Jeremiah 18:1-10
VIDEO [THE POTTER’S HOUSE] Available in SermonCentral under video illustrations.
God is the Potter, we are the clay. When we consider the rule of God, His sovereignty, the concept of the relationship between a potter and the clay he molds must be understood. But man tends to think we know more than the God who made us. We see the culture thumb their noses at God saying “What right if any, does Almighty God (if there is indeed a God) have to dictate our morals and to tell us what is right and wrong?”
Many believe that they have this life all figured out and they will do things and live out their lives their way. But here is that facts: God rules in the affairs of men.
Napoleon, at the height of his career, is reported to have given this cynical answer to someone who asked if God was on the side of France: “God is on the side that has the heaviest artillery.” Then came the Battle of Waterloo, where Napoleon lost both the battle and his empire. Years later, in exile on the island of St. Helena, chastened and humbled, Napoleon is reported to have quoted the words of Thomas a Kempis: “Man proposes; God disposes.” This is the lesson with which history confronts us all. God is able to work his sovereign will—despite man. [1]
God is still on the throne. He rules over the entire universe, all of which He spoke into existence. One of the great theological debates has been over the sovereign will of God and man’s free will.
Richard Dawkins, noted British atheist and biologist, while on tour in the US, he tells those who will listen, that we have nothing to learn from religion. There is no such thing as God. Which leads to an interesting discussion based on a question asked Richard Dawkins on where morality comes from. Who determines right and wrong. To the atheistic world around us everything is relative.
This message today is not about the existence of God. The Bible makes no argument for God’s existence. God summed it up when he told Moses His name:
Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
God's name by which He calls Himself Shouts out His existence. But for God’s sovereignty – His right, ability, and power to exercise His absolute rule over the entire universe started back in Genesis:
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
God created it all. All of Creation belongs to him. God said:
Isaiah 44:6 “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me.
Jesus, who is God the Son, made a quite similar statement about Himself.
Revelation 22:13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
God the the beginning and the end of all things, we exist in the middle. As far as being God, the Scripture tells us that Jesus is the very agent of creation:
Colossians 1:15–17 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
We can see that because Jesus is before all things, because He created all things, He therefore has rule over all things. God rules overall whether we agree with this fact or not. When Jesus gave the church the Great Commission, Jesus said:
Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
Jesus has the power, and the authority, and every right, to make this command. We wonder about the will of God. The fact is God has plan for his Creation and this plan of God’s is in place:
Isaiah 14:26–27 This is the plan devised against the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations. 27 For the LORD of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?”
And God’s plan will succeed. We are told to pray for God’s plan to be accomplished.
Matthew 6:10 ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
God tells us that He will make it happen. He has the power do to so.
Deuteronomy 32:39–40 ‘See now that I, I am He, And there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, And there is no one who can deliver from My hand. 40 ‘Indeed, I lift up My hand to heaven, And say, as I live forever,
That leads us to today’s focal verses, the illustration of the potter. Notice that the Word of God came to Jeremiah, not during prayer, or in a vision, but while doing what God told Jeremiah to do.
Jeremiah 18:1–3 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD saying, 2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.” 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel.
So what did Jeremiah see at the Potter’s house? Not a grand creation, but a mess. So what did the potter do? He mashed the clay back down and reformed it.
Jeremiah 18:4 But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.
It was at this point God’s word came to Jeremiah. Using the potter and the clay as the example God goes on to say:
Jeremiah 18:5–6 Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, 6 “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.
God was speaking to the whole nation of Israel. God is informing them He can do with them as He wishes. God can do with us as He wishes. Both as a nation and individually. If you think about it, that’s a scary thought. God has set up whole nations and He has torn down the same. How much more so can he do with you and me?
Paul uses this same example. Who are we to question God as if we know better?
Romans 9:20–21 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?
But here is the catch. God gives us some latitude. He allows us to make some choices. So how is God to make His purposes work if we can do willy-nilly whatever we want? Often times God has stepped into history and make things happen.
Adam and Eve were free in the Garden, they only had one rule. And what did they choose to do? They broke the one rule God gave them. God had to step in, and He threw them out of the Garden and we have the curse of death still with us today.
Pharaoh did not want to let the children of Israel go. God stepped in with plagues. Now the whole story is that God harden Pharaoh’s heart, so that God can show His might to the world.
And as we will see, in the tragic history of Israel, they did not follow what God called them to do. And he brought in a foreign armies, and destroyed their country and drove them into captivity.
Jeremiah 18:7–8 At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; 8 if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it.
Whoa! God has plans to wipe out nations? He can and does. The people of the earth were evil and God wiped them all out with the flood – saving just Noah and his family.
God saw the evil of Sodom and Gomorrah and God brought down fire and brimstone.
God sent Jonah with a message to Nineveh- a one line sermon:
Jonah 3:4 Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
The king heard, put on sackcloth and ashes, and called his entire kingdom to do the same in repentance, then God:
Jonah 3:10 When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.
The precedence has been set. We need to take notice. God is not saying anything new here in Jeremiah that he has not already demonstrated in the past.
Jeremiah 18:9–10 Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it; 10 if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will think better of the good with which I had promised to bless it.
God had blessed Israel over and over. God waited patiently and warned them over and over. God’s patience is one thing that is not unlimited (but shows a lot more patience that I ever would have):
Jeremiah 18:11 So now then, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Behold, I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh turn back, each of you from his evil way, and reform your ways and your deeds.” ’
One last warning, but history and God’s word tells us they did not heed that warning. They thought that God would never let Jerusalem fall. God would never let His magnificent Temple be destroyed. But He did.
Fast forward a few thousand years. God has blessed America. Our country was birthed by the very blessing of Almighty God. We have been blessed with wealth and prosperity the rest of the world can only envy. Why do you think so many want to come here? Despite how horrible many in this country would want you to think we are, the cold fact is that people are breaking in to be here, not breaking out. Without a doubt, God has blessed this nation.
But now we cannot utter name of Jesus in public places. We have allowed the killing of over 60 million babies since 1973 – that’s 20% of the US population. We are slapping God in the face by sanctifying and making legitimate homosexuality, same sex marriage, and transgenderism. We think we know better than God by proclaiming to be any sex I choose to be. We celebrate perversion, which is pure evil, and teach it to our children. We think that all we need to do is slip in the name of God on to a party platform and we have done God a big favor. However of late, they don’t even do that anymore. They flaunt the exclusion of God. Jesus had a little something to say about that:
Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
God’s judgment is coming. The warnings have been sounded over and over. What is happening? The messenger is being shot. The world around us cannot stand the message the true church is proclaiming, so there are efforts about to shut the voice of church and of Christians. Jeremiah knew all about this. This is nothing new.
Jeremiah 18:18 Then they said, “Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah. Surely the law is not going to be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the sage, nor the divine word to the prophet! Come on and let us strike at him with our tongue, and let us give no heed to any of his words.”
Christians in our nation today are being attacked verbally just as Jeremiah was. We are being labeled as racist, homophobic, bigoted, and the list goes on, and our message is being discarded.
Make no mistake. God is sovereign. God has absolute rule over His creation. God has brought whole nations into existence and He has taken them out. What makes us think that He will not do the same to America? The same is true for us as individuals.
In His will, in His Sovereignty, he allows us to choose. But our choices has consequences. The choice is clear. God’s will or our will?
We can choose to go to heaven to be with God, or choose to go to hell. "But pastor" you say, "Nobody chooses to go to hell."
AW Tozer said: That’s one thing about heaven and hell—no one is in either place by accident. Hell is populated by people who chose to go there. They may not have chosen the destination, but they chose the highway. [2]
God’s authority is absolute. His will be done in the fullness of time. But in His absolute authority, He allows us to choose. This message from Jeremiah today is as much about judgment as it is about God’s sovereignty. God, in His mercy as warned us over and over and his judgment is surely coming.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
God will and purpose will be accomplished with us or without us. But the day is coming when all of creation will acknowledge Jesus is the Lord.
Philippians 2:10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
The key is who will choose to accept Him now, who will be obedient to His will.
What will you choose today?
[1] Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 172.
[2] A. W. Tozer and David E. Fessenden, The Attributes of God, Volume 2: Deeper into the Father's Heart (Camp Hill, PA: Wing Spread, 2001-), 160-61.
