0:15
turn with me please to Romans chapter n this morning
0:36
we have an easy passage today we're just going to be dealing with election and reprobation nothing personal beginning in verse 19 I'm going to read through verse 26 and I'd like to
0:47
ask John Marsh if you pray for the ministry of the word this morning Romans chapter 9 beginning in verse 19 you will say to me then why does he still find
0:57
fault for who resists his will on the contrary who are you oh man who answers back to God the thing molded will not say to the molder why did you
1:08
make me like this will it 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
1:20
what if God although willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known endured with much patience vessels of Wrath prepared for
1:31
Destruction and he did so in order that he might make known The Riches of his glory upon vessels of Mercy which he prepared beforehand for Glory even us
1:45
whom he also called not from among the Jews only but also from among the Gentiles as he says also in Hosea I will call those who were not my people my
1:57
people and her who was not loved beloved and it shall be that in the place where it was said to them you are not my people there they shall be called the
2:09
Sons of the Living God let us pray father your word says that where two or three are GED in your name your spirit will be there and so I ask you to bless us according to your promises yes and
2:32
being factious about the difficulty of this passage however I do want to make a point a point that is pertinent primarily uh to reformed Christians and that is that we can often
2:42
very dispassionately engage in theological study and debate and we can focus so much on making sure that we get the doctrines correct that in fact there's nothing personal left um and and
2:55
much of what you read uh on the issue of election versus free will and even on the issue of reprobation will be very philosophical very logical even biblically
3:06
even biblically logical but they won't be much personal in it at all this is an intensely personal passage and the doctrine of election is intensely personal it is
3:16
personal to God who has chosen from before the foundation of the earth those who are his those vessels upon which he will show mercy and it is very personal
3:27
to every one of us who have been shown mercy and it is incre incredibly personal to those who have yet come to God through Jesus Christ for they still
3:38
are vessels of Wrath prepared for Destruction so please take it personally but the issue of course is one that has been long debated and argued and fought
3:53
within the Christian church today we consider the doctrine of human Free Will under the title of
4:03
arminianism prior to the 17th and 16th century it was known as pelagianism I don't know not what it was called in Paul's day but he anticipates
4:15
the objection in verse 19 showing that the proper reaction not not the not The Godly or Faith Reaction to Paul's teaching but the proper natural human
4:27
reaction to Paul's teaching is well then why why does God still find fault if his will is Sovereign what can I do and if I cannot do anything why
4:37
does he still blame me that is in a nutshell The Armenian argument that if I am to obey God then it follows logically
4:48
that I can obey God but if I cannot obey God unless he shows mercy on me then how can I still be held responsible for my
5:00
disobedience and it it really does come down to that argument if a man has no choice how can he be held responsible well this is something that
5:10
we use in in modern legal defense do we not we have the The Plea of insanity do we not that that if a person is deemed psychologically incapable of
5:23
understanding right from wrong then they may be acquitted they will probably be committed but they will not be held responsible there's a level of age at which you can
5:35
be tried either as a child or juvenile or as an adult and in that is that same idea that say a 16-year-old somehow doesn't understand
5:47
what murder is and therefore they cannot be tried as an adult because some government official has determined that there's a certain age at which we are responsible for our actions as an adult
6:01
some of you remember Patty Hurst the ays of the Hurst Foundation who was kidnapped in kidnapped in 1974 by The symbionese Liberation Army
6:12
to this day I have no idea what they were all about but in the 70s we had a lot of people I have no idea what they were all about they were some Liberation I don't know what they were trying to liberate but apparently they liberated
6:24
Patty Hurst because there's a famous video within a bank of Patty in her SLA uniform with a automatic rifle helping
6:34
to rob the bank she was released by her kidnapper she was arrested and there was a sensational trial of course of course the Hurst money was largely involved but
6:46
the debate at the time throughout the nation was was she responsible for her participation in that bank robbery or had she been
6:56
brainwashed or was she being coerced you see the the logic is there in our judicial system and even in our judicial thinking we all tend to think that that
7:06
there's a level of responsibility involved and we take that then to our own salvation and we say there there must be a level of responsibility involved in
7:18
order for this to be just if I'm not able to come to God unless he does something first unless he makes me able then how is it that that he can
7:30
find fault with me when I don't come to him again that is the Armenian argument in a nutshell and it has a certain
7:42
plausibility to it which is why um the vast majority of professing Believers are in their thinking about salvation Armenian or Pagan or semi
7:54
pelagian we have a lot of different names for it but at the end of the day we all have a common thought that I must have something to do with this otherwise
8:05
God could not hold me responsible for not doing it I can't be held responsible for not for not doing what I'm incapable of doing in the first
8:17
place so reason's answer to this dilemma is man must have free will it must come down to that that God will do all that God can
8:27
do in making salvation available through Jesus Christ but at the final moment it must be me who takes that saving step of belief that appropriates God's grace in
8:40
Jesus Christ to my personal salvation there it is that's the answer Paul's answer is who are you to
8:50
talk back to God that's a completely different answer isn't it Paul doesn't enter into the philosophy and the logic of the matter he says who are you I'm going to
9:02
paraphrase the whole passage Who Are You O clay to talk back to the Potter who are you oh man to answer back
9:17
God Martin Lloyd Jones in his commentary writes half our trouble arises as we consider this kind of Doctrine from the fact that we start and end with ourselves consider God
9:29
well I agree with Lloyd Jones except I disagree with his percentage I think it's a whole lot more than half I would say 100% of our problem with this Doctrine is that we
9:41
start and end with ourselves consider God because that's what Paul what Paul does now that it's not to say that there's no merit in trying to think this
9:53
thing through and to try to reason out logically if we can how it is that Divine sovereignty does coexist with
10:03
human responsibility because biblically the two are harmonious and we do need to think through that but Lloyd Jones's point is
10:14
that's where we start and end we start and end with ourselves and with the fact that we desire to see Sinners saved and we don't like the
10:24
thought that they might want to be saved but they can't be saved because are not among the elect forgetting of course that none of us want to be saved on
10:34
God's terms where we might want to be saved on our own terms and so um Augustine provides us with an analogy Augustine in his day was not dealing
10:45
with arminius arminius was not born yet for another thousand years but he was dealing with dealing with Pelagius a British monk who went to Rome and noticed the incredible Corruption of
10:58
the Roman Church in the fifth century and said you know there there's got to be something within man who something that we can reach something that we can
11:08
motivate now certainly we do need God's grace okay we do need God's grace although push comes the shove we could do it without God's grace so pelagian basically said there's something inside
11:19
of us that that can that can choose God and that the preaching of the church should drive that something and fan it into Flame lay on the guilt and offer
11:32
the rewards and the carrot and the stick and all of that because what is preaching about except to make you feel guilty thanks guilty thanks pagus but Augustine
11:48
answered with an analogy that is is not terribly uh comforting but it's the analogy of the suicide the man who destroys himself now everyone acknowledges that prior to that act of
12:00
self-destruction he was following his free will he was doing what he will to do but Augustine points out that after he commits the ACT he is not free to
12:15
undo it now that's about the closest analogy I've heard to Romans 5 and to Genesis 3 and this is where the foundation of the whole understanding of man's position
12:27
before God is laid by scripture and that is in Adam we had the will to choose between good and evil obedience and
12:42
rebellion and God said to Adam in the day you eat of that forbidden tree dying you shall surely die maybe we should consider Adam's act
12:53
less as a fall although it very much was and maybe more as a suicide certainly it was a spiritual suicide once
13:03
suicide once committed there is no longer the ability or even the will to undo the ACT I think Augustine was right we are not right in
13:15
the way we think of ourselves and as we think of others who are still in sin we think that they they have reason we can persuade them we can show them how much
13:26
better it is for them to be a believer rather than an unbeliever how much their Destiny will be changed they will be sons of God they will be going to heaven whereas the alternative is condemnation
13:39
and eternal damnation well certainly those facts have a place in the preaching they have a very strong place but even with that we need to
13:49
follow the scripture and understand that is not within man to undo the suicide that was brought upon man kind by Adam
14:01
Paul has made that clear in Romans 5 where in the words of the of the colonial primer that was used in elementary schools in Adam's fall we
14:13
sinned all and you say I I don't like that Doctrine well that doesn't really matter I mean it's it's kind of like
14:23
um you know I I've often used the the phrase that that height is relative in all my relatives are short okay it's like you really can't do anything about that can you you really can't do
14:36
anything about the way God ordained the human race as being in Adam those of us who were in Christ can rejoice in that because if we weren't all in Adam we could not then all be in
14:48
Christ so there is a Grace side of the whole Arrangement but that doesn't really change the fact that God ordained that genetics should be what they are
15:00
that sin would impact the human race genetically and genetically and generationally so that we are and we can say even according to our DNA even genetically we were in
15:13
Adam the writer of Hebrews talks about how Levi was in Abraham when Abraham offered up tithes and offerings to melkisedek showing that the levitical
15:25
priesthood was in fact subordinate to the m a deacon gave that a try priesthood the priest king melkisedek so you you can
15:37
again the answer if you if you don't like Romans 5 the answer is who are you oh man to answer back to God oh you can
15:47
decide then to just adopt the theory of evolution oh not the theory the scientifically proven fact of evolution great if you would rather have an ape as
15:57
your uncle than a man who sinned if you would would you would rather have no foundation for morality for good and evil
16:07
whatsoever then then go ahead if that if that floats your boat but you also have no hope of redemption either you you have no hope of eternal life you have no hope you are without
16:19
God and without hope in the world but we are not as the Gentiles who have no hope because just as we were in Adam when he sinned and we sinned in him so by God's
16:29
grace we are in Christ when Christ died and we rose with him you can't have the one without the other so who are you oh man to answer back to
16:41
back to God this is a very important Doctrine if we Accord Fallen man any ability any spark of life we deny the Biblical
16:52
teaching on the consequences of Adam's sin but Paul says in Ephesians chap 2 you were dead in your trespasses and
17:02
sins it is a spiritual suicide and that suicide rendered all men incapable of undoing the corruption
17:14
that Adam that Adam wrought but Augustine's argument like so many others in defense of divine election comes at the question from
17:25
man's perspective and again there's a place for that don't don't get me wrong I think there is a place for trying to understand the nature scripture unfolds
17:35
the nature of man Romans three a concatenation of the corruption of sin within every human heart that's necessary but let it not be our
17:46
foundation as we consider Divine election consider as Martin L Jon says consider God Paul's answer is basically has not
17:59
the Potter Freedom over the clay Adam's sin and our own sins added to his have made us as clay in The
18:12
Potter's hands to do with as he will Paul is establishing here something that was not new to Paul in fact it is a
18:22
common metaphor used by Isaiah and Jeremiah and that is The Potters Freedom man ask where's my freedom God ask where's
18:34
mine and those two questions are kind of the hinge between what is called Calvinism or augustinianism on the one hand and
18:45
arminianism or pelagianism on the other we might say it's the hinge between paulinism and whatever was called the other ISM in his day it's it's always
18:57
come down to that because we will be as God won't we to understand good and evil that's the nature of sin in the very beginning and so we say where's my freedom in this to which Paul says
19:10
where's God's the clay on the wheel you can just imagine it squeaking and saying where's my freedom Potter freedom Potter says that's kind of weird you're talking
19:22
the Potter say where's mine where's my freedom Isaiah chapter Isaiah chapter 29 the Lord says you turn things
19:35
around shall the Potter be considered as equal with the clay that what is made should say to its maker he did not make me or what is
19:45
formed may say to him who formed it he has no has no understanding I I love the way the Lord starts that little analogy you turn
19:56
things around that's what the Armenian does that's what the pelagian does he turns things around you're not looking at this right you are a lump of clay you are
20:08
created Out of the Dust of the Earth the lump of clay is maybe the best metaphor considering Genesis 2:7 that God formed Man Out of the Dust of the earth and
20:19
breathed into the the Breath of Life you do not have authority over your existence where is my freedom
20:29
God says where is my freedom Jeremiah 18 He says can I not oh House of Israel deal with you as the Potter does declares the Lord behold
20:41
like the clay in The Potter's hand so are you in my hand oh House of Israel I think it's this one that Paul is alluding to remember in Romans 9 he's
20:52
beginning to deal with that nagging question what about Israel and so he he may be alluding to Isaiah it's it's several places in Isaiah several places in Jeremiah where
21:04
the analogy of the Potter in the clay is used but it's important in the Jeremiah to say to see that it's the house of Israel that is the lump of
21:15
clay because one of the issues in dealing with the identity of the clay is whether or not God creates
21:27
human beings beings with the purpose of destroying them destroying them eternally but let's lay the foundation here that these passages clearly exhibit
21:39
both from the Old Testament and here in Romans from the New Testament and that is the absolute freedom of God's electing will when when the scripture calls him
21:49
the Potter and us the clay there can be no firmer statement of the sovereignty of divine will over human response and human will do
22:03
with that what you will it's what the scripture says the clay is in The Potter's hand inanimate irrational and
22:13
entirely submissive now we are human beings created in the image of God so obviously the analogy does break down the clay has no responsibility for what it becomes
22:25
and What Becomes of it after it is formed that's where the analogy does break down because we are not clay we are image bearers of God and yet in the
22:35
matter of our own destiny we are as clay in The Potter's hand so what then is the lump this is a point of great
22:46
misunderstanding there are those that say that the lump is man as created man as in the image of God and then there are those of whom I am one
22:59
that say the lump is man as Fallen Israel as Chosen and yet among the nations of Fallen men years ago in one of our plumline
23:11
classes we were talking about eschatology and from Revelation the battle of battle of Armageddon trying to teach the hermeneutical principle called
23:23
hyperbola when a writer will purposefully exaggerate something in order to make a point now you you've
23:33
read the The Narrative of the battle of Armageddon that the the blood shed will be so much that the blood will rise to the horse's Bridal for a certain radius
23:44
all around well being an engineer I did the math I asked Martha how much blood does a human body contain I think it's five leaders I know that when you die even if
23:56
you are even if you are behe headed you don't lose all your blood but I went ahead and said okay how many men would it take even you short horses like shaton
24:07
ponies okay not not war horses just Little Ponies okay try to be conservative you all your blood jumps out it's only a little pony how many men
24:18
it was like 40 billion I mean it's huge and I made that comment afterwards someone came up to me and said if God wanted to make those men just to kill them at the battle of
24:29
Armageddon he could do that I had to grow a beard to hide the bruise that happened when my jaw Hit the
24:41
Floor seriously I mean that kind of a statement is scary youve heard of scary stupid that's scary stupid does God make just to destroy what Potter does
24:53
that Potters don't make things just to throw it against the wall they make things either for honorable use or common use they might make a
25:04
beautiful vase or a beautiful Stein for the use of the prince they might make a bed pan but they're not going to make anything simply to destroy
25:15
it and much more God we we can't even entertain the thought that he should conceive of creating Man simply with the
25:26
purpose of destroying man man God does not do that he he is not he does not sin he's not tempted to sin he's not the author of
25:36
sin he created man in God's image and he said man was very good and so we cannot conceive of this
25:47
lump as man as created in Adam but rather as man in Fallen in Adam that what rendered us lifeless and clay
25:59
was the death incurred Upon Us by Adam's original sin not by his creation and so when we talk about
26:09
reprobation which is a very scary word a word that should be taken very seriously and used with great care because many have taught reprobation as an equivalent
26:22
Doctrine to election that God consciously chooses Those whom he will save in fact he created them for that purpose and they'll teach reprobation on
26:32
the same level that God created men simply to destroy them that he might show his show his power God does not display himself as
26:43
such he is a God full of loving kindness and mercy who will show loving kindness and mercy to the thousandth generation of those who fear Him and follow
26:58
him his judgment it says is his strength strange work but he Bears his arm to save so let us never consider God as one
27:09
who simply wants to show how powerful he is by condemning any human being to Eternal damnation reprobation is a doctrine of
27:21
this passage that he has set aside vessels human beings fallen in sin he has set them aside for wrath and
27:32
judgment but his glory and you can even hear Paul rising up a bit that he might show his glory on those vessels of Mercy that
27:44
were for ordained that were predestined to Mercy that they might also share in his glory what God has done he has done for
27:54
the manifestation of his glory and His glory is most was powerfully manifested by his by his grace for his power no man could
28:06
withstand if God as I said last week if God acted God acted justly then all mankind would be condemned and yes God's holiness and his
28:17
power would be manifested to all the universe that he would not tolerate even one sin his eyes are too pure even to look upon evil
28:28
and he could do that and he would be just and righteous in doing that and we would not be able to say anything against that because we deserve that because we have sinned and if you say
28:40
well you know I didn't sin in Adam well maybe that's a theological point that you don't want to agree on but you have sinned even that you have not done all for the glory of your maker
28:51
you have you have sinned at the age at which you can recognize good and evil you have chosen evil at the age in which you know the law even if it's just the law of your own
29:02
household you have disobeyed that law and therefore you are a child of Adam and you abide under the wrath of God and so reprobation is a secondary
29:14
Doctrine and it really isn't as much an act of God's will as a withholding of God's grace and as the
29:24
Potter he may do what he Wills with what is his is his is and his grace is his to either bestow or withhold and that is what Paul
29:36
is teaching here that he may do what he will with what is his own and so Paul says that some vessels
29:48
are made for honor and others for common use these are these are images of the temple on Thursday nights we're talking about the illusion and The
29:59
Echoes that we hear when we read the New Testament that come from the Old Testament if you go back in Exodus you'll you'll hear the instructions
30:09
being given to the Artisans as to the vessels that were to be made for use in the temple or the Tabernacle they were not to be used in one's home and in fact
30:22
if they were to become defiled you didn't just simply take it home and use it there they had to be destroyed because they were holy so Paul is echoing that whole
30:33
concept he doesn't mention the temple in this passage but it's it's hard to deny that the temple imagery is at the Forefront of Paul's thinking regarding
30:43
the church all the way through his letters 1 Corinthians chapter 3 do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in
30:53
you this is just simply a different metaphor if you are in Christ do you not know that you are a vessel that has been created and formed
31:04
for Honor you are a vessel that has been created for use in God's Temple the body of Christ his church you are a vessel
31:14
that has been intended to contain the Holy Spirit and also to dispense it you are not for common use so why do you
31:25
live as common people why do you seek your fulfillment why do you seek your peace in the world see it's all of a peace friendship with the
31:36
world is enmity with God we can say friendship with the world is not recognizing what kind of a vessel you are it it was a it was an act of
31:47
arrogance of the highest degree when balazar had the vessels of the temple brought to him so that he could qua beer and that's where the hand came out
31:58
wrote on the wall you have been measured and found and found wanting we are those vessels in Christ and we need to see ourselves as vessels
32:10
of Honor because vessels of Honor there's a parallel that Paul's drawing here I don't know if you see it or hear it when you read it the vessel of honor is the vessel of Mercy there's no merit involved here
32:23
it's not that we came to God already jewel encrusted gold no we were a lump of clay and by God's grace he chose us to
32:34
be vessels of Honor in his Temple Mercy Temple Mercy Grace and honor that we might share in
32:44
the glory of the only glorious one God Almighty through Jesus Christ vessels of common use in the temple were simply those that were used out in the
32:56
congregation used in your home as I said a bed pan it it was just a a vessel that you know everybody would buy at the bazaar and use it until it was
33:07
uncleanable and then they would throw it away and now archaeologists dig up those vessels of common use and come up with vast imaginative stories of how these people lived that's what the rest of the world
33:19
is folks outside of Christ they're not necessarily Wicked they're not necessarily intending evil upon you
33:29
common vessels the same kind of vessel we were before God in his grace saved us we were in a sense born common
33:40
vessels we were born children of Wrath children of darkness and it is God's grace that has intervened and taken that lump of Fallen corrupted clay and for
33:52
his glory has made us into vessels of honor and of mercy and when we look at the rest of the world it should not be with eyes and hearts of condemnation for we once
34:03
walked that way Paul makes that clear in his letters for you also were once that way you also walked in the darkness of their hearts Peter says the same thing
34:14
but now we have been brought in to the Temple of the holy God not to sit up on a a pedestal not to be looked at as some
34:24
trophy but rather as the vessels of the Tabernacle to be used in the Liturgy of the temple to be used in the ministry of
34:34
God's people for the glory of God Peter switches the analogy but it's the same truth he says and coming to him as a living Stone you also as living stones are
34:47
being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God through Jesus Christ he uses the analogy of the
34:57
building itself The Living Stones Paul uses the analogy of the vessels that are used within that Temple however you want to look at it that's us
35:09
Believers that's our calling that's our vocation we we do common labor in order to put food on our tables we work in the
35:20
world we work with our hands Paul acknowledges that there's nothing wrong with that but as I said a while back let's never confuse our identity with
35:31
our vocation that while we might live in the common world and we might have a common occupation we are vessels of God's Temple vessels of Glory vessels of Mercy
35:44
vessels of Honor so God will make his glory known through Grace and and that I think is the that's the main
35:56
message but he will also make his power known through
36:06
judgment that is an indispensable message God will not let sin go unpunished nor will he let his own nature lack any full manifestation of
36:18
glory and while Grace is his chosen work judgment is his necessary work and he will do will do it he endures with much patience Peter
36:30
has the same thought in second Peter chapter 3 that that those say everything's been the same since the beginning they do not understand that God's
36:43
patience is salvation for the elect God's patience with the wickedness and the wicked ones of the world God's patience with the common vessels that
36:53
are predestined for wrath is that all of the vessels of honor and mercy might be brought into the temple and we can't say because we do
37:04
not have God's mind we cannot look out even on this congregation and say vessel of vessel of vessel of we don't we don't know because prior to the Regeneration
37:16
of the Holy Spirit we are all vessels of Wrath there's no special trademark you don't turn them over and said made in
37:27
hell cuz if you turned us all over that's what it would say so he will manifest his power but we should have
37:48
fear we should not take for granted that we are vessels of Grace vessels of Mercy you can take a common vessel and bring it into the temple and bring it into the Tabernacle it was
38:00
done it it was an affront to God it did not make that vessel holy in fact it defiled the rest and so just being in a church being
38:13
in a Christian family doesn't make you a vessel of vessel of honor the manifestation of being transformed into a vessel of honor is that you have placed your trust in God
38:26
through Jesus Christ that you do not trust your own Merit your own composition your own honorable life your own behavior because all of
38:36
that the scripture says is as filthy rags but you trust alone in Jesus Christ who alone is a vessel of Honor who was born a vessel of Honor who was
38:48
foreordained to bring honor and glory to his father he as man is the only true vessel of honor and glory and we in him
38:59
are the same so we can say that God is creating from both the
39:10
Jews and the Gentiles this is summarizing Paul's Point here the latter verses where he speaks through hosea's mouth that he is creating from the Jew
39:20
as well as the Gentile vessels of honor and glory for his glory vessels of Mercy but also but also o vessels that will be dashed against
39:31
The Rock of Jesus Christ not only from among the Gentiles Paul would say but also from among the
39:44
Jews Paul says that our gospel and the preaching of the Gospel is both a Savor of Life unto life to those who are being renewed and a stench of death unto death to those who are being condemned by it
40:00
who is adequate for these things let us pray father help us to understand your
40:10
great Glory through the mercy that you have bestowed upon us in Jesus Christ and the Regeneration of the holy spirit that you have taken us vessels of
40:21
corruption vessels of common use and you have transformed us into vessels of honor and Glory through your mercy and help us to own our identity as
40:34
vessels in your temple that we might be used of your Holy Spirit to bring honor and glory to you through Jesus Christ help us to live in this common
40:46
world as uncommon people in this Unholy world as holy vessels set apart For Your Glory help us to walk in your way and
40:57
according to your word by your spirit and For Your Glory we ask in Jesus name
41:08
amen please stand for the benediction this morning this morning from 1 Timothy more a doxology 1 Timothy 1:17 now to the king Eternal Immortal
41:21
invisible the only God be honor and Glory forever and ever amen
