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Then let us begin our study this morning by reading in the Epistle to the Romans and chapter nine. The Epistle to the Romans and chapter nine. And we shall commence to read there at verse fourteen. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.
So then, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that has mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose did I raise thee up, that I might show in thee my power, and that my name might be published abroad in all the earth. So then, he has mercy on whom he will, and whom he will, he hardeneth. Thou wilt say unto me, why doth he still find fault? For who withstands his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replyest against God?
Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why didst thou make me thus? Or hath not the potter a right over the clay from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long suffering vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy which he afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles.
As he says also in Hosea, I will call that my people which was not my people, and her beloved which was not beloved. And it shall be that in the place where it was said unto them, you are not my people, there shall they be called sons of the living God. And may God give us good understanding of his word. In our study last week, we began to investigate the sorrow and the problem that weighed down the heart of the Apostle Paul.
The sorrow we found was a daily and constant and unabating sorrow, because the majority of his fellow nationals, the Jewish nation, were rejecting the Lord Jesus as their Messiah and Savior. The sorrow was incessant because of the inevitable end that must overtake individuals that reject the salvation that is in Jesus Christ. For there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, and to reject him finally is eternal.
But if that was Paul's sorrow, Paul had an additional problem. Because God's choice of Abraham, the formation of a nation from Abraham called Israel, God's self-revelation to that nation, the wonders of Sinai, the glories of the tabernacle, the superb magnificence of the very in God, transcendent Lord, dwelling in Israel's midst. This all had been planned of God as the initial stage of his great plan of redemption, through which at last the Messiah would come, his way prepared, his sacrifice already explained in the allegories and symbolism of Judaism.
It was, I say, the initial part of God's program of redemption, through which at last, when the Messiah came, all the nations of the earth should be blessed. And now, if the very nation that had been raised up of God to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord Jesus, to initiate the great redemption. If that very nation had turned round and rejected the Lord Jesus, and rejected his sacrifice, and repudiated forgiveness in his name, and were now telling the world that Jesus Christ was a lot of nonsense and worse. Then what, we might ask, had come to the great plan of God for the redemption of mankind.
It was bad enough when Adam sinned and ruined God's fair creation, but then there was a chance that God might put it right by his great plan of redemption. But now, if the plan of redemption itself had gone wrong and come unstuck in the middle, what confidence could you have in the rest of the plan of redemption? And if this were a real problem without solutions, you and I sitting here this morning could have no confidence in our Christian gospel, and all our hopes of a heaven to come would be moonshine. Paul there- there- Paul therefore very swiftly comes to his assertion that Israel's defection, Israel's rejection of the Savior does not mean that the great plan and purpose and word of God has come to disaster and is of none effect.
And Paul now proceeds to argue that Israel's rejection of the o- of the Savior. Instead of proving that God's plan and ways have gone wrong, show rather that his plan is running according to his normal practice. For Paul now calls our attention to this, that even from the earliest times, the descendants of Abraham, the seed of Abraham, were divided into two groups. There were those that carried on the purpose of God, rose to fulfill the role to which God had called them.
And there were the others that did not walk with God and did not fulfill the role. For instance, Paul cites the case of Abraham's sons, Isaac and Ishmael. Both of them were sons of Abraham. Both of them were his seed according to the flesh. And yet, God chose Isaac, says Scripture, that Isaac might carry this great and tremendous privilege and responsibility of being the one through whom the predestine seed should come.
And Ishmael, though equally Abraham's child, was not given that privilege. And to enforce the lesson, Paul quotes the case of Isaac's two children. And there the lesson is all the more vivid. For Isaac's children, Esau and Jacob, were not born one of one mother and one of another mother, but both were born of the same mother, and both in fact conceived at the very same time. They were both, in a special sense, equally Jacob's seed.
They were, sorry, they were both of them equally Isaac's seed, but Jacob was chosen for the role of being the father of the nation that should bring in Messiah. And Esau was put aside. And Paul cites these two instances now to invite us to apply the principle. In his own day, there existed the physical nation of Israel, but as at the beginning, so now, divided into two groups. There were those who, like Anna and Simeon, Peter, James, and John, Mary and Martha, were carrying out the great role that God had given to the nation of being being those through whom the Messiah should come into this world, those who were witnessing to that aforesaid Messiah.
And then there was the rest of the nation, equally Abram's physical descendants, but not carrying on their role. In fact, opposing it. And the recital of these historical precedents is meant to cause us to see that far from the whole thing now coming unstuck, Israel's behavior in the time of Paul was proceeding as always it had done, right from the very beginning. But Paul, by his description, invites us to go deeper and to ask ourselves, on what principle then did God choose one of Abraham's sons, Isaac, and reject the other?
And here we must pause to make it very clear in our minds what we are talking about. When God chose Isaac and put aside Ishmael, it was not, was it? It was not that Paul, uh, that God was choosing Isaac for salvation and consigning Ishmael to damnation. Far from it. The issue at stake was not salvation, was it? Far from rejecting Ishmael in that sense, God in the book of Genesis goes out of his way three times over to repeat that he is going to bless Ishmael.
Ishmael's very name, Ishmael, heard by God, proclaims God's interest in that boy, God's blessing on Ishmael. And explicitly God tells Abraham, I shall be with the lad, and I shall bless him and make him a large nation, just like I'm going to make your son Isaac a large nation. Not a question, therefore, of choosing Isaac for salvation and consigning Ishmael to damnation and perdition. The question at stake is, who will be given this great privilege of being the ancestor of Messiah, the one through whom the seed shall come, through whom all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.
And God gave that privilege, we are told, not to Ishmael, though he were I- Abraham's seed, he gave it to Isaac. On what principle? Oh, we are told explicitly. It was, you see, that God had promised Abraham and Sarah a son, and Isaac was the fulfillment of that promise. Let us grasp hold of the fact what a promise of God is. When God made a promise to Abraham and Sarah that they should have a child, it was a promise, it wasn't a suggestion, it wasn't an exhortation, it wasn't this question of God coming to Sarah and saying, now, Sarah, my dear, I've got a scheme for the redemption of the world.
One of these days I'm going to bring in the Messiah, you know, Sarah. I wonder, could you think up some scheme, Sarah, of having a few children so that I could, um, my scheme would work? Well, of course not. When God announced his scheme that there was coming this promised seed, it was a promise. And at the first, Sarah and Abram didn't foresee that, did they? Sometimes, in order to bring it home to my little mind, the importance of the principle at stake, I imagine myself sitting in the cool of the day with Abraham and Sarah in their tent over breakfast. Pity my simplicity, won't you?
All unseen, I'm sitting there while Sarah is handing Abraham the marmalade, and presently Sarah says to Abraham, Abi, dear, and he says, yes, what, what, what, Sarah, yes? Abi, you know that, that scheme that God has that he announced the other day, you know that, uh, through our seed, all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed. Yes, my dear, I know that. Well, I've been thinking, says Sarah. Oh yes, you have. Yes, I've been thinking, and uh, you know, the Almighty has forgotten something. Really? Well, yes, it's even worse than that, Abram. The Almighty is acting rather inconsistently, you see. He says with one breath, he's going to have this tremendous scheme, and through our seed, all the nations of the earth should be blessed, Abraham.
Yes, I know, my dear. Well, what about that then? Well, then, you see, he's acting so inconsistently. The Lord has gone and shut up my womb so that I can't have a child, Abraham. Just you fancy the pickle the Almighty's got himself in. I think we better come to the rescue, Abraham, don't you? I've been thinking I've got a scheme. Thank you very much, said God. But Sarah, my dear, that was very nice of you, but I don't need your scheme. You see, as I was sitting there just now, eating my toast and marmalade and listening to Sarah, I began to get very afraid. I said to myself, is that really true?
The Almighty's got a scheme for the salvation of mankind, that all the nations of the earth might be blessed, and they of the Christian church likewise. And do I gather right now it's a good scheme, but the Almighty hasn't quite thought it through, and it's all going to depend on Sarah and her ingenuity. Well, Sarah is the delightful soul, but if the blessing of mankind depended upon Sarah, where should we be? No, it could not be so. When God announced his scheme, it was a promise, it was a promise, it was a promise. And God would do it, God would fulfill it. He didn't need man's puny little effort.
Oh, rejoice your heart, my dear sir. Rejoice your heart in the scheme of God's salvation. It doesn't depend on puny effort by man. And similarly, surely, we shall have to think of that other pair. Isaac's children, Jacob and Esau. Only here we shall have to go even more slowly because these verses have in some quarters been grievously misunderstood. Shall we notice that these words that are spoken, the elder shall serve the younger, are not spoken of the individual men, Jacob and Esau.
For in actual fact, if you will read the history, the individual man Esau never did serve the individual Jacob. Nor did the individual Esau ever bow down to the individual Jacob. Never. It was, in fact, the other way round. It was Jacob who, in the end, bowed down before Esau. The verse then is not talking simply about individuals. If we will listen to what God said to their mother, we shall hear the thing solved. Said the Lord Almighty to their mother, two nations are in your womb.
Two people shall be separated from your bowels. The elder shall serve the younger. What the Almighty was talking about was the nations that should spring from these two infants. And therefore, in that connection, it was he was talking once more about the privileged role of being the witness for God, the major witness for God in the earth. It wasn't talking about salvation. You can't save nations as nations. But here was God talking about the role that he was going to give to these two peoples. Not Esau, but those who descended from Jacob would carry this great privileged role of being the ancestors and the preparers of the way for Messiah.
And so likewise, God's comment some hundreds of years later, recorded for us by the prophet Malachi, who expressed it. Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated. Pray observe that God is talking about nations still. Pray observe that he is talking now after centuries of history have gone by. And Esau as a nation has been guilty of serious and despicable behavior. But here is God in Malachi talking to his nation Israel and saying, you're no better, you know, than Esau is.
I chose Jacob. I didn't choose Esau. I abominate Esau for what he's been doing, but I'm telling you, Israel, that you are a wretched lot. Scarce would you open or close the doors of my temple without being paid for it. You bring me abominable, filthy scrag ends of offerings and think I'm going to be pleased with it. What better are you than Esau? And yet, and yet, strange wonder that God chose Jacob and his descendants and that nation to be the carriers of this holy task and privilege, the preparers of the way for Messiah.
On what ground did he choose Jacob then? Well, obviously not on the grounds of merit. In fact, says Paul, God chose Jacob even before the boy was born, that it might be apparent to all that God's choice in this matter does not depend on a man's merit or upon his performance. It is not of works. It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. And always has that been so. Should we come to our own Christian apostles? Tell me, if you will. Why did the Lord choose Peter, James, and John and the rest of them to be apostles?
Because they were specially holy? Because they qualified? No, indeed not. Listen to Peter himself on the morning when he had performed that outstanding miracle outside the temple gates, and the crowd were coming round, open mouthed to see the lame man dancing like a heart. And Peter says, why do you look on us as though by our own power or our own godliness? We have done it. No, no. Not even the highest apostle in the land was chosen for that role because of his own inherent worth and godliness.
My brother, might I ask you, and you, my sister too, you who serve the Lord in your particular sphere, on what ground did God call you to that holy task of being a witness for Christ? Because of your special godliness, better than your next door neighbor? Oh, perish the thought. It wasn't that God had a scheme for salvation and then left it to volunteers to come and volunteer, and chose the best he could get hold of. We who sit here today may be grateful for that. You just imagine what it would be like at the final judgment.
If this kind of thing could happen, here comes a man, and in all the solemnity of that court, God has to sentence that man to eternal perdition. And the man says, but why? Why, Lord? Because you didn't believe the gospel. What gospel? I never heard any gospel. No, I know you didn't, says God. I know you didn't. But you see, I did have some servants, but they didn't make much of a go of it, you see. They were a poor crowd.
And they never got round actually to coming to you with the gospel, you see. That isn't my fault, says God, it's their fault, you see. They weren't good enough. And the man must perish because the whole thing turned on the ability and faithfulness and godliness of the witnesses. How could it be, my brothers? How would you even sustain the weight of your gospel ministry? If you thought that somebody could be in hell forever because one day you slipped and fell.
Oh, thank God we serve a bigger God than that. And he chooses his witnesses not according to their work. It's not of him that runneth or of him that willeth, but of God that shows mercy. Some people think that's unfair. So Paul turns now to, uh, address the question. He was dealing, as you may remember, with the problem, why is it that the large majority of the nation of Israel have rejected the Messiah and refused to be heralds of the gospel? They are so full of their imagined merit as religious people, striving to keep God's law.
Why is it that God doesn't use them as vessels to proclaim the gospel? Is it that God is being unfair and arbitrary and just choosing Mary and Martha and Peter and Paul, and leaving aside Caiaphas and the rest of them? To answer that question, we shall have to consider a number of things. First of all, says Paul, using an analogy of a potter and a lump of clay. He says the potter has the right to make of this same lump any kind of vessel he likes. Let's seize hold on that helpful insight. The same lump.
All men are the same. And indeed, when now Paul proceeds to cite the case of Israel and then the case of Pharaoh. He cites that part of their history that makes it very clear what a bad lump they were. Pharaoh, an evil, impossible, difficult lump of clay was Pharaoh. Were Israel any better? When God said, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, the occasion was when Israel had just gone off into virtual apostasy and had built their golden calf and danced themselves silly in their departure from God and their disloyalty to God.
What a bad lump of clay they were. But we're all that. Let me say that we shall never become worthy vessels of testimony for God. Unless we come to this point to admit that we too, I too, what am I? Not an evil lump of horrible clay. Of that evil lump of clay, gods make some vessels of mercy.
You say, what is a vessel of mercy? Well, please note, it isn't just another way of saying, well, a human being. Let's seize upon the noun vessel. A vessel is something that the mistress or the master of the house uses for his purpose. Paul reminds Timothy in two Timothy chapter two that in a large house there are many vessels. Let's hope they are meet for the master's use. They are vessels for doing a job of work. And the wonderful story is this, let me s- tell it with bated breath, that out of that evil old clay, God has managed to make vessels of mercy.
That is to say, not merely that he takes some men and women and has mercy on them, that would be marvelous, but he takes men and women, and by having mercy on them, he uses them as vessels to advertise his mercy the world round, so that they become exhibitions, advertisements of the mercy of God. There was never a more famous one than the man who is writing this epistle to us, Paul the Apostle. On me Jesus Christ had mercy, he said. What for? That in me first, who am the very chief and worst of sinners, Jesus Christ might show forth all his long suffering as an example to the rest.
Do you see when God takes a man or woman and makes him a vessel of mercy, it isn't that he chooses them and saves them and consigns the rest to perdition. No, no. He chooses them and makes them a vessel of mercy that they might be advertisements of his mercy to all the rest of the world, so that men might look at them and say, did you ever know such a God? Would God have mercy on a person like that? Just imagine that. Well, if he'd had mercy on Saul of Tarsus, he'd have mercy on me. By God's grace, I too am a vessel of mercy. I cannot boast like some can of lurid sins, really exciting sins, a colorful past.
Mine were mean, horrible little nasty sins. Oh, why didn't God put me on the scrap heap of eternity, a cheap little old thing, and eaten through with miserable little snags and sins? But he had mercy, and all my brother has had mercy and made me a vessel of mercy to you this morning. He wants you to see the magnificence of his mercy, for if God would have mercy upon me, he certainly would have mercy upon you. You say, can anybody become a vessel of mercy?
Oh, yes, they can, for the same Lord over all is rich to all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Why weren't Israel, therefore? Why did the majority of them, why weren't they taken by God and used as vessels of mercy? Why? Would you know the truth about it? Why simply this, they refuse to be vessels of mercy. Paul explains it to us, they would insist on trying to gain salvation by their works and their merits.
Well, if you'll do that, if you will do that, you'll never be a vessel of mercy. Even if you succeeded in gaining salvation by your merit, you would be no good to me anyway. I should look at you and I say, what a spectacular thing. I've never seen anybody like you before, and I don't expect to see anybody like you again. You won salvation, did you, by your good behavior? Oh, good for you, but you're no advertisement to me because that's hopeless for me. The man I want to hear, the woman I want to hear, is a vessel of mercy, someone who was a sinner, and God saved you by his grace, and having had mercy on you, holds you up to me as an exhibition of got what, of what God is prepared to do even for me.
I come before the Olympic Committee offering my services, and I say, you know, at the next World Games, I, I propose that you appoint me as the long distance runner for, for Britain. Oh yes, they say, you look a likely candidate. Yes. All right, we appoint you. Comes the practice, and here I am with my motorcycle, revving it up and running around the course on my motorcycle, and the, the man says, hey, there's been a mistake. No, you're a foot runner. No, but you say I find it easier to go by motorcycle. The man says, we've got a lunatic here. How should we explain it? You want to be a foot runner? Well, you can't go on a motorcycle then. You want to be a vessel of mercy?
Well, you can't earn salvation by your works then. And that was Israel's fault. Seeking a righteousness, she wanted to have it by her merit, by her works, and would not take the place of a sinner and receive salvation. By God's grace. I tell you, it wasn't that God wasn't prepared to have them. At that very moment, at that very moment when Israel at large were rejecting the gospel and refusing to become vessels of mercy, funny things were happening around the Roman world.
You would come, for instance, to a city like Corinth, and walking down the street, you'll come to the marketplace, and you'll see a whole hubbub and a ferment of people talking excitedly and pushing your way through the crowd. You'll ask what this is. And here is this little Jew called Paul. And do you know what he's telling these Gentiles? Gentiles, he's saying, would you like to become vessels of mercy? Vessels of mercy, says Demosthenes. What on earth is that? Well, you're sinners, gentlemen, and you need salvation, but God has a salvation for you. You Corinthians, in all your miserable homosexuality, your vice, your evil, and God is prepared to take you and have mercy on you and save you and cleanse you and forgive you and make you shining examples of his mercy that will shine all down the centuries and lighten even Belfast in nineteen eighty six And encourage people in Belfast to find the Savior and be converted because you were made a vessel of mercy.
Wouldn't you like to be one? Well, I hadn't thought about it before. They've never thought about it, never, we're not even seeking it. And here is God pressing the privilege upon them. Many of you are already vessels of mercy, aren't you? Some of us perhaps not. On another occasion, we shall have to talk about what you have to do to become a vessel of wrath. Friend, pray remember God is sovereign. Israel was chosen by God to be his witness in the world.
He gave them his law at Sinai. He gave them the promise of the tabernacle. He gave them the promise of Messiah, and they turned round and made a golden calf. Incredible though it is to relate, God had mercy on them and gave them another chance to be his witnesses. Pharaoh was invited to repent many, many times, urged to repent. He said no. And said no once too often.
How long will God hang out the day of opportunity? None knows. The Almighty doesn't give account of his ways. He is sovereign. Or if I speak to someone not yet saved, don't miss the opportunity. Oh, for a delightful thing. God transform you into a vessel of mercy, that your past disgrace and failure and sin now becomes transmuted, as men see in you the magnificence of God's immeasurable mercy.
Not only now, but when at last you arrive home in glory, to the glory that he has foreprepared for you. There in that glorious light, where your sin in all its darkness will be seen for what it was. It will be seen the clearer, therefore, the immeasurable mercy that God exerted upon you when he forgave and saved you. Why, you shall be such a spectacle as the most brilliant star in the firmament could not outshine you. Principalities, powers, mights, and dominions shall watch you eternally, my sister, and you, my brother, open mouthed as they look at you and see what a God God is, that he had mercy on you and brought you home at last and made you forever like his son.
Don't miss your opportunity, and may God bless his word.
