THE ' KING’S BUSINESS
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Sunday, July 29 . Rom. 9 : 22 , 23 ,
soever He can have, mercy (2 Peter 3 ;9 ; 1 Tim 2:4; John 3:16; 5:40; Ez. 33:11) and that He willeth to harden only those who will not yield to the truth (2 Thess. 2 :10-12). Pharaoh hardened his own heart before God'hardened it (Ex. 5:2). God does not take a heart that is tender and disposed tcj do His will and harden it against the .man’s own will, but it is a cer tain and solemn truth that God does will to take a man who hardens his heart against Him and give him utterly over to the hardness of heart that he has chosen. (2 Thess. 2 :10-12). Saturday, July 28 . Rom. 9:19-21. Paul next considers another objection, a natural and a very common one, “Why doth God still find fault?” (i. e., with thosè who are hardened and do etril). “For who withstandeth His will?”' (i- e. If God willeth to harden him, the hardened man has simply carried out God’s will in being hardened). Paul might have answered this by bringing in the counter-balancing truth.of which, we have spoken above, but Paul did not do this. He went deeper, he went to the root of the matter. He con- ïronts the objector with the fact that God is God and man has no right to rbply against God, even though he cannot under stand ,God’s ways. Paul thunders out “Nay but, O man, who .art thou that repli- est against God?” Yes, who are you- God is God, the Infinite, the Inscrutable, the All-perfect, and who art thou? Who is the greatest philosopher when com pared with the Infinite God? A lump of clay, that is all, and shall the lump of clay say to the master potter, who molds it in His wisdom according to His will, “Why didst thou make me .thus?” Poor fool piece of clay ! The hardest lesson for our proud hearts to learn is that we are only lumps of clay and God is the potter and has a right to do what He will with each lump. Happy is thé? man who learns it. But God is love, too, and will do the very best thing possible with each lump, but we may not understand His method and have no right to ask Him to explain.
Though God has the right to make a ves sel unto honor or dishonor, He exercises this right as regards the vessels unto dis honor “with much long suffering.” Pha raoh himself is a case in point. How long God bore with this rebel against His will. How many opportunities he was given for repentance. And so God bears today with sinners who are, to use Paul’s description of them, “vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction.” And yet we must not lose sight of the other truth which Paul dis tinctly states in the verse, that it is the will of God “to show (i. e. demonstrate J His wrath.” But God delays the execution of that will so that all who may may be brougt to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). How ever, He will not delay the execution of His will forever, even as He did not in the case of Pharaoh. It must be' the will of a Holy God to | demonstrate His wrath against sin and sinners, and though the bolt may be held back in much long suf fering, it will fall at last if the sinner will, not repent. But God will not only demon strate His wrath in due time, He will also “make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He afore pre pared unto glory.” Notice carefully that while it is distinctly said that “He (God) afore prepared the vessels of mercy unto glory,” it is not said for a moment that He fitted-the vessels of wrath unto destruction. It is said that they were fitted, unto destruction,” but not that God fitted them. This change of expression is of course intentional and- is deeply significant. There • is here the doctrine of predestination “unto destruction.” Monday, July 30 . t Rom. 9:24-33- Who is it that God “afore prepared unto glory?” “Even us, whom He hath also called not;from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles,” i. e. us who believe. The Gentiles who believe attain unto “the righteousness which is of faith,” and Israel “following, after a law of righteous ness,” but not simply believing, attain unto
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