New Park Street Pulpit · Sermon No. 327
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, August 5, 1860, by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, at Exeter Hall, Strand
Romans 9:23,24.
IT is with no view to controversy that I have selected this text, but for a far higher and more practical purpose, namely, that by this Truth of God, many of us may search ourselves, and that we may be able to discover whether we have any of the marks of the vessels of mercy which God has prepared beforehand for glory. We must take the next verse to complete our text—“even us, whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.”
The context invites us to visit the potter’s house. There, in the workshop, you perceive sundry vessels in process of formation. The wheel is revolving, and from it you see continually taken, vessels of an ignoble sort, fitted only for the very meanest purposes. On the other hand, from the same clay you see produced vessels that might grace the palace of a king—vessels of honor fit for honorable purposes. We now conduct you to a greater workshop—to the Great Potter’s house of Providence. Continually revolving is the wheel of circumstances; men, like masses of clay, are placed upon it, but they are not all fashioned alike. There are some men who are evidently to the casual observer, vessels not adapted for the high and honorable occupations of Heaven and glory. There are men who, every time the wheel revolves, become worse in character and more depraved in mind; there are men who, by the very Providence which is blessed to others, become more complete adepts in iniquity and masters in crime. On the other hand, with pleasure you may perceive that on the same wheel there are some vessels, which, touched by the skillful hand of the Great Potter, are being daily more and more finished and completed and you can soon perceive that they are not of the same sort as those we have just now passed by. They are intended for higher uses and nobler purposes. In fact, they are preparing to stand at last, in the midst of Paradise, the glorious trophies of the skill and power of the Great Maker!
As my sermon is intended to be practical and not controversial, I shall solemnly invite each hearer to tremble lest he should belong to the reprobate and abandoned vessels of wrath. I speak with the deepest sorrow when I ask the question, with the probability, no, the almost certainty that it must be answered in the affirmative. Are there not some of you, here present, who are being fitted for destruction? God is not fitting you, you are fitting yourselves, by daily developing and indulging the depravity of your heart. You are seeking out every new pleasure and every new sin, and though often warned to turn from your course of evil, are there not some of you who are rushing headlong to destruction? Are not many of you, by a course of sin and folly, ripening yourselves for the great harvest of the Lord? Are you not making yourselves ready to be as stubble fully dried, cast into the oven of His wrath? This is not to be laid to the charge of God, but at your own door, the guilt must be! If you perish—any one of you—on your own head shall be your blood! The eternal God is not guilty of the murder of men’s souls—they who die and sink in Hell are suicides—they have rejected mercy, they have despised the Savior, they have chosen sin and hated holiness. As was their choice, such is their portion! As was their rebellious will on earth, such must be their tormented destiny forever. Oh, if I could see with an infallible glance, the hearts and consciences of all present, might I not, as I cast my eyes along these seats, say of such an one, and of such an one—even in the judgment of charity—“that man is preparing for destruction?” His crimes demand punishment, his spirit is of such a character that he requires to dwell forever at a distance from God! His will is so headstrong, his intentions so obstinate, his passion so desperate, that everyone may see with half an eye, that he is preparing to dwell forever where bliss and even hope, are everlasting strangers!
O my dear Brothers and Sisters, what shall I say to you? How shall I preach to you? You are filling up the measure of your iniquity, and preparing with all diligence to be fitting companions for the devils in Hell! It needs a tender heart, and an earnest voice, to address such as you are! Permit me to speak to you in the language of Scripture. Why will you die, O house of Israel, why will you hug the pleasures of sin—pleasures which you know must be followed by the torments of eternity? Why will you put from you the hope of life? Why will you reject the Savior? It will be an awful thing, you who are vessels of mirth, when you shall be filled with wrath! You who are now vessels of pleasure, and vessels of pride—it will be a dreadful thing when God shall fill you to the brim with misery, and you shall be overflowing with His anger! Oh Lord, we beseech You, undo the sinner’s work! Great Potter, reverse the wheel, re-mold the clay, break in pieces the old vessel that is preparing to be a drinking cap for Satan! Melt it down and refashion it, and bring it forth again upon the wheel, and touch it with Your own hands, and make it yet a vessel for honor, fitted for the Master’s use!