Verse 1, the word which came
to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter's
house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. 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. 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 my hand, O
house of Israel. At what instant I shall speak
concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to
pull down and to destroy it, if that nation, against whom
I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of
the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant
I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to
build in the planet, if it do evil in my sight, that it obey
not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said
I would benefit them. Now therefore, Jeremiah, you
go, Go to, speak to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I frame evil
against you, and devise a device against you. Return ye now every
one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
And they said, There is no hope, but we will walk after our own
devices, and we will everyone do the imaginations of his evil
heart." There's enough in this passage to teach us all we need
to know today and every day. In ancient times, in the times
of Jeremiah, the trade or occupation of a potter was very common. It was one in every village.
It was a very needful thing. For clay pots and vessels, they
didn't have all this fancy dinnerware that
we have nowadays and all these pots and pans you see advertised
on TV every three minutes. They didn't have all that. But
clay pottery was very much a necessity. So I would begin by saying we
are in a society today, even religious society, that knows
more than God does. So they think. The truth is, because of Adam's
sin, we were all born rebels against God. and left to ourselves, we live
rebels against God. And unless He intervenes, we
die rebels against God. Salvation is of the Lord. So
here's where it begins with God. He instructs Jeremiah what to
do. The word which came to Jeremiah
from the Lord. God took the initiative. Or Jeremiah would have said,
I'm going to find me a church that I like. The church of your choice. He would have chosen to go to
a mega church with thousands of people. I think this is what
I need. I think I can learn about God
over here. God sent Jeremiah to the potter's
house. God said, I want you to go down
there. We don't read that the potter had a doctor's degree or we even read that he was religious
for that matter. But God said to the prophet,
get on down there. I'll take it from here." And we could expand on a lot
of this stuff. He didn't say they were singing when he got
there or anything like that. He said, I've got to say something
to you. Get on down there. So he did. And God says to him
in so many words, go down to the potter's house. Keep your mouth shut. Jeremiah
did not speak through this entire passage. The reason God gave us two ears
and one mouth is so we could listen twice as much as we speak. So God is calling shots. And he said, this is where you're
going to see, this is where we're going to teach you, this is where
you're going to learn. Nobody sees God while looking
in the mirror, admiring self. Nobody sees God who is not listening
in obedience for his still small voice. I can't figure out what
I need to know. He left. He has to show me. Oh, and that's my constant prayer. Lord, show me. Lord, teach me. That still small voice. Now God
can scream. He could scream louder than you
and I, but he usually don't. He usually don't. If he has a word for you, he
will have shut you up before he gives you that word. That's important. I know a lot
of fellas think, and God's going to have to get louder than I
am to talk to me. No, He won't do it. He'll shut
you up if you've got anything to say to you. Am I right? Psalm 107, 27, He'll bring you
to your wit's end. And like Jonah in the belly of
the fish, You will not be crying about God to everybody else.
You will be crying to God for yourself. Remember what Jonah
said, salvation is of the Lord. Not just from the Lord, everybody
knows that. But salvation is of the Lord.
If there is any hope for me in this mess, it will be God. We
can't pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. It will be God. Now Jeremiah wasn't listening
to some puffed up preacher hollering, it's all up to you. It's all
up to you. It's never been up to you. We're all at the mercy of God
this day and every day. Now he says to him here, still
in verse one, or verse two, arise. Jeremiah must have been
down, if not laying down, at least spiritually down. And he might have said, I'm done. God says, no, you're not. Get
up. Arise. Go down to the potter's house
and there I will cause thee to hear my words. The Lord didn't
say you go and when you get there you'll see and you'll understand
and you'll be able to figure out what it is I'm trying to
tell you. No, He said you go and I will
cause you to hear. That's the only time anybody
hears God is when He causes it. You can hear the preacher, you
can hear the singers, you can hear all the other garbage, religiously
speaking, but to hear God He has to cause it. He has to cause
it. And so this puts a stop to the
crowd that knows everything and has God on the little end. They
don't have a leg to stand on. The Bible is full of this. God
causes it. God says, if I leave it to you,
You won't hear me. You'll use your superior intelligence
and your religious influence and you'll hear everything and
everybody except me. So God said you go and I will
cause thee to hear my words. Well Jeremiah obeyed. Then I went down to the potter's
house. So in looking at this this morning,
I want to ask three questions and look at this as simply as
I can. I confess, many of you have heard
this before, this passage preached and taught. And I confess to
you personally that when I'm working, preparing a message,
studying, I can't help but think of who might be here and hear
this. And guess what? It never is the
right ones. But God has you here. And He
has me here. So three things. I want to ask
three questions. First question, what did Jeremiah
see at the potter's house? Second, what did Jeremiah hear
at the potter's house? And number three, what did Jeremiah
do with it. So first, what did Jeremiah see? Three things. He saw the potter at work. Verse three, then I went down
to the potter's house and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. He saw the potter at work. That's the first thing I saw.
The potter is working. And every believer this morning,
whoever you are, young or old, this is the first thing you need
to believe and embrace and not let go of. Don't entertain the
thought otherwise. God is working. God is working. Any builder will
tell you in a remodeling project, The tear out is more difficult
than the building back. And so it is in our lives. The
demolition God has to do is very painful, but He does it. God is working. Right now, God
is working. A lot of people think of God
has an old, gray-headed, long-bearded, white beard sitting on the front
porch waiting on you and I to make him look good. And to convince folks that he's
real, make him look good to the world, he'll never look good
to this world. He's waiting on us to make him
successful. Although he's in a real mess,
that's all I can say. Waiting on us to make him successful. No, the Lord shows Jeremiah that
our God is neither foolish nor lazy. The potter is working. Jesus said, John 5, 17, my father
worketh hitherto and I work. God is doing something. And 99.9% of the time, he's not
doing what we think he's doing, but he's working. He's doing
everything he purposed from eternity to do. Acts 15, 18, I quote this
pretty often. Acts 15, 18, don't miss it. Known
unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. He hadn't aborted any mission.
He hadn't started any missions that he didn't conceive and decree
from eternity. He's still on plan A. He don't
have a plan B. Messed up as your life may be
today, mixed up as things may be, get this, the potter is working. The potter is working. And for
you this morning, and I'll not try to go into specifics, but
that unfaithful husband or wife that's crushed your heart, that
rebellious child that's driven you to your wit's end, that sickness
that seems never-ending, that financial struggle that seems
never-ending, know this. The potter is working. The potter
is working. Don't put him on the porch, in
a rocking chair, only as a spectator. The potter is working. In your
life and mine. So this is the first thing Jeremiah
saw. It's the first thing we need to see. With the dawning
of each and every day. And now the second thing. Behold,
he wrought a work on the wheels. He was working, working. And
the second thing is this. He saw the vessel of clay, which
the potter had made, marred in the hand of the potter, crushed,
destroyed. Who marred it? Who caused it
to cease to be what it was in order to make it something
else? You say, bless God, the devil
did it. No. Who marred it? You say, well,
sin did it. It's my own fault. No. The vessel
was marred in the hand of the potter. He had control of it. The potter did it. Who sent Joseph
to Egypt? The Lord did. Who put Daniel in the den of
lions? The Lord did. Who made Samson marry a Philistine? The Lord did. Who made Hosea marry a harlot? The Lord did. Who made David suffer? He said,
the Lord hath afflicted me. So we ought to quit giving the
devil credit for the potter's work. Jeremiah says, boy, I seen this. I caught that potter red-handed.
He marred his own vessel. Are you getting this? Third thing Jeremiah saw, he
saw the potter working, he saw the vessel marred. And then he
saw the vessel, thirdly, remade. The end of verse 4, so he made
it again another vessel. has seemed good to the potter
to make it. Did he remake that vessel what
it wanted to be? No, he made it again another vessel
as seemed good to the potter to make it. Will he remake you to be what
you want to be? No. You and I don't have sense enough
to make the remake any better than the old make. The Lord, the master potter,
he molds and makes his children as seemeth good to the potter. It's all about what he wants.
And this morning, if you're not interested in what he wants in
your life, you're on the broad road to destruction with no ability
to change directions. It's the potter's doing. It's
all the potter's doing. And you're at his mercy this
morning. He's not on the little end of this business. You are. And you won't hear that just
anywhere you go. So that's what Jeremiah saw,
those three things. The potter at work, the vessel
marred, and the vessel made again. Second question, what did Jeremiah
hear? Well, what he heard corresponded
with what he saw. In verse 2, the Lord said, you
go look, go watch, and I will cause you to hear. You won't hear without going.
You won't hear without watching, looking. And Jeremiah went and
he looked. And in verse 5, he begins to
hear. Then the word of the Lord came
to me saying. He did not say, then I had this
bright idea. Then I figured it out. No, no,
no. He's hearing. He's listening. Not to what Dr. Bottle Stopper
said, but he's hearing the word of the Lord. The word of the
Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, Jeremiah is a prophet in Judah. And what he hears is the Lord's
word to Israel, all Israel, to be delivered to them through
Jeremiah. And here's the word, O house
of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? Wow. Jeremiah said, he's talking about
that vessel in his hand as the people. And God's asking, is it not His
right to do what He wills with it? Behold, as the clay is in the
potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. He says, Jeremiah, don't you
understand that you won't have the last word? The people won't
have the last word. I will. I will. Here's how it works, verse 7.
At what instant I speak concerning a nation, concerning a kingdom,
to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it. If I speak destruction, I'm going
to destroy an outfit. My word is the word of authority,
and you go tell them this warning. If that nation against whom I
have pronounced turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil
that I thought to do unto them." That's the next thing Jeremiah
heard concerning the mercy of God. If that nation, initially,
the message is to the nation of Israel, but being divinely
inspired, this is to all of us this morning. And at what instant I shall speak
concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to build and to plant
it? If I prophesy good, and if it do evil in my sight, that
it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith
I said I would benefit them. Now we get hung up on this mention
of God repenting. Now, it's not in the sense that
you and I repent. He's not a sinner. He has nothing
to repent of. And he's really not changing
his mind. But here he said, I'd repent. Well, that's contradictory
that we read throughout the Bible that God is immutable. I am the
Lord. I change not. Same yesterday,
today, and forever. But He says here to them, if
you'll turn from your evil, I'll repent of the warning I gave
to destroy you. And if you do evil, I'll repent
of the good I promised to do for you. The secret is this. God knew they weren't going to
change. They couldn't change unless He changed them. That's
the message of sovereign grace. So he's not going to have to
repent because he knows what you're going to do before you
do it. And it will be as he's decreed
it to be from the beginning. Israel will go on and on and
on and on till they nail him to a cross. And that's deliberate on God's
part. That's not an idea that developed in time. No, no, no.
He was a lamb slain in the mind and purpose of God from the foundation
of the world. So it's deliberate on God's part.
In Acts chapter 4, you need to read this sometime, Peter is
praying and he says, Lord, they've done whatsoever. thy hand and thy counsel determined
before to be done." It's going to happen, and yet
God is not wrong here to give the people an ultimatum. God says, My authoritative word
concerning judgment does not Prevent my mercy from being shown
when I will to do so. Romans 9, Paul refers to this
very thing, hath not the potter power over the clay? And if you
really want to get blowed out of the water, read Romans 9. Don't go to any other church
around here and try to hear a sermon on Romans 9, you won't hear it. Every preacher I know has got
it super glued together. You're right. You are right. Hath not the potter
power, O the clay, to make one vessel to honor and another to
dishonor? Is that not God's right? Therefore, Romans 9, 18, he hath
mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
All God has to do for you to perish is to leave you alone.
You will take it from there. You've been taking it from there
since the moment you came from your mother's womb. God is not wrong in either to
have mercy or to harden. Destruction is what we all deserve. God's grace is what we don't
deserve. He chooses to show mercy anyhow
and he does it for his own glory. If this religious bunch today
were to make it to a quote heaven, they'd pull Christ off the throne
and get on it. That's what they're doing now. Screaming, it's all up to you,
and we make our way, and oh, we're going to have a mansion.
And they even preach that your mansion is being built out of
the material you send that party to build it out of. Your works. You say, this is mean. Pretty
mean, yeah. It's all up to you. They think and preach that the
potter is trying to change everybody in this world. If that's so,
he is a miserable failure. But he's not a failure. His grace reaches the hearts,
penetrates the heart, changes the heart of all whom he pleases. End of story. Salvation is the
Lord. So Jeremiah heard from the Lord. First, that rebellious Israel
was as clay in his hand. He could do with them as he pleased. Secondly, that God is not without
mercy toward a repentant heart. And then the third question,
what did Jeremiah do with this message? Well, he obeyed. Verse 11, the
Lord told him to go tell the men of Judah, the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, that it's a message for them all. Middle of verse
11. Now, therefore, go to speak to
the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith
the Lord, Behold, I frame evil against you. Uh-oh. Now He done said if you repent
and do the right thing, if you turn from your evil, I'll turn from what I'm telling
you I'm going to do. But He knew they couldn't do
it and wouldn't do it. Hold I frame evil against you, and devise
a vice against you. Return ye now every one from
his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good. This clear
instruction, as Paul said it, is to the one, the reprobate,
the unbelieving, the rebellious, it's the saver of death unto
death. He declares once and finally, God's justified. What are you
doing? And to the other, God's elect,
This word is the savor of life unto life. They will repent,
not because they can in themselves, but because God gives it to us. It is the goodness of God that
bringeth thee to repentance. So Jeremiah went and told them,
and therein was his success. Their response never determined
his success. And I wish I could get this through
my head. Your response does not determine
my success. Telling you what God says is
success. So Jeremiah went and told them
what God said. Building a megachurch was not
his responsibility. No. But to see, hear, and deliver. what God showed him and told
to him. That was his success. Well, how did it turn out? Verse 12, And they said, Well, I understand what you're
saying. They said, Hey, that ain't for
us. If that's how it is, there is
no hope. But we will walk after our own
devices. You ain't going to talk to us
about God and what He said or whatever. We've got our system
in our church. We've always done it this way
and we ain't changing nothing. They're right, they're not. We're liable to change some things
around here anytime, just for your information. We will walk
after our own devices and we will, everyone, do the imagination
of his evil heart. They confessed it and said we
ain't changing. We ain't listening. This is the voice of our generation.
This is the voice of our religious society. Don't talk to us. We don't want to hear it. We refuse to believe what God
says. We can't operate without that
Bible. We can't operate without a crowd,
whatever it costs us to get them. We can't operate without our
music program. We're going to have it. We can't operate without Mr. Big, so-and-so, this, that. No,
we got to have all this. But don't talk to us about what
God said. That's not really a necessity for a good church. Oh, but it
is. It is. They said, we're not going to
have it. We refuse to believe what God says. And that attitude
justifies God. Not that he needed any further
justification, but that very attitude justifies God in doing
what he will with every single man, woman, boy, and girl that's
ever lived. So if you are, as an individual
today, in the mass of humanity, yet with a rebellious, unrepentant,
and cold heart, refusing God's way. Oh, you confess to it audibly,
but in your heart, rebellious against it. All I can say is
there's no hope for you unless God intervenes. Ashamed to confess I'm wrong
and God's right. Unwilling to identify. Unwilling to commit. No hope. But I'll say a final word about
this. I already mentioned those that weren't here and I was hoping
they would be. But hold on to this. God has
you here today. You say, well, I came today.
No, God has you here today. Well, I started not to come,
but then I decided to come. No, God has you here today. To hear what you heard and I
challenge you, please don't ignore it. Was Jeremiah successful? Oh, yes. Did the people change? Oh, no. Did he want them to change? Oh,
yes. Did they want to change? No. Did God have the last word? Absolutely. Does He always have the last
word? Absolutely. Is God always right about it?
Absolutely. Will anyone ever be able to shake
their fist in God's face and say, I don't deserve this? No. No. Can any child of grace ever say,
I deserve this? No. Grace is what we don't deserve.
So I'll conclude it this morning. I've got to get another battery.
I got this other watch that some dear, dear friends gave me that
I got to get a couple of links taken out of. And I left it at
home, and I got this other one, and I think the battery's quit. And I don't care. But I'll give
you this, and we'll be through. I'll conclude with this I refer
to pretty often. What, I don't know, maybe I would
call my life verse. A lot of people claim to have
a life verse, just one. Well, I claim a lot of them.
But if there is one, it's this. Romans 3, 24. Being justified. Being is a present reality. right now, being justified, having
God's approval right now. Being justified at what cost to me? None. Being justified freely, free
to me but not free to Him. What did it cost him? Freed by
His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. What was my part in it? Nothing. Thank you, Lord. That word redemption
really gets twisted up and abused and misused. And people talk
about redemption. And they sing about, I have been
redeemed. Talk about when they walked down
the aisle and made that decision and apologized to God and everything
was all right. No, that's not it. Redemption
is an accomplished work. It's a purchase. And when Christ
died on the cross, we sing that old song sometimes, he redeemed
me when he died. And that's exactly when he did
it. So thank God, justified freely
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
And amen. Thank you. And thank you again.
All right.