A Declaration of Sovereign Mercy – Part 3

If you would, please take your
Bibles and turn back once again to the Book of Romans. We have entered into this great
section, chapters 9 through 11, a section that, if you want to
distill it down to one word, is sovereignty. That is the subject
in focus in chapters 9 through 11, and we have been coursing
through these verses, savoring the concept, the truth of God’s
sovereignty. And beginning in verses 14 and
following, we have the subject of mercy blended with that of
sovereignty. And we have acknowledged that
that is indeed a difficult blend. God can exercise His sovereignty
with regards to mercy. And we found it to be true. We
entered into what I perceived several weeks ago, unfortunately,
had become kind of an academic consideration of the subject
of mercy. And as a result, I wanted to
take the saints to a practical application of mercy, which we
did last Lord’s Day there in the book of Titus chapter 3,
where we discovered that our salvation was bestowed to us
purely by God’s mercy. That we were just like the society
in which we lived. We too were ungodly. We couldn’t
live a righteous enough life to secure our salvation, but
thanks be to God, God bestowed salvation upon us and purely
out of his mercy. And so it gave us the time to
not just ponder a subject, but to really examine our hearts
and to ponder the question of, do we know God’s sovereignty? I commented with a number of
different people last Lord’s Day after I had asked that abrupt
question at the door of a great many people. And I began to get
the sense that some of the people I was asking were taking it personally
as if I was doubting their salvation. What it was really doing was
challenging each one of us to rejoice all over again. Do we
know His mercy? And if we know His mercy, what
a cause for rejoicing there is. I wasn’t doubting anybody. The
salvation that is professed faith in Christ It’s something for
us to constantly take back and savor. Well, it is a difficult
subject, though. One of the most difficult. When
we hear the words that He has mercy on whom He desires and
He hardens whom He desires, that God’s sovereignty is exercised
in this matter of mercy, those are hard words. Hard words even
for believers to digest. In a sense, a lot of times we
flee from any attempt to explain them. But it’s the truth. And it’s God’s truth. And as we’ve said, it’s God being
God. And that can’t ever be a bad
thing. If you would, pick up in this passage once again. Pick
up in verse 14. We’ll go all the way through
verse 21 this morning. And then there are illustrations
that flow out. of that as well as implications
that we’ll pick up beginning next Thursday. Paul writes, What
shall we say then? There is no injustice with God,
is there? May it never be. For he says
to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will
have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then, it does
not depend on the man who wills or on the man who runs, but on
God who has mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh,
for this very purpose I raise you up to demonstrate my power
in you and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the
whole earth. So then, he has mercy on whom
he desires and he hardens whom he desires You will say to me
then, why does he still find fault? For who resists his will? On the contrary, who are you,
O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say
to the molder, why did you 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 common use. Paul had entered into this discussion
with a challenge, answering a challenge to the justice of God. And Paul
doesn’t shy away from it. In fact, he immediately entertains
that very question and answers it in straightforward fashion
in verse 15 by just pointing out the simple truth that I will
have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on
whom I have compassion, that is the thought that is echoed
in verse 18. It’s essentially the summary
of everything that Paul has said up to this point. So then he
has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires. It’s an explanation, it’s a conclusion
of sorts, but Paul is driving the point home. It’s a truth
to be embraced, certainly by believers, But it is a truth
nonetheless, regardless of whether it’s embraced. There was no misunderstanding
in this word. This word, heart, it means, as
we saw, to make heavy, essentially to make stubborn or obstinate. To isolate one into the condition
in which they have themselves embraced. And in that sense,
we saw that it is punitive. It is a withdrawing of God, of
His graces and influences, and then essentially it is the punishment
of sin. The punishment of sin being more
sin, that God gives them over to their sinfulness. That, as
we saw and considered, is an exercise of the sovereignty of
God, where God does what He wills, when He wills, It is an exercise
of God’s sovereignty, and while difficult, while even tough for
us, even as believers, to stomach, to consider, it is God being
God. God pardoned Pharaoh. God gave
Pharaoh over to what Pharaoh wanted. But God doesn’t make sinners. God made us for fellowship with
him, and yet, in being born into this world, we were born into
the sin of Adam. And our chief desire was the
pleasure of self. And yet God, we saw, has mercy
on some of this pool of fallen humanity. that just as Moses was no more
deserving than mercy than Pharaoh, on Moses God had mercy. On we
who have come to profess the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
God has had mercy. And on others, God has not. And
that’s God. That’s God being God. We review
this pattern that we saw in the early words of the Book of Romans. Early in the Book of Romans we
had that pattern of rejection. The rejection of God always comes
first. The replacement of God with some
other thing, some idol. And then ultimately the reprobation
of God giving them over to them. Even though they knew God, they
did not honor him as God. Romans 121. But they became futile
in their speculations. That was their replacement. They
thought they were wiser than God. And they became the reprobation. And their foolish heart was darkness. It’s in the passage. Something
that God did. God gave them over to their sinful
desires. God gave them over in the lust
of their flesh. God gave them over to do those
things which are impure and vile. Well, and the most difficult
part of this equation is that it comes down essentially to
God’s will. You look back at the passage,
he has mercy on whom he desires. It’s God’s will. This is an exercise,
as we said, of God’s sovereignty. He has mercy on whom He desires. Nothing motivates Him outside
of Himself. There was nothing good in you or I that prompted
God to move in our direction. It was because of His mercy. And He hardens whom He desires. There’s nothing more worthy.
There’s nothing more sinful about those whom God simply allows
to go their own way. And that, for us, that’s the first part of all
to even come to grips with. And it should be that way. We
should be humbled by this. This should, in a sense, rock
our theological world. That it’s God’s will. And that’s
the point of the passage. Mercy or hardening, that’s God’s
will. I’ll review just one quote that
we had from several weeks ago, where one pastor wrote, this
hardening is of a judicial character. So, in essence, God is pronouncing
a sentence. And he very easily, as I reminded
God’s people, he very easily could have banged the gavel down
and pronounced sentence on all mankind. This hardening is of a judicial
character, but it should also be observed that the sin and
ill-deserved presupposed in hardening is also presupposed in the exercise
of mercy. And I want you to pause right
there. God could have banged down the gavel and said, guilty
on all humanity, and that would have been the end of it. But
that’s the nature of mercy. is that we had absolutely nothing
that commanded God to move in our direction. We had absolutely
nothing to bring to God by way of potential or goodness. It’s just simply that God reached
down and He exercised His mercy on some. Not all. And that’s the most humbling
part of this doctrine. You can always tell when somebody
begins to wrestle with this, because they try to ponder from
within. Why? Why did God save me? Here’s your answer. His mercy. Don’t look beyond that. There’s
nothing beyond that to find. He goes on and he says, both
parts of this verse rest upon the premise of ill deserved.
Salvation is not constrained by the dictates of justice. It
proceeds entirely from the exercise of God’s sovereign mercy. You see what he says? God never
pronounced you innocent, because we weren’t. He continues by saying, all deserve
to be pardoned. Sovereignty, pure and simple,
is the only reason for the differentiation by which some are consigned to
heartening, while others are equally ill-deserving, are made
the vessels of mercy.” Now, if you’re like me, this is hard. It’s hard to take in, hard to
embrace, hard to fathom. When we live such a sloppy life,
sin’s being saved, It’s not just hard for us to
fathom. Paul knew. Paul knew humanity. He knew our
nature. And so not only does he summarize
the sovereignty of God there in verse 18, he moves to deal
with the obvious challenge. Look at verse 19. Paul knew. Paul knew human nature. And you
know where he got it? He got it from his own heart.
Paul had wrestled through this same question that you and I
are. He will say to me then, why does
he still find fault? Who resists his will? And with
that one sentence, he brings up this second line
of challenge to God. God’s justice had first been
called into question. Now it’s our accountability.
So then we’re really just robots. We’re just basically just doing
God’s will. It doesn’t matter. And essentially this challenge comes
from an ignorance of our relationship with God. How could we dare utter
back to God? How could we dare challenge God?
He’s God. How could we dare call Him to
give an account of what He does when He’s God? Essentially the reasoning is
this, why does he still find fault? That if men are consigned to
their sinfulness, how can they possibly be responsible
for their sin? We were born responsible. We
were born sinful, and we were born responsible for our sin.
That was part of the fall of Adam and Eve and our blending
into the entire human race. The question is simple. If God is
God, and God is over all history, if mercy and hardening ultimately
come down to His sovereign choice, how can anybody possibly be blamed
for what He does? It’s the classic question. Some people would say in this
doctrine that to fail to acknowledge that every
one of us, since the very fall, deserves
nothing but hell. If you fail to acknowledge that
point, then you can You can run that question off the flagpole
to God all you want. If you believe that man is basically
good, if you believe that God owes us an explanation, you can
try that question. But the moment you begin to back
off and you acknowledge your own sinfulness before God, and
you acknowledge that it’s not that far-fetched as you look
around you, as you look at your fellow sinners, You know your
own depraved heart, and you know that the people that you live
with, the people that you interact with, they don’t have to be hardened
felons. We all have a sinful nature.
And the moment you begin to embrace that great truth that the fall
of Adam had real effects, and that we have all been steeped
in the effects of sin, that we are all sinners, poor God. We all absolutely deserve a just
condemnation. Then it changes the entire equation. If God was to exercise only his
justice, we’re dead where we stand. Nobody would ever enjoy the salvation
of God. And so it’s hardly unjust if
God decides, out of the abundance of His kindness and mercy, to
reach down and save a portion of fallen humanity? It’s not
unjust. It’s not unjust. Paul doesn’t
go any further than that. He just really poses the question. He frames it well, and he asks
in a classic fashion. And then he begins to defend
not the answer to the question, but he begins to defend the sovereignty
of God. Go with me to verse 20, where
Paul just says, and quite abruptly, on the contrary, pardon me, let
me, let me interrupt. I know that you are preparing
to ask God, but before you ask your question, let me interject
one of my own. On the contrary, who are you,
old man, who answers back to God? I mean, it really is a great
question. We have this ridiculous idea
in our day and age. And I shared with a saint some
time ago that I was practically keeping a list of my own things
to ask God when I get to heaven. Boy, can’t wait. I’d probably,
if I could, bring my legal pad, right? And I’d sit down and I’d
go through my list. Who are you, oh man? And there are many of us who
still entertain those questions. Hey God, let me ask you to explain
yourself on this matter. And Paul just says, who are you,
oh man, who answers back to God. Who do you think you are? That’s
essentially what he says. The thing molded will not say
to the molder, why did you 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? This word answers that. This is a word that really brings
kind of an attitude that parents might
see from time to time. Where you have this insolent
spirit and this challenge to your authority. You certainly
will see it if you’re a teacher, you certainly will see it if
you’re a coach, you certainly will see it if you have some
responsibility in the workplace, where you issue forth a command
or an order, and you have this challenge. It means to contradict
at the same time as you reply. It’s a challenge to God’s authority. Who are you? Who are you that
challenges God in His authority? Who are you that calls God into
account? As one said, God is not answerable
to man for what he does. He can be relied upon to act
in consistency with his character. Why should any of his people
question his ways? That’s a great point. If we really know God, that God
is infinitely good and infinitely just, that he is absolutely sovereign,
that he is wholly, completely separated from all sin, how is
it even remotely possible that God could be unjust, that
God could be challenged? See, there’s always this struggle
in our hearts, isn’t there? Between what we read and what
we, at least in our head, know to be true
and what we live to be true. As one pastor said, we begin
to speak before we stop to consider who we are and our right to speak
Who is the one that gave us our minds? Who is the one that gave
us our tongues? Who is the one that established,
re-established this relationship with us? He goes on and says, the trouble
with man is that when he objects with the violence to any teaching
in scripture, is that he does not realize the truth about himself,
his smallness, His insignificance, His mortality, His simpleness,
and then His greatness and glory, God’s greatness and glory before
us. His eternity and His majesty. Paul stands one before the other
and he says, who are you? Who am I? To ask of God a question,
to challenge His authority. Look at what he says, verse 20. the latter part, the thing molded
will not say to them, molded, why did you make me like this,
will it? And this whole idea, this metaphor that is throughout
the scripture, we’ll look at a couple of them in a moment,
just presents this absurdity. You’re in the midst of making
something. And we’ll go to the potter and the clay pot, but
really here it’s just very general. I think you’re building a house,
would the house say, I don’t want to be three stories, right? Why did you make me like this?
I didn’t want to be a sprawling ranch. I mean, it just is so
absurd. As if the picture that you’re
painting suddenly answers back, more color! Right? I didn’t want
to be a still life! The thing molded will not stay
to its molder. Why did you make me like this?
Will it? It is such an absurd question.
Paul uses it so masterfully. This is us asking God, what are
you doing? The pastors weighed in here too and
excellently when one said, is there anything in the world more
ridiculous and anything more absurd for this helpless mass
of substance to try to question the one who has put it into shape? Brothers and I were talking about
gardens. We have been charged up for gardens, especially now
that the sun is shining. Can you imagine a garden? Wait,
wait, wait, wait, wait. More rows of peas, you know? We don’t want to have the carrots
over here. That’s about the absurdity of
what Paul is raising here. But I want you to notice, Paul
isn’t talking about creation here. Lloyd-Jones put it well
when he said, it isn’t that God Almighty created some people
in order that they might sin and go to damnation. That’s not
what Paul’s talking about here. So if that’s the question that
you’ve got brewing, set it aside. It’s not true. Creation here
means creating out of nothing. Pardon me, creation means creating
out of nothing. But here we are starting with
a moldable material, a lump of clay. God looked upon man as he looked
upon the whole of creation and we are told that he saw that
it was good. So God’s creation was perfect, good. Good, in God’s
estimation, is perfect. What the apostle is dealing with
is that what God does with fallen humanity. Humanity is the result
of the original sin of Adam and Eve, the whole of humanity. The
whole of humanity is already lost and under condemnation. But God chooses Solomon for salvation. All deserve damnation. Nobody deserves mercy. If anyone
is saved, it is entirely because of the mercy of choice of God. And so in that context, the fact
that God decided to reach down and save some, it would be absolutely
absurd for anyone, whether you’re saved or not, to look up to God
and say, why did you make me this way? Paul says there are illegitimate
questions, foolish questions. questions that no creature has
a right to ask of its creator. One commentator said the objection
is founded on ignorance. The true relation between God
and his sinful creatures, it supposes that he is under some
kind of obligation to extend his grace to all. He is under
obligation to none. All are sinners, and all have
forfeited every claim to his mercy. It is therefore the prerogative
of God to spare one, and not the other. Paul isn’t finished. He brings up essentially a second
wrong to this argument. He’s already brought up the illustration
of the thing molded, answering back to the thing that molded
it, but now he goes and again masterfully, to an Old Testament
illustration that would have been absolutely familiar to every
Jew. And the illustration was so plain
that even if the person was a rank heathen and didn’t know page
one of any scriptural context, they would have seen this image
play out in the town square hundreds of times. Look at verse 21. Or does not the potter have a
right over the clay? Well, let me think. Why, yes,
it does. Why, yes, the potter, being the
creator, does have a right over the clay. The potter can decide
justly what he wants to make with the clay. The clay, as one
masterfully put it, has no say. 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? Let me explain that for a moment. So, when we got married, we,
you know, you’ve got to go in and register. You’ve got to go
register for the stuff, right? And I’ve seen the gals, some
of you gals have these things. You go in and you register for
the stuff, and then you get the stuff, and there’s this platter,
and this ornate, gilded and they get it and they put it behind
glass and nobody touches it. It’s a thing of honorable use.
We just don’t have them to use, ours, but that’s what it is. It’s this treasured piece. And
the potter decided to take this piece of clay and to make this
treasured, honorable piece. and to glaze it over and to gild
it and to paint it and decorate it in just incredible fashion. Those are the things, that’s
the part of the museum that just gives me the headache. You go
through and you see the main dynasty and all these vases and
stuff and how much they’re worth. Man, it’s overwhelming. So that’s the Honorable Use Festival.
And then the potter grabs up another lump of clay and starts
working, and he says, you know what we need? I’ve got an order
here. We need a bedpan. That’s the difference. And you
know what? The clay has no say. The clay
doesn’t say, pardon me. Look at me. Look at my potential. I would like to be the platter
in the china cupboard. that never gets used, even though
it’s painted and gilded about and made for that very purpose.
I don’t want to get that pan. Doesn’t the potter go right over
the clay? To make from the same lump one vessel for honorable
use and another for common use? The Old Testament makes use of
this illustration on numerous occasions. And the point is that
the The God who made us, the sovereign God, the merciful God,
has an absolute right to do what he wills with what he touches. He is the potter, and we are
the clay. Let me take you through a few
of these illustrations. Turn to the book of Isaiah, if
you would. We’ll look at three quick ones.
Isaiah chapter 29. In Isaiah chapter 29, God is
dealing with His people. And He immediately cuts to the
chase. Look at verse 13. Then the Lord
said, Because this people draws near with their words, and honor
me with their lip service, that they remove their hearts far
from me, and their reverence for me consists of traditions
learned by rote.” What he basically says is, look, God’s so-called
people are just going through the motions. They’re just giving
me lip service. They show up and they put on
all kinds of show and they say these prayers that are all just
meaningless repetitions. Everything they just have learned
by rote and all the while their hearts, their hearts don’t come
to church. And it was shocking. Shocking
to God, shocking to the Prophet. These dead works, which they
thought would give them life and bring them salvation, God
says were dead in and of themselves, and they were deceived by these
words. The hypocritical worship in which
they were engaged was nothing before God. And God had told
them time and time again. He had called them to a living
faith. He had called them to strive
after righteousness and holiness. And yet their worship was nothing
before Him. It was hypocritical. Look at
the follow up to that in verse 14. Therefore, behold, I will
once again deal marvelously with this people. He’s a marvelous
God. He is going to be God. Wonderfully marvelous, he says,
and the wisdom of their wise men will perish. I’m going to
humble them to the dust. The wisdom of their wise men
will perish and the discernment of their discerning men will
be concealed. Woe to those who deeply hide
their plans from the Lord, and whose deeds are done in a dark
place, and they say, who sees us, or who knows us? They actually
thought that they could deceive God, that they could trick God,
they could get away with it. Stop. As Sharnock referred to them,
they were practical atheists. They said that they believed
in God, but the way that they lived said otherwise. this hypocrisy had reached a
new low. They were essentially living
in self-wills, secret, and they would not appeal to
their Lord. They thought that they were more
clever than God himself. And God’s pronouncements in verse
16. He says, you turn things around.
You think that you’re the potter and all you are is a lump of
dirt. You turn things around. You think
that you’re so intelligent. You think that you can come up
with your own means of worship? You think that you can essentially
craft God after your image? turn things around, shall the
potter be considered as equal with the clay? Shall we negotiate
here what we’re going to make today on the wheel? Shall the
potter be considered as equal with the clay, that which is
what is made, which say to its maker, he did not make me. Or what is formed, say to him
who formed it, he has no understanding. It’s just such an absurd strain,
we can hardly even conceive it, can we? And you can just think through
your own illustration, anything that we make or manufacture. Imagine it talking back to us
and challenging our voice, but imagine what it’s like for God. As one said, the words bring
out the character of the perversity, the upside-downness of which
the prophet speaks. The men whom he condemned were
inverting the relations of their creator and the creature, the
potter and the clay, acting as if they knew no God, denying
that there was a divine order of which they were merely a part.
They were merely a part of God’s great creation. And God was just
being God. And they thought that they could
call Him into account. They thought that they could deceive God and
manipulate God and essentially craft God after their image.
Turning to Isaiah 45, verse 9. I’ll take a shorter piece of
scripture here, just a verse here. But it’s essentially the
same image. Same illustration. where it’s recorded in verse
9, woe to the one who quarrels with his maker. And part of what
the encouragement of the Psalms is, we’ve all had our quarrels
with the maker. We’ve all had our arguments with
God. We’ve all gone before God and pleaded with him. This goes
far beyond that. This is the clay answering back
to the potter. Woe to the one who quarrels with
his maker, an earthenware vessel among the vessels of the earth.
Will the clay say to the potter, what are you doing? Or the thing
you are making say, he has no hands. So what Paul is using here is
kind of a blend of these two. But in this particular case,
the prophet was anticipating the objections that the Jews
might bring up as they were carried off into captivity. What on earth
are you doing, God? Have you lost your mind? Are
you letting a heathen nation oppress us and abuse us in this
fashion? The King James translation presents
an interesting twist here, because this earthenware vessel, it could
be either the entire vessel whole, in pristine condition, or it
could be just a chunk of it, a charred And so the King James
says, let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the herd.
It’s an interesting translation. Essentially it says, go rattle
yourself together, you bunch of chips of a broken pot. That’s
the image that the King James brings forth. Whether the pot
is whole, or whether the pot is just a broken bunch of pieces,
doesn’t matter. Go contend with each other, but
are you really going to contend with God, the one that made you? The creature that is fragile,
breakable, earthenware vessel, you’re going to answer back to
God. Whatever round, whatever headway
you might be able to make in arguing with one another, that
there is that image there, an earthenware vessel among the
vessels of the earth, that whatever headway he says you can make
with each other, are you going to make that kind of headway
with God? Do you think you can out-reason God? Do you think you can challenge
God’s authority like you challenge your earthly boss or your parent?
Not hardly. Turn, if you would, to Isaiah
chapter 64. Things do get better. To a degree, Israel did learn from
these lessons, and to a degree, for a season, they did begin
to employ this humility called for in this illustration. Look
at verse 1 of chapter 64. Oh, that you would rend the heavens
and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence
as fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil,
to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations
may tremble at your presence. This is the people of God beginning
to yield to the maker, to the creator, to the potter. When
you did awesome things which we did not expect, you came down. The mountains quaked at your
presence. For from days of old they have not heard or perceived
by ear, nor is the eye seen at God besides you, who acts in
behalf of the one who waits for him. You meet him who rejoices
in doing righteousness, who remembers you in your ways. Behold, you
were angry, for we sinned. We continued in them for a long
time, and we shall be saved. For all of us have become like
one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy
garment, and all of us wither like a leaf, and all our iniquities,
like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on
your name, who arouses himself to take hold of you, for you
have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the
power of our iniquities.” You know what that is? That’s the
gospel. That’s the heart of the gospel, and they were there on
their face before God in all humility. Verse 8, But now, O Lord, You
are our Father, we are the clay, You are our potter, and all of
us are the work of Your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure,
O Lord, nor remember iniquity forever. Behold, look now, all
of us are your people.” They had come around. God had brought
them around. God had scolded them for challenging
His authority, not once, but twice, with that same illustration,
and now they use that same illustration to come before God. They knew
that they were unable to reform themselves, to mold themselves,
and now they beg before a sovereign and holy God that He would make
them new, that He would make them whole. It’s absurd to think that the
clay could suddenly animate itself and make a complaint about the
nature of the vessel into which it was being formed, whether for an honorable use
or for a dishonorable use. No wonder we stood back and pondered
last Lord’s Day, and here it becomes all the more necessary. Have we moved beyond just tasting
the mercy of the Lord? Do we know the mercy of God?
The very fact that you’re sitting here today, you’re enjoying God’s
mercy. But do you know the mercy of
God? Do you know the God that created the heaven and the earth
and everything in it with His Word? God nearly spoke when He came
to be. God is absolutely sovereign and
absolutely just. Absolutely holy. God will always
do the right thing. that God has seen fit. If you
have placed your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you know,
that’s the testimony of God’s Word, that God has seen fit,
purely because of His mercy, to call you to Himself. If you haven’t tasted that kindness
yet, but you feel in your hearts, you know that you’ve paid the
stand in which you’re engaged, You know that you long to be
free of it. You know that you’re guilty.
You know that there’s something to this Jesus who died on the
cross. It’s God’s mercy. It’s God’s
mercy that you even hear that and know that. We’re coming to faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ as an act of God’s mercy. God have mercy. Our merciful God, we humble ourselves
in your presence.