If you can turn your Bibles to Romans chapter 9, our focus this morning is on verse 19-23. But I'm going to be reading from verse 14 so that you can see the context of what we're looking at this morning. Verse chapter 9, verse 14-23. What shall we say then?

Is there injustice on God's part? By no means. For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. 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." So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

You 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 a potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?

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? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you truly are a God worthy of worship.

We thank you for today. We thank you for our brothers and sisters that we can run this race together with. We pray that you would help us to build a community that genuinely loves you and worships you in spirit and in truth. We pray that your living word would judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart.

Help us to understand and be more than willing to apply all that you have. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, this morning, before we jump into the text, I want to start with a riddle. And there's a purpose for that. So don't say it out loud. I want you to see if you can answer them for yourselves.

Some of you already probably may have heard of this riddle. But again, if you know it, don't blurt it out. A man and his son are in a terrible car accident and are rushed to the hospital in critical care. The doctor looks at the boy and exclaims, "I can't operate on this boy.

He's my son. How could this be?" Let me read it again. A man and his son are in a terrible accident and are rushed to the hospital in critical care. The doctor looks at the boy and exclaims, "I can't operate on this boy. He's my son. How could this be?" And the answer is, the doctor was his mother.

Like you already knew, all right? I got another one, okay? Again, if you know it, don't blurt it out if you know it, okay? The captain is my brother, testified the soldier. But the captain testified he didn't have a brother. Who is telling the truth? Don't blurt it out, okay?

The captain is my brother, testified the soldier. But the captain testified he didn't have a brother. Who is telling the truth? Both. The soldier was a female. Okay, some of you guys knew, some of you guys did not know. The reason why I start with this riddle is because sometimes a riddle exposes or reveals our paradigm, right?

The answer is pretty simple. It was a female doctor, it was a female soldier. But when we hear these questions, you know, again, when you hear the answer, it's pretty simple. But a lot of times in the way that we ask, in the way that we answer questions, it kind of reveals our paradigm, how we look at the world, certain things that are true or certain things that are not true.

That doesn't automatically mean that you're a male chauvinist pig if you didn't get the answer, okay? But there are certain things that we look at and certain paradigms, certain parameters that we are used to and we try to see the whole world within that paradigm. And so even though it's a very simple question, very simple answer, certain things that we look at look a certain way because we have certain things that, again, glasses that we have.

The question that we have this morning that we've been dealing with for the last few weeks, that Paul's been dealing with, with the whole chapter 9, as he's been talking about salvation by grace, by his sovereign election, predestination. The question that Paul's been trying to answer is, how can that be fair?

Is God sovereign or is man responsible for his sin? If God shows mercy to whom he has mercy and he hardens those whom he hardens and God chooses to do that, how can that be fair? So the question that came in the previous weeks was, is there injustice in God for doing that?

And then today in verse 19, he would say, why does he still find fault? How can anyone even resist God? If God is the one who's hardening and softening, how can he keep any of us accountable? So this is, you know, the larger question that we ask is, is God sovereign or is man free or is he responsible?

And obviously the answer to that is yes, because the Bible clearly teaches both. The Bible tells us that we are called to repent. It says that God tells Israel that judgment is coming upon them because they willfully, they chose to reject him and worship idols. They chose to do that.

Joshua, the famous passage in Joshua chapter 24, where he says, "Choose you this day whom you will serve." So there's clear passages in the Bible that say, you are responsible. You need to repent and you need to choose God. And again, in the scriptures in John 6, 44, it says, "No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him." The only reason why we're even able to repent and come to the Lord is because the Lord is drawing us to him.

In Isaiah 40, 12-31, not only does he draw individuals, it says that God controls even nations. He raises up nations and he puts down nations all for the purpose of his glory. The chapter we're in, in Romans chapter 9, it is the conclusion of what Paul says in Romans 8, 29.

It says, "For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." So he says in Romans 8 that he who foreknew, he predestined, and then he conformed, and he sanctified. And so God is the author from the beginning, the middle, and the end.

So the answer is pretty clear. So if we're looking for a philosophical answer, like how does this work? That's a different question. But the question that Paul is trying to answer, is it biblical? Is this actually how God works? And the answer is absolutely yes. Because that's what the scripture teaches.

We start to get into trouble when we look at one text and then we look at another text and say, "Well, this sounds more reasonable." And then we begin to ignore this whole other thing over here. And that's how the Jehovah Witnesses get into trouble with the doctrine of the Trinity.

They'll always bring up questions, "Well, Jesus is praying to the Father, so how can he be one with him?" Clearly he's the Son and he's the Father, so they're distinct, they're different. And then they completely ignore the passages where God the Father is calling his Son in Hebrews chapter 1, "Thy throne, O God, is a righteous throne that will last forever and ever." Jesus himself says, "I am," before Abraham was.

So in every instance where Jesus declares himself same and equal to the Father, the Old Testament clearly spells that God is one, there's no other. So the Bible teaches that God is one, there's only one, and yet there's a distinction about Jesus. So how do you reconcile these things?

That's where we get the doctrine of Trinity. There's a mystery about the identity of God, but we present in the doctrine of Trinity that this is what the Bible teaches. So when it comes to our understanding of salvation, it is presented to us in both ways, where we are responsible and yet God is absolutely sovereign.

He controls, he even raises up nations and destroys them ultimately for his purpose. So the question is, again, the philosophical question is, if that is the case, if God is sovereign and salvation isn't by human will, why does he find fault in man? It's a reasonable question. Martin Luther, again, the father of the Reformation, he addresses this issue this way, and again, it's a paragraph, so I want you to pay close attention to how he addresses this issue.

He says, "Mere human reason can never comprehend how God is good and merciful, and therefore you make to yourself a God of your own fancy who hardens nobody, condemns nobody, and pities everybody. You cannot comprehend how a just God can condemn those who are born in sin and cannot help themselves but must by a necessity of their natural constitution continue in sin and remain children of wrath.

The answer is God is incomprehensible, and therefore his justice as well as his other attributes must be incomprehensible. It is on this very ground that St. Paul exclaims, 'Oh, the depth of his riches of the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgment and his ways.'" So we can take certain parts of the scripture and it says, "Well, how can God be good if he does this?" and then therefore you start to create a God that's not of the Bible.

If God is going to be merciful, he saves everybody. That he is not wrathful, he's not vengeful, so basically we project upon him our idea of justice, and then if we're not careful, we start worshipping a God that we've created in our own image. Paul's going to try to answer this question, but I'm going to tell you ahead of time that you may not be satisfied, but I don't think Paul is trying to satisfy your question.

Let me tell you right off the bat, this is one of those passages that are wrestled with and debated and struggled, and I'm not going to tell you even now that at the end of the sermon you're going to say, "Oh, now I get it. Finally, that makes sense to me." Because I don't think that's Paul's intent.

Paul's intent basically is to not deal with the question, he's trying to deal with the question, but he's going to tell us what we need to hear. So I'm just telling you that ahead of time. He's going to answer the questions by asking us a question. In fact, you're going to see that Jesus often does that.

When the Pharisees would come and ask him a question, he would turn it around and he would ask them a question. In Matthew 5, 1-4, the Pharisees scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, "Why do your disciples break the tradition of elders? For they do not wash the hands when they eat." He answered them, "And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?" Boom.

You answer me that first. I think Matthew 21, 23-27, when Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching and said, "By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?" Jesus answered them, "I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you what authority I do these things." The baptism of John, from where did it come from?

From heaven or from man? And they discussed it among themselves, saying, "If we say from heaven, he will say to us, why then did you not believe him? And if we say from man, we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet." So they answered Jesus, "We do not know." Which is very disingenuous, because they had very strong opinions about John, but they couldn't answer because they were afraid about the consequence.

So, "We do not know." And he said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things." Now why did Jesus answer them that way? He was questioning the very questions that they were asking, the motive behind it. See, when they came and asked Jesus, "By what authority are you doing these things?" They weren't asking him a question, they were questioning him.

They've already determined who he is. They were asking a question, hoping that he will trip up and say something that's going to get him in trouble, either by the Jews or by the Romans. They weren't asking questions, they were questioning him. They've already determined who he is. They were in the seat of judgment, and Jesus is the one being judged.

And that's the reason why he flips the question around and asks you. You judge me, but now I'm going to ask you. You answer this first. Paul's going to answer, or at least attempt to deal with this question. He's going to ask four questions. One, "But who are you, old man, to answer back to God?" Question number one.

Two and three are kind of related, and I'm going to deal with that together. Number two is, "Well, what does Molded say to the Molder? 'Why have you made me like this?'" Third, "Has a potter knolled right over the clay to make out the same lump, one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use?" And four, long-winded question, "What if?" What if?

And again, remember that this is in the form of a question. He's not making a statement. 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 had prepared beforehand for glory.

Even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles." Now why does he try to answer this question by asking a question? If you notice, the question that is asked is, "Why does he still find for?" For who can resist his will? And he says, "Who are you, O man, to answer back to God?" Paul is not saying, and God is not saying, "How dare you ask me any question?" Some people, you know, very genuine Christians are afraid to ask questions because you think you're not supposed to ask questions.

Jesus says, "You shall not test the Lord your God, so I better not ask any questions." So some people think a good Christian just sucks it up. This doesn't make sense. I learned this thing in science and I don't know how this fits and you're not allowed to ask questions, which is absolutely false.

How do you grow? How do you mature? See, Paul is not saying, "Don't ask any question." If you look at the heart of the way he answers it, "But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Why did you make me like this?" He's dealing with the heart of the person asking the question, who is sitting in the seat of judgment against God.

"God, you don't make sense. What you told me doesn't make sense." So either you, God, are unfair or what Paul is saying is untrue. And both are false. He first and foremost addresses the issue of the man coming before God. Did God ever say, "You're not allowed to ask any questions because I'm God." Honestly, some of the most challenging areas where I grew in my faith was because I had questions and I kept on asking about the Trinity, about salvation, about the gospel.

I'm a very curious person so if I get stuck on something, I can't let it go. I remember my Bible study leaders would be frustrated because if I had a question, I mean, I just, even if there was no answer, I would just keep asking and asking and asking until it made sense to me, whether there was an answer or not an answer.

I would never discourage anybody from asking questions, but that's not what Paul is saying here. Do you remember when Jesus goes up to the wilderness and he gets tested on the third test? Satan says, "If you really are the Son of God, why don't you jump off this temple and his angels are going to come, he's going to protect you, prove yourself." Jesus responds to that question by quoting Deuteronomy 6.16 and it is said, "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." If you look at the fuller text in Deuteronomy 6.16, it's specifically referring to an event that happened in Marah.

Well, the nation of Israel, God leads them out into the desert and they ran out of water and they were saying, "Why did God bring us out here to die of thirst?" So the testing that he's referring to is the grumbling and complaining before God, questioning God's goodness. You brought us out here and all this was a trick and now you're going to cause us to die of thirst.

He wasn't saying, "Don't ask me any questions." In fact, in Malachi 3.10, God actually tells the nation of Israel, "Test me." Malachi 3.10, it says, "Bring the full tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and thereby put me to the test." He said, "Test me with your tithe." He said to the Lord of hosts, "If I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need." When the scripture says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you," our obedience to that, in a way, is testing God's goodness.

Is he a God who is faithful to his promises? So first and foremost, he's not dealing with saying, "Well, that's not a question you can ever ask." He said, "Do you understand who God is?" And that leads to the second question. "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 the same lump one vessel for honored use and another dishonorable use?'" Repeatedly over and over again in the scripture, we are described as clay and he's the potter. Now sometimes we're described as sheep and he's the shepherd, right?

And we're the body and he is the head. But one of the images that is repeated, especially in the Old Testament, is that we are clay and he is the potter. Now I want you to sit back and take a look at, think about what that illustration is telling us.

A clay basically is a lump of dirt, right? Absolutely worthless. Until the potter chooses to make something of it. So when we think about the clay and he is the potter, he chooses to make the pot, make this lump of clay useful for something. But until the master potter picks it up and chooses it for his purpose, it is just dirt.

It is absolutely worthless. So what this imagery is trying to teach first and foremost, do not understand that you're just dirt. So before you get even offended by this illustration, he said, "Before I can even attempt to answer this question, you need to first understand who you are." Now for an unconverted person, that may sound offensive.

Because an unconverted person, he himself is at the center of the universe. All he wills and purposes is about him. So to have the God of the universe say, "You are clay and I am the potter," is offensive. Because that's not true. It contradicts everything that he pursues. He is at the point of glory.

He stands and he lives for the purpose of glorifying himself. So when God shows up and he says, "No, you're just clay and I am the potter," it is offensive. But to a converted man who has met Christ, our core relationship with God begins when we recognize that this is true.

When we recognize that we are clay and he is the potter, and that we have offended this holy God, and then we come and we humble ourselves and we repent of this sin and we surrender our lives to the maker. That's when salvation, that's when life begins. So when Paul says, "Do you not realize that you are the clay and he is the potter," he first and foremost is reorienting.

The question in itself has to be asked in the context of a clay and the maker. So if you understand that, do you understand what you are asking? That you are the clay questioning the maker. Why are you making me like this? And again, he's turning the table around and asking, "Do you know who you are?

Do you know who I am?" And again, up to this point, he hasn't even dealt with the question. He's questioning the questioner. We see the same line of thinking when he deals with Job. Job was targeted with suffering because he is righteous, and horrendous thing. We can't even begin to imagine the suffering that this man went through.

Not only all the physical and the illness and losing of his children and all of that, on top of that, every one of his friends. In three separate cycles, they come to him and say, "Job, confess your sin. There has to be something that you've done. God doesn't do this to righteous people." Because that was their paradigm.

And over and over again, one by one, all of his friends come and say, "Job, you're hiding something from us. This is not happening to a righteous person. There must be something wrong with you." And in the beginning, Job was very benevolent. "God's going to vindicate me. There's nothing that I am aware of that I need to repent of." But by the end of the book of Job, it starts to get to Job.

And he begins to cry out to God. "Why are you doing this to me?" And he begins to question his justice. "I've done nothing wrong that I'm aware of. God, I thought you were a fair man, fair God. And why are you doing this to me?" And then finally, when he gets to his breaking point, God shows up.

In Job chapter 38, beginning verse 1, this is how God deals with his question. "Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, 'Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man, and I will question you, and you make it known to me.'" In other words, you're judging me, you're questioning me, and you have no idea what you're talking about.

And then he begins four chapters, right, three and a half chapters of questioning him. And this is how he questions. "Job, you're questioning me, thinking that you know what you're talking about. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding, who determined its measurements?

Surely you know. Or who stretched out the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone? When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?

When I made clouds its garments and its thick darkness, its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it, and set bars and doors, and said, 'Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed.' Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place?

That it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it? It is changed like clay under the seal, and its features stand out like a garment. From the wicked their light is withheld, and their uplifted arm is broken." And he does this for three chapters, three and a half chapters.

Do you know the way of the gazelle? Do you know when a child is born? Do you know the way of a mother? And he goes on and on and on. Basically he's saying, do you have any idea who I am? And do you have any idea of what it is that you are asking?

See, God is not saying this just to kind of put him in his place. Right? Joe, you're nothing. I'm everything and you're nothing. And you just stay there. Okay? How do you answer a child's question that he would not even begin to understand? Say you have a third grader.

You know, I got a third grader at home and he asked, you know, a calculus question. Not that I can answer it. But let's say he asked a calculus question and he's barely doing multiplication. And he demands an answer. I don't get it. I have to know. If you don't, if you can't answer me, maybe you don't know.

The only way that I can answer that child is to remind him what he does not know. Correct? It's not because I don't know. I could answer you, but you have no idea. I can begin to answer you, but from step one, you're not going to know what I'm talking about.

So the only way that I can satisfy him is to show him what he does not know. You're putting me in a judgment seat and basically saying I'm judging you and I'm going to decide whether you're fair or not. This sounds fair. This doesn't sound fair. But do you have any idea?

You have no control over when you are born or when you die. You have no idea of the animals. You have no idea how the earth started or how it's going to end. You have no idea why the sun comes up, why the sun goes up. You have no idea.

And you have no control over any of these things. And yet you're going to come and you're going to judge me. Job, after hearing four chapters of God just revealing to him who he is. God never directly answers this question. He doesn't say all of this happened because of this.

And a lot of times we read the book of Job superficially. We get to the end and he says, oh, his possessions were multiplied. He had so many children. We look at that. We read that as how can that be the purpose? I took two of your kids and now I gave you four.

Yes. You had 100 cattle and at the end you had 200 cattle. That's why you suffered. Who would want that? I'd rather keep my 100. But that wasn't the answer. And he never actually ever even answers that question. He just shows up and he basically tells him, you have no idea.

And God reveals himself to Job and this is how Job responds in Job 42, 1 through 6. That Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Basically, I mean, it's a rhetorical question.

It was me. Right? Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand. Things too wonderful for me which I did not know. Here and I will speak and I will question you and you make it known to me. I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear but now my eyes see you.

Therefore I despise myself and repent and in dust and ashes. He was the one shaking his finger at God. Why are you doing this to me? How can you be just? What did I do wrong? And after he meets God, he says, I despise myself. And he's the one who repents.

He's the one who says, now I'm dust and ashes. We may look at that on the surface and again, an unconverted person will look at the book of Job and if you study it carefully, he said, well, God seems like a vengeful God. He's toying with Job, his emotions, his children, his wealth.

All for what reason? Because Satan just said, well, you know, like you didn't give me a chance. If you take away your hedge of protection, we'll go at him. It all seems like some play, some joke. An unconverted person who have not experienced the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ may look at that and all they see is on the surface.

But Job, he encounters God and he is satisfied. God doesn't explain himself. He doesn't reveal himself, the details of his plan. He just says, you do not have the ability to know. You don't have the ability to know. Now, again, our human psyche may hear that and say, well, I'm still not satisfied.

Before we approach God, every single one of us has to come to a point where we understand just how feeble we are. We can't understand anything in scripture. Anything that God says, the gospel itself will not make any sense until we recognize that we are sinners in need of his mercy.

Even the way we judge ourselves, right? Every time you come, you know, we always talk about, oh, we shouldn't judge each other. We judge each other all the time. We judge each other in the way that we look. We judge each other in the way our hairstyle. Somebody came to Bible study late, we judge them, right?

We judge if they serve the church or don't serve the church, if they clean, don't clean, pick up trash, whatever. The kind of car you drive, we judge everybody. But we don't know the details. We just see what we see. Because from my perspective, this is what it seems like is happening.

From God's perspective, God is orchestrating human history. Everything that is happening in human history, he's orchestrating to make it fit. How is he going to explain to us that what happened to you last Tuesday is going to affect somebody at your work, and then that may affect his family, and then that may eventually lead to somebody coming to Christ, and they're going to preach the gospel in Syria, and the revival is going to break out 40 years later.

And everything that happened here is going to be somehow connected to that, and this is what's going to happen. How is he going to explain that? How are we going to comprehend that? Everything God is doing, our sovereign God is doing, he's, all of these things are working together for good.

We all know what's been happening in the Middle East. ISIS has come in and persecution and Christians, at least the years that I've lived, I've never seen anything like it. Christians literally being chased out of their homes, churches being burned down, and it's not in isolation in one area.

This is happening everywhere. A couple years ago, people would have looked at that and said, "God, why are you doing this?" Because all we see is the suffering. Why are you allowing your children to experience this horrendousness? And having parents watch their children being burned alive, because that's all we see.

But we've been hearing news from the Middle East, from the mission groups, that there's a revival breaking out among the Muslims that we haven't seen in modern history. A lot like what we saw in the early church, in the Colosseum. One Christian would be torn apart by the lions and two people on the stand would convert because of what they're seeing.

That's what's happening in the Middle East right now. In one sense, horrible events are taking place against Christians, and yet God is orchestrating all of this to bring people to Christ. We don't have the ability to comprehend what God is doing, why He's doing it, and how that's going to affect the larger picture.

All we see is, "How does that affect me? What does that have to do with me?" God may be using me for noble purposes, to be sacrificed for a larger purpose. But we judge everything based upon, "How does that affect me?" Because we're the center of the universe. Because all things are made for me.

The third and final answer, I think, whether we are satisfied with this or not, is the truth. The third question he asks is, "What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patient vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of His glory for the vessels of mercy which He has prepared beforehand for glory?" What is his answer?

He said, "God dealt patiently to demonstrate His wrath and His power. He was patient in judging them in order that those who are prepared for mercy may see His glory." What is the ultimate purpose of everything that He does? It's for His glory. Now as I said before, if you're unconverted and you've never tasted the goodness of God, maybe you faked it all this time.

You've never really seen the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. What God says, what Paul says in this passage, may disturb you. You want me to worship a God who allows people to suffer for His glory? How can that be fair? That doesn't seem right. That He is unjust.

He's unjust for doing what He's doing. He's unjust for condemning people who He hardened their heart. Again, we talked about that last week. All that Paul is saying in this passage is in response to what he said at the end of verse 18 when he says, "He has mercy on whom He has mercy and He hardens whom He wills." And he's specifically in that context referring to Pharaoh.

So when he's talking about here how he was dealt patiently, those who have been prepared for wrath, the immediate context is talking about Pharaoh. So let's look at Pharaoh and what he's referring to. God shows up and He's about to deliver the nation of Israel. And He goes through this drama of these ten plagues.

Now why does He go through these ten plague drama? He could have just said, "Squashed. Now get out. Go worship me." In fact, He prophesied that if you go there and tell them that He's going to harden His heart and God says He's going to harden Pharaoh's heart, Pharaoh's going to harden His heart, and He goes through this drama of nine plagues.

And each one He shows His power. And it isn't until the tenth plague where He finally does His final act and they're delivered. Why even go through all of them? Why not just the final plague to begin with and just be done with it? Each one of those plagues represented a God in Egypt.

And so what God was doing was demonstrating His power and His wrath over these idols that God is much more powerful than anything that Egypt was using against them. So He says, He was demonstrating, He was patient with them. Instead of squashing them in the beginning, He said He was patient with them, demonstrating His power and authority over every idol that Egypt was worshiping to demonstrate to the nation of Israel, His people, of who God is.

That there's only one true God. He was preparing them to begin a nation. He was preparing them to walk out into the desert so that they could have confidence in their God. So in this immediate context when He says, "What if? What if God was patient in His wrath, in His judgment, in demonstration of His power for those who are prepared for destruction?" For what purpose?

To reveal His glory to those who are prepared for mercy. To glorify Himself among His people. And again, our man-centered way of looking at everything, everything is seen, how does it affect me? How does that personally benefit me? When the beginning of maturity and beginning of salvation is recognizing that we are not at the center of the universe.

We are not at the center. God's ultimate purpose of human history is for His glorification. Now again, even for Christians, that may not sit well. But let me explain why this is so important and why that's the best thing for sinners. You have a child who grows up and one of the worst things that you can do is to give him everything he wants.

He grows up thinking that he's the center of the universe. And you think that that's best for him because you're helping and you're giving them. They're always happy because you're giving them everything they want. Eventually what does it lead to? What fruit comes from that? Spoiled brat. Not only is he spoiled, he's going to be very difficult to like.

Everybody outside of you is going to have a very difficult time. So you basically set him up so that everywhere he goes people are going to hate this kid. Because he thinks he's the center of the universe. When Jesus was going to the cross, He didn't say, "It's time for me to go to the cross so I can save these people." He didn't say that.

Even though that's what resulted from it. When He was going to the cross, He didn't come and say, "You know what? I'm going to wash away their sins." All of these things happen. But you know what Jesus said? "Father, it's time to glorify your Son and for the Son to glorify you." What does it mean to glorify?

Glorify means taking something that is valuable and putting it in display so everybody can see it. So you guys know that our entrance on this side and our entrance in the front, they decorated nicely. We had a lot of brothers and sisters who sacrificed and came and they took literally all day putting that in.

Why did we put it at the entrance? All that nice reclaimed wood and design and all that, their skills and everything that they had, they took literally, I think probably 14, 15 hours they were there. Why didn't you do it at the entrance? Why don't we do it back over here or in the storage?

Because it's at display. We want everybody to see it. This is where there's going to be the greatest traffic. It's for people to display and see it. If you haven't walked upstairs to the entrance, the second floor entrance, our brother Phillip displayed his talent. He put up a, what do you call that?

Ward mural? Is that what you call it? All right. I learned something. The ward mural, right? And if you've seen it, every single person that walked into the front entrance is wowed by it. "Wow, our church is so hipster." Right? That's what I've been hearing. I'm not exactly sure what a hipster is, but it sounds good.

But he put it at the entrance because it's purpose of displaying something for everybody to see. That's what glorifying something is. So when Jesus says, "It's time for you to glorify the Son," what is he putting on display? His holiness and his mercy. Because at the cross, you know, we typically think about his mercy and sacrifice, but that cross wouldn't make any sense without God's wrath because his wrath was being poured out on his Son.

Why? Because he's demonstrating his mercy. So the greatest and the most perfect display of God's holiness and his compassion and mercy is at the cross. In no other place in human history, past or the future, where we see the most glorification, most perfect glorification of the identity and the nature of God is greater than at the cross.

So that's why Jesus says, "It's time to glorify your Son, and now it's time for the Son to glorify you." See, it is in his glory that we live. When he is magnified, we live. When we magnify ourselves, we are destroyed. Because God did not make us images to be worshipped.

God made us to be bearer of his image, that we may worship him. So when we recognize who he is, when he is magnified and glorified, it is no longer about us, and we no longer evaluate everything based upon how it personally affects me. See, a sanctified mind, a sanctified life evaluates everything based upon does he get the glory, even suffering.

How is God glorified in my suffering? How is God glorified in my hardship? How is God glorified? Because God's ultimate end is for his glory. Because it is when he is glorified, we live. Mankind is saved. Let me conclude with this. Jonathan Edwards, in his own words, and it is a short part of a larger writing that he has on this subject, but let me read why he believes evil is necessary.

So evil is necessary in order to the highest happiness of creature and the completeness of that communication of God for which he made the world. Because the creature's happiness consists in the knowledge of God and the sense of his love. So that the knowledge of him be imperfect, the happiness of creature must be proportionately imperfect.

That the perfect knowledge of God, not a portion, not a part, not certain things that make sense to us, but when the perfect manifestation of his knowledge, when he is glorified, he says the greatest happiness for the creatures, it will also increase. Let me again, as I wrap up this morning's message.

You know, obviously I preach every Sunday, you know, and I, you know, preparing sermons and every text in the scripture is valuable, obviously. But every once in a while I come across a text that I'm meditating on and it just takes my breath away. And to think that this is the text, right?

This is the text where God says, "Who are you, O man, to talk back to God? You're just clay and he's the potter." What if, what if in God displaying his wrath and his power dealt patiently in order that he may be manifested, his glory may be manifested to those who have been prepared for mercy.

And to think that that's the passage. But I was meditating on this and thinking about it and I can't properly articulate to you why it had that impact on me. I was just sitting there meditating on this. Wow. I don't get it. There's a lot of stuff that I can't explain to you and even this, like I can't perfectly explain to you how this works.

All I can tell you is that's what he says and why it makes perfect sense to me. And not only does it make perfect sense to me, I feel alive in the presence of his glory. When God manifests himself as he is, I can't articulate it. I can't explain to you how or what I've seen.

I can't draw you a picture. I can't tell you why. But in the presence of his perfect knowledge as he is, it's breathless. There's nothing like it. The moment we try to compromise and make impalatable to our taste, you diminish his glory. You diminish his glory. In his full glory, he is vengeful, wrathful, merciful, faithful.

He's all of that together. And when he is manifested as he is, when we see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that's where we live. That's why the devil is trying so hard to blind the mind of the unbeliever so they do not see the gospel of the glory.

All of these things is to manifest himself. And I pray that each one of us would approach the scriptures with humility, that this is the God of the universe that we're approaching. And the big question that we ought to live with every single day is, why does he care about me?

Let's pray. You want to take some time to pray. Whatever it is that you're struggling with, whatever trials or frustration or annoyance or personal conflicts that you may have, I can't explain to you how Jesus is going to fix that. I can't explain to you what he's going to say, what passage, what counseling that can give that's going to make sense of that.

All I know that Jesus says, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me." The only way that we can have access to the author of life is to come through Christ. So come to him. Come to him this morning.

Pray to him. Honest confession. Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us.