I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah
chapter 18. Jeremiah 18. I'd like to look at the first
six verses of Jeremiah 18. The scripture says in verse 1, the word which
came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, there is so much that is set
forth in the scriptures that we miss in not realizing the
meaning of the words that we read. The Word. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, the Word
was God. And the written Word The Word Himself, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the preached Word, cannot be separated. It is the Word
of God. So, the Word which came, and
that is, that Word came there is that existed. The Word that
existed. And also it means came to pass. So here's what he said so far.
The word he that is eternal, the word which that existed,
that came to pass to Jeremiah from the Lord, from
Jehovah. Jehovah was pleased to cause
to come to pass a word that he had eternally purposed to speak. It pleased God, Paul said, who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me by grace. The word which existed It came
to pass to Jeremiah from the Lord. Ecclesiastes 3.1 says to
everything. There is a season and a time
to every purpose under heaven. This is the time. This morning,
9.30 in the morning. We said, well, we just decided
to meet this morning. No. God Almighty, who orders all
things after the counsel of His own will, determined this morning,
this is the time. There is a purpose, a time for
everything under heaven. This was the season that the
Lord was pleased to speak to Jeremiah. And who knows? Maybe the Lord might be pleased
to speak to us today. Who knows? that which we, so
many of us, know truly in our head for sure. Oh, that it might
be taught me in my heart. I want to hear what God has to
say. And here's what the Lord said.
Verse 2, He said, Arise and go down to the potter's house, and
there I will cause thee to hear my words." There was a particular place, again, there's so much, I was
going over my notes a while ago and I was thinking to myself,
there's so many things that I can see, I pray the Lord bless this. there
was a particular place that the Lord was going to speak. He said,
I want you to go down to the potter's house. Now, Jeremiah,
now what would we have thought if we'd have been reading this
scripture and it said, so Jeremiah went to the backside of the desert.
And I thought, well, that's not what the Lord told him to do.
That's not where the Lord told him to go. That's just arrogance. That's presumption. That's disobedience. The Lord said, I want you to
go down to the potter's house and there I will cause thee to
hear my word. There I'm going to Give. I'm going to bestow. I'm going
to cause. I'm going to apply to you. To
hear. But the word there, hear, is
to hear intelligently. To hear attentively. To hear with understanding. You
go to the potter's house and there I will cause thee to hear
my words. I'm going to give you ears to
hear. There was a particular place
that Jeremiah was to go and what we do, we're gathered here this
morning for this purpose, to hear the Word of the Lord. That's
the reason we're here. We have no other reason to be
here, to hear what God Almighty has to say. I completely understand that You
know, the natural mind will think, well, I can hear from the Lord
just anywhere. I can take my Bible, and this
is true. I can take my Bible and I will. I'll sit down and try to start
reading and I'll try to start looking and praying and asking
and I'll see something. My heart will rejoice in what
I'm reading, but I'm telling you, according to God's Word,
Here is where the Lord is pleased to manifest Himself and His Word
in a special way. It's the assembling of ourselves
together. The scripture says, forsake not the assembling of yourself together,
as the manner of some is. Matthew 18.20, where two or three
are gathered together in my name, There am I in the midst of them. Jeremiah 3.15, I will give you
pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge
and understanding. Jeremiah, I want you to go to
the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my
words. And verse 3 says, then I went
down to the potter's house, and behold, he wrought a work on
the wheels. Jeremiah was obedient to the
Lord's command. John 10.4 says, the sheep follow
him for they know his voice. And the Lord speaking on that
same point, John 10.27, my sheep hear my voice, I know them and
they follow me. Jeremiah went to the potter's
house and the potter was working a lump of clay. Now, I thought
about that lump of clay. I'm going to say a few more things
about it, but immediately my mind went back
when I was in art school. I can remember people throwing
a pot. You know, you throw a pot. And
that's what Jeremiah did. He said there was a potter. And
this potter was down there, he was an artist. That's what he
was, he was an artist. And he'd pick a lump of clay,
and you got a wheel, and that wheel's turning, and you throw
it right in the middle there. And you work it and get it right
in the middle, and it's just turning. and was skilled. Jeremiah went
and he watched him. Just watched that potter. And
God began to speak to Jeremiah and teach him. Now in this lesson
right here, in these verses right here, we're going to see the
miracle of God's grace. We're going to see the fall of
man, the regeneration of God's elect, and all according to God's
sovereignty. That's the, there's right there.
Three points in this fourth verse. You're talking about, you wanna,
you talk about the gospel. You take Jeremiah 18, four. Here is the miracle of God's
grace. Man in the fall. regeneration by grace and all
according to the sovereignty of Almighty God. Listen to this
verse. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the
hand of the potter. So he made it again, another
vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. It just preached itself. It just
preaches itself. There it is right there. Here
it is. Man in the fall. Jeremiah is watching and the
Lord's speaking to him causing him to hear his words and he's
watching this potter make this pot. This potter's just going
along. He's just making a pot, but God's
speaking. and Jeremiah hears. And he said
the vessel that he made of clay was marred. That's what happened. It was marred. Now there's a
picture of man fallen in Adam. Almighty God made man, the Scripture
says, out of the dust. Genesis 2.7, And the Lord God
formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Genesis 3.19, For dust thou art,
and unto dust shalt thou return. Ecclesiastes 12.7 says, So then
shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit
shall return unto God who gave it. Now if you want to know what
we are, if you want to know what this body right here, if you
want to know the origin of this body, well just go outside and
look at the dirt. because that's what we're made
from, the dirt. But it's amazing to me that when
he's talking about this, it's clay. Now, there's a lot of you
here that know a whole lot more about planting and farming and
things than I do, but I can tell you this, I know that clay is
not something that you can do a whole lot of growing in. If
you've got a lot of clay to deal with, you're going to have to
add a lot of stuff, a lot of nutrients, a lot of compost,
a lot of this. But clay, just adding it. Clay. Is that not a fit picture of
man? What grows real well in clay? Well, very few things. I tried
to look it up. I found a few little things.
Not much. Not much concerning man. In man,
nothing. Nothing. He's dead. Here's a
fit picture of man in the fall. Jeremiah is watching and that
vessel he made of clay was marred. All men, women, the scripture
declares, are as an unclean thing. How about all our righteousness?
Filthy rags. Filthy rags. Jeremiah watched
that piece of clay and he thought, that's me. That's me right there. That piece of clay was marred
and man in the fall fell. He died. In the day that you
eat thereof, Adam, you're going to die. There's going to be no
profit in you. You're dead. But listen to this.
But that piece of clay that was marred was marred in the hand
of the potter. Man that has everlastingly been
loved of God. Not all men. but all of God's
sheep, all of God's elect. This is a picture of the redemption
of God's elect, of God's people. Jeremiah is being taught, and
we are too. Here's us. We're just a lump of clay. We're a lump of clay, fallen,
marred, marred by sin. Dead in the fall. No life, no
will, no love, no nothing. Dead in trespasses and in sin. But thanks be unto God. Boy,
for this piece of scripture right here. But all of God's elect
were marred in the hand of the potter. I'm not saying that the
potter was the cause. Almighty God is not the author
of sin, but thanks be unto God that He who everlastingly loved
us and chose us in Christ from before the foundation of the
world, who's chosen us unto salvation, who loved His people, who loved
His elect, loved the sheep with an everlasting love. When they
fell in Adam, they were still in the hands of the potter. He still loved them. I know this. I know in Adam I rebelled. I
know. I know that in me there dwelleth
no good thing. But I tell you thanks be unto
God that God Almighty would reveal to any of us that the fallen
Adam could never put away his love for his people. We fell
in the hands of the potter. All souls are mine. The soul
of the father, the soul of the son's mine. The soul that sinneth,
it's going to die. But for those that he's everlastingly
loved, this is the promise. I will never leave you. I will
never forsake you. All that the father giveth me, Those that fell in Adam's rebellion,
fell just like everybody else. All that the Father giveth me,
they've always been in the potter's hand, they've always been in
the Father's hand, in my hand. I'm going to give them eternal
life, they're never going to perish. All that the Father giveth
me shall come to me. Why? Because of the Lord's. And of every nation, kindred,
and tribe, and tongue, they're his. One of my kids may disappoint
me, but I'm going to tell you something. They're my kids. And humanly speaking, they're
in my hand, humanly speaking. I'll do that which I can for
him because I love him. I'm not going to turn my back
on him. That vessel he made of clay was marred in the hand of
the potter. So here's what happened. So he
made it again, another vessel. I watched somebody throw a pot
and You put that lump of clay on
there and I've watched them. I've never actually thrown a
pot myself. I was always amazed just to watch
somebody else. They'll wet their hands marking
it and it's just wet and everything. You take their thumbs and they
just start putting their thumbs in there and I'm telling you
they just Start doing amazing things with it. You know, you
press it and it just, it just, and it, man, it's just, man,
it's just spinning. I thought, wow, how'd you do
that? But if something happens, it
starts getting out of, out of, you know, they'll take it and
just take it and put it together. Take it around here and throw
it back on there again. Start over. I'm going to make
another one. Out of that, out of that lump
of clay, I'm going to make another one. I'm going to make that lump
of clay, I'm going to make it another vessel. And oh, the miracle
of God's grace. Man that fell in Adam. A clay,
a lump of clay, dead, useless, fit for nothing. My little granddaughter. It's
over there in the case. You may want to look at it one
time. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful, beautiful coffee
cup she made for me. It's beautiful. It's got a place where I can
put my finger to hold it. It's a coffee cup. Here's the top of it and it goes
like this. It's all You couldn't hold a cup of coffee
in that thing. Gravity is going to pour it out. If she's listening to this message,
it's the ugliest thing, humanly speaking, you've ever seen in
your life. But you look on the bottom of
it and it's as for Papa. It's beautiful to me. And I'm
telling you, Almighty God, takes that lump of clay that was marred. And it was marred in the hand
of the potter. It never got away from the potter.
And he made it again, another vessel. Almighty God, in electing
sovereign grace, said, I'm going to birth you again. I'm going
to birth you from above. I'm going to give you a new heart.
I'm going to give you a new mind. I'm going to give you a new spirit.
We must be born again. The Lord said in John 3, 7, Marvel
not that I said unto thee, you must be born again. There's going
to have to be a new man there. Flesh and blood, not going to
inherit the kingdom of God, but God must regenerate. So He made again another vessel. Lumps of
clay don't make themselves new vessels. Marred clay cannot regenerate
itself. Ephesians 2.1, and you hath he
quickened who were dead, dead in trespasses and sins. Colossians
2.13, and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of
your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven
you all trespasses. Jonah said this, salvations of
the Lord. Regeneration is a work of Almighty
God. Take that lump of clay, marred
in his hand, he made it again. The potter made it again. But
here's how he made it. He made it especially, spiritually
speaking, he made it sovereignly. So he made it again another vessel
as seemed good to the potter. to make it. Look at Matthew 11,
Matthew 11, 25. Matthew 11, 25. God Almighty does as he will,
with whom he will, when he will. God Almighty is the boss We're the clay, he's the potter.
Look at Matthew 11, 25. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast
revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in Thy sight. Look at Ephesians 1, 5. Ephesians
1, 5. having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, listen, according
to the good pleasure of his will. The scriptures ask this question
in Romans 9.21, hath not the potter power? Power, the right, the ability.
Hath not the potter power over the clay? Who's in control of
the shape of that pot that's being thrown, made, built? Is that clay going to dictate
to the potter how its shape is going to come about? I'm going
to tell you something, that lump of clay moves just exactly the
way the potter moves it. The clay is the recipient of
the efforts, of the work, of the will, of the mind, of the
potter, the potter, hath not the potter power over the clay
of the same lump to make one vessel under honor and another
under dishonor? Let me ask you, if the Lord be
pleased to make one fallen creature, anew. If the Lord is pleased
to make one creature of the dust, fallen in Adam, if God is pleased
to make one lump of clay anew according to His will, and to
make it in His Son, holy and without blame before Him in love.
If God's pleased to do that and to leave another lump of clay
alone to do what that lump of clay wants to do, is God just? Isaiah 45, 21 says, there is
no God else beside me. A just God and a Savior. there's none beside me." Man
did just exactly as he would in the fall. Man rebelled against
God Almighty with his eyes wide open. And man in his rebellion
has absolutely, turn to Romans 9, has absolutely No leg to stand
on before God and himself. Man is guilty. He's guilty. He's
guilty and he's caught. Man and Adam is a rebel against
God. If God's pleased to take one
rebel, same lump, here's a lump of clay. If God's pleased to
take one lump of clay out of the whole lump, and make one
vessel unto honor. He's just in doing so. And he's
just to leave the rest of it alone. To do what he wants to
do. Look at Romans 9, 18-20, Therefore
hath he mercy on whom he'll have mercy? Whom he will, he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why
doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replies against God? Shall
the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made
me thus? I'm telling you, man is a fallen
creature totally in the hands of God Almighty. And Almighty
God is going to do that which is right. because God is just. He's a just God. Let me just
read this for you now as I close this out. Isaiah, listen to this,
Isaiah 45 and verse 9, those that hear of this sovereign God
to whom we bow, Isaiah 45, 9. Woe unto him that
striveth with his maker. With his maker. Let the potsherds,
those broken pieces of pottery, marred. Marred in the fall. Let the potsherds strive with
the potsherds of the earth. Y'all get together and just argue
and talk about how unjust God is. That's not fair. And I'm
telling you, I'd never serve God like that. Oh yes, you do. Oh yes, you do. Oh, and you will. Oh, you're going to serve Him.
If He leaves you to yourself, you're going to be an object
of His justice. But I'm going to tell you something. All are going to serve Him. All
are going to bow. Every knee is going to bow. Every
tongue is going to confess. You're God. You're God. You let
the potchards strive with the potchards of the earth. Shall
the clay say to him that fashioneth it, Why, or what makest thou
or thy work? He hath no hands. The potters
have no hands. I'm telling you, it is a miracle
of God's grace that we would be here this morning reading
God's Word seeing through Jeremiah's teaching of the Lord concerning
going down to the potter's house and seeing man in the fall and
regeneration by grace and all according to God's sovereignty.
Jeremiah 18, 5 and 6, then the word of the Lord came to me saying,
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." You that know him, aren't you
glad? Aren't you glad that we're not
left to ourselves to look back at something that we think we've
done? that we put ourselves up on the
potter's wheel. And somehow, this lifeless piece
of clay didn't just miraculously, somehow, by its own will, by
its own ability, make itself into a beautiful pot. Just watching
a lump of clay form itself into something acceptable and beautiful. No, I'm going to tell you what
happens. A potter will take a lump of
clay, and that's what it is. It's a lump of clay. And he takes
that lump of clay and he forms it and he makes it into just
a beautiful vessel. But before that vessel is going
to be usable, they're going to take that vessel and they're
going to put it in a kiln. They're going to fire it. They're going to heat it. Almighty
God takes lumps of clay and He puts them in the kiln of His
chastening love. Oh, He's regenerating grace,
He gives us a new heart, but we're still linked to this world. But we're fired in the chastening hand of He
who everlastingly has loved us, and Him who's everlastingly loved
us. And then after that, that vessel
is taken out of that kiln, it cools down and everything, You
take it, it's been glazed and everything and it's that beautiful
glaze and it's whatever design, pretty pictures or flowers or
whatever you want to put on it. There's that outside and you
look at it and it's just beautiful. It's just a marvel. Somebody
could construct something like that. He takes lumps of clay
and he forms them. He said, I'm going to make you
in the image of my son. I'm going to robe you in His
righteousness." And in that day, He's going to present us before
the Father, faultless, no spot, no stain, no mar, no broken,
robed in His obedience. We shall forever be the exhibitions
of His marvelous grace and mercy, and all because it pleased Him. Lord, bless these words to our
heart for Christ's sake.