Treasures in Jars of Clay

In our study of Jeremiah, Dr. Monroe has shared with us how Israel turned their back on God.

Because of their rejection of God, they found themselves overwhelmed with sin. And society as God designed it in relationship with Him, Israel had rejected it. Turn, if you would, to Jeremiah, the second chapter.

We're going to look at verse 13, and then another verse in that second chapter in just a moment. But Jeremiah 2.13 speaks of Israel's rejection. Jeremiah says, So here are the two charges that Jeremiah brought against Israel. Israel had, number one, rejected God, the fountain of living waters, and number two, have begun worshiping idols that they had created.

Those idols are the cisterns that can hold no water. God reminded Israel through the prophet Jeremiah that there would be circumstances for their sin. That Babylon, a nation from the north, would come down and invade and destroy Jerusalem.

Would destroy Israel as they knew it and take Israel into captivity. Now how did Israel get into the position where they rejected God? How did they get to the point to where they were choosing other idols, other gods with the little g, over the almighty God, the creator of the heavens and the earth? Continue to look in Jeremiah, the second chapter, at verse eight. Verse eight says, The priest did not say, Where is the Lord?

Those who handle the law did not know me. The shepherds, and when it says shepherds here, this means the government leaders, transgressed against me the prophets, prophesized by Baal, and went after things that do not profit. So priests did not guide Israel to the living God. They did not use the law to confront sin and to turn Israel back to God. The shepherds, the government leaders, did not guide the flock, but just like Israel, they too, the leaders, transgressed against the living God. The prophets, who were supposed to say, Thus saith the Lord, chased false gods and worthless narratives.

I think it's important for us to note that the priests, the shepherds, and the prophets carried the blame for Israel's failure because they were entrusted with the Word of God. In most ancient societies, there are few people that were literate, few people that were able to read. During the time of the first century when Jesus was alive, only three percent of the people were able to read. We've got to remember that Jeremiah's prophecy took place 600 years before the time of Jesus.

The first schools in Israel began in the second century B.C. Most education was done by an individual teacher who had a collection, who was called a rabbi, who had a collection of students or disciples around him. So very much like Jesus and the 12 disciples. Literacy was minimal, and the priests, the shepherds, and the prophets were the ones who held possession of the Word of God and were supposed to proclaim it to the people. There was no other way that Israel was going to hear the Word of God unless those who were literate, those who had the Word, the scrolls, were able to present that to those who lived during that time to Israel. It was their responsibility to proclaim the Word, to lead the people to worship. And that's why God assigned the blame for Israel's rejection to those that were the prophets, the priests, and the shepherds. They were the ones who had the Word and could read it. Israel sinned and failed because those who had been entrusted with the Word of God failed the people, failed Israel. Now you cannot read the words of Jeremiah. You could not be attending worship service here in the last couple of months and hear our pastor preach without drawing comparisons between Jeremiah's Israel and our nation today.

We are chasing scarecrows. Who would have ever thought that in the USA the life of a stray animal would be valued more by our government and society than that of an unborn child? Who would have ever thought that a person's God-given gender would be placed into question?

Who would have ever thought that employers would require employees to support such organizations as Planned Parenthood? Who would have believed that in the United States the right to chase scarecrows, false gods, is more valued than the right to worship the Almighty God? Everywhere we go, we are challenged as believers and persecuted.

When I think back to my childhood days, these were things we never had to deal with. They would not ever be questioned, but times have changed. I think if Jeremiah had the opportunity to visit with us today and see the values and the morals that we have today, that they would match or exceed the fallen values in Israel in 600 B.C. So if it was the priests, the shepherds, and the prophets to blame during Jeremiah's time, who is it that we need to blame today for the fallen morality, for the distance that we have away from God? Like during Jeremiah's time, most pastors are not leading and preaching by the Word of God. Listen to the testimonies of new members when they are presented to Calvary Church. The main reason they are here is because Calvary Church is the church that preaches the Word of God. They've looked everywhere else in the city, but they cannot find other churches that preach and teach the Word of God. Most will say that those churches do not exist. God's Word has been replaced in many churches with new interpretations of the Word of God from pastors who have been enlightened.

They pick and choose from God's Word to establish their own brand of religion and idolatry. People today are chasing personality preachers who are preaching what feels good to others' ears, to their ears, rather than those who are preaching and teaching and giving the water of life the Word of God. Today, as in Jeremiah's time, pastors and teachers are to share in the blame.

Note that I said to share in the blame. God gave the entire blame to those priests, prophets, and shepherds during Jeremiah's time. But I think the blame now is shared because pastors can do very little in their churches without the endorsement of the church's leadership and without the endorsement of the church, the body, or the congregation. I'm so thankful to serve a church where, if we were to teach or preach something that was contrary to the Word of God, that we would be held accountable for that so that we don't get caught up in this slippery slope of trying to tickle people's ears with the things that they want to hear. It's so important that this church guard against the attacks of the enemy to teach and preach something other than the Word of God. Most churches that have fallen into this temptation to preach something other than the Word of God will take bits of Scripture and they will make it sound like it does come from the Word of God and they'll tie it together with some of their own personal beliefs and before long we've got something that is not biblical at all.

It makes me think of when Jesus was tempted by Satan. Satan took Scripture and just used bits and pieces of it and twisted it so that it sounded appealing to Jesus. But Jesus knew that it wasn't the real Word of God. We must take God's Word as it is written in its context and let that be what we preach and teach today. So thank you, Calvary Church, for standing firm on the Word of God. But in God's plan, it's not just church where we're supposed to be teaching and proclaiming the good news. He has provided the Word, His Word, for us as individuals and we are to preach, teach, and to lead our homes, our families by the Word of God. Turn with me to Matthew 28 verses 19 through 20. Matthew 28 verses 19 through 20. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold I am with you to the end of the age.

So who is this call for? This call, the Great Commission, is for each and every one of us. It's our responsibilities, not just the pastors and the teachers, but it's each and every one of our responsibilities to take the Word of God into the places where God has called us, into our families, into our businesses, into our social settings, and we're supposed to be the ones who carry the Word to the people. We live in a time where almost every one of us is literate. All of us can read and the Word of God is available for each of us. Most of us have, have God's Word, more than one copy of the Word.

We have it in different translations that almost anyone can understand and it's our responsibility as it was the priest during Jeremiah's time to take this Word of God into the places where God calls us and to proclaim its truth. Why is it that our nation has gotten to the place where it is today? Well, pastors have to take some responsibilities.

And you and I, as individuals, have to take some of the blame, probably most of the blame. Because for many, when we leave this place today, we will not pick up this book again. Why are we in the situation that we're in today? Because we've lost focus on the Word of God. Since you're in Matthew, the Gospel of Matthew, turn to the fifth chapter. I want us to look at verses 13 through 16 for just a moment. Jesus said, verse 13, You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its taste, how then can its saltiness be restored?

It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light so shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Salt is designed to stop corruption, and so is God's Word. We Christians are the salt of the earth, and we are the ones that God has tasked to stop this decay that is taking place. If there is moral darkness in the world so that people do not know good from evil, we as believers with the Word of God are supposed to be the light of the world, and your light and my light is to be used to dispel the darkness that exists in our world today. We're to be active, a lot of darkness that is out there, and it's our responsibility to shine the light of the gospel so that the world can see. The world needs to see that the Almighty God and His unchanging truth matters in our lives, but I'm afraid that too many Christians have backed off. We're almost like secret Christians. People don't know whether we're believers or not. Our decisions are not based mostly on the Word of God, but those cisterns that have been created by ourselves. Our Savior and the Word of God needs to permeate without apology through every part of our lives. In our families, in schools, at neighborhood meetings, at coffee shops, at the gym, at the golf course. I said golf course because you don't see a lot of religion there.

And the list could go on and on and on. The world needs to hear and see the Word of God active in us and through us. The world will not see Jesus unless you and I show them. How else are they going to know? They're not going to see it on television. They're not going to hear about it at school.

They're not going to see it from our government. The only way that people will see God today is if we show and tell them. We show them with actions in our lives and we tell them as we respond with the Word of God. Now as Dr. Monroe has taken us through the book of Jeremiah, every Sunday, 2 Corinthians 4 verses 7 through 15 comes to mind for me.

So turn there. We're finally getting to our text. And that's going to be our text for the remainder of the morning. 2 Corinthians, the fourth chapter, and we'll be looking at verse 7 to begin with. But this keeps continuing to be on my mind and I think it, I think this verse can help us respond to this opening challenge that we take the Word of God into the places where God has called us.

So let me read through this whole section. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Christ's sake so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

So death is at work in us but life in you. Verse 13, since we have the same spirit of faith according to that which has been written, I believe and so I spoke. We also believe and so we also speak, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into His presence.

For it is all for your sake so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God. Now let's take just a minute and break this passage down. This first verse, verse 7 says, but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. Paul says that we have this treasure. I've always thought that would be pretty cool to find a buried treasure.

Anybody else think about that? We just got back from the beach digging around with the grandchildren in the sand. Wouldn't it be great just to dig down and hit the top of some kind of a box? You know, you scrape the sand away, you got the outline of a treasure chest and you pull it up.

It'd be pretty cool, wouldn't it? You open it and there's all sorts of gold coins inside of it. You're rich until the IRS comes by and wants most of it or some historical society comes and claims it for their own. We have a treasure far greater than anything that we can ever find buried at the beach.

It cannot be measured by today's systems of wealth. Look back at the fourth chapter of 2 Corinthians, verses 5 and 6, and it'll tell us what that treasure is. For what we proclaim, and that's your hint, what we proclaim, it's the gospel. For what we proclaim is not ourselves but Jesus Christ our Lord.

And with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God who said, let light shine out of darkness has shone in our hearts and give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, is our treasure. We have that light, that light that shines in the darkness of the world and it's a treasure. We have Jesus Christ who offers forgiveness of sin and new life to those who believe and that is His treasure. And it's our responsibility to unpack that treasure for other people. It's our privilege to unpack that treasure for others. Matthew 13, 44 says, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in the field, which a man found covered up and then in his joy goes and sells all that he has and he buys the field. What do you think the man did after he purchased the field? Do you think that he left the treasure buried there? He goes and he gets that treasure and he begins to share the good news of this treasure that he found to other people.

Let me take just a quick moment and tell you about this treasure that God has given us. We were created to have fellowship with God, to walk hand in hand, face to face with the Almighty God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. And then the Bible tells us that sin came, rebellion came. We decided to choose our own way instead of God's way and sin causes separation because a holy God cannot or will not exist where sin is present. God is holy, we are sinful, there's that separation. And our punishment from God is eternal separation. Jeremiah describes it as a nation from the north coming to kill and destroy Israel. Jesus describes it too in John 10.

He says the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. Death is our destiny. Now there's no way that we can make ourselves holy again. Not good works, not church attendance, not any amount of generosity. There's nothing that we can do that can make us righteous again, righteous enough to be back into the presence of God.

It takes a life. Someone's sinless, righteous life in exchange for my and your sinful life. Someone has to pay the price, the debt for my sin. And the eternal Father has given us that gift, that treasure in His one and only Son, Jesus. And whoever believes in Him has their sins forgiven and they are no longer dead, no longer separated from God. But there's restoration because Christ takes my sinfulness and I get His righteousness, which allows me to go into God's presence again.

We are no longer dead, but born again. That's the treasure that God has given us. And He's given us the responsibility and the opportunity to share that treasure with the rest of the world, with our family, with our friends, with our associates, anybody that comes in our way. We have to always reflect Jesus.

There is no other way to be made right with God except through a relationship with Jesus Christ. And if you and I don't tell people, they're not going to find out any other way. I'm afraid that most of us keep our treasure hidden. Next, Paul says that we have this treasure in jars of clay. Verse 7 again, we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. Now Paul describes us as jars of clay. And jars of clay were insignificant in the ancient world.

They were common, they were unimportant, they were temporary, they were expendable. It's kind of like Tupperware. If a clay pot was broken or if you can't find the lid, you just throw it out.

You did not try to repair it. Paul used the term jars of clay to remind the Corinthians and us today that it is not the container that holds the treasure that is of value, but that it's the treasure itself. Paul reminded Corinthians, as he does us today, that it's not the messenger or the jars of clay that are to be worshiped, but it's the treasure, it's the Savior, it's Jesus Christ who is to be worshiped. We're just the jars holding this treasure, holding the gospel. The gospel is the true treasure and we are just containers. Do you ever wonder why God has placed this treasure in us and given us the responsibility to share it with others?

I mean there's got to be a better way. When I look at my own life and do a self-evaluation, I wonder, God are you sure that you want to give me this treasure to share with others? I can be apathetic, I can be unfaithful, sinful. I can be chasing other gods, things that do not matter. I can let the pressures of this world overwhelm me.

Are you sure that you want to give me this treasure and give it to share with other people? God recognizes that life is challenging. And even though we've accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we have a life that is free from sin.

I mean when we stand at judgment, but we are still not free from the challenges of this world and the fears and the difficulties that come. Look at verses 8 through 10 here in 2 Corinthians 4. Here Paul describes who we are. He says, He says we are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. Paul admits that as believers that we're just ordinary jars of clay. We're going to be afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, struck down.

And there are probably many in this room today that feel that they are in that position today. But this can lead us to think that we are not adequate to carry the gospel because jars of clay are so fragile. Now, I've heard some of you say, I don't know about sharing the gospel. I don't know about sharing the good news.

How do I share about Christ to others? I'm afraid and we hold back. We don't want to be broken. Our jar of clay, we don't want to be broken. Again, verse 7. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

The surpassing power belongs to God and not us. Most of the time I feel inadequate as a pastor, as a father, as a husband, as a grandfather. God has tasked me with these responsibilities. He has given me these responsibilities. But praise the Lord, He does not leave me alone. But instead He gives me His power, His surpassing power to accomplish the tasks that He has called me to.

He's called me to the task of sharing the treasure, sharing the gospel in every setting and He empowers me with His power to do so. I love that word surpassing. I looked it up in the dictionary. It means incomparable or outstanding.

Some of the synonyms are exceptional, extraordinary, remarkable, outstanding, phenomenal, supreme, unrivaled. I mean this is the power that God has for us. Matchless, unsurpassed, beyond description, wondrous, beyond words, that surpassing power that God gives to us as we seek to serve Him is the same power that created the heavens and the earth in six days.

It parted. That power parted the Red Sea. That power gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, healed people from every incurable disease, paid for my sin and your sin and rose from the grave. That surpassing power is ours if we will step forward in faith and trust Him. God has given us the responsibility to unpack His treasure, to tell about the Savior, to a lost and dying world, a world that is in darkness, and He empowers us supernaturally to be able to carry out that task that He has provided for us. Now, how do we do that?

And I've got to hurry here. Verse 10, we are always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. And then verse 11, for we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake so that the life of Jesus may also, also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. What this passage means is that each and every day I have to die to myself in order for Jesus to use me.

I've got to come to the point in my life where I'm not concerned about what other people say about me. I'm not concerned about who I might offend, that the treasure and that their life for eternity means so much more to me that I'm willing to die to myself and to allow Christ to live for me. Christ had one purpose and that was to give Himself for us. Go to the cross.

He died to any other ambitions as the almighty God that He may have had because His ambition was for us and that was His life. In the same way, we have to die to ourself and our ambitions and our ambition for life must be to focus on unpacking this treasure for this lost and dying world. We live in a dark, dark place today. But unless we start forgetting more about ourselves and start living for the Lord, sharing the treasure that's been given to us, the world's going to get even darker and darker and darker.

Let me move on here toward the end. Verse 15. For it is all for your sake so that the grace, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God. Paul states that as grace extends to more and more people, as the gospel spreads, that it increases thanksgiving and glory to God. Wouldn't it be incredible to kind of see another great awakening? To where people at Calvary Church would begin sharing the gospel with their friends, with their associates in their workplaces, et cetera, so that the Word of God would start just spreading and people would become Christians all throughout our society. And our whole city would begin to change as just a little bit of light was shined in the darkness and other lights were lighted.

It'd be pretty incredible. What does that look like in our everyday lives? You know, I was with a friend at Starbucks the other day, and some guy sat down beside us, and we were talking about the Lord and our own spiritual lives and et cetera. And this guy, he kind of interjected, started talking in our conversation. He said, I don't mean to eavesdrop, but I want to say, yeah, you do, or you wouldn't be talking right now, all right? But, and I tell you what, he could not talk to us without using profanity.

It was unbelievable. And so I kind of flipped it around on him. I used it as an opportunity to interject about the Lord.

I mean, that's what our conversation was about. And I asked him where he attended church whenever he attended, and he changed quickly, you know, he wanted to change the conversation. But as we're talking about spiritual things, people are interested. And what does it look like to share the love of Christ, to unpack this treasure? It means that whenever we find ourselves in these type situations, we've got to respond and address things from a perspective of faith.

So many times we are addressing conversations today using the cisterns of this world rather than the scripture that God has provided for us. Another friend had a brother who was sick, and this brother had cancer and was going to die. So he hops on a plane, Nick goes to the west coast to share Christ with this friend. Because he did not want this person to face eternity without having the chance to know Christ. What does it look like to unpack your treasure?

It means it's at the coffee shop, it means looking up past relationships, it means looking at present relationships, it means unpacking the truth in every context that we find ourselves in. We're supposed to share Jesus, be the light of the world, we're supposed to unpack this treasure with others. You know, Jesus was 100% committed to the task that God had given him. We've got to be 100% committed to the task that God has provided for us. He is our example, and we're supposed to follow his lead.

Jesus in Luke 19, he had finished, I guess, a meal at Zacchaeus' house. Zacchaeus had repented and changed his life, and Jesus said, the Son of Man came to do what? To seek and save that which is lost. That was his purpose, and his purpose is our purpose. The word seek is an active word.

It means we go out looking for someone, something. That's our responsibilities as believers. As we face this fallen society, it's our responsibility to seek out the lost and to unpack the gospel, the good news, this treasure, and share it with the lost and dying world. Now, this series that Dr. Monroe is doing in Jeremiah, I'm telling you, each and every Sunday, I'm going home and I'm going, man, that was convicting, we need to do something, right? What do you do at the end of a message? You nod your head in agreement, but do you get out, put feet to your agreement, and begin to go out and tell others about Christ?

Do you allow them to permeate through everything that you are? I hope that today you won't leave unchanged, but instead you'll join me and make a commitment to unpacking this treasure into places where God has called you. If not, the world's not going to change. Let's pray together. Father, it seems like there should be another way for the world to know you besides putting your treasure in us, your jars of clay. But Father, in your divine wisdom, you have placed the gospel, your word, the good news in our hands, and you have empowered us, Father, with your Holy Spirit to proclaim your truth. Father, we pray that we might be faithful. We pray, Father, that we might be a light in this lost and dying world. We pray that we might leave this place and search out those who need to know you and unpack your treasure for them. For it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.