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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/jerry-jennings/lessons-from-a-potter/
Jeremiah chapter 18 and verse 1,. "...And 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.
And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter.". Now notice this,. "...So he made it again. Another vessel. It seemed good to the potter to make it.". As much as I want to read.
I want to think about this portion of Scripture in the potter. A prophet. A potter. A prophet that's sent to a potter. He's divinely sent to this potter. And God sent him to this potter for a purpose.
And God wanted this man to learn a lesson. And I take it what he wanted this man to learn is a lesson about the Word and about the will of God. So I take it that if this prophet can learn a lesson from this potter about the will and the Word of God, I take it that you and I in this room this morning can do the same.
And I take it in so doing, that is, this prophet Jeremiah going to the potter's house, that God put a new meaning in the common affairs of life. The common affairs of your life and the common affairs of my life.
And it doesn't surprise me in the least, and I don't think it surprises anyone in the room this morning, that Jeremiah was just humble enough to respond in obedience to a word from the Lord. He told him to go to the potter's house.
And Jeremiah responded to that simple, common little word from the Lord. And he went down to the potter's house. When he went to the potter's house, he learned something in relation to the will and to the Word of God.
And so I take it that God can just take common, ordinary things in relation to your life and my life and teach us something relative to the will and to the Word of God. God doesn't have to take big, elaborate things to teach us anything.
Just common, ordinary things. Like a lesson learned from a common, ordinary potter. And it doesn't surprise me that Jeremiah was willing enough to learn the mind of the Lord. And you and I should be the same in the room this morning.
We should be willing enough to learn the mind and the will of God for you and the will of God for me. He's not going to learn a lesson now from a great, silver-tongued orator. We don't need great, silver-tongued orators to learn lessons.
Just common, ordinary people. Like a potter. A humble, simple potter. It's interesting to me because these are the ways of the Lord. You know, He called common, ordinary men as apostles. He didn't call the wealthy.
He didn't even call the wordy. He didn't call women. He called common, ordinary fishermen strong men. Not wealthy men. Healthy men. Not wordy men. Not women. God is no respecter of persons. And shame on you and me if we are.
If we are respecters of persons. Because of ability. Because someone is articulate. Someone of great stature. Shame on us if we respect that person over a common, ordinary potter. I have an old friend.
His name is Cecil. Lovely old man. Saw him the other day. He's walking with a cane. It's a white cane. His son was helping him into a room, into a building, into a restaurant, into a booth. I used to take walks with this old man.
He's an exclusive brother. One we affectionately call an exclusive. There wasn't anything exclusive about him. He included me in his life. I used to go for walks with him in the woods. And he'd feed my soul.
He's the one who used to feed me ripping good cookies. And when he wasn't feeding me ripping good cookies, he was feeding my soul with the Word of God. Raised a great big family. You go to his house and the door is swinging in and out.
Grandchildren. Great-grandchildren now. Coming in and out to see old Grandpa Cecil. If you saw him, you wouldn't think he could find his way across the street. If you sat down with him and he'll feed you cookies and coffee, and then he'll start quoting volumes, volumes of Scripture.
He told me something years ago. This is what he told me. He says, don't make too much of the man. He says, make much of the man. Christ Jesus. I thought that was good advice. I don't know what you think this morning.
I still think it's good advice. I want to consider the clay and the craftsman. I'd like to think about the wheel a little bit and the vessel. And when you get to the end of it, I'd like to think about a lesson that you can learn from a wheel and a vessel and a craftsman and clay.
That clay in verse 6, I take it as a representation of the house of Israel dug out of Egypt and brought into Canaan. When you come to Psalm 40 in verse 2, like Israel of old, we have been dug out of the miry clay of spiritual darkness.
Remember being there? I remember being there. I was there 34 years of my life. Never saw the inside of a Bible. I was in the miry clay of spiritual darkness. And you know what that spiritual darkness brought me?
It's the same thing it brought you. It brought you spiritual danger. Spiritual darkness and spiritual danger. And my heart was filled with spiritual doubt. And so was yours. And you know, along with this doubt and this danger and this darkness, there is another thing that's linked with that and that's disappointment.
This whole world disappointed me. Everything I ever heard, everything I ever saw brought disappointment into my life until the night that I heard the message of the Gospel and it was the most refreshing thing I had ever heard in my life.
It was like a cool, cold, long drink of water. It's the greatest message there is, you know. An old, old brother told me years ago about the message of the Gospel. He says you don't have to help it to make it user-friendly.
He didn't use that language then, but that's the idea. We use that language now. User-friendly. I think it has something to do with computers. He says there's only one thing you need to do with the message of the Gospel and that's turn it loose.
Turn it loose. And it'll do its work. Reaching the conscience. That's what needs to be reached. Not the emotions. No, no. But the conscience. And it'll still do its work today. And we don't have to adjust it in any way.
Just preach the Word. And it'll do what God intends it to do. Dig the soul out of the miry clay of spiritual darkness and danger and doubt and disappointment and set their feet upon a solid rock. Translate that individual into the kingdom of His dear Son.
It's a kingdom of light. It's a kingdom of liberty. It's the kingdom you're in today. If you're saved, if you're born again the Bible way and washed in the precious blood of Christ, you are in a kingdom of light and a kingdom of liberty.
And you've been delivered from doubt and darkness and disappointment. It's wonderful, isn't it? Wonderful to be saved. Know your sin's forgiven. You know, I've learned a lot of lessons in the last two months, three months from my wife.
I should have been listening for years. But I've only been listening close in the last three, four months. She told me something that stuck with me. She says, you know, I've got a future whether it's here or it's in heaven.
I have a future. Brethren, you have a future. Regardless of whether you're here in this world or you leave this poor, groaning world behind and you go home to be with the Lord Jesus. What a future! What a bright and glorious future!
I tell you, we've got the best of everything. The very best. And there's more to come. God has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son, a kingdom of light, a kingdom of liberty that He might fashion us, that He might conform us to the image of His Son.
That's His purpose for you and His purpose for me. I want to think about a wheel. In verse 3. It says, behold, about this potter that he wrought a work on the wheel. You know, sometimes I think there's divine wheels in my life.
They're the wheels of God. There's a wheel of promise and a wheel of purpose and a wheel of prudence. They're divine wheels. Did you know these are all things that the nation of Israel experienced? They're all things that you and I experienced in this room this morning, those of us that are redeemed by the rich, matchless grace of God.
And these all work together for Israel's good and they all work together for your good and my good. The promises of God. The purpose of God. The prudence of God. And those things all work for your good and they all work for my good as well.
I take it that the circumstances of your life and mine are the heavenly wheels working to mold our spiritual character and fiber. You know, sometimes I wonder in my life when my life is all ended, whether I'll have any cash to leave to our one child and our grandchildren.
And then I think to myself, you know, that's not really important whether I have any cash to leave them. If I can leave them an example of good character, what's more important, brethren? Cash or character?
Character will stand them in good stead. That cash business, that's temporal. They'll probably just blow it anyway. Go out and buy one of them great big fancy pickups you see parked alongside the road.
You notice that? All along the road, great big rig sitting there. I guess they don't have the cash to run them anymore. They'd have been a lot better off if they had character. Think about that potter for a moment.
As clay in the potter's hand, God says, so are you in my hand. There's potential in your life, brother, sister, whether you're young or middle-aged or getting long at the tooth like me. There's potential for the glory of God.
There still are possibilities possibilities and potential based upon our position and our purpose or God's purpose, that is in placing His tender hand upon us. He does that to guide us. He does that to guard us.
And He's guiding us and He's guarding us on our way to glory. And that clay was experiencing the skilled and tender hand of the potter. And you and I in the room this morning, redeemed by the rich matchless grace of God, are experiencing the skilled and tender hand of the divine potter as we move through life.
He has a purpose for us. He has a plan for us. He's seeking to conform us. He's seeking to fashion us. That we might be something for the glory of God. What a dignity you have this morning. What a dignity I have as a people of God, as the children of God.
What a destiny we have. And what a duty we have as well. To live our lives for His glory. So I take it the divine potter has a plan and a purpose to make the best possible use of the material that He has to work with.
That's what He has now. That's what He has with me as material to work with. And material for you as material to work with as well. Sometimes, brethren, you have to work with the material that you have in relation to an assembly.
An older brother told me that one time in relation to a newly formed planet, God-planet assembly. You know, that's who does it. Not the brethren. It's not planting them. Or starting them. We're not building churches with buses.
We're not building churches with buses. No Wally Beebees in the place. It's God that plants them. And this older brother told me one time in relation to those young brethren that were just seemingly stumbling along, but they were seeking to get the mind of God from the Word of God.
And he says, brother, you have to work with the material you've got. God does that, so you and I have got to do the same identical thing. The wonder-working hand of God, I take it, is associated with a gracious Holy Spirit working in us both, the Bible tells us.
Philippians 2 and verse 13, to do His will and to do His good pleasure. Did you notice that vessel over there in verse 4? It was marred. You know that it wasn't marred by the hand of the potter. It was marred in the hand of the potter.
But it wasn't the hand of the potter that marred the vessel. The vessel was just simply marred in the hand of the potter. So the flaw wasn't in the skill of the potter. The flaw was in the material. It was in the clay that he was seeking to make this vessel out of.
The flaw wasn't in the craftsman. The flaw was in the clay. And Israel as a nation, I take it, is presently marred. The reason that as a nation they're marred today is out of disobedience and unbelief.
The Hebrew writer tells us very faithfully in chapter 3 and verse 12, take heed, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief. Well, spiritually speaking, I wonder is there some grit in me? You know, they say that you've got to have some grit.
Well, how about the grit of a stubborn will? Any kind of grit like that in you and me this morning? The grit of a stubborn will. A little piece of grit in that clay. That's what caused that vessel to be marred in the hand of the potter.
How about the gravel of a touchy temper? Got a touchy temper? Better make an adjustment. Bad temper? You say, preacher, you know anything about a bad temper? Oh, yeah. I know what a bad temper will do.
Cause you to be marred in the hand of the potter. That's a flaw. How about that little bitty sand in there? That little piece of sand of self-seeking? Self-seeking. What will that do? That little bit of sand in there of self-importance.
I take it that that would hinder the skillful, sensitive hand of the stately, holy Spirit of God who's seeking to conform us to the image of His Son. You can control that temper. You can. You can surrender that stubborn will for the glory of God.
And control that touchy temper for the glory of God as well. That's possible. You'd be better off for it and so would I. Happier too. I want to think about another lesson and I'll sit down. You know that this godly potter, God Himself, the Divine Potter, He's able to renew.
He's able to refresh your life and mine. He's able to recover us. He's able to restore us. He's able to do that. When that piece of clay was marred in the hand of the potter, He didn't throw it away. He didn't discard it.
Made it again. He's interested in you. He's interested in me. Maybe you need some renewal in your life. Maybe I need that. Maybe you need to be refreshed in your life. And it could be that I need that.
Maybe there's in some degree, in some area of your life, you need to be recovered and I need to be recovered. God's able to do that and He wants to do that. He's not ready to give up on you. He's not going to throw you away or cast you aside.
He wants to make you again and make me again and renew us again and refresh us again and recover us again and restore us again and regenerate us again. He has the right to do that. He has the resources to do that.
He has the resolve to do that. To make it again. And I've thought about this in this way. That a vessel may be dishonored, but never disowned. God will never disown you, child of God. Can God do for you and me as this potter?
I think God can do for me. He can do for you as this potter if we're softened. You know, sometimes things come into your life and mine that soften us. It's so obvious. My wife and I were discussing that on the way down this morning.
Sometimes things slip into our lives and those things soften us. And suddenly we find ourselves being softened. Sometimes even to the point of being weepy. Easy to weep. And then you know as time goes by that softness seems to dissipate.
To go away. To disappear. First thing you know, you're right back to where you were in the beginning. And you almost wish that something would come into your life to soften you again. Because you like being soft.
Maybe a little tender. Maybe a little weepy once in a while. Jew and I can be softened. We can be refined in His hand that we might live in the good of Acts 9 and verse 15. A chosen vessel to bear His name.
His character among the nations. So may we submit, brethren. Surrender to the sensitive and the skilled hand of the Divine Potter.