Scott Brown's sermon, titled 'We Would Have Become like Sodom,' explores the themes of God's sovereignty and the doctrine of election as presented in Romans 9. The sermon delves into the concept of double predestination, which posits that God predestines some to salvation and others to damnation. Brown examines the apostle Paul's use of illustrations, such as the potter and clay, to demonstrate God's authority and the insignificance of man. The sermon addresses the tension between God's sovereignty and human responsibility, emphasizing that while God is in control, humans have agency. Brown underscores the importance of unconditional election as it relies on God's mercy rather than human righteousness. The message concludes by highlighting the transformative power of God's hand in shaping believers and ensuring they do not become like Sodom and Gomorrah.

Please open your Bibles to Romans 9 and find verse 19. Romans 9, 19. I think actually I'm going to read verse 17 to frame the flow of the Apostle Paul's doctrine here. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter-than-honey Word of God. Romans 9, 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. 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 the 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 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.

Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel, though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved. For he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth. And as Isaiah said before, unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and we would have been made like Gomorrah. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for giving us a picture of the way that you're operating in the world, your mighty hand, and your loving kindness and your tender mercy. Lord I pray that you would help us to take these things deep within our hearts. Amen. Please be seated. So as we continue here in the book of Romans we're in this section which is called a theodicy which is a vindication of the character of God, the deeds of God particularly in election.

And of course we're in this section in Romans which is perhaps the greatest testimony really of the doctrine of predestination. And it's really a very clear description of what theologians call double predestination. And where God predestines sinners to be saved and he predestines sinners to be damned. Double predestination. It's a very unpopular doctrine.

It may be one of the most unpopular doctrines in modern evangelicalism. It so exalts God beyond measure that it's offensive to many. But frankly, what you find here on the table before us is the testimony of the goodness of God, the greatness of the mercy of God. And in these messages on election I've tried to make it plain Why unconditional election is actually very good news. Because it does not depend on man's righteousness.

It depends on God's mercy. And so we find ourselves here in this very critical matter of the doctrine of God. Who is your God? Who is the God that you believe in? And it's very important that we understand that we believe in the God of the Bible.

And the context here, of course, is the apostle is illustrating the doctrine of election and salvation, and he first gives these illustrations from childbirth, from family life, three generations, Abraham and Rebecca, and then Isaac not Ishmael is elect, and then Jacob not Esau is elect, and then that statement, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then, in the text that we find ourselves in today, the apostle shifts from these three generations and he moves to the illustration of Pharaoh, that God actually hardened Pharaoh's heart, and we also know that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. So we have the same idea, but then in a political, the realm of rulers like Pharaoh, nation states. We talked last week about God's sovereign hand over the nation states and then now he brings a different illustration. It's an illustration out of commerce and industry and artistry, creativity, the potter and the clay.

So that's where we find ourselves here. And this is a vindication of God. It's again, it's very important that we believe the Bible and what it says about God. John Wycliffe said, prove all things by the word of God. All churches, all ministers, all teaching, all preaching, all doctrines, all sermons, all writings, all opinions, all practices.

Prove all by the word of God. Measure all by the measure of the Bible. Compare all with the standard of the Bible. Weigh all in the balances of the Bible. Compare all with the Bible.

Examine all in light of the Bible. Test all in the crucible of the Bible. That which does not abide the fire of the Bible, reject, refuse, repudiate, and cast away. This is the flag which Christ nailed to the mast, may it never be lowered. And I think it's critical that we just clearly and boldly and faithfully proclaim what the Bible says.

And there are things that are hard to understand here in this section. And I don't believe that we will ever be able to understand them completely. Because they are, they really are out of this study, which is the depth and the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. That's the territory that we're in here. Now, you have an outline In front of you, you can see where I'm gonna go.

First of all, we'll deal with this question, why does he still find fault? And then there are three, in summary, answers to that question. And he first declares the insignificance of man in verse 20, then he declares the authority of God over every man as a potter over the clay, and then finally he reveals the whole plan of God, which is really thrilling and terrifying at the same time. So let's begin with this question. He asked the question, why does he still find fault?

Verse 19, you will say to me then why does he still find fault for who has resisted his will? And of course this is the obvious question. It's the objection that we're all familiar with. If God is so powerful, If God is so good, why would he send anyone to hell? Why does not God intervene?

Of course, this is a question that would resound in anyone's mind. If God loves Jacob and hates Esau and chooses Isaac not Ishmael and if he hardens Pharaoh's heart, then aren't we all robots? That's sort of the idea. And as if we have no choice, as if we cannot resist his will. So this is the whole problem that's here.

You know, philosophers have dealt with this from the beginning. Epicurus said it like this, is God willing to prevent evil but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able but not willing? Then he is malevolent.

Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" So you can just reject God on this question if you're a Greek philosopher. Now, there are multiple falsehoods and the assumptions that Epicurus presents here.

First, evil does not limit God. Secondly, God has given us agency. Actually, there's just a very clear statement of this in the Baptist Confession of 1689 on free will. You should read it. It really explains the difficulty and the nuances of what the Bible teaches.

But Epicurus leaves us with the impression that God is incapable of stopping evil, or he's unwilling to stop evil. And since he doesn't stop it, he doesn't exist. That's his logic, and that's the logic of so many. So many. And that God does speak of his own sovereignty and at the same time human responsibility.

Pharaoh, God did harden Pharaoh's heart and Pharaoh hardened his own heart. If God is not sovereign, you might think of it like this. There are only a couple of options if God is not sovereign, and you have to accept them. And one is that some being other than God is determining the future. Or some impersonal force is determining the future.

I think those are your only options and of course people will take those options as well but the man but the Bible teaches two things that God is sovereign and that man is responsible. Charles Simeon, one of the great preachers of the 18th century, he was known for mixing two seemingly competing passages together. For example, John 540, you will not come to me that you may have life and then John 644, no man can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And he says he says this, the truth is not in the middle and not in one extreme but in both extremes it is not one extreme that we are to go to but both extremes in other words but these are two things that are just true and I'm just not confident the human mind is able to sort it all out. I really haven't seen anybody who really has and haven't been myself.

Here's I think where we can land where Jonathan Edwards landed when he said the sovereignty of God is his absolute independent right of disposing all creatures according to his own pleasure. And so you have this question why does he still find fault and then the answers flow beginning in verse 20 and in verse 20 the answer is not really probably very pleasing to the hearer it's not very flattering to the hearer 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?" So he's actually declaring the insignificance of the opinion of man. That's not very flattering. Now the first thing to note here in this answer in verse 20 is the tone.

Do you notice the tone? It's it's a rebuke. It's a sharp rebuke to this question. This is an anti-God question. The question is a replying against.

Do you see the language there? Reply against God. It is a reply with the assumption of the rejection of God, against God. Instead of reverence toward God, instead of humility toward the omnipotent God who made everything that you can see and more. This is a reply against.

He calls the questioner, oh man, who are you? Oh man. This is God actually putting man in his place and then he states that we are the thing formed, the thing formed. Who are you, O man, a thing formed? Okay, we just have to grasp the sternness of the reply.

You know, the apostle isn't playing patty cake with the enemies of God. And this kind of interaction happens in the Bible. You probably remember how this kind of happened with Job. Job was a godly man. Job was displeased with God.

God says to him, where were you when I formed the foundations of the earth? Where were you, O man? This is the same kind of thing. Isaiah said, woe to him who quarrels with God. And that's what's happening here.

This is the personal exaltation and the idolatry of the self. This is the kind of man he is answering. He's not coming up with a fancy philosophical explanation. He's saying, who are you, oh man? You are nothing but a bit of clay.

And then he says that you are the thing formed. You are the thing formed. By the way, we're not talking about two equal parties, God and man. Who are you? The thing formed.

And this is a very interesting observation here. He's really saying that man, man doesn't even know how he got where he is. He was formed by God. And he uses the term that we get our word plastic, formed. You know, plastic is formable, moldable.

You can inject it into molds. You can shape it. You are the thing formed. And the word is sometimes translated in the sense of invented or knitted together, like you formed me in my mother's womb. And I was tempted to title this sermon, The Hand of God, because everything here is speaking about the hand of God on the head of a man.

And it's why Job in Job 10-8, Job said, your hands have made me and fashioned me. In intricate unity, in Jeremiah 1-5, Jeremiah says, before, or God says to Jeremiah, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I sanctified you. This is the hand of God forming a human being. In Isaiah 44 2 we read this, thus says the Lord who made you and formed you from the womb who will help you.

Fear not, O Jacob, my servant." He's saying, I have formed you. I made you. In Isaiah 43 verse 7 we read this, everyone who is called by my name, whom I have created for my glory, I have formed him, I have made him. And of course David said the same thing in Psalm 139, you formed me in my mother's womb. So God is coming back at the questioner and saying, I have formed you.

And that's true of every person here, I think we should let that sink in. Just pause for a moment and think about that. That it was God who made you. It was God who decided to make you exactly the way that you are. Almighty, all-wise, all-loving God, He made you.

It's remarkable to think Christianly about your life. About your life. I picked up an old book I read a long time ago, A.W. Pink, Sovereignty of God. My pastor gave it to me when I was a young Christian.

In fact, tomorrow on Monday, Deborah and I are going to go see him in California. He's in his 90s now. But everything that I'm doing today, he taught me when I was a boy and I'm so thankful for him. We get to go see he and his wife tomorrow in California on our way to New Zealand to go preach there. But I picked up my old copy of AW Pink this week and I took it home and I copied these words out of it.

We affirm that God is under no rule or law outside of his own will and nature. That God is a law unto himself That he is under no obligation to give an account of his matters to anybody Do you see you see this is kind of how the Apostle is? Replying to this question. He doesn't need to give an account. Sovereignty characterizes the whole being of God.

He is sovereign in all his attributes. He is sovereign in the exercise of his power. So this is the answer that is given. And when we, I really, you know, I want to get to the end of this sermon because the whole reason for election is so that we would not be like Sodom or be made like Gomorrah. This is why election is such an important doctrine because without it we would be like Sodom and Gomorrah.

So you see first he declares the insignificance of man in verse 20, go to verse 21, then he declares the authority of God over every man And he brings us into this illustration of the potter in the clay. Verse 21, does not the potter have power over the clay from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor. So he turns to this illustration from craftsmanship and art, artistry and utility because we all use pots of various kinds. And he's just illustrating how much power God has over us. He is the potter.

One of the things that I love about the Bible is how illustrative it is, how beautifully illustrated it is, how graphic it is. The Bible is a picture book. I have whole books in my library about biblical metaphor and and typology. I love those books and it's what you have here in the potter in the clay is theology in pictures. You can teach doctrine to your children through the metaphors of the Bible from beginning to end.

It's just so beautiful. And you know I recently wrote a book on marriage called Getting the Picture Right, because marriage is a picture. It's a picture of Christ in the church. And I just finished writing a book called Beyond Modesty, the meaning of clothing in the Bible because clothing is actually a picture. It's a picture of something greater and you can trace these things all the way through the Bible.

It's really, it's so beautiful. The Bible is so rich But what he's saying here is that the distance between the potter and the clay is very, very great. Almost infinitely great. And of course, in real terms, it is infinitely a great distance between the two. But you can't miss what he's saying.

He's saying, I am the potter. And this language actually begins in Genesis. In Genesis chapter 2 verse 7 we read these words, and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being. And that word formed in Genesis 2-7 is many, many times translated potter, or fashioned, or formed. That's the whole idea.

God formed man at the beginning, and he continues to perform his work as a potter. You know Isaiah speaks of this as well. Isaiah speaks of this a number of times, this idea of the potter and the clay. In Isaiah 29, 16, God is rebuking people who think too highly of themselves. And he says, surely you have things turned around.

Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay? For shall the thing made say to him who made it He did not make me or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it He has no understanding I think that's a great verse for an evolutionist. You know, the evolutionist says, he did not make me. God says I did make you. In Isaiah 45, verse 9, the Lord takes this illustration further, not to the pot, but broken clay, broken pieces of clay.

He says, woe to him who strives with his Maker, let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him who forms it, what are you making? Or shall your handiwork say, he has no hands? And then in Isaiah 64 verse 8, this is such a beautiful picture here, and here the metaphor is used in a prayer. Yet you Lord are our Father.

We are the clay. You are the potter. We are all the work of your hand." So this idea of the potter and the clay runs throughout scripture particularly in Isaiah. In Jeremiah It's the longest text. Go ahead and open your Bibles to Jeremiah 18.

Jeremiah 18. Here, the Lord tells Jeremiah, go down to the potter's house, Jeremiah 18. And he gives him instructions and he declares himself to be the potter. Jeremiah 18 verse 1. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying arise go down to the potter's house and there I will cause you to hear my words.

Then I went down to the potter's house and there he was making something at the wheel and the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter, in other words damaged. So he made it again into another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to make. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter? Says the Lord, look as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, oh house of Israel. This is a picture of the restoration of clay, of the remaking of clay, of clay that was damaged.

This is what happens to every person who turns to the Lord Jesus That clay is So lumpy so damaged So malformed and God puts the clay back on the potter's wheel. This is called sanctification. And what God is saying here is I will put my rebellious house of Israel back on the potter's wheel. It's such a beautiful picture. And that's why Paul says in Romans 921, does not the potter have power over the clay from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

You just think about how wonderful that is, that God is taking a vessel for dishonor and making it a vessel for honor. That's actually what he's doing in this church. That's what he's doing in people's lives. It's absolutely amazing. And you think about the process of throwing a pot, you know, maybe you've seen it, or maybe you've done it, but you know, You start with what is generally worthless.

It's clay, it's dirt. And again, it's actually where we get our word, plastic, plasma, this shapeable substance. But you just dig it out of the ground and it doesn't really cost anything. It's not worth very much. And this is what God is doing with the elect.

We already read about this in Romans 8 29, he predestined us to be conformed to the image of his son. This is the hand of God. You know the clay cannot make itself into a pot. We don't know how to make ourselves. We need help from heaven.

We need the word of God. We need the ordinances of God. We need the worship of God. We need to sing together. We need to take the Lord's Supper together.

We need to instruct one another and help one another. We cannot do it on our own. And the potter uses so many means to shape us into the image of Christ, because we don't know how to make ourselves. And this is why we so desperately need the Word of God to sort of reshape your soul every day. And why we actually need the liturgy of a church to shape us.

All the things that we do in the worship of God is designed to shape us and then to send us out. It's the work of the potter and the clay. God's doing that. If your heart is open toward the Lord, He's doing that now. Your heart is soft toward him.

You want to hear him. You want to be pliable. You want to be like that clay, like that plasma in his hands. Because the intelligence is not in the clay. The intelligence is in the potter.

We are not our own. We were bought with a price. You know, many years ago, our family went to Washington, D.C. On 4th of July. We went there for several years.

Wow, it was wild. And we would go there and ride our bikes and strap a grill on the back and everything and have this great picnic there. But we were there one time and there were all these tents on the National Mall there. And in this one tent there was an Indian, an American Indian in garb, you know. He was throwing a pot and we were all standing there.

It was so interesting and Deborah and I and our kids were standing there and this little boy says to the Indian, He says, he says, what's it going to be? And this American Indian replied, he says, the pot decides. The pot will tell me what it wants to be. Oh, it was just so, this heavy moment. And then this eight-year-old kid to the side said, can the pot tell you what six times eight is?

Well, you know, the clay doesn't tell the potter what to make. The potter makes the clay what he wants it to be. And he's on, and the clay is on a wheel. I think the imagery is helpful to us in our own lives because all of us are on the potter's wheel. All of us are being spun around at a certain velocity.

And the hand of God is upon us. The hand of God is upon every believer. Every single thing that is happening in your life right now is from the hand of God. You know if you don't get that straight early in life, you're gonna have a lot of stress in your life. Get that settled early.

That you are clay in the hand of God and whatever comes to you God will use for his own glory. We already read about that didn't we in Romans 828 That God causes all things together to work for good, for those who love Him and who are the called according to His purpose. Everyone is on a potter's wheel, and he's controlling the speed, and he's controlling the pressure, and he creates the right environment. Clay needs to be in a proper environment to function properly. But the clay doesn't know how to make himself and neither do we.

This is why the first thing you do in the morning ought to be to open your Bible and seek the Lord and have him shape that clay by his word. But also, you know, the pot can become very useful, very, very valuable. But the way that it happens isn't all that pleasant. Because when the clay goes onto the wheel, It has been prepared, it's been stretched, it's been pushed. A tremendous force of muscular exertion has already been exerted on that piece of clay.

It's been pushed and pulled around and pressed. It's called the wedging process. The clay is actually kneaded and it's pushing out air pockets and finishing off lumps that are in the clay. But if you watch a potter, he pushes hard on that clay, and he's pushing hard on some of you. But it's the potter's hand.

But it's the potter's hand. He is actually heaping affliction on the clay. So this shapeless lump of clay becomes a vessel of honor and you become useful. But you're always on the potter's wheel. And you know, we have to just recognize the truth about this life.

You did not determine when you were born, you did not determine who you're born to, you did not determine your height, you did not determine your hair, You did not determine your intellect. You did not determine your bone structure or your muscular structure. You didn't control any of that. Because from the very beginning, there was an incontestable authority in your life. And one last thing, And one last thing, God does not need a permit to remodel your life.

He doesn't have to go down to the county and pull a permit to make changes. And that's actually a really good thing. He doesn't have to mess with the red tape. He is God. But the clay also must learn how to yield because we often are like a stiff neck people and Often there's a great change that takes place when the clay finally yields.

And that's the most blessed thing. And he really has charted the course for all of our life. So he is the potter and we are the clay. And if you're a believer he's making a vessel for honor. Well then thirdly in this answer he reveals the whole plan of God.

I love this section it begins in verse 22 all the way to the end of the chapter but in verses 22 to 24 is a question but it's a question where the answer is baked into the question. It's like a rhetorical question. Here it goes. 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 but also of the Gentiles." So The question is answered inside of the question. Okay, in other words, this is what God's doing.

God is making his wrath and his power known. There are five attributes of God listed in these three verses. Glory, wrath, power, patience, and mercy. That's what God is doing. This is the plan of God.

This is why God is sovereign, so that this plan would be executed with perfection. And of course, all in this is implied the patience of God. You notice the word patience. You know why hasn't God ended it all? Because God is waiting for more and more people to repent of their sins.

First Peter three talks about this, and the Lord says, the day is like a thousand years to the Lord, he's waiting. And then he explains what he will do with his people. I just want to take us Through verses 25 to 29. I hope you're looking at it. I want to direct your attention to some of the words here This is what God is doing This is the potter's hand at work in the world.

I will call them my people, my people who are not my people. Now there's a whole remarkable story behind this in the book of Hosea because in this section Paul quotes Hosea and then Isaiah but he's quoting Hosea, I will call them my people who were not my people. Look at the word near the end of verse 25, and beloved, who is not beloved. This is the doctrine of election. They shall be called sons of the living God, verse 26.

The remnant will be saved, verse 27. And then the, I think The whole force of this text falls upon verse 29. Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and we would have been made like Gomorrah. This is why the doctrine of election is such a good doctrine because this is what would have happened to everyone. That it does not depend on man's righteousness but on God's electing mercy.

And I hope everyone can reconcile themselves to that and just be found humbled before God that there was no reason at all that he would save you, except that he changed your heart. Something happened to you, and you saw the Lord. And you realized that you were not a Christian. Maybe you'd been in church your whole life and you realize you did not know God and God showed you he opened your eyes and you saw that you were lost in your sins and you repented of your sins he caused your heart to change toward him and then after that you then you're no longer sitting in church and it's all going over your head and you just can't wait to get to the lunch because your heart changed and you did nothing except that God changed your heart and you believed. That's the greatness of the doctrine of election.

And this makes it very clear that the grace of God will not fail. So it's a very stern answer, isn't it? Who are you, O man? And then he declares the insignificance of man and then he declares the authority of God over man as the potter over the clay. And then he reveals the whole plan of God and he tells us the truth about our life.

If he had not elected us we would have become like Sodom. And now we're walking out of Sodom. Well I just want to leave you with a couple of things. You are in the hand of God if you're a believer. God has you on his potter's wheel and for some of you it's spinning really fast but God has you in his hand.

He's the potter and you're the clay and he loves you and he's doing everything He is doing in your life right now so that you would not become like Sodom and be made like Amorah. Even the difficult things, the purifying things, the things that make you cry out to God and pray for help during God's hands. 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. For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has become his counselor, or who has first given to him and it shall be repaid to him. For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever.

Amen. I'd like us just to pause for a moment and consider these things in our own hearts. And then I'll close in prayer. Oh Lord, we thank you that you hold all things in your hands, that you are our Father and you are the potter. Amen.