September 27, 2026

Romans

Week 3: The Potter, Clay, and the Stumbling Stone

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Sarte – atheist

If man is free, then God does not exist.

If God exists, then man is not free.

If God’s sovereignty is limited by man’s freedom, then who is sovereign?

Man, not God. My will never places a limit on God.

1.      Sovereignty – What is it really?

1.1.    Sovereignty means ultimate authority or power

God is in Control – He has the absolute right to do anything according to his own good pleasure.

1.2.    Sovereignty tells of God's divine control over everything that happens.

      Daniel 4:34–35

1.3.    God’s sovereignty means that there isn’t anything that will enter your life that God does not either decree or allow.

1.4.    God’s will always happens.

      Isaiah 46:9–10

Election answers              “who?”   Who did God choose?

Predestination answers      “what?”   What purpose does God have for those

                                                He chooses?

Providence answers          “how?”   How will God accomplish His purpose?

2.      Last week, we began to unpack Romans 9.

      1. Predestination is the sovereign plan of God                    6-13

All things are in His sovereign hand and nothing happens that He does not decree or allow.

      2. Predestination expresses the sovereign person of God      14-18

3.      Predestination displays the sovereign power of God            20-24

      The Potter and the Clay

3.1.    Power to Design. He is the Creator and we are His creation. vv. 20-21

In His perfect wisdom, and in perfect righteousness and justice, God has destined some people for salvation by His grace and, because of their sin and unbelief, has left others to damnation by His wrath.

Potter-and-Clay Passages

      1. Genesis 2:7 – You were created from clay (dirt)

      2. Isaiah 29:16 – When was the last time you acted as though God didn’t exist?

3. Isaiah 45:9 – The Israelites were questioning the decisions of God. How about you?

      4. Isaiah 64:6–8

      5. Jer 18:3–6 God’s ability to chasten or even destroy the work of His own hand.

      6. Job 10:8 – Job cries out in uncertainty.

      There is a difference between being uncertain and unbelief.  One who is uncertain will ask questions and even be passionate about their viewpoint but one who is uncertain doesn’t abandon God.

      Unbelief is rebellion against God, a refusal to accept what He says and does.  Unbelief is an act of the will, while uncertainty is born out of a confused mind and a broken heart.    Weirsbe

The deepest level of worship is praising God when I don’t understand, trusting

Him in the pain, thanking God in the trials, holding on to Him when you’re about

to lose hope and loving him when He seems so distant and far away.

Worship should stem from an appreciation of God Himself, not a comprehension

of all God’s ways. Though puzzled, people should still praise.

When going through uncertainty and difficult times, asking God why questions is

not wrong. But demanding that God answer your questions in order to live by

sight and not faith is sin. Job demanded in 13:22, 19:7 and 31:15.

3.2.    Power Demonstrated. – v. 22

He is the initiator of salvation but we are the originators of our damnation.

Why did God allow sin?

1. “wanting to display his wrath and to make his power known”

2. “endured with much patience objects of wrath prepared for destruction.”

3.3.    Power Decrees. 

His election demonstrates the riches of His glory – v. 23,24

4.      Predestination sustains the sovereign promises of God. vv. 25-33

The Stumbling Stone

4.1.    God did not fail in His promise because He proclaimed that the setting aside of the Jews was necessary to reach the Gentiles. vv. 25, 26 (Hosea)

4.2.    God did not fail in His promise because He declared in Isaiah that His divine discipline of Israel would still preserve a remnant as a demonstration of grace. – vv. 27-29.            (Isaiah)

4.3.    God did not fail in His promise because He designed salvation by faith not works. vv. 30-33

A stumbling stone is a stone in someone’s path that causes them to trip and fall.

The Bible uses it as a picture of something—or someone—that people reject

and over which they experience spiritual ruin.

The image combines two Old Testament passages:

·       Isaiah 8:14 — The Lord would become “a stone to stumble over and a rock to trip over.”

·       Isaiah 28:16 — God places in Zion “a tested stone, a precious cornerstone,” and whoever trusts in Him will not be shaken.

The same stone produces two different outcomes:

·       To those who believe: Jesus is the cornerstone—the secure foundation of salvation.

·       To those who reject Him: Jesus is the stumbling stone—the One over whom they fall in unbelief.

The problem is not with the Stone but with the person’s response to it.

Christ either becomes the foundation upon which we build or the stone over

which we stumble.

Application:

God’s right to choose and Christ as the decisive stone.

 Human rebellion highlights God’s mercy and judgment.

“It is unfair that I am paying for the sin of Adam and Eve.

Our deepest issue is not solving every mystery of sovereignty and predestination but

laying down our arguments and self-made righteousness. Stop trying to be the

potter. Bow before Christ in humility and faith. Let God be God—and let His mercy,

not your merit, be the foundation of our faith.

What God’s sovereign predestination means to a believer:

1.      God rules my life. He made me and then bought me with the blood of His Son. I belong to Him twice over! God has the right to do whatever He desires with my life.

2.      God allows suffering for a purpose. It is always for His glory and for His work. God never wastes pain.

3.      God will use EVERY event of my life and fold it into His sovereign purpose.

Even when I am responsible for sin and its consequences.

4.      God does whatever He pleases, but He is good, loving and full of grace. He always does what is right.

God’s choice in salvation is a deep truth. It is not given to confuse us, upset us, or

make us question God’s character. It is given to show His glory. It should also make

believers thankful, because God chose us by grace—not because we were more

worthy than those who remain lost.

·       Where am I trying to reshape God into my image—my preferences, my fairness, my timing—rather than letting Him shape me into His image?

·       Where am I still resisting Christ, the “stumbling stone,” because I’d rather earn my own righteousness than receive His by faith?

·       Where do I see God extending mercy—to people I wouldn’t have chosen—and find myself quietly offended instead of deeply grateful?