Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Jeremiah chapter 18 and reading from our text, verse
6. 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 mine hand, O house of Israel. Jeremiah 18 and verse 6, specifically
the words in the middle, Behold, as the clay is in the potter's
hand, so are ye in mine hand. So are ye in mine hand. Continue this evening with the
theme of the illustration of vessels in the Word of God. But this evening it is the forming
of those vessels by the potter. It is not a solid lump of clay
but it's a hollowed out one that is set before us here, a vessel
as it seemed good to the potter to make it. Now in this account
we have Jeremiah brought down to the potter's house But before
he was to hear the words of the Lord, he was to watch. And he was to see what the potter
was doing. I was thankful that when I was,
I suppose, 12, 13, we did pottery for a couple of years at school.
And throughout our house, we've still got some of those pots
that I made and various other things, fired and glazed, and
we've still got them in the home. But we used to use the wheels.
So I know what it is, to sit at a wheel, to have a lump of
clay, and to put that on the wheel. And at first, it's off
center. And if you're not careful, it'll
go flying off the room. But the potter puts it on the
center, and with his two hands, he then brings it so that it
is spinning central upon the wheel, that it's not fighting
him, not trying to fly off. And then once that is so, and
using water to lubricate the hands, he uses both of his hands
to fashion and to form that clay, putting pressure on it and watching
it closely and drawing that clay up. And then he gets to a time,
especially if it's a vessel that is being made, it's got to be
hollowed. So then he will put his fingers
into the centre of it while still holding the outside. and gradually
hollows it and makes it to have a hollow. So he ends up one hand
inside and one hand outside of the spinning pot and raising
it up. Now, of course, when we were
learning what is set forth here often used to happen. The pot
was marred. We'd do something wrong. We'd
press too hard. We would end up with the clay
flying off or being ruined, we had to then bash it down, make
it to a lump again, centre it again, and then make up another
pot. And this is what Jeremiah was
seeing. He was seeing this potter sitting,
working with this wheel, this plate spinning, and the clay
on it, and the clay spinning, and his hands around it, and
forming this pot. And the potter had complete say
over what was done with that clay. The clay, it didn't have
a mind to do what it wanted. In a skillful potter, the potter
could do just what he wanted. So Jeremiah, he sees this. And
then when he's seen it, then the word of the Lord came to
him. And the message from the Lord
is that he can do with Israel the same as this potter was doing
to the clay. He could make one vessel, a goodly
vessel, he could keep it, He could break it down, he could
make another, he had complete sovereignty over it. And he is
setting before Jeremiah, before this people, the Lord's sovereignty. But what is very interesting
in this, the Lord's sovereignty does not mean that there is to
be a fatalistic spirit. just because the Lord has a sovereign
plan and purpose, doesn't then take away from the people of
God that they are to listen to the word of God, obey the word
of God, and do what he directs them to. And this is very evident
from the context here. Israel had gone away from the
Lord. They departed from the Lord.
The Lord was sending His Word to bring them back. The Lord
was using His Word to bring them back, to form them aright, as
it were. But what a solemn reaction they
had to it. They were saying, there is no
hope. There is no hope. What a solemn
thing, in a day when the Lord is speaking to a people, a day
when he's setting before them a right way, a good way, and
yet their reaction is that even though the Lord is saying this,
there is no hope. always remember that our Lord
is the God of hope and it is a good hope through grace the
way that God saves his people and the very gospel that is sent
forth It was sent forth with the words, on earth, peace, goodwill
toward men. An expectation of life, the Lord
saying, I am come, that they might have life and have it more
abundantly. The Lord saying, the Son of Man
came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And in this
chapter, they're speaking of God's sovereignty, and election
and his hand over Israel, there is set before them hope,
not despair. In election, there is hope. Without it, there is not. Without
the Lord's work, there is not hope. Without the gospel, there
is no hope. The election has obtained it,
the rest were blinded. But here is the people of God,
and we think of the Apostle Paul writing to the Romans, explaining
more clearly these doctrines, the sovereign choice of God.
He says, why is it that all Israel are not saved? He says that they
are not all Israel, which are of Israel. not all just because
they are Israelites means that they are saved and redeemed people. There were many that were destroyed,
there were many that rejected the Lord, many that the wrath
of the Lord came upon. So we ought not to think in anything
that I may say concerning the potter that there is a word to
a people that then they can say well we don't need to heed that
word and we can just reject that word. May we always remember
the Lord has said to his people, I'll instruct thee and teach
thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine
eye. Be ye not as the horse and the
mule, whose mouth must be held in by bit and bridle. It is by
the word of the Lord that the Lord directs and forms and guides
his people. Now, I want to look at this illustration, thinking
of the Lord as our potter, and what direct teaching we may have
here of how the Lord forms a people, forms a vessel, a vessel for
himself. In Isaiah chapter 64, We read in verse 8, but now,
O Lord, thou art our father. We are the clay, and thou our
potter, and we all are the work of thy hand. And may we bear
that in mind as we look at some points this evening. Here again,
what is said here. This is the testimony of Israel. This is the testimony of the
people of God. And may it be ours. Thou art our father, we are the
clay, and thou our potter, and we all are the work of thy hand. Under thy forming hand, O God,
give me the frame. thou likest best. I want to look
then at several points. Firstly, we are God's creation, created unto good works. That potter, when he finished
his pot, if someone came along and said, why you haven't made
that? He said, I did. I sat there at
the wheel and I made it. Not a solemn thing that men will
say that God did not make the worlds. He did not make man. But then we come to what man
is as a new creation, as born again of the spirit. And sometimes
you get those who say, oh, we believe in creation, God made
the world. We believe in that, but when
it comes to a new creature and making us, oh no, no, no, that's
our will. We choose the Lord and we do
it. No. As much as the world was
without form and void, and the Lord began and the Lord created
that, So it is with the people of God created unto good works
that God hath ordained that we should walk in them. He is our
creator. You think of that clay, just
a lump of clay. And we are of the clay, we are
of the dust. And we are dead in sin. A natural
man receives not the things of God, neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned. He's not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be. And yet under the hand of God, he
makes one that does hear his voice, but does obey him. that does reflect His glory,
that is what He would have that person to be. May we remember this, as the
pot is the potter's creation, so God's people are His creation,
created in Christ Jesus. a new creation, not a renovated
old one. Behold, I make all things new. And you must be born again, a
new creation. But we have a creator. And what
an encouragement to each one that knows this change in their
hearts. Who say we John Newton, I'm not
now what I once was. We could add this word. If that
is the case, you have a creator. You have one that formed you
to be that you are. Not of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God. But then next he is sovereign
over all that he does with us. It was God that chose that Abraham,
he would call him out of Ur of the Chaldees. It was God that chose that Jacob
should be the one that went down into Egypt and all his family. It was God that chose Moses to
bring his people up out of Egypt. It was God that chose David,
of all Jesse's sons, that he should be the king over Israel. All these characters in the Word
of God, Apostle Paul, Peter, all his disciples, The Lord sovereignly
appointed to them each one their place and what they would do,
where they would be, where they would go. First, he appointed
them to be called by grace, that they would know him, and then
he gave them a position and a work to do. Jeremiah here, he says,
that I formed thee from the womb and appointed thee to speak to
the nations. God is sovereign. We might like
to think, man likes to think he's in control. He is the master. Sometimes when things go hard,
he might think, well, why wasn't our lot like this person's? And
why could not we have the path that he is walking? That God
is sovereign. the God that permitted Satan
to reduce Job so low, and yet brought him up again, so his
latter end was better than the beginning. Maybe in your life
and mine, there's things you struggle with at the moment, things that you question, things
you think, if only I'd done that or this. And yes, we can rightly be crossed
with ourselves when we realize we resisted the word of God,
we walked in wrong ways, forbidden ways, but blessed be God where
he chastens and where he brings back. The way of transgressors
is hard. David could look back and think
of his path and all the trouble that he's brought to his father's
house. But it was that same sovereign God that took him from the sheep
coats and made him the king, and blessed him, that redeemed
him, and that restored him again after he'd fallen. And all that
he'd done, and all in his life, the Lord sovereignly ordered
it all. Would you and I lights of being
controlled, of our own lives? Would we like to be the one that
decided what we should be, where we should go, what skills we
had, what afflictions we had, what trials we had, what friends,
relatives or enemies we had? How would we begin to choose
and appoint it? But we have a sovereign God.
and he decides. And it's a blessed thing where
we can say with Isaiah, say with the people of God, he is our
potter, we are the clay. And we are willing that he should
be the sovereign and not to pull him down from his throne. The next thing I'll bring before
you is that we are vessels that are formed for himself. In Isaiah 43, we have this word in 21. This people have I formed for
myself, they shall show forth my praise. When I was at school, the things
that I did on the wheel, I was forming for myself. We could
take them home. I've got them at home. I remember
the master one day saying to me of one pot that I'd made,
he said, I'm sorry, he said, but he said, I doubt you'll end
up with that at home. I said, why? He said, because
I think, he said, someone will swipe that. someone will come
along and they'll take it. Well they didn't, I've got it
at home. But that can never happen with the Lord for his people. The Lord says in John 10 that
his people are held in his hand and none shall pluck them from
his hand nor his father's hand. But we know this as well, that
we can go around the local nurseries around here, and you can see
many, many pots. And you think, the potter that
made them did not make them for himself. He made them to be sold. He made them for other people,
not himself. But with the Lord, He has formed
them for Himself. And that is a beautiful thought,
isn't it? That when the Lord is forming
us and dealing with us, it's not to be for someone else, it's
not even to be as scaffolding, it's actually the vessel. And
it's for Him and it's for His praise. for some place in heaven, for
the prepared mansions that he has for his people. That's what
he's forming his people for, a vessel formed for himself. And it's a beautiful thought.
Every one of the people of God The Lord is not just saying,
well, it doesn't matter if that vessel's not very perfect because
I'm going to give it to this person or that person. But this
is going in my house. It's going to be used by me.
It's going to reflect my praise. My name is going to be on it.
I'm going to own it. I'm going to say, this people,
this people have I formed for myself. He's not going to disown
them and put someone else's name on it. No. Vessels form for himself. Another aspect of the forming
is that the potter always has both of his hands on that clay. You need a balance. You can't
put pressure on one side of the pot and nothing on the other.
flying straight off. It's got to be balanced, it's
got to be on both sides and whether inside and outside is always
an opposite to the pressure. Really the potter is not doing two things
at once. I know the Lord can, the Lord
does. He's working with all of his people at once. But that
which he's doing. Job, it was said to him, dost
thou know the balancing of the clouds? The Lord knows more than
the potter that if he does not balance what he does with his
people, they will be broken. They will not be formed aright.
Have we noticed in our lives what Job was taught? The balancing of the clouds,
the trouble, the trial, the difficulty, but the tree put into those bitter
waters and it can be partaken of. A disappointment on one hand,
an encouragement on the other hand, An affliction on one hand
and something that balances it on the other. Do we notice those
things? They're both the Lord's hand.
The Lord's hand that brings the affliction, the Lord's hand that
brings the blessing that balances it. And the timing of it, coming
together, working together, we know That all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according
to his purpose. His hands are upon us. You know, when the ark of God
went through the land of the Philistines, they had affliction. Everywhere it went, they said
the hand of the Lord was upon them. When the Egyptians were
following after the Israelites through the Red Sea, and the
Lord took off their chariot wheels, they said, if the hand of the
Lord is fighting for Israel, they had a sense of that. But
do we as the people of God have a sense of the Lord's hand upon
us? Whether it be affliction, and
that which is balancing that affliction. Tribulation and that
which is balancing it. The helps that are by the way. Those things that show that the
Lord is not meaning to crush us. Later on with Jeremiah, Lamentations
of Jeremiah, you see that right through. He doesn't crush underfoot
the children of men. No. He remembers that we are
but dust. And the potter, he remembers
the clay. The clay needs careful working,
careful forming. Otherwise, it will be destroyed. Another aspect with the potter,
the potter never takes his eyes off the wheel. I remember times
when we were doing it at school. And there's plenty of distractions.
But you looked aside. Your hand's moved with it, and
your vessel is marred. The eyes of the potter is always
watching. And you know, it's watching how
that clay is actually responding to his pressure. And if it's
being squeezed up too quick, if it's moving too quick, he
eases off on it. He's all the time noticing. We
might think the Lord doesn't notice what our trials are doing
to us. He doesn't notice the effect,
he doesn't notice all of our sorrows, our tears, our cries,
but he does. As a heavenly potter, he doesn't
take his eyes off his people. His eyes are open and ears are
open unto their cries. He sees them. He sees us, says
the hymn writer, when we see not him and always hears our
cry. Thou, God, seest me, says Hagar. He knew where she was. And that
wasn't in a terrifying way. It was a way of comfort that
Lord saw her and knew and came to her and helped her. Our potter, heavenly potter,
his eyes never leave that which he is forming and creating. One of the things that we said
at the beginning was that the potter centres the clay on the
wheel. makes it so it's not fighting
him, not going to fly off, so that it's running central and
concentrically. You know, when the Lord finds
his people, he says of Saul of Tarsus, it's hard for thee to
kick against the bricks, like that clay at first, trying to
click and move. But in the end, he wasn't kicking.
He was submissive, he was running with it. At first we can kick
and resist, but one of the first things the potter does is to
bring that clay into submission, central, really in a spiritual
way, central on Christ, centering on the Lord. Bring that person
to be subdued and under his hand. And the other thing, when he's
starting to form it as a vessel, he said how he begins to put
his fingers in and open it up so that it's hollow inside. And how we need our hearts open
to the word. Mine ear hath he opened. If eventually there's going to
be put in a vessel, something of value, then it needs to be
opened up so that can be put in. And how vital it is that
we be made teachable, that our hearts opened. You know, Lydia,
that's what was said of her, wasn't it? Whose heart the Lord
opened. and they paid heed to the words
that were spoken. It is a vital work of the Lord
in forming his people. We said of this passage here,
the way the Lord forms and directs his people is through the word
of God. We mustn't think that just because
we have a type of the potter here, that it follows through
in how the Lord forms his people is by forcing them, or working
in a way that is outside them. The whole context here and throughout
the word of God, my sheep, they hear my voice, they follow me. And as the heavenly potter is
forming his people, it is by his word, it's by his instruction,
by his teaching, by his guidance. All that he does with them is
through the word and through providence and through his work
and through his hand upon them, through the preaching of the
word, through the written word, through prayer, through supplication. It is those ways the Lord uses
to form his people. And so he opens their hearts
He makes them receptive, He makes them willing, He makes them teachable. They shall all be taught of God. We said then of when He forms
that vessel and He starts to form it, then He has one hand
inside on one hand outside. I thought what a beautiful illustration
that is. Where the Lord is working in
the heart, in his people, but he's working outside in providence
in their lives as well. Both things are working together. Many of the Psalms, you read
the Psalm and that's what's going on inside. Sometimes over the
top of the psalm, it tells you what has been going on outside.
The time when David was recognised, when he made himself as if he
was mad before Abimelech, fearing for his life, Psalm 34. We're
told of what is happening outside, but then inside, this poor man
cried and the Lord heard him and delivered him out of all
his troubles. We're told what's going on inside. Have we got those two parts to
our experience, to our religion? What is going on inwardly? What
is going on outwardly? The heart knoweth its own bitterness. Stranger doth not intermeddle
with his joys. Those things that work together
for good. John 6, we have one day the miracles
of the loaves and the fishes, their bodies were Fed, they're
received to the benefit and miracle of the Lord there. The next day,
it's all on a spiritual teaching. Except you eat the flesh and
drink the blood of the Son of Man, there is no life in you. The two things, they go together. The day following it was, how
many times has it been? The day following something's
happening in our lives, we come into the house of God and the
Lord's been an interpreter. or the Lord has given us his
word in his house, and the day following, there are those things
that happen, and we realize why the word was sent, why it was
uppermost in our mind. Had those times in my workplace
more than once, where something has come unexpected in the week. That's not unexpected with the
Lord. Immediately I remember what has been preached, what
has been heard on the Lord's day. The Lord knew what was coming
and he gave me beforehand the word and how to answer and how
to react. And that's very confirming, very
strengthening. The Lord is working in two places,
inside, outside, a heart prepared, a heart taught, and providence
and grace. They go together. There's another
aspect of that which is done inside and outside. The potter
starts off with his lump of clay. It might be quite low. But he's going to form that into
a vessel that high. And he's going to hollow it out.
And as he's forming that, hand inside and out, He's bringing
it up. He's moving it upwards. And you know, that clay is going
opposite to gravity. Gravity would go down. But he's
making this mass of this clay go up with his hands. And that, again, is a blessed
thing with the work of the Lord. It doesn't lead down to the earth.
All nature pulls down to that. The world pulls down to that.
But the work of the Lord, it directs upward, and it directs
to where the Lord is. And may we see that effect as
well. That as the Lord works through
his word, and as we are formed, that we are directed and drawn. That's what the potter is doing,
he's drawing that pot upward. Lord said, no man can come unto
me except the Father which hath sent me. Draw him, and I'll raise
him up at the last day. There's another thing. As that pot is made, there's
stages in it. And someone just passing by could
look at the pot at one stage and say, well, that's a lovely
pot. I like that. That's finished, isn't it? No,
no, that's not finished yet. At the moment, all it is, it
may be a straight up and down cylinder, hollow downs. And we think, well, that's finished.
But the problem is, no, no, it's not finished. I want to make
it like this. I'm going to shape it to a different
shape. It's going to be small at the
bottom. It's going to come out wider. It's going to hold something.
It's not going to be a straight vase, it's going to be a pot
to put something in it. How easy we can think that the
Lord, the heavenly potter's work is finished. But it's not. I sometimes think of this in
going into the old people's homes. I think all of these people,
they finish their work in their church. They cannot be a deacon
or a mother in Israel in the church and doing what they've
done for many, many years. But the work of grace is not
done. And their witness on earth is not done. And their patience
is not done that the world and the church sees in their latter
days a people waiting for the Lord, submissive to his hand. we might think, our work is done. But the Lord says, no. May we
not limit the Lord. May we not think, well, that
is sufficient. That is good enough. That is
nice enough. The Lord says, no. I know the
thoughts that I think towards you, thoughts of peace and not
of evil, to give you an expected end. And I know the designs that
I have for you. The Lord said of Peter, that
when he was old, another should carry him, whether he would or
not, and he would stretch forth his hands, this signifying in
what way he would glorify God in his death, in his death. And we think of the martyrs.
We think of those that the Lord was using, forming them like
Stephen, the first martyr, to show forth the Lord's praise
and it be recorded to the church to the end of time what that
dear man did. His testimony, his knowledge
of the Old Testament scriptures and of Christ's coming, His obedience
unto death, his seeing the Lord standing to receive him in heaven,
how vital that was. Moses might have thought, well,
all that the Lord is going to use me for is in Pharaoh's household
and as a shepherd for 40 years. But the Lord's work for him was
in the last 40 years of his life. We might think, Our life's work
is behind us. The Lord says, no, your life's
work is in front of you. The Lord is suffering that. Remember
when we exercised on the ministry and the years went by? And I
read the account of Fred Winbury. And he tried to go to the ministry
before the time that the Lord was sending him, he had to stop.
He thought that my life is going away. He got to 54 years of age. But then the Lord did call him
and he preached to within a week of his death at 94. He had 40
years in the ministry. But he thought in his own mind
that His days were gone. His usefulness was gone. But the Lord had different ideas. The Lord is as sovereign as the
potter forming his people. He doesn't stop when they think
he should stop. He doesn't stop when others think
that he should stop. But he stops when he's made that
vessel, that person, that one of whom he had suffered, bled
and died on Calvary, that one that he'd chosen in Christ from
the foundation of the world, that one that he'd loved with
an everlasting love and therefore with loving-kindness draw them,
he would continue that work. Because he which hath begun a
good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ,
having purchased them. They are his own. To do with
them as he will, they are his purchased possession. We are
not our own. Paul says that. You are not your
own. You are bought with a price,
wherefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which
are his. The potter here, he forms that. and he forms it for himself.
May we be able to go back and say again that which Isaiah sets
forth of his people. But now, O Lord, thou art our
Father, we are the clay, and thou our potter, and we all are
the work of thy hand. and the words of our text. Behold, as the clay is in the
potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand. May the Lord at his blessing. Amen.