The Potter and the Clay
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
There is a saying: I was saved; I am being saved; I will be saved. I was saved refers to our justification, the moment we were converted. I am being saved refers to our sanctification—the process of being made holy, being conformed to the image of Jesus. I will be saved refers to our glorification; the point when we are made perfect and share in the glory of God. If we stop and think about it, Romans 8:28-30, are not just verses to bring comfort when times are difficult. They are verses that testify that every aspect of our lives, good or bad, active or passive, are saving us in some way—to make us holy, conformed to Jesus.
For many, it’s easier to accept God’s sovereignty over our being saved, our sanctification, but a little harder for some to accept it for our being born again or justified. But to accept God’s sovereignty over our regeneration/justification allows us to see all that God does for us to bring us all the way home, from start to finish. In these verses we are studying this morning, I see God performing three acts that on our behalf. First I see that God molds us. Second I see that God loves us. Finally, I see that God keeps us.
God Molds Us
God Loves Us
God Keeps Us
You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”
But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”
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?
What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—
even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ ”
“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”
And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved,
for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.”
And as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.”
God Molds Us
God Molds Us
The first thing we see in this passage is that God molds us to be whom he desires us to be. Now last week, I mentioned that we didn’t need to go fatalistic and that we’d deal with why this week. Here we are.
You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”
But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”
Paul brings up this fatalistic idea. What good is it to try if God has control? We can’t go against his will anyway, so what the point? But on top of this, there’s an idea of God’s injustice—Why does he still find fault? So you have fatalism and injustice in these two questions. And Paul’s response contradicted that type of thinking. There are really two thrusts to Paul’s response. The first is, who are mere mortals to contradict what God is doing? Therefore, we need to be careful with what and how we accuse God. But there is also the sense in that we are asking the wrong question. We should be asking a contrary question, “why would we want to go against God’s will?”
God is the Potter who molds us like clay. This was an image Paul liked to use, and with good reason. After all, God created humanity from the earth—in essence, clay. God consulted no one when he took from the dust of the ground and created Adam and breathed into him the breath of life. Nor did he seek help in determining why he should create him. It didn’t happen with Adam and it doesn’t happen with us. God is all powerful and all wise. He needs no one’s opinion on what he should do or why he should do it. And so we see that God the potter molds us as he so desires.
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?
What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—
So we see what he does. He molds people both for honorable and dishonorable use which can seem horrifying. But let me remind us all that salvation—and really life—is about God’s glory. Thus, if God molds some for dishonorable use, it is to show his power and wrath. This was what we saw last week with Pharaoh.
Romans 9:17
For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
Vessels of wrath make God’s justice and perfections known and that is glorious. Why is it that God doesn’t strike a person down the moment he is born or the moment that she sins her first sin? He is patiently enduring all the rebellion because his wrath and power are glorious characteristics that demand to be shown and awed over. At the same time, some are not because they are vessels of mercy. God in eternity past, ordained for those whom he chose to obtain a glorious inheritance, what Paul calls the “riches of glory” in verse 23. These are vessels of mercy, like Moses:
Romans 9:15
For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
Like Moses, we as believers, we are molded into vessels of mercy, and as Paul would tell the Corinthians,
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
So understand this, Christian: you are not yet who you will be; you are going from one degree of glory to another—in the process of being conformed to the image of Jesus. God is still in the process of molding you. Everything that you are going through, whether your own actions, or your being acted upon, is to mold you from one degree of glory into another.
God Loves Us
God Loves Us
And this leads us into the second action God does. The first is that God molds us. The second is that God loves us.
even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ ”
“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”
You see, some people who have an issue with election of an individual, have no issue with the election of a nation. In other words, those who would argue that God doesn’t choose us to be saved, have no problem saying that Israel (as a nation) was God’s chosen people out of all the world. But here, Paul wrote that this idea of creating vessels of mercy is not meant only for Jews, but Gentiles also. God’s calling, God’s election comes about because of God’s eternal love for the elect.
When Hosea was told to marry Gomer, a prostitute, he had some kids by her. One kid was named Lo-Ammi which means “not my people.” Another was called Lo Ruhama which means “no mercy.” How though could God call people of Israel, “not my people?” And how could God have no mercy upon those who were descended from Abraham? Because election was not about nationality. Israel, as a nation, was not elect. This was Paul’s argument earlier when he said,
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel,
It was Isaac over Ishmael and Jacob over Esau. God could take a people who were not “his people” and make them his people. Until this time, the chosen were all of the same nation, but it wasn’t nationality that actually made a person God’s chosen. What made one chosen was God’s love and mercy upon him or her. Thus, those who would normally be considered outside of his people, those who were not nationally/ethnically Jewish, could still receive mercy and be called his people because they are beloved by God. Which means that this love is not simply a feeling, but an act on God’s part to save us in order to make us sons and daughters of the living God.
And let us not forget what it means to be adopted as God’s children.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
It means that we know God as Father—not some far off, unapproachable God. But a Father who is present and loves us and blesses us with a glorious inheritance and shares with us a glory we could never imagine. So, you who have loved ones who seem at this moment to be called “not my people” or “no mercy,” at any moment God could actively call them my people and beloved.
God Keeps Us
God Keeps Us
Which leads us to the third act that I see God doing here. The first is that God molds us in a display his glory. The second is that God actively loves us to our glory. Finally God keeps us.
And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved,
for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.”
And as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.”
Notice two major points here. The first is that God always planned on keeping only a remnant. God’s sovereign choice was always geared toward a small number, not a large nation. Even though God promised Abraham a people as numerous as the stars or the sands of the sea, he always had planned for only a small number to actually be saved. Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.
The second is God’s mercy in election. You may ask, “Where is that in this text?” It’s in verse 29. Paul quoted the Greek translation of Isaiah which used the word “offspring,” literally, “seed.” The Hebrew used the word “remnant/survivors” but they are meaning the same thing. If God had not elected a remnant to save, to deliver out of Assyria and then later Babylon, then there would be no more Israelites. They’d be utterly destroyed even as Sodom and Gomorrah was. Why? Because Israel would not repent on their own. They would continue to rebel if left to themselves because that is the fallen, sinful nature of humanity.
That’s Paul’s point. God is the one who kept the remnant because they could not keep themselves. Election was God’s mercy upon the Israelites. It is his mercy upon Gentiles as well. As we saw in Romans 8:7 “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.” And so we would be utterly destroyed, utterly damned to an eternal hell. God chose his people in eternity past and has kept them and preserved them for glory when Christ returns.
That means, you beloved—you who have put your hope and faith in Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection; you are kept. The majority of this world will reject God; only a small number will be saved. But those who are saved are saved to the very end. As Paul told the Philippians:
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we conclude our study of Romans 9:19-29, we end as we began. He who began a good work in you, the one who keeps you to the very end, does so by using all of life to save you—to sanctify you—to make you holy so that you will ultimately be glorified. As believers, God is molding us to be like Jesus—a vessel of mercy for honorable use and glory. He took us who would not be considered his people and made us his people because he loves us. And in his sovereign power, God keeps us. What glory!
If you have not put your hope and faith in Jesus, after hearing this sermon, you may be asking the same question we started with: “Why does he still find fault? Who can resist his will?” But we do not know whom he has willed to save. What we do know is that Jesus said that anyone who comes to him, he will not cast out. He will receive you. If you come, turn from your rebellion, and put your hope and trust in Jesus, you will be saved from God’s eternal wrath.
If you are a believer, know that God can and will mold you into the man, woman, or child he desires you to be. Do not give up hope. Do not lose heart. God is molding you, loving you, and keeping you.