I would call your attention once more to this great argument of the Apostle Paul in the

ninth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, running from verse 19 to the end of verse 24.

Thou will say then unto me, why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will.

Nay, but, o men, who art thou that repliest against God?

Shall the thing formed, say to him that formed it,

why hast thou made me thus?

Has not the potter power over the clay,

of the same lump to make one vessel and to honour, and another and to dishonour?

What if God willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much

long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might make

known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto

glory, even us whom he hath called not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.

Now, we've reached the end of this great argument.

The apostle is replying to that suggestion that he puts before us in the 19th verse.

People have argued, why does God find fault if it's a question of his choice,

if salvation is entirely and only and solely his action?

Why does he find fault with anybody therefore?

And the apostle proceeds to answer that question, and we've been following him through the argument.

Now, we are dealing with the latter part of the argument now,

the part that he develops in verses 22, 23, and 24. In 22, he says, what if God,

willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long suffering,

the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? Why shouldn't he? That's what it really amounts to. God, in the display of his wrath upon sin, is manifesting his power and his wrath

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