Yield as Pliable Clay to the Potter — Hans R. Waldvogel

Chosen to Bear Christ's Name

To bear my name, for my name's sake. I'm sure we were all greatly moved by Sister Riccio's word this morning, when she kept repeating, Oh Jesus, we need you. Jesus, we need you. Oh Jesus, give us a revival.

Jesus, how we need you. We are in school, and we certainly are in school. But I would like to turn that around. I think that we'll find a shortcut to a revival when we turn that around and find out that Jesus needs us.

Jesus needs me, and until I see that it isn't so much my needing him as he needing me, or my wanting him, but he wanting me. He purchased me. He says, You've not chosen me, I have chosen you. But you know the reason we choose him and the reason we want him is because we want to get something out of him.

You'll find that the great bulk of Christians everywhere in all churches are situated that way. They want God for what they can get out of him. Salvation, forgiveness of sins, healing, oh, and all kinds of blessings.

And that constitutes our whole experience, our whole Christianity. But that doesn't satisfy him. He purchased us that we might be vessels unto honor, sanctified, and meat for the Master's use. And the reason we don't listen to that, I've chosen you, is because he says, I'll show him how much he must suffer.

That's where we back down. But he says, You cannot be my disciple, you can't follow me, as long as you love your own life. Now that simple gospel and that sound doctrine, and nobody likes it. And as long as we, God blesses our lives, and God blesses us with health, and gives us enough to eat, and gives us clothes, and gives us a comfortable life of following him, why, he's okay.

I tell you, Jesus is okay. He's all right. He's nice. He's wonderful. And we think he's wonderful. But let him cut a little bit deep. Let him begin to cleanse us, and purify us, and demand of us to give up, to repent our own lives also.

We beautify them. We get all the blessings of God, and we paint them over our dirty flesh. And we call it spirit. So thankful this morning for one great truth, that he purchased me for himself. He bought me, he paid a great price.

Evidently he thought a lot of me. Evidently he wanted me very badly. Glory to God. Question about blessing. There'll be no question about forgiveness of sin. In fact, Jesus will not be satisfied until I'm cleansed and purified from all unrighteousness.

All that self-life that I'm hanging on to, that I have bit myself into, that will be crucified. Praise the Lord, but it'll never happen. He will not do it unless you give him the key to your life. Unless you read, oh Beloved, we talk about other churches.

Let's talk about them lovingly. Maybe in the sight of God they're doing far better than we. There's just one standard, just one standard. It's Jesus. Jesus says, you've not chosen. You know, today everything depends on his choice.

I cannot fool my Lord. I just can't. I can fool people and myself, and make people believe that I am a deep-life saint, and something like that. But I cannot fool the Heavenly Bridegroom. He has eyes like fire.

The Potter Chooses and Shapes the Clay

But oh the wonder of it. Think of it. Think. You poor, miserable creature. You know we're all a lot of fizzles. We're all good for nothing in ourselves, and yet he has chosen us. The potter chooses. What does he choose that clay for?

Well, if he had a lot of sand, he couldn't use it. That sand wouldn't yield to his judge. And if he had coal, that wouldn't yield to his judge. It's got to be liable. You ever see a potter make a vessel?

I was in the rookery in Cincinnati and saw them do it. It was a marvelous sermon to me. How he took that clay, and how he kneaded it. My mother used to make me knead the dough for the bread. She says, the bread works better when you knead it, because your blood is young.

And I put my blood into that dough. But here was the potter, and he kneaded that, worked it and worked it until every bit of impurity was out of it. It was just as pliable as you could imagine, you know.

And then, then he began to take that lump of clay, and he put it on a... took his fingers. I still see him do it. He put his thumbs into the center, and that thing was spinning around. And the first thing you know, he had made a beautiful vase.

My, I thought, what a masterpiece! Beautiful enough to... big knife and slashed it in two. And then he discovered that the sides were not even. Oh, it satisfied the clay. That clay was satisfied, but the potter went... vase and cut it in two, and then he began to knead it again and knead it again.

And then he shaved it again. I don't know how many times he did that, but finally he was satisfied with its proportions, and now it was a beautiful, symmetrical vase. And then he said, now, now that wasn't finished.

Refinement in the Furnace of God's Will

Now that vase was not only put in the fire, but it was masoned into an oven. They had no, no door to it. It was put in the oven, and then bricks were cemented right around it. And there that poor vase was lost in the fire.

Couldn't think of getting out. It had to stay in that furnace, and it stayed there. That was the funny part of it. It didn't kick. It didn't say, ouch! It had to stay there thirty-eight hours until that exterior...

And then put the ornament... ...ordained you before the foundation of the world. How is this potter ever going to get a vessel unto honor, so that the principalities and powers in the heavenly places will be astonished at the riches of the wisdom and the goodness and mercy of God?

That's what he's chosen us for. To choose him, my life, the church has been standing for very imperfectly. But I know one thing, that after thirty-six years, the Lord seems to be a great deal more in earnest than he was in the beginning, although in the beginning he was hewing to the core.

But it seems to me that God is beginning to see of the travail of his soul. I don't know how many there are, and the day is not far. Tremendous separation among the people. A great surprise! What? That fellow, I thought he was a top Nazi.

Why, that woman, she prophesied. Yet visions and loss. Oh, beloved, that stuff will just fall off. The ungodly will be like shafts as the wind drives us away. God's going to see to it that his own will come forth like himself.

When he shall be revealed, we shall be revealed with him. There he had a vessel. He said, he's a vessel unto me. He's a chosen. Oh, Ananias began to kick his head. What? That scoundrel, persecutor of the church.

Saul as a Chosen Vessel for Ministry

To say something else, you know, we make a great mistake in these days when we manufacture preachers. We send them to seminaries to learn how to preach. That's never been God's way. I don't mean that we shouldn't have seminaries and Bible schools.

We should. We should have not only more, but better Bible schools, more spiritual. And we ought to pray for them. But God's way is for us to pray the laborers into his harvest field. Now who's going to take Stephen's place?

And God had his eye on Saul. He knew there was one that would go all the way. He knew what timber Saul was made out of. And when Ananias complained, he said, that man, why he's come here to persecute the church.

Jesus says, go your way. He's into his mighty hand. And when Saul said, who art thou Lord? He immediately surrendered to Jesus Christ everything he had. And Jesus was able to take him and shape him and mold him and make him a vessel like nobody's business.

None of the other apostles measured up to Paul. And God knows what he can make out of you. God knows, God alone knows what he can make out of you. The trouble is we're trying to make ourselves. Oh, how often I've seen that.

Pressing Toward the Prize Instead of Self-Made Success

And we, as soon as we attain to some kind of fruitfulness and success, we begin to advertise. By now it's high time to advertise what we've been doing. The success we've had, the fruit. Not as if I had already attained, either were already perfect.

We finished until Jesus called and said, one thing I do, I press forth the mark for the prize. There is the blueprint. It's not finished yet. And you fellows there in Philippi that think you're so good and so finished because God's blessed you, you better do as I do.

Forget the things that are behind. Never mind. Forget yourselves too. Yea, my own. Why did Paul not obey the prophecies? They were well-meant and perhaps well-given. When they said, don't you go up to Jerusalem, why, they're going to bind you.

They're going to torment you. Oh, Paul was given to Jesus. Jesus Christ, have you chosen me too? Do you want me too, Jesus? Do you want me Lord? Oh, do you really want me? Then fake out of me that self-love.

Jesus, make me love you. Make me want you. Never mind what anybody else does. Oh, give me eyes anointed with eyes that have to see the King. Oh, give unto me the spirit and in the knowledge of him, it'll change everything.

A Different Spirit at the Borders of Promise

What happened to the Old Testament people when they came up to the borders of the promised land? They all murmured. They said, why weren't their graves enough in Egypt? Now we're going to die. They all went to the clinic to have a checkup.

They said, well, we ought to have faith, but then we've got to know what to take faith for, you know. Lots of people have told me that. And so they all came back with a negative report. They all suffered from diabetes and they suffered from heart trouble and gas on the stomach and whatnot.

And so they murmured. They said, well, God can't. But Caleb and Joshua, they had a different spirit with them. That's what made the difference. Beloved, you and I need to have a different spirit. We need to have a spirit who is Lord and master, who controls us absolutely.

The Body, Resurrection, and the Crown of Life

Glory to God. He's not only chosen our, he's chosen our bodies. He that has pride, Paul says, we're not longing for the grave. We're longing for that moment when we shall be close upon with immortality.

And that's why God never allowed death to conquer Paul. He was offered upon the sacrifice of martyrdom. That was something different. But he said, I shall receive a crown of life. Oh, beloved, he has chosen us.

When we talk about deep life churches, I wish God could rub it under our second chin this morning that we're not nearly as spiritual as we think we are and as we ought to be. Oh, that God might put into every one of our hearts we're here for.

That's what Jesus chose us for. And has he got a right to do his will in us? Tell me, does he have a right? Why is he agreed? Actually make that surrender. That's why God lets us run in our folly. That's why he allows us to go in our own selves and think that we're spiritual when we're not spiritual and increase with good.

And until I fall into rest, thank God and nothing in the world matters, but Jesus.