In the Potter"s Hand

When I was 13 to 16 years old, I attended a school in Gibraltar, Gibraltar Grammar School, for those of you who are a little rusty on your geography. Gibraltar is a British possession on the southern tip of Spain, and my father and so all of us went with him.

Obviously, my mother and my brothers spent three years in Gibraltar, and my brothers and I attended Gibraltar Grammar School. It was a very small school, boys-only school, a very high academic standards, teachers on the whole were very good, rather demanding. And so during the, I think I was about 14 at the time, during the schedule of the week, it was a welcome relief when we went to art class, not because I ever considered myself an artist, but it was a relief from the riggers, the academic riggers, and for myself and some of others, it was a time to relax, if not fool around a little bit. And the art teacher had, for some inexplicable reason, wanted us boys to paint pots of flowers.

And I remember he became a little agitated when some of us asked him why on earth he wanted us to do that. But there were a few budding artists in our class of about 25 to 30 boys, which gave joy to our art teacher, and from my previous endeavors I knew art was not going to be my career. I think the art teacher sensed my lack of interest, certainly my artistic ability, and after a few weeks he called myself another boy to the front and asked us that if we had an interest in doing pottery.

Well, I had absolutely zero interest in painting flowers in a pot or some other object when we could have taken a photograph much, much quicker. But so this other boy myself said, yes sir, we would love to do pottery. So he introduced us to the potter's wheel, gave us some clay and water, and off we went. And I can say I thoroughly enjoyed the process, and I quickly marveled at how easy it was with a slight pressure on the clay to mold whatever it was we were making. These artistic endeavors, ones that were made were put in a kiln, they were hardened, and the art teacher insisted that we take them home. Apparently he didn't want them in his art class.

And through the process, I did learn a little bit about the potter's wheel and the molding of clay. At the end of that academic year, we had to make a choice, a rather strange choice, I thought at the time, still do, a choice between art or Latin. So I remember the art teacher going around all of us and asking us what our choice was. And I announced to the art teacher that my firm choice, and I wasn't going to allow him to convince me otherwise, my firm choice was Latin.

I'll never forget his words, thank goodness for that Monroe. So these were the days before the smiley faces and when everything we did was, we were told it was awesome and absolutely amazing. It was these old fashioned days. Now why do I tell such a rambling story, which I'm sure is only a vague interest to most of you? Well, our subject today is about pottery, not that I claim to be an expert potter, but I've called this message in the potter's hand, and I think most of you know what it will look like, but there it is. Amazing process, and Jeremiah, in this wonderful book, a rather strange book, a difficult book in some respects, but we've learned that Jeremiah the prophet, communicating God's word, uses a lot of imagery. And here, if you turn in your Bible with me to Jeremiah chapter 18, page 646 in the pew Bible, we're going to read about a potter that Jeremiah is told by the Lord to go to the potter's house and there God is going to speak to him. And so we're going to read, and I'm going to ask for your response.

This is a message which calls for a response. All preaching should call for a response. Every time we read the Word of God, it should call for a response, but this message certainly calls for a response, and I'm going to ask at the end of the service for your response. Let me read, first of all, the first 11 verses of Jeremiah chapter 18.

For those of you here for the first time, we're going through the book of Jeremiah in a thematic way, certainly not verse by verse, and we come today to Jeremiah 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 he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to do.

We notice that. As it seemed good to the potter to do. Then the Word of the Lord came to me, O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel, if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it. And if that nation concerning which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. Now therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, thus says the Lord, behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you.

Return everyone from his evil way and amend your ways and your deeds. Jeremiah going to the potter's house. First let's recap a little bit and think of the spiritual condition of Israel at this time as we come to Jeremiah chapter 18. We have seen repeatedly since we began our study of Jeremiah that Israel continued to abandon God. The previous chapter, chapter 17 verse 13, to give just one example, O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame. Those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.

Think of that. Jeremiah is called by God as a prophet. He's given a very, very difficult task. He is to pronounce a message of judgment. He is going to call the people of God to repentance, and if they do not repent, judgment will come. We saw that right at the beginning in the key verse in Jeremiah 1 verse 16, as Jeremiah is called by the Lord.

At the beginning of his ministry, we read Jeremiah 1 verse 16, and I will declare my judgment against them for all their evil in forsaking me. They have made offerings to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands. That's what they do.

Here is Israel. They should know better. They have no reason at all for leaving the Lord, but they turn from the Lord. They put their back to the face of the Lord. They turn from the fountain of living waters, and then they worship false gods. They drink from the broken cisterns of the pagan nations.

As we saw last week, they make scarecrows and owls. Instead of worshiping the true and the living God, they go to the forest, they cut down a tree, they nail pieces of wood together, erect it, put clothes on it, put silver and gold on it, and then they worship it. This was appalling, says God.

It's absolutely shocking. Again chapter 17 verse 22, do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, for keep the Sabbath day holy as I commanded your fathers. One of the Ten Commandments, remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. Yet they did not listen. Time and time again in this book we read, they do not listen to God.

They did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck, that they might not hear and receive instruction. Verse 24, but if you listen to me. Verse 27, but if you do not listen to me. Here is the very center of the Ten Commandments. In fact, the sign of the Mosaic covenant was the keeping of the Sabbath, but they don't do that. Instead of trusting God for their livelihood, they work on the Lord's day. Instead of that day becoming a day for the worship of God, a day of rest as they've been instructed, they know the law very, very well, such is their greed, such is their corruption, such is their disregard for the law of God. They don't listen to the Lord. And so, as we come to Jeremiah chapter 18, the nation is full of disobedience, full of immorality, full of injustice, full of idolatry. A nation which abandons God.

But this book is living. Jeremiah is prophesying over 2,500 years ago, but as we read this book, doesn't it resonate, sadly resonate with us here living in the United States because we are a society which knows better. And yet, we continue to abandon God. Our society is quickly spiraling downwards. And the trans revolution is the most recent example, isn't it?

It seems that it's all around us. Not only is transgenderism being practiced through technology, through our schools, through big business, yes, through the government, the trans philosophy is now being increasingly promoted and even enforced. Just think of it, the feminists of a previous generation fought for women's equality and rights. And to some extent, you might say they had a point.

But now, just recently, we have a man in a women's bathing suit winning a women's swimming competition. Last week, when we thought of the nation taking scarecrows and worshiping them as it were, as Jeremiah is using this graphic language, the Lord's commentary on that is, that is utter folly. It's utterly stupid. The nation has lost their mind. Isn't that where we are? Think of the folly of it.

Think of the utter stupidity of it, that because a man puts on a different swimming suit, he can pose as a woman and win a swimming competition. We are abandoning God and how important it is that we, with Jeremiah, go to the potter's house and learn. I want us to learn this morning three things about the clay.

Three things in the sense I learned as a 14-year-old boy trying my pottery, and certainly we see it here in Jeremiah 18. First of all, to say the obvious, and all of these things are obvious, the clay cannot turn itself into a vessel. The clay cannot turn itself into a vessel. By itself, the clay is powerless to do anything for itself.

Why is that? It's clay. What are we as human beings? We are clay. Genesis 2, we come from dust, God made us from dust, and we return to dust. In a sense, nothing special about this, just coming from clay. It's true we're made in the image of God, but we are made of clay. And you notice verse four, the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand.

That word for spoil, Jeremiah uses it in chapter 13 verse 7 when he puts on that loincloth, if you know the book of Jeremiah, and it says there it was spoiled, it was good for nothing. That is, by ourselves, we cannot be the people we would like to be. We are powerless to get right with God by ourselves. We are powerless to achieve our own salvation.

You say, well why is that? God made us, God is the one who chose to make us from clay as it were, but think of the problem. Jeremiah tells us in chapter 17, look there if you have your Bible, Jeremiah 17 verse 1. The sin, oh there it is, sin. The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with a point of diamond. It is engraved on the tablet on their heart and on the horns of their altars. Judah's sin is indelibly written with a pen of iron, with a point of a diamond.

How graphic. It's engraved on their very hearts. It's engraved on the horns of their altar.

Their altars are these horns on the four corners. The sin, Jeremiah is saying, your sin goes very, very deep. It impacts your heart.

It impacts your religious observances. And by yourself, you cannot erase it. Do you understand that? By yourself, you can't get rid of your sin.

A basic problem. We have a lot of them. It's not primarily one of our environment. It's not of the family you were born into. It's not a matter of your intelligence or your education or your social status or your economic situation. The basic problem is our heart.

Chapter 17 verse 8, a very famous verse. Here's a description of your heart. The heart is deceitful above all things. Now, the basic problem is not our economic situation or our political situation, although there are huge problems there. No, the basic problem, the fundamental problem is the human heart. It's deceitful and desperately sick. Well, King James says desperately wicked.

I think the NIV probably gives a better translation. It says it is beyond cure. That's the point. Your heart is deceitful, and the problem is so deep that it is incurable. You go to the physician and the physician says, I'm very sorry, madam, your situation is incurable. It's beyond cure.

That's the point. We have a spiritual sickness, not so much out there, although it impacts out there, but it begins not out there. Remember Jesus said the basic problem is with your heart inside. When Adam and Eve fell in the garden, it was a great fall. It's like Humpty Dumpty, wasn't it? Remember the children's poem Humpty Dumpty? Sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty, had a great fall and all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again.

And we've had a massive fall. And all of the king's horses and all of the king's men and all of our intelligence, all of our strategy, all of our education, all of our ingenuity, all of our creativity cannot put us together again. We are clay, totally unable by ourselves to get rid of our failures and sins. I wish we understood that. Do you understand that? You say, well I'm not that bad.

Yes you are. Oh, we can cover it up with our sophistication, with our modern way of life. But the Scripture says here, who can understand it? Jeremiah 17 verse 9, you see our heart is so deceitful sometimes we have difficulty admitting the extent of our own deceit. We have such a cover-up. We can see it in other people, but with such defense mechanisms that we don't see it ourselves.

What do we do? We trust in ourselves. We plan our lives without God, and what does that do? Look at chapter 17 verse 5, that says, the Lord cursed is a man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.

That's it, isn't it? You're trusting in yourself? He's like a shrub in the desert and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness in an uninhabited salt land.

You trust in yourself? What happens to you? You end up parched, lonely, disillusioned, like a shrub in a place of salt, in a place of desolation, and their hearts away from God. You say, well I think we can help one another. Well, counseling and therapy and education and politics and all of that cannot cure you.

At the very best, they may be able to discern some of your problems, but they can never give you the cure. The verdict of the Bible, the verdict of human history, surely the verdict of your own experience is that for every single one of us, our heart is deceitful. And because of that, we turn away from God. We don't seek God, such is our arrogance, such is the extent of our fall, the extent of our deceit. Instead of acknowledging that we are mere clay, no, we think we can make something of ourselves, and we turn away from God. You know what happens when clay is left alone? You know it becomes harder and harder.

You leave it alone, it becomes hard and harder and harder. And the clay by itself will never turn itself into a vessel. So the Bible is very, very clear that our salvation is not based on what we do. As far as God's concerned, there is nothing we can do to effect our salvation rather than acknowledging we need salvation, and that salvation comes not from ourselves, not from other people, but from God, who in His grace sends His Son, who comes from outside of ourselves. So Martin Luther was very right when he said that our salvation is outside of ourselves.

That's it. Christ in God's grace. So Paul says, no, your salvation is not of your own doing lest anyone should boast. It's entirely by grace alone, the grace of God which is received through faith alone in Christ alone.

You'll never, ever achieve your salvation. You try to live your life without God, and your heart will become harder and harder and harder. So first, the clay can't turn itself into a vessel. Secondly, the clay is under the control of the potter. When the potter sees some problem in the clay, again verse four, he reworks it into another vessel as seems good to the potter to do.

The potter is all powerful. The clay, well it's just clay. The clay has no authority, no voice as it were over the potter. The Lord, the potter has the skill, the power, the sovereign right to make the clay any way he wants. End of verse four, very, very key. As it seemed good to the potter to do.

Not as seemed good to the clay, but as seemed good to the potter. That is, the potter is sovereign over the clay. Now, when we speak of God's sovereignty, we mean that God is the absolute ruler of everything. God is the supreme power over the whole universe.

He's always in control. Nothing or no one can thwart the purposes of God. Psalm 115 says that God does whatever He pleases.

Paul says He works all things after the counsel of His will in Ephesians one. That is, the Lord rules. The Lord's in control. He rules over the nations. He rules over the weather. He rules over the rise and fall of the birds and the animals. His authority is unlimited and unrestrained by anything outside of Himself. He's God. He's sovereign.

He's the potter. He's the supreme King over all of human history. Yes, He's supreme over human government.

That's why incidentally, don't panic because of some political or international crisis. God is in control. Proverbs 21 verse 1, the King's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord.

He turns out whatever He wishes, whatever He chooses. Human government is under the sovereignty of God. God is sovereign over the forces of nature. Our Lord demonstrated that on a wonderful occasion on the Sea of Galilee in the middle of the storm when the disciples were so afraid, He, the sovereign Christ, stood and did what only God can do. He spoke to the wind and the sea and said, be still. And there's a great calm, sovereign over the government, sovereign over the universe, sovereign over the elements of nature, and certainly sovereign over you and me. Do you understand? You're clay.

He is the sovereign. This is why, although we do it constantly, it is so foolish to resist God. Have you ever resisted God? Have you ever refused to listen to God over and over and over again?

In Jeremiah, we read, but you did not listen. It's like a father speaking to his son and saying, you don't listen. When are you going to listen to me? When are you going to do what I say? And the child continues to go his own way. God is speaking.

He is sovereign. We're the clay, and we disobey God. When I was in that pottery class these many years ago, I quickly learned that the clay on the wheel was very pliable, very easy to be manipulated, molded as it were, as long as it was wet. And with just a very little pressure, you know if you've ever done this, with a very little pressure to the clay, you can mold it any way you want. Ah, but the harder the clay.

When that clay gets a little bit hard, we need to put more pressure on it, don't you? And that's why the more you resist God, why would you do that? The more you disobey God, you know what it does to you?

Your heart becomes harder and harder and harder. And if we're a child of God, what does our heavenly Father do? He disciplines us as children. And that pressure when we're on the potter's wheel and our heavenly Father is molding us and we're resistant and our hearts have become kind of hard and we've turned our back on God, that can be very, very painful, can't it?

Hebrews 12 verse 11, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Yes, being on the potter's wheel under the — our heavenly Father's hands can be a very painful place to be. Very difficult place to be, isn't it?

Very embarrassing, very difficult for us. But think of it this way. When you think that God is sovereign, He made us. He's our Creator. For those of us who are His children through faith in Jesus Christ, He's our heavenly Father. He's not only our Creator, He's our Redeemer.

And so, recognizing that God is sovereign and that God is in control of our life, doesn't that give you great comfort in the changing circumstances of life? Isaiah 40 — sorry, Isaiah 64 verse — and now, O Lord, You are our Father. We are the clay and You are our potter. We are all the work of Your hand. Father, You are the potter. I am the clay.

That gives me comfort, isn't it? It gives you a sense of security that the clay is under the control, can we say, under the loving care of our heavenly Father. So first, the clay can't turn itself into a vessel. Secondly, the clay is under the control of the potter. Third, the clay serves the good purposes of the potter.

That's obvious, isn't it? There's the clay. It's put on the wheel, the potter comes. And the clay has no idea what the potter has in mind when he begins to spin the wheel. Now being on the potter's wheel, have you found it can be rather monotonous? You would get a bit impatient with God, with God's timing. Going round and round in circles, as it were, on the potter's wheel, to use the imagery, can be a little boring.

Sometimes life can be rather monotonous, can't it? Perhaps for some of you, it's in the routine and you want God to act. You want God to bless your ministry in some way. You want God to bring a husband or wife into your life.

You want a different opportunity in life, and it seems that your life is a bit on hold, and you're just kind of spinning your wheels, as it were. Remember this, that the clay serves the good purposes of the potter. And never forget that this potter is a good potter. He's sovereign, that's true.

He's almighty, but He's also all loving. And my Heavenly Father, my potter as it were, His purposes and designs for me and for you are always for good. That's not true of the advice we get from other people. Sometimes we wonder, even with the best of intentions, we can get bad advice from people. You can go to your father, your mother, your teacher, your pastor, your best friend, your counselor, and they might give you advice regarding your future, but that is not inspired advice.

Sometimes you wonder, is there advice in their interests or in mine? But God's purposes and God's designs for you are always good. I love that. I love to think of that. You say, well John, my pot's a bit of a mess. I've messed up my life. I've resisted God. I've got against His will. You know, when we fail, our potter, as it were, quietly picks up the broken pieces of clay.

He doesn't throw them away. He doesn't write us off. We sometimes write other people off. We sometimes get tired of people and say, I never want anything to do with you.

Former colleague, someone you've fallen out with, perhaps someone in your own family, you get tired of them. Never, ever does our Heavenly Father feel that way to us if we're His child. He picks up the broken pieces, patiently begins to mold us and make us. It's true, His designs, His purposes for our life are often very different from our ideas. Have you found that? You look back over your life and you think, I have no idea I'd be in this position today.

I certainly can say that. And also, we have to say, those of us who have lived a little bit, as we look back over our life, some of the most painful experiences of our life, what C.S. Lewis calls a severe mercy. Have you ever experienced a severe mercy?

Something which is very severe, something which is very, very painful, and yet it is a mercy, a severe mercy. Because some of the most painful experiences of our life can be the source of our greatest blessings. Our God, says Paul, to those of us who love God, we know that God works everything together for our good.

Everything. Including when we mess up. God is so skilled, God is so able, He's so wise, He's so loving, that He can take that pot, that ugly clay, which perhaps some of us, if we knew about it, would want to say, and want nothing to do with that person, He takes it, and He molds it, and He makes it. And from that shapeless, ugly clay, He produces a vessel for honorable use, says Paul, set apart as holy, useful to the Master of the House, ready for every good work.

God has purposes for you. Paul says that in Ephesians 2, after arguing extensively that we're saved by grace, not by works, but then he says to those of us who are saved, we are God's workmanship created for good works, which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Think of this, I'm God's workmanship. That word workmanship is a work of art.

You are a work of art that God has over the years been shaping and molding you and working you according to His design, preparing you for certain purposes in your community, your family, wherever it is. And He never makes a mistake. It's true the Father's hand brings pressure, but it also brings purpose. The pressure He puts on us, that discipline is always for a purpose, and that purpose is always good. So, don't resent His purposes. Don't resent His timing. Be patient. God is at work.

Trust Him. The Lord has purposes for you. Psalm 57 verse 2, I cry out to God most high to God who fulfills His purpose for me. The clay serves the good purpose of the potter, that God has a purpose for you. You may understand a little bit of it or you may understand none of it, but He's got design in view.

He may not have revealed it to you, but He's shaping you and molding you. I have three lessons as we conclude this morning. You know, these messages on Jeremiah, I've been reading Jeremiah over the years and I always thought someday I'm going to preach on it. And then I thought, well how can I preach over 52 chapters and have a congregation at the end of it? Take about 10 years, you say thank you for not preaching verse by verse through it. But it's impacted me greatly because, you know, one of the problems in preaching is you first have to preach to yourself.

Easy to advise others, but God's Word has to start in our own hearts, doesn't it? I thought last week, scarecrows for idols? I'm challenging you.

What about myself? Any scarecrows in my life? They can be so subtle, can't they?

They can come up. We can construct these, the devil can construct these strongholds in our minds, can't they? And then this message, I'm the clay, he's the potter. That calls for a response, doesn't it? At the end of this message, I'm going to call for a response. I'm going to ask you to do what I've done this week is to re-consecrate my life to Christ. But here's the three lessons.

First lesson, we've seen this. Apart from God, you have no hope of salvation. You get that? You're clay, you're dust, you have a deceitful heart. You worship scarecrows.

You're like that shrub in the salt land, isolated, desolate, without hope. Without God, you have no hope. And there's only one way of salvation, and that is through trusting the potter who in His grace sends His Son on this rescue mission, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God who comes into this world to save us, to die on the cross for our sins. Not only dying for our sins, but rising again on the third day. He's a living God. He's active.

This potter is actively at work in our lives. He's not a remote God. And you say, well John, you don't need to convince me that I'm a sinner. Well, I'm glad you acknowledge you're a sinner. Here's the wonder of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, that God takes that nasty piece of clay that you've become, that hard piece, and you've hurt yourself, you've hurt others.

You've really messed up your life, haven't you? But God does a wonderful thing. How do He love for you? So He takes that, and He remakes it. So Paul says if anyone is in Christ, He's a new creation. God's workmanship. God doesn't throw you away and discard you. So He takes you, cleans you, reshapes you, remolds you, recommissions you, and says now, this is why I created you.

This is my design. This is my purpose for your life. If you humble yourself, if you turn from your sin and you embrace the wonderful Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me, you will experience a life of blessing. Instead of being like this nasty shrub, isolated and lonely, he says in chapter 17 verse 7, you'll be the one whose trust is in the Lord. He's like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream. Does not fear when heat comes, for its leaf remains green. Is not anxious at the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit. This person has no fear. This person has no anxiety.

Why? His trust is in the Lord. A life of isolation, a life of self-indulgence, a life where we turned our back on God and pursued our own dreams and now in the grace of God, this individual is saved, changed, reshaped, recommissions.

Apart from God, first of all, you have no hope of salvation. The second lesson is this, to reject God is ultimately to be rejected by God. Here's Israel. One of the main messages, the whole point of the book of Jeremiah. Israel is delivered from slavery.

They're given the law. They listen to the prophets. God sends to them prophet after prophet after prophet. But the message of the potter's house is this, that if you continue to resist God, the clay becomes harder and when baked in the kiln, the clay is set and Israel is set in their ways, their back is to God, and if they continue in that, judgment is coming. Yet, did you catch the words of mercy and restoration in verse 5 of chapter 8?

Let me re-read them. Jeremiah 18 verse 5, and the word of the Lord came to me, O house of Israel, can I not do with you as the potter has done, declares the Lord. But like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation concerning which I've spoken, here it is, here's the grace, here's the restoration, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intend to do it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build up and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I intended to do to it.

If you repent, Israel, you'll be saved." Look at the potter. The clay is spoiled in his hand.

What does he do? He reworks it into another vessel as seems good to the potter. Israel, if you repent, God will do a wonderful thing. Not that you deserve it, but God's a God of grace, a God of restoration. He'll forgive you. He will restore you.

Blessings will come on you. But, if you continue to resist my voice, judgment is coming. That's what Jeremiah is saying. If you don't repent, judgment is coming. So look over to Jeremiah 19, verse 10. If you don't repent, that pot is going to be broken. Jeremiah 19 verse 10, then you shall break the flask in the sight outside of the men who go with you and shall say to them, thus says the Lord of hosts, so shall I break this people and the city as one breaks a potter's vessel so that it can never be mended. You say that's hard.

Not really. Israel have had warning after warning year after year after year, lesson after lesson after lesson. And God's grace is still extended to them. And if you repent, I'll rework that vessel. I will remold it and make it something beautiful, but if you continue to resist my voice, the nation's going to be broken. Illustration, yes, there's the vessel, potter's vessel, and it's broken in front of them.

Broken into pieces. And historically, that is exactly what happened to Israel. They don't repent and so Nebuchadnezzar from the north is just waiting, and he comes in, destroys them, destroys the temple, takes them captive. Let me say to you, God always forgives those who repent. Peter says, God is patient towards you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance, 2 Peter 3 verse 9. Paul says in 1 Timothy 2 verse 4 that God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. God desires, God's desire is for you to be saved. But some of you have listened to the preaching of the Gospel, to personal witness, perhaps brought up in a Christian home, and you know the message, and you have persistently turned your back on God, think you know better than God, go your own way, make out your own plan. God in His grace has allowed you to pursue that, but the message is to reject God is ultimately to be rejected by Him.

If you reject salvation found in Jesus Christ, God on that day of judgment will reject you and you will be eternally lost. That's one of the messages of the book of Jeremiah. Here's the third lesson.

It's an obvious one, but I'm going to emphasize it. God is the potter and you're the clay. Do you get that? That's not what our society tells us. Our society tells us to dream our own dream.

Follow your heart. You can do anything you want to do. And if you're a Christian, God's going to help you to fulfill your dreams.

No. What's the message of the Bible? Do my will. Follow me. I have plans and purposes for you, but you are to follow me.

Here's our Lord in the garden of Gethsemane. Not my will, but yours be done, the perfect man, submitting, surrendering to the will of his Father and his God. No. Don't try to tell God what to do. Don't try and tell God what kind of life you want. Don't tell God that He has got to make you… give you fulfillment of your own personal and probably very self-centered and self-serving dreams. No. Do you really think you're wiser than God?

Who is the potter? Isaiah 45 verse 9, woe to Him who strives with me, who formed me, a pot among the earth and posts. You're going to strive with God. You're going to resist God. You think you can handle God. You think you're wiser than God. You think you're greater than God. You can ignore God. Does the clay say to Him who forms it, what are you making? Or, your work has no handles. Get irony of it. Clay saying to the potter, oh, you didn't make me right.

I need the extra handles. You didn't quite get it right, God. How foolish, how tragic, how arrogant. But we do that, don't we? You've been trying to manipulate God.

You want something? It may be even quite a good thing, but instead of waiting on God to give you that person, that situation, that answer to prayer, you find yourself manipulating God, advising God, wanting it with the handles as it were. No, don't resist the potter. Remember, you are the potter, I am the clay. The wonderful thing is this, as I've said, that when we belong to the potter, when we're a child of God, He doesn't discard us when we fail.

Think of Peter and his denial. No, He recommissions us. He remolds us. He sends us out as it were, but I'm asking you today as I challenge myself this week, stop trying to be king of your own life. Stop it. What are you doing?

What are you doing? Will you surrender to the King of Kings? Our mission statement is that we are followers of Jesus. That means that He makes the decisions. He decides where we go.

It's His purposes, it's His plans, and we are to follow as a church, as families, as individuals, we are to follow Jesus Christ. So, stop trying to be the potter. Realize your decline. Will you pray with me? We're going to sing it. Have your own way, Lord. Remember that old hymn? We're going to sing it. We're going to stand and sing it. Have your own way, Lord.

Have your own way. Mold me, make me after Your will, while I am waiting, yielded, and still. Let's pray. Dear Father and our God, who are convicted or humbled, repentant in our heart, think of sometimes we oppose You, resist You, sometimes in big ways, sometimes in little ways. Forgive us, Father. Give us humble, repentant hearts, we ask. Thank You for Your care.

Thank You that You intervene. We praise You that You don't leave us to ourselves in life to go our own way, but that You intervene in Your grace. You get hold of us and make us new creations in Christ.

I pray for every single person here, for children, our students, our singles, our couples, our seniors, all of us. Let all be know Christ. Let all of us will in humility have come to the cross and cried out to Jesus for our salvation. And for the many here who would claim to be followers of Christ, may we from our own hearts, not just from our lips, say, mold me, make me after Your will. You're the potter. I'm the clay. We thank You in Christ's name. Amen.