I'm going to begin tonight in
the book of Job. If you would, open to the book
of Job chapter number nine. Job chapter nine. Job chapter nine. I've been searching the scriptures
for a lot of years. And the more I study the word
of God, the more I stand in awe of our
great Lord. Who could ever begin to declare
the greatness and the glory of our God. Let's read a little bit of what
Job has to say about the Lord. He writes by divine inspiration
in Job chapter nine. I shall begin at verse one. Then Job answered and said, he
answered Bildad, I know it is so of a truth, but how should
man be just with God? That's a vital question right
there. How can man be just with God? How can you be justified with
God? How can you be right with God?
How can you be righteous before God? You can't justify yourself. Your
works are not going to make you righteous. If you're going to
be made the righteousness of God, you've got to be made the
righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. And our Savior brought
in for His people everlasting righteousness by His sacrifice
upon the cross of Calvary. That's how we're just with God. Now, faith receives this truth
of justification, but faith doesn't make us justify before God. Faith can't put away sin. Faith
cannot establish righteousness. But I'll tell you this, God-given
faith receives our Lord Jesus Christ in whom we find forgiveness
of sins and the righteousness that God demands. Let me read
on. If he will contend with Him,
He cannot answer him one of a thousand. He's speaking of God now. He
says, He is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who hath
hardened himself against him and hath prospered? And the obvious
answer is nobody. Verse 5. And he begins to describe
some of the things that God has done. Which removeth the mountains,
and they know it not. Which overturneth them in his
anger. Which shaketh the earth out of
her place. And the pillars thereof tremble
before this God. Which commandeth the sun, and
it riseth not. and sealeth up the stars, which
alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of
the sea, which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the
chambers of the south, which doeth great things past finding
out, Yea, and wonders, look at this, without number, without
number. Lo, he goeth by me, and I see
him not. He passeth on also, but I perceive
him not. Behold, he taketh away who can
hinder him. Who will say unto him, What doest
thou? And now read verse 10 again,
Which doeth great things past finding out, Yea, and wonders
without number. You cannot comprehend all the
things that God has done. In Acts, the second chapter,
when God gave the gift of speaking of the gospel of God in languages
that men had never studied before, the amazing thing to those who
came from foreign countries was that they heard in their own
language these men preaching of the mighty acts of God. God has done all things in creation,
He is doing all things in providence, and He is doing all things in
salvation. Who can number the works of God? You go out and look at the sky
on a night that doesn't have any clouds in the sky and you're
away from the city, you can look up, get out in the country where
you can see all the stars, you're just seeing the very tip of the
iceberg. Who knoweth the great things
that God has done? Listen to what it says in Romans
11.33, of the riches both of the wisdom
and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways
past finding out. Now, if the ways of God are past
finding out, if the works of God are past finding out, what
must be said of God himself? Can you, by searching, find out
God? Can you ever plumb the depths
of the being of the Father and the Son and the Spirit? Can your
mind, your imagination, your heart ever soar above the clouds
to discover God in all of His glory, in all of His greatness,
in all of His majesty? We know so very little about
God, but what little bit we do know leaves us in absolute awe
before Him. And we're so thankful that there
is one who has revealed God to us, and we see God in the face
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who could ever know God apart
from the Son of God who is revealed to us by the Spirit of God? I say if what God does is beyond
our comprehension and our understanding, how much greater is God than
the things that He does? Job says that the wonders of
the Lord, the things that He has done, they're without number. Well, if they're so glorious,
how much more glorious must be the One who made these glorious
things? Aren't you lost in amazement? at the grandeur and the greatness
of God and then to think he has his heart and mind focused on
his people all the time. And in love, this great and glorious
God who is wondrous in all of His ways, in mercy and grace,
He sent His darling Son into this world to save us peons,
us worthless globs of clay, to save us by His grace. to wash
us in that sin-atoning blood of the Savior, and robe us, robe
us in the garments of salvation. No wonder David said in the Psalms,
great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. How could I ever
be silent and not praise God with the saints? Let me lift
up my voice as pitiful as it is and sing His praises. Let
me stand behind the pulpit and preach the glory of our God. Tell people who He is as best
I can. If we ever find out who God is,
in the radiance of His glorious person, We'll see how far off
from God we are by nature. You see, it doesn't start with
a sinner seeing his sin. It starts with a sinner seeing
something of the glory of God and the holiness of God, and
then in light of who he is, what am I? What are we? that we would be the recipients
of his love and his grace and his mercy. David said again in the Psalms,
Psalm 113 verse six, he humbleth himself to behold the things
in heaven. God has to humble himself to
behold the things in heaven and in earth. And how much did he
have to humble himself to come to this earth and lay down his
life to save us? That being so, we read in Isaiah
55 where the Lord said, my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither
are your ways. My way, saith the Lord. For as
the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Look at a verse over here, Ecclesiastes. Let me show you this verse. Ecclesiastes
chapter 11, I believe it is. Chapter 11 of Ecclesiastes comes
right after the book of Proverbs. Verse five, chapter 11 of Ecclesiastes,
verse five. Verse five, as thou knowest not
what is the way of the spirit, the way of the wind, nor how
the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child, even
so thou knowest not the works of God, who maketh all." He made
everything. You can never comprehend the
works of God, the grandeur of them, the greatness of them,
or the number of them. And here's what God has done
for us. As great and glorious as He is,
He sets Himself forth in the Word of God in ways that we can
better comprehend a little bit of what God is like. We read
that God is our fortress and strong tower. We know what a
fortress is and what a strong tower is. That's a place of safety. That's a place of refuge. That's
our God. Wasn't it wonderful of him to
condescend and speak to us in some language that we can understand
because we can't begin to commence to get started understanding
and comprehending the very person of God. So he tells us what he's
like. I'm like a fortress, he says.
I'm like a strong tower. And in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we find safety. We find a refuge for our souls. God is said to be a builder.
He is building His church. In fact, 1 Corinthians 3.9 says,
Year God's Building. Hebrews 3.4 says, He that built
all things is God. Psalm 127.1 says, except the
Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. So we
understand what a builder is, and God says, I'm a builder.
Well, what's He building? He's building a house in which
to dwell. He's building His church. Christ
said, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. Isn't it wonderful that the Lord
condescends to speak in language that we can kind of grab hold
of and say, well, I understand that. He's a builder. And then God is a husbandman. He's a farmer. He plants the
seed and he harvests the seed, harvests the crop. You know what
Paul says of us? He says, you're God's husbandry. Well, what did God do? He sowed
the good seed of the gospel of redeeming grace in our hearts,
and he reaped a harvest. I can kind of grasp that. While
we're getting into springtime, everybody's got spring fever,
you think about planting things in your garden, whatever. You
understand what a farmer does, what a gardener does? God said,
I'm like that. I'm like that. The scripture says that God is
our habitation. He's our dwelling place. In the
Lord we live and move and have our being. Christ is our life. We dwell in Him. And the amazing
thing is, He dwells in us. He says in Isaiah, He said, the
heavens can't contain Him. Where is the house that you're
going to build for Me? But He said, I'll tell you where
I do dwell. in the heart of a humble and
contrite person. He's so great and glorious, all
of creation cannot contain the very being of God, but he dwells
in my heart. Ain't that amazing? Doesn't that
leave you in awe before this God? I understand what Martin Luther
was saying to his friend Erasmus. He said to Erasmus, your thoughts
of God are way too little. And that's the accusation I bring
against religion today. Their thoughts of God are way
too little. They think too little of God
and too much of themselves. And to the degree that you think
too much of yourself, to that degree you bring God down. And
that's what's going on in religion today. Here's something else. God said
he's a man of war. A man of war. Exodus 16.3 says
that. He said to Moses and the children
of Israel, or Moses said this after the Lord told him, he said,
stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Since God is the man of war,
then I may rest assured that He fought all my battles for
me and won them all. When He went to the cross of
Calvary, the God-man took on Him all of my sins. He defeated
them, He obliterated them, He put them away. And He took care
of that enemy of my soul, Satan, who sought my destruction. Our Lord Jesus Christ crushed
his head. He's a man of war. And if He's a man of war, you
don't want to go to war against Him. Because your defeat is a
foregone conclusion. Surrender, surrender to this
God. God's compared to a lion, a leopard,
a bear. Up at Nancy's mom's house, which
her sister owns now, there's a bear out there with a cub. You don't want to mess with that
cub. No good thing is gonna result.
Isn't that right, Richard? You're not gonna come out on
the winning end of that. Don't you mess with God's children.
He's like an angry bear. An angry bear. God said, he that
touches you touches the apple of my eye. That's what he said.
And I could go on and on and on, but I won't really get to
The thing I want to talk to you about, which is in the book of
Jeremiah chapter 18. Here's another way God sets himself
forth. Jeremiah chapter 18. And what
I'm trying my best to show you tonight, as the Lord enables
me, is that our Lord is infinitely higher than we could ever imagine. Yet He is pleased to reveal Himself
to us in words and expressions that we can take hold of and
that we can relate to. And one of the ways that he sets
himself forth as being the potter, the potter. You know what a potter
does. He takes some clay, molds it, and fashions it ever
how he wants to. He makes of the clay various
kinds of vessels, some that are very decorative. quite exquisitely
fashioned vessels that are beautiful enough to adorn a king's palace. We might call them vessels of
honor. Others will be fashioned into
vessels that will be used in not such honorable ways. Perhaps a trash can. Perhaps a bedpan. Perhaps a spit tune. And the only thing that really
will determine what kind of vessel comes off the potter's wheel
is the will and the purpose and the intent of the potter. The clay doesn't have any say-so
over whether he's gonna be a vessel of honor or a vessel of dishonor. Let me begin reading Jeremiah
18, verse one. The word which came to Jeremiah
from the Lord saying, Arise and go down to the potter's house.
That's where we're going. We're going to visit the potter's
house. And there I will cause thee to hear my words. And then I went down to the potter's
house, and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. 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. So God sends his preacher, his
prophet, to the house of a potter so that by observation and by
inspiration, He might receive God's message to deliver to God's
people. The potter had a lump of moist
clay on the wheel. He shapes it. He shapes it quickly. He shapes it with great ease.
He shapes it according to his own will. But something was found
in this clay. a stiffness or a pebble, something
that had a displeasing quality to it. So he makes another kind of vessel
out of it. But notice this, it says that
the marring of the vessel was not by accident. It was still
in the potter's hand when it was marred. There's our fallen atom. We were still in the potter's
hand. It was marred then. You see, if this clay isn't used
for one purpose, it will be used for another purpose. If it's
not going to be molded into a vessel of honor, it will be molded into
a vessel of dishonor. And once Jeremiah saw this, and
once he heard the word of the Lord, God gave his message to
his preacher, beginning at verse 5. 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. And what our Lord is setting
forth to Jeremiah is the absolute sovereign authority of God. He will do with you, and He will
do with me, and He will do with every member of the human race
according to His sovereign will, design, and purpose. It's up to God as to what He
makes out of us. The troubles that we have, the
difficulties, the dangers, the discouragements. I'll tell you, nothing is so
comforting to the hearts of God's preachers and to God's people
than God's total sovereignty. And if we can remember that,
preachers of the gospel, and all of God's people, if we can
remember that, we'll be a whole lot more contented and a whole
lot better off. Oh, how we need to learn what
Jeremiah learned in the house of the potter. And it isn't unusual for God
to refer to himself as being a potter. Look at, turn back
to Isaiah. You're past Isaiah when you get
to Jeremiah. Look back at Isaiah chapter 45
in verse 9. In fact, I'll begin reading before
this. I'll begin reading at verse 5.
Chapter 45 of Isaiah, verse 5. Hear God say, I am the Lord. And there is none else, there
is no God beside me. I girded thee, I clothed you
with honor and with strength, though thou hast not known me."
And if you remember our series in Zechariah, we talked about
how there was Cyrus, who came to the aid of Israel in releasing
them from their Babylonian captivity. That's who he's talking about.
He's talking about Cyrus. Verse 6, that they may know from
the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none beside
me. I am the Lord. There is none
else. I form the light. and create
darkness. I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these things.
Drop down ye heavens from above and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open and let them
bring forth salvation and let righteousness spring up together. I the Lord have created it. Woe unto him that striveth with
his maker. Let the potsherd strive with
the potsherds of the earth. He says, shall the clay say to
him that fashioneth it, what makest thou or thy work? He hath no hands. Is that what
the clay says? Is that what the piece of pottery
says? And when it says, let the potsherds strive with the potsherds
of the earth, he's taught a potsherd is a worthless piece of broken
pottery. If you want to strive with somebody,
strive with another worthless piece of broken pottery. But
don't you strive with your potter, with the potter. You can't win that. Look at Isaiah 64. I'm saying, the Bible says, God
says He's the potter. Isaiah 64, 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 our hand. May God give us right views of
himself. And may we understand his absolute
sovereignty. I don't know what God will do
with you. I don't know what God's going
to do with me. I do believe that several of us,
maybe all of us, are vessels of honor to whom God has been merciful
through the doing and the dying, the merits and the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm thankful for that because
salvation by grace in the Lord Jesus Christ is a gift that only
God can give. The wages of sin is death, it's
always death, but the gift of God, ain't that sweet? The gift
of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. He has fashioned us into vessels
of honor. What can we do but bow down before
him and say, Lord, thank you. We give you our grateful praise. That he would use us in this
congregation to set forth the gospel is a glorious thing. And we must be steadfast in exalting
our God as the God who sits upon the throne of absolute sovereignty
and authority. And know this, God's throne above
is absolutely immovable. He does his will, Nebuchadnezzar
said this, he does his will in the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or
say, what doest thou? Now beyond showing us mercy in
Christ Jesus, I don't know what God would do with us through
this life. But I do know this, that piece of marred clay in
the potter's hand, after he fashions it into a vessel of honor, it's
still in the potter's hand. So that which befalls me, and
you, and all of God's people around this world, that which
happens to us will be according to the good and wise will of
our God who governs over all. Know this, and I'll close. Nobody has ever worshipped, truly
worshipped God until they bowed down at the throne of His sovereignty
and honored Him. As long as somebody thinks God
can be manipulated and moved about by our prayers, by our
wishes, by our wills, as long as somebody thinks that, they're
not thinking right about God. I was reading today, I watched
a little bit of a service that was conducted yesterday of an
acquaintance of mine, he passed away. And I was then reading
about the church that he attended. And it says, if you've decided,
if you've decided to be saved, then you need to be baptized.
I'm always I'm very worried when I hear somebody talk about man's
decision. That bothers me. I don't want my decision to affect
anything regarding my eternity. Do you? No sirree. I bow to the will of the potter. I'm just a piece of clay. I'm from the earth. I'm earthy. Adam's name means red dirt. That's where we came from. And
I'll tell you what, that's where we're going back to. I was raised
in Franklin County, Virginia, a lot of red dirt down that way.
Y'all know that in Patrick County? That's where we are by name,
red dirt. And God took that red dirt. And he took the moisture of his
grace, and he molded us into vessels fit for the master use. And I'll tell you, we'll glorify
him forever and ever. It's not our work, it's his work,
and he's gonna put us on display one of these days as trophies
of his grace. For all of the universe, all
of the demons and devils of hell, all of the angels of heaven,
all of the wicked, the vessels of dishonor, God's gonna put
all of his vessels of honor on display. Look what I have done. This is the work of my hands. Vessels of mercy. To glorify
the name of the potter. Oh, let's worship Him. Let's
worship Him. Let's sing a closing song. It's in that folder, black folder
you have. Page 16. I love this song. Page number 16, complete indeed. Page number 16. We're complete
in Christ. who of God has made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. According as
it is written, he that gloryeth, let him glory in the Lord. Let's
stand together and we'll sing completely. Complete in Thee, the work of
mine. I take, dear Lord, the place
of Thine. Thy blood has parted but for
me, and I am now complete in Thee. It is justified, O blessed
thought, and sanctified, salvation wrought. Thy blood hath barred,
and bought for me, and glorified, thine too shall be. Complete
in Thee, no more shall sin Thy grace hath conquered rain within
Thy voice shall build the tempter clean, and I shall stand