How do we receive mercy from a sovereign God?
Mercy from a sovereign God is received through His unmerited favor, His grace. Because He is the potter with control over the clay, believers accept His sovereign choices rather than complaining about their makeup, gifts, or circumstances. This mercy is appropriated by grace, not by human effort or questioning God's will.
Les explains that the sovereign God deals in mercy, and we appropriate that mercy by His unmerited favor, His grace. He references the passage where God, willing to show His wrath and make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and then turns to Isaiah 18. Les says we no longer need to struggle with this, asking why God made us the way we are, because He is sovereign and made us for His purpose. We should not complain about our looks, physical makeup, gifts, talents, or wealth. God is the potter and has control of the clay; we accept what we are as we are.
What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: