ADDRESSES ON ROMANS heart. Then God finished the transaction by taking away influences that would have softened his heart. As God said in Hosea 4: 17, "Ephraim is joined to idols ... Let him alone," so He said, in substance, concerning Pharaoh, "Let him alone." He used Pharaoh as an object-lesson before the world, to show what comes of the man who hardens his heart against Him. 5. THE POTTER AND THE VESSEL. If we dare to raise any objection to what God does or does not do, our answer is found in verse 20: "Nay but, 0 man, who art thou that re- pliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?" God acts according to His prerogative. If God shows mercy, it is not because man deserves it. When a man stands before the judgment bar of God lost, he can not say that it was because God willed it so. God shows His sovereign mercy and judgment through human instrumentality, as we see in verses 20-24. Do you see that God has two things to make known-His power and His mercy? And He shows them through vessels that are human. The vessels of m~n:y:.are prepared by being washed in the blood of the Ta~b. thereby being justified. To them He will show His riches in glory throughout eternity. More- over, He will show wrath and power through vessels "·fitted to destruction." But who fits these vessels for destruction? God does not so fit them, although He does fit the vessels of mercy. The vessels of wrath, however, fit themselves just as Pharaoh did. Every man who does what Pharaoh did, every man who goes on despising grace, will eventually become a vessel fitted unto wrath. Many people do not like the subject of wrath. I preached a sermon not long ago on the subject, "Is the Punishment of the Wicked Age-long Discipline or Eternal Separation from God?" My! but it drew the fire! But the wrath of God is taught in the Bible. My unsaved friend, you can be a vessel of mercy, if you kneel before your radio right now and say, Page 186]
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