In The Potter's House Part 1

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Many believers have never seen themselves as clay on a potter's wheel being molded to suit the potter's purposes. But the sooner we understand that, the sooner we'll be fruitful members of the body of Christ. Today, lessons from a wheel and a furnace during a trip to Israel.

From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, people these days may not even know what a potter's wheel is. Well, that may be true, Dave, but those of us who have been to Israel, we have actually seen a potter's wheel.

As a matter of fact, there are those who continue to make clay pots. And so the imagery from the book of Jeremiah was well known to the people of his day. But even if you've not been to Israel, you can visualize the scene. And we'll be explaining that to you in just a moment. And I believe that this message is going to have a tremendous impact on your life.

And I say that because every time I read this passage, I myself am convicted and instructed. We want to thank the many of you who help us here at Running to Win. Would you consider becoming an endurance partner? That's someone who stands with us regularly with their prayers and their gifts.

If you want to know more, here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com and click on the endurance partner button. That's rtwoffer.com. Or if you prefer, you can call 1-888-218-9337.

Call 1-888-218-9337. And now let us use our imaginations. Let us in our imagination go to the potter's house along with Jeremiah for lessons that are transforming for all of us.

Today I'm speaking on the topic in the potter's house. All of us have gone through experiences in life, I'm sure, that have been disappointing. Our dreams have been shattered. If we could go up and down the aisles, we'd find people today who would say, I hoped for a happy marriage, but it hasn't happened. Someone else might say I hoped for good health, I hoped for a satisfying career.

What is God doing in the midst of our pain, in the midst of our disappointments, and in the midst of our shattered dreams? Well today I want you to come with me to Israel. How many of you have been to Israel?

Can I see your hands please? Not nearly as many as I thought, but we're all going to Israel today. And I want you to bring your camera. You know everywhere people have digital cameras nowadays.

In fact, they even have cameras on their phones. So bring your camera along because what we're going to do is we're going to go into the potter's house, we're going to take four snapshots so that when you get back from Israel you can show your friends what you saw in the potter's house. Jeremiah chapter 18 is the passage of scripture where Jeremiah was asked to go into the potter's house and if you didn't bring your Bible, I hope that you use that pew Bible. Jeremiah is one of the big books and it follows one that is even longer, namely the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 18. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord arise and go down to the potter's house and there I will let you hear my words. So I went down to the potter's house and there he was working at his wheel and the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand and he reworked it into another vessel as it seemed good for the potter to do. I know that in context this is a reference to the nation Israel as Jeremiah explains in the next verses but today I want us to see this passage from God's standpoint and our standpoint and what God is doing in our lives and what it's like to be a vessel in the potter's house. Now I told you to bring your cameras because the first picture that we're going to take as we walk in to the potter's house is a picture of the potter himself who in this particular story is God.

But let's look at a potter that you might find in Israel. He is so intent on what he is doing that he doesn't even know that we have walked into his store, into his room. He is very intent and as we look more carefully we notice that he is working purposefully. He has a plan in mind. He has a good idea of what this vessel is going to look like and he determines whether it's going to be a flower pot, whether it's going to be a water pot, whether or not it'll have handles, how big it will be. All of that is in his mind as he works purposefully.

He's not like children, preschool children playing with Play-Doh who are just making things that perhaps have no particular shape and he's not blindfolded as the evolutionists say that he is working blindly throwing things together. There is a plan and there is a plan that God has for your life. Clearly in the book of Romans it says that that plan is that we should be conformed to the image of his son.

Today as you're listening to me whether here or on the internet or the radio keep in mind that God has a purpose in what he's putting you through because he sees you in a way that you don't see yourself. He has a plan in mind. He is working purposefully. Let us also realize that he is working patiently. We may think that as we see the potter go through all of the various motions as he's looking at that vessel it might seem as if it's good to us but it's not yet good to him and he's taking his time. He does not want to sacrifice beauty for speed so there he works and the divine potter sometimes works that way too. Have you ever noticed how long it sometimes takes God to remake somebody?

And we'd like to be able to put it through the assembly line, do it quickly God, do it in a few weeks, a couple of months, surely not years, but God is working patiently. But he's also working authoritatively because he has in mind the kind of vessel that he has and we'll see this when it comes to the second vessel, the remade vessel, it says that he remakes it as it pleases him, as it seems good to him. God works with authority. Doesn't this bring to your mind Romans chapter 9, that very difficult passage that all of us struggle with? Regarding Pharaoh it says, for this purpose I raised Pharaoh up and I hardened his heart that I might show my glory throughout all the earth.

And of course an objector says, well wait a moment God this doesn't make sense. Doesn't Pharaoh have free will? How come you are still blaming him if you're the one who raised him up? And you remember what the Apostle Paul says, who are you to reply to God? Shall the thing form to say to him that formed it, why have you made me this way? Does the vessel say to the potter, why have you made me thus? What if God wants to make his glory and his power known? Does he not have the right to make some vessels onto honor and some onto dishonor? He works with authority and God works with authority. And yet as we look at the text we notice that from our standpoint at least it looks as if the potter has a mixture of success as well as a mixture of failure because clearly this vessel is not turning out the way in which he intended. So naturally we face the question, does God ever fail?

Does he intend to do something and want to do something but then he's blocked because of our stubbornness? Well there are two ways that we must view this. First of all, let us understand that God's hidden purpose, his hidden purpose is always achieved. There's no doubt that he works all things after the counsel of his own will and the will that you and I do not see because there's so much that we see that we do not understand and we cannot understand God's purposes. That hidden will is always achieved. He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and amongst the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? His eternal hidden will is always achieved. But there's another sense in which his visible purposes here on this earth are sometimes thwarted by us, by our hardness of heart, by our rebellion, by our failure to take human responsibility.

So that's the other side of this coin. But as the potter sits there working, he is working authoritatively because he does have an end in mind. Do you have a picture now of the potter on the camera of your mind? Do you see him there sitting on a stool working intently, dressed in brown clothes, we're working with brown clay?

That's the first picture, the picture of the potter. Well, let's move on and let's take a picture now of the wheel. The wheel, you'll notice it says, and he was working at his wheel, last part of verse three, and he was making a vessel on the wheel.

So what is the wheel? The wheel is real life experiences in the analogy. And he is working in our lives through two different venues, broadly speaking. First of all, circumstances. God brings circumstances into our lives and the Bible says that all things work together for good to those who love God. And that little word all should be emphasized and underlined. All things work together for good. All the circumstances of life, including your struggles with your health, and as we shall see in a moment, struggles with other people.

But notice circumstances. It says in the Old Testament regarding Joseph. It says that Joseph, when he was exalted and he was next to Pharaoh because he was working with Potiphar, who was Pharaoh's secret service agent, it says, and the Lord was with Joseph and he was exalted in Egypt. And then he becomes falsely accused, you remember, and he's thrown into prison and it says, and the Lord was with Joseph when he was in prison. May I say to you today that God is with us in our promotions, but he is also with us in our demotions.

The potter uses both. He uses health as well as sickness. He also uses not only circumstances, but people. Have you ever noticed how God irritates us with people? You know, we all love humanity.

As Charlie Brown says, it's just people that we can't stand. To live above with the saints we love. Oh, that will be glory, but to live below with the saints, I know that's another story.

And here it is. God puts us all together and he says, enjoy one another. Now, how does God use people? God uses people to teach us, to mold us. If we were to look at that potter as we would see the clay spinning around on his wheel, we'd notice that he has a knife and he is using that knife very guardedly, very carefully so that the excess clay might come off and he is doing that, and that's exactly the way in which God tests us and develops us. You students that are here today, the roommate that God in his providence has given you for this semester may be the very knife that God intended to use to make you into the vessel he wants you to be. But you know that the vessel has no right to tell the potter you can't use that person or that circumstance.

You have no right to do that. A potter can use whomever he wishes. Think of it this way, in the case of the Apostle Paul, the potter used Satan, a messenger of Satan to trouble Paul and to give him the thorn in the flesh. In the life of someone like Peter, what you find is that God used somebody else, namely his own deception and his own unwillingness to follow Jesus Christ, and in the case of Joseph, whom I spoke about earlier, God used his brothers. His brothers were the wheel that God used to produce within him Christ-like character, because that's what God is after. And indeed, the Bible says all things work together for good.

That's the wheel. There was a very wise Chinese man, I read the story some time ago, who had a son and a horse, and that's all that he had, but his son let the horse out of the barn, so the horse ran away. So this man's friends gathered together and they said, we want to sympathize with you over the bad thing that happened. And the man said, how do you know that this is bad?

Next day, the horse returned and brought 10 stray horses with him. All of his friends gathered together and they said, we want to celebrate with you regarding the good thing that has happened. He says, how do you know that this is good? His son was trying to break one of those new horses and the horse threw him off and the boy broke his leg. Everybody gathered around and they said, we want to comfort you regarding the evil, the bad that has happened. How do you know that it's bad?

Next day, soldiers were coming through the countryside looking for young men to fight and his son was exempt because he had a broken leg. Oh, let us gather together and let it, well, you know, this story could go on for a long time. As Christians, we do not make superficial judgments. All things work together for good to them that love God. That's the wheel upon which God places us. All right, we have looked now and back behind that wheel, my friend is God. So we've taken two pictures. We've taken a picture of the potter. We've taken a picture of the wheel. Now it's time to take a picture of the first vessel. That's the third picture that we take.

Notice what it says. He was working at his wheel, verse four, and the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand. We look at this vessel and there was something within it that resisted the potter. Possibly it had some lumps within it. It is as if this vessel was rebelling against what the potter wanted to do and these lumps were creating difficulty. The lumps showed that there was also a lack of symmetry. Sc symmetry is very, very important to the potter. And as a result of that, this particular vessel, despite the fact that the potter was working authoritatively, this particular vessel was marred, it was spoiled, it was ruined in the hands of the potter.

My friend, this is Pastor Lutzer. Can't you just visualize that? Here's a potter who is working with authority and yet the clay resists the potter? What a picture of your life and mine. What a picture of society.

When God is the one who is the potter and we are the clay and we will not submit to the potter's hand. You most assuredly have to listen to next time because I'll continue this message and we need to understand more of the imagery. From my heart to yours today, I want to thank the many of you who support the ministry of Running to Win.

Maybe you've never connected with us even though you are blessed by this ministry. Let me challenge you to become an endurance partner. Endurance partners are those who stand with us regularly with their prayers and their gifts. Of course you want more information and to get that information you can go to rtwoffer.com. Perhaps as you have frequently heard me say in the past, rtwoffer is all one word, rtwoffer.com and when you're there click on the endurance partner button and it will indicate what it means to become an endurance partner.

Joining has with us in a sense joining the Running to Win family. Or if you prefer you can call at 1-888-218-9337. Now let me give you that phone number again. Perhaps you've not had time to get a pencil but you can write it down now 1-888-218-9337.

Or as I mentioned go to rtwoffer.com, click on the endurance partner button. Thanks in advance for helping us and be sure to listen next time as we go once again to the Potter's House. It's time again for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question you may have about the Bible or the Christian life. Sometimes we're bothered by unresolved issues.

We're glad to be able to offer some direction to people to help sort things out. Today's email brought us these questions from Lorenzo. I have a couple of questions about repentance that trouble me. What is the biblical definition of repentance? Do you have to repent to be saved? If you turn from your sin in order to be saved, doesn't that mean that works are a part of salvation? Lorenzo, you know that in asking this question you've kind of jumped into a hornet's nest because there is some disagreement in the evangelical community about this.

So let me try to shed some light on it. First of all, the word repentance in its most basic form means to change your mind. Now some people say that based on that that salvation is nothing more than changing your mind about Jesus.

You receive him as your savior. You change your mind as to who he is. But it seems to me that the word repentance is actually deeper than that. The word repentance seems more than simply changing your mind. It almost seems to be to change your direction. Somebody has defined it to turn away from as much as you know about your sin to as much as you know of God.

Well, a couple of comments. First, when you get saved there's a sense in which you have to turn from your sin to Christ. I don't know how else to explain it except that repentance is a change of mind whereby we are going in one direction and now we turn to Christ.

Like it says in 1 Thessalonians, the people there, they turned to Christ from idols. And in the very same way, we turn to Christ and we leave our idols behind. This becomes a very natural explanation for what repentance is. But I do need to caution that if you continue to tell people that becoming saved means that Christ has to be Lord of your life, that's where we get into some difficulty because some people may not be in a position where they can make Christ the Lord of their life. They turn from their sin in their helplessness to Christ, but some things in their life they may not at that point be able to totally give up.

When I was in Japan, this was clarified for me, a pastor there told me that if you tell some of these dear people that in order to receive Christ they have to give up all of their idols first, they'll say to themselves that's impossible because I worship these idols and I simply cannot walk away from them. So what we need to do is to present Christ, hold him up, urge people to believe on him despite their weaknesses, despite their misgivings to receive the free gift of salvation. Well Lorenzo, I hope that I've shed some light on this.

I hope that my comments were not confusing. So I need to simply summarize and say that repentance is turning away from sin to Christ and that is not a matter of works being smuggled into the gospel because the gospel assures us that eternal life is free, but in the process we recognize that the business of making Christ Lord of our lives, that is something that takes the rest of our life to do. Hope this helps and above all if there are those who are listening who've never trusted Christ as Savior, now's the time to do it. Thank you Dr. Lutzer and thank you Lorenzo. If you'd like to hear your question answered, go to our website. You'll find that website at rtwoffer.com. There you can click on Ask Pastor Lutzer or call us at 1-888-218-9337. That's 1-888-218-9337.

You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Seeing ourselves as clay helps us avoid the I'm in charge attitude we all too often project. As the potter, God is in charge. He has a purpose we can't see, a purpose that takes us through the fire so that one day we'll come out as gold. So are you content being clay on God's pottery wheel? Next time, join us for more on what kind of vessels God wants to make out of you and me. Thanks for listening. For Dr. Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.