughter Hope, running up and standing up and talking, singing, dancing, even as foolish as I may have looked, I was never afraid.
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It's part of how God made me.
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My wife, on the other hand, does not like to talk to large crowds.
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She's one of the best in one-on-one conversation.
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She's a wonderful counselor.
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She's a wonderful interactor with people.
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She loves to listen and ask questions.
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She has those great interrogative questions and gets people talking, and that's why people love her.
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But she can't do what I do, and really, I don't do what she does.
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I'm not real good.
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I don't like small talk.
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I don't like that kind of thing.
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I'm okay, but it just ain't my...
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I would rather...
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People say, you know, what are you good at? I like everybody over there, and I'm over here.
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That's the way I was designed.
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God made me like that.
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He didn't have to.
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And I didn't ask for that.
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This shows God's hand in our lives.
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Can I do things in my life? Can I become a better speaker? Yes.
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Could I be slimmer? Maybe.
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I could do a lot of things.
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But God is still sovereign even in those things.
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God is the potter.
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I am the clay.
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And we're reminded, the third thing about God, we're reminded how unfit it is for the clay to argue with the potter.
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You understand if clay attempts to argue with the potter, there's a fundamental misunderstanding of positions.
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As the potter is squeezing and molding the clay, the clay objects.
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Why? You're clay! A song that we sing.
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We haven't sung it in years.
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We need to sing it again.
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I love to watch people who've never been here sing this song.
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It's called, Great God how infinite art thou.
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Thy throne eternal ages stood.
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No seas and stars were made.
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And it goes on to say, Great God how infinite art thou.
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What worthless worms are we.
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Let the whole race of creatures bow and pay our praise to thee.
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And every time we say, Great God how infinite art thou.
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What worthless worms are me.
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New people get all nervous.
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We're in the midst of crazes.
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But you understand the point of the song.
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It's not to say that man isn't made in the image of God.
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It's not to say that man doesn't have a certain dignity.
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And it doesn't say that human lives don't matter.
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But what it is saying, is when we compare ourselves to God, there is no comparison.
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He's God.
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We are the clay.
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He is the potter.
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And think about how foolish it is for the clay to argue with the potter.
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I buy my kids Legos.
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Love Legos.
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My kids get Legos and often times the Lego box will tell you what it's supposed to be.
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It's supposed to be a boat.
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It's supposed to be a car.
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It's supposed to be a rocket ship.
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My kids are like Picasso.
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Because when they build, it don't exactly look like the box.
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But you know what? You know what the Legos never do? Hey, I'm supposed to be a car.
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Hey, I'm supposed to be a rocket ship.
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Wouldn't that be stupid? Because you know what I'd say to the Legos if they started mouthing off? I'd say, hey, I bought you and you're mine.
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You don't get to argue with me.
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You're the Legos and I am the king.
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I'm talking about my house now.
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That's right.
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This is the Democratic Republic of Keith.
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No, it's not.
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It's the supreme rulership.
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It's Keith.
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I'm talking about my house.
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I tell my kids all the time.
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It's not a democracy.
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It's a monarchy with a king and a queen.
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That's it.
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There's no debate.
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We don't sit around the table and have a vote as to what's going to happen.
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Daddy's in charge.
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When Daddy ain't here, Mama's in charge.
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And Daddy and Mama work together.
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You don't get a vote.
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You're seven.
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You don't get a vote.
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And think about that.
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Think about that in the analogy of us and God.
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We're worse than being seven.
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Who are you, old man, to answer back to God? He is God.
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So that's what we see about God.
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But now let's see what we see.
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What do we learn in regard to man from this passage? Well, the first thing we learn in this passage about man is we're all made from the same lump.
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Notice what it says.
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Taken from the same lump.
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Paul describes man as a lump of clay.
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Each of us is created differently, but we all came from the same lump.
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We all came from the same fallen lump.
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You know, right now, and I know Brother Andy mentioned it.
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I think Brother Mike may have mentioned it.
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There's a lot of attempts in the world right now to divide the world.
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And it's always trying to divide the world over things that don't matter.
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Lines of color, lines of ethnicity, lines of prosperity.
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But in the end, every one of us is a fallen son and daughter of Adam.
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We're all of the same kind, mankind.
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And that's the lump from which God takes us.
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God takes us from that lump of mankind.
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And out of that lump, He makes two vessels.
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Out of the lump of mankind, we are either a lump made for honorable use, a vessel made for honorable use, or a vessel for dishonorable use.
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You have to follow the analogy because ultimately the point of the analogy is that one is an object of grace and the other is an object of wrath.
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You say, how do you know that? Well, verse 22 tells us that.
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Because verse 22 says, What if God, desiring to show His wrath and make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? That's the dishonorable vessels.
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And then verse 23, In order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory.
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That's the honorable vessels.
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So He defines His terms in verses 22 and 23.
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So it's not as if I'm, somebody come along, Keith, that's just your interpretation.
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No, that's Paul's interpretation.
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He's giving us the interpretation.
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There's one vessel for honorable use.
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There's one vessel for dishonorable use.
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There's a vase and there's a chamber pot.
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You know what a chamber pot is? Back before there was indoor plumbing, people didn't want to have to get up and go to the outhouse in the middle of the night, especially as they began to age and incontinence began to set in.
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They needed a place to go.
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So they made these pots that they kept under the bed and they were for refuse.
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They were called chamber pots.
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And guess what? You don't put a high quality glaze on a chamber pot.
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You don't dress up a chamber pot.
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They made for that.
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However, but when the same potter who made the chamber pot made a vase that was going to be put on display, he would put a high quality glaze on it.
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He would put ornate, sometimes even stones of precious stones built in so that when it was put into the kiln and was fired in the kiln and when it came out, it would be a glorious pot, a beautiful pot.
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And the picture here is a picture of what we would identify in theological terms is the elect and the reprobate.
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The reprobate are prepared for wrath and destruction.
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What do you do with the chamber pot? You throw it out.
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What do you do with the vase? You put it on the mantle.
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One is a vessel of wrath and destruction.
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One is a vessel of mercy and glory.
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And here's the beautiful thought from all this is we all could have been chamber pots.
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That's what we deserve.
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If you don't understand the tea and tulip, you don't understand Calvinism.
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And by the way, you may have heard that word a few times today.
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It's been thrown around.
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Some people get mad when I use it.
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Don't get mad because I don't care.
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I don't anymore.
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I'm too old to care.
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I'm only 40.
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Those of you who are a lot older than me, you know what happens when you hit 40.
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You realize time is short.
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It's time not to care.
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You got to say what you got to say.
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I love you, Jack.
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But the point is the tea and tulip stands for total depravity.
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Every man is born in sin.
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We desire sin.
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We want sin.
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We rebel against God.
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It is our very nature to do so.
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And no one wants to come to God.
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No one desires to come to God because to come to God requires submission and we don't want to submit.
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We have a heart that is in rebellion to God.
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We are totally depraved.
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The Bible says there is none good.
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No, not one.
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There is none who seeks after God.
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So all of us could have been the chamber pot, right? All of us could have been the vessel of destruction.
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All of us could have been that vessel and that's what we deserve.
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But God chose as the potter to make some into vessels of mercy.
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He chose to make some into vessels of His glory.
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And in doing so, He exercised free choice.
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And that's the third thing about man is that we recognize by this that what we become is determined by the potter.
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That's the hardest thing for people to accept.
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But as I said, the thing that you have to realize is it's not as if God came along and we were all good and He made some bad.
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No, that's not the case.
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We were all bad and He made some good.
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That's the difference.
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It isn't as if we were all righteous and God came along and said, ok, I'm going to take you guys and make you unrighteous.
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No, that ain't how it worked.
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We were all unrighteous.
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There was none righteous.
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No, not one.
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You know what happened when Jesus was on the earth? A man ran up to Him.
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He was a rich man.
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And he ran up to Jesus and he said, Good teacher, what must I do to be saved? Do you know what Jesus said to him? Why do you call me good? Now Jesus was good.
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Dude was right.
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But Jesus' point was to say to that man, you don't know me.
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And you don't know what goodness is because you think you're good too.
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I'll prove it to you.
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Keep the commandments.
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Obey your mother and father.
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Don't steal.
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Don't lie.
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All this I have kept from my youth.
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What did He think about Himself? I'm good too.
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Good teacher, you're good.
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I'm good too.
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So Jesus said, Okay, go sell everything you got and follow me.
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Whoa, I'm not that good.
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See, there's a problem.
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How far into your life do I have to dig to find out you deserve to go to hell? You don't have to dig too far into mine.
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I'll just tell you.
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I deserve to go to hell.
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Until you can truly articulate that, you won't understand grace.
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Until you understand grace, you won't understand the gospel.
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See, the problem is most people who go to church today go to church thinking they're good and they're trying to be better.
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Not that they're dead and they're trying to find a way to become alive.
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God chooses to save because He is good, not because we are good.
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We are doomed.
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We are chamber pots.
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We deserve hell.
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But God chooses to save.
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God chooses as the potter to make vessels of goodness, to make vessels of righteousness, to make vessels of glory.
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He is the potter.
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We are the clay.
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He has the right to do as He chooses and He chooses to save.
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And somebody says, why doesn't He save all? If your response is why doesn't He save all, you have yet to understand anything I've said.
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Because from the very moment I started, I tried to help you understand that He didn't have to save any.
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And the fact that He chose to save any, how, who are we to come back and say, why didn't you choose to save all? You know why God didn't choose to save all? Because He didn't want to.
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And if you can't wrap your head around that, that's fine.
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I'm not going to change it because you don't like it.
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God made a choice.
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I don't like that God makes choices.
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I want to be the one who makes choices.
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Who are you, old man, to answer back to God? That's the point of Romans 9.
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I don't like Romans 9.
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I like John 3.
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Well, guess what? John 3 is not any better.
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Start with John 3.
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Nicodemus comes to Jesus.
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Nicodemus says to Jesus, good teacher, we know that you are good and you do good things and we've seen these mighty works that you do.
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No one could do these mighty works unless he was from God.
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And what does Jesus say? Unless a man is born again, he will not see the kingdom of heaven.
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Nicodemus says, wait, do you mean a man has to be born, he has to go back into his mother's womb and be born again? And Jesus said, unless a man is born of water and the spirit, he will not enter the kingdom of heaven for that which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of spirit is spirit.
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And this is why I tell you, you must be born again.
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And the spirit blows where he wills.
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We know not where he comes from or where he goes.
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No, the wind blows where it wills and we know not where it comes from or where it goes.
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And so it is with everyone who is born of the spirit.
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You know what he's saying? He's saying you've got to be born again to be saved.
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And you know what else he's saying? You don't get to do that.
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You don't birth yourself into the kingdom.
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God gives you the gift of new birth.
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The same sovereignty that's talked about in Romans 9 is talked about in John 3.
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The wind blows where it wills.
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You know not where it comes from or where it goes.
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The same it is with the spirit.
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You don't get to choose to make yourself a vessel of mercy.
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God the potter chooses to make you a vessel of mercy.
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And you say, Pastor, that's one verse.
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I am almost out of time.
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But just so you understand, my role today was to say the sovereignty of God from the New Testament not the sovereignty of God from Romans 9.21.
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For a moment, I just want you to consider a few things about the sovereignty of God.
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In Luke chapter 3, it says a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be censused.
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It was that census that brought Mary and Joseph back to Bethlehem.
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For what reason? That Jesus would be born in the place that he was prophesied to be born in.
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Was it the decree of Caesar or the decree of God that brought Jesus to Bethlehem? It was the decree of God.
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Which cause of the decree of Caesar? When Jesus Christ was preaching to the masses, He said, and I'll give you this verse because this is an important one.
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In Luke 10, verse 21, it says in that same hour He rejoiced in the Spirit and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and you have revealed them to little children for such was your gracious will.
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You ever read that and wonder why God would choose to hide from some and open to others? Well, it was because they were good people.
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Really? Is that what it says? How about this? When Jesus went to the cross, He died.
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After He died, the apostle Peter was preaching and he said this, and this is in Acts chapter 4, verse 27.
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He said, for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
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The cross of Jesus Christ was predestined by God before the foundation of the world.
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And Peter preached that in Acts chapter 4.
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How about this? In Acts 13, when the apostle was preaching, it said the Gentiles believed.
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No, it doesn't.
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It says as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.
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That's Acts 13, verse 48.
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As many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.
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I've heard Armenians say it backwards.
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No, no, no.
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What it means is as many as believed were appointed to eternal life.
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No, I can read.
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And order matters.
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And the word order in this one matters.
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As many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.
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How about this? When Jesus was preaching and He said, My sheep hear My voice.
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I know them and they follow Me.
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And you do not believe because you're not My sheep.
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He didn't say you're not My sheep because you don't believe.
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He said you don't believe because you're not My sheep.
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Shall I continue? Well, for the sake of time, I'll end with Ephesians 1.
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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.
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In love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will, the praise of His glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the beloved.
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Verse 11, In Him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will so that we who were first to believe in Christ might be to the praise of His glory.
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I don't believe in predestination.
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It's not in the Bible.
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It's all over the Bible.
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I don't like predestination.
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That's what you should say.
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Here's the deal.
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I've been doing this for a few years.
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And over the years, I've heard the same thing.
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If that's the way God is, I don't think I would worship Him.
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But consider the heart that would make that claim.
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Is it not the same heart that's in Romans 9 that is adding the objections to what Paul is saying? God's not fair.
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That means we're robots.
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God didn't do it my way and therefore He is wrong.
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God must submit to me.
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All the while, the apostle asks, has not the potter right over the clay? We don't want to submit.
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We're naturally rebellious.
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Nothing I have said today would be accepted by any natural man.
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And nothing I have said today is accepted by the majority of Christians.
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But it doesn't mean I'm wrong.
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Because even if you don't like what I have said, I want you to consider this.
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The reason you don't like it is because your authority and your autonomy has been challenged.
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But, by not liking it, you're challenging the authority and autonomy of God.
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Men will fight tooth and nail to profess their own freedom.
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But they will pay no mind to the freedom of God.
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In Paul's analogy, the potter is free and the clay will do his will.
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And until we understand that analogy, we will not accept the sovereignty of God.
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God is sovereign over election.
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He is sovereign over reprobation.
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And every man deserves to go to hell.
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But God, being rich in mercy, because of His goodness, chose to save.
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Left to yourself, you would still be unsaved.
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Left to yourself, you would not desire to follow God and you would not follow God.
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So today, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, don't you dare, for a minute, hold yourself up as having done something for yourself.
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But instead, fall down on your knees and say, thank you God for making me a vessel of mercy.
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The least prideful people in the world should be the people who understand the sovereignty of God.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank You for Your Word.
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As we close this message now and move into the time of questions and answers, I pray that You would bless our speakers with quick minds to be able to answer the questions well.
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And Lord, that You would apply the truths of this Word to the hearts of everyone who has heard.
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In Jesus' name, Amen.