JER.18:1-6 “HE DIDN’T THROW THE CLAY AWAY”
A) God is revealed to us in the Bible in many different figures!
* Supremely of course, God is the loving Heavenly Father ... He is also Creator of the worlds .......
* The Lord Of Hosts who leads the armies of Heaven, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
* Here, God is pictured as the Potter! * Jeremiah went down to the potter’s house .......
* And there he saw the way God deals with His own children. * Notice again v.5-6.
B) Repeat v.4! * You and I are the clay, God is the Potter!
* As we yield to His skillful hands, He molds us just the way He wants us to be.
* It isn’t the task of the clay to think up the pattern ... That’s the task of the potter!
* God has a perfect plan for each life. * All that the clay has to do is simply yield by faith into
the hands of the Potter and the Potter will do the rest!
(1) AS JEREMIAH WATCHED THE POTTER, HE NOTICED THAT THE VESSEL
WAS MARRED!
* Marred means: decayed, ruined, corrupt, spoiled, disfigured, wasted.
* This was not the fault of the potter, it was the fault of the clay, for the clay would not yield!
A) Now, if you were the potter and the clay refused to yield to your will, what would you do?
* I suppose most of us would throw the half completed vessel on the trash heap and start with
a new lump of clay! * But that’s not what the potter did!
B) He kept the wheel turning and He patiently worked with the clay!
* “He made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.”
* I like those four words, “He made it again!”
C) I think of Abraham, that great man of faith, who one day disobeyed God and left the
Promise Land for Egypt. * While in Egypt, he fell into sin and lied about his wife.
* In fact, because of his disobedience, he almost lost his wife.
* What did God do with Abraham? * Did God reject him and throw him on the trash heap?
* NO! He made him again! * He gave Abraham another chance!
* And as a result, Abraham became a great servant and was known as the friend of God!
D) I think of Peter, that great man of courage!
* Peter said to Jesus, “Though all others forsake You, I will never forsake You.”
* Yet, Peter denied the Lord three times!
* What did God do with Peter? * He made him again!
* Jesus forgave Peter and restored him to discipleship, and Peter became one of the greatest
soul-winners of all time to the glory of God!
E) I think of David, a man after God’s own heart, committed adultery, lied, and killed!
* What did God do with David? * He made him again!
F) Perhaps today, you are living under a dark cloud of defeat and despair!
* Perhaps you have disobeyed the Lord and have sinned against Him!
* Satan is accusing you and saying, “God is finished with you.”
* Listen my friend, God will forgive your sins and make you again!
* God isn’t through with you! * No need to despair!
* Get up, lift up your head, He will make you again, if you will surrender to His will!
G) There are many people who are living under the shadow of despair because they think
God is through with them! * Somewhere along the line, they have sinned.
* They have failed to yield to the Lord, and now they are convinced that this is the end!
* They would like to get back to church, or go back to serving the Lord again .......
* But they feel it is impossible, it’s all over, and they’re sure that God is through with them!
H) Now please, don’t get the idea that God minimizes sin, because He doesn’t!
* Rom.6:1-2 “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that ...? God forbid. How shall ...”
* You know and I know that God does chasten His children if they continue to disobey Him!
* There is no place for rebels in God’s family! * If one of His children refuses to obey and
persists in deliberate sin, God does chasten and use the rod – Heb.12:5-11!
* But there is a second thing to note here in our text, and that is:
(2) THE POTTER IS PATIENT WITH THE CLAY! * “So he made it again another .......”
* Ps.103:14 “For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.”
A) If the clay refuses to yield, or if it becomes so hard that the potter can’t shape it, then there is
nothing to do but to put the clay on the shelf and forget it!
* But before that happens, the Potter lovingly and patiently deals with us to bring us to the place of
surrender!
* After all, God has quite an investment in our lives, because Jesus shed His blood to save us from
our sins! * This clay He is fashioning is not cheap clay!
* It is the most expensive in all the universe! * “So he made it again another vessel as .......”
B) This is Jeremiah’s way of saying what the Apostle John wrote in 1 Jn.1:9 “If we .......”
* The word “confess” does not simply mean to admit ... It means more than that!
* It literally means “to say the same thing.” * In other words, if we say the same things about our
sins as God says about them, God is faithful to His promise and just and will forgive .......
* Trying to explain our sins or excuse our sins will never open the door of forgiveness!
* We must admit them, name them as sin, turn from them, and ask God to forgive them!
C) Forgiveness, being made again is not just a matter of God’s love or even God’s grace!
* 1 Jn.1:9 “...God is faithful and just to .......” * What does that mean?
* Well, Jesus paid for all our sins on the cross and we’ve accepted Him as our Savior.
* God will not hold against us the sins that Christ died for!
D) He is a just God and faithful to His word! * Song: “It Is Well With My Soul.”
* Backslider, your past sins before you were saved are still under the blood!
* It’s those sins you have done since you were saved that need cleansing!
* They are still on the books, not forgiven!
E) Of course, knowing that Christ died for all my sins and that God will forgive me is no excuse
for sin ... Quite the contrary!
* Knowing that sin nailed Jesus to the cross should make us hate it and want to flee from it!
* But let’s not make forgiveness such a difficult thing that we rob ourselves of this blessing!
* The death of Christ on the cross and the intercession of Christ right now up in Heaven, are full
provision for our cleansing!
CLOSE
A) If you are defeated and discouraged because of some disobedience, please pay close
attention to God’s Word!
* “So he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.”
* 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to ...”
B) Please don’t punish yourself and live under a dark cloud!
* God will forgive, God will forget, God will bring you out into the sunlight of His blessing!
* He will make you again! * All that He asks is that you surrender!
C) He is the Potter, you are the clay! * The Potter has the plan!
* All the clay has to do is yield! * Let Him make you again, will you?
