Pastor Steve Hopkins, continuing his sermon series on Romans at Barnet Bible Church, addresses the purpose of believers' continued existence on earth post-salvation. He emphasizes sanctification, the progressive process of growing in holiness and becoming more like Christ, as God's will for believers. Unlike justification, which is a monergistic act of God, sanctification is a synergistic process involving both divine influence and human cooperation. Hopkins urges believers to actively engage in their sanctification by immersing themselves in God's Word and meditating on it. He warns of the dangers of unrestrained sinfulness, using the analogy of a chained dog to illustrate God's restraint on human sin. The sermon reflects on the hardening of Pharaoh's heart as an example of divine judgment and emphasizes God's sovereign right over creation. Hopkins concludes by urging humility and repentance, highlighting the importance of recognizing and submitting to God's sovereignty.

Welcome back to Barnet Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the book of Romans. I've read where Spurgeon, every time he ascended to the pulpit, which was raised above the height of the floor where the congregation sat, that he would, as ascending the pulpit, would repeat again and again, I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit.

He understood that apart from a work of God's Spirit that the arm of flesh would fail him and It's something that I'm also well aware of. Before we stand for the reading of the Word from Romans 9, I want to ask the congregation a question. Why is it that on the day that you first believed in Christ, you were not immediately translated into the kingdom of heaven? You know, you're saved. That's the goal, right?

We're to be saved, we're to be regenerated, we're to be justified in God's side, and then that's it, right? Well, Why then are we not immediately translated into God's presence? To answer this, and I'm sure most of you already know the answer to this, but I want to briefly direct your attention to 1st Thessalonians chapter for, where the apostle Paul says, Furthermore, then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us how you ought to walk to please God, so you would abound more and more. Paul is talking to Christians about their sanctification. The reason that we're not whisked away to heaven immediately at the moment that we're justified in God's sight is because God would have us to be made more like Jesus before we enter into the presence of Jesus.

Sanctification is the goal, which he goes on to talk about in verse 3. He says, this is the will of God for you, even your sanctification. This is God's will for you. You know, we think, well, you know, we have so many things in this life that we are pursuing. What is God's will for me in this life?

Ultimately, we have to come to grips with the reality that ultimately God's will for us is that we would be conformed more to the image of Christ in this life. That's why you're still here. That's why I'm still here. It is God's will that we would be sanctified. Sanctification is growing in holiness.

It's being set apart more and more day by day from sin and from worldliness unto God. It's being set apart from this to this, from sin and worldliness to God more and more. It is every true believer's day-by-day progress in conforming of our character and conduct to Christ. Sanctification is progressive. What does that mean?

Well, it's a process. Something that we progress in if we're believers. Justification is a one-time event, right? God saves us. We're justified in His sight.

He brings us to faith in Christ. He brings us to repentance. We're immediately, by a monogistic work of God, One work of God, we are saved. We are justified in His sight. We're declared just in God's sight.

Sanctification is synergistic. It is a cooperative work. It is a work that God does in us and that we participate in. It is God working in us and us cooperating with the goal to be more like Jesus, conforming more and more to His character and conduct. It's cooperative, it's progressive, it goes on to the last day of our lives.

My question for you is, what are you doing to cooperate with God? What are you doing to cooperate with God? The purpose, the will of God is for your sanctification. The will of God is for my sanctification. What are you doing to cooperate?

If I had some of the young men pass around a piece of paper to everybody and say, write down last week, what did you do to cooperate with God in your growth and holiness and in conformity to Christ and and being more like Jesus What did you what did you do last week? Well, I was in the Word of God. You know, Jesus said in John 17, 17, sanctify them, Father, by Thy truth, Thy Word is truth. You've got to be in the Word of God, right? Well I was in God's Word every day.

I'm reading through the Bible. I was listening to a sermon clip by Paul Walsh the other day and he was talking about this very thing. He said, I just recommend you read through the Bible. You want to be sanctified? Reading through the Scriptures.

How many are reading through the Bible? How many at some point in time have already read through the Bible? How many times have you read through the Bible? Do you want to participate, cooperate in your sanctification? You've got to be reading God's Word.

You've got to be inculcating God's Word. You've got to be taking in God's Word. You got to be drinking it in. And then we talked about at the beginning of this year about meditating on the Word of God. Are you taking time?

Are you setting aside time for meditation to actually meditate on the Word of God, to actually contemplate what you're reading and say, God, I want to be more like Christ. How can I, through what I'm reading here, be made more like Jesus? Because This is the will of God, even your sanctification. This is the purpose. This is why you're still here.

This is why I'm still here. We need to be made more like Jesus, as much like Him as we can be made before we see him face to face. Now the apostle in this scripture in 1 Thessalonians, he speaks specifically here of sexual sin. He says, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality, from fornication. Not that this is the only sin that Christians are to abstain from and mortify and grow in holiness, but it's very, very serious.

In Colossians 3, it's on the list of those things that are to be mortified, mortify the members of your flesh. He goes through fornication, adulteries, etc. Etc. It is a sin to be killed, to be deadened, and which if not mortified, the Bible says, will bring the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience. Do you tremble at God's Word?

If not mortified brings the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience. He goes on and says that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel, that's his body, in sanctification, that is set apart unto God and honor, not in the lust of concupiscence, which is strong desire driven by lust, even as the Gentiles who know not God. It's a description of those who do not know God who live in sexual lust and concupiscence. So the Apostle Paul drives this one home. He talks about, you know, how we're to, This is the will of God, even your sanctification.

And then he goes straight to, well, sexual immorality. It's not the only thing, but it's pretty serious, right? He talks about it all the time. And he says that those who are engaging in this, living in this, they don't know God. They're living in it.

They don't know God. It doesn't say they slide, they slip from time to time, their thoughts get away from them, etc., etc. He speaks of those who are living in this. They don't know how to possess their bodies in sanctification and honor. They live in the lust of sexual lust and sexual desire driven from within.

And they know not God. So it's serious, right? It's pretty serious. But our growth and holiness is not limited to mortification of lust and unholy sexual desires. Further on Paul says put off all these anger, wrath, That's outbursts of anger, malice, evil thinking towards others, blasphemy against God, filthy communication out of your mouth, lying one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man which was renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." So this is the will of God for you, even your sanctification, even my sanctification.

That's why we're still here. And so we say, well, how? How? Believers are in union with Christ. We are to rely upon Christ and Him crucified and risen from the dead.

What good does it do to talk about what we're not supposed to do and how we're supposed to mortify our flesh if we don't even know how do we pursue this? Okay, yes by the Word of God. We've got to be in the Word of God. We've got to be renewing our minds day by day. But relying upon Christ in whom we are in union with, relying on Christ and His death and His resurrection.

We draw from Him. He is the vine, the scripture says, and we are the branches and apart from Him we could do nothing. I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same will bring forth much fruit. For without me you could do nothing.

But with Christ we could do all things through him who strengthens us. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, Philippians 4.13. So that's why we're still here, to grow in holiness and to grow in Christ's likeness. Let's stand for the reading of the Word of the Lord. Romans chapter 9, let's read verses 17 through 20.

For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for the same purpose have I raised thee up that I might show my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay, but O man, who art thou that repliest against God?

Shall the thing form say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. Let's pray. Father, the arm of flesh will certainly fail us. Relying upon our own intellect will fail us.

Relying upon oratory powers will fail us. We rely, O God, upon your Spirit. We ask, Lord, that you would give the Spirit in accord with your word to them that ask for the glory of the name of your son Jesus and for the building up of your church. For we do ask it in Christ's name. Amen.

Let's be seated. So in our last session we looked at what it means when we read in verse 18 that God hardens the hearts of men. How many remember the analogy that I used of a dog chained to a post in the yard, a dog that's always striving against the chain and pulling against the post he's bound to? A dog that wants nothing more than to be set free from the chain that restrains him from doing what he really wants to do. And how it's the same with the unsaved man, the unregenerate man, he loves his sin.

But he's restrained from indulging in His sin to the full by the mercies of God. And if He were to be cut free from every restraint, He would pursue His sin to the full. And it's only the restraint God has placed on his life that keeps him from plunging headlong into it. I said, imagine an unruly dog that's always striving against the commands of his master and against the chain that's holding him. It's around his neck and it's chained him to the stake.

He can only go so far because the chain is restraining him from doing what he would do if he were cut loose, which is maybe to chase cars or invade the neighbor's chicken house. And then one day, after the dog has striven and pulled and yanked long enough, his owner just cuts the chain and lets the dog run. And I said, the worst punishment that could ever befall a person on earth is for God to cut their chain and let them run. In other words, to give them over to their heart's lust. Would you agree with that?

I can't think of anything more horrifying. And that's what happened to Pharaoh. That's what happened to Pharaoh. God didn't create fresh evil and put evil into the heart of Pharaoh. No, he just removed his restraints.

And Pharaoh did exactly what his evil heart wanted to do. God cut the chain and let Pharaoh run. And the result was that Pharaoh's heart, his already hard heart, was hardened more and more. In this sense, God hardened Pharaoh's heart and God was perfectly just in doing so. He gave an evil man over to the evil of his heart.

He cut the chain and let the dog run, and he was perfectly justified in doing so. If you were here last week, then you remember I quoted John Owen, Furtin Theologia from the 1600s. The most tremendous judgment of God in this world is the hardening of the hearts of men. The most tremendous judgment this side of hell. God says in verse 17 of Romans 9 that he raised Pharaoh up for a purpose.

Wow. To show his power, God's power, in him and for the purpose that his name, God's name, not Pharaoh's, might be declared throughout all the earth. And in the process, you remember I said 10 times God speaks of hardening Pharaoh's heart in the book of Exodus, 10 times. Yes, he says, Pharaoh hardened his own heart, but 10 times God hardened his heart. It's what theologians term as judicial hardening.

It is a hardening that is inflicted as a punishment for past sins. It is a giving over of one who is evil to their evil. It is a giving over of one entrenched in sin to indulge in his sin to the full. It is a giving over of a lustful heart to fully pursue the lusts of one's heart. Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, Romans 1, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are shameful.

It is a judicial act. It is an act of divine judgment. It is a giving over of one to sin as a punishment for former sins. I quoted Psalm 106, it says, they lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted God, and so He gave them their request, and then sent leanness to their souls. That's horrifying.

He gave them what they lusted for and it was a punishment. In the words of Dr. Sproul, being given over to sin is itself a judgment on sin. To be given over to sin is itself a judgment on sin. God doesn't create fresh evil in the heart of a person.

It is a form of punishment, says Martin Lloyd-Jones for former sin. It's God withdrawing His grace from those who continue to reject him. Not that God again creates sin in the heart of a man or directly hardens a man's heart. No, Martin Lloyd-Jones says he simply withdraws his grace which naturally allows a man's sinful heart to become hardened close quote. God doesn't create new evil in the heart of a man.

He just lets a man go Can you think of anything more horrifying? There is no greater punishment this side of hell Than to let a man go where his already evil heart wants to go He just removes his restraint All God has to do is remove his restraint and the heart of a man will increasingly calcify, that is harden. Again I quoted Dr. Sproul last week when we abuse God's patience and long-suffering Our hearts become harder and harder and at any moment God can remove the restraints and give us over to our sin It's as if he is saying do you Remember this? You want to sin?

Be my guest. I'm not going to strive with you anymore. That's what you want? Go for it. I'm not going to strive with you anymore.

I'm going to take the wraps off." Close quote, Mrs. Rowe. Again, it's the worst punishment a man can experience this side of hell and this is what happened to Pharaoh. The scripture says that to Pharaoh, for the same purpose I raise you up that I might show my power in you and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth." God assigned Pharaoh to a work and raised Pharaoh to a position of power, not to show Pharaoh's power or to make his name great, but to show his own power, God's own power, and to make his name great and be declared and that his name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore he has mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardens and he has every right to do so.

So we come to verse 19. Romans chapter 9 and verse 19. I was watching again with our sons, I think it's maybe a six-part Paul Washer preaching in prison in Mississippi. Has anybody seen it? Please watch it.

Preaching the gospel to hundreds of prisoners, you know, many who are going to be in prison the rest of their lives. And the One thing that I noticed is that every single one of the prisoners had a Bible in his hand and was open in following the Scriptures. Please take your Bibles and open them. Romans chapter 9 and verse 19. This is the Apostles anticipation of yet another objection.

Paul knows how obstinate and wicked men who have no intention whatsoever of submitting to God reason in their hearts. And so anticipating their objection, he cuts it off at the pass. Verse 19. Okay, so you'll say to me why does God then find fault if he has mercy on whom he has mercy, whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardens, then you'll say to me, why does he yet find fault for who could resist his will? That's what the wicked, obstinate, God-hating, rejecting God heart will reason and come back and say to God, it's you God, it's your fault.

But notice Paul doesn't even answer the objection directly. The objection itself is unworthy of a direct answer because the objection itself reveals a wicked heart that would have God on the dock and man judging God instead of the other way around. So Paul doesn't even go there. He could have, But he does it. He's not going to have God sitting in the seat of judgment and answering a man.

So Paul says in verse 20, no, but O man, nay, but O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Look at the wording here. Who in the world do you think you are? Who are you, O man, to reply in such a way against God? I'm not even going to answer your question.

Will He who made you now answer to you? Really? Who in the world do you think you are? The objection itself reveals the height of human arrogance and pride. Paul saying, do you a mere man presume to stand in judgment upon the God who made you?

Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it? Why have you made me thus? Paul draws from both the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah here. If you want to flip over to Isaiah chapter 45 and verse 9, Look at what Isaiah says and from which the apostle Paul draws. This is Isaiah 45, 9.

He says, Woe unto him who strives with his Maker. Let the potsherd Strive with the potsherds of the earth. That is, let those shards of broken pottery scattered across the ground strive with the other shards of broken pottery, but let them not contend with their maker." The illustration Isaiah uses shows the absolute absurdity of even entertaining the notion of questioning God. Paul in the same vein says, shall the clay say to him that fashioned it, what have you made? Shall the clay in the hands of a potter, if it could even talk, say to the potter, what makest thou?

What have you made? It's absurd. Paul also alludes to Jeremiah 18, if you want to turn there, where the Lord tells the prophet Jeremiah to go over to a potter's house. He says, Jeremiah, I want you to go over to the pot maker's house because there's something I want you to see over at the pot maker's house that I'm going to help you to understand. It's there that he would give the prophet a visual picture of his absolute universal sovereignty.

Jeremiah 18, beginning with 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 behold he wrought, that is he worked, a work on the wheels. You've all seen the potter, the people that make pottery, and they've got the spinning wheel and the clay, and they use their hands and different devices and all to make and form this pot. This is what he's seeing.

I'm sure it's driven, you know, with some sort of a mechanism that's spinning. The potter is using his legs to cause this to spin and he's watching and he goes down there and he sees him and he's working on the wheels. He's fashioning a pot from a lump of clay on the potter's wheel. Verse 4 says, and the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter, so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came unto me saying, verse five and verse six, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter?

Sayeth the Lord, behold as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel." God is the potter, we are the clay. God has the right to do with the clay that is in his hands whatsoever he wills and he is answerable to none. The problem. Where is the problem command? The problem with fallen man is that he doesn't know what he is and he doesn't know who God is.

He doesn't see himself a right and he doesn't see God a right. God is the Potter, the omnipotent creator and maker of all things, and you and I are dust. Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? Asked Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 40, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains and scales and the hills in a balance. Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord or been his counselor and taught him?

With whom Did God take counsel? Who instructed him? Who taught him the path of judgment and taught him knowledge and showed to him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are like a drop of water in a 55-gallon drum. To put it in the modern vernacular.

The nations are as a drop of the bucket, says Isaiah, and they are counted as the small dust of the balance. Behold, he takes up the islands as a very small thing. Lebanon isn't sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof, sufficient for a burnt offering. All the nations of the world are before him as nothing, and they are counted to him less than nothing in vanity. Will a man question God?

Will a lump of clay in the hands of a potter, if it could even speak, say, Why have you made me thus? Contending with the Almighty? Job suffered much both from Satan and from men, but he made a big mistake when he turned his words heavenward and presumed to question God. Afterward, how he wished he kept his mouth shut. Job 38.

Then the Lord answered Job. Job turned his words toward heaven and had begun to question God. Job 38 beginning with verse 1, the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, who is this? It's back to what I said a minute ago, who in the world do you think you are? Who is this who darken counsel by words without knowledge?

You don't know what you're talking about. Gird up your loins now like a man, for I will demand of you that as I will question you and you answer me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare it if you have understanding. Who laid the measures thereof, if you know?

Or Who has stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? And who laid the cornerstone thereof? When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy, God's questioning of Job went on and on. Chapter after chapter you can read them.

He puts forth his interrogations to a silenced man. Shall he contend with the Almighty? Shall he that contends with the Almighty instruct him?" he asked further on after a couple of chapters of interrogation, chapter 40 and verse 2. He that reproves God let him answer. And Job spoke not a word until he finally responded says Job 40 verse 4 behold I am vile What shall I answer thee?

I will lay my hand upon my mouth." And then 42, 6, wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. In our text this afternoon Paul says in verse 21, "...has not the potter power over the clay, over the same lump, to make one vessel into honor and another into dishonor?" You bet he does. You bet he does. It is he that hath made us and not we ourselves Psalm 100 verse 3. We sang it earlier and he has the right to do with us whatever he determines.

The only thing that should concern man is his response to the universal sovereignty of God. How should man respond to God? To God's claim of ownership upon all his creation. To God's assertion that, as we read earlier in Romans chapter 9, that his purpose and election will stand. To his proclamation that it is not of him who wills or him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.

To his declaration, assertion that he can judicially and justifiably give over to sin as a just punishment for sins anyone he wants and harden their heart. To his claim that he'll have mercy upon whom he'll have mercy and whom he will he hardens. And most importantly how should man respond to the mercies of God presented in the gospel, specifically God's call upon all men to repent and believe on the name of his son. One thing is for sure, he should not attempt to lay the blame for his obstinate rejection of God upon God. He should not presume to charge the Almighty with unfairness and injustice or as in our text this afternoon charge His guilt for obstinate unbelief on God.

Saying, my obstinacy and unbelief is your fault God, not mine. He certainly should not do that. No, what he should be doing is laying his hand over his mouth like Job and repenting in dust and ashes. And like the tax collector in Luke crying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And going home to his house justified.

Man's responsibility is not to understand how God chooses some and passes over others. Man's responsibility is to heed the call to repent and believe on the name of God's Son Jesus. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your Word. Your Word is truth.

It is by your Word that we are sanctified. It is by your Word that we are conformed more to the character and conduct of your Son. It's by your word Lord that we know truth and can grow in the grace and the knowledge of him who suffered and died for our sins and rose again from the dead the third day. Oh God, as Isaiah said, Oh Lord, thou art our Father, we are the clay and thou our potter and we all the work of your hand. Lord, we humbly acknowledge your sovereignty in salvation And we humbly, who have trusted Christ, praise you and thank you for the salvation that you have given us.

That wonderful gift by which you pulled us out of the herd of obstinate, rebellious, God-hating man running over the cliff into eternal destruction. You pulled us from that herd and you pulled us out and you brought us to a place of safety in your Son, united to us, united us to Him by faith, gave us grace to repent and turn from our sins and put faith in our hearts to believe. We praise and thank you for it God. You are our Father, you are the potter, We are the clay in your hands. And we thank you, Lord, who have come to trust in your Son, that you have saved our souls, brought us to saving faith, to trust in the only one who could ever save us from our sins our Lord Jesus Christ we praise and thank you Lord and God we ask that Conviction would be a brought up on the heart and the soul of anyone here today who does not know you and has never submitted to your sovereignty and has never humbled themselves before you, admitted their sinfulness and their need of the provision made by you God for their salvation in the giving of your Son to live and die for them.

I pray God that today would be the day of the salvation of the souls of men of women and of children in this place and those Lord who might hear by recording at a later date. For we ask these things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Amen. Thank you.