Romans 9 verse 11. For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore, hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? Thus far the reading of God's holy word from Romans 9, verses 11 through 21. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you that you are a glorious and a sovereign God, that you rule over all things according to your most wise and just counsels. We pray that you might give us a heart to receive the truth of your word, to write it upon our hearts and to practice it in our lives. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated. We continue our series in the book of Romans, Romans 9, focusing our attention today on verse 21. Verse 20, we saw that man is the thing formed. God is he that formed it. Man's status as finite, as fallen, and as foolish prevents him from having any right of debate or reply against God. Remember, why me hast thou made thus is the original construction. We saw this doctrine, that in the matter of predestination, God's will is the highest reason. Men want to search out the reasons for the things that God has decreed. They would like to peer into his infinite wisdom, and God says, stop right there. Not stop or I'll shoot. He says, nay, but oh man, who art thou? What really are you as a man? You are the thing formed. ta plasmata, the thing formed, the thing shaped by me, God being the one who forms. So in the matter of predestination, God's will, his choice, his decree, that is the highest reason we may ever seek after. We saw in light of that the duty to humble our fleshly pride. Man wants to exalt himself. He wants to be part of this process so that he may have grounds whereof to boast. Our duty is to humble that fleshly pride, to trust where we do not understand, to sober up, to think clearly of God's infinite wisdom versus our finite foolishness, God's almighty power versus our weakness, God's most just ways with our wicked and unjust thoughts. We must think soberly. Now then, verse 21. Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? First then, hath not the potter power? This structure you'll recognize in a question form implies an affirmative answer, that is a yes answer. Let's read it that way. Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? Yes, the potter does have the power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. An affirmative is built into the question. Hath not the potter power? The potter here is what we call a specific, remember verse 20 had the generic, the one who forms, you could use wax, you could use clay, you could use other things. Now he comes to a specific type of former, that is potter, one who uses clay to make pottery. Now this word power, hath not the potter power, Lo Nida, in their lexicon, they define this word as following. The right to control or govern over. Authority to rule, right to control. Does not the potter have the right to control? Yes, he has such a right and a power. Robert Haldane refers to this power as justly exercised. Someone may have power without just authority. As in, remember, what was his name? Shibai, Shibai, Shiba, he goes, the son of Bichrai, he takes all these people, he has power over them, but does he have right? He doesn't have just power. God has just power. justly exercised, not conferred on him by some superior, supposedly, but his own inherent right to rule over those things that he made, called here the clay. In the Septuagint, that is the Greek translation of the Old Testament Hebrew, Genesis 11 3 tells us that they built the Tower of Babel out of bricks and they used slime for mortar. It's the same word mortar that's translated here as clay. The Egyptians made the Hebrews lives bitter with hard bondage in mortar and in brick Exodus 1 14 same word mortar. David prayed to be delivered out of the mire that God would not let him sink in it. Psalm 69 verse 14, it's the same word, clay, mire, mortar, used to bind together, to bring together a brick building with this as the mortar, clay itself. The Geneva Bible notes state that this word clay alludes to the creation of Adam. He compares mankind, not yet made, but who are in the creator's mind to a lump of clay. This mass of clay, in other words, they say, alludes to Adam, who is made from what? From the dust of the earth, from the miry clay, in other words. of the same lump, hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump. Augustine and others have called this lump, a lump of perdition or mankind as fallen in our first father, Adam. However, as we examine the context of this, which is why we started our reading at verse 11 today, You will notice that God does not consider in this matter of predestination any works of the creature, good or bad. He doesn't bring in the calculus of morality, obedience or disobedience, or even evangelical obedience, faith or unbelief. He does not bring those into the calculation. Look at verse 11. For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth." Notice, good or evil works. God does not bring them into the calculus of this passage. Notice there also verse 13. It is God who says, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. It is his action. It is his doing. Even before the consideration of any good or bad deeds. Verse 15, God has compassion and mercy on whomsoever he will. Verse 16, it is not of man who wills or runs, but of God who shows mercy. Verse 17, it was God's purpose to harden Pharaoh's heart, to declare his power in the earth. Verse 18, it is God having mercy and hardening according to his will. Verse 19, it is due to God's irresistible will that the carnal mind brings this objection. Well, why do you still find fault if nobody can or ever did resist your will? Verse 20, God is the one who formed. Man is the thing formed. This lump then refers to men without respect to their works, whether good or bad. Rather, it refers to men with respect to God's sovereign purpose, God's choice to have mercy or harden according to his will. God's sovereign determination that cannot be resisted by the clay. In other words, this lump I do not believe is properly considered as fallen or as innocent under any moral or ethical consideration, but rather in relation to God's just power over what is his. That is the consideration. The ends for which the potter forms them. What are those ends? What is the goal he has in mind and his prerogative, his just power to do with them as he will? If this is the lump of fallen man, then hear this. Why not just leave some in the lump and form others to vessels of honor? If it is the fallen mass of mankind, that lump of perdition that Augustine refers to, leave them there. Form the vessels out of the lump of perdition unto honor and leave the pile to burn. But is that what he says? So it's not a consideration of good or bad works, of obedience to the gospel call, or to the Ten Commandments, or to any other law, any good or evil deed. It has to do with God's sovereign right. And what are the ends for which he forms these vessels to make, it says. This is the aorist tense. An accomplished fact in time past. Done once, never to be repeated. That's the idea of the aorist. A completed action in time past. Here to make. Not an ongoing work of making each day, but made once for all. Freiberg defines this word to make, to do, to construct, to form. To create, to appoint, that's the idea. To create, to appoint, to form, to construct, to make, or to do, what? One vessel unto honor. The potter has a just right and power to construct, to form, to create, to appoint, or to make one vessel unto honor, he says. This vessel is designed to receive mercy with the end of honor. Honor is not the thing that God puts upon men now. It is the thing that he will put upon them at the great day of judgment. Please turn back to Romans 2 for this same term, honor. In fact, the word itself is where we get the name Timothy from. Timotheos means that which God places a high premium on. He pays a lot. He values this person highly. Honor. Romans 2, we'll look at verses 6 through 9, referring to the judgment of God in verse 5, who will render to every man according to his deeds, to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for what? Glory and honor and immortality, eternal life. Notice here, the apostle says, if you continue in doing all that God commands you, God will make a judgment at the end. Now the problem he identifies is nobody seeks for glory, honor and immortality by patient continuing in doing what is good. But if man did, What would he receive? Glory and what? Honor and everlasting life. Life that never ends as the reward for perseverance and good works. This is the offer of what we call the covenant of works. Please turn over to 1 Peter chapter 1, page 1222 of your Pew Bibles. Peter refers to the inheritance given to God's elect according to the foreknowledge of God. He says in verse 5, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. Remember our Lord talked about this with the hearer, the one who Anon received the word quickly with joy, and then what happened? Tribulation and persecution, and he left his profession. He says, you greatly rejoice in this hope, though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations. Why? That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto what? Praise and honor and glory at the appearing or the apocalypse, the revelation, the appearing of Jesus Christ. Honor here is the value, the esteem, the dignity, the price. And here it refers to what the saints receive at the end, at the final judgment. These vessels unto honor are not going to be honored in this life. This is an honor that comes in the world to come. A glory which originally belongs to God himself. 1st Timothy 1.17 says, Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God be what? Honor and glory forever and ever. These vessels will receive the honor that reflects God's honor at that last day. Do you remember from our reading in Revelation 21, when the new Jerusalem came down from heaven, what did she have? What did the city have? She had the glory of God, just like God sitting on his throne in chapter five, like a Sardis, excuse me, chapter four. Then in chapter 21, the city shines like a Sardis, like God himself, reflecting his glory, receiving his honor. God designed of the same lump to appoint, to make, to construct, to form one vessel to receive glory, honor, and immortality at the last day at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Please turn back to Romans 9 if you would. He says, hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor? What is the unto? That's the goal. That's the finish line. That's the completion. That's where all is consummated. Unto honor. The purpose and goal, the end of God's decree is that these vessels should be formed to be receptacles of the honor and glory of God himself. John Diodati comments on this vessel of honor. for honorable uses as vessels to eat and drink in or for ornament, et cetera, which corresponds to the end of eternal glory. Here then, God, the sovereign potter, takes of that one lump, and he says, this vessel, I will suit to receive my honor. He shows mercy in the meantime by executing his decree, but the ultimate goal, the final thing he's shooting at, which is the first of intention, that last in execution is always first in intention, is honor to these vessels. That's what they're made to receive. And notice he goes on. And another unto dishonor. What is not readily apparent in the English translations is that the apostle is using a construction called men de. Men on the one hand, de on the other hand, two parallel circumstances. On the one hand, the potter has the right to make one vessel unto honor. On the other hand, he has the right and the just prerogative to form another unto dishonor. God's right to appoint, to form, to make on the one hand a vessel to honor, and on the other hand, another to dishonor. Now this word dishonor is just the alpha, the first letter in the Greek alphabet, which put in front of a word means no or not. a negation, the alpha privative, they call it. It takes something away. Whatever that thing was, it's the opposite. Atimea, not honor, dishonor. God has this vessel to receive the treasure of his honor and glory at the last day. God has this vessel for what? The opposite. Atimea, dishonor. This can mean disgrace or shame. Please open to Proverbs 3, page 670 of your Pew Bibles. Proverbs 3. Verse 35, notice the theme. The wise shall inherit what? Glory. But what shall be the promotion of fools? At the end of the fool's day, what is his reward? What fills his vessel? Shame. Glory for those that are wise. Please turn over to Daniel chapter 12, page 910. Daniel chapter 12. starting at verse one. And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince, which standeth for the children of thy people, and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time. And at that time thy people shall be delivered, everyone that shall be found written in the book and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake. Some to everlasting life and some to what? Shame and everlasting contempt. This is the vessel of dishonor. Awakening at that last day, called forth by God to receive the just judgment, the sentence against his sin, dishonor. I note then this doctrine. God's just and sovereign right includes forming men unto honor or dishonor as he will. God's just and sovereign right, his exousia, his power, includes forming men unto honor or dishonor as he will. This power is just. This power is right. This power is not stolen. It is not usurped. It is not misused. It is not conferred upon God by a superior since he has none, but is by virtue of his Godhead, that is, that he is God himself. He has this power. He can do with his own what pleases himself. And this right and power, in the context of Romans 9, extends to the entire lump of mankind. It extends even unto the final destiny of the wicked and the wise, and God will accomplish in both his sovereign purpose. This forming, this making, this construction, when did it happen? Did God formulate it? As he watched things unfold and he responded to the actions of the creature and said, okay, you've done this, let me think about what I'm gonna do. That's some people's version of election and predestination. God foresaw that you would believe. He said, in consideration of your faith, I choose you as a vessel unto honor. Is that what the apostle says? Not in the least. God forms according to his purposes, not according to works, not according to a man that runs or wills, but God's irresistible will. In exhortation then, have you been made partaker of God's free grace in the gospel? Have you believed in Jesus Christ Have you received the gift of the spirit of the living God? Are you a vessel fit for the master's use, purged from iniquity, ready unto every good work? Then rejoice, for you have solid ground for your hope that you will partake in the honor and glory promised in these passages at the last day. boast in God who purposed this. And as a sovereign potter has executed that purpose of good toward you, of salvation toward you and of glory yet to follow. Another exhortation, though we may not fully understand the sovereign will of God, let us worship the God who rules over all. We may not with our finite human fallen minds grasp why is it, how is it, show me, I want to know the reasons. Does not God have the right to do with his own as he will? Who are we as men to reply back and ask him, why me did you make this way? We may not fully understand the sovereign will of God, but we know God is just. We know he is righteous and his will is the highest rule of righteousness. Let us worship the God who rules over all, who forms each alike, as Isaiah prayed in chapter 64 and verse eight of his prophecy. But now, O Lord, thou art our father, we are the clay, and thou our potter, and we all are the work of thy hand. Romans 11 verse 33 says, oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. And thus far the exposition of Romans 9 verse 21.