Help Wanted: A Potter — Warren Wiersbe

The Potter and the Clay in Jeremiah 18

Jeremiah chapter 18. Verses 1 through 10 are very familiar verses talking about the potter and the clay. One of our familiar hymns of dedication have thine own way Lord is based on this passage. Jeremiah chapter 18.

The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying arise and go down to the potter's house and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house and behold he wrought a work on the wheels.

Some manuscripts read and behold he wrought his work on the wheels and the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter so he made it again another vessel as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Then the word of the Lord came to me saying O house of Israel cannot I do with you as this potter saith the Lord behold as the clay is in the potter's hands so are ye in mine hand. O house of Israel. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it.

If that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to build and to plant it.

If it do evil in my sight that it obey not my voice then I will repent of the good with which I said I would benefit them over. In chapter 19 God gave to Jeremiah a second instruction. He said in verse 1 go and get a potter's earthen vessel or flask and take of the ancients of the people and of the ancients of the priests and go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom and he's to preach them a sermon.

And then he is to break the flask. In verse 10 after he preaches the sermon about judgment then shalt thou break the bottle or the flask in the sight of the men that go with thee and shalt say unto them.

Thus saith the Lord of hosts even so will I break this people and this city as one breaketh a potter's vessel that cannot be made whole again. Every person who walks the streets of Chicago has some philosophy of life now.

A Biblical Philosophy of Life

He wouldn't call it that if you were to walk down Michigan Avenue and stop some person and say do you have a philosophy of life. Oh yeah. But I don't call it that I have certain values that I live for.

I have certain principles that I live by certain goals that I'm trying to reach. But everybody has some kind of philosophy of life. There is some pattern of thinking that governs what you do otherwise you are a totally disorganized person.

You're a victim of your own feelings and your own surroundings. However you make your decisions however you direct your life it's being guided by some philosophy some outlook on life. Now if you do have a philosophy of life and everybody does it has to include a number of factors.

If you're going to have a complete philosophy of life you've got to be able to have some thought as to what God is. If there is a God and what man is and what life is and what success is. If every one of us could just sit down and examine our hearts and say now what is God to me.

Is he some faraway dictator trying to ruin my life. What is God. What is man. What is life. What's life all about. And what is success. What is failure. Now these factors are important factors because if we answer them correctly we'll live the right kind of a life.

If we answer them incorrectly something's going to go wrong with our lives radically. When I read Jeremiah chapter 18 verses 1 through 10 I see this is what God says to me. I see here one of the most satisfying one of the most encouraging philosophies of life a person can have.

If we understand what Jeremiah understood in this circumstance it'll do for us. It'll make us better understand what God is like and what we are and what life is all about and will better be able to measure our successes and deal with our failures.

Now you can see what the factors are in all of this. He talks about a potter. He talks about clay. He talks about a vessel. He talks about a wheel. There's one other factor that he doesn't mention here but it's there a furnace.

Because after the potter had finished making the vessel he gave it a special coating of a special fluid. Then put it into the furnace and watch the vessel change color. Then he'd take it out and he'd have a completed vessel.

So here are the factors that are involved in Jeremiah's experience. And out of these factors we want to build a workable philosophy of life. One that pleases God one that is true to the Bible one that is satisfying to our hearts one that really works.

I confess to you that sometimes I pull a book of philosophy off of the shelf and I read it some years ago I purchased a huge set called the encyclopedia of philosophy. I thought that'd be a big help to me in my ministry.

I read some of these articles and I remember what Harry Rimmer said many years ago at Winona Lake a philosopher is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn't there. Now I am NOT against Christian philosophy.

If when you're building your philosophy my friend you bring in the Bible and Jesus Christ and God. I'm right with you when I read so many of these writers and they leave out God. And nothing makes sense when you leave God out.

So let's do this tonight. Let's take these factors. Now we have a potter and we have clay and we have a wheel. We have a vessel that was marred and then made again. We have a we have a furnace. Let's take these factors and look at them from three different vantage points.

We want to look at them separately. Let's take each of these separately. Then we want to look at them collectively put them together. You see knowledge means taking things apart. Wisdom means putting them back together.

There are a lot of people who can take everything apart. They can't put anything back together again. So we're going to look at them individually then secondly we're going to look at them collectively.

Then thirdly we're going to look at them personally. What do they mean to us personally. And I trust that we'll go away from this service tonight better able to face life better able to carry those burdens better able to deal with disappointments better able to handle failure.

And most of all better able to glorify God. First the factors separately. Let's start with the potter arise and go down to the potter's house. God is the potter. He tells us that verse six cannot I do with you as this potter now granted the message here is to the nation.

God as the Personal Potter

He's talking about nations and kingdoms. But all it applies to us as individuals individuals. God is the potter. You know what this means. This means that behind everything in this universe is a person.

We live in a personal universe. We are not living in a universe that is merely made up of the strange and accidental conjunction of atoms. We are living in a universe that has behind it a person. God is a person.

This world is not in the hands of an impersonal force. This world is not in the hands of impersonal fate. Everything in this world is in the hands of a person a personal God who compares himself to a potter.

You know Jacob found that out. I love to read the life of Jacob because he tells me about the God of Jacob. Jacob ran away from home trying to escape his problems. And you've learned and I've learned you can't run away from your problems.

They always catch up with you. Jacob came to Bethel and he got himself a stone and he made his stone into a pillow. That's a pretty hard pillow but he had a hard bed to lie on. He'd made a mess. And while he was sleeping that night he has a vision and he discovers something very interesting.

He ran away from mother and dad and ran away from his brother. He couldn't run away from God. And there was this ladder. The angels were going up and the other angels were coming got down. He was watching the changing of the guard.

I've watched the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and I've watched the changing of the guard at Arlington. But I would like to have been there that night and watch the changing of the guard at Bethel.

You know what Jacob discovered that behind all of life is a personal God who has his angels watching over him. God is a person. He's the potter. Now God is a person with power. He's not an absentee landlord who wound everything up and said run down.

Nor is he some sort of a foreman who gives orders to others. He is a God who is close to us a God with power and his hands touch our lives. Sometimes he uses the hands of teachers the hands of parents the hands of preachers the hands of missionaries.

Sometimes God uses the hands of our enemies. But God's hand is behind every hand. And God has the power to make us the way he wants us to be. Except for one thing in his sovereignty he has decreed freedom.

Divine Sovereignty and Human Freedom

We'll be talking about the clay but let me drop it into your mind right now. You and I are made of clay. God took the clay and he breathed into the clay the breath of life. And he made the first man. And when a body decomposes it goes back to dust.

We're made of clay but we're different from clay in this regard. We can resist. We have a will. You know what my friends it takes a sovereign God to be able to work with freedom. If God were not sovereign he could never work with freedom.

If God made us like robots where he programs us feeds all the data in pushes the right button and we operate like little mechanical men. If God made us like that he wouldn't need any sovereignty. But because God made us with the power of choice he's not afraid because he's sovereign.

And our freedom operates within the sphere of his wonderful sovereignty. Never be afraid of the sovereignty of God. That's what he learned. Jeremiah did at the potter's house that God is the potter. He's personal.

He has power. He has a plan. He's not just working helter-skelter the way children sometimes do in our daycare center. He doesn't start one thing and doesn't finish something else. He takes the clay.

If you don't watch the potter with Jeremiah you would have seen what he did. He'd go out to the clay field and he would scoop up the clay that he needed. Then he'd wash the clay. He'd clean out the impurities and he'd weather the clay.

He'd allow it to set. Then he would work it over so it was smooth. He would get the clay into the very best possible texture because he could see in his mind the vessel that he wants to make no matter what you're going through.

Remember this. God knows what he's doing. I can still remember in the early days of my Christian life a radio program from the Moody Bible Institute that I wouldn't have missed for anything every Saturday morning.

I'm sure it was on on Saturday morning. That's my recollection. It was Bob Parsons and the quiet hour. Wasn't that a Saturday morning program. I believe it was. And Mr. Parsons would come on and he would always start the program with God is still on the throne and he will remember his own.

And that used to encourage me to know that no matter what the headlines may say what kind of a mess the State Department has made. God is still on the throne and he knows what he's doing. And more than that God is a person.

God is a person with power. He is a person using that power to effect a plan. And he is a person who is working patiently now that always rebukes me. Because I have a tendency to be impatient. I want done now Lord make me patient.

Do it right now. I have a tendency to want to see things happen right now. But all God is so patient. And God works with the clay because we are his workmanship that Greek word poema manufactured product.

We are God's manufactured product created in Christ Jesus. God is the potter. Now man is the clay. This infuriates some people because clay is weak throughout the Bible. Clay is a symbol of weakness and man is weak and man had better admit that he is weak.

God has made us out of clay and clay cannot mold itself. The marvelous thing about clay is this clay has tremendous potential. You know if God God compares us to many different things in the Bible. He compares us to members of the body and stones in a temple and the sheep and priests and kings and sacrifices in Malachi.

He compares us to jewels. In that day when I make up my jewels we have a little children's song in the hymn book when he cometh when he cometh to make up his jewels all his jewels precious jewels his loved and his own.

We're one of God's jewels. But there's only so much you can do with the jewel. You you polish it and you shape it and you can you cut it and and you put it in a ring or a pendant or a necklace or a pin.

There's only so much you can do with a jewel with clay. The tremendous potential. That's there. I suppose the biggest one of the biggest sins we Christians commit is the sin of not letting God realize in our lives the full potential.

You know we underrate ourselves. Many times when I'm counseling with people I discover that they have a very low self-image. They say oh I'm not worth anything. I can't do anything. I see this person and I see that person.

I'm not like them. And in underrating themselves they are undercutting themselves. They're robbing themselves of all that God can do in their life. Clay has tremendous potential. Potential to do. What potential to make a vessel.

Did you know my friends that you and I are vessels. That's a marvelous thing to be. You know vessels don't manufacture anything unless you're reading the Arabian Nights or some fairy tale. Vessels don't manufacture anything.

Vessels just simply contain and share. Contain and share. And God has made us to be vessels. I thank God that week after week I don't have to manufacture anything. I get into pastors conferences and I appreciate the privilege.

And I sometimes chat with pastors about this business of preaching and ministering. And sometimes they come up afterward and they say oh brother where's the. It's just killing me week after week to find something to say.

I say my dear brother quit trying to find something to say. Just be an available vessel. And your problem is going to be to find enough time to say all you want to say and getting somebody who will sit long enough to listen to you.

We're vessels. The clay has tremendous potential. Now a vessel is valuable for two reasons. Number one the person who made it. I'm not an antique collector. I had an interesting experience. My wife and I were going through a large shopping center in st. Petersburg Florida and I was looking for the bookstores and I forgotten what she was looking for and they were having an antique exhibit in the mall of this shopping this huge shopping center and now as many of you know st. Petersburg it's a great place for retirement.

There are a number of elderly people down there and I had to laugh out loud. If you'd have been with me you'd have been embarrassed. But I laughed out loud as I walked down the mall sitting on a bench next to this antique exhibit or about a half a dozen very tired-looking old people.

And right next to them was a sign that said antiques for sale. I would have moved a vessel is good because of the one who made it. And I watched people at this antique sale and they would pick up a vessel and they turn around see who made it.

Does this belong to so-and-so you've seen this in museum. Here's a piece of pottery over. This is valuable because of it came from the Ming Dynasty. This is valuable now you know we as vessels are valuable because of the one who made us.

God made us and God is still making us. Secondly a vessel is valuable because of what it contains. If I need medicine I don't care what you hand it to me in I'll take it. All that's necessary is that that vessel be clean empty and yielded.

That's all it's necessary. God isn't saying to you. You've got to be a certain kind of beauty a certain stature a certain education. It's good to have all you can get. All God says to you is look I am making you.

You're a vessel. The thing that's important is that you be clean and empty and available so I can fill you with something and I'll fill you. And you just go on out and share this with others. We are the clay now the wheel that's the next factor.

Life as the Potter's Wheel

Life is the wheel. The potter takes the clay. I've watched them do this. We detoured down a bumpy dusty road in Kentucky one day because we saw a sign that said pottery. I'd never watched potters at work and we saw the man just take a great big fistful of clay and whop it right on those wheels.

They have two wheels. They have a lower wheel and an upper wheel connected. And in Jesus day and back in Old Testament days and still in many places the lower wheel was operated by the feet of the potter.

Today they have motor driven and power driven wheels. And then he it was beautiful. How he did it. I don't know how he did it but he did it. Here was this big pile of ugly clay. Look like somebody's mistake sitting there and you know how they do it.

They get their hands. They get their fingers on either side. They come in like this and get their thumbs down the middle and just pull it right up. You ever see them do it. They just reached up and they pull it right as though there was a vessel hiding in there and they put.

They found it. It's a beautiful thing. Now you can't do anything with the vessel without the wheel. That wheel represent life. Life is the wheel and that wheel is controlled by God and there's nothing accidental about the way the way the wheel goes whether it goes fast or slow starts or stop it's all in the hands of the potter.

You see the turning of that wheel gave opportunity for that clay to become something. I hear people say well time will take care of it. I've got bad news for you. Time doesn't take care of anything. Time takes care of nothing.

Time is neutral. If I were to fall down these stairs and break my arm and they take me over to Augustana Hospital. And the doctor looks at it says well that's okay. Time will take care of it. Sure time might.

It might end up like this. But if he says now reverend doctors always call preachers reverend. They said now reverend we're going to put a we're going to put a cast on that arm for you. And within six weeks that enough time.

Connie six weeks. Within six weeks time. And that cast and the way God has made you will heal that arm. Time doesn't do anything. You do something with time. And this wheel is going around and lots of clay misses the opportunity.

Sin, Failure, and Being Made Again

So the wheel represents life. Now sin is pictured by the marring of the clay. Here he is. He reaches down. He begins to pull up the vessel. And there's something in the clay that resists. There's some imperfection there's some weakness.

And the vessel is marred in the hands of the potter. The potter didn't mar it while he's in the process of making us something happens. Do you know what sin really is. It's failure to be what God wants us to be missing the mark failure in the hands of the potter.

You see you and I can rebel if we want to the clay ordinarily can't do that. But you and I can. Success in life simply means fulfilling the will of God. Finding what it is God wants to make you into what God wants to use you for.

And then do it not measure your vessel by somebody else. Just be what God wants you to be and do what God wants you to do. That is success. To be a great success in the eyes of the world. And to be a failure in the eyes and hands of God is a tragedy.

And so life is the wheel. And sin means being marred. And you know what forgiveness is being made again. Verse 4 can be read like this. The Hebrew verb there can be translated. And whenever the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hands of the potter then he made it again.

Now every vessel wasn't marred. Many of the vessels came out fine. They were. They were given the liquid treatment they were put into the furnace. They became beautiful vessels for the master's use. But whenever a vessel was marred patiently the potter said let me fix that.

The thing that Jeremiah is teaching us is this. We are not the victims of circumstances. We aren't even the victims of our own nature. If I look at the wheel of life I could be very discouraged. If I look at myself I could be very discouraged.

So Jeremiah said hey look at the potter. The potter is the one who's important and if you fail and we all do. If at some point in life there was a resistance and now we look back and say oh I'm sorry about that.

Jeremiah says don't give up. When the vessel was marred in the hands of the potter. The potter didn't do what I would have done. I would have picked the whole thing up and thrown it away. But not God.

Is it great that you and I have good news to share with people so much bad news today. You pick up the morning newspaper. You can't find much good news. You punch on the TV. You don't find much good news.

Even hate hear the phone ring anymore. Don't you. There's just not a great deal of good news. I'm so happy that God called me to preach good news. That nobody has to stay the way he is. No home has to stay the way it is.

No student has to stay the way he is. No husband no wife no son no daughter no church that he can make it again. Abraham fouled things up in Egypt and God made him again. Jacob spent 20 years getting into trouble and God made him again.

He said go on back to Bethel. I'm gonna make you all over again. God used Jacob. David not only marred his mess of his vessel he defiled his vessel and God made him again. And Peter did the same thing and God made him again.

And the Word of the Lord came a second time to Jonah and God made him again. And God will make you again the victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings. So much for the factors separately.

The Potter Controls History

God is the potter and man is the clay. And life is the wheel. And sin means being marred. And forgiveness means being made again. Now the factors collectively. Let's put them together. The key to all of this is the potter.

The wheel means nothing without the potter. The clay means nothing without the potter. The key to all of this the thing that ties everything together is the potter. That's why when people leave God out of their lives nothing works the way it ought to work.

Let's take this wheel. The wheel represents life circumstances history. We talk about the wheel of life turning. Don't we. Now if you look at that wheel turning but you don't see the potter you're in trouble.

That means that human history is just fate. Here's the wheel going round and around. I'd get awfully pessimistic if I watch this wheel going around but I don't see the potter who's turning the wheel. I'll say what's running this thing.

Is there anything in control of history. I enjoy reading history. I enjoy reading what historians say about history not what happened but why it happened. And you sit down with a half a dozen books on the meaning of history.

And you'll find a half a dozen different theories. Will Durant who has written that huge collection on the story of civilization. Marvelous marvelous set of books. He and his wife sat down to write a little thin book after writing all these tens of thousands of pages.

A little thin book on the lessons of history. Interesting book. You had to read it. The lessons of history. They see the wheel and they have one explanation for it. Then I go down to the library and here is this massive thing by Toynbee a study of history.

A set of books so profound. There may not be 25 people in the country who have read it and digest it and can explain it. He has another view of history. And you pick up different historians and have them watch the wheel.

And they clock the wheel and they draw the wheel. They analyze the wheel. But if you leave the potter out it doesn't make sense. That's why we who are Christians who know that there's a personal God in control of this wheel.

We aren't pessimistic. I'm not pessimistic about history. I'm not pessimistic about what's going to happen in the affairs of men. You know why the wheel is being run by the potter. And he knows what he's doing.

Dr. Arthur T Pearson was a great and godly man. I think he preached here on occasion at the Moody Church great friend of DL Moody a great missionary leader a tremendous Bible teacher. If you ever see the books by a T Pearson you get them and read them because they are worth reading.

And a T Pearson had a little slogan that he often used he would say history. History is his story that encourages me. No matter what may happen to the stock market or the dollar over in Germany no matter what may happen with with diplomats or ambassadors or wars or rumors of wars.

History is his story. I'm not pessimistic. I'm not pessimistic about my life. He's arranging the wheel of my life. Someday the wheel may stop. It's in his hand. Some days the wheel goes faster. Some days it slows down.

I'm not going to worry. It's in his hand. What do these poor people do who don't have a potter who controls the wheel of life. I know what they do. They worry. They give up in despair. They turn to needles and pills and bottles trying to escape something.

They cannot escape. Now the secret of the clay is the potter. If you just looked at the clay without the potter you'd give up. You just stand in front of the mirror and say well there you are. You big hunk of clay.

And that hunk is bigger than it ought to be. There you are. If I looked at myself apart from God I would quit. I'd give up Paul with the same way Paul said I know make a list someday of all the things Paul knew go through his letters and find out when he uses the word no a and o w.

I know that in me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing. Paul analyzed all the clay that he was made up and said you know what. Zero zero. There's nothing good about us. The only human being who ever walked this earth whose clay was priceless was Jesus Christ perfect.

And if I sat and looked at myself long enough I'd be pessimistic. I'd say well there's no hope for you. Your clay is weak. Your clay is dirty. Your clay may have potential but you can't make it yourself.

The clay cannot mold itself. The world talks about a self-made man. Foolish. For a person really to be a self-made man he'd have to live in isolation. And that's impossible. The instant he's born you have to be isolated from everybody.

And he died. Nobody's a self-made man. But when you take the potter and add that to the clay then you've got something. The wheel by itself. Pessimistic. No hope. Add the potter. Oh ho. There's control the clay by itself.

Nothing waste. Add the potter. You've got something. That's why I'm glad that the hands of the potter are on our lives. When you got saved that clay came into the hands of the potter and he began to mold you.

And so when you put the whole thing together it starts to make sense. It gives you a philosophy of life that's beautiful. We aren't afraid of life because the potter controls the wheel. We aren't afraid of this universe because behind it is a loving potter.

We aren't afraid of being clay because there's tremendous potential there and he knows what he's doing. And so when you put the clay on the wheel and the potter runs everything. You have a life that may not be easy and God never promised us an easy life.

But you have a life that is fulfilling a purpose. A life that is inescapably in the hands of the potter. He's making a product and he's going to finish what he makes. I have told you on more than one occasion about the dear lady who suffered so much in her sickbed and one day complained to her pastor saying why has God made me like this.

And very wisely the pastor responded he has not made you. He is making you. Now we quickly look at these factors personally. We've been talking now about a philosophy of life. What is God. What is history.

What is man. What is sin. What is success. We've seen how the key to the whole situation is the potter. Take the potter out. The wheel is nothing. Take the potter out the clay is nothing. Take the potter out.

The marred vessel is hopeless. But you put the potter in there. The wheel makes sin. The clay has potential. And even the marred vessel can be made again because our potter is a forgiving God who gives us another chance and another chance and another chance.

Personal Responsibilities Before God

Now let's take all of this personally. What responsibilities do we have. Would you be shocked if I told you your first responsibility is really to believe that there is a potter in control. That's where it starts.

In order for God to do anything in our lives we have to be able to say all right. I believe that behind this universe there is a person in my life. There is a person I have received Jesus as my Savior.

God is not a far away God. God's hands are on my life. I will begin right now by saying he is the potter. That's first step. I'm not the potter. The people in my life are not the potter. Although the potter can use them.

He's the potter. You know what that does for you. It just immediately relieves you of one of the greatest responsibilities a lot of people try to carry namely making themselves after their own image. That's an awful way to live.

To set up some kind of standard for yourself. And then by your own strength try to lift yourself up to it. Life becomes so weary so tiresome. We begin by saying oh God you're the potter. I can't mold myself.

You're the potter. That's first responsibility. Second responsibility. You've got to admit that you're the clay. I'm the clay. A lot of people don't want to admit they're clay. They think they're Superman.

The man of steel friend. God didn't make you out of steel or platinum or diamond. He made you out of clay. It's a wonderful day of liberation. When a Christian comes to the point where he says you know I'm clay.

That means you accept your weaknesses. They're a part of life. We have this treasure in what kind of vessel. Earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. Oh some of you dear saints think you are fine China.

You're not some of the saints who think they are such great. Expensive vessels are really only cracked pot. It's a beautiful thing when a person accepts his weaknesses. I don't mean sins. We never accept our sins weaknesses the the human infirmities of the.

But it also means when you say I'm clay you're saying I've got tremendous potential. Every once in a while the Lord brings into my life a person who at a certain time just gives me an extra 220 jolt of encouragement.

You see I spent a lot of my life encouraging other people. And every once in a while God looks at me and said I think you need a little extra jolt. This happened to me yesterday. I was speaking to a group of pastors and after the meeting a young man came up to me and he said I heard you preach at Winona Lake Indiana in 1959.

I said man that's almost 20 years ago. Of course I started preaching very young. You see he said I want you to know there's the close of that service. When you gave the invitation I came forward and got saved.

And today I'm in the ministry now. I don't remember that event he met. He didn't tell me until yesterday. But I've preached many times at youth meetings and I've seen gangly kids with acne walking the aisles.

And I thought to myself well what is this at all the potential. It's there. And he says pastor where's your once. You know it today I am the minister of education in a church here and God's using me to win soul potential.

Now if you look at yourself without the Potter first you got the Potter. If you look at yourself without the Potter you'll get discouraged. But all when you start with the Potter you're the Potter. I'm the play.

I'll accept my weaknesses. I'll accept my humanity. I'll accept my humanness. But I'm also going to accept the fact that in my life is tremendous potential. Friend don't you sell yourself short. Don't you ever sell yourself short.

God has a tremendous thing he wants to do in your life and all of the forces of hell can't keep him from doing it. If you're in the Potter's hands. So one we accept God as the Potter to we accept ourselves as clay.

Three we yield to God. The clay was marred in the hand of the Potter because the clay wouldn't yield. We yield to God. We don't fight life as the wheel is spinning. We don't holler out stop the wheel I want to get off.