Untitled Sermon (18)

Intimacy in The Hands of God

1. The Purpose of The Potter.

Jeremiah 18:1–6 (ESV)

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.

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.

I ask Christ for this one thing only, that He will enable me to endure all things courageously, and that He break me as a potter’s vessel or make me strong, as it pleases Him.

Ulrich Zwingli

2. The Sovereignty of The Potter.

Jeremiah 18:7–10 ESV

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.

The pressures of life are the hands of the Potter.

Anonymous

This was not an uncommon experience, the clay was the problem not the potter. A lump or rock of something in the clay prevented it from being made into the vessel the potter had intended.

John G. Butler

3. The Call of The Potter.

Jeremiah 18:11–12 ESV

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, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.’ “But they say, ‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’

Israel goes into exile in order to be reshaped by God; where, in other words, the potter remoulds the clay.

N. T. Wright

Man is born with his back toward God. When he truly repents, he turns right around and faces God. Repentance is a change of mind…. Repentance is the tear in the eye of faith.

Dwight Lyman Moody (Evangelist)

Repentance will not make you see Christ, but to see Christ will give you repentance.

All Of Grace, Page 72

Charles Spurgeon

Consider…

1. What is the main message conveyed through the analogy of the potter and the clay in Jeremiah 18?

2. How does the sovereignty of God as the Potter reflect His authority over nations and individuals?

3. What practical steps can we take to allow God to mold our lives as He desires?