And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.
All things work together for good to them that love God
I. It is abundantly obvious of many a single adversity--that a great and permanent good may come out of it. This is often verified, as when the disease brought on by intemperance has germinated; and the loss by a daring speculation has checked the adventurer, and turned him into the way of safe though moderate prosperity. Apart from Christianity, man has often found that it was good for him to have been afflicted--that, under the severe but salutary discipline, wisdom has been increased, and character strengthened, and the rough independence of human wilfulness tamed, and many asperities of temper have been worn away. And so of many an infliction on the man who is a candidate for the world above. The overthrow of his fortune has given him a strong practical set for eternity; the death of his child has weaned him from all idolatry; the tempests of life have fastened him more steadfastly to the hold of religious principle. He is made perfect by sufferings.
II. These adverse visitations do not always come singly. The apostle supposes the concurrence of two or more events, all verging towards the good of him to whom they have befallen. It has often been said that misfortunes seldom come by themselves; and it is the compounding of one evil thing with another that aggravates so much the distress of each of them. And when we are lost in the bewilderments of a history that we cannot scan, and entangled among the mazes of a labyrinth that we cannot unravel, it is well to be told that all is ordered and that all worketh for good.
III. Important consequences emanate from one event which in itself is insignificant, insomuch that the colour and direction of your whole futurity have turned on what, apart from this mighty bearing, would have been the veriest trifle in the world. It is thus that the great drama of a nation’s politics may hinge on the veriest bagatelle. The pursuers of Mahomet were turned away from the mouth of the cave in which he had the moment before taken shelter by the flight of a bird from one of the shrubs that grew at its entry. This bird changed the destiny of the world. And therefore it is well that all things are under the control of God who maketh all things work together for good unto those who love Him. Is not the fact that what is most minute often gives rise to what is most momentous, an argument for the doctrine of a providence that reaches even to the least? Should God let go one small ligament in the vast and complicated machinery of the world, it might all run into utter divergency from the purpose of the mind that formed it.
IV. How am i to be assured of my interest in the declaration of the text?
1. The promise here is not unto all in the general, but to those who love God. Now I may not be sure that I love Him. I may desire to love Him; but to desire is one thing and to do is another. Now it does not follow that you are altogether destitute of love to God because it stirs so languidly within you that you are not able very distinctly or decidedly to recognise it. Your very desire to love Him is a good symptom; your very grief that you love Him not bodes favourably for you. Where there is an honest wish for affection, there is in fact the embryo of affection itself, struggling for a growth and an establishment in the aspiring bosom. Meanwhile it is most desirable that the germ should expand. And the question is, How shall this be brought about? Never by looking to oneself, but by looking unto the Saviour.
2. They who love God are described by another characteristic. They are the “called”--i.e., those who have felt the power of the call upon their hearts, and have complied with it accordingly. It is only upon our entertaining the call of the gospel and consenting thereunto that there ensues a transition of the heart to the love of God. Anterior to this, the thought of God stood associated with feelings of jealousy and insecurity and alarm. A sense of guilt has alienated us from God. It is this which stands as a wall of iron between heaven and earth. And the only way by which this else impregnable barrier can be scaled, and we can draw nigh in affection to the Father, is by accepting the only authentic offer that He ever held out to us of reconciliation. It is by beholding Him in the face of Christ. (T. Chalmers, D.D.)
All things work together for good to them that love God
I. The end to be accomplished The “good” here spoken of does not apply to our health, ease, or fortune, but to our eternal interest. Who does not see that afflictions have a beneficial tendency? They bring us to reflection; they quicken prayer; they wean us from the world, etc. But even spiritual good is not the highest reference. “Good” looks to heaven and points to eternity (2 Corinthians 4:17).
II. The means which are to accomplish this end. “All things,” as the subject-matter in hand, and by the context. The apostle is here speaking of afflictions: and of those that will ultimately be beneficial are--
1. The trials of those who are called to bear the cross for Christ’s sake. Those losses that you may now be called to endure for the sake of religious principle will inevitably enrich the inheritance which grace has prepared for you above all things. If you suffer with Christ, you shall reign with Him.
2. The ordinary calamities which we are all more or less called to endure. The painful sickness, borne with unmurmuring resignation; the loss of property, submitted to with the knowledge that we have a higher treasure the departure of friends, whom we have given up without rebellion to the will of Him who had a better right to them than ourselves--all the trials of life enter within the compass of this delightful expression.
3. But observe the words, “work together.” The believer’s history is not an unconnected series of events; they form a perfect scheme. His life, death, infancy, old age, all enter into the one grand scheme which Providence is causing to produce his spiritual benefit. How many influences strive, even in reference to our temporal comforts, to promote our enjoyment in this world. The sun, the moon, the stars, the elements; food, raiment, habitation, etc. And so it is with respect to our spiritual welfare. How many aids, instruments, influences, are perpetually provided to promote our spiritual welfare? The Deity--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; angels, patriarchs, etc.; the Bible, the Sabbath, the fellowship of the saints--all concurring to promote our spiritual welfare. The believer, looking at the scheme of providence, is not unlike an individual surveying some complicated piece of machinery, where the manufacturer himself stands by holding in his hand the articles which this mechanism has produced, and saying to the spectator, “See these apparently contradictory movements; hear this noise and confusion: you cannot tell the design, perhaps, of one of the wheels, much less enter into the combination of the whole; but I can, and here are the results of these various movements.” So does God speak to His people, surveying the mechanism of providence, the wheels of which are so varied, and in some of its movements so apparently contradictory.
III. The certainty with which we may calculate upon the production of this end by these means. “We know.” It is not a mere conjecture; an opinion; it is a declaration of absolute certainty. We have the promise of a God that cannot lie; and we have the power of a God who can do all things that He wills to accomplish His promise.
IV. The inferences from this subject.
1. What is true in reference to the individual Christian must, of course, be true in reference to the Church at large. “Christ is exalted to be head over all things to His Church.” The rise and fall of empires, the setting up and the pulling down of monarchies, the progress of arms, of commerce, of arts, the collision of human passions and human interests that is perpetually going forward--all these things are working together for good to the Church.
2. The unspeakable value of that sacred volume which contains such a discovery as this. Who could have made it but God Himself? Who that looks abroad upon the chequered scene of human affairs can presume to tell whether good or evil preponderates? And even if they could advance so far as to pronounce a decision, that good now preponderates, yet who, without some infallible oracle to determine the question, can declare whether ultimately good or evil will prevail? But the Bible comes in, and sets the matter at rest, and tells us that “all things work together for good,” etc. Nay, without the Bible who can tell us what good is, or how it is to be obtained?
3. The necessity of faith, to rise to the standard of our privileges, and receive that abundance of consolation which God has provided for us. (J. Angell James.)
All things working together for good to them that love God
I. The explanation of the text.
1. The nature of the privilege.
(1) The extent--“All things,” as limited by the context, which speaketh of the afflictions of the saints.
(a) All manner of trials for righteousness’ sake. Stripes are painful to flesh, but occasion greater joy to the soul (Acts 16:1-40.). Spoiling of goods stirreth up serious reflections on a more enduring substance (Hebrews 10:34). So banishment; every place is alike near to heaven, and the whole earth is the Lord’s (Revelation 1:9). Death doth but hasten our glory (2 Corinthians 5:1).
(b) Ordinary afflictions. Many times we are best when we are weakest, and the pains of the body invigorate the inward man (2 Corinthians 4:16). In heaven you shall have everlasting ease.
(c) Though prosperity be not formally expressed in this place, yet it is virtually included. For God keepeth off, or bringeth on the cross as it worketh for our good (Song of Solomon 4:6). It is a threatening to them that do not love God that their prosperity tendeth to their hurt (Psalms 69:22). The sanctifying of their prosperity is included in a Christian’s charter (1 Corinthians 3:21-23).
(2) The manner of bringing it about--“They work together.” Take anything single and apart, and it seemeth to be against us. We cannot understand God’s providence till He hath done His work; He is an impatient spectator that cannot tarry till the last act, wherein all errors are reconciled (John 13:6-7). God knoweth what He is a-doing with you, when you know not (Jeremiah 29:11). When we apprehend nothing but ruin, God may be designing to us the choicest mercies (Psalms 31:22).
(3) The end and issue--“For good.”
(a) Sometimes to good temporal, or our better preservation during our service (Genesis 50:20). Many of us, whose hearts are set upon some worldly thing, have cause to say we had suffered more if we had suffered less. In the story of Joseph there is a notable scheme of Providence.
(b) Spiritual good. So all affliction is made up and recompensed to the soul; it afflicts the body, but bettereth the heart (Psalms 119:71). We lose nothing but our rust by scouring.
(c) Eternal good. Heaven will make us complete amends for all that we suffer here (2 Corinthians 4:17).
2. The certainty of this--“We know.” Not by an uncertain and fallible conjecture, but upon sure grounds. What are they?
(1) The promise of God, by which He hath secured the salvation of His people, notwithstanding their troubles (Hebrews 6:17-18).
(2) The experiences of the saints, who have found it so (Psalms 119:67; Philippians 1:19).
(3) From the nature of the thing. Two considerations enforce it--
(a) All things are at God’s disposal, and force to serve Him.
(b) His special care over His people (Isaiah 49:15; Zechariah 2:8; 1 Corinthians 10:13).
II. A more general state of the case.
1. This good is not to be determined by our fancies and conceits, but by the wisdom of God; for God knoweth what is better for us than we do for ourselves. Should the shepherd or the sheep choose his pastures? the child be governed by his own fancy or the father’s discretion? the sick man by his own appetite or the physician’s skill? It is necessary sometimes that God should displease His people for their advantage (John 16:6-7). Peter said, “Master, it is good for us to be here”; but little thought what work God had to do by him elsewhere.
2. Good is to be determined by its respect to the chief good or true happiness which consists not in outward comforts, but our acceptance with God; other things are but appendages to our felicity (Matthew 6:33).
3. This good is not always the good of the body, or of outward prosperity; and therefore our condition is not to be determined by the interest of the flesh, but the welfare of our soul.
4. It is not good presently enjoyed and felt, but waited for; and therefore our condition must not be determined by sense, but faith (Hebrews 12:11).
5. A particular good must give way to a general good, and our personal benefit to the glory of God and the advancement of Christ’s kingdom (Philippians 1:24).
6. In bringing about this good we must not be idle spectators, but assist under God.
7. If it be true of particular persons, it is much more true of the Church; all is for good (Psalms 76:10). (T. Manton, D.D.)
The co-working of Providence
We begin with the first of these parts, viz., the proposition itself, “All things work together for good,” etc., wherein again we have two branches more. For the first, the subject, it is “all things “; all things whatsoever they be, they do work together for the good of God’s people. All things indefinitely. It is a very large and comprehensive word, and so makes for the greater comfort and encouragement of all believers. First, “all things” in an universality of subsistence, and within the compass of being. There’s nothing which can be said to be, but what it is it is one way or other advantageous to those which are God’s people. First, for God Himself, who is the Being of beings, the uncreated being. There is nothing of Him but it makes for the good of His children. All the attributes of God, all the offices of Christ, all the gifts and graces of the Spirit, they still make for the good of them that belong to Him. Secondly, for created being, that is all of it for our good likewise. There is not any of all the creatures but they are in their several kinds and capacities subservient to the good of the Church and of every member of it. But secondly, “all things” in an universality of dispensation and under the notion of working. All occurrences, and events, and stations, and conditions, whether good, or bad, or indifferent, whatever is done and disposed in the world. The second branch of the proposition is the predicate or consequent in these words, “Work together for good to them that love God.” Wherein, again, we have three particulars more. For the first, the improvement itself, it is this: that they “work together.” Where there are two things distinctly and separately considerable of us--first, their simple operation. Secondly, their additional co-operation. First, I say, here is their operation: all things, whatsoever they be, they do work for the good of God’s children. It is not said, That all things are good, for they are not. Besides many sins and temptations, there are many crosses and afflictions which God’s children are sometimes exercised withal, that in their own nature are evil, and so to be accounted. But work to good that they do. And there is good which comes out of them, even then where there is not good in them, as immediate unto them. “No affliction is joyous, but grievous,” etc. (Hebrews 12:11). Again, they “work for good” here is a farther note of their activity: it had been well if it had been said, They turn to good, they are ordered and disposed to good, and the like. But the Holy Ghost does not content Himself with so narrow an expression as that is, but carries it a little further. If He had said, They prove to be good, that had been a word of casualty, and might have seemed to make it a mere accident and matter of chance. If He had said they are wrought to good: that had been a word of compulsion, and might have implied some kind of enforcement and constraint hereunto. But now He says rather they “work to good,” which is an expression of freeness, and forwardness and spontaneity and does denote that particular aptitude and disposition and inclination which is to be found in every creature as subordinate to the good of the Church. The second is their additional conjunction and co-operation--“they work together.” And here again there are three things especially observable. First, their efficacy in working: things which work together, they work with a great deal of strength; and that which is defective in one, it is supplied and made up by the other. Weak things, when they are joined together, they are enabled to do great matters. The second is their unity in working: things that work together they work with a great deal of cheerfulness and alacrity and agreement in their performance. Co-operation, it implies conspiration. The third is their concomitancy and connection, and subordination in working. And this again, it may be taken three manner of ways. There is a threefold co-operation or working together of all things for the good of God’s children, which is here pertinently considerable of us--First, they work together with God. Secondly, they work together with us. Thirdly, they work together one with another. This is done especially according to these following observations--First, by labouring for a clear and upright conscience. Secondly, by prayer and calling upon God (1 Timothy 4:4; 2 Corinthians 1:11). Thirdly, by studying the providence of God and observing Him in all His dealings with us, we should take notice of the things themselves, and take notice of our own hearts in them, how far forth they are affected with them, that so we may receive good and benefit from them. God has made to such and such conditions; this will suck and draw virtue out of them, and make a happy improvement of them; and all things work together for us so they work together with us. And that’s the second co-operation. Thirdly, they work together; that is, they work together one with another. If we take any passage of Providence singly and alone by itself, perhaps we may not so easily see how it does indeed work for our good. But take it now in its complication and connection with many more, and then we shall see it abundantly. The second is the effect or end of this improvement, and that is here expressed to be for good. Here is no good set down, so as to declare what it is, only indefinitely and in the general. First, for temporal good; God sometimes does His servants good in this, by those things which at the first appearance seem opposite and contrary hereunto. As Joseph when his brethren sold him into Egypt. Secondly, for spiritual good, so all things work for good to them however. Every passage of providence to those who are the children of God, it serves to draw them nearer to God, and to perfect their communion with Him. Thirdly, for eternal good which is the main good of all. That’s the second thing here considerable, to wit, the end or effect of this improvement, and that is good, The third and last is the persons who are more especially interested in it, and they are the children of God, who are here described from a double qualification. The one of their Christian affection, “to them that love God,” and the other of their effectual vocation,” to them which are the called according to His purpose.” And so there is this in it, that God’s children, and they alone, have all things working to them for their good. There is none that have interest in the privilege but those only that do partake of the condition. As for other people, they are so far from having all things to work for their good as that they rather work the quite contrary, for their greatest evil. God Himself being an enemy to them, everything else is an enemy with Him, and all the creatures are ready to rise up in arms against them. The Word of God is a savour of death to them, the sacraments they are occasions of judgment. Prayer it becomes an abomination; there is a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling-block in all their comforts. Everything is the worse for them, and they for it. The second is the manner of enunciation, or declaration of this proposition in these words, “we know it,” which is an expression of great confirmation; it is not a matter of guess only, or conjecture, but of certainty and assurance. This knowledge of a believer, it may be reduced to a threefold head of conveyance--first, we know it by revelation. Secondly, we know it by reason; and thirdly, we know it by experience. There is very great reason for it. First, that which we have here in the text, the eternal purpose of God Himself. Whatsoever is done in the world, it is subservient to God’s decree, and tends to the filling of that. Now, this is that which God hath purposed, and ordained, and appointed aforehand, even to bring His children to perfect happiness and salvation at last. Secondly, God’s affection and the love which He bears to believers, this makes for it also. Especially, if we shall further add His omnipotence and almighty power, that He does whatsoever He pleases both in heaven and earth. Thirdly, the covenant of grace, that does likewise make much for this purpose. Fourthly, the mystical union which is betwixt Christ and every true believer. And now for the improvement and application of all this to ourselves. First, here’s ground of patience and contentment in every condition. Again, as this makes for patience in the present condition, so also for hope for time to come. Again further, we may carry on this truth not only to the comfort of such and such Christians in particular, but also of the whole Church in general, by taking the words in the text, not distributively only, but collectively. But secondly, it may serve further to rectify us and to set us right in our judgments and opinions, and that especially in three particulars--First, of God Himself. Secondly, of the children of God. Thirdly, of religion and Christianity. First, it may teach us to have good conceits of God Himself, and to think rightly and soberly of Him. Whilst God has good thoughts for us, we should have good thoughts of Him, and justify Him in His proceedings in the world. There are certain intricacies and perplexities in providence which are not presently discerned or apprehended; there are the wheels moving within the wheels, as it is in Ezekiel, and we must be content to stay God’s leisure for the opening and unfolding of them to us. Secondly, to have good thoughts also of the children of God, and to think rightly of them; here is that which may make us in love with the state of God’s people, and to set a high price upon them: “Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord” (Deuteronomy 33:29). Thirdly, it should make us to think well of religion and Christianity itself, which does carry so much comfort and consolation in the bowels of it, and more than any other mystery or profession whatsoever besides; there is no such sweetness to be found anywhere as in the principles of Christianity improved and lived up to in the power of them. (Thomas Horton, D.D.)
All things working together for good to them that love God
A lighted taper inserted into a phial of one kind of gas will burn with the utmost brilliancy and beauty; in another phial, charged with a different kind of gas, that same taper will become extinguished in offensive smoke, and in a third it would produce an instantaneous and violent explosion. So the same calamity--sickness, bereavement, commercial disaster--will awaken in one man a slumbering conscience, will drive another to distraction, and a third it will draw nearer to God than ever; so that, whilst it is literally and undeniably true that the same calamities come alike upon the good and evil, it is a transparent fallacy to infer that the same ulterior results will follow in both cases. It is a fallacy to maintain that a curse may not remain a curse, or be transformed into a blessing, according as it is accepted as a salutary discipline or rebelled against as an arbitrary infliction. It is on the temper of the recipient that the result depends, and whether or not all things, good or ill, concur to his advantage. Does it not depend upon the use you make of anything, whether it becomes to you a blessing or a curse? Beneath the petals of a graceful and familiar flower is secreted a sedative poison, of such quality that it will frequently steep a man in such a slumber as only the last trumpet can awake him from. This you at once recognise as opium. You cannot cause water to boil for the most ordinary culinary purpose, but you disengage an element most formidable, the most irresistible power of expansion. This is steam. No summer passes over you, but you see the lightning tear the sky across as if it were a scroll of paper. This is electricity. These three agents, electricity, steam, and poison, to the mind of an untutored savage, are nothing but instruments of death. But a man of science in that deadly narcotic detects the principle of morphine; he compounds it with suitable ingredients, and converts it into one of the most inestimable and indispensable preparations in the pharmacopoeia. From death he extracts life. In steam he snatches, as it were, from the hand of Nature one of her most gigantic powers, and compels it to become the most obedient and the most versatile of his servants. Nay, the very lightning he enlists and disciplines into an obedient recruit. And in such wise is all this true of all these forces and many more, that while to the uncultured savage they are agents of death and objects of terror, they are working together for the comfort and benefit of him who has learned how to use them. Such is a faint illustration of the way in which the same occurrence may act with diametrically opposite results upon the practical Christian and upon the man who lives without God in the world. In the godless exciting rebellion and hardness of heart, and in the Christian pointing to filial submission, confiding holiness, and life eternal; forasmuch as all things--all things--work together for the good of them that are true to God. (W. H. Brookfield, M.A.)
The affection and vocation of the godly
We begin with the first of these branches, viz., of that description which is here made of the children of God, as taken from their Christian affection, of those that love God. In these, and many like places, are God’s children described by this character of their special love and affection to God. The reason of it is this--First, because this is the most excellent qualification of all others. It is that which the Scripture prefers above all other graces; though they all have their dignity in them, yet love it goes beyond them all, being such as shall last and continue, whilst the other ceases in regard of the exercise and authority of them. Secondly, it is an affection of the greatest influence and extent. It is that which, wherever it is, sets the wheels of the soul ageing for the doing of other things. He that loves God, he will stick at nothing else which God commands or requires at his hands (1 John 5:3). Thirdly, it is that also whereby we most resemble God Himself and become likest to Him. This the apostle John signifies in 1 John 4:16. Lastly, it is that which is most proper to all those relations wherein the faithful stand unto God as the friends of Christ, as the members of Christ, as the spouse of Christ. For the better opening of this point it may not be amiss for us to consider wherein this our love of God does consist, and what is the nature and working of it. Now for this it does especially consist in these three particulars--First, in our estimation of Him, a high prizing and valuing of those excellencies and perfections which are in Him. And this prizing and esteeming of Him, it does show itself farther in such effects as flow from it. First, in parting with anything for Him; love, it is a self-denying affection. Secondly, in zeal for Him, and maintaining and defending of Him upon all occasions. Love it is a vindictive affection, and is ready upon all occasions to take the part of the party beloved. Thirdly, this prizing of God as a testimony of our love to Him will show itself in a proportionable estimation both of ourselves and of every one else in reference to Him. Secondly, in a special longing and desire of soul after Him: love it is a desire of union. Thirdly, in special delight and complacency, and contentment in Him; where there is love, this is a great deal of satisfaction from the company and fellowship and society one of another (Psalms 73:25). Seeing God’s children are thus described from their loving of God, we see what cause we all of us have to make good this character in ourselves, and to be provoked to this heavenly affection. First, as to arguments for it take notice of these--First, goodness, that is one incentive to love; it is the ground of all that love which we bear to the creature because we apprehend some special good and excellency in it. Secondly, beauty, that is another thing in the object of love. It must have some kind of attractiveness and enticing with it, now this is also in God. Thirdly, propinquity and nearness of relation, that also calls for love. It is so betwixt man and man, or at least should be so. Lastly, His love to us; love it begets love again (Psalms 116:1; Psalms 18:1-2). Now further, for the directions and helps to it, take notice of these--First, to beg it of God, there is none that can love God truly but such persons as He enables to do so. Secondly, get our hearts weaned from a loving and admiring of the world. Thirdly, labour to be like God, and to have His image stamped upon us; love, it is founded in likeness, there is somewhat suitable which draws the affection. And so now I have done with the first branch of the description of God’s children, and of such persons as have an interest in the privilege above mentioned, of all things working to their good, as taken from their Christian affection in these words, “To them that love God.” The second is from their effectual vocation, in these words, “To them that are the called according to His purpose.” Wherein again we have two branches more. We begin with the first, their condition, such as are called--those who “are God’s children” are such persons as are effectually called, take notice of that. First, for the calling itself to show you what it is. Now this it may be briefly thus described and declared unto us: calling, it is a work of God’s Spirit, whereby, in the use of the means, He does effectually draw the elect from ignorance and unbelief, to true knowledge and faith in Christ, this is the calling which is here spoken of. There is a double calling which is mentioned in Scripture: the one is general in the publishing of the gospel; the other is special, which belongs only to the elect. And this latter is that which we have here in this text, which are “called according to His purpose.” First, as to the former, the parts whereof this special and peculiar calling does consist, they are again twofold--First, God’s invitation. And secondly, man’s acceptation. The second thing considerable to this calling is (as the parts whereof it consists so) the terms from which and to which it does proceed. And these according to the language of Scripture are sin and grace: from that miserable and wretched condition in which all men are by nature to the happy estate and condition of the children of God (Acts 26:18). The consideration of this point is thus far useful to us, as it serves to set forth the excellency and all-sufficiency of the grace of God in conversion. And so as an argument of greater power, so also of greater favour and goodness in God towards us. The second is the person calling, and that is God Himself; it is He to whom this work does properly and principally belong. “No man cometh unto Me,” says Christ,” except the Father which hath sent Me draw him” (John 6:44; so Acts 2:39). This it serves, first of all to inform us, that religion is not mere imagination, or a business of man’s devising. No, but that it is such as God Himself has invited and called us to. It is also very comfortable as to the perfection and consummation of grace in us, “that He who hath begun a good work in us will perfect it,” etc., as it is in Philippians 1:6. Lastly, seeing it is God that calls us, we should therefore be careful to lead a godly and holy life and conversation, answerable to the nature of Him who hath thus called us. The third is the manner, and means, and time of calling, both how and when it is performed. First, for the manner how, or the means by which, this is in an ordinary course by the preaching and publishing of the gospel (Romans 10:17). Therefore this teaches us accordingly to honour this ordinance of God and to set highly by it. Another thing considerable as to this calling is the time and season of it when it is that men are made partakers of this blessing; now for this we find it to be a thing unlimited and undetermined, there is no set or appointed time for it, but some are called at one time, and some are called at another, as it pleases God in His providence to dispose it. Beloved, it is a dangerous thing to neglect the present seasons of grace and effectual vocation, because if we do so we know not whether we may ever enjoy them again. The fourth and last thing here considerable is the persons who are the subjects of this call. Therefore let none either engross this mercy or despair of it. Let none engross it to themselves as if it belonged to none but unto them; nor let none despair of it for themselves as if it did not belong to them at all. Those who are themselves effectually called they will have a high esteem and account both of their calling itself, as also of all other persons who are partakers of the same calling with them. The second is the ground of this condition, as also of the privilege annexed unto it, and that is the purpose and good pleasure and decree of God “according to His purpose.” First, this calling here spoken of it is absolute and independent. It is according to God’s purpose, not according to our desert, thus 2 Timothy 1:9. This must needs be so; because we see by plain experience that those who might be thought most of all to deserve it are many times excluded from it, whilst others are taken in. The publicans and harlots went into the kingdom of heaven before the Pharisees (Matthew 21:31). Therefore let us from hence learn to abhor all doctrine of merit. Let us give God the whole glory of all. Our calling is absolute. Secondly, it is also unchangeable as the purpose itself, from whence it proceeds; the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. Lastly, we see here the ground of the universal happiness of God’s children, and in particular the certainty of the privilege abovelling that any should perish, i.e., He does not wish to have any vessels fashioned unto dishonour. He would have all to be beautiful and honourably serviceable, i.e., all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Jesus, speaking to the impenitent, says, “I would, but ye would not,” and just because men will not they spoil the clay that is in the Almighty Potter’s hand. (J. Morison, D.D.)
The potter and the clay
I. The question proposed.
1. A seemingly needless one.
2. Proposed as an argument for conviction.
II. The answer implied. That God is--
1. The Creator of all things.
2. The arbitrator of the destiny of everything.
3. That He has, as such, a right to create and plan out as He thinks fit.
Application:
1. Do not question God’s authority.
2. Submit to all His decrees with humility. (J. H. Tasson.)
The potter and the clay
Against the hard absolutism of the parable of the potter and the clay the righteous instincts of the heart have often protested. Responsibility without freedom strikes us as despotic and unjust. If we are whirled about on the potter’s wheel of an inflexible fate, it seems intolerable that we should be denounced for taking the shape it has given us. And what maddens us the more is that not being free, we should yet be called into account and held responsible. No effort of ours, it seems, can alter our destiny; yet the stain of demerit clings to us if we fail to shape it. It is like charging the rivers with guilt for their inability to run up a hill when God’s decree of gravitation forbids it. All this we find, or think we find, in the image of the potter and the clay. And no doubt, read in its connection with the rest of the passage, it seems a vindication of the right of God to do what He likes--of His right to be arbitrary, to make selections on principles of favouritism. An image or argument, however, that lands us in such a conclusion--that issues in a disproof of the righteousness of God, carries in it its own condemnation. As the impersonation of eternal justice, He must choose and do what is fair--what commends itself to our pure moral instincts. He must reverence the laws He has stamped on our nature. He must live out from the perceptions of the right He has given us to live by. The image of the potter and the clay, of the vessels made to honour and the vessels made to dishonour, are emblematic of certain inequalities that prevail among men. You have these two inequalities; first, as to our sphere in life; secondly, as to our moral constitution. Now, let us look at this question a little more closely. First, one man’s lot is favourable to the cultivation of the Christian temper, while another’s is not. That, I suppose, is inevitable. As there are some races who seem to exist only to be the serfs of the world, delvers in the field, toilers in the mine, so there are individuals elected by Divine decree, fashioned of dull and lethargic temper, to whom all life in the higher human interests has been denied. They cannot rise to the far empyrean, fanned by the wing of the albatross and the eagle; but must be content to skim with heavy flight near the earth’s surface. Well, if the Potter has made them so, let them so accept the destiny and the doom assigned. Let them do that in the strong conviction that the great Judge will take into account the conditions of life in which He placed them, and ask only if their achievements were equal to their opportunities. To them, little having been committed, from them little shall be required. Your sphere, your work in life, then, is the element given you in which to work out whatever greatness of character is possible within it. It defines your opportunities. These may be few, narrow, unpoetic. But there they are: and faithfulness within them will secure for you the same cordial greeting given by God to him who, having ten times your chances, gives back to the great Householder no more in proportion than you. Secondly, there are diversities of nature among men. You have one man with a sweet nature in him, perfectly and rightly disposed towards goodness and God. You have another, with whom life is a ceaseless struggle, who cannot put the victor’s foot on his frailties, and who at the end will die, having redeemed little of the wilderness within from its waste and wildness to the peaceful fruitfulness of the garden of God. It strikes you as unfair to ask these men to live in equal nearness to God. It is like asking the vessel made of common earth to have the glitter and beauty of Etruscan ware. Now, what are we to say to those hapless souls to whom fate has denied the moral materials of which the saintly character is formed--whom the Potter has made of common clay? That they will be condemned for not being the richest porcelain? for not attaining the moral beauty which the rigorous necessity of destiny and providence forbid? Surely not? A fine nature is a communicated blessing. It is not the acquisition of one’s own will--not the fruit of one’s own endeavour. No merit is ascribed to a man who is what he is because of something given him, not acquired by him. If much has been given in a man’s moral endowments, much will be required of him; but to whom little has been given, of him little shall be asked. The ideal man of angel temper is different from the ideal man of a dull and sluggish soul. Both may be perfect after their kind. The injustice will not come in till God expects from both vessels the same finish and beauty. The clay vessel may be perfect as a bit of delf; it has its own perfection: the vessel made to be a bit of alabaster or Etruscan ware cannot have more. In conclusion, then, our lot and our nature--whatever these are, tractable or intractable--are given us as the element and the materials out of which we are to evolve a certain ideal character. The lot and the nature are our fate--for them we are not responsible. The character is the product of our own freewill--for it we shall answer. (James Forfar.)
To make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour.--
Honour and dishonour; or, the work of the sinner and the work of God
Note--
I. That all men are made of one common nature. “We,” as the old prophet has it, “are the clay, and Thou our Potter, and we are all the work of Thy hand.” Notwithstanding the vast variety in colour, conformation, habit, etc., there is such a correspondence, both in the physical and spiritual structure of all the races as to corroborate the declaration that God “hath made of one blood all nations of men.” Let us not be satisfied in admitting the truth of this doctrine, but--
1. Reverence the rights of all. Nothing can justify us in offering the slightest indignity to that right which belongs to man as man.
2. Sympathise with the woes of all. If we love not our brother “whom we have seen, how can we love God whom we have not seen?”
3. Diffuse that gospel which is the great want of all. Man, the world over, is a brother; out from the deeps of his heart there rises a cry for the help the gospel offers.
II. That of men made of the same nature, part is being “fitted for destruction,” and part for glory. The word destruction does not refer to existence, but to happiness. It is here put it antithesis to glory, i.e., all that is blissful in being. Now, it is here implied that there are certain men being framed for the destruction of all happiness, and others for all that is glorious. There are three things which show the truth of this.
1. The inevitable tendency of the two great principles that rule mankind--selfishness and love, or sin and holiness The one tends to the decrease of happiness, and the other to its increase; the one fits for destruction, and the other prepares for glory. A man under the influence of selfishness is one whoso nature is undergoing a rapid process of deterioration. There is a blight in his atmosphere that shall leave his spiritual territory barren. There is a disease in his system that shall, bring on death.
2. The actual experience of mankind. Take two men as types.
(1) One shall be Saul. He had, undoubtedly, a good mental, as well as a “goodly” corporeal constitution, and on him the “Spirit of the Lord” once moved. But the man was selfish; and this selfishness continued to fit him for “destruction,” until, in the cave of Endor, he exclaims, “God is departed from me.”
(2) The other shall be David. He was but a shepherd bey, having nothing peculiarly great either in bodily or mental make, but his soul developed itself under the reign of Divine love, which led him to “serve his generation.” And you see this youth, in almost every step of his life, getting into new power and rising into new glory. Now, all this is abundantly confirmed by Scripture, which represents all men as pursuing two paths, the one to destruction, and the other to glory--some sowing to the flesh, and reaping corruption, and some to the Spirit, and reaping everlasting life.
III. That whilst God could have. “fitted” men for destruction, His work is to “prepare” them for glory. We are not ignorant of the objection that God is represented as blinding men’s eyes, making their hearts fat, and their ears heavy, and as hardening the heart of Pharaoh. True. But when such works are referred to God they must be referred to Him in an occasional, not in a causal--an incidental, not an intentional-a permissive, not a predestinating sense. Otherwise, indeed, moral evil is a Divine institution. Observe--
1. That the apostle does not affirm that God has ever fitted any being for destruction; and there are reasons to believe that He has never done so.
(1) There is analogy. Ask the astronomer or the microscopist if they have found one living thing formed for dishonour, or made for torture?
(2) There is the human constitution. Whether you look at it--
(a) Physically, with its varied members and organs, so exquisitely formed and put together, walking erectly, fronting the world with eyes on heaven, and lord of all that lives beneath the stars, or--
(b) Psychologically, with an intellect to reduce the universe to truth, and bear it along triumphantly in its path of thought, and a soul to mingle in the worship of seraphs, and delight in God,”--can you affirm that man was made for dishonour?
(3) There is the conscience. Does the conscience ever testify to the ruined sinner that he was made for destruction? No. Were this the case there could be no remorse--no moral hell. “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.”
2. The apostle does affirm that God prepares men for glory; and there are abundant reasons to believe the fact.
(1) There is the spiritual influence of nature. This influence you may call beauty in the flowery fields, sublimity in the surging main, glory in the “terrible crystal,” or divinity in all; but whatever you call it, there is nothing in it to fit “for destruction,” but everything to prepare for glory. I often wonder how men can sin abroad, in the bright fields of holy nature.
(2) There is the special system of mediation, including the communications of God to humanity during the first four thousand years, the mission of Christ, the ministry of the gospel, and the agency of the Spirit. In view of all this, who can maintain, for a moment, the notion that God fits men for destruction?
IV. That the history of all men, whatever their destiny, illustrates the character of God. In relation to the destroyed, there is the manifestation of “long-suffering,” “power,” “ wrath”; and in relation to the saved, there is the manifestation of the “riches of His glory.” Conclusion: Learn--
1. That the most solemn attribute of thy nature is the power to misappropriate the blessings of God. Yonder are two plants side by side, rooted in the same soil, visited by the same showers, and shone on by the same sun; the one transmutes all into what will poison life, and the other into that which will sustain it. So the very elements that are preparing the men by thy side for glory--by the perverse use of thy moral freedom--may be fitting thee for destruction.
2. That the most momentous work in the world is the formation of character. It is either a soul-saving or a soul-destroying process. What wouldst thou think of a man who stood casting portions of his property into the bosom of the rolling river? But if thou art forming an ungodly character, thou art doing worse folly than this, thou art wasting thy spiritual self. That vessel which the architect, either from recklessness or ignorance, is constructing on a principle which necessarily unfits her to stand the swelling surges and the hostile gale, you would say, is “fitted for destruction,” so, in very truth, is thy character if built on the principle of selfishness. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
Vessels of honour and dishonour
Who can say of himself, or of his fellow, whether his is a life of honour or of dishonour? I have seen side by side, amid the heirlooms of a great historic English house, a goblet of massive gold, rich with costly gems, and beside it a common earthern vessel, with broken handle and with battered edge. Which of these is a vessel made unto honour, and which to dishonour? The one has stood amid the blaze of light and the flash of jewels, filled with rare wine, at the banquet table of a king, where mistresses laughed, and where libertines blasphemed; and the other has borne water to the parched lips of dying soldiers, amid the smoke and dust of battle. Which, now, is the vessel made to honour, and which to dishonour? (T. T. Shore, M.A.)
What if God, willing to show His wrath … endured … vessels of wrath … and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy.
Vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy
The sentence is elliptical. Supposing God to have done so, and for certain ends--what then? The apostle does not fill up the sentence himself, but leaves it to be filled up by his readers agreeably to the principles he had been laying down. Would there be unrighteousness with God?
I. The parties spoken of.
1. “The vessels of wrath,” i.e., the “vessels to dishonour” of verse 21.
(1) The wrath of God is invariably pointed against sin (chap. 1:18; Ephesians 2:1-3). It is judicial, not personal; righteousness demanding the punishment of iniquity--“angry with the wicked,” and insisting on the execution of the law. Sovereign wrath is a contradiction. Sovereign mercy is not. It expresses the unalienable right of the Supreme Ruler to show favour freely to the undeserving. The very word “mercy” implies “desert of evil” in its objects. But from the idea of the right of God to inflict suffering on the undeserving, we shrink with horror, for it would ascribe to God the right to do wrong. All punitive infliction presupposes desert. The bestowment of good does not. The latter, then, belongs to sovereignty; the former, to equity.
(2) The sins of men are freely committed. They are done with the choice of their wills. Otherwise there could be no such thing as sin. If a man were used as a mere machine, he could not be a sinner. Every sinner is sensible that neither, on the one hand, is he constrained to evil, nor, on the other, restrained from good. To say that man cannot will what is good is to employ terms most inconsiderate and misleading. What hinders him from willing? Only the absence of right dispositions. But the indisposition is just the want of will; and, there being no other inability in man than this, to say he cannot will resolves itself ultimately into the will not to will; inasmuch as he is kept from willing good by nothing but his aversion to good.
(3) These are truths sufficiently plain, and they serve to show the meaning of the expression “fitted to destruction.”
(a) More is meant than mere destination or appointment. “Fitted” includes particularly the idea of congruity between the character and the destruction. The question, then, comes to be--how are they thus “fitted” and by whom? In finding an answer to this question, observe the marked difference between the expressions on both sides of the alternative. God fits the “vessels of mercy,” but the vessels of wrath are only “fitted for destruction” i.e., self-fitted, fitted by their impenitent and obdurate sinfulness. The blessed God cannot be regarded as directly “fitting men for destruction” by any influence from Him (James 1:13-16; Ezekiel 15:6-8).
(b) And, as God cannot make men wicked, neither should He be considered as appointing men to sin--unless it be in the simple sense of leaving them, in punitive abandonment, to the hardening influence of its wilful perpetration (Jude 1:4).
2. The vessels of mercy.”
(1) The very idea of mercy excludes all desert on their part, and all obligation on the part of God. “Vessels of mercy” implies that whatever there may be of good in them, that good is something which they do not deserve, and which God is, in no respect, bound to bestow.
(2) This being the case, their previous “preparation to glory” is an act of pure sovereignty. “Making them meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Ephesians 2:1-10).
II. The conduct of God towards them.
1. It is the same to both. The expression “Enduring them with much long-suffering” is used, it is true, only in reference to the former; but it is necessary, to complete the sense, that it be, as it were, carried forward, and considered as if repeated, in regard to the latter.
2. The long-suffering of God is one of the most wonderful facts in the history of our apostate race. It was manifested in His dealings with the antediluvian world, and in the whole course of His procedure toward the Jewish people. It has been manifested all along, and continues to be, in the experience of the race at large, and in the life of every individual. Who is there, of all the children of men, that is not the subject of it?
3. The idea implies the existence of a tendency in a contrary direction. The holiness of God is infinitely opposed to all sin, and while His holiness abhors it, His justice calls for its punishment. In proportion, then, to the strength of these principles of the Divine character, is the difficulty of forbearance with the workers of iniquity.
4. By this long-suffering, the great majority of men, alas! are only encouraged in evil (Ecclesiastes 8:11). They thus criminally, because wilfully, abuse the Divine goodness; and thus “fit themselves for destruction” (Romans 2:4-5). But others dealt with in the same “long-suffering,” alter very protracted and obstinate resistance of the means of grace, relent, believe, and are saved. Toward both there has been shown “much long-suffering.” To many a believer--especially to such as have been converted later in life than others--might I make an appeal for the truth of this.
III. The design or object of this conduct here supposed by the apostle. Suppose God does as the potter does: “what if” this were the case? It is evident that the question is intended to involve another question: Would there be any ground of complaint? Who, with any just cause, could say a single word against the procedure? Remember that men are not here spoken of as creatures, but as sinners--guilty subjects of God’s moral government, breakers of His law-all alike obnoxious to the visitation of His punitive justice. The general principle, then, is this--that God, the Supreme Ruler, so orders His rectoral procedure towards sinful men, as that He may most effectually secure the glory of His own character and government. Let us look at both sides of the alternative.
1. In God’s longsuffering towards those who ultimately perish, what is His course? He lengthens out their period of trial. He applies every mode of treatment, in itself, as a moral means, fitted to bring them to repentance. In doing this, He provides for a satisfactory display of righteousness in their final condemnation; so that none can say that they perished unwarned, untried, uninvited. In the forbearance of God, they have found opportunity for repentance, and they have guiltily misimproved it; converting it into an opportunity of further and further showing the evil principles and dispositions by which they are actuated, and which are the grounds of their sentence of death in the judgment. As an exemplification of our meaning, take the case of the flood (cf. 1 Peter 3:19-20; 2 Peter 3:9)
. And as it was with the antediluvian sinners, so was it with the Jews. God’s judgments on them were not only deserved, but by His whole procedure toward them shown to be deserved ere they were inflicted. Their “mouths were stopped.” And thus it will be at last. God the Judge has determined that He will not only be just in His sentences of condemnation, but show Himself just. Who will venture to find fault with this?
2. Of the other side of the alternative the import is sufficiently obvious. The “riches of His glory” evidently signifies here “His glorious riches”--and that means, as evidently, the riches of His mercy. The glorious riches of God’s mercy are made known by salvation in general having been provided; by the means of its provision; and by every individual instance of salvation bestowed. But “the riches of His mercy” are more signally displayed in some cases of salvation than in others. In particular eases, by His “forbearance and long-suffering,” He prepares wonderful exemplifications of the exuberant abundance and untrammelled freeness of this grace. Let this apostle himself tell us of his own ease, as an instance in point (1 Timothy 1:12-16).
Conclusion:
1. There is a tendency at present to dwell too exclusively on the Divine love, and to make too little of the other attributes of the Divine character. Because the atonement is universal, and the gift of Christ is the highest expression of love, therefore Divine love must be love without distinctions. As if, because the atonement has been made for all, in order to there being a consistent ground on which all might be invited to pardon, therefore there can be and must be no distinctions in the saving application of the atonement. God says, “A new heart also will I give you,” etc. Does He do this alike to all?
2. While it is right for us to look at both sides of the alternative, it is especially delightful for us to contemplate Him “preparing for glory the vessels of mercy.” His time of preparing them is very various. He can fit them in a moment: while sometimes the preparation extends through many a year. He spares them sometimes as instruments for His use in preparing other “vessels of mercy” for the same glory with themselves. And then, when He takes them to the inheritance of the glory for which He has prepared them, and which He has prepared for them--how delightful our emotions in looking after them. Be has taken these vessels where He may put them to uses more glorifying to Him, and more honourable to themselves, than any use He could make of them in their imperfect state below! (R. Wardlaw, D.D.)
Vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy
I. Vessels of wrath.
1. Whom does this phrase describe? Not persons pre-ordained to wrath, but deserving of wrath.
2. How are they fitted for destrucion? Not by Divine operation, but by their own wilful impertinence.
3. How does God use them? For the display of His justice and power.
4. How is the righteousness of the Divine procedure vindicated?
(1) By His patient forbearance.
(2) By the opportunity afforded for repentance.
(3) By the offers of His grace.
II. Vessels of mercy.
1. Their determination.
(1) Not by unconditional election.
(2) But by the reception of mercy and belief of the truth.
2. Their preparation--
(1) In life.
(2) By grace.
(3) Through the sanctification of the Spirit.
3. Their use. To display the riches of God’s glory--His wisdom, love and power in their salvation.
4. Their destiny--glory.
(1) In the perfection of their nature and happiness.
(2) In the presence of God.
(3) For ever.
5. The foundation of all their happiness. The sovereign grace of God in Christ. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy
A certain minister, having changed his views on certain points of Divine Truth, was waited upon by an old acquaintance, who wished to reclaim him to his former creed. Finding he could not succeed in his object, he became warm, and told his friend that God had “given him up to strong delusion,” and that he was “a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction.” “I think, brother,” was the response, “you have mistaken the sense of the passage you last referred to. Vessels are denominated according to their contents. A chemist, in conducting a stranger through his laboratory would say, ‘This is a vessel of turpentine, that of vitriol,’ etc., always giving to the vessel the name of the article it contains. Now when I see a man full of the holy and lovely spirit of Christ, devoted to His service and imitating His example, I say that man is a vessel of mercy, whom God hath aforetime prepared unto glory; but when I see a man full of everything but the spirit of the Bible--opposed to God’s moral government, seeking his own things rather than the things of Christ, and filled with malice, wrath, and all uncharitableness, I am compelled to consider him ‘a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction.,” (Biblical Museum.)
The vessels of wrath
The doctrine of reprobation is a malicious libel on mercy. It is an attempt of Satan to graft his own character upon the Lord; and to make Him whose name is “Love” like him whose nature is hatred. Consider--
I. The characters here described.
1. Wrath means far more than anger--and it becomes a stronger word as the capacity for wrath increases. “The king’s wrath is as the roaring of a lion.”
(1) Now measuring upwards in this way, what must God’s wrath be, whose every attribute is illimitable? and the very infinitude of His mercy proves what must be the extent of His wrath.
(2) And are there any creatures exposed to this? Yes, it must be so where sin is. It is far more anomalous to suppose moral guilt existing and God not angry, than it is to imagine rebels and a king unmoved, or children fiends in human shape and the father indifferent. The wrath of God must come, in the very nature of things, upon the children of disobedience. He that committeth sin must be a vessel of wrath by nature, and if that nature be not changed, a double portion of wrath abideth on him.
2. Mark the term which expresses the reception of this anger--“vessels”; not leaves, which hold the storm-drop for an instant and then allow it to trickle off, but vessels retaining it. You may say, “Such a load as God’s wrath must crush me”; and in one sense it will; but in another it will not; you will have powers of endurance as great as the saint’s power of enjoyment. Hard and impenitent hearts are “treasuring up wrath against the day of the wrath.” Wrath shall come upon them, as Paul says, “to the uttermost.”
3. And moreover the sinner is a vessel “fitted for destruction.” What by? Sin. He who wills not the death of the sinner is not likely to fit him for dying. We prepare ourselves for destruction; “Oh, Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself.”
II. God’s conduct towards them. He endures them with much long-suffering. How much let your unnumbered sins declare. Why! any forbearance in your case were much long-suffering. All the day long has God been stretching forth His hand to “a disobedient and gainsaying people.” He gives you mercies, and you take them as your right: He gives you privileges, and you abuse them; He gives you a Saviour, and you “crucify Him afresh”; He offers you His Spirit, and you “do despite to that Spirit of grace.” Now is not a moment’s forbearance, in such a case, long-suffering?
III. The reasons for such conduct.
1. “To show His wrath.” Yet how could He show His wrath by long-suffering towards sinners? It appears that such a course would hide and not show it. Now the word translated “show,” means to point out as with the finger; and in this way God throws into the strongest relief His wrath.
(1) He develops His own character of love; He opens out His plans of mercy for years. Well! some may say, “This tolerance of guilt speaks an indifference to it.” You are wrong; the Lord’s long-suffering is but a blue sky on which you see in fearful and distinct outline the massive storm-cloud as it rolls over the sinner’s head and then bursts; it is but the sweet and natural beamings of the Lord’s countenance which gives His frown a doubly appalling blackness; it does not lessen His anger; it does not qualify His abhorrence of sin; it does not subtract from, but it adds to, the final display of His just indignation.
(2) And in another sense it shows it, for it clearly explains its real character. It is not the wrath of man, or he had struck at once. But the Lord is “slow to anger”; He wills not the death of the sinner; and when at last His wrath is seen, it is that of a Judge who punishes, not “con amore” but “ex officio.” The Lord delights in mercy, not in punishment. Wrath must come at last, but it comes with a slow foot. Mercy flies; anger creeps. Patience lingers and lingers at the threshold, keeping punishment knocking at the door. God’s endurance is indeed the interpreter of His wrath; it shows that His final destruction of “the vessels of wrath” is not that of an enemy gloating over the fall and death of his foe, but it is that of a father slowly, solemnly, and necessarily banishing a base and incorrigible son for ever from His presence.
2. “To make known His power.” But how can power be made known by a refusal to exert that power? Forbearance is often a more splendid achievement than all the labours of Hercules put together. “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” The Lord’s endurance is one of the most signal displays of His omnipotence. When I gaze upon the scene around Calvary, I look upon a more stupendous proof of power than when I behold the hundred and eighty-five thousand corpses of Assyrian warriors, all smitten by the angel of the Lord in one night. And when I look around upon this congregation, and necessarily think of many among you as vessels of wrath endured, enemies of God treated with much long-suffering, I see in each one of you a monument of the Lord’s power as notable as in the case of that weeping, wailing, and lost soul. But, lastly, God’s long-suffering makes known His power, by giving greater prominence at last to His power of punishing. It is like the stillness before a storm: you may hear a whisper; the rustle of a leaf is noticed; and when the first roll of thunder comes pealing throughout the hushed air, making the ground shake and the rocks resound, its fearful voice is the better articulated owing to the previous stillness; the thunder, like God’s power, is made known by the calm which preceded. And what is the conclusion of the whole matter? First of all, by the light of God’s Word, and by the aid of prayer, inquire whether you are vessels of wrath or vessels of mercy? Are you united to Christ by a living faith, or alienated from God by wicked works? And if the result of this inquiry be a conviction that you are still a vessel of wrath, oh! tremble over the fact. That vessel becomes more capacious every day; every mercy and long-suffering despised is an enlargement. What will it hold at last if you go on and on increasing its size, and making it fitter and fitter to hold more of that wrath which shall fill but never burst it. Step and pray for grace to arrest this self-fitting for destruction. Pray that the Lord’s Spirit may transform you from a vessel of wrath into a vessel of mercy. Pray that His much long-suffering may melt your hard heart, and make you long to have His love instead of His wrath shed abroad in your soul. Pray that the blood of Christ may, as it were, rinse out the polluted vessel, wash away all the wrath, and fill to the brim with mercy--fill it now; and for ever and ever fill it, as throughout eternity that vessel grows larger. (D. F. Jarman, B.A.)
Vessels of mercy
I. The vessels.
1. They are made of the same lump as the vessels of wrath. Thou who hast hope of heaven look back to the miry clay whence thou wast drawn! There was nothing in thee by nature better than that which is found in any other man. Had He left thee to thyself, thou hadst been as base and vile as others. If there be a difference in thee, the difference is of grace and not of nature.
2. They are as much as any other portion of the clay, entirely in the potter’s hand. Had the potter willed to leave that mass of clay alone, we should have been vessels of wrath most surely. Hell’s thistles grow self-sown, but God’s wheat needs a husbandman. Vessels of mercy fit themselves for destruction, but grace alone can prepare a soul for glory. If the Lord had permitted the whole human race to perish He would have been infinitely just. If He had chosen to spare a few, that would have been an act of surprising mercy. Inasmuch, however, as He hath taken so much of the clayey mass, as to make vessels of mercy innumerable as the stars of heaven, unto His name be all the glory.
3. God’s chosen ones: are--
(1) “Vessels.” A vessel is not a fountain, not a creator of the water, but a container. So the redeemed are not fountains by nature, out of whom there springeth up anything that is good. At one time they are full of themselves, but grace empties them, and then as empty vessels they are set in the way of God’s goodness, God fills them to the brim with His loving-kindness, and so are they proved to be the vessels of His mercy. Remember all that God asks of thee in order to thy salvation is, not to do anything, but to holdout thine empty hand and take all thou wantest. The elect of God are vessels only. They may afterwards give out to others, but they can only give out what God has put in them. They may run over with gratitude, but it is only because God has filled them with grace; they may stream forth with holiness, but it is only because the Lord keeps the supply overflowing.
(2) “Vessels of mercy.” In order that they may be such it is necessary that they should be sinful and miserable. Pity may be given to the miserable, but mercy must be bestowed upon the sinful. For a judge to talk of mercy to the innocent would be to insult them; and for the philanthropist to offer pity to the happy would be but to mock them. The redeemed are not vessels of merit but vessels of mercy.
II. The potter at his work. When a potter is about to make a vessel he does not take up the clay and put it on the wheel and then leave it to chance. No--
1. He has his plan. So it is with our Divine Potter. He takes the poor sinner; He puts him on the wheel, and as that wheel revolves the potter looks and sees in that clay a future something which does not appear to the vessel. “It does not yet appear what we shall be”; but the Potter knows, “He will present us without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.”
2. He makes the outlines in the clay. You may have seen the man at work. Perhaps at the very first moment you may form a rough guess of what the whole thing is to be, though the elaboration you cannot yet discover. Certain it is, that the moment a man begins to be separated for heaven by the grace of God in his soul, you may see the outlines of what he is to be. There is--
(1) Faith in Christ.
(2) Love to Christ.
(3) A hope that maketh not ashamed, and a joy which makes glad his countenance.
It is but the bare outline, for the glory which excelleth is not there. The vase is only in its embryo, but yet sufficiently developed to give a prophecy of its finished form.
3. The gradual completion of the article. There will not always be in you the bare outline, but as time goes on there will be some of the beautiful lines and filling-up. The Christian will be getting more and more like his Master. And if we can see here on earth vessels getting ready for perfection, and if those vessels have so much beauty in them, what must they be when at last they shall be finished. If this world be fair, how much fairer shall the new world be.
III. The potter’s mark upon his vessels. In all manufactories there is always some trade-mark which is not to be imitated, and without which no vessel is the genuine production of the professed maker. You may know to-day whether you are a vessel of mercy by the Master’s mark upon you.
1. That mark is--calling. Has Divine grace called you out of darkness into marvellous light? for if so, it is not a matter of question as to whether you are ordained to eternal life.
2. That is a mark which no man can put upon you. The earnest minister may cry aloud and spare not, but it is in vain calling to deaf ears. The Lord alone can so speak, that the deaf, nay, the dead, must hear. Hast thou ever, then, felt a calling which is not of man, neither by man? Has the voice of mercy so said, “Come to Jesus,” that thy heart has said “Thy face, Lord, will I seek”? Has He said to thee, “Mary,” and hast thou said. “Raboni”? Has He cried to thee, “Zaccheus make haste and come down,” and hast thou come down and received Him in thine house. Hast thou had that call, for if so, thou hast the mark of the Potter upon thee.
3. As this is a mark which no man can put upon you, so it is one which no man can take away from you. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Vessels of mercy
I. Why believers are compared to vessels. The figure suggests the idea of--
1. Capacity. Capable of being filled. Their value is in their emptiness (2 Kings 4:3-6). Sense of need.
2. Reception. The first thing needed, when emptied, is to receive. Mercy (Romans 9:23; 1 Timothy 1:16). Pardon (Acts 26:18). The engrafted word (James 1:21). Christ (Colossians 2:6). Power (Acts 1:8).
3. Possession. To hold what is put into them. The Word of God (Colossians 3:16; John 15:7). Not leaky (Hebrews 2:1).
II. The honour conferred on these vessels.
1. They bear God’s Name (Acts 9:15). Character (Deuteronomy 28:10). Service (Deuteronomy 10:8).
2. They contain God’s treasure {2 Corinthians 4:7). The vessel--frail and worthless. The treasure--all powerful and priceless.
3. They are used in God’s service (2 Timothy 2:21). Their meetness consists in being set apart--cleansed--filled. (E. H. Hopkins.)
Vessels of mercy
They are such in their--
I. Formation.
II. Position.
III. Condition. Mercy--
1. Pervades their thoughts.
2. Is uttered in their words.
3. Is expressed in their actions.
4. Beams in their looks.
5. Glows in their prayers.
IV. Progression.
V. Preservation.
VI. Glorification. Application:
1. If thou be a vessel of mercy, let love and gratitude prompt thee to commend that mercy to others which thou hast received.
2. If a vessel of wrath, let nothing divert you from earnestly seeking mercy at the Cross of Christ. (Evangelical Preacher.)
The mystery of God in human history
I. His design. To display His--
1. Glory.
2. Power.
3. Mercy.
4. Wrath.
II. His procedure.
1. He endures patiently with sinners.
2. Allows them to work out their own ruin.
3. Confers the riches of His grace on them that believe.
4. Prepares them for glory.
III. His righteousness.
1. He calls all men to repentance.
2. Offers them His mercy in Christ.
3. Both Jews and Gentiles. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Even us whom He hath called.--
The called
I. Who are called.
1. Not the righteous.
2. But sinners--both of the Jews and the Gentiles.
II. How are they called.
1. By the gospel.
2. By the ministration of the Word.
3. By the Spirit of God.
III. Unto what are they called? To the enjoyment of--
1. Pardon.
2. Holiness.
3. Heaven, (J. Lyth, D.D.)