Romans 9:19-29 "God Prepares His Saints for Glory"

1:13And if you are feeling any semblance of that, any semblance of those kinds of feelings, then we can thank God for his providence. That two years ago, we prayerfully planned to go through Romans 9 through 11. 11 this fall, which paints us a picture of a God who is always in control of everything at all times. He is not sitting back wondering what human beings are going to do. He is not sitting back hoping that human beings make the right choices so that his plans are not derailed. He is in control of all things. He is the sovereign God of the universe.

2:01That is the God that we read about, that we have the privilege of hearing about yet again today. So, this morning we continue our study in Romans 9, one of the most challenging but important chapters in the Bible. It raises questions, very hard questions, but it also rewards us with a much deeper understanding of God and of ourselves and our sin and how costly and amazing our salvation really is. At the outset of Romans 9, Paul shared that he had great sorrow and unceasing anguish in his heart for his fellow Jews who had rejected Christ.

2:49And we saw that lost souls should break our hearts and motivate our evangelism. And then in verses 6 through 18, Paul showed us that the word of God did. Not fail. It's not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise. Paul reminded us that God made promises to Isaac and to Jacob. He chose to love Isaac and Jacob rather than Ishmael and Esau. And that is not unjust because every person is an undeserving sinner. The question is not, How could God hate Esau, but how could God love Jacob?

3:36We saw that salvation doesn't depend on our parents or our works, but on God and his mercy. And so that takes us to this morning's text, verses 19 through 29. One of the things that encourages me so much about the Bible is how God inspires the authors of Scripture to anticipate and answer the questions that God knows we are going to have. Now, I say this often, the Bible is not an answer book. It is not a collection of Aesop's fables or wise sayings or anything like that. That's not what the Bible is. According to Titus 2:14, what the Bible is, is the story of God and his work in the world preparing a people for his own possession who will be zealous for good works.

4:29That's what the Bible says. The Bible is. But at the same time, the Bible does answer many of our questions, and this is one of those times. And here is the question: If salvation depends on God and His mercy, then isn't He the one to blame if people are not saved? If God has the power to save anyone, and if He can show mercy to anyone He wants, then isn't it really God's fault if people are not saved?

5:09Paul's answer is no. Our lostness is not God's fault, it's our fault, our lostness is not God's problem, it's our problem. And so, here's what we're going to see today in the text: Paul lays this argument out. Sinners prepare themselves for destruction, but God prepares His people for glory. Sinners prepare themselves for destruction, but God prepares His saints for glory. But before Paul gets there, He's got to establish an important point, and that point is that we have no right. To argue with God, join me in verse 19.

6:07You will say to me then, why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will? But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, why have you made me like this? Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? Now, if you look back at verse 18, the final verse before our section today, Paul says this, so then God has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

6:49And some will raise the objection that if that's true, then God cannot find fault with sinful people because nobody can resist his will. If God chooses to have mercy on you and save you, you're going to be saved. If God chooses not to have mercy on you, you're going to be condemned. That's that. So the objection, the question is what Paul writes in verse 19. Why does he still find fault? Who can resist his will? It's another version of the previous questions that we've examined in this chapter. Isn't God being unjust? Isn't he being unfair if he doesn't save everyone?

7:30And Paul responds that we have no right to answer back to God about his choice to save some people rather than others, or to save some people rather than everyone. We have no right to answer back to God, and that is because God is the creator, we are the creation, he is the potter, we are the clay. So we can't answer back to God and say, Why did you make me like this? Because after all, how did God make us?

8:10Look on the screen at Ecclesiastes 7. See, this alone I found: that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes. When God created man, he created us upright, that is, morally upright, without sin. God did not create sinful people, he created sinless people and gave them the freedom to obey or disobey his good command. God made us upright, but we have gone after many schemes. Adam and Eve were made by God, the potter, in his own image and likeness. But Adam and Eve fell into temptation to mold themselves into something else, something that they were never created to be.

9:08Gods who could determine right and wrong, good and evil for themselves. The result of their choice is that they died. They died spiritually on the spot. And eventually, they died physically as well because the wages of sin is death. And so now all of us are fallen. We are all born with fallen, sinful hearts. We are born dead spiritually, and eventually we will die physically. That's been true of every person since the fall. But friends, God did not make us that way. We made ourselves that way. God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.

10:01So we cannot turn around and blame God for our predicament. This is our own making. We have done this. As a result, we're in no position to answer back to God, to say to our Creator, our potter and molder, why did you make me like this? Because God created us upright. We chose to sin. We chose to rebel. So all of humanity... Is like one big sinful lump of clay. And God has the right to make out of the same sinful lump of clay one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use. So in the rest of the text, Paul is going to develop that theme. He's going to show us that sinners prepare themselves for destruction, but God prepares his saints for glory.

11:03So let's look at that first truth: that sinners prepare themselves for destruction. Look at verse 22. What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? Now, when Paul opens this verse with the words, what if, it's important to note, Paul is not guessing. He's not taking a stab in the dark at what God might be doing. I want to remind you of what 2 Peter says, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever produced. By the will of man. But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

12:10So understand, when Paul writes the words, what if, he's not guessing at what God is doing, he's employing an effective teaching tool, which is asking questions. Students, you know that in class, if your teacher is just making a bunch of statements, you have the tendency to just kind of glaze over, to go into what Pastor Micah calls screensaver mode. Questions wake you up, they get you thinking, they get you wondering about your presuppositions and your preconceived ideas. They get you to the place where you can say, I never thought of it that way before.

12:49Paul knows that his readers still have that internal voice asking questions like, yeah, but that still doesn't seem fair. Why would God make some vessels for honorable use and some for dishonorable? That still doesn't seem fair. So now Paul poses the question. What if God, desiring to show his wrath and make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? Let's break that down. Who is in view here? The people Paul calls vessels of wrath.

13:34So, what Paul is doing is he's drawing on the image of a piece of pottery, something molded by the potter, a vessel that's used to hold something. Think a jar, a pot, a vessel that's used to hold something, made out of clay. And in the context of Romans 9, these vessels would be anyone on whom God did not have mercy. And what are these vessels for? What are they holding? Paul calls them vessels of wrath, referring to God's anger against sin.

14:11So, what Paul is saying is that on the day of judgment, what they will be holding, what they will be filled with, is the wrath of God against their sin. So, they are vessels of wrath, and more than that, Paul calls them vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. What does that mean? What does that seem to imply? Well, friends, you notice that Paul does not say, which God prepared beforehand for destruction. We need some help with the original language here, with the Greek. So, let me bring in commentator Warren Wearsby. Who explains this better than I can? As he reflects on the verb prepared in the phrase prepared for destruction, he says the verb is what the Greek grammarians call the middle voice, making it a reflexive action verb. So it should read, fitted himself for destruction.

15:22Fitted himself for destruction. So let that sink in for a minute. God did not create sinful people in order to punish them. He didn't prepare people beforehand for destruction. Remember Ecclesiastes 7:29, God made man upright, but he has sought out many schemes. God did not prepare anyone for destruction. We have all fitted ourselves for destruction. Through our sin and our rebellion against God, we have prepared ourselves for it. We are at fault. We are to blame.

16:08Oh, but friends, what has God done? Look again at verse 22. He has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. Look on the screen at 2 Peter chapter 3. Peter says, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. You see, God would have been right to strike Adam and Eve dead on the spot for their sin. God would be right to strike any of us dead on the spot for our sin. But instead, what does God do? How does he deal with us? He has endured patiently with sinners, not immediately giving us what our sins deserve, what we have earned for our sin. And Peter says that's because God wants everyone to reach repentance. He doesn't want anyone to perish.

17:24So when people refuse to repent, what are they doing? They are preparing themselves for destruction. If they would repent and believe, God would receive them. But they won't do it. So they're storing up wrath for themselves. And Pharaoh is the prime example of someone storing up wrath for himself, preparing himself for destruction. Look back at verse 17. Last week we saw this. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I Have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

18:09God was so patient with Pharaoh. He sent Moses to him over and over to speak his word to Pharaoh. Moses called him again and again to repent, to believe, to obey God. But even after God sent plague after plague, even after the entire land was destroyed, even after Pharaoh's own priests came to him and said, This is the finger of God, Pharaoh would not repent. And because of that, God showed his wrath and made known his power. He killed all the firstborn sons of Egypt and he spared all the firstborn sons of Israel. He parted the waters of the Red Sea so the Israelites could pass through on dry land, but when the Egyptians tried to pursue them, they were drowned.

19:13Pharaoh was a vessel of wrath who prepared himself for destruction through his sin and refusal to repent. And God showed his wrath and made his power known through him. And friends, the reality is that all over the The world, people are doing the very same thing today. They are preparing themselves for destruction. You might be doing the same thing. You might be preparing yourself for destruction. If you've not turned from your sin in repentant faith to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, you are preparing yourself for destruction.

19:57Friend, God has been so patient with you. So patient. Since you were conceived in your mother's womb, God has patiently endured. You have sinned against your Creator, and you sin against your Creator in thought, word, and deed. You deserve the wages of your sin, which is death. But God has been so patient with you. He has not yet treated you as your sins deserve. But you still haven't responded to his patient endurance. And so I want to remind you about Paul's warning in Romans chapter 2. Look on the screen.

20:41Hear these words. Let these words sink into your heart. Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hardness, And impentinent heart. You are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. Oh, my friend, please do not presume on the riches of God's kindness and forbearance a moment longer. Do not store up any more wrath for yourself. Instead, turn to Jesus Christ in saving faith. He went to the cross to absorb the wrath that you deserve for your sin. He died where you should have died, and he rose again so that you could be forgiven and counted as righteous as the only perfect person who has ever lived, Jesus of Nazareth.

21:51So don't argue with God anymore. Don't put it off any longer, but respond to God's call. Because as we'll see in just a moment, God, the people that God calls are not vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. They are vessels of mercy who have been prepared beforehand for glory. So let's look now back at the text, verse 22 again. What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory?

22:59So we see in verse 22, God has patiently endured with vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. But in verse 23, Paul calls these other people vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory to make known the riches of glory. In other words, the way God deals with vessels of wrath prepared for destruction serves to highlight the amazing mercy and grace of the way that God deals with vessels of mercy prepared for glory. I want you to look on the screen. This is the lion of Marilani.

23:54It was donated to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History just a few months ago. One of the most exquisite colored gemstones in the world. An exceptionally rare, glowing green garnet. It's 117 carats. Whatever you bought your wife, it ain't this. It is more than two and a half times larger than the largest, most famous diamond in the world, the Hope Diamond, which sits just a few feet away. Now, imagine if you set the Lion of Marilani down on a velvet green cloth, same color, and you shine a light on it.

24:46It's still going to be a magnificent gemstone, but its brilliance and beauty is not going to stand out against a backdrop of the same color. But look at what happens when you put it on a black velvet cloth and you shine a light on it. That dark, contrasting background makes all of its beauty and radiance shine. In the same way, what Paul is saying is that God's wrath toward deserving sinners. He is the dark contrasting backdrop that allows us to see and appreciate the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy.

25:43The beauty of the riches of God's glory toward undeserving sinners sparkles against the backdrop of God's wrath toward deserving sinners. It leaves the vessel of God's mercy awestruck and in wonder and in worship. And at the same time, the beauty of these riches draws the lost to God. And so, friends, for the next few minutes, I want to invite you to marvel with me at the beauty of the riches of God's glory. I want us to pick it up, as it were, and turn it in the light, just as you might a beautiful gemstone, so that we can see some of the facets of it. I want us to marvel together at God's mercy, God's grace, and God's calling.

26:43First, let's marvel at God's mercy. We remember that those prepared for destruction are known as vessels of wrath. But the second group is called vessels of mercy. As the first vessels were going to hold God's wrath, his anger toward their sin, these vessels are going to hold God's mercy. On the final day of judgment, God is not going to treat this second group, you and me, all who have trusted in Jesus Christ. He's not going to treat us as our sins deserve. He's not going to fill us up with his wrath. Instead, he's going to pour in his mercy and compassion.

27:30Not because of anything that we have done. The entire chapter shows us that salvation doesn't depend on works, as we saw last week in verse 16. So then, it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. Look at Psalm 103. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust.

28:27O friends, let's marvel today. Together at God's mercy. He has not treated us as our sins deserve. Second, let's marvel together at God's grace. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. Grace is getting what you do not deserve. We notice that in verse 23, Paul says that the vessels of mercy he prepared beforehand for glory. God prepared his people, his saints, beforehand for glory. Now remember, vessels of wrath prepare themselves for destruction with their sin and refusal to repent. God does not prepare sinners for destruction. Sinners prepare themselves for destruction.

29:25But the vessels of mercy, Paul says they were prepared beforehand for glory. He has done that. What did we do to deserve that? Because of our sin, we stand before God wearing the filthy garments of our unrighteousness. Who can stand before God wearing filthy garments? No one. But that's what we're doing. We cannot wash out the stain of our sin. But God can. And he did it through the blood of Jesus. Through his sinless life, death, and resurrection, God did it. And through faith, our sins are not only washed away, we don't just get a blank slate so that you can start over trying harder to do better. No, he clothes us in the righteousness of Christ. The prophet Isaiah looks ahead and sees that this is going to be the Messiah's work. Look at Isaiah 61.

30:30I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Oh, friends, let's marvel at God's grace. Before the foundation of the world, before you had done anything good or evil, before you were ever conceived in your mother's womb, God prepared you for glory to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ, not just forgiven of your sin, but counted righteous as Jesus Himself.

31:26Third, let's marvel at God's calling. Look at verse 24. Even us, whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles. As indeed he says in Hosea, those who were not my people, I will call my people. And her who is not beloved, I will call beloved. And in the very place where it was said to them, you are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God. O friends, for Jews and Gentiles both, God's calling is marvelous. God made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants who became known as Israelites, or by the time of Jesus' day, the Jews. He made a covenant with them and them only. He did not make a covenant with the Gentiles.

32:18But through the prophet Hosea, whom Paul quotes here in verses 25 and 26, God says, those who were not my people, I am going to call my people. Those who were not beloved, I am going to call beloved. Here's how Paul says this in the New Testament. This is such a beautiful passage. Look at Ephesians chapter 2. He encourages us, therefore, remember that at one time, you Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands, remember that you were at that time separated from Christ. Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

33:22Friends, if you are not an ethnic descendant of Abraham, this is very good news, which means it's very good news for almost 100% of the people in this room. We were strangers and aliens. We were without hope and without God in the world. But in Christ, all of us who are far off have been brought near by his blood. We should marvel at the fact that God has called Gentiles to Himself. But the salvation of the Jews is no less glorious, as Paul says in verse 27. Look there.

34:01And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel. Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved. For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay. And as Isaiah predicted, if the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah. Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah to help. The Israelites see that although they were chosen by God, their nation as a whole, though they are as numerous as the sand of the sea, just like God promised Abraham, only a remnant are going to be saved. Only a remnant are going to be rescued from their sin and its consequences. And that's because, as Paul explained earlier, not all who descended from Israel belong to Israel. It's the children of the promise, the sinful people God chose to love in spite of their bad works, not because of their good works, who will be saved.

35:08So, friends, let us marvel at God's calling. Every one of us, Jew and Gentile alike, was far off, but God in His mercy and grace has called us and brought us near by the blood of Christ. From birth, every human being was only preparing themselves for destruction to become vessels of wrath. But before the foundation of the world, he was preparing his saints for glory to become vessels of mercy. We should stand in awe of God's mercy and his grace and his calling.

35:49So, today, my prayer is that some of you, men and women, college students, teenagers, children, My prayer is that some of you will hear God's call this morning and that you will respond with repentance and faith. God has been calling you and he is calling you because he has prepared you to be a vessel of mercy. He has prepared you for glory from before the foundation of the world. God says in his word that he opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. And so, what is necessary this morning is that you humble yourself.

36:47You have to stop arguing with God. You have to stop resisting him, resisting his call to repent and believe. And you need to turn from your sin to Jesus Christ in faith this morning. You need to humble yourself and receive the mercy and grace that only come through him. It does not matter if you have been in church your whole life. It does not matter if you have been baptized. It does not matter if you are married to a Christian or your parents are Christians. What matters this morning is that you yourself turn from your sin and turn to Jesus Christ. Christ in faith. That is what matters. Because if you do that, if you humble yourself before him, God promises to pour out his grace and his mercy upon you. And so receive it this morning. Receive it. It's a gift given to you.

37:48And friends, if you're already a believer in Jesus Christ, I hope that today this passage helped you to see the beauty of the riches of God's glory in Christ toward you. God's grace, His mercy, His calling, these are all gifts that were bestowed on you. You did not do anything to deserve them, and so you cannot do anything to lose them. We've had a number of babies born recently. Praise God for that. We might have a real baby soon, by which I mean Caleb and Jenna, real, may have their baby this weekend. All of the other babies are also real, just not real in the same way.

38:31But all these kids, they get all these gifts. There's rooms in the house completely filled with gifts for them. They didn't do anything to earn those gifts. They were given graciously by people who love them. So that when they come into this world, they receive them. That is what God has done for you, Christian. Before you were ever born, before you had done anything good or bad, God chose you and him to be the recipient of his calling, his grace, his mercy.

39:00Celebrate that today. Let's pray. Father, your word is sufficient. I am not sufficient as a preacher, but your word is sufficient. We are not sufficient as people, but your grace is sufficient for us. Your power is made perfect in weakness. I pray that today would be the day of salvation for many. That adults and teenagers and children would profess faith in Jesus Christ today. I pray they would see the beauty of your calling, your mercy, and your grace. And God, I pray for all those who have received it, who would celebrate it in a way that we have never celebrated it before.

40:04Thank you, God, for loving us, although we were unlovable. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.