The Potter’s Wheel, Part 1, is a sermon about submitting our lives to God. Using the potter’s wheel as a simple object lesson, we are taught that God’s plans, His desires, and His will are better than ours, and He will mold us to serve Him.
Key verses:
Jeremiah 18:1-10
Take your Bible and turn with me now, if you will, to the Book of Jeremiah, the prophet Jeremiah, and chapter 18, Jeremiah chapter 18. If you find Psalms, you go to Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, The Song of Solomon, and then Isaiah and Jeremiah. You’ll come to it, Jeremiah chapter 18.
The Weeping Prophet
By the time that Jeremiah wrote this, Isaiah, the prophet, had passed away. God raised up other prophets to proclaim His message to His people. There were great preachers that came along. Preachers such as Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Jeremiah. Jeremiah preached, and he preached to the people of the Southern Kingdom, that would be Judah in general and Jerusalem in particular.
But the people didn’t listen to Jeremiah the preacher. He preached, but the people did not repent. Judgment came. King Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army came down upon Judah and took the people captive, taking them away from their land back to the land of Babylon. Think of present-day Iraq. That’s the territory we’re talking about, and they stayed there for 70 years.
But Jeremiah was one of those who was not taken. He stayed, and he preached to the remnant of the people who were left behind. He’s known as the weeping prophet. God sent him to preach, but the people would not listen to his message. They would not heed what God had said through him. They went on and sinned. They went on in rebellion. They went on in selfishness. They went on in judgment.
And Jeremiah became discouraged. Discouragement will get to you if you let it. It is as contagious as influenza. It is as contagious as the COVID-19 virus. Anyone can be discouraged. It can happen to you. It can happen to me. The key is not to stay there. So, Jeremiah became discouraged.
Why, preachers don’t get discouraged, do they? They certainly do. They get discouraged when they plead with people to leave their sins and give God first place in their life, and the people refuse. Preachers get discouraged when people are not loyal to their church. Preachers get discouraged when people do not trust the Lord with their full hearts. They do not heed his call to surrender completely to Him and it comes when people continue to be selfish.
Employers get discouraged. Employers get discouraged when employees fail to give their best work. Parents get discouraged when their children are stubborn and disobedient. Everyone gets discouraged when things go wrong, when goals are not reached, and when plans fail.
A Lesson from God
Jeremiah became discouraged, but God said to Jeremiah, “I’ve got a lesson for you.” And He has a lesson for us this morning. I want us to read it together, Jeremiah chapter 18. We’re going to begin at verse 1 and we’ll go down through verse 10. Jeremiah chapter 18 verses 1 to 10, it says:
Jeremiah 18:1: “The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,”
Jeremiah 18:2: “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.”
Jeremiah 18:3: “Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.”
Jeremiah 18:4: “And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.”
Jeremiah 18:5: “Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,”
Jeremiah 18:6: “O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.”
Jeremiah 18:7: “At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;”
Jeremiah 18:8: “If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.”
Jeremiah 18:9: “And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;”
Jeremiah 18:10: “If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.”
This is the message that God had for Jeremiah in his day at a time of discouragement.
Verse one says, “The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD.” I want you to notice that that’s something you could read over and just keep going, not think much about it. But it says, “The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD.” I want to tell you something about this book we call the Bible. This book is the Word of God himself; this is God speaking. And you have it stated over and over and over in the Bible and this is one of those places, one of many places where it said this is the Word of the Lord. This is not just how Jeremiah felt. This is not an idea that Jeremiah came up with.
This is the Word which the Lord spoke to Jeremiah to give to the people in his day and to give to us today and for all people of all time all around the world:
Jeremiah 18:1: “The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,”
Jeremiah 18:2: “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.”
So, God has an object lesson that He wants to give to Jeremiah. What’s an object lesson? It’s where you use something physical to show a spiritual truth. He has an object lesson for Jeremiah. He said I want you to get up and go down to the potter’s house. What’s the potter’s house? Well, that’s where the potter takes clay and makes pots for holding water and other items and for cooking. In those days, most of the pottery was made from clay. Today, we use metal pots and we use synthetic pots, and other things.
I just wonder, most of the men won’t remember this, but I think you ladies, some of you will, not all of you probably, but some of you will. Do you remember a long time ago and not terribly long ago? I’m going back maybe 40 years, 30, 40, 50 years, something like that, a very popular cooking dish called CorningWare. Do you remember that? Okay. How many of you remember that? Okay, a couple of guys got their hands up. I’m surprised. Okay, I don’t see that much anymore. Maybe it’s still around. I haven’t seen it in a long time.
But that was a ceramic type of thing. It’s molded much in the way that a pot would be molded. So, the pot, think of how today you do ceramics. So, maybe let’s check this out. How many of you do or have done ceramics? Okay, same idea. You take the clay, and you mold it, and you shape it, and it was shaped on the potter’s wheel. You would spin the wheel and mold it out there. Then you take that, and you bake it so that it becomes hardened. And then you’ve got a good strong pot for holding things and sometimes cooking.
So, that’s important to understand what’s happening here. So, Jeremiah is told to go to the potter’s house and see what the potter’s doing.
Molding a Masterpiece
Now, I want you to notice something look at verse two again. God says to Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 18:2: “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.”
Go down there, I’ve got something to say to you, Jeremiah. I’ve got something to show you. Notice the first few words of verse three, “Then I went down to the potter’s house.” Do you know what Jeremiah did? He did what God told him to do. Do you know what he didn’t do? Just go. “I don’t need to go to the potter’s house. Nothing down there that interests me. I’m not interested in pottery. I’m not interested in making pottery. Oh, I use it sometimes, but I buy what I use. I don’t need to make it. I don’t need to learn how to make it. Nothing there for me.” He didn’t do that.
See, we do that sometimes. “Why do I need to go and do what God tells me to do? I got a better idea. I’ve got more important things to do. I don’t need to know all these things that God’s telling me to do. It’s not really on my agenda.”
God said Jeremiah go to the potter’s house. Jeremiah went to the potter’s house, “and, behold, he [the Potter] wrought a work on the wheels.” He’s molding clay. You heard the message in the song a little bit ago, molding a masterpiece. God molds a masterpiece in our life. That was a wonderful song about parenting and every parent is molding a masterpiece. But God works in our lives to inform us, to shape us, to mold us, and here, the Lord is telling Jeremiah to watch the Potter make the clay. Verse 4:
Jeremiah 18:4: “And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.”
“And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter.” What does that mean? It means, as he was making it, there was something wrong with it. Maybe it was not shaped exactly as it should be. Maybe it was not even. Maybe there was a little hole that formed in the side of it. I’m not sure, but something about it wasn’t right. Something about it wasn’t perfect.
Now, listen. You know what he did? He took the clay that he had molded into a pot that wasn’t right, and he crushed it. He pushed it down, and it no longer had the shape of a pot anymore. But it is the same clay. It’s important that you understand that he took that which was marred, and he crushed it. He wasn’t finished with it. He didn’t take it and scoop it off the table and throw it in the trash can. He’s still working with it.
Made by the Master Potter
Verse four:
Jeremiah 18:4: “And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.”
He made it again, another vessel. He took that same clay and made a new pot from the same clay that seemed good to the potter to make it. Let me talk to you about my life and yours. We are created in the image of God. We are made by the master potter. He created us in the image of God so that we would be like Him. But in our lives what happens is we mar that perfect picture, and we aren’t the image of God that we should be, and the reason for that is in the Bible. The Bible makes this very clear. We’ve all sinned and come short of the glory of God.
What is sin? Sin is violating the Word of God, disobeying the will of God. We violate what God’s Word says. God says, “You shall not do this.” We say, “Well, I’m going to do it anyway, or the Bible says you should do this, not me. I’m not doing it.” We violate the Word of God. We violate the will of God. We know what God wants us to do, where He wants us to go, what He wants to say, who He wants us to talk to. He knows we know who He wants us to be. He said, “You know what? That’s all fine.”
“But I got my own plans. I’m going to do what I want to do. I know you want me to go here and do this Lord, but I’m not. I’ve got other things to do. I’ve got it all planned out.” James says to be careful about that. He says:
James 4:14: “For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”
So, Jeremiah watches this potter mold a new vessel out of the same clay, not different clay. He didn’t make more clay. He used the same clay and that’s what happens when we are born again. That’s why Jesus said we must be born again, not we should be born again, not it’s a good idea it might help you a little bit. He said, no, you must be born again. Why? We are created in the image of God, but sin has destroyed the image of God in our lives. And so, the Lord comes, and He says you know what? I’ll pay for your sin, and He did. He paid the penalty for our sins at the cross. Therefore, when we come to God we say, “Lord, I want you to forgive my sins.” He looked at us and said that that sin was paid for at the cross. “I forgive you.” But then He puts His Spirit within us, and we become a new creation.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if any man,” – any person “be in Christ, he is a new creature:” – literally a new creation, “old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new,” – just like the potter. The potter took that old vessel that wasn’t right, it was imperfect, he crushed it, and he molded it up again. A brand-new vessel that was right and was perfect and that’s what He wants to do in the lives of every one of us. That’s the whole idea of this object lesson here.
Look at verse five:
Jeremiah 18:5: “Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,”
God speaking again, He says:
Jeremiah 18:6: “O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.”
You know what God’s saying? “So, Jeremiah, you’ve seen this. You’ve seen what I want to do in the life of an individual. You’ve seen how I took that which was imperfect. I had to crush it. But I made it again, and now it is perfected. I want to do that with the life of people.” But you know what else He’s saying? “I want to do it in the life of the nation of Israel.” Do you know what He’s saying today? “I want to do that in the life of America.” The vessel’s been marred but it can be made again.
“What are you talking about?” I’m talking about God and the Holy Spirit of God working in the hearts and lives of individuals. And if He works in the hearts and lives of individuals, He works in the hearts and lives of groups of people who become a great nation. It all starts with us surrendering our hearts to Him. So, verse six again:
Jeremiah 18:6: “O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.”
Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, He can mold us. He can make us. He can shape us. He can cause us to be useful. That which was not useful because it was marred, because it was flawed, because it was imperfect can be molded again and used again.
Concerning Nations
Then, in verse seven, God says:
Jeremiah 18:7: “At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;”
Do you know God does that? He takes kingdoms and nations, and He destroys them. Why? Because they’ve sinned. Think of the example in Genesis chapter 19 of the two cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. In those days you had city-states, and a city-state is a city, usually a large city, that is considered to be its own independent country. The Greek culture was full of those. Athens was its own independent country. Different other Greek cities were their own city-states independent of all the others. They were rich.
Eventually, I might say, they eventually were brought together as an empire. But for many centuries, it was not so. And Sodom and Gomorrah were independent states. Each one had a king. They were cities, but they had a king, and they fought with each other. They sometimes teamed up and fought with other people.
Abraham got involved in that in his time though he was not a king, and he did not have a city. The Bible says he looked for a city whose builder and maker was God, not made with man’s hands. But Sodom and Gomorrah, these city-states that had kings, gave themselves over completely to that which God says was sin, that which God says was wickedness to God, that which God says was abominable. In the Bible, when it talks about an abomination, that’s something that’s a sin that’s so wretched it makes God sick.
So, God brought down destruction upon Sodom and Gomorrah. He literally rained fire from heaven. “Well, how do you rain fire?” Think of hot molten lava when a volcano erupts, and the lava shoots out of it and it comes down.
I remember, and some of you will. Some of you are too young to remember when Mount St. Helens erupted in Washington state. I’ve been to Mount St. Helens. I’ve been to the base of it and have flown by it in an airplane. I haven’t climbed up the mountain. For years, they wouldn’t allow you to do that. I’m not sure if you can do it now, and maybe some of you would know. But for years, you couldn’t go up on it.
It was in Washington state. It’s still there, Mount St. Helens volcanic mountain, and it erupted. Now, Washington state is the extreme northwest corner of the continental United States. “Why do you say continental?” Alaska is farther north and farther west, but it’s separated from the rest by Canada. Washington state is the extreme northwest corner of the United States.
The volcano erupted, and the lava spewed up out of it. Things happen in minutes on that mountain that geologists previously thought took thousands of years to happen. It was that gigantic a change, that cataclysmic, and the ash from that volcano that erupted in Washington state made its way all the way over to the state of New Jersey all the way on the east coast of the United States. Round numbers, not precisely, but round numbers, that’s 2,000 miles away.
When you think of God raining down fire from Heaven, what you’re talking about is brimstone, “Oh, you’re a fire and brimstone preacher.” I planned to be. But what is brimstone? It is hot molten rock. Think hot lava. Think of that which erupts out of a volcano and comes raining back down. That’s exactly what it’s talking about. God literally burned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah off the face of the Earth.
But there are other times when God brings down nations and empires. We’ve talked this morning about the Babylonian empire, a great empire in its day. The city of Babylon became the nation of Babylon, which became the empire, and they were conquering what we would today call the Middle East. They had conquered much of it, but they attacked the people of Israel. They took them captive, took them back to Babylon, and in just a matter of decades, just a matter of decades, the Babylonian empire ceased to exist.
The Medo-Persian empire, Persia, think present-day Iran, took over and overthrew the Babylonian empire. And the Persian empire became a great empire, and ruled over most of the Middle East, and went up to conquer Greece. The goal was to conquer most of Europe and the rest of the world if they could. But then the Persian empire fell, and then you had the great Greek empire. These countries are still around today: Iraq, Iran, Greece, and others. They’re still around today, but they’re no longer great empires.
God has pulled them down. The Greek empire went away and fell, and the Roman empire replaced the Greek empire. The Roman empire went out and conquered all the world they cared about. They did not conquer the entire planet. They knew about much of the rest of the planet. Perhaps they didn’t know about all of it. I’m not sure, but they knew about much of the rest of the planet. They just weren’t interested in it. They didn’t think there was anything there that they needed, so they conquered all of the empires that they wanted. The Roman empire extended from Rome, the city of Rome, and Italy, down into the African continent, up into the European continent, and into Western Asia. The great Roman Empire is no more. That fell.
God raises up nations, and He tears them down. He raises up lands, and He tears them down. So, in verse seven, He says:
Jeremiah 18:7: “At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;”
When We Repent
Verse eight:
Jeremiah 18:8: “If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.”
Do you know what God’s saying there? “When I say that a nation is finished, when I say my judgment is coming, when I say I’m going to bring it down. If the people will repent, if they’ll turn back to me, they’ll turn away from their sin, and they’ll give their heart to me, I will no longer carry out that judgment. I will put a halt on my plans to destroy them.”
Do you know what God says to you and me? If we turn from our sin and we turn to Him, and we give our heart to Him, He’s going to bless us. He’s not going to destroy us. He’s going to bless us. Jesus put it this way, however. He said:
Luke 19:10: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Jesus was talking to Nicodemus when He said He did not come “into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” He came to save us, and then He said:
John 3:18: “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.’
That’s John 3:17 and 18. What God is saying here is, “I give you space to repent. I give you time to turn to me. I tell you to put your faith and trust in me. I will forgive you. I will save you. I will give you everlasting life. You’ll have a home in heaven with me forever.”
Do you know what some people say? “Don’t want it. I don’t want it. I don’t want anything that interferes with my plans. I want to do what I want to do. It doesn’t matter what God says or anybody else. I’m going to do what I want to do.” And they go on with their life. They go on towards death. They go on towards destruction.
In verse eight, God says:
Jeremiah 18:8: “If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.”
Jeremiah 18:9: “And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;”
“I say, I’m going to build this up. I’m going to bless you. I’m going to give you a blessing.”
Jeremiah 18:10: “If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.”
So, God says if a nation is corrupt, if a people group is corrupt, but they’ll turn to God, He’ll forgive them. He’ll save them. But He also says, “If I promise to bless you and I promise to give you the good things that I desire for you to have, but you will not, you’ll not have it, do not have me, then I’ll withdraw those blessings.”
I’m going to tell you something, folks. I think that we as a society are just about in the verse 10 situation right now:
Jeremiah 18:10: “If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.”
“I want to bless you. You turned away from me. I wanted to give you my good things, but you chose evil things.” How does a country get to be that way? Now, listen to me. Stay with me. I’ll tell you how a country gets to be that way. It gets to be that way because individuals become that way. Nations, states, counties, cities, and neighborhoods are made up of people. If the people are right, then the neighborhood and the city and the county and the state and the nation are going to be right. Now, if the people are wrong, then all of the rest of it’s going to be wrong. We have to begin with people who give their heart to the Lord.
So, the potter took the clay and remolded it and remade it, and that’s what God says He wants to do. He wants to show His mercy and His power even though we’ve sinned. He wants to renew us and restore us. He wants to make us over again. The great news is that this wasn’t just something that was in Jeremiah’s day.
Live Like God Exists
Do you know Jeremiah lived not quite but almost 3,000 years ago? Jeremiah lived about 2,600 years ago.
“Why do you tell me that?” I’m telling you that because God’s still in the remolding, remaking business. He hasn’t gone away. He hasn’t changed. He says, “I am the Lord. I change not.” So, no matter how deep we are in sin, no matter how bad things are for us, no matter how discouraged we are, if at that point, like the old hillbilly song some of you might remember said, “Gloom, despair, and agony on me. Deep dark depression, excessive misery. If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.” Maybe you’re feeling like that.
God can remold you. He can remake you. He can make you a vessel fit for His service. He has a plan for your life, and it is God’s plan. Number one is that we recognize Him as God. Maybe you’re thinking, “Well, of course God is God.” But not everybody thinks that way. Many people live their entire lives ignoring God so that they can go as far as they can away from Him, away from His Word, and away from what it teaches.
Some will admit that He exists, but they feel that He has little, if any, direct bearing on their lives. They just live their life. They don’t say there’s no God. They live like God doesn’t exist.
So, we must not only acknowledge that God exists, but we need to acknowledge Him as the Lord of lords and King of kings. We need to recognize God as God and let Him be the Lord of our lives. Now, it’s God’s plan that we be saved. There’s only one way to be saved, and that’s through faith in Jesus Christ.
“But I’m in church, preacher.” I’m glad you’re in church. It’s the Lord’s Day. We ought to be in church, but that doesn’t save you. We’re all sinners, and as such, we are guilty and deserving of Hell. “Preacher, you’re not one of those guys who believes in Hell?” I am. “Why?” Because the Bible says so.
In order to be saved, we must come to Jesus Christ by faith. We must trust Him to cleanse us from sin. Peter says in the Book of Acts:
Acts 4:12: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
None under the name than what? Jesus Christ. That’s the truth that divides the world. There are really only two kinds of people in the world. There are saved people and lost people. It’s that plain and simple. Many try to work their way to Heaven, but Jesus said if any man tries to climb up any other way, he’s a thief and a robber. Good morals, baptism, and church membership all have their place. But they won’t save your soul. It’s God’s will for you to be saved. 2 Peter 3:9 says:
2 Peter 3:9: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
“Long-suffering to us-ward,” – that means He’s patient with us. Paul writes Timothy and says:
1 Timothy 2:4: “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
God would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. That doesn’t mean that all people are going to be saved. It means we need to turn to the Savior. You cannot earn your own salvation. Paul writes:
Ephesians 2:8: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:”
Ephesians 2:9: “Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
What does that mean? It means nobody gets to Heaven and brags about it. Nobody gets to Heaven, looks around, and says, “You know my neighbor, he’s not here because I was better than him.” Nobody gets to say that. Everybody who’s there is just like the old publican who prayed next to the proud Pharisee and said, “Lord be merciful to me, a sinner for Jesus’ sake.”
The world has certain expectations. They expect a Christian to live differently after they’re saved than before they were saved. We sang that a while ago, “Oh, what a wonderful, wonderful day, a day I will never forget, Heaven came down and Glory filled my soul.” Everything changed, everything changed. I was telling the young people the other day that when I trusted Jesus as my Savior, everything in my life changed in one day. That began a process of spiritual growth, but salvation is not a process. Salvation occurs at that time. The pastor that led me to the Lord said, “It takes about 30 seconds to become a believer and to be saved, and it takes a lifetime to live the Christian life.” He’s right about that.
Submit Our Lives to the Lord
The world expects us to live differently after salvation. The world expects us to stay out of questionable places. The world expects us to live a life that backs up the message that we preach and expects us to be Christ-like.
Ephesians 4:32: “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”
This is God’s plan for you to be loyal to His church.
Ephesians 5:5: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;”
Now, the church is not man’s institution. It’s God’s. Somebody said to me this week, and I’ve heard this countless times over the years, somebody said to me this week, “You own the church here?” I do not, never did, and never will. I do not own the church. “Well, who owns the church?” God. The church is to make the good news of Jesus Christ known to all men. That’s our mission.
“Is God’s plan for us to be like Jesus?” many of us cannot speak the language which Jesus spoke. We cannot walk where He walked. We don’t look like He looked, but we can be like Him.
Acts 4:13: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.”
There ought to be something different. I’m going to tell you a story. I’m not telling you this to make me look good. I’m telling you this to make Jesus look good. Many years ago, in another state, back in my college days, I was working for a parking lot company. The parking lot company had parking lots all over the city and one of the parking lots they had was the one by the city auditorium. A lot of things went on at the city auditorium, and among those things, they would have rock concerts there. I mean the big-name rock musicians would come from all over.
One night, they were having a rock concert there. You say, who was it? I don’t remember some big-name rock performer was there, and a lot of people there. A fella came in a Cadillac from the 1940s. I had driven a couple of those prior to that when I worked for a Cadillac dealer. But he came in a Cadillac from the 1940s. Now, this was the 1970s, and he parked it, and he got out. That old 1940s Cadillac had big, wide fenders. He got out and he perched himself, sat on the left driver’s side front fender. He took a bottle of liquor out of his pocket, popped a cork on it, and began to drink.
I walked over as the parking lot attendant. I said, “Sir, I’m sorry you’re not allowed to drink in the parking lot here.” That’s all I said to him. Let me ask you something. Does anything sound particularly spiritual about that to you? It doesn’t, does it? No. That’s all I said to him. I said, “Sir, I’m sorry, you’re not allowed to drink in the parking lot here.”
He put his bottle down. He looked at me and said, “You know Jesus, don’t you?” Now, did I say anything about Jesus? No. All I said is that you’re not allowed to drink on the parking lot. But right away, he said, “You know Jesus, don’t you?” I said, “Well, as a matter of fact, I do. Do you know Jesus?” He said, “No, I don’t.” So, I talked to him about knowing Jesus.
I’m telling you that to say that you live for the Lord, and you let the Lord work through you. He’ll open your opportunities like that, He will. He will. We’re supposed to be like Him.
Acts 4:13: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.”
God has a plan for you to serve Him. He wants you to recognize Him as God. He wants you to be saved. He wants you to live a life separate from the world. He wants you to be loyal to His church. He wants you to grow to be like Jesus, and He wants you to serve Him. Now, let me go further with this.
Jeremiah was preaching and God had sent him down to the potter’s house to learn a lesson on how he would make it over again. Can you see that God wants to do that in your life? Can you see that He wants to make you over again?
Romans 6:6: “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”
The same writer, Paul put it this way:
Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
What he’s telling us is that part of being like Jesus is submitting ourselves to Him even to the point of death if necessary that we might be resurrected by His power. “So, I thought I’d get resurrected because I believed in Jesus.” You thought right. But what we’re talking about is your everyday life. The same fellow says, “I’m crucified with Christ nevertheless I liveth yet not I but Christ liveth within me.”
Do you know what he says in another book? 1 Corinthians chapter 15, about verse 30, he says, “I die daily.” “Now, what do you mean, ‘I die daily’?” See me. Every day he got up, and he got sick and passed away and the next morning, he got up alive again and did it all over again. That’s not what he means at all. What he means is every day, I let my personal desires, I let my personal sinful nature be crucified, and I live my life by faith in Jesus Christ. That’s what he meant. He’s telling us that part of being like Jesus is that we submit ourselves to Him. He’s teaching us to lose our plans, our desires, and our will, and accept that His plans, His desires, and His will are better than ours.
God Can Use the Unfit
Certain things that we’ve said so far: we’ve said that God has a plan for our life, that He wants us to recognize Him; He wants us to be saved; He wants us to be loyal to His church; He wants us to be like Jesus; and He wants us to serve Him. Now, we’ve said that our lives are often ruined like the clay on the potter’s wheel through sin, through disobedience, through covetousness, through failure to do our best.
Here’s a great truth I want you to see. We are filled with faults and failures, just like the vessel that was marred on the potter’s wheel. But God’s grace makes us over again. That’s Heaven’s truth.
You know what? Man’s theory is survival of the fittest. Boy, you make yourself the best you can be, and don’t misunderstand. You ought to be the best you can be. You should be in every area of your life. You ought to be the best you can be. But you make yourself the best you can be, and you’re going to outperform everybody else. You can be better than everybody else. And if there is a Heaven, you’re surely going there because you’re better. That’s a man’s idea. It’s not God’s idea. God says that He can use the unfit. God says He can take that which is marred and mold it and remake it and make it in His image again.
1 Corinthians 1:27: “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;”
1 Corinthians 1:28: “And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:”
1 Corinthians 1:29: “That no flesh should glory in his presence.”
We’re not going to stand in Heaven and brag about what we did on Earth. None of us are going to go up there and say, “You know what? I was such a great servant of God. No wonder I’m in Heaven here. I mean, how could I not be? I was so good; I did so many things.” Do you know what Jesus talked about that? He said people are going to come to Him and say, “Lord, Lord, we’ve done wonderful works in your name.” You know what He said? They’re going to hear, “Depart from me you cursed, I never knew you.” It’s not about that. God says to us, “I’ll make you anew, I’ll give you a new life, I’ll give you eternal life.” God says to us, “Where sin abounds my grace much more abounds.” God says when you have failed and fallen, “I will lift you up.”
Isaiah chapter 1 verse 18, He pleads with us and says:
Isaiah 1:18: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
God wants to use you, and He will use you if you’ll yield yourself to Him. You say, “Whatever Lord you want, I am yours.” Learn the truth of how God can remake the ruined vessel.
Examples of Lives Remade
An old preacher from Georgia years ago, named Herschel Ford had great books that he wrote and in one of his books, he wrote, “This we must remember that before the potter made the second vessel, he had to crush the first one.” So, God must often break us before He can make us.
I read the story of Joseph Scriven. You may not know the name Joseph Scriven. Let me tell you a little bit about him. His bride-to-be, the one to whom he was engaged, they were to be married, died before the wedding. His heart was broken, but not out of that sorrow. He came to know that Jesus was the best friend he could ever have, and from that heartbreak, Joseph Scriven wrote a hymn that we’ve sung here many times. Many other people and many other churches and people all over the world have sung for many, many years, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to him in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything to him in prayer.”
Another man, George Matheson was engaged to a beautiful girl, but he had some trouble with his eyes. He went to see a doctor, and the doctor told him that he would totally lose his eyesight. He’d be blind. He left the doctor’s office a broken man, but George Matheson knew where he’d find comfort. He went to the one he loved. He’d find comfort there. He’d find sympathy there. But when he shared the hard news with the one that he loved, she said, “I will not marry a blind man.” That crushed him more than the knowledge that he’d be unable to see. And yet, from the depths of his sorrow, he wrote, “Old love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul indeed. I give thee back the life I owe, that in thine ocean depths its flow. May rich or fuller be, oh joy that seeketh me through pain, I cannot lose my heart to thee. I trace the rainbow through the rain and feel the promise is not vain that morn shall fearless be.”
It’s been said that the heart is never at its best till it’s been broken and that God’s greatest servants are those who have been driven to their knees in tears and risen up in total trust. What we have to learn is that God’s way is always best, no matter what the cost.
There was a time and I heard about this in elementary school long before I was a Christian. I heard about this in elementary school that there was a time, and by the way, I tell stories like this today, and sometimes young people say, “Where’d you go to school?” I said public school, all 12 years. But there was a time in the early days of this country when it said that every home had two books, at least two books. If they didn’t have any other books, they had these two. Number one was the Bible. Every home had the Bible. The second book that every home had was a book called Pilgrim’s Progress. Pilgrim’s Progress was written by John Bunyan who was a Baptist preacher in England.
This might surprise you because it’s not true in our country and hasn’t been true in our country for over 200 years, but there was a day in Europe and in England when if you were a Baptist, you were persecuted. John Bedford was in prison in England for preaching. Why’d they lock him up for preaching? Was he preaching against the king and all that? No, he wasn’t. He was just preaching the Word of God. Well, why’d they lock him up? Because he wasn’t licensed by the state church, and he didn’t preach what the state church told him to preach. He preached just the Word of God. They put him in prison, and his little daughter would come and say, “Daddy, please come home.” He had a wife and children.
She said, “Things are not well at home. We need you. All you have to do is tell them you’ll do what they want you to do, and you can come home.” He said, “I can’t do it.” Didn’t he love his wife? Yes. Didn’t he love his family? Yes. But he couldn’t betray his Lord. In that prison cell, John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim’s Progress, an analogy of the Christian life from coming to Christ at the cross to living the Christian life until you come home to glory with Him.
Adam Judson came back from years of service in Burma. He was worn out. He was a broken man. But he spoke to a crowd of ten thousand people in Boston, Massachusetts, and out of that ten thousand, twenty-one young people came forward and said, “We’ll go back to Burma and take your place.”
Why wait until the brokenness comes? Why not just say, as the hymn writer says, “Have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way. Thou art the potter. I am the clay.” Why not just yield your way to Him? Why not just yield your will to Him? Yeah, what does the hymn writer say? “You’re the potter. I’m the clay. Mold me and make me after thy will while I’m waiting yielded and still. The greatest sermons ever preached, the greatest songs ever composed, and the greatest books ever penned came from people who’ve gone through the valley of the shadow, and there they felt the touch of God.
On one occasion, a poor woman who had been suffering for years asked this, “If God loved me, why did he make me like I am? Her wise aunt said, “He hasn’t made you. He’s making you now.” Think about it.
Russell Conwell was a captain in the Union Army at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia, and North Georgia. He was left for dead on the battlefield. He lay on the ground all night, and when the next day came, he was found with his chest blown open. And yet, he was still breathing. He was taken to surgeons and recovered from his wounds. He then gave his life to Christ, and the Lord used him to found the Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In time, he founded a school there called Temple College. Today, you’d call it Temple University. He also founded three hospitals, which later would be combined to be called the Temple University Hospital. He wrote 20 books and preached the Gospel to thousands of souls. After he had been a broken man, after it looked like life was over, he gave his heart to the Lord, and God used him.
Your Most Important Decision
To know that your soul is saved is the most important knowledge you can ever have. That cannot be overstated. There’s no decision you’re going to make ever more important than trusting Jesus as your savior. Once that decision is made, it’s not the end. It’s the beginning. Once we’re saved, we need to live a life of service to the Savior. The chief aim of the Christian life, again, to grow to be like Jesus. Jesus didn’t serve himself, He served others. When he hung on the cross, people said, “He saved others himself he cannot save.” He did not come to save himself. He came to save you and me. The Savior is waiting for you and me to enter our hearts so that He can form us into useful vessels.
At the Last Supper, He sat with his disciples, and He told them that one of them would betray Him. And every one of them looked at Him and said, “Lord, is it I?” You know that’s interesting, not one of them turned and said it’s Judas. I know it’s him. He’s not quite like the rest of us.” No. He did. He acted like all the rest of them. He wasn’t like the rest. He hadn’t believed in the Lord. He hadn’t been saved, but he acted like the rest of them.
Perhaps it’s you and I who should say, “Lord, is it I? Is it I who hasn’t been as close to you as I should be? Is it I who has lost my first love for thee? Is it I who turned down the great opportunity to serve you because I was too busy doing other things? Is it I who is not faithful? Is it I who had grown cold in prayer? Is that me? Is it I that has grown indifferent to your Word and doesn’t have time to read it? Is it I who takes all that you’ve given me and spends it only upon myself, Lord? Is it I not wanting to pray?” And say, “Lord, if there’s anything wrong in my life, if there’s anything that’s lacking there, let me see it. Let me know it. Let me come back to you.”
Martha Schnell Nicholson was a poet and one of her poems I heard set to the tune of a hymn called The Unveiled Christ. I’m not going to try to sing it for you. Singing is not my thing, but I’ll quote the poem for you. It goes like this, “One by one, he took them from me, all the things I valued most until I was empty-handed, every glittering toy was lost. And I walked Earth’s highway grieving, in my rags in poverty, till I heard his voice inviting, lift your empty hands to me. So, I held my hands toward heaven, and he filled them with a store of his own transcendent riches till they could contain no more. Then, at last, I comprehended, with my stupid mind and dull, that God could not pour his riches into hands already full.”
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Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for blessing us. Thank you for all that you’ve given us. Thank you first and most of all for Jesus, who loved us and gave himself for us. Lord, if there’s a soul here this morning, if there’s a single individual who hasn’t already trusted you as Savior, my prayer is that right now, right where they are, they would open their heart and they would call on you, and they would say, “Lord Jesus, I believe. I believe that you are the Son of God. I believe that though I am a sinner, I’ve broken your Word. I’ve violated your will. I’m a sinner, and yet I believe that you love me and gave yourself on the cross, died for my sins, that you’re buried, and you rose again on the third day. And right here, right now, I trust you as my living Savior to forgive me, to save my soul, to give me a home in Heaven forever. Thank you, Lord Jesus.”
Now, maybe you prayed that prayer; maybe you didn’t. Maybe it made sense to you, maybe it didn’t. We’re about to sing a hymn, and if you come, we want you to come, and we’ll take a Bible, and we’ll show you how you can know for sure that your soul is saved, your sins are forgiven, you’re on your way to Heaven.
What do you want me to do? As soon as we begin to sing, you come out of your place, and you come on down front. What’s going to happen? I just told you. We’ll sit down with you privately, take the Bible, and show you how to be saved.
Maybe somebody’s sitting here this morning, and you say, “Well, preacher, I’m already saved, and I know it.” Thank God and praise Him for that. But you know that God’s been dealing with you. There’s something going on in your life. You’ve trusted Him as your Savior, but something’s not quite right. There’s a decision you’ve been needing to make, and you haven’t made it. There’s been something He’s been calling you to do, and you haven’t done it. Your heart’s not as close to His as it once was. He can use you again. He can make you new again. You need to come. Just give your heart to Him. You need to make a decision today. We’ll pray with you. You need prayer, you need counsel today, you come. Father, bless and move this invitation time. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Continue learning more valuable lessons from The Potter’s Wheel by viewing “The Potter’s Wheel, Part 2” on YouTube.
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About the Speaker
Dr. Michael L. McClure
Senior Pastor
Dr. Michael L. McClure, our lead pastor, is known for his in-depth knowledge and effective teaching style of biblical truths applicable to everyday living.