The Potter is not the Clay

Amen. Please turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 29. We'll continue here in Isaiah 29 today.

Just as a reminder, this section of Isaiah from 28 all the way to 35 is about the folly of trusting in the nations.

The nation of Judah has trusted in Assyria. Assyria has turned on them and now they are beginning to trust in Egypt to deliver them from Assyria.

When you have that, please stand for the reading of God's Word. Isaiah 29. We will just be looking at verses 15 and 16 today.

Isaiah 29, 15. Are you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, who sees us, who knows us?

You turn things upside down. Shall the potter be regarded as the clay? And the thing made, that the thing made should say of its maker, he did not make me.

Or the thing formed, say of him who formed it, he has no understanding. You may be seated.

Dear Heavenly Father, you are the potter and we are the clay.

God, we thank you for your Word. We thank you for forming and making us. We thank you for giving us wisdom through your

Word and we pray that today you would open our eyes to know who we are and to know who you are. In Jesus' name,

Amen. Today I'd like to start with the question of idolatry, particularly why is it that so many cultures and so many peoples have been attracted to idolatry?

What is it that they like about that? The answer is they want a

God who they can see and they want a God who does not see them, right?

Because that is precisely what an idol is. It's something you can see and something that cannot see you. And this is the problem that Isaiah gets at here.

Now this is a people that don't necessarily have physical idols in front of them, although they have and making alliances with other nations engaged in various forms of idolatry.

But their problem is that they think that God doesn't see them and they think they understand their

God well when they don't. It's just the opposite. They do not understand God and God has far greater understanding.

He knows them perfectly and understands them perfectly. This is the problem with sin in general.

So we don't think that God can see us and we think we have some mastery of knowledge beyond God so that we reject

His wisdom, we embrace our own wisdom, we pretend that He can't see us, and that we can operate in the dark apart from His knowledge, apart from His insight into what we are doing.

But that is not the case. God sees us. He sees our actions. He sees our hearts.

He sees our futures even. And with a God like that, we should be knowledgeable to know that He is one who sees all things.

And if this is the case, then we should act in a way that is coordinate with that information that He sees all things.

So just beginning here with this first line of this first verse, are you who hide deep from the

Lord your counsel? Now those people of Judah had, rather than taking the

Lord's wisdom, had taken counsel to seek the help of Egypt.

So they've gone to Egypt, they have asked for their military assistance. Frequently God had told them not to do this, not only to not make alliances with other nations, but specifically to not make alliances with Egypt.

Specifically not with Egypt because Egypt has many horses, Egypt has many chariots,

Egypt is representative of physical strength. God wanted the people to trust in Him rather than to trust in this one who had all the appearances of being strong.

God doesn't want them to operate by their physical sight, but rather with faith, trusting in Him.

So the people instead have taken counsel to make this alliance, and they have hidden deep their counsel.

They have thought that even though they have this prophet, Isaiah, who's telling them frequently not to make such alliances, that they can just do these kinds of deals in secret, and God might not know what's going on.

If we hide from the prophet of God, then we hide from God Himself. But this is foolish, this is utter foolishness.

In fact, this first word, ah, which appears several times throughout the passage, appears even in the first verse of this chapter, ah, aerial, aerial.

Ah is translated, many translations as woe, because often it is used as a statement of woe.

And I don't think there's anything wrong with translating it that way here. Woe to these people, woe to the one who would be so foolish as to think that God cannot see.

Now the Proverbs talk about this occasionally. In fact, Proverbs 10 11 speaks to the wicked and says, he says in his heart,

God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it. Now this is what the wicked man says, this is why the wicked man can operate without thinking that he will be held accountable, because he is one who in his heart says,

God has forgotten, God will not see. But anyone who says that out loud, who really thinks through what is being said, must recognize that God does see all things.

God knows all things, and it's only foolishness that would say that God doesn't. You know, when we sin, we sin because we think that God does not see us.

We sin because we think we will not be held accountable for our actions. You know, you act differently by yourself than you act around other people, right?

If you had someone following you all day long and was always around you, you would act very differently.

Any sin that you might commit in secret, you would not commit if you had someone standing there visibly who you could see.

But here's the thing, is there is one always present, even if you do not see him.

The task that we have before us is one of recognizing that God is truly present, of not being so fooled to think that he's forgotten, to think that he cannot see, but to recognize that even though we can't see him, he can indeed see us.

To not commit this idolatry of thinking that we can understand God, but he cannot understand us, but rather, we do not know him fully and he knows us perfectly.

Know that whatever you're doing, God is present. He is always watching. This is something that as a child

I felt like was very important for me to learn. So parents, you know, think about this as you teach your children. Teach them that even if mommy and daddy don't see,

God always sees what you're doing. You're not just to do right because mom and dad are around.

One day they won't be. One day they won't be, and it will only be the Lord. And so it is important that we recognize that we are not doing right to please others, but rather,

God is always watching. This next verse, it talks about the dark.

It says their deeds are in the dark. Their deeds are in the dark. You know, people, people try to hide away.

They try to hide in the darkness because they think it hides their sin. Jesus talks about this in John 3.

John 3, he talks about that darkness. Verse 19 says, and this is the judgment.

The light has come into the world and the people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his works should be exposed.

This is why people hide away from the light. This is why people, many people, do not like Jesus.

He exposes their deeds of darkness. Jesus is the light that has come into the world, and many reject him.

Why? Because he exposes their evil. And this is true for all who follow

Jesus as well. In 1 John, you know, remember this is the same author that wrote

John 3, wrote 1 John 3, and he speaks more of this light and how people want to hide away from being, their evil being exposed.

1 John 3, 12 says, we should not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother.

And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous.

Why did Cain murder Abel? It was because his brother's deeds were righteous. Now that's, that doesn't seem like any reason to kill someone, but when you realize that what that's talking about is that righteousness exposing the unrighteousness of another.

And this is the thing, is if we are the light of the world, if the light has has come into the world and he has made us, if he has made us this, this light that should not be hid under a bushel, right?

If he is, if he has imbued us with this light, we are ones who the world will hate.

We are ones who will, who will despise us and hate us because, because of that light that is within us.

Verse 13 says, do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. Do not be surprised that the world hates you.

You know, do not, do not be surprised when others hate you. I think a lot of Christians do a lot of things, speak a lot of certain ways, and they think that they can get the world to like them.

They think that part of the task of the Christian is to operate in such a way that they get the world to like them.

I was speaking with someone recently who said, you know, this is what Christians need to do. They need to build up trust with others so that, because they have, because many

Christians have lost the trust of the world. Well, yes, it is naturally the case that, that people will hate the light.

It's naturally a case of people, that people will hate the light. Certainly, there are some Christians that have wrongly given

Christ a bad name. However, however, often what is happening is that they have done what is good in giving

Christ a quote -unquote bad name, because people do not like the light. People hate the light, just like cockroaches, just like cockroaches fleeing into the darkness, they hate the light.

And so we are to be ones who walk in the light, who walk in the light, who spend time in God's word, knowing what it says, even though it's painful at times, and it exposes who we are, and exposes our sin, or to be people who hear the preaching of the word, who spend time with the

Lord, as He exposes our hearts, or to be people who are part of the fellowship of God, where there's accountability.

You know, when I, when I joined this church, this is one of the scariest things to me, because this is a, partly also because this is a small place, but I would get text messages from people when

I didn't show up at church one Sunday. They would ask me, you know, if everything was all right, and that scared me. That really, that really scared me.

Oh man, this place is going to hold me accountable. I don't know if I like that. I liked being at a bigger church where I could fly under the radar.

No one would know if I was just absent for a while. That's hard to do, but that is what we've been called to.

We've been called to walk in the light, and He says, and who, and who say, who sees us, and who knows us, right?

This is the, this is the folly of people. They say, who sees us, who knows us. They don't think that God sees, at least even if they would say that verbally, even if they think that intellectually.

Practically, in their heart of hearts, they deny it. They deny that God sees, because otherwise, why would they act with their evil deeds?

Psalm 94 speaks of how foolish this is. Psalm 94, 7 says, and they say, the

Lord does not see, the God of Jacob does not perceive, and then it continues on to explain why that's so foolish.

Understand, idolatrous of peoples, fools, when will you be wise? He who planted the ear, does he not hear?

He who formed the eye, does he not see? He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke?

He who teaches man knowledge, the Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath.

You see how foolish this is? God not only hears, He is the one who created hearing.

In fact, His hearing goes beyond our hearing, because our hearing is a created hearing. His is an uncreated one.

He, He knows things intuitively. He knows things without them being spoken to Him. He is one who sees even greater than our sight, because our sight is a created sight, and His is an uncreated one.

He is the one who teaches. Nobody teaches Him. There is nothing for Him to learn.

And it's worth reflecting for a moment on that uncreated knowledge of God.

God is perfectly wise, and if you've not contemplated what this means, it's something worth thinking about.

God's omniscience, as the word I used a minute ago, it is intuitive, right?

His knowledge is intuitive. He does not deduce anything. He knows all things, because He has created all things.

He does not look to the world to see what's happening. Sometimes scripture will speak of Him anthropomorphically, as though He is an observer looking down from heaven, but the fact of the matter is that He already knows.

This is simply a way scripture expresses His knowledge to us, in a way that resonates with our experiences.

But He is one who already knows all things, because He has decreed. He does not deduce. He does not look into the future to see what the future is.

He is outside of time eternally, knowing all things, simply because He is the one who has made them.

So the word you can use for that is His knowledge is intuitive, just like you might have intuition about something, not really deducing it, just kind of knowing.

God simply knows. He does not deduce. He knows intuitively.

Another way to think about God's knowledge, it is untensed, untensed.

So my knowledge, if you imagine that I were given perfect knowledge, which can't happen, but if I were given perfect knowledge, my knowledge would still be a changing knowledge, because right now,

I know what time it is. It's 219. A minute ago, I knew it was 218.

In a minute, I will know that it's 220. Right? And so my knowledge is tensed, because there was,

I knew, I know, and I will know. God's knowledge is not tensed, because the truth is not changing to Him.

He is, He transcends time itself. And so His knowledge is not just greater than our knowledge in the same species, but it is something that goes even beyond knowledge, the way we think of knowledge, because the way we think of knowledge is a tensed knowledge.

It's a deductive knowledge. God's knowledge is intuitive. It is untensed. His knowledge is of a different species than ours, even.

And one who has such great knowledge, why would someone say such foolish things? Who sees us?

Who knows us? It's like the child who hides from his parents by going like this, like, oh, they can't see me.

No, you think that because you hide in the dark, God can't see. It's only you who have less vision in the dark.

God has perfect vision even when you're in the dark. So it continues on, you turn things upside down.

They turn things upside down. They think God can not see them, but they can see when it's just the opposite.

And consider this in context, because this is true just of the previous statement, but it's true of all the things that have come before in this chapter as well.

You know, in verses 13 and 14, the people consider themselves wise and God foolish, but it is

God who is wise and they who are foolish. They consider God blind, but themselves to see, but it's them who are blind in verses 9 through 11.

And then verses 5 through 8, they consider their allies to be solid and reliable when their allies are just an illusion.

And then in verses 1 through 4, they think that they are near to God with their worship, but they are far from Him.

And every one of these passages that we've been looking at, they have turned things upside down, where they think of themselves one way, they think of God the other way, and it is actually just reversed.

And this is, this is what man does. This is what man does when he thinks about God unrestrained, when he thinks about God without being directed by God's word.

God has made man in His image, but we often want to make

God in our image, right? We make Him like us. Rather than being recognized that we were made by Him, we want to create

Him after our own fashion, and we project onto Him our own notion of our own strengths, our own notion of our own weaknesses.

For example, you know, people have their supposed strengths. They think, ah, I'm a very loving person.

God is, God must have a similar strength, and He must love the way I love. And this is why the world has such wild notions of what love is, and such perverted notions of what love is, and and they, they project that on God.

If they are religious people, they think God is like this too. But He is not, because His definition of love is not man's definition of love.

He is the very definition of love. He is love, as Scripture says. And similarly, you know, in creating

God after our own image, we project on Him our own weaknesses, right?

Not just our supposed strengths, but our own weaknesses. We think, well, I lack knowledge, so therefore God must lack some knowledge.

Maybe He can't see these things. Maybe He hasn't thought through these things. We, we make Him of a similar species to ourself.

And maybe, maybe no one would say that God is less than me, or few people anyway, but they still think

God, of God as such that might have some weaknesses and failings, so that man could master

Him in some way. But once again, God is creator. We are creature.

There is a chasm of difference here. And so God, so people think that they can, uh, that they can judge

God rather than God being the judge. They do not realize that God is the standard of all things, just like I was saying with love, right?

God is love. We can't measure God by some other standard of love, because He is the standard of love.

He is the standard of all things. He is absolute. That's the theological term for what

He is. He is absolute. He is not relative. He is not measured by other things. Rather, all other things are measured by Him.

He's absolute. And as such, He has perfect rights over His whole creation.

And that's what later passages in Isaiah will emphasize when they bring up this analogy again of the potter and the clay.

The potter has a right over the clay. Romans 9 speaks of that right the potter has over the clay to make one vessel for one use, make another vessel for another use, to send that vessel in the direction

He would have that vessel. And what is the people of Judah, what is their problem right now? God has placed them in a precarious position.

They want out of that position. They do not trust the Lord with their future. And so they do not trust the potters right over the clay.

They want to mold themselves rather than to be molded by God. They do not want

God's purposes in their life. They want their own purposes. And this is people's problem in general as they face things in their life and as their future is in a precarious state.

Rather than trusting the Lord, they want to trust themselves. Oftentimes, you have a sinful option, you have an obedient option to the

Lord, and the sinful one, for pragmatic reasons, appears that it's going to play out better.

And so people choose that sinful option because they have anxiety about trusting the potter with what he's doing with the clay.

They think that as the clay, they know better. But it is the potter who knows better. Trust the

Lord. In difficult times, when you're thinking pragmatically that some course of action is going to be better, maybe there's some relationship that needs to be cut off, maybe there's something that needs to be said to someone that you don't want to say because you think it might be taken the wrong way or harm the relationship.

If God has called you to some course of obedience, trust the potter. He knows what is better than the clay does.

Because the clay is only clay. The clay can't mold itself in any good way. Apart from the potter, what does the clay do?

The clay just crumbles and cracks because all it can do is bump against things and shatter.

Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, he did not make me.

Or the thing formed, say of him who formed it, he has no understanding.

Think about what these questions are asking. He did not make me. What is that doing? That's elevating man, the being of man over the being of God, or at least putting them on the same level.

Same thing with understanding. That's man's knowledge, God's knowledge, reversing them, turning them once again upside down.

And people imagine that this is the case, that God has no understanding, that God has no knowledge, because they see a delay in his judgment, right?

And that delay in his judgment leads them to think, ah, he doesn't see. If he has not done something about it now, it shows that he does not see.

Even the righteous can fall into this trap and they can think, if God hasn't done something about my miserable condition or this oppression that I'm under, maybe he does not see.

But that's not the case. Why does he delay? He has his purposes, just as we read in the previous chapter, as the farmer only plows and sows for a particular season until the harvest.

So God does his activities for a particular season, and he does not delay forever, even if he, even if the time in which you have to wait is longer than you want to wait.

So do not, do not take any delay as a sign that God is not watching. All things are before his eyes.

All things are before him. He is, he is not just, uh, learning truth, as I said.

He is truth. God is truth itself. That's called his veracity.

He is truth itself. You know, and the best verse to talk about this, that God is truth, is a verse about Jesus Christ, John 14 6.

He is the way, he's the truth, and he is the life. And so what's God's answer to this?

That mankind wants to make a God that they can see and a

God that does not see them. What is God's answer to this problem? God's answer is found in Jesus Christ, the one who is truth itself.

God's answer was to send Jesus Christ, a man, condescending, condescending to reveal himself in a way where he could be seen in the man,

Jesus Christ. And so how do we know who the Father is? It is in the

God -man, Jesus Christ. This is how we know who God is, and that is not just a statement about physical visibility, though that is true as well, that if one could, if Jesus walked among us, we would be able to, to visibly see one who is

God. But in addition, it is only through knowing Jesus Christ that you can know who the Father is, because it is

Jesus Christ who reveals who the Father is. This folly of turning things upside down, of even one who is able to intellectually acknowledge that God is greater and that God sees all things, acting practically as though he doesn't, because every single one of us does that, right?

Any of us who acknowledge that God sees all things, we act on our own as though he doesn't.

What is the corrective for that? It is through Jesus Christ knowing the Father and recognizing who he truly is, that he is over all things, giving us hearts who submit to him and who recognize his greatness over all things, who recognize his omniscience.

Apart from that, our hardened hearts would not recognize this truth. Apart from that, our hardened hearts would be like these people who continually turn up things upside down.

But God, and having sent you as Christ, who has died for us, having died for this, this sin of turning things upside down, has turned us upside down so that no longer do we have hardened hearts if we have come to Jesus Christ in repentance, or if we've come to him in faith, but rather he changes us so that we can know who he is, so that we can know who his

Father is, and so that we can no longer walk in darkness and walk in ignorance, but rather walk in the light and walk knowing that there is one who sees all things, who is present with us at all times.

This is what is accomplished in the incarnation, in the salvation that Christ has provided.

And so Isaiah will continue speaking of this, of this ill, bringing up this illustration, the potter and the clay, multiple times, and near the very end of the epistle, actually epistle, the very end of the prophecy, in chapter 64, verse 8, it ends with a confession that you are the potter and we are the clay, and that is what we need to confess before the

Lord. You are the potter, we are the clay. You know we do not know.

We trust ourselves in your hands and we do that by looking to Jesus Christ, the one through whom we know you.

Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, you are great and glorious and incomprehensible.

No one can fully know who you are, but we can begin to know you in Jesus Christ, and we thank you for him.

We thank you for his sacrifice. We thank you that you have revealed, yourself and him, and I pray that we would have a greater faith, a greater understanding, a greater acknowledgment of your presence, of your knowledge, so that we would not walk in darkness, but that we would walk in light.