Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world.
So that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church, located in Kernersville, North Carolina. Obviously Jeremiah chapter 18 and our brother Frank has read our passage. I'm getting a lot of reverb up here. You can help us out with that.
Jeremiah chapter 18, our subject today is the Potter's House. This is not going to be a comprehensive study on Jeremiah chapter 18. It would really be a series, it would take me a month. To go into all the ins and outs, I'm not going to tell you about how I went to a pottery. Um factory and Inquired and asked them all the questions of what they do and all the ins and outs of that and apply that.
And I'm not going to do all that. I feel like this passage. Is one that we need to come back to periodically because it illustrates our life. Like no other passage in the Word of God. In context, this is obviously dealing with Israel.
It's an Old Testament context that teaches not only New Testament, An Old Testament principle, but a biblical principle about what our Savior. does for us. And he is the potter. And we are the clay. And that.
Establishes a principle that cannot be changed. We want to talk about it today, I think, as a church. We always need to come back here. It's kind of a centering point. When you're building anything, you got to make sure it's level.
You got to, you know, measure and double measure and triple measure. But if it's off, you got to go back. You got to take off the sides. You got to get back to where it's level. And this is the leveling point.
Jeremiah chapter 18. Brother Frank read it. And we're talking here about the potter's house. And he gives this illustration And God is literally telling the children of Israel what happens at the potter's house illustrates. How I deal with you.
It illustrates the process.
So, and I know you're familiar with the passage, but I want you to notice I'm going to jump right into it instead of reading the whole thing again. Number one today, I want you to see this passage deals with the position of the potter. the position of the potter.
Now this must be established First, look at verse 3. Then I went down to the potter's house. And behold, he rot a work.
Now notice first that the potter is the one in control. The potter is the one. Look at verse 3. Then I went down to the Potter's House. Kirwan Baptist Church, look at me here this morning.
It's his house. Amen. The potter did not go down to the vessel's house. The vessel began In the potter's house. Um he is the one.
that does the work. He is in control. If you do not establish that position, you're going to be struggling through your entire Christian walk. If you do not right now understand who is in control. Who is the head?
Who is the master? Who is the Lord? Who is the clay? And who is the potter? We are dealing here with what happens at the potter's house.
God is the one in control. Look at Romans 9, 21. Look at this verse. Hath not the potter Power Over the clay. Of the same lump, lump of clay, that's what the Bible calls you and me.
Lumps. I got more lumps and humps and bumps than I want right now, but lumps. Notice this: of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. It's up to the potter. He's the one in control.
That's his position. Far be it, a lump of clay has never told the potter what to do. The potter is the one in control. Notice, secondly, the potter started this whole process, not the vessel.
Now look at verse 3. Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he wrought. It didn't start with you, it started with him. He started this whole process. He came to us.
when we could not go to him. We didn't start this. This wasn't our ideal. Philippians 1:6, look at this. Let me prove this.
You've got to see how. Scripture connects with Scripture. Here we are, Old Testament. And then we go to the New Testament. Old Testament, the potter is the one that does the work.
It's his house. New Testament, look at Philippians 1:6. Paul says, Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath what? Begun. A good work.
He started it. He started the process. Here's what's interesting. Amazingly, he's the one that started the process. It was his idea.
He's the one that did this. He's the one that made this happen. And so often, then you and I try to tell him what to do. The potter is the one in control. May I say this?
You didn't start this work. I didn't start this work. We wouldn't have known where to start. We wouldn't have known what to do. We wouldn't have even known how to make it happen.
The potter did all the preparation. The potter got the clay. The potter mixed the clay. The potter got all the tools. The potter got all the supplies.
He built the building. He put all the investment in it. It all started with him. Not us. And third, I want you to see this, the vessel has no say.
and what it wants to be.
Now I understand life might not be what you were hoping for. And I understand that maybe you don't like some of the twists and turns that. circumstances has brought you. But if we're going to continue in this Christian walk. We've got to understand right now that we don't have a say.
in what he makes us into. I want you to notice not just the Position of the potter. But notice secondly in this passage where he We're told the plan of the potter. This is his plan. Notice verse 3.
Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, He wrought a work. Notice first, the potter does a work. That's the plan. The plan always has and always will be for the potter to do a work. in your life.
Look at me. You do not want to be saved, and the pot are not working in your life. If he's not working in your life, you might not be saved. When he's your father, you're his child. When you're saved, you're the clay.
He's the potter. Listen to me, the plan has always been in your life for God to do a work in you. It's not always fun, and it's not always easy. The potter forms the vessel. The potter makes something.
out of nothing. That's the work that he does. By the way, I hate to bust your bubble, but we're nothing without him. We're just a lump of dirt. Without him.
Literally, our body, we came from the dust, came from the dirt. Literally, we are just a lump of dirt without the potter. God is always working, God is always forming. The vessel cannot make anything of itself. by itself.
You put a lump of clay on the potter's wheel, it's going to sit there. It can't form itself. You can't make it happen in your life. You can't make yourself into what you want to be. You can't make it happen.
You can't fast-forward the process. You can't just say, well, I'm going to listen and I'm going to read and I'm going to decide and I'm going to make myself into something. You can't make yourself into anything. Quit trying!
Sometimes you have mom and dads, they're trying to make something out of their kids. God does that work. He's the potter. We're not the potter of our children. We are to teach them and train them biblically, but God is the one that makes the vessel.
Quit trying to make people into what you want them to be. Quit trying to make yourself into what you think you ought to be. Let God do the work. I'm afraid sometimes the reason there's so much trouble at times in different places and interpersonal relationships in a church is because we all think we're each other's potter. I don't like the vessel you are and I'm going to try to change you.
And I don't like what that vessel over here is doing. And so I, you know, we go to people, I don't like that vessel, I don't like the way he looks, I don't think it's right. Listen, you're not the potter. Are you getting it this morning? The potter does the work.
Notice, secondly, the potter decides what he wants the vessel. To be. He Rot. A work. The work did not rot itself.
So if he's going to do the work. And he's going to make a vessel. It has to be in his mind. Not yours. Look at verse 6.
O house of Israel, This is the principle as he's given this passage. O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter saith the Lord? Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand. We are in his hand. We don't get a say in what we want him to do or what we want ourselves to be.
We're in his hand, he's not in our hand. Notice thirdly, the potter has a reason for everything he does to the vessel. Philippians 1:6, the verse we read earlier.
Now, let's follow it through. being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun it started with him That he which hath begun a work in you, no, what does it say? He that hath begun a Good work. That means this: the potter wants you to be successful more than you want to be successful. because the vessel speaks of the potter.
Quit getting mad at God that he hadn't done in life what you thought. Listen, the vessel you turn out to be speaks about him. Yes, sir. Have you ever been to a pottery shop that's not so hot? Things are lumpy, and you know, and now they can just call them art now, right?
Just sneeze on a potter's wheel and sell it, you know, kind of a thing. Can I tell you something? With the way the vessel turns out, doesn't really speak of the vessel. It speaks of the one that made the vessel. Listen, if you walk into a store and there's a whole bunch of junky-looking pottery, you're not going to look at every one of those pieces of pottery and say, boy, this one's horrible.
No, you're going to think, who made these? That's his fault. And so, you and I have got to understand we don't have a say. Not only that, everything that God does to us in life has a reason, has a purpose because He's making us and forming us into a vessel. Everything, He doesn't just do stuff to make us angry, He doesn't just do stuff to put us through a bunch of stuff that we don't deserve.
He doesn't want to just have fun and tinker with us. Everything that the potter does or allows in our life is for a reason, it's for a purpose, it's to make us into the vessel that He wants us to be.
So number three. It talks about the process of the potter.
So, how does he do this? Look at verse 3. Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he wrought a work where? On The wheels. Notice first, the potter uses wheels.
Wheels were rough and hard, many times made of stone. The wheels would provide friction. The potter would use pressure from his hands. in conjunction with friction from the wheel. It's not necessarily fun to be on the wheel, but it is necessary.
The potter must take the lump of clay from where it is to where he wants it to be. There must be a change. That lump of clay is not useful the way it is. If it's going to be useful, it has to be turned into something useful. That's why we use the term term.
Into something useful. Because a potter has to put that lump of clay on a wheel, and that wheel begins to spin. And with the friction of that spinning, when he puts his hand on the clay, it's working against the direction that it is spinning. Are you with me? Say amen.
That means this: for God to change you, there must be friction, there must be pressure. He has to change you. It's not easy, it's difficult, it's not fun, but it has to happen for us to end up being. Valuable. May I say, what wheel is God using in your life right now?
Where are you spinning in your life right now? What friction is going on in your life right now? Where is pressure? coming from in your life right now. What is God forming?
Where is God? changing. The potter used his wheels. Notice secondly, the potter. I love this.
The potter controls the wheel as well as the clay. Can I tell you something? A potter doesn't just set the wheel going and it's just going to keep going no matter what he wants.
So he's going to have to act. He can't stop the wheel. No, no, no, no. The potter controls the wheel and he controls the clay. As he's forming the clay, he's the one controlling the wheel spinning.
And if he feels like the wheel needs to spin less, he'll slow it down. If it needs to spin more, he'll speed it up. But he doesn't just control the clay, and he doesn't just control the wheel which causes the friction, he controls it all. Look at these verses, 1 Corinthians 10, 13. But God is faithful.
who will not suffer you to be tempted above. That you're able. He knows how fast the wheel can go in your life, and he knows when you've had enough. He knows what you can take. He knows how much friction.
He's forming a vessel, but he knows that too much of this and too little of that will never make you into what you need to be. Notice this verse: Psalm 103:14. For he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are what? Dust. He's controlling us.
He's controlling the wheel. He's controlling the pressure. He's controlling the friction. It's literally the process that he uses. We have to be on the wheel.
We have to have friction. There has to be something that is more powerful than us to change us. If we are more powerful than something, it won't change us. We'll change it.
So it has to be something or someone more powerful than us, and that's the potter. I want you to notice number four. the problem with a vessel. Verse 4 says, And the vessel that he made of clay was marred. In the hand of the potter.
Now, let me give you a little bit of good news before we give you the bad news. Notice number 1st, I want you to see it says, and the vessel. that he made of clay. Notice number one, the potter was forming a vessel. Do you notice in verse 3, it starts off as a work?
But in verse 4, it is now a vessel. That means that the potter was taking a lump of clay. It next became a work in progress, and now it had become to take shape as a vessel, and then it was marred. You know, it's always a work first in our life, and then a vessel later. Can I tell you something?
God always starts a work. before we become usable. God always has to do a work. It always has to be a process. It starts with a work.
It starts with God working, and it ends up with Him turning us into a vessel. And I love this verse because it means he's making this progress. That's where we're going to, that's where we're heading to be a vessel. We're not just going to stay a lump of clay. We're not just going to end up in a bin somewhere.
We're going to be a vessel to be used. Look at Isaiah 64, verse 8. But now, O Lord, Thou art our father, we are the clay, and thou art potter, and we all are the. Work. of thy hand.
It's always a work.
Now, what encourages me about the fact that this is already a vessel, let me give you a couple things about vessels. Vessels are handmade to be useful. That's why a vessel was to take a lump of clay and make it to a vessel means you're trying to make it useful. Notice, secondly, vessels are handmade to be filled. Vessels are made to be filled.
You take a pitcher, it's made to hold water. You take a bowl, it's made to hold soup. You take a cup, it's made to hold coffee. If you make a plate, it's made to hold krispy cream donuts. It's always useful for something.
Notice vessels are handmade for a purpose. Not just to be useful, not just to be filled, but vessels have a purpose. That's why they're called a vessel. Otherwise, it would still be a lump of dirt. But it's a vessel now, it's made to be useful.
Notice vessels are handmade to have value. Listen, you put something through a conveyor belt, it's one thing. But when somebody hand makes something, it has different value. You and I are not robots. God is forming each of us individually, uniquely, for us to have value.
May I say this? Vessels are handmade to be unique. Do you know handmade vessels are never exactly alike another one? There's always somewhere, it might not even be visible, but if it's handmade, it's going to look a little bit different. It's going to be a little bit different.
God did not make you to be like someone else. Quit trying to be the vessel that someone else is. Quit trying to be the vessel that you think so-and-so is. God wants you to be a totally different vessel. Notice vessels are also made to be Durable.
Can I tell you something? A vessel is not real useful if the least little thing happens and it breaks it. That's good. That's good. Listen, if God just let you skip your way through life and made you into that kind of vessel, guess what?
You couldn't take anything. Yeah.
Somebody says one thing about you, can't take it.
Something happens, a circumstance happens that you weren't expecting, can't take it. I'm out of church again. Mad at them again. I'm been out of shape again. Critical again.
Listen, God puts us through the process that we don't always enjoy, but He does it so that we not only can be useful, that we not only can be fillable, that we not only are unique and valuable, but that we can take it. You can't use a vessel that keeps breaking. The potter was forming a vessel. Notice secondly. The vessel was marred in the process.
Verse 4 said, The vessel that he made of clay. was marred This particular vessel didn't stand up to the pressure, no. We don't know exactly what happened. If it happened on the wheel, if it happened in the Beginning of the heating process, because once something is heated, you're not going to reform that.
So, this was still in the forming process. We don't know all what happened, and but I will say this: that is often in life. We just don't know what happened and it brings the question, what happened? And I want to ask you that question today. Because I'm going to be honest with you, it could be that in this building, there's a bunch of us vessels that are marred.
The process has slowed down. God's trying to make us into something, but we're bucking against it. And my question would be: what happened? What marred you? What got you been out of shape?
Who said what? What what what happened? Who disappointed you? Who hurt you? What happened?
You might be here this morning, and you know deep down in your heart that God is doing a work, and God wants you to be a vessel, and God wants you to be useful, but you're stuck right now. Because you're fighting against the process.
Somehow, in the process, you got marred.
Somehow, it didn't proceed as it needed to. What happened? And may I say, dear friend, if you don't deal with what happened, it's going to keep doing the same thing over and over again. If you're still bitter at such and such from years ago, guess what? It's going to keep marring your vessel.
If you still have an attitude or something that happened in life or what this person did or whatever has happened to you in life, if you don't get past it and you don't get beyond it, it's just going to keep marring the vessel. May I say? What happened when friction Cain. is what marred this vessel probably. Let me say this.
We all show our true selves. when we are exposed to pressure. We all show what kind of vessel we really are. when the friction and the pressure hits. May I say at this church we try to invest in people, disciple people, teach and preach to our people, and we do it because we're praying when the friction hits their life that they stand up to it.
Because I'm going to tell you what's not useful to God is for a church to produce a whole bunch of fine china that breaks at every little thing that happens. God can't use a church like that. God can't use people that are in and out of church all the time because their feelings are hurt. They're mad at this. This person said this.
This person said that. I don't know this. I don't like this. They didn't talk to me. I don't feel, you know, people just don't really.
Listen, God can't use people like that that are constantly broken and marred by every little thing that happens. At some point, God wants to form us into a vessel. It's not about what people say, it's about how God can use you. I could sit down, a lot of people, and just ask you. What happened?
Churches are full of marred. Vessels. But can I give you just a little bit of good news, number three, under this? According to verse 4, we do know that the vessel never left the hand of the potter. Verse 4 says, And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in.
The hand. of the potter. You know what John 6, 37 says, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me. I will in no wise. Cast out.
Can I say something whatever happened? And maybe your vessel's been marred. By some things, but can I tell you this? You are still in the hand of God. He still wants to make a vessel that is pleasing and useful for him.
You say, Preacher, I've wasted so much time. Preacher, I've made so many mistakes. Preacher, I've made so many bad decisions. Preacher, I've gotten off track so many times. I understand that, and I have too.
But you and I have never left the hand of the potter. Let me give you number four. The patience. of the potter. Verse 4 says that the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter.
So he threw it away.
So he discarded it.
So he gave up on it.
So he became frustrated with it.
Well, I sure would if I was God. I'd have gotten frustrated with me a long time ago. No, the verse says so he lost interest in it. It says, So he made it again. He did not give up on the vessel.
May I say today, he would not have wasted time on it if he didn't think it could be useful again. He wouldn't have even tried. If it wasn't possible. You see, it didn't start with you. It started with him.
Yes, sir. You and I just a lump of clay. We didn't know what was up. We didn't know a thing. We had no plan.
We had no hope. It started with him. It's his house. He's the one that took us just dust from this earth. He's the one that formed us into clay.
The greatest news that anyone can receive is the news of the free gift of salvation found in Jesus Christ. It is our desire for you to know him personally. Would you take a moment to hear this today? Every man is born with a sin nature. Romans three twenty three says For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
No matter how hard we try, we're not good enough to obtain God's glory. or to get to heaven. Because of that, sin carries the penalty of death. Romans 6.23 says, For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life.
through Jesus Christ our Lord. The wages of our sin, or the payment of our sin, only equals death and separation from God. But it's only through God's gift salvation through Jesus Christ that we can accept him as our Saviour. Jesus Christ paid for your sin debt. The Bible says in Romans 5:8, but God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
All you have to do is receive Christ. by faith as your Saviour. Romans ten nine says That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Verse 13 continues, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's as simple as admitting that you're a sinner believing that Jesus is the only way.
and calling upon his name. Bible says whosoever that's anyone can call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. Have you accepted Christ as your personal Savior? There is no greater day than today to take care of this. Would you accept Christ as your Savior?
If you have any questions, please give us a call at 336-993-5192 or visit our website at Kerwin Baptist Church. Dot com. or visits that person at one of our three service times. We hope you have a great rest of your day. God bless you.
Mm-hmm.
