In his sermon 'The Potter and His Lump of Clay,' Jason Dohm explores Romans 9:17-21, focusing on God's sovereignty and mercy as depicted in the Bible. He discusses Paul's argument regarding God's power to show mercy and harden hearts, using Pharaoh as a case study. The sermon highlights the absurdity of questioning the Creator's will, emphasizing God's supreme rights over creation. Dohm explains that God's hardening of hearts is a response to idolatry and rebellion, not an unjust act against innocence. The analogy of the potter and clay illustrates God's authority and our need for humility. The sermon encourages believers to seek God's mercy and warns against reducing God to simplistic attributes of only mercy or judgment.

So today's scripture is Romans 9 17 through 21, I'm going to back up a little bit and I'm gonna read 14 through 21 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 of earth. Therefore He has mercy on whom he wills and whom he wills he hardens Therefore We will say to the men then why does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will but indeed oh 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? Amen. The title of the sermon this morning is the potter and his lump of clay. We encounter that here.

Paul brings us into the potter's workshop to have us consider the scene that he sets before us. The centerpiece of last week's text was the quote from Exodus 34 where God said to Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. Because we have such a hard time not being man centered, we're tempted to think, God, why don't you just have mercy and compassion on everyone? That would clear away all of our questions, all of our objections, just have compassion on everyone, just have mercy on everyone. Instead of standing in awe that this perfectly good and perfectly holy God has mercy or compassion on anyone at all.

In other words, we shouldn't be shocked to find a perfectly good, perfectly holy God not having mercy, not having compassion on someone. We should stand in awe that this perfectly good God who's never been anything but perfectly good from eternity past through eternity future, we should stand in awe that He has mercy and compassion on any. And as we find in Revelation, I said it last week, He has mercy and compassion on a multitude that cannot be numbered that He takes completely contrary to what they deserve to be with heaven for Him with eternity. So we're continuing really along the same lines. In this week's text, Paul stays on the same subject, but comes at it from the opposite direction.

So last week it was about the people that God has mercy on, the people that God has compassion on. This week he comes the other side and he speaks of those that God passes over in the exercise of His mercy. That's really what we want to get to, isn't it? God, why don't you have compassion on these ones that you have decided to pass over. So let's pray and then we'll get to the text.

God, we do need help. This chapter, these verses have been such a struggle for even people who have been enlightened by your Spirit through the millennia, for thousands of years your people have wrestled with the things that you reveal here and other places in scripture. So God please don't leave us alone during this time. Please come and help us to Understand these things rightly so that we'll understand who you are rightly so we can worship you as you are. I pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.

We are subdividing this week. Let's start just by looking at verse 17 by itself. If you still have your Bibles open, I'll be rereading Romans 9, verse 17. 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. So in this verse Paul gives us another example.

Pharaoh, if you're filling in blanks on the handout, Pharaoh fills in the blank. Paul has been giving us personal case studies. He's been bringing us Bible personalities to show us how God related with those Bible personalities to teach us about how God deals with mankind and really who God is at the heart of this. We've been to Ishmael and Isaac. We've been to Jacob and Esau.

Now Paul brings us to Pharaoh. Any quotes? Exodus 9 verse 16. This is right after the sixth plague, so there are ten plagues in the liberation of the people of Israel from Egypt. This is after the sixth plague boils on man and beast and before the seventh plague of hail.

So turn to Exodus 9. Let's look at more than just the verse that's quoted. So I think the context actually gives us a fuller view and helps us really to understand what's being said. Exodus chapter 9 is what Paul is quoting in Romans chapter 9. Exodus 9, follow along as I read 13 through 16.

And the Lord said to Moses, rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh and say to him, Thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people go that they may serve me, for at this time I will send all my plagues to your very heart, and on your servants, and on your people, that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. Now if I had stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, then you would have been cut off from the earth. But indeed for this 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. What God says here is that he didn't need Pharaoh and he didn't need ten plagues. So he did raise up Pharaoh but he didn't need Pharaoh.

In order to liberate his people from Egypt, he could have simply sent a pestilence and wiped every Egyptian off the face of the earth and then his people would be free to go. He could do that, maintain justice, be righteous in the doing of it. We find out in the later of the ten plagues that God is perfectly able to send a plague that has full impact on the Egyptians and no impact all on the Israelites. So it answers the question, could God really send a pestilence and kill all the Egyptians without killing a single Israelite? The answer is, yes.

He could have solved this with no Pharaoh, A single act, not an escalating series of ten plagues, but he raised up this man and he ordained, instituted this escalating series of ten plagues in order to show his power so that his name would be declared to the ends of the earth. It pleased God to raise up this man, to oppose him, and to oppress his people for the purpose of displaying his power in triumphing over Pharaoh. Not in one fell swoop, but in an escalating series where he's proving that he's proving that he's proving that he's proving that he is God and he has power to do all things. So that people in every part of the earth would hear about what this God has done and what he's done for his people. Listen to R.C.

Sproul. Speaking of R.C. Sproul, Listen to R.C. Sproul. R.C.

Sproul says this. Pharaoh could not have become the most powerful man in the world apart from the providential rule of God. In other words, Pharaoh didn't make himself Pharaoh. God made him Pharaoh. And the purpose of God in establishing Pharaoh was to show God's power.

Pharaoh was the most powerful man in the world at the time, but when his power was brought to bear against the power of God, Pharaoh appeared impotent, and God's manifestation of his own authority reigned supreme. God was using an evil man to bring about his good purposes and redemptive activity. I think that last sentence says it all. God was using an evil man. Pharaoh was an evil man.

God used raised him up and used him to bring about his good purposes and redemptive activity. Was Pharaoh a king? Yes. Why was Pharaoh a king? Because God made him a king.

Was Pharaoh the most powerful man on planet Earth at the time? Yes, he was the most powerful man on planet Earth at the time. Why was that? Because God wanted to show that when the most powerful man on Earth comes up against God, that man is nothing. That man can do nothing.

Did God raise up Pharaoh? Yes, God raises up and puts down the kings of the earth. And did God display his great power in Pharaoh? Yes, God magnified the deliverance of his people by the manner in which he delivered them. Not one pestilence that just wiped out all their enemies, but a sequence of escalating miracles, plagues.

The manner in which he delivered them magnified the deliverance of his people. And was God's name declared in all the earth as a result? Yes, do you remember Joshua? We get to Joshua. It's 40 years later.

They've been in the wilderness for 40 years. Now they come out of the wilderness. In Joshua chapter 2, Rahab told the spies that terror had fallen on all the people of Jericho because they knew the history of what God had done for them in Egypt. Forty years later, a whole two generations later, the people in Jericho are terrified at the approaching Israelites because they knew the stories of what God did. God did cause his greatness to be declared to the ends of the earth.

The other nations of the earth knew what God had done when he liberated his people from Israel. In Joshua chapter 9, the Gibeonites came to make a treaty with Israel because they had heard of God's fame of all that God had done to deliver the Israelites from Egypt. So the data points in Joshua proves what Paul says in Romans 9 in quoting Exodus. God raised up this man in order to display his power in order that his name would be proclaimed to the ends of the earth. These were God's purposes and his purposes were fulfilled.

Verse 18. So now we're back in Romans chapter 9 looking at verse 18. Follow along as I reread. Therefore, he, God, has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens. In Verse 18, Paul sets before us the supremacy of God's will.

If you're taking notes on the handout, will fills in the blank. The supremacy of God's will. God's will is supreme, at least as set forth by the Apostle Paul. Paul sums up what he's been teaching. Therefore, because of what has just been taught, God has mercy on whom he wills.

Remember from last week, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I have compassion. So that's not new. And, this is new, God hardens Whom he wills. I don't know about you, but me, I'm pretty comfortable with God having mercy, God having compassion, I'm pretty uncomfortable with God hardening. Anybody feel that way?

Anybody ever had that impulse? This is flowing out of the example of Pharaoh. Not only did God raise up Pharaoh, God hardened Pharaoh. God willed, purposed, intended to harden Pharaoh. And the passages in Exodus say so over and over and over.

Just listen. Exodus 421, and the Lord said to Moses, when you go back to Egypt, see that you do all these wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. So this is God speaking to Moses when he's still in Midian, he hasn't gone back to Egypt yet. None of the plagues have been done yet, and God tells Moses exactly what's going to happen.

I'm putting all these plagues into your hand to unleash in sequence, and I'm going to harden Pharaoh's heart so there won't be one plague and go, not two plagues and go, not three plagues and go, but Pharaoh will be hardened all along. I will harden his heart so that all ten plagues come to pass. Exodus chapter 7 verse 3, and I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. Exodus 9-12, But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not heed them just as the Lord had spoken to Moses." Exodus 10 verse 1. Now the Lord said to Moses, Go into Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine before him." Exodus 10 20, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he did not let the children of Israel go.

Exodus 10 27, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not let them go. Exodus 11 10, so Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not let them go. Exodus 11 10, so Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he did not let the children of Israel go out of his land. Exodus 14 4, then I will harden Pharaoh's heart so that he will pursue them and I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. This is after the ten plagues and he's let them go and then God hardens his heart again so that he'll pursue them into the Red Sea.

Exodus 14, 8, and the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel. The children of Israel went out with boldness. Exodus 14, 17, and I indeed will harden the hearts of the Egyptians and they shall follow them so I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army his chariots and his horsemen ten times ten times sorry for belaboring the point I just wanted you to see it's in the text Over and over and over and over again, God says, I will harden his heart. I have hardened his heart. Ten times.

So Paul wants to make sure that we got the point from Exodus. God hardened Pharaoh's heart. In fairness, it should be said that there are also two places in Exodus where it says that Pharaoh hardened his heart, but that hardly overturns the truth of the other ten. Pharaoh did harden his heart, but it only says that twice. Ten times it says God hardened Pharaoh's heart.

So that truth has to stand. You can't take the two and overthrow the truth of what's taught in the temple. Now here's where we get in trouble. You ready? I'm going to point to the trouble spot.

We think to ourselves, poor Pharaoh, Poor guy didn't stand a chance. There he was, minding his own business, when out of nowhere God hardened his heart and plunged him into destruction against his will. Wait, we think Pharaoh wanted to liberate Israel from their slavery but couldn't do what he wanted because God hardened his heart? Do you think that's what Paul is saying? Do you think that's what the Bible is teaching?

I submit to you that that is a false framework for thinking about this and that Paul gave us the true framework in Romans 1. So he's not repeating himself, but It might help if he repeated himself here because in Romans 1 he gave us the framework for thinking about the hardening of a person in Romans 1. So turn back to Romans 1. Paul won't repeat himself. We'll at least go back and look at it.

Romans chapter 1. I'm going to start in 18. Romans 1, I'm starting in 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.

For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts. And their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is forever blessed.

Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. Now skipping down to 28, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. A couple selective repetitions. Verse 21, they became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

That is a response to their rejection of God and their rebellion against God. Do you understand what Paul is teaching here? The movement into futility of thinking and into foolishness of heart and darkness of heart is a response to ungodliness and unrighteousness and not worshipping God as God and not being thankful to God. The response to that is futility of thinking, foolishness of heart, darkness of heart. Verse 24, God gave them up to uncleanness in the lusts of their heart.

That is a response to the rejection of God and rebellion against God. Verse 26, for this reason God gave them up to vile passions. That is a response to the rejection of God and rebellion against God. Verse 28, God gave them up to a debased mind. That is a response to a rejection of God and rebellion against God.

So Paul's theology knows nothing about God hardening the hearts of the innocent. Let me repeat that. Paul's theology knows nothing about God hardening the hearts of the innocent. Let me repeat that. Paul's theology knows nothing about God hardening the hearts of the innocent, but Paul's theology gives us a true framework for understanding God's hardening in response to idolatry and persisting in rebellion.

In other words, in Paul's theology, God's hardening is fundamentally a response which then becomes the cause of other things. It is not the hardening of the innocent. Poor Pharaoh is just minding his own business. Poor Pharaoh was an idolatrous rebel against God. God responded to his idolatry and his rebellion.

So can you make Pharaoh fit within the framework of Romans chapter 1, worshipping the creatures like birds and reptiles? This is a description of Egypt. This is the king of Egypt. The personification of all the idolatry and rebellion against God that's happening in Egypt. Pharaoh was a God-rejecting rebel, not an innocent person who was mining his own business, who really, you know, given his own, given freedom, would have let the people of Israel go.

No. Let me give you a few quotes from commentators that I found helpful. First is from John Murray. John Murray says this, Paul had prepared us for such a conception by his teaching In Romans 1, 24, 26, 28, that's what I just read, where he deals with judicial abandonment to lust to the passions of dishonor and to a reprobate mind. Hardening may never be abstracted from the guilt of which it is the wages.

That's a really helpful way to summarize what Romans 1 is teaching us. Hardening may never be abstracted or disconnected and pulled away from as if it's not associated with it. Hardening may never be abstracted from the guilt of which it is the wages. Hardening is God's response to rejection of God and rebellion against God. Matthew Henry says this, God had said he would Exodus 421 I will harden his heart, that is withdraw softening grace.

Leave him to himself. Let Satan loose against him and lay hardening providences before him. When you see God hardened his heart, don't think that something mystical happened here, where magically a soft heart was made hard. That's not what's being taught or communicated here. Matthew Henry says, that is, withdraw softening grace.

How much work do you think needs to be done to harden a heart of stone? That's how Jeremiah describes the unbelieving heart is a heart of stone. And so the work of regeneration or the work of salvation is the removal of a heart of stone and it implanting of a heart of flesh, a soft heart in place of a hard heart. Do you know anything of softening grace? Has God ever had to soften your heart?

What if he hadn't given you those softening impulses? What if he hadn't? What if he had just backed away and left the natural hardening that sin does happen. What if God left you to yourself? The longer you walk with the Lord, the more terrifying that thought becomes.

The better you know yourself, the more terrifying that thought becomes. God would just stand at a distance and let you act just according to your inclinations. Let Satan loose against him. Have you read Job? What the devil desires to do to people because they bear the image of God, he hates the image of God, and if God doesn't restrain the devil would kill us all in an instant.

So why hasn't he? It's God restraining. Lay hardening providences before him. Do you think it was a hardening providence when Moses came and said to Pharaoh, let all your slave labor go. The God of heaven that you don't know thinks it's a good idea for you to let all your slave labor go.

Do you think that was a hardening providence to Pharaoh? Do you think that was anything mystical or magical about that? No way! Calvin says this, all those external things which lead to the blinding of the reprobate are the instruments of his wrath. God was angry with Pharaoh at his rejection of God, at his rebellion against God, and these external things that are brought to bear then are the instruments of God's wrath.

They are the expression of God's anger against a rebel. Finally, back to John Murray. John Murray says, but It should also be observed that the sin and ill desert, what's ill desert? Deserving ill. Deserving bad.

But it should also be observed that the sin and ill desert, presupposed in hardening, presupposed in hardening, meaning you've got the hardening coming to you because of your sin, you deserve the hardening, is also presupposed in the act of mercy. True? Otherwise, what do you need mercy for? If there's no sin, if there's no deserving of bad, what do you need mercy for? It should also be observed that the sin and ill desert presupposed in hardening is also presupposed in exercise of mercy.

Both parts of this verse rest upon the premise of ill desert, deserving bad. All because of the sin and ill desert presupposed in mercy as well as in final judgment deserve to be hardened and that irretrievably. Do you believe that? That everyone, because of the sin that deserves judgment, Everyone deserves to be hardened, and that irretrievably. Would God be unjust to do that?

To harden people who have rejected him and lived their whole lives in rebellion to him? You would convict God of a crime for that? Verses 19 through 21. Verses 19 through 21. Romans 9, verses 19 through 21.

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. In these verses, Paul anticipates the obvious objection.

So if you're filling in blanks, Objection fills in the blank. Paul anticipates the obvious objection. The objection of this. The objection is this. If God's will is decisive, and in the final analysis, my eternal destiny will be determined not by me but by whether God decides to have mercy or harden.

How can I be held guilty? Why is God blaming me when it's impossible to resist His will? God, why are you blaming me? You just said your will is decisive. It all depends on whether you decide to have mercy or you decide to harden.

How can you hold me guilty? At this point, we might expect a complex argument about the inner relationship between the free will of man and the sovereignty of God in all things, but that's not what we get. Instead, Paul goes simply to the rights of the Creator. There's an interesting discussion to be had over the interrelationship between the will of man, is it free, is it not free, and the sovereignty of God. And Paul's not having anything to do with that interesting discussion in this place.

He does in other places, but he doesn't here. He goes right to the rights of the Creator. Does the Creator have the rights or not? Here are the three pillars of the argument. Filler number one, we are not God's peer.

A peer is someone on the same relational level. Not a subordinate of, not advanced above, not below, not above, on the same one, we are not God's peer. Pillar number two, it is not appropriate for the creation to cross-examine the Creator. It's not appropriate for the creation to cross-examine the Creator, to attempt to drag God into court, and put him under oath, and cross-examine him, and demand a response to all your questions. That's not how it works.

He stands in judgment over us. Good thing, because he's actually righteous, and he actually knows stuff. We don't stand in judgment over him. It's not appropriate for the creation to cross-examine the Creator. Pillar number three, as Creator God has supreme rights over the creation.

He is the potter, we are the clay. Supreme rights! Who can deprive the creator of the rights over his creation to do with that creation whatever he thinks is good? Now let me draw out some additional points from the text. I'm going to draw out five additional points.

Three pillars of the argument. Pillar number one, we're not God's peer. Pillar number two, it's not appropriate for the creation to cross-examine the Creator. Pillar number three, as the Creator, God has supreme rights over the creation. Let me give you five other points to draw out from the text.

One, as creations our posture towards God should be one of extreme humility. How should you approach God? Certainly not as one who's trying to drag him into court to cross-examine him. Extreme humility. Every breath that you've ever breathed has been a gift.

He didn't owe you one of those breaths. How many of you take a minute? I don't know. If we could Google it. Google knows.

Matthew Henry says this, it becomes us to submit to him not to reply against him. We should be submitting to this God not trying to drag him into court to cross examine him not to reply against him. Paul is saying and Matthew Henry is saying, don't talk back. If you had a nickel for every time you said that to your kids, how many, you could take us all to lunch. Number two, Paul draws on an absurdity.

He wants us to see something outrageous. He invites us into the potter's workshop to behold a wonder, the clay cross-examining the potter. So In your mind's eye, he's taking you into the potter's workshop. There's the potter, there's the clay, he's working with the clay. But the clay can talk.

And the clay wants answers. He is introducing us to an absurdity. When you think about it, it is funny. We should laugh. The clay is actually accusing the potter.

I shouldn't be like this. Why did you make me like this? Who gave you the rights to make me like this? How absurd! The clay doesn't get to say those things to the potter, even if the clay can speak.

Three. The reality of God and his creatures is actually more absolute than between a potter and the clay. The analogy takes you so far but no further. Where's the breakdown? Ever met a potter who made his clay?

This is a potter who made the clay. It's not just forming something that someone else gave him. This potter made the clay. So The picture is absurd. When you're taken in your mind's eye into the potter's workshop and introduced to clay that's talking back and making demands of the potter, you say that's absurd.

This is more absurd. The analogy doesn't even go to how absolute the relationship is between God and man. The picture is absurd, but the reality is actually more so. Four. A consideration of the phrase, from the same lump, is crucial.

Statistics have it that people probably only remember 5 to 10% of the sermon. So, will you let me pick? Remember this five to ten percent of the sermon. The consideration of the phrase from the same lump is crucial. What is the same lump?

Now think about it. Think about it with me. It's the children of Adam. He's forming out of this same lump that the children of Adam created good but didn't stay good. Adam plunged our race into sin and rebellion.

This same lump is humanity in our sinful, warped, corrupt states, where we don't love the right things, we love the wrong things, where we don't hate the right things, we hate the wrong things. The starting point isn't a tabula rasa, a blank slate. That's a different lump of clay. Wherever that lump of clay is, this is not what we're talking about. This is not a blank slate.

The starting point is mankind in all out rebellion against our Creator. That is the lump of clay. And with that as the backdrop, The potter is making vessels of honor and beauty. How do you even make vessels of honor and beauty out of that lump? But somehow God can do it.

Somehow God does do it. The question is, given this lump of clay, is God compelled to only make vessels of honor and beauty? That's the real question on the table. It's a miracle that out of this lump of clay, mankind in all out rebellion against our creator, we hate him and yet out of that lump of clay he'll make vessels of honor and beauty. Does that mean he's obligated to only make vessels of honor and beauty out of this lump of clay?

That is the question. More on that next week. Come back next week. Don't go on vacation this week. Two weeks ago I said this, don't marvel that God hated Esau.

Even before he had done anything good or bad, all he needed was time and opportunity. He would do plenty bad. He would think like a rebel, speak like a rebel, Act like a rebel. He would prove, just give him time. Esau will prove that he's a rebel.

He'll prove that he's a God hater. Just give him time. Don't marvel that God hated Esau. Marvel that God loved Jacob. He's part of this same lump of mankind in all-out rebellion.

But God loved Jacob. So, don't marvel that God makes vessels for dishonor. Marvel that He makes vessels of honor and beauty out of that lump. Lump. Five.

Five. Paul is drawing on the rich pre-existing imagery of Isaiah and Jeremiah. Isaiah in chapters 29, 45, and 64. Jeremiah in chapter 18. I thought about spending time there.

I'm not going to spend time there. I'll just give you a couple of samples. In Isaiah 64, In Isaiah 64, he introduces this same theme, God is the potter, man is the clay, right after all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. You are the potter, we are the clay. Even in Isaiah 64 you get the definition of what this lump is that the potter is using and fashioning out of.

It's a lump where every righteousness is actually filthy rags in the eyes of that potter. In Jeremiah 18, God is explaining the judgment that he's bringing on Israel, a judgment by a wicked king, Nebuchadnezzar. He's going to come in and take people into captivity and destroy the temple. And he sends Jeremiah in Jeremiah 18 down to the potter's workshop to watch the potter start to make something. And then it wasn't as he desired it, and so he just started over again and made something else.

God says, does the potter have the right to do that? Do I have the right to bring an unrighteous king in judgment on these people? Am I the potter or am I not? Applications, I'll give you two. One, Paul is teaching that God does love, God does have mercy and compassion, God does make vessels of honor and beauty in spite of what we're like.

We're part of this lump of this massive humanity in all-out rebellion against God. And yet in spite of that God loves, in spite of that God has compassion and mercy, in spite of that God does make vessels of honor and beauty. So the application is go to God for mercy. But you say, I can't make God have mercy on me. That's what Paul's teaching.

Why even bother? But can't you see a genuine desire for mercy is evidence that God is having mercy? You have to see this. A genuine desire to have the mercy of God is evidence that God is having mercy. You have to see this.

A genuine desire to have the mercy of God is evidence that God is having mercy on you. You wouldn't be thinking that, feeling that, if God wasn't having mercy on you. You're imagining that there's this group of people who really want to be saved, who are genuinely going to God, acknowledging their desperate need, acknowledging that what God says about them is true, but God just won't save them. Let me say this, the Bible knows nothing of such people. These are people that you imagine and the Bible knows nothing about them.

Do you really want to be saved? Or are you willing to genuinely go to God acknowledging your desperate need, acknowledging that what God says about you is true, that there's only one hope, that Jesus' blood is the only fix for the problems that you see inside you. Don't fear that if you go that way, God won't save you. If you think that way, if you're feeling that way, it is evidence that God is having mercy on you. Run!

Run! Number two. The Bible gives us an expansive view of God. Never allow it to be shrunken down. Big book, big God.

Don't let anyone shrink it down to a page or two. A view where God is shrunken down to only mercy, only compassion robs him of his godhood. He is that, but he is so much more than that. That is a domesticated God unknown to scripture. That is everywhere in modicum evangelicalism.

There's more. There are sound pockets in modern evangelicalism, but it's not hard to find a God who's been shrunken down to only mercy, only compassion. He is that. Amen to that. But He's not only that.

The fear of God is lost when God is shrunken down to that. A view where God is shrunken down to only doling out just desserts, given what they deserve, God, is also a monstrosity unknown to scripture. You couldn't be saved if that was the God of scripture. You can shrink down from both sides, you know. You can make God only mercy, only compassion.

That's not a full ordeal of God. That is not God as he reveals himself fully in Scripture. You can go to the other side where God just doles out the just desserts. Just give them what they deserve, God. Both of those are an aspect that is true of God, but one without the other becomes a monstrosity.

This is not the God of Scripture. Understand this, you probably have a natural leaning. You're probably inclined to shrink down God on one side of the wall or the other. You should identify that. You should be aware of that.

You should do things to counteract that. I'm a person who inclines towards shrinking God down to only a God of mercy and compassion. So I've sort of walled myself off to His holiness and His righteousness and His justice. And that's not God. Or, in my mind, he looms so large as a god of justice and holiness, that I almost shrink back from thinking about Him having compassion.

That is not the God of scripture. Know which side you're naturally inclined towards and counteract that. We don't need a shrunken down God. We need the big God who is. That's the God we're meant to be worshiping, is worshiping God as he is.

Let's pray. God thank you for not apologizing in your word for your sovereignty. Thank you for at times explaining yourself patiently. In some places in scripture, Thank you for the fact that at times you put us in our place. You remind us that we are not your peer.

It is not appropriate for us to cross-examine you as if you owe us an explanation, as if we would understand it if you explained it. God help us to rest in you. Help us to simply trust you. Knowing that all your ways are right. You always do what's right.

Help us not to stand in judgment of you in our fallenness. We think wrongly about so many things. Who are we? And even if we had the standing, who wouldn't be able to judge these things rightly? Help us God.

Please have mercy on us in Jesus name, amen.