"In the Potter's Hand" April 15, 2018 AM

Jeremiah’s Call to the Potter’s House

Everything we truly need comes from you. We are dependent upon you. I pray that you would help us to humbly come before you today and hear your word, that your message would be welcomed by our hearts, that as we put our attention upon Christ, who reigns from your right hand, as we consider the victory that he has won, and the certainty of the coming of his kingdom, his expansion now in our midst and around the world, that we would submit joyfully to the work that you're doing in our lives.

Help us this moment, this time. We ask that you would fill us with your spirit, that we would worship you, that we would give you the praise that you truly deserve. We ask all these things for the sake of Christ, with whom you are well-pleased.

Amen.

We're gonna be in Jeremiah chapter 18 this morning. We'll be reading from verses one through 12. Last time we were together in Jeremiah, we talked about the Sabbath and keeping Sabbath. The hand, the condition of keeping Sabbath was laid before the people of Judah.

And again, we're going to find a command and a condition laid upon Judah. And this one very clearly is that of repentance. And the image that we're given in this passage is that of the potter and the clay.

If you please stand with me, I'm going to read Jeremiah 18 in verses one through 12. Let's receive this message as a word from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, arise and go down to the potter's house and there I will announce my words to you.

Then I went down to the potter's house and there he was making something on the wheel. But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter. So he remade it into another vessel as it pleased the potter to make.

Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does, declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

At one moment, I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down or to destroy it. If that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent according to the calamity I planned to bring on it.

Or at another moment, I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it. If it is evil in my sight by not obeying my voice, then I will think better of the good which I promise to bless it.

So now then speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, thus says the Lord, behold, I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh, turn back each of you from his evil way and reform your ways and your deeds.

But they will say, it's hopeless,.

For we are going to follow our own plans and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart. This is the word of the Lord, you may be seated. So Jeremiah is heading down to the potter's shop.

Let's tag along.

We're going down to the potter's workshop because it's down southeast corner of Jerusalem. As we walk down to the potter's house, you may notice on your left, Solomon's temple cresting above the old walls, just to the right of that, Solomon's palace keeping guard there across the central valley in Jerusalem.

As we head down to the potter's gate, don't slip, every four feet we go forward, we go one foot down. And we're heading to the dung gate, also known as the potsherd gate. Might as well be called the garbage gate because through this gate, all that is worthless and offensive in Jerusalem is carried out and cast into the valley of Ben-Hinnom.

To the right, you can see the smoke rising from the valley of Ben-Hinnom. It is a fire that burns at all times and consumes everything that is rejected from Jerusalem. As we come down to the potter's workhouse, we notice a large courtyard from which an apprentice comes bearing a yoke of two buckets of empty buckets, needing to go get some water, probably the lower pool just to the north of us.

As we walk into the courtyard, there's his son, the potter's son building a fire in the kiln and there are all sorts of pots and bowls laid out that the potter has made obviously for sale. But the sounds of the potter's work draw us into his house.

Ducking inside, our eyes adjusting to the light, the moldy smell of ancient clay chuffs our nostrils and we hear the rhythmic thud, thud, and the gentle splash of the water and the grind of metal and wood.

This is the song of the potter. As we see him, the shaper as he's called, he's sitting astride a wooden workhorse and he is bending into his labor. And before him are two wheels, two stone wheels, a larger wheel that he propels by his right foot, one, two, three, rest, one, two, three, rest.

He moves the potter's wheel by wooden axle, a smaller wheel on top turns the clay that he has thrown there. This is the potter at work. He puts a little water on his clay, puts his left hand at the base and begins to rise up.

His other hand, his right hand is hidden inside and he pulls and he lifts the vessel to an elegant tower and all of it goes wrong. The clay falls apart on the wheel. What was elegance is now ugly asymmetry and the potter is upset.

He's not very impressed with this clay. You can tell his disappointment by the way his eyes look, by him snorting in anger and he grabs the clay and he starts pounding it back together into a lump, a shapeless lump and he looks at it, he throws a little more water on it and then down he throws it back on the potter's wheel and there goes the foot again, one, two, three, rest.

Now he forms a different kind of vessel. It won't be an elegant vase. This will be a squat sturdy pot and he begins to move his fingers over the clay, each finger telling the clay to assume a spherical form and then he begins to make this squat sturdy pot meant for some other inauspicious use and that's what we see over the shoulder of Jeremiah.

What does it mean? Well, it's not just looking over the shoulder, it's also listening in on what God says about this lesson of the potter and his clay. God gives the lesson in verse six. He says, can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does, declares the Lord.

Behold, like clay in the potter's hand, so you are in my hand, declares the Lord. We are in God's hands like clay is in the hands of the potter. God holds mastery over our shape, condition, purpose and destiny like a potter holds mastery over the same with his clay.

We are like clay in the potter's hand. The Lord is the potter, we are the clay and the application to Judah in these 12 verses is the same to us. We must pay attention to the way that God works so we all will repent from the way we work.

We must all pay attention to the way that God works so that we all will repent from the way we work. That is the lesson of the potter. We must pay attention to the way God works. Now God tells Jeremiah in verse two, arise and go down to the potter's house.

There I will announce my words to you. God wants Jeremiah to put his eyes on a very important visual, a living parable that Jeremiah will then use to instruct all of Judah. And not just Judah, because in verses seven through 10, God applies the same lesson to every nation.

So it's not just Jeremiah, clay in the potter's hand, it's not just Judah as clay in the potter's hand, it's all humanity is God's clay and he's the potter. This is a lesson for everyone, so everyone including you and I must pay attention to the way that God works.

He works like a potter. First thing we need to notice about the way that God works is that he speaks clearly. He speaks clearly about his role as the potter. He speaks clearly about his sovereignty. He has sovereign control over our lives like a potter has over the clay.

The basis of that relationship is no mystery. In fact, in the text we see the word for potter is yatsar. The same word is in Genesis 2 .7. Then the Lord God formed, it's the word for being a potter. The Lord God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being.

The reason why God has sovereign control over our lives is as simple as that. God literally shaped us from the dust of the ground and gave us life. He really is the potter. We really are earthen vessels.

It really is that way. Denying that God is sovereign over us means denying that God directly created us. Denying that God is sovereign over us means we deny that God directly created us and both are done.

Both of these denials are given regularly, simultaneously and prolifically in our day, aren't they? But God has spoken clearly. I don't think he stuttered. I don't think he slurred his speech. I don't even think he put the wrong emphasis on the wrong syllable.

Verse three, Jeremiah says, I went down to the potter's house and there he was making something on the wheel. And in the Hebrew, it's literally the two wheels, which means it's a fast potter's wheel. It's got the one on top and the one on bottom and he's spinning it, he's making his vessel.

But verse four says, but the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand. So he remade it into another vessel. Makes a lot of sense, but notice the emphasis. He remade it into another vessel as it pleased the potter to make.

As it pleased the potter to make. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does? Declares the Lord, behold, like clay in the potter's hand, so you were in my hand, O house of Israel.

And it's not just Israel that enjoys this totalitarian relationship. Verses seven through 10 says it's all nations. All nations are clay thrown upon the wheel of this potter.

God.

What determines the shape, the condition, the purpose and destiny of the nations of people like you and me? As it pleases the potter to make, so he makes. We're like clay in the potter's hand. Does that make you sick?

Makes me queasy from time to time. It's really giving God too much power. Wait, hang on.

He's God.

He's all powerful. It's really giving God too much credit for the things that we ourselves really do. And yet all the glory goes to God. But God has not spoken in a riddle. He's been very clear about this throughout his word.

Psalm 115 verse three says, our God is in the heavens, he does whatever he pleases. Psalm 135 verse six says, whatever the Lord does he pleases in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the deeps. Daniel 435 says, all the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing.

But he does according to his will in the host of the heavens and among the inhabitants of the earth and no one can ward off his hand or say to him, what have you done? Romans 9, 18 through 23 says, so then God has mercy on whom he desires and he hardens whom he desires.

You will say to me then,.

Why does he still find fault for who resists his will?

I get that.

On the contrary, who are you, oh man, who answers back to God? Will the thing molded say to the molder,.

Why did you make me like this?

Now listen, here's Paul's reflection on our passage. Or does not the potter have a right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? Now listen to the good news.

What if God, the potter, what if God, although willing to demonstrate his wrath and make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction and he did so to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory.

Now it's been said, it's not the parts of scripture that we don't understand that give us the problems, it's the parts of scripture we do understand. They give us the problems. I don't think God is unclear on the matter, I think we're uncomfortable with the matter.

I don't think God's unclear on the matter, I think we're uncomfortable with the matter. I understand that. There are times I really have problems with the sovereignty of God, but those are my problems and they're not his.

There are times when I'm wondering if he's doing a good job, but that's my problem and not his. And there are other times, and you and I both know this as followers of Christ, as born again believers, you and I both know that there are times and there are difficult times and there are horrendous times when the truth of the sovereignty of God is the only thing getting us through to the next moment.

And so the sovereignty of God may lead to worry in worship, antagonism and adoration in the same soul at different times, I've seen it, I've felt it. But God speaks clearly to us on the matter and he does not speak clearly as one on the witness stand on whom we're questioning, he speaks clearly as one on the judge's bench.

And we don't have God in the dock, he has us in the dock. And the more we know about his character and his nature, the more we will begin to be at peace with his power. When it says he does just as he pleases, it's such good news that all he pleases to do is good and right.

Isn't that good news? I want you to notice in a sovereign power how he shows mercy and rules justly in our passage. He shows mercy, he shows mercy. Just before God calls all of his goodness to pass before Moses, he says in Exodus 19 verse 33, he says, I will show compassion on whom I will have compassion and I will show mercy upon those whom I will have mercy.

God shows grace, compassion and mercy to Israel and to the nations in that he is long suffering with us, that he is teaching us the lesson and teaching us the lesson of the potter and calling us to repentance.

He shows us his mercy when he calls us to flee from the wrath to come, when he delays his justice and makes room for grace, leaving time for repentance, his mercy. Without the mercy of God, we will be instantly swept away as worthless dust.

Isaiah leads the people in corporate confession in Isaiah 64 verse six, he says, for all of us have become like one who was unclean. All of our righteous deeds are as a filthy garment and all of us wither like a leaf and our iniquities like the wind take us away.

This is Isaiah's confession for himself and his people. But while doing this, he looks to their sovereign God and cries out for mercy. He says in verse eight, but now, oh Lord, you are our father, we are the clay and you are the potter and all of us are the work of your hand.

God confirms that and describes his labor as a potter to inferior clay. In a few verses later, Isaiah 65 two, he says, I have spread out my hands all day long. Why? He's a potter. He's spreading out his hands all day long to a rebellious people who walk in the way that is not good following their own thoughts.

He says, yes, I know. He's been long suffering. He's been merciful. It's a good thing that God is sovereign because he sovereignly makes room for long suffering, compassionate mercy. We are like clay in the potter's hand.

To be more specific, we are a sinful inferior clay in a merciful potter's hand. He is merciful. He also rules justly. As we look at verses seven through 10, we see that God is just. When nations who are full of individuals just like you and I shaped in God's image, when we rebelliously pursue evil in God's sight, God as the potter will deal justly.

And when we repent and follow God's voice, he shows compassion. He says, at one moment, I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down or to destroy it. Or at another moment, I might speak concerning a nation, concerning a kingdom to build it up or plant it.

God is absolutely and righteously in charge of all of humanity. And according to his unchanging character and according to his persistent pleasure, he justly rules over the ever-changing swirl of humanity because we're the clay and he's the potter.

The truth of all of that ought to have an impact on our posture and on our prayers, on our posture and our prayers. Like Jeremiah and like Judah, we need to pay attention to the way that God works. As Christians, we approach the sovereign throne of God through Christ for his justice is satisfied in Christ.

His mercy is unleashed in Christ. And if we're talking about him speaking clearly, his words most clearly revealed in Christ, for we only know the father through the son. And as we pay attention to who God is and how he works, you must do so by faith in Jesus Christ.

In him, we know God's sovereign mercies and the comfort of his righteous government. Now, does it matter to you how your children sit at the table?

Does it matter?

It does begin to matter, doesn't it? Let us not sit at our heavenly father's table like surly, ungrateful children slumped over, critically picking over his provided mercies with grumbling, mumbling tones dripping from our frowning mouths.

If we pay attention to who God is, if we pay attention to the one with whom we have to do, we would probably reverence him and respond to him. And this is the way Jesus put it in Matthew 10. Matthew 10, verse 28 through 11.

He said this, do not fear those who can kill the body and cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him who has the power to kill both the body and to destroy both the soul and the body in hell. And then he says, are not two sparrows sold for a cent?

And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father, but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear, for you are more valuable than many sparrows. Did you hear what Jesus just said?

He said, because God is sovereign, fear him. Because God is sovereign, don't fear anything else. And so when we sit at the table, we sit up straight to honor him, because we know who he is. And we can speak to him confidently, even boldly about what we need, because we know his love for us and his power that he commits to us to help us.

I'm so glad that that which is impossible with man.

Is possible with God.

I'm so glad there's nothing too difficult for God to do. It's only because God is the potter and we are the clay that we may pray to him that he will right all of the horrid wrongs in this world. It is only because God is the potter and we are the clay that we can pray to him that he will save lost souls, grant repentance and faith to rebellious unbelievers.

It is only because God is the potter and we are the clay that we can pray that God will work all things together for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.

It's a good thing.

Repentance, Judgment, and the Hope of Mercy

Now, we must pay attention to the way God works so that we all will repent from the way that we work. It makes a difference at the outset as followers of Christ that we know who God is. He's the potter, we are the clay.

It makes a difference in the way we honor him, reverence him, fear him, the way we worship him, it makes a difference in the way that we pray, noting his sovereignty, his power, his control over all things.

And the application made by God through Jeremiah in this passage, the primary application is one of repentance. The lesson of the potter given to Jeremiah finds expression in its most intense application in this idea of repentance.

Notice there in verse 11 and 12, verses 11 and 12. So then now speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, thus says the Lord, behold, I am fashioning, and again, the word for making pottery, I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you.

Listen to the way God speaks. Oh, turn back, do you hear God's appeal? Oh, turn back each of you from his evil way and reform your ways and your deeds. Do you hear what God says? God gives this lesson of the potter to Jeremiah to preach to the people because they need to repent.

God sees their ways and their deeds, he sees how they're living and calls them to repentance.

What does God see?

He says, as the potter has the clay in his hand, so I have you in my hand. You realize the potter sitting there, he's over his work, he's over his clay. As the potter sees his clay and knows everything there is to know about this clay, so God knows us and sees us.

Nothing's hidden from him. In fact, Hebrews 4 .13 says, there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare to him with whom we have to do. It's not just Jeremiah and not just his prophet, not just Judah.

Verses seven through 10 says, God's paying attention that way to all nations. What all the nations are doing, what all the different people groups are doing. Humanity, the clay, on the potter's wheel, he sees everything going on, everything open and laid bare to the one with whom we have to do.

And what does he see then? He sees our sinfulness. He sees our wickedness. He made us in his image and we've gone our own way in our own stubbornness. And that's what he sees. There's nothing hidden from him.

We may make excuses to cover ourselves. We may try to obscure our faults. We may think better of ourselves. We may tell ourselves stories and narratives about our own life that are completely untrue and make us look really, really good and alive in front of others that we're always victims and never villains, but God knows the truth.

God knows the truth. He sees who we really are down to our very hearts. And because God sees everything about us, we must all repent from the way that we work because what's at stake? So you read in the text, God has the clay in his hands.

We're in his hands like clay in the potter's hands. And what does he see? He sees our sinfulness. And this is why he talks about in verses seven through 11 about judgment. He talks about uprooting and pulling down and destroying.

He talks about devising calamity and fashioning plans against those who rebel against him. And that's what's at stake. What's at stake is that the potter.

Would be opposed to the clay.

And does anybody wanna be in that position? When you're the clay, do you want the potter against you? It's not a good place to be in. Potter has the right over the clay. He has control over the clay.

If he's unhappy with the clay, what happens to the clay?

That's what's at stake. If we could imagine a lump of clay could come to life and take issue with the potter's molding and shaping and skillful hands. If we could imagine the lump of clay coming to life and proving resistant and troublesome, how foolish of the clay.

Those same hands will pound and prevail according to the potter's pleasure. That's what's at stake. This is the picture that we have throughout all of Scripture is God is a sovereign king. God is a sovereign creator.

He has us in his hands. And he will do, and even though he is merciful and will make much room for mercy and long suffering, kindness and show grace, he's also a God of justice and a God of holiness. And if we're clay in the potter's hands and he is against us, this is a terrible place to be.

So what will we say? What will we say? 12 times in 11 verses, verses one through 11, 12 times in 11 verses, we read of God's word, God's saying, God's declaration, God's announcement, God's speaking, God's voice.

And God speaks and speaks and speaks and speaks and speaks. And then we listen for the response. What will then Judah say? And Judah speaks and says, it's hopeless.

It's hopeless.

I feel compelled to do what I feel compelled to do. I must be true to myself. I can't deny my nature.

It's hopeless.

What a lie, fatalism. How can you be a fatalist like that? In view of the sovereignty of God, pure the clay, he's the potter, it's not hopeless. He's still alive, he's still active. He's still moving, it's not hopeless.

Who is the God who gives grace? Who is the God who can do the impossible? Who is the God who can turn Saul of Tarsus around? Who is the God who can save a murdering zealot with his last breaths dying on the cross next to Jesus and save that man?

What a lie to say it's hopeless and be a fatalist in view of the sovereignty of God.

It's not hopeless. It's not hopeless.

Listen to God's heart.

Oh, turn back. Oh, turn back.

Where are they going back to? They're going back to God, back to his covenant promises, back to all of the shadows he has shown them of Christ that they will put their faith in him and be saved. Oh, turn back, all nations.

Turn back to the God who made you. Turn back to the one who spoke you into existence and who took up on flesh and died for you upon the cross and was raised from the dead. Oh, turn back.

Turn back.

Repent and trust in Christ. What Jesus says when he comes, preaching. What does he say? He says, the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Oh, turn back.

People say it's hopeless. Some people say it's hopeless. I've lived too long under the pretense of being right with God, the pretense of being a follower of Jesus. What will happen now if I come out and say, I never really believed, never really was right with God, never really did love him, never really did trust Jesus.

People say it's hopeless. It's hopeless.

I'm just kind of set in my routine. I'm gonna go home, eat lunch, take a nap, and then get busy with my projects.

It's hopeless.

Radical change is hopeless. It's not gonna happen to me. I know it's hopeless. I know too much. I've learned how the world really works, the way history actually happened, the way science disproves God.

It's hopeless. It's hopeless.

In which case, I would advise you to become a fool and embrace the wisdom of God's truth.

It's not hopeless.

Not while God is sovereign, not while God has given us Christ, not while God has spoken so clearly about his mercy and warned so effectively about his judgment. It's not hopeless. So turn back that lie.

God is too powerful a God for his little creatures to say is hopeless.

Prayer for Hope, Repentance, and Trust in Christ

Let's pray.

Father, we come before you this morning and give you the praise and give you the glory. Lord, it is true that you are the potter and we are the clay. You have made us, you have shaped us, you have formed us.

You hold us in your hands. What now? God, you are a good God and all that you do is good. And you have given us your son, Jesus Christ, so that we would be renewed into his image. We'd be saved by his personage.

He has met all the conditions that you have ever laid upon humanity, that Christ has met them all. That him, we would find through him, in your sight, we would find favor. Oh Lord, I pray that you would disperse the darkness of this lie that is hopeless.

Lord, we know that isn't true. Help us to fight that in our own hearts. Help us to labor to fight that idea in the lives of those around us who would say it's hopeless. Lord, may we always hope in you.

We know that what's impossible for us is possible with you. There's nothing too difficult for you. Help us to truly trust in you and worship you and reverence you as the potter. We pray these things for Christ's sake.