The sermon by Jason Dohm, titled 'God Making Himself Known,' delves into Romans 9:14-26, emphasizing God's sovereignty, mercy, and wrath. It discusses how God exercises His mercy freely, without owing it to anyone, and how He hardens those who reject Him, not as innocent victims, but as a judicial response to their rebellion. The potter and clay analogy underscores God's right to shape humanity according to His will, highlighting the absurdity of questioning the Creator. The sermon explains that God's purpose in displaying His wrath and mercy is to reveal His attributes, with vessels of wrath demonstrating His power and vessels of mercy showcasing the riches of His glory. It emphasizes that both Jews and Gentiles are called to be vessels of mercy, saved by grace through faith. The sermon concludes by reminding believers of God's goodness, His hatred for evil, His delight in mercy, and the significant cost of salvation, paid by His Son, Jesus, to enable vessels of honor and mercy.

Sermon text for today will be verses 22 to verses 26, but for context we'll be starting at verse 14 to verse 26 Romans 9 verse 14. What shall we say then is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not for he says to Moses I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the scripture says to the Pharaoh, for this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show my power in you, and that my name may be declared in all the earth.

Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens. You will say to me then, Why does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will? But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, Why have you made me like this?

Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. And he says also in Hosea, I will call them my people who are not my people and her beloved who is not beloved And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them. You are not my people There they shall be called Sons of the Living God. Let's unite our hearts and ask for God's blessing on the preaching of His Word.

Our God, we thank you that you have revealed yourself to us, specifically today, revealing yourself and your sovereignty over those prepared for destruction and those who are prepared for mercy for your wrath and your long suffering and also your grace and mercy that you bestow on your people. Oh God, would you humble us today with this text? We don't deserve to be vessels of mercy. We don't deserve to be prepared for glory, but oh God, it's because of your sovereign plan that you have. We deserve to be punished.

We don't deserve to be here today before your throne. But God, you have seen fit to draw those of us who are your people to yourself to bring us together to worship you today. Oh God, would we have clearer views of you? Would you show us more of your glory today in your word? Would you help us to rejoice in this joy of salvation?

And God, those who don't know you in this room, would you see fit to draw them to yourself, pull out hearts of sinful stones, replace them with hearts of flesh? May they come running to you in repentance and faith and would they today experience a joy of salvation, the joy of knowing you. Oh God, give Jason wisdom as he preaches. Help him today. Give him words from on high.

Help us to hear. Help us to repent where there needs to be repentance. But oh God above all, let there be more joy and closer walk with you and would we be more conformed to the image of Christ today. It's in your Son's name that we pray these things. Amen.

The title of the sermon today is, God Making Himself Known. The theme of the last few weeks, the last few passages that we've been in in Romans chapter 9, is God's perfect blamelessness in the exercise of His mercy. So Paul doesn't want you blaming God for how he exercises His mercy, because he's completely blameless in the exercise of his mercy. This has really been the theme of multiple weeks now. God doesn't owe his mercy as a debt to anyone.

So he exercises it completely freely. When God exercises His mercy, it is never because it is deserved. It is never because it has been earned. It is never because it has been paid for. No one deserves it.

In fact, everyone deserves exactly the opposite of it. No one could earn it, and we haven't earned it. No one could pay for it. What would you pay for God's mercy? What does He need from you?

Conversely, When God hardens someone, we must never think that he is hardening an innocent person. Paul is teaching that. He wants to strip away the thought that he's hardening someone who was just minding their own business, generally doing good. And then God woke up on the wrong side of the bed and decided to be mean to a person as if he was hardening the innocent. No.

Paul taught us in Romans chapter 1 that God gives people over to a darkened mind and to a darkened heart in response to their rejection of Him and their rebellion against Him. So that when God gives someone over because they rejected him, lived in rejection of him, lived in rebellion against him, that he has every right to judicially harden them. Meaning it's the response of a judge to the guilt that has been incurred. So sometimes he chooses, within his rights, he chooses to darken the mind and darken the heart of those who reject him and live in rebellion against him. Last week's text ended with God inviting us into the Potter's workshop to witness an absurdity.

Come in, please come into the Potter's workshop and see this absurd thing. Potter has a lump of clay he takes from the lump of clay he makes a vessel. Takes from the same lump of clay he makes another vessel. But that vessel wants to talk back and say why did you make me like that? It really is absurd to think of clay talking back and challenging the right of the potter to make whatever he wants out of this lump of clay.

I said it last week, I'll say it again. It all comes down to what is the lump of clay? If you think the lump of clay is just this neutral thing, this blank slate, then you'll end up thinking wrong thoughts about God and accusing God. But if you see the lump of clay for what Paul has taught us it is in the early chapters of Romans, this lump of clay actually stands condemned before him because of what it's like, because of the thoughts that they think, the words that they say, the things that they do. This is the lump of clay that God is making vessels out of.

Let's pray and then come to the text. God, we almost can't be parted from our man-centered view that comes away from Romans chapter 9 accusing you. I thank you that it is possible that we could be lifted out of this view to see you as you are, to see ourselves as we are, so that your glory will be on display so that we won't be tempted to accuse you of wrongdoing but that we'll see you in all of your goodness and all of your glory and these things help us God. Don't leave us to our own thoughts and ways but lift us up to your thoughts and ways I pray in Jesus name. Amen.

We'll be subdividing Starting by looking at the first two verses, which really is the meat of the text. So if you're going to pay attention at any point in the sermon, now's the time. Follow along as I reread Romans chapter 9 verses 22 and 23. Paul writes, what if God, wanting to show His wrath and make His power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of his mercy, which he had prepared beforehand for glory." These two verses, Paul speaks of God's revelation of the power of His wrath and the glory of His mercy. So if you're taking notes on the handout by filling in blanks, wrath fills in the first blank, mercy fills in the second.

God's revelation, God is displaying something of the power of His wrath. Think of the power of the wrath of God and of the glory of His mercy. Verses 22 and 23, if you just study the structure of them, you find that they're mirror images of each other. Each verse has a certain kind of vessel. And God has a particular purpose for each of the vessels to reveal something about himself.

So 22 has a vessel, God is revealing something about himself in that vessel. Verse 23 has another kind of vessel, God has a very particular purpose, something he wants to reveal about himself in that vessel. So these verses are mirror images of each other. Verse 22, the vessel is a vessel of wrath. The vessel will be filled with wrath.

The vessel will be filled with God's wrath. Now, we can map this back to verse 21, the verse that leads into today's text. So look back at verse 21. We're in the potter's workshop now, witnessing the absurdity of the clay that talks back. And in verse 21, Paul wrote this, does not the potter have power over the clay from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

Paul asserted the right of God to make from this same lump, this mass of fallen, corrupted, rebellious, sinful humanity, one vessel for honor and another vessel for dishonor for any reasons that seem fit to him and without needing to explain it to his creatures. So this is central to Paul's argument here. God has the right to take from the same lump, make this kind of vessel and that kind of vessel for any reasons that seem fit to Him and without the need to explain it to you. So do you buy that? God doesn't owe you an explanation.

Paul wants you to buy that proposition. Now Paul develops that further. The vessel for dishonor is the vessel of wrath. So verse 21 speaks of a vessel of dishonor. Our text speaks of a vessel of wrath.

And it's really God, Paul, speaking of the same thing, but just describing it in different ways. The vessel of dishonor is the vessel of wrath, the vessel that will be filled with God's wrath. God's anger is going to be poured out into this vessel. It's just purposeless. God doesn't have a purpose.

No. God has a very particular purpose. What is it? God wills, he wants, he intends, he purposes to show his wrath and to make his power known. So that's what God is doing with this vessel.

This is exactly what the text says. He wants to show his wrath. It is his will to display his wrath and to make his power known. God wills to put his anger against all wickedness and falsehood on display. So he doesn't want his hatred of wickedness and falsehood to be hidden hatred against it.

He wants to put it on a billboard to display it, to make it known. God is a God of righteousness and truth. He loves righteousness. He is perfectly righteous. He loves righteousness.

God is truth. He doesn't just tell the truth. He is truth. He loves truth. And so he hates the opposite.

He hates unrighteousness, wickedness, evil. He hates falsehood, lies. So God exercises his almighty power to bring unrighteousness and falsehood into the path of his anger. All this unrighteousness and falsehood and I'm going to bring it right into the sights of my almighty power. I'm exercising my power against what I hate, wickedness and falsehood." And he pours out his fury on it and in doing so he puts himself on display.

Want to know something about God? Watch him exercise his power pouring out his fury against wickedness and falsehood and you see about the goodness and truth of this God. What he has to love because of what he's like, what he has to hate because of what he's like. He is on display. Listen to Proverbs 16 verse 4.

Proverbs 16 verse 4, The Lord has made all for himself. Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom. Let me just read it again because Paul is saying the same thing in our text. The Lord has made all for himself. Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.

God has made everyone for himself. You've been made for God if you're part of everyone. Even the wicked, even the wicked he's made for himself, yes, even the wicked. He made them for the day of doom. He wanted to show his anger against their wickedness and to put his power onto display.

I will not let wickedness go unanswered. I will not let the wicked go unaccountable. There will be an answering for wickedness and The wicked will give an account. Paul says God, quote, endured with much long suffering these vessels of wrath. What does it mean that God endured with much long suffering these vessels of wrath.

Well, let's use Paul's case study from verse 17, Pharaoh. Remember in last week's text, Paul gave us a case study of one that he hardened, a vessel of his wrath, a vessel for dishonor. He gives us a person, a personality from Scripture as kind of a poster child, as an example of these workings of his. Pharaoh, question. Did God have grounds to bring Pharaoh into judgment for Pharaoh's rejection of God and rebellion against God long, long, long before the plagues and the Red Sea when he drowned Pharaoh.

Could God have righteously, justly condemned Pharaoh years and years and years earlier when he was neck deep in idolatry and crushing the Lord's people, could God have rightly held him to account in those moments? Of course, of course the answer is yes. The wages of sin is death and God could have paid those wages to Pharaoh years and years earlier. But instead God patiently endured Pharaoh's rejection and rebellion year after year after year in the life of this man who was being raised up to be a king for God's purposes. God patiently endured Pharaoh's wickedness as he crushed God's people because God wanted to show his wrath and make his power known.

Time went by and Pharaoh's guilt grew to its full measure. And Pharaoh was prepared for destruction and at long last, God drowned him in the Red Sea to show his wrath and to make his power known. So Pharaoh is the poster child for these vessels of wrath but certainly not the only. He's the representative of a category, a full category, not the only one in the category, a representative for the category that Paul is now speaking of. Verse 23, the vessel is a vessel of mercy.

It's a very different kind of vessel. The vessel will be filled with mercy. The vessel will be filled with God's mercy. These vessels correspond to the vessels of honor from verse 21. Verse 21 talks about a vessel of honor.

Verse 23 talks about a vessel of mercy. It's the same vessel. Paul is describing them just slightly differently. These vessels are marked out by the potter to bring honor to the potter and to receive honor from the potter. So the potter, he's making, he's fashioning, and he's fashioning these vessels to bring honor to him.

They will bring him honor and they will receive honor from him. This is his purpose. These vessels are made from the same lump, so not different source material, the same source material, the same lump. This mass of fallen, corrupted, rebellious, sinful humanity, and yet God determines to make them vessels of His mercy for reasons that seem fit to Him and without needing to explain it to his creatures. Just like I said of the vessels of wrath, now with the vessels of mercy.

God, what are your reasons? Well, there are reasons that seem fit to me. At least here, that's as far as God is willing to go. No further. God doesn't see the need, certainly not the requirement, to explain it to you.

Why would He? He's the potter, we're the clay. These vessels didn't do anything to deserve his mercy. It simply pleased God to be merciful to them, even though he would have been just to bring them into judgment and pour out his anger against their unrighteousness too. They're not coming from a lump that doesn't have guilt.

It's the same lump. That's such a pregnant phrase in last week's text. The same lump. They're made out of the same stuff. They're in the same boat.

They are before God in the same condition. Sinful, fallen, corrupt, rebellious humanity. But God for his own reasons says, I'm having mercy and I'm not explaining myself. He could have poured out his wrath on them in a display of his power. He could have.

They were in the same condition, But it pleased him to make them objects of his mercy. God willed to make something known about himself by putting on display the riches of his glory as he fills these vessels with mercy." God said, I want to display something about myself. I want to put on display the riches of my glory as I fill these vessels with mercy. They too deserve wrath, but I'm doing something different here. I'm displaying, I'm making known the riches of my glory by filling them with mercy instead.

Paul says that God prepared them beforehand for glory. They're vessels for honor. He made them ready beforehand to receive his mercy, to be vessels of his mercy. The God who revealed himself in Scripture is all glorious. What does that mean?

It means that you don't have an imagination big enough to imagine how glorious He is. The reality of his glory outstrips your ability, my ability to imagine his glory. He is all glorious. Everyone of his characteristics and attributes is glorious in its perfection and it exists on full blast. So he has all these characteristics, all these attributes, and every single one of the characteristics and attributes is glorious and exists on full blast.

None of them are dim. Each of them is on max brightness, so to speak. So you have to know, you have all these characteristics. God, as he reveals himself to be in Scripture, all on full brightness. Not a single one is dim in the slightest, all in full brightness.

Just to use light, dim versus fully bright as a way to speak about these things. When you think of God's glory, You must think in terms of riches. There's no other way to think of God's glory but to think of His glory existing in inexhaustible riches. Keep dipping into the glory, keep dipping into the glory, keep dipping into the glory. They're never diminished.

You never have less. No matter how much you can get your arms around, there's an infinite amount more that you can't get your arms around. The riches of His glory, inexhaustible riches of His glory. And what is the thing that best makes known the riches of His glory? The lavishing of his mercy on sinners.

Listen to John chapter 12. Just listen. John 12, 27, and 28. This is Jesus hours before going to the cross. Literally hours before going to the cross.

Literally hours before going to the cross. John 12. He's agonizing over being made sin as a substitute for sinners. And he's crying out to God. John 12, 27, and 28.

Jesus says, Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.

God having sent His Son to live this life of perfect goodness and righteousness to fit Him as an acceptable sacrifice, hours away from crushing His Son on the cross, acknowledged that this is the brightest representation of His glory. Father, should I shrink back from the moment? I came for this moment. Don't let me shrink back from the moment. Glorify your name.

Send me to the cross. Crush me in the place of sinners, riches of His glory. Nothing shows the perfections of God on full blast, like Jesus going to the cross, the riches of his glory, so that vessels made from this lump of sinful, corrupt, rebellious humanity don't all get what they deserve. But some vessels are made to be vessels of honor, vessels of mercy instead. Instead.

That brings us to the next verse, verse 24. Verse 24. Paul continues. Even us whom he called. He's talking about these vessels of mercy which God prepared beforehand for glory.

Even us whom he called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. Verse 24, Paul speaks of the vessels of mercy of both Jews and Gentiles. So if you're filling in blanks, Jews fills in the first blank, Gentiles fills in the second. Who are these vessels of mercy, these vessels for honor? Paul writes to the Roman believers, it's us.

It's us. We're the vessels of mercy. We're the vessels of honor. What's this us stuff, Paul? You're a Jew, I'm a Gentile.

There is no us here. At least that's how the Jews conceived of it for millennia. Paul says, yes, God has called Jews in order to make known the riches of His glory by filling them with His mercy. And God has called Gentiles in order to make known the riches of His glory by filling them with his mercy. And God has called Gentiles in order to make known the riches of his glory by filling them with his mercy.

Jews are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Gentiles are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Gentiles are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. It's us! Jews and Gentiles without distinction.

Will we read the words, Even us whom God called from Paul. We know that this is a hyperlink to chapter 8 verses 29 and 30. Meaning, when we click on those words, whom God called, it takes us immediately back to what he just said about the called. Just look back, if your Bible is like mine you don't even have to turn a page. This is Romans 8, 29, and 30.

For whom he, God, foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called, whom he called, these he also justified, and whom he justified, these he also glorified, the unbreakable chain of salvation. In today's text, Paul just said that God had prepared these vessels beforehand. That fits perfectly with what he just said. The predestination of chapter 8, and that He prepared these vessels beforehand for glory.

Called to be justified, to be glorified. The Last two verses, verses 25 and 26. Romans 9, 25 and 26. Paul continues. As he also says in Hosea, as God also says in Hosea, I will call them My people who were not My people, and Her beloved who was not beloved.

And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, You are not My people. There they shall be called sons of the living God." These two verses, we have the prophetic word fulfilled. Filled, fills in the blank if you're taking notes that way. Here Paul quotes Hosea twice. Hosea 2.23 in verse 25, Hosea 1.10 in verse 26.

Next week he'll quote Isaiah twice. So today two quotes from Hosea, next week two quotes from Isaiah. If you go back to Hosea, the context is Israel, the Jews. In Hosea 2, God is talking to rejected Israel. So we might be tempted to say, might be using the wrong verses here, Paul, If you're saying this is what's true of us Jews and Gentiles without distinction.

But Hosea 2 is very distinctly about Israel, the Jews. No Gentiles in view in Hosea 2. You might have picked the wrong prophecy. But Paul is actually using the perfect verses and the perfect prophecy. In Hosea 2, God is speaking to Israel as if the nation was a woman.

So he has personified the Jewish people, the nation of Israel and for the purposes of the prophecy is addressing the Jews as a body as if they were a woman. And this woman has rejected God and is living in rebellion against God. That's God is speaking to a God rejecting woman in rebellion against woman. She's an idolater. That's named specifically in Hosea chapter 2.

Though this woman deserves to be a vessel of wrath for her rejection of God and her rebellion against God, God has determined to make her a vessel of mercy. Hosea 2, God says to this woman, I'm going to take the bales out of your mouth. I'm going to take the false gods out of your mouth. You'll not be speaking about the idols anymore. And you will stop calling me my master, and you'll start calling me my husband.

It's glorious. God says to the God rejecting in rebellion against nation of Israel as is she's a woman who's cheated and been rejected. I'm going to take those false gods out of your mouth. You won't be talking about them anymore. You won't be calling me my master anymore.

You'll be calling me my husband. You weren't beloved. You are beloved. This woman, this people, this nation rightly deserve to be subjected to the fury of God against unrighteousness. And God had said, you're not my people.

So they have the mark of rejection for their unrighteousness, the mark of God's anger against their rejection and rebellion. He had said, you are not my people. But this is not God's final word to Israel Why Because he owes Israel something Israel and idolatry what does God owe them No, it's not his final word because he wants to make known the riches of his glory through the exercise of his mercy. So he says, you are sons of the living God. He had said, you're not my people, but now he brings them not just back into the status of his people to be sons in his house.

You're not my people, but now you're my sons. Sons of the Living God. Friends, This is the testimony of anyone and everyone who has ever been saved by grace. Jews? Yes.

Gentiles? Yes. All of us? Yes. Am I different?

No. Am I better? No. Am I more deserving? No.

Is? God at perfect Liberty To justly condemn me for my rejection of him and my rebellion against him yes Then why wasn't he content to just leave it at that? Why did he send his son from heaven to die the death of a criminal? Why did he draw me in and make me willing to trust his son? I was unwilling, I was unwilling, I was unwilling, I was hardened against his son.

What made the change? Because he wills to make known the riches of his glory through the exercise of his mercy on this sinner. He wants to put himself on display. Applications, I give you three. Number one, God is perfectly good and therefore he must and does hate evil.

You have to know that about God. For everyone who's God is a teddy bear, you should know this. God is perfectly good. And therefore, so there's something that has to come out of the fact that he's perfectly good. What is that?

He must hate evil. He does hate evil. The God of Scripture is not a teddy bear. He is an evil hater. He pours out his anger.

His anger burns against unrighteousness and falsehood. Rob Ventura says this, one day the Judge of all the earth will bring complete justice in the strictest sense and on that day all those who were born in sin and continued to live in sin and died in sin will be cast into hell. Number two, two, but God delights in mercy. God is not little in mercy. He's great in mercy.

God is not skimpy with mercy. He's lavish with mercy. He delights in mercy. He does love righteousness. His righteousness is never pitted against his mercy.

He delights in mercy. He is lavish in mercy. Listen to Micah 7 verse 18. Micah 7 verse 18. Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?

He does not retain his anger forever because He delights in mercy. Who is like this God? Who pardons iniquity? He passes over the transgressions of these vessels of mercy because he delights in mercy. God has made himself known as a God of mercy.

He has displayed his glorious riches through the exercise of his mercy. He delights to do it. Go to God for mercy. Go to God for mercy. Knowing that he delights in it.

Number three. This is key. As we consider the freedom of the potter, hasn't that been the issue on the table? Is the potter free or not free? The potter has to be free.

Clay belongs to him. As we consider the freedom of the potter, never ever forget the cost of mercy and who paid it. So you have to bring this into the text from outside the text, but not from outside of Romans. The cost of mercy and who paid that price is all over Romans. Okay, so don't try to force God to say everything each time He says something.

You have to re-say it every time, God. How big would the Bible be if God tried to say everything every time he said something? That's not how it works. You should be glad it keeps the Bible manageable. So, it's not right in the text that the potter, that actually the price of mercy has been a tremendous price, a tremendous cost, and that the potter himself has paid it.

The potter, because of the essence of the potter, what the potter is like and can't be any different than that, working with this lump of clay would have to make every vessel for dishonor, would have to make every vessel as a container for his wrath. Because of what he's like, he would have to do that unless He was willing to himself pay the price because there's no one else who could pay it to have vessels of honor and mercy. We read Romans 9 and we come away feeling like God is the bad guy. God is not the bad guy. God has bought the opportunity, the privilege, of showing mercy at the greatest imaginable price.

He pleased him to crush his son. These are the words of Isaiah 53. It pleased him to crush his son. These are the words of Isaiah 53. It pleased him to crush his son.

Why? Because he didn't love Jesus? No. Jesus is his beloved son, in whom he is well pleased, but it pleased him to crush him to be able to have vessels of honor and mercy so that he could show himself to be a God of mercy. He could display the riches of his glory through the exercise of his mercy on sinners.

So just keep importing the rest of Romans into Romans chapter 9, and you'll be fine. I think if you look at it with blinders on you don't import the things that Paul has already taken chapters to say. You end up thinking, oh maybe God is skimpy on mercy. Well if we had cut off Romans after the end of chapter 8, is that what you would have said? No!

You would have said, we all deserve condemnation and God is good to save any. It's still true in Romans. He's just, Paul is just establishing the freedom of the potter to have the rights of the Creator. These are undeniable to God. God, Thank you for teaching us week by week.

Thank you for putting yourself on display. Thank you for showing yourself to be a God of righteousness, who cares about righteousness, who loves righteousness and truth. Who will not let unrighteousness stand. But that this isn't the final word about you, or the final display of yourself, but that you have shown yourself to be a God who delights in mercy. Thank you for revealing yourself.

Help us to absorb, embrace, love the revelation of yourself in your word. I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.