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The Potter and the Clay - Part 3

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• Jeremiah chapter 18, and let's read the first 12 verses. This is Jeremiah 18, verses 1 through 12. This is "The Potter and the Clay," part 3. Jeremiah 18: The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, "Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear my words." Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. 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. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, "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 you in my hand, O house of Israel."

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• "At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; 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. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; 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."

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• "Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good." And they said, "There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart."

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• You remember when we began this message, I told you how God had commanded Jeremiah to go down to the potter's house to hear his words. God could have spoken to Jeremiah anywhere, but there was a specific lesson that God had for Jeremiah that he wanted Jeremiah to communicate to the people. You remember I also pointed out that this is one last time that God is going to appeal to the people and warn them, and yet of course they still refuse to listen. So the lesson that Jeremiah learned as he watched the potter was this: that God as the sole sovereign has an absolute right to deal with nations according to their conduct toward him, and this was illustrated in a tangible form by the potter molding the vessels from clay. You have to remember, please, that since nations are made up of individuals, what is true of nations is also true individually.

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• So there's been a number of points that we've already discussed. First of all, we discussed the potter's precepts that was found in verses 1 and 2. And I answered in that first message, how do we know whether or not we are hearing God's word? I mean, really, genuinely hearing. And I gave five results that will be in our lives if we are really genuinely hearing the Word of God. And then of course we dealt in the second message with the potter's problem and the potter's prerogative. The problem, the Bible says in verse 4, "the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter." And I pointed out there were a number of things that caused the vessel to be marred: pebbles or inconsistency in the clay. But then there's the potter's prerogative: "so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it." So the potter may start out with a design in his mind of a beautiful vase, but if there's pebbles, if there's inconsistency, he must say, "Well, I'll make it a slop jar, or I'll make it a spittoon."

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• In other words, it's totally in His hands. That is His prerogative. God is absolutely sovereign and in control at all times. We may rebel against Him. We may disobey Him. Yet, it does not affect Him at all. He still works everything out for His honor and His glory. That's why in Psalm 76 and verse 10, the Bible says, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: and the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain." So God will allow just enough evil that's going to honor and glorify His justice, and what will not, He will restrain. That's why in Daniel 4 and verse 35, the Bible says, "He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?" So we understand when we talk about the potter's prerogative that God may make us into a vessel of dishonor or a vessel of honor.

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• And last week we looked at individuals in the Bible that he did make into vessels of dishonor. But let me just point this out. If God does make us into a slop jar because of our own rebellion and wickedness, and we realize what God has done to us because of our sin, we need to repent and just be the best slop jar we could possibly be for God's honor and God's glory. And I'll be honest with you, I'd still rather be God's slop jar than a vessel of destruction. Okay. So today we're going to pick up on the sixth point, and that is the potter's procedure. Look in verse 6. God says, "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." So God is telling these people, "I can do with you exactly as this potter does."

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• Now, I want you to understand that the potter may finish a work on the wheel, but that does not mean that that work is complete. Once the potter finishes a work on the wheel, there is a drying process and a firing process whereby the pottery is placed into the kiln. It is only the kiln that really matures and finishes the potter's work. Without this process, the vessel just simply would not last long. I want you to hold Jeremiah 18, but look very quickly in Isaiah 48 and verse 10. Isaiah 48 and verse 10. Look at what God says. Isaiah 48 verse 10. He says, "Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." Isn't that amazing? "I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." Do you realize that Egypt was considered to be the iron furnace or the furnace of iron? So God sent Israel into the furnace for 400 years. In Deuteronomy chapter 4 and verse 20, listen carefully: "But the Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day."

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• So God told Israel, "I brought you out of the iron furnace." And then when you get to 1 Kings 8 and verse 51, where Solomon is praying and dedicating the temple to the Lord, he says this: "For they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron." And what did God say? That he had chosen them in the furnace of affliction.

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• Now, let me challenge you to do something. I want you to study history, but especially Christian history. Read the Christian history in the Bible. Read Fox's Book of Martyrs. And you're going to discover a very important truth, and that is this: Usually, the individuals that God uses the most are the same individuals that suffer the most. I want you to look in your Bibles, hold Jeremiah 18, but turn to Zechariah chapter 13, right before the book of Malachi. You have Zechariah chapter 13, and look at verse 9, and then we're going to go to 1 Peter chapter 1. Look in Zechariah chapter 13 and verse 9 at what God says. Zechariah 13 verse 9, God said, "And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God." But note, if you would, when they call the Lord their God, when they call upon Him, He's tried them with fire.

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• He's brought them into the furnace. If you would turn right over to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1, and look at verse 7. Interestingly, Peter picks up on this very same truth, and he says this in 1 Peter 1, verse 7. Watch carefully. 1 Peter 1, verse 7. He writes, "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." But note, if you would, he calls it the trial of faith. And then he talks about it being tried with fire. Remember, God said, "I've chosen you in the furnace of affliction."

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• Let me ask you a question. Do you know what happens to a vessel when the potter takes it off the wheel, lets it air dry for a moment or two or a little while, and then puts it in the kiln? Do you know what happens to that vessel when it's placed into the furnace? Let me give you just three things very quickly. First and foremost, the most obvious change in the vessel is shrinkage. Do you realize that once the potter makes the vessel on the wheel, it starts to air dry, and then when he puts it in the kiln, it gets drier and it shrinks anywhere from 5 to 15 percent? There will be some shrinkage just from air drying, but the most shrinkage will be when it is in the kiln, and it has to take place very slowly or else the formation of steam within the body of the vessel will cause it to burst. So when God places us in his divine kiln, we can expect shrinkage. Shrinkage like that of John the Baptist.

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• You say, "What are you talking about?" Well, do you remember that passage? After John had baptized Jesus, they finally came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him." In other words, "John, you're losing it. You're losing listeners and hearers. Everybody's going to hear Christ. They're not coming to hear you." And John gave the classic response in John 3 and verse 30 when he said, "He must increase, but I must decrease."

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• I want you to understand something. When God places us in the kiln, when God places us in the furnace, it will change our attitude. There will be shrinkage. We will lose our pride and our arrogance and our haughtiness, and it will humble us. And as difficult as the furnace may be, it is absolutely necessary. Do you understand it should not be any wonder to you as to why we go through hardships and trials and tests and temptations and tribulations? The Lord places us in the furnace to bring us to an end of ourselves.

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• We have to realize literally how foolish and vain and helpless we really truly are. I want you to listen to this principle, and I'm going to show it to you from Scripture. There's a principle. That principle is this: before one can be honored, he must first be humbled. I want you to look in your Bibles, hold in Jeremiah 18, but turn first to Proverbs chapter 15 and look at verse 33. Proverbs chapter 15 and verse 33. Proverbs 15 and verse 33.

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• Look what the Bible says. Proverbs 15 verse 33: "The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility." Before honour is humility. Look in your Bibles to Proverbs 18 and verse 12. Proverbs 18 verse 12. The Bible says, "Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility." And then if you look in Proverbs 29 and verse 23, Proverbs 29 verse 23, again God says it like this: "A man's pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit." Do you realize when God places us in his divine kiln, when God puts us in the furnace of affliction, He knows exactly what we need. He knows exactly what it will take to bring us to the end of ourselves.

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• You know, so many times we tend to think, "Behold, I am wise." And when God places us in the furnace, all of a sudden we realize we're not so wise. We begin to think many times, "Behold, I can do all things." But the truth of the matter is when God places us in the furnace, we realize we can do nothing. Help me out, I know you remember this: what did our Lord say in John 15?

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• "Without me, you can do how much?" Nothing. Absolutely nothing. You know what? Hannah was praying in 1 Samuel 2 and verse 7, and she said this: "The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up." So God is able to bring us down, and God is able to lift us up. And the Bible speaks in Isaiah 2 and verse 17, listen carefully: "And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day."

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• What is the purpose of placing us in the furnace of affliction? What is the purpose of putting us in the divine kiln? It's so that we would be brought to the end of ourselves. It is so that we will be brought to our own helplessness and hopelessness and realize that our only help and our only hope is in the Lord himself. Do you know what David said?

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• I love this passage in Psalm 116 verse 6. Listen what he said: "The Lord preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me." I was brought low, and He helped me. You remember I told you last week, twice, we read in the New Testament, that God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. If we want to be helped by God, if we want to be strengthened by Him, we have to come to the realization, "I can't. I am nothing. I must depend totally and completely upon the Lord."

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• So the very first thing that happens when you get in the kiln is there's shrinkage. You begin to realize you're not so wise, and you're not so smart, and you're not full of ability. You realize you can do nothing. So the very first result of being placed in the divine kiln is shrinkage. The second benefit of being placed in the divine kiln is what is called burn-off. Burn-off just simply indicates the burning off of organic and inorganic materials such as carbon and sulfates.

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• It's only in the furnace that the vessel loses a lot of extraneous things that it really does not need and that would really hinder it from being a perfect vessel. You realize when we get in the furnace of affliction, all of a sudden there's a lot of things we realize we can really live without. We're so used to having things and multitudes of things and we think we really need those things. Do you realize, do you realize if the electric grid went down today totally across this nation and stayed off for two weeks, can you realize how many people that would die? Just stop and think. A hundred years ago, it would affect hardly anyone. But now we think we can't live without electricity.

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• Well, you know, the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 7 verse 31, listen now, "And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away." So there's a principle that God tells us. We should learn to use this world without abusing this world. Now the scripture tells us in 1 Timothy 6 and verse 17 that God hath given us richly all things to enjoy. The problem is not with the things that God has given us to enjoy. The problem is with the abuse of those things. We tend to hoard and to hold on to the things. We tend to place our confidence and our comfort into things. We tend to look at the gifts instead of the giver.

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• We often forget the truth of 1 John 2 verses 15 through 17. What did John the Apostle say? "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever."

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• It's only in the furnace that we learn what is important. It's only in the furnace that we really learn what is absolutely necessary and what we can live without. It's in the furnace that we're weaned from the things of the world. You've heard me tell this story before, but I thought about it and I want to mention it again. One of my favorite stories is about the multi-millionaire who died. And as he was being buried, one of the pallbearers looked at another pallbearer and said, "How much did he leave?" And the second pallbearer responded, "He left it all." And that's the truth. Let me tell you something.

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• I will guarantee you this. I absolutely will. I'll put it in writing if you want it, but I will guarantee it. One hundred years from now, it will not matter what you had or did not have, what you possessed or what you did not possess, or what you enjoyed or what you did not enjoy. It just won't matter to you a hundred years from now. You know what we learn in the furnace of affliction? We learn the truth of that little couplet: "Only one life, 'twill soon be past; only what's done for Christ will last." So in the furnace you have shrinkage.

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• In the furnace, you have burn-off. And thirdly, in the furnace, you have what is called vitrification. Vitrification. Vitrification is nothing but the hardening and the tightening of that clay or what you and I would call the partial glassification of the clay. Let me tell you another word. We can think maturation or maturing. You know, all that Abraham went through, the Bible says in Romans 4 and verse 20, "He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God." How could he be strong?

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• Because he was matured in the furnace. That's why the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 16, in verse 13, "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." Wow. Do you realize, Paul in speaking of Epaphras in Colossians 4 verse 12 said this: "Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God." What is vitrification?

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• It's when you and I mature. It's when we become strong. When we learn to stand strong. When we're strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. Read the Bible. Moses endured how? By seeing Him who is invisible. Daniel was able to face the lions unafraid. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were able to endure the fiery furnace. Job suffered greatly. I don't suppose anyone has ever suffered like Job, but yet Job said this in Job 23 and verse 10.

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• "He knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." When hath he tried me? When I'm in the furnace, I shall come forth as gold. Ask yourself this question: How did the martyrs face their torture and death? I know the answers: by His grace and by His Spirit, but you have to remember this. They had already been purified and made perfect in Christ. They had already been tried in the furnace of affliction. They had already matured and strengthened and hardened themselves in Christ so that they were able to face their torture and their death. It's the furnace that will prepare us for glory. It is also the furnace that will enable us to learn what is important and what is not important and how we're to fulfill our responsibilities.

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• So here's the potter's procedure. Once he's through that vessel, he takes it off the wheel, air dries it, then sticks it in the kiln and turns up the heat. And I've got news for you folks. He knows exactly how high to turn the heat. He knows what it will take to bring us to the end of ourselves. You know, the best thing that could ever happen to each one of us is when we get on our face before God, weeping, so broken, so helpless, and just say, honestly, "Lord, I can't. If I ever do anything, if I keep going, if I succeed, if I do anything, it's got to be by your grace and by your mercy. I need you. Please help me."

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• And that's what we learn in the furnace. I want you to go back to Jeremiah, chapter 18. Because I want you to see seventhly, the potter's patience. Look, if you would, please. Beginning there in verse 7, the potter's patience. God says, "At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; 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. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; 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."

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• "Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good."

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• Now, interestingly enough, when I'm talking about the potter's patience, in Romans 15 verse 5, God is called the God of all patience. So patience is actually a divine title. Arthur W. Pink wrote a little article on the patience of God, and he asked some very pertinent questions. I want to read just this paragraph. Listen to what he says. "How wondrous is God's patience with the world today."

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• You know, I stop and think about that. Lord have mercy. I don't even know how we've existed as long as we have. If Arthur W. Pink was alive today, oh, goodness, I don't know what he would think. But he asks, "How wondrous is God's patience with the world today? On every side, people are sinning with a high hand. The divine law is trampled underfoot and God himself openly despised."

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• "It is truly amazing that he does not instantly strike dead those who so brazenly defy him. Why does he not suddenly cut off the haughty infidel and the blatant blasphemer as he did Ananias and Sapphira? Why does he not cause the earth to open its mouth and devour the persecutors of his people so that like Dathan and Abiram they shall go down alive into the pit? And what of apostate Christendom?"

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• "Where every possible form of sin is now tolerated and practiced under cover of the holy name of Christ. Why does not the righteous wrath of heaven make an end to such abominations? Only one answer is possible: that God bears with much long-suffering the vessels fitted to destruction." That is the patience of God. The only reason this world has not been destroyed is because of the long-suffering and the patience of God. Stephen Charnock, one of the old Puritans, has a wonderful book, probably three inches thick, on the existence and the attributes of God. In that book, Stephen Charnock defines patience, especially in reference to God, and here's what he says. "Patience."

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• "It is part of the divine goodness and mercy, yet differs from both. God being the greatest goodness, hath the greatest mildness. Mildness is always the companion of true goodness. And the greater the goodness, the greater the mildness. Who is so holy as Christ? And who is so meek? God's slowness to anger is a branch of his mercy. The Lord is full of compassion and slow to anger. It differs from mercy in the formal consideration of the subject. Mercy respects the creature as miserable. Patience respects the creature as criminal. Mercy pities him in his misery. Patience bears with the sin which engendered the misery and giving birth to more. Personally, we would define the divine patience as that power of control which God exercises over himself, causing him to bear with the wicked and forbear so long in punishing them. And Nahum 1:3 we read, 'The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power.' Men that are in this world are quick in passion and are not so ready to forgive an injury or bear with an offender as one of meaner rank."

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• "It is a want of lack of power over that man's self that makes him do so unbecoming things upon a provocation. A prince that can bridle his passions is a king over himself as well as over his subjects. God is slow to anger because great is his power. He has no less power over himself than over his creatures." Wow. Do you realize? The divine patience not only allows God to bear long with sinners, it also restrains God from instantly and immediately striking us dead.

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• The most patient and glorious sovereign of heaven and earth endured the wickedness of the antediluvians an additional 120 years. Do you remember what God said in Genesis 6 and verse 5? Listen. "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." But yet in Genesis 6 and verse 3, God said, "My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." So God is telling Noah, then he's going to destroy the earth. And yet he's giving these wicked people 120 years more. And the Bible tells us in 1 Peter 3 and verse 20, now listen, "Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water." Do you realize God waited 120 years longer on Noah's building that ark and allowed those wicked people to continue in their sin.

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• He did not smite them instantly. He allowed them to live. Do you realize that God patiently bore with the Amorites for an additional 400 years? Do you remember in Genesis chapter 15? God told Abraham that his descendants were going to a strange country for 400 years. I want you to listen to this. I want to read it. I want you to understand why Israel had to go into Egypt for 400 years. "And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." Do you realize how wicked the Amorites were? And yet God allowed them to live 400 additional years.

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• And when God brought Israel out of Egypt, what did he do? He put a sword in their hand and said, "Kill every one of them." But he waited 400 years. I want you to think about the patience of God with Israel. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 78. I want you to see this. I hope when you get home today, you will take the time to read all of Psalm 78. It is a tremendous Psalm. And it shows the patience of God. Psalm 78. Before we read it, let me point this out. The Exodus, that is, when Israel left Egypt, was approximately 1446 B.C.

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• The Temple and Jerusalem were destroyed in 586 B.C. So if you subtract 586 from 1446, you're going to find out that God suffered the provocations of the Israelites 860 years. It was not just that they provoked Him in the wilderness. They provoked Him when they were in the land as well. Look in Psalm 78, and let's begin reading there with verse 5. Psalm 78, verse 5.

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• "For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God. The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law; and forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them." And then you read all of Psalm 78, and you will see everything that God did for the Israelites, and every time how they forgot Him and turned from God.

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• Just peruse the book of Judges, if you would, and see how they forsook God and followed Baal. Read the prophets and see how the prophets pleaded and begged and admonished and warned them to turn from their idolatry and turn back to God. And yet they would not. Eight hundred and sixty years. And then finally, God said, "That's enough." I want you to understand this truth. God is patient.

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• But there is a limit to his patience. Sooner or later, the long-suffering of God will come to an end. If you really want to personally understand God's patience, and God's long-suffering, then ask yourself this question: Why has God allowed me to live as long as I have lived? Let's be honest. Each of us have enough sins that we should have been killed, struck dead under the judging hand of God many years ago. Do you realize it's just mercy that God did not kill you before you even came to Christ? And even after you've been saved, you've still sinned. So you have to ask yourself this question: why has God allowed me to live?

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• Do you remember Lamentations 3, 22 and 23? "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness." God has been merciful. God has been patient. And God has given us compassion day after day and has allowed us to live. But we must understand this. There will be a time when his patience will come to an end.

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• I want you to go back to Jeremiah chapter 18. I want you to see the last point in this message. We've seen the potter's precepts, the potter's plan, potter's problems, potter's prerogatives, potter's procedure, potter's patience. Now I want you to see the potter's punishment, but I want you to look at verse 12 first. Jeremiah 18 verse 12. When God sent Jeremiah one last time, what did they say?

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• They said, "There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart." Now, look at Jeremiah 19 and verses 10 and 11, what God told Jeremiah to tell them. Jeremiah 19. We'll look at verse 10. God tells Jeremiah, "Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee, and shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again."

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• "And they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury." Let me ask you a question. What does the potter do with a worthless and useless vessel? He doesn't save it. He doesn't need it. It's good for nothing. So he simply destroys it. Now, listen. A work on wheels, while it is wet and pliable to some extent, may be fashioned into another vessel. But once that vessel is taken off the wheel and dried and put in the kiln and it is hardened, it cannot be reworked. If the vessel is cracked, or is defective, it's useless. And the potters then would take the useless worthless vessels and cast them down and break them.

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• And they would deposit the broken pieces of clay in Tophet, which was a garbage dump, a trash dump. Now, listen to what God says. "You break this vessel, Jeremiah, in front of them. And you let them know. That's exactly what I'm going to do to them. And I will bury them in Tophet, in the garbage dump."

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• Now, I want you to look in Isaiah 30 and verse 14. Isaiah 30, verse 14.

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• Look at what the Bible says, Isaiah 30 verse 14. Isaiah 30 verse 14. The Bible says, "And he shall break it as the breaking of the potter's vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit." God says when I break the vessel, there's not going to be a sherd left of it. It will be destroyed. Now, listen carefully. The devastation that God speaks about, I believe,

  #53 | 44:03 to 44:54 | cleaned

• was not just simply the Babylonian captivity. Because the Babylonian captivity only lasted 70 years. And after 70 years, they came back into the land. But I believe this destruction is talking about the destruction by the Romans in 70 A.D. God said, "I'm going to destroy the nation in such a way there's not going to be a sherd of it left, not a sherd." There's a movement today known as Zionism. Zionism tries to do that which God says cannot be done. God says the nation will never be made whole again, and they're trying to say, "Yes, it can be." Man cannot piece together that which God has broken.

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• I want you to watch this. What did God say in Jeremiah 19? He's going to bury them in Tophet. Do you remember what Tophet was? Tophet also had another name, the Valley of the Son of Hinnom. Because in that valley, in Tophet, was where they had their image to Moloch. That's where they sacrificed their little babies to that image. The reason it's called Tophet is because of the Hebrew word "toph," which means to roll as a drum. Here Moloch, this brazen image, had a fire kindled in his bottom, and therefore his arms would turn glowing red. They would place a little baby in his hands, and the baby would roll down the arms into his belly, into the fire pit to be consumed. So, Tophet then is not only known as a garbage dump, but as a valley of slaughter. So God says, "Just like you've used Tophet as a valley of slaughter to murder babies, so you shall be slaughtered and buried in Tophet."

  #55 | 45:54 to 47:15 | cleaned

• Your dead carcasses will lie there. Look in Jeremiah chapter 19. And let's pick up again with verse 12. In fact, let's go back and read verse 11. Look at verse 11, "And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury. Thus will I do unto this place, saith the Lord, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet: and the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods. Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord's house, and said to all the people, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words."

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• I hope you've gathered just from these scriptures. It does not pay to fight against God. It is not for your good to fight against your Maker. God has placed a curse upon all who fight against Him. Isaiah 45, verse 9. Listen. Isaiah 45, verse 9. "Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?" God says, "Woe to that man. Cursed be the man that strives with his Maker." God is sovereign.

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• I want you to look in your Bibles to Romans chapter 9. I've quoted one of these passages, but I want you to see it in the context. Look in Romans chapter 9, and let's begin reading there with verse 19. Romans chapter 9, verse 19. Romans 9, verse 19. Paul is arguing, and he's giving us the same truth that Isaiah gave and that Jeremiah gave. Romans 9, beginning there with verse 19. In fact, let's go back to verse 18.

  #58 | 49:21 to 49:56 | cleaned

• The Scripture says, "Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory."

  #59 | 49:56 to 50:50 | cleaned

• You know, I said earlier, the potter's patience will finally come to an end. When the potter's patience comes to an end, that's when you see the potter's punishment. God said, "I'll take this vessel and break it. There will not be a sherd left. Nothing to use. It will be gone." Let me make some applications. I want you to think with me, please. First of all, God will not lose any of his glory by the destruction of such unholy and worthless vessels.

  #60 | 50:52 to 51:34 | cleaned

• Do you realize the Bible says in Proverbs 16 and verse 4, listen carefully, "The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil." Do you realize those whom he destroys will praise and honor his justice? His righteousness. Those whom He saves will praise and honor His grace and mercy. So unbelievers, non-believers, are just as much in the hands of God as are believers. Whether they realize it or not, they are being fitted for God's divine purpose. I want you to go back to Jeremiah 18 just momentarily. I want you to look at this. And please understand, this is not just simply individuals.

  #61 | 51:38 to 52:40 | cleaned

• It is true individually, but it is also true nationally. Look what he said in verse 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; 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. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; 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." In other words, the reshaping, the reforming and remaking of any man, even an entire nation of men, is accomplished by God. God is sovereign and he is in sovereign control over human history.

  #62 | 52:40 to 53:29 | cleaned

• The potter has an absolute right over the clay. That is not only true individually, it is true nationally. Do you realize? As solid as the foundation was for the formation of this country, what did God say? If it turns, I will repent of the good that I said I would do and do it. And look at evil, Russia as we call it. God says if it repents, He'll spare them. God is in control of nations. He's in control of individuals. The third application is this: when God appears in judgment against any person, against any people, against any nation, you may rest assured it is because of our sins. Two scriptures. Isaiah 29, verse 16, the Bible says this: "Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?" And then of course in Isaiah 64 and verse 8, "But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand."

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• God said, "Jeremiah, I want you to go to the potter's house. Because there's a lesson that you need to learn. And this people need to learn. That I'm sovereign. That I'm in control. That I can do good or I can do evil. In the sense of judgment and wrath upon sin and wickedness. And you need to bow to the one true and living God. And not to a dumb idol." God says, "Tell them this one more time. Just one more time."

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• And what do they say? "Nah. We'll do according to our own devices. And according to the imagination of our own hearts." You know something, folks? I'm going to tell you this. And this has just been impressed upon me the last several weeks more and more. If God has saved you by His grace, you sure better learn to be thankful and grateful. If God has given you truth and mercy and life and health and strength, you better learn to be thankful and grateful.

  #65 | 55:52 to 56:26 | cleaned

• It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Because His compassions, they fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, I pray that you would help us, Lord, to learn the principles and the truths of Jeremiah 18. Help us to understand that thou art the potter, we're the clay. We're in your hands. May, Father, we get all the pebbles out of our lives. May we yield to thee and be of the consistency so that thou mayest be able to make us into vessels of honor for Your glory and Your praise. Help us to live for Thee, we pray in Christ's name, Amen.

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T15:48:44Z