LIVES MADE OVER
Jeremiah 18:1-5
A product with which most of us have grown up is Ivory soap. Besides being 99.44% pure, it has two uncommon qualities among soap. (1) It floats, and (2) it is the oldest of the best-sellers. But, it hasn’t always been that way!
Years ago Ivory soap was just another brand among many. But then, one day, a factory foreman blundered by leaving a batch of new soap unwatched in the cooking vat during noon hour. His lunch was delayed and the soap over-cooked. However....
Rather than report the mistake and risk losing his job, the foreman decided to make the best of it. He shipped out the batch anyway. It seemed to clean as well - although it WAS much lighter.
The results surprised everyone. Because, rather than complaints, the company was deluged with orders for the new ’floating’ soap. So, rather than being fired, the foreman was promoted when he cooperated with the company chemists to revise and modify the old formula to make the soap that floats.
Many who have made mistakes of have learned that there can be "Blessing from blunders" - "a silver lining behind every dark cloud" - that "good can come from grief - and profit may come from peril" - We have been told, and often tell others to "pick up the pieces and be positive" - "move on" - for, "it is always possible to make something better out of something bad." Beloved, that is exactly the way God works with us. There are many times that we may do wrong; a mistake of yielding to the flesh marrs our life. Our attititudes and action cause us to fall short of God’s intended design, but He does not toss us aside as something that is worthless, or useless. Rather, He remakes us (over and again, if necessary) until He has completed in us that which He purposed before we ever were.
This morning, as we look at the text, we must preface it by pointing out the fact that Jeremiah, the prophet, had a lesson to learn; a lesson that involved the patience of God with His people who had consitently rebelled against Him.
As we look at the first chapter of the book which bears his name, we find that Jeremiah was called and sanctioned by God. He was ordained to be a prophet unto the nations. It is believed that Jeremiah was just a young man of 21 years of age. He was also a man without experience in this field of prophesying....but, age and lack of experience did not matter because when God called him, He also equipped him for the task.
Verse 10 of chapter one reveals to us the tremendous responsibility which had been laid upon Jeremiah, for God said: "See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to thrown down, to build and to plant."
I suppose that the best illustration of this call from God, is that of a field being cleared and prepared for use. Over on North Litchfield road there is just such a field. A few months ago it was overgrown with scrub brush. But one day, as I drove by I noticed that all the brush had been cut down. Then later, I passed by and saw men with small ’bobcat’ loaders digging up the roots of the trees that had been cut down. Placing them in a large pile, they were then burned. Soon the field will be completely cleared, and no doubt, planted and an eventual harvest will come of it.
Beloved, this was exactly what Jeremiah was to do in Israel and Judah. He was to go in and prepare the hearts of God’s people for restoration that would lead to their usefulness to God. They had become overgrown with the thorny scrub-brush of idolatry. Their love for God had been choked out by their indifference to Him....and the message God would send unto his people through his prophet would change them!
Now, in the first chapter, we also find that Jeremiah made excuses because He did not want to accept the challenge of so great a responsibility. He said, in verse 6, "...behold, I cannot speak; for I am a child." But God refuted his excuse by saying, "say not I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee....behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.....therefore, gird up thy loins, and arise and speak all that I command thee....be not dismayed at their faces....for I have made thee this day, a defensed city, an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land....and they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee, for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.
In the chapters that follow, we find that Jeremiah is faithful and obedient to all that God has commanded him. He goes to the nations....he cries out against them....he faces the opposition of the people and the kings and princes....yet, he is not silenced. He is persecuted...his life is threatened over and again...yet he keeps on prophesying. For forty years he is faithful to God’s call....and then one day, Jeremiah has had enough and he gets discouraged. Seeing no results to his preaching...he finally says within himself, "Israel is hopless. Judah is a lost cause. They will never turn back to God and I can do nothing for them." The attitude of his heart was, "The people are useless. They will never repent and return unto thee. They will never glorify you. So, Lord God, just toss them aside and forget about them."
It was then in his discouragement that God told Jeremiah to go down to the potter’s house, and said ’...there I will cause thee to hear my words." You see, Jeremiah had a lesson to be learned.; a lesson abou the patient love and forebearance of God with his people.
Well, what happened at the potter’s house? Beloved, it was there that Jeremiah saw the potter take a lump of clay into his hands, and placing it upon a spinning wheel, begin to shape and mold it according to the design which he had already purposed in his own heart and mind. Yet, there were times in which the clay did mold and conform to that design. It was actually marred in the potter’s hands because of it’s resistance and inconsistency as clay. However, the potter did not become discouraged with the vessel and toss it away as something that was worthless and useless. Rather, he just remade it. He worked with it over and again....as many times as was necessary....until finally it became what he had first determined it would be. Thus God would do the same with Israel and Judah.
Now, there are three things I want us to consider here from this passage....
First of all, GOD HAS A PLAN FOR EVERY LIFE. If anyone should know this, it should have been Jeremiah. Had he looked back forty years he would have remembered that God told him, "I have called thee. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew thee and sanctified you to be a prophet to the nations. Just as God had a purpose for Jeremiah, He also had a purpose for the nation Israel. For, it was through that nation of people, the seed of Abraham that God would bless all the nations of the earth with the coming of His Son, Christ Jesus, their promised Messaiah.
However, it seemed that Israel had forgotten that. But, then, they had forgotten a lot of things. They had forgotten that God had literally redeemed them and delivered them from the bondage of slavery to Egypt. They had forgotten that God had brought them into the land of promise...and they had forgotten that God was ready to bless them all the days of their life, so long as they remained faithful to Him. It was only when they turned their back upon God and served the gods of the inhabitants of Canaan that Israel suffered the loss of God’s protection and prosperity. Because of their sin they became marred, even while in the Potter’s hand.
Now, this morning we might ask, "How can that be?" Well, just as it was with Adam and Eve and original sin....man has a mind of his own to do as he wills. God has created us as free agents. We can either choose to walk in fellowship with Him, or else we can turn away. We can either chhose to yield ourselves to Him and walk in the power of His Spirit, or else we can yield to the flesh and marr ourselves as we miss God’s intended purpose and design for our life.
Beloved, all too often we are quick to criticize Israel as a nation. How culd they have been so blind? How could they have been so stubborn and rebellious? How could they have turned and walked away from the fellowship of God and all that He had blessed them with? Well, the answer is simple? There was a resistance and an inconsistency about them that is like a piece of clay!
You see, when the potter found the vessel to be marred even though His hands were that of a master craftsman, it was not his fault. He had the perfect design in mind, but the clay had imperfections in it. As the potter tried to mold the vessel, a lump of hardened clay, or a small stone, would come to the surface and push the potters hand away and cause there to be a change in the design. There was an inconsistency in the very material make-up of the clay.....just like man who is by nature a sinner.
I heard the story of a young man who had lived a very unsavory life. He had committed just about every sin imaginable. But one night he wandered into a little church where a revival meeting was being held, and there he knelt at the altar, confessing his sin and finding forgiveness. He tried very hard to change his life, but found it very difficult, because temptations were so great. One night, after a day of struggling with temptation, he called his pastor and asked to meet with him; and, when he did, he wept, saying, "He just won’t leave me alone. The pastor, thinking that he was speaking of the devil, told him about the warfare that we face every day of our life, but the young man said, "No! I’m not talking about the devil. I am talking about God. He won’t let me live wrong, but He won’t make me live right."
Beloved, it is true that God does not want us to live wrong, but at the same time He allows us the freedom to make choices. Sometimes those choices are wrong. He has a plan for our life....a plan that will conform us to the very image of His Son, Christ Jesus. But like the clay, our life presents resistance....the imperfections of a nature that is bent on sinning, throws his hands away from time to time, and the design he has had for our life is marred. But, notice something so beautiful....something so comforting....he does not throw us away! he never rejects us as being useless or worthless, but He just continues the work of remaking us until the design is complete.
How many times there are those believers who have had their life marred by sin and disobedience. In a stubborness of their will they walked in the very same sins from which Christ had saved them. And then, because of the guilt and shame they bore, they came to believe the lie of the devil, who said, "God doesn’t love you anymore. You have messed up so bad this time, God doesn’t even want to hear your petty excuses or confession. He is through with you for good, this time!"
Beloved, don’t believe it! And, if you happen to be looking out at someone else and thinking the same thing, don’t believe it because those who are saved by the grace of God are his purchased possession. Jesus said that those who are His are held firmly in the Father’s hand...and no man can pluck them out........................... but, also understand that God, himself will not open his hand and cast them out!
Throughout the scriptures we read about the Divine forebearance of God! Unlike us, who may become weary with ourself and others, and forsaking them...God never walks away from us. It does not matter what you have done or how badly you have failed....God loves you! And it is His desire and intent to keep on working with you and in you until the day in which his design is complete.
Whenever you feel that your life is too marred to ever be useful to God, think of men like Moses, and David, and Paul. Every single one of them participated in a murder. Each of them was bent on fulfilling their own desires even though it meant being totally out of the will of God. And yet, God kept on working with them until his design was complete. Moses became the leader of a nation; leading them to the land of promise. David was the king of a great nation; and Paul became an apostle to the gentile and was the greatest missionary the world has ever known. How did it happen? Because God didn’t give up on them....but like the potter he put them back on the wheel and kept it spinning and he applied the gentle pressure and movement of his hands that would shape their lives to His glory.
Beloved, God told Jeremiah, "What the potter can do with the clay, I can also do with Israel." And, beloved, what he did with Israel, he can also do with anyone of us.
Too often, believers who have failed to walk in the power of God’s Spirit; believers who have backslidden and walked in a lie, rather than in the truth, come to a point of thinking, "I’ve wasted so much time. I have done so much wrong. My walk with God and his plan for my life can never be the same again. Well, it can. And God has assured us of that in many different ways, and one is in his message to Israel through the prophet Joel. God’s judgment was coming against the nation because of their idolatry....but God sent his prophet with this message in Joel 2. Repent and return to me...."And I will retsore unto you the years that the locust have eaten, the cankerworm and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm; my great army which I sent among you. And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God..."
Beloved, Israel had spent years in poverty and spiritual bankruptcy because they had wandered away from God.....but he did not give up on them. he did not toss them away. he just kept on working with them....shaping molding...ever loving His people. And His simple, yet powerful promise was this.....the wasted years shall be restore. There will be plenty and the world will know that I love you.
I close with this simple illustration. If you had a two karat diamond in a ring that you wore daily....and something happened that the diamond was chipped; you would never consider throwing it away. rather, you would take it to a gemologist and a place it within his care to cut and refacet it. True, when he was finished, it would no longer be a two karat diamond. But perhaps it would be a one and one-half karat, or may be even a one karat diamond. But even though it was not as big as it once was, it is still a stone that will refract the light which it catches. Beloved, your life, no matter hard it has been knocked around and marred by sin is never useless to God. He will simply cut and refact to restore its’ beauty in such a way that it will reflect His light for all around to see.
