Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Please turn your Bible’s with me this morning, to a great chapter of the Bible, in the Old Testament: .

Before we read our text, we want to give a little bit of context to Jeremiah’s Book in the Bible.

Jeremiah was a prophet that sounded out the final warning, before God’s judgment came upon it.

Jeremiah was a prophet that sounded out the final warning, before God’s judgment came upon Judah.

Jeremiah preached for 42 years, to over five different kings, while faithfully declaring the truth of God’s word to a rebellious people.

His message had a consistent theme, that if Judah would turn from their wickedness, turn from their idols, that God would heal their land.

Jer.

1:

Jeremiah was also called to point Judah back to the purpose to which God formed them.

Jer 1:4

At this, Jeremiah felt his inability.

Jeremiah was unable to do this.

He was just a child, was his argument.

Jer.

1:

Jeremiah would’ve been about 30 at the time, some believe.

God’s response was

,

So we turn to our text.

Sermon Text:

Introduction Cont’d

We notice that God sent Jeremiah to the Potter’s house, for an object lesson so when God’s word came, he would better understand how to communicate it.

In verse 3, we notice “…I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels...”

The Potter always has a specific purpose in mind, a specific form in mind when he begins forming the clay.

I.

The Potter always has a specific purpose in mind, a specific form in mind when he begins forming the clay.

The Potter does not just throw a lump of clay on the wheel, hoping that something will come out that will be of use.

No, the Potter has a specific purpose for the clay, He knows what He wants to make.

Perhaps a baking pan, or a water pitcher, or a butter dish, or a drinking cup, or a flour jar…whatever He had in mind, would be predetermined before the clay was ever placed on the wheel.

Once it was determined what the Potter would make, He would begin the work.

After the clay was extracted from the ground, it was brought to the potter’s shop where it was prepared.

Foreign objects (such as stones, sticks, etc.) were removed and usually water was added to soften the clay.

Many times a tempering agent such as sand was added to make the clay more workable or to give it particular qualities desired by the potter.

One of the potter’s assistants prepared the clay by kneading it with his feet.

With the clay properly prepared, the potter was ready to form his vessels.

He did this on a potter’s wheel.

In the biblical period the potter’s wheel was a type called the “double wheel,” or “kick wheel.”

A flywheel, which turned on a stone bearing (many of which have been found in excavations) was placed in a shallow pit in the floor of the potter’s workshop.

A shaft was attached to the top of the flywheel and at the end of the shaft was a small, round wooden platform upon which the potter worked.

He placed the clay on the platform, turning the platform by kicking the flywheel with his foot.

As the lump of clay on the platform spun, the potter could form, or “throw,” a pot by guiding the clay with his fingers and allowing the centrifugal force to aid in shaping a symmetrical vessel.

Having formed the pot, the potter separated it from the remaining lump of clay by pinching it off with his fingers or cutting it off with a string.

After a vessel was formed, it was allowed to air dry to a “leather hard” condition before it was fired.

This drying process took several days, depending on the temperature and humidity.

When a sufficient number of pots were thus prepared, they were stacked in a kiln and baked for several hours to turn them into the impervious jars, bowls, and cooking pots which are studied so diligently by archaeologists today.

God had a specific purpose in mind for Judah.

That purpose is given in .

Turn there.

A linen girdle, well, that is an undergarment worn by those people in those days.

We would call it underwear today, but he was told to get some new underwear, put them on, and do not wash it.

Now Jeremiah is told to wear this underwear and travel 200 miles, and dig a hole and hide the underwear in the dirt under a rock.

Jer 13:

Now Jeremiah is told to go get the underwear.

200 more miles!

Jer.

Jeremiah finds the underwear, and it was marred.

The definition is following: “it was profitable for nothing.”

The undergarment could not be worn.

The undergarment could not be used for even a rag.

It was marred.

Jer 13:11

An undergarment is a garment worn in an intimate fashion.

It is close to us, closer to our bodies than anything else we wear, and God had created Judah for the purpose of cleaving unto Him.

“…that they might be unto me a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory...”

The problem was, they did not cleave to God.

Again in verse 11, “…but they would not hear…”

This purpose, when fulfilled, would make Judah intimately holy, because they would not be walking in the pride of their hearts, but in humility, walking in obedience to their Lord.

As a result, they would be people who walked in the light of God’s word, and would be the salt and life of the earth.

Judah had a specific purpose, to have an intimate relationship with God, so God could use them to be lights to the world.

God too, has a specific purpose for you and I.

That purpose is much and the same.

He has called us to walk intimately with Him, and in turn, we become lights to the world for the Lord.

Jer

II.

In order for the clay to be formed to the specific purpose in the mind of the Potter, it must be yielding.

Notice the clay here.

The vessel that the Potter was making became marred.

It was marred to the point that it could not fill its purpose.

God has a purpose for us.

That purpose has been since time began.

Gen. 1:26

,

Now, man is a sinner.

Man is opposed to the Lord’s will.

Man now, is a marred vessel.

One proof is necessary, and that is our affections.

An affection is: “A bent of mind towards a particular object” furthermore, “it is the desires of our heart that motivate us to worship the object of our desires.”

George Whitefield spoke of this in regards to man’s first estate, and his current state.

These, at his being first placed in the paradise of God, were always kept within proper bounds, fixed upon their proper objects, and, like so many gentle rivers, sweetly, spontaneously and habitually glided into their ocean, God.

But now the scene is changed.

For we are not naturally full of vile affections, which like a mighty and impetuous torrent carry all before them.

We love what we should hate, and hate what we should love; we fear what we should hope for, and hope for what we should fear; nay, to such an ungovernable height do our affections sometimes rise, that though our judgments are convinced to the contrary, yet we will gratify our passions though it be at the expense of our present and eternal welfare.

We feel a war of our affections, warring against the law of our minds, and bringing us into captivity to the law of sin and death.

There is a latin phrase, I approve of better things but follow worse, is too, too often the practice of us all.

The Problem: Judah had not yielded.

We have not yielded.

God has a purpose for us, and when we sin by our self-will, when we sin by our stubborn refusal to cleave to God, we are marred in the hands of the Potter.

The fault is not in the hands of the Potter.

STOP BLAMING GOD FOR OUR SINS!

James 1:13

Again in verse 4,

III.

So He Made It Again.