Well, today we'll be continuing in our study of the book of Jeremiah, and today we'll be looking at Jeremiah chapter 18. Jeremiah chapter 18. Last time in chapter 17, we looked at the problem of the human heart, and we saw in chapter 17, verse nine, that God says that our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and that none of us is fully able to understand our heart because of its deceitfulness. And then we saw in 17 verse 10 that God does know all about our heart and that God tests our hearts to show us the depths of its depravity. And we also noted that God primarily uses his word to expose our hearts and their motives to us. says that God's Word is living, it is piercing, and able to judge the thoughts and the intentions of our hearts. God's Word also acts like a mirror showing us those areas of our life that need repentance. Today in chapter 18, God is telling Jeremiah to speak to the people of Judah that he is the sovereign God, he is God the potter, and the people of Judah are clay in his hand. And by practical application for us, God is the master potter, we are the clay in his hand. In chapter 18 today, God is communicating his teaching to Jeremiah in the form of an object lesson. He has Jeremiah go down to the potter's house and observe how the potter shapes and reshapes vessels on his potter's wheel. And as Jeremiah observes the potter working in the potter's house, God makes spiritual application to the people of Judah and Jerusalem. And I'm going to break down chapter 18 this way. I have three headings. First, we have Jeremiah in the potter's house, that's verses 1 to 12. Secondly, we have the unnatural behavior of Judah, which is verses 13 to 17. And then thirdly, we have Judah's persecution of Jeremiah. That's verses 18 to 23. So first, we have Jeremiah in the potter's house. So let's begin by reading Jeremiah chapter 18, verses 1 through 12. Jeremiah 18, verses 1 through 12. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, Arise, go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words. So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hands, and the potter reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good. for the potter to do. And then the word of the Lord came to me, O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done, declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck it up and break it down and destroy it. But if that nation concerning which I have spoken turns away from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, but if that nation does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. So now therefore say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, thus says the Lord, behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. So return everyone from his evil way and amend your ways and your deeds. But the peoples will say that is in vain. We will follow our according to the stubbornness of his evil heart." So here in verses 1 to 12, we have God as the potter and Israel or Judah as the clay in the hand of the potter. I'm going to step through the text here of verses 1 to 12 and then I will make some practical application of the potter and the clay to our individual lives. Verse two, God tells Jeremiah to go down to the potter's house. And there at the potter's house, God was going to give Jeremiah his words. So God was giving Jeremiah both his spoken words and a visual illustration of those words. So in verse three, we see Jeremiah going down to the potter's house. He sees the potter making something on his potter's wheel, and a potter's wheel back then basically consisted of a pair of stone discs that were connected by a shaft, and the potter would spin the bottom disc with his feet, and the clay would be on the top disc, and as the top disc with his hands into the shape of the vessel that he desired to make. And verse four says the potter was making, says the vessel that the potter was making out of the clay was spoiled. So we read that the potter remade that clay into another vessel as it pleased him to make. So we see here that The potter was forming a vessel on his wheel, but due to some imperfections in the clay, he couldn't form it into the vessel that he wanted to make. So he remade the clay into another vessel. I Googled the potter's clay and I read a few things and I found there that be flawed simply by being in the ground next to some substance that is impure. Clay can also be flawed by having too many air bubbles in it. And I think it's important to see that when the imperfections of the clay caused the potter to not be able to make the vessel that he wanted to, the potter did not throw the clay away. Rather, he continued to work with it. He crushed it, he broke it down, and then he began a new work to make that clay into another vessel. And I think that's an encouraging thing for us because it shows us God's grace and God's patience. Even if I fall into sin as a believer, God will not give up on me. He will still work with me. really crush me and humble me, but he is able to remake me into a new vessel and even use me for his glory. You know, this last year, I met a fellow in the state prison who had had a full-time ministry for the Lord for over 20 years. At the time, he was basically living a double kind of life where he was living in sin at the same time he was doing this full-time ministry for the Lord. And eventually his sin came out, it came to light, had something to do with his family. And he confessed, he confessed in a public way what he had done, And he was sent to prison and he basically will be, he's in his later 60s right now, he will be in prison for the rest of his life. I'll even go so far as to say this particular brother actually spoke here at our chapel some 25 years or so ago. And you know, I got on his visit list last year and We talked a little bit and he said, you know, I've gotten this right with the Lord and, you know, confessed things to him. And he said, you know, God has been gracious to me in that even though I'm in this place of a prison, you know, he still even allowed me to have a very small I take my Bible every night and I go and sit in the day room and every night there's a few fellows who come around and we have a little Bible study together and I'm able to you know, contribute some things there. And he said, you know, this is not the kind of ministry, obviously, that I, you know, had wanted to do, but God has, in his grace, still, you know, allowed me to serve him in a small way here in this prison. You know, it's a very humbling thing to see, you know, his sins indeed found him out. And yet, you know, God didn't just end his life and take him away. He put him in this prison and now, you know, and it's very sad, but at the same time, you know, he is a vessel that, you know, God is still using in some way there in the prison. I actually also visit another fellow who is in this little Bible, you know, circle that they have every night and he, He said to me, Ted, this brother has been so helpful for me to listen to the wisdom that he has, you know, from the word of God. So I'll just, you know, say there was a man who definitely was crushed, made into another vessel as it pleased the potter to make, you know, in his grace. In verses 5 and 6, God applies this illustration of the potter and the clay to himself and to the nation of Israel. God says to Jeremiah, can I not deal with the house of Israel as the potter does with his clay? And of course, the answer is yes. God, the creator of all, can deal with the house of to crush it and to remake it just as the potter does with his clay. In verses 7 through 10, we see there God describing two different scenarios that he can do with nations. In verses 7 and 8, God says, I might speak about a nation to pull it down and to destroy it. But if that nation turns away from its sin, I will repent and not perform the calamity that I planned to bring against it. I think a good example of this is the city of Nineveh in the book of Jonah. God saw Nineveh's wickedness and he had Jonah speak a message of judgment against Nineveh. But then we read in Jonah chapter 3, the people of Nineveh believed in God and they put on sackcloth and their king said, let men call on God and turn from their wicked way and God may relent and withdraw his anger. And then Jonah chapter 3 verse 10 says, when God saw what Nineveh did, how they turned from their evil ways, God relented from the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. So God in his grace may plan to bring destruction on a nation, but if that nation repents, turns away from its sin, God can relent from bringing his anger on that city or country. And then in verse 9 and 10, we have the opposite scenario. God says there, I may speak concerning a nation to build it up, but if that nation disobeys me and does evil, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. Again, I have an example. King Saul, when King Saul disobeyed God in the book of 1 Samuel by offering the sacrifice that only the priest was to offer, God said to Saul in 1 Samuel 13, verse 13, you have not kept the command of the Lord your God, for then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now, So God is the potter in both of these situations. He can relent on bringing judgment when a nation repents, or he can relent from doing good to a nation who disobeys him. You know, the natural man does not like this idea of a sovereign God who holds us accountable for our behavior, but God is the creator of the master potter whether we like that or not. Isaiah 64 verse 8 says, Now, O Lord, you are our Father, we are the clay, you are the potter, and we are all the work of your hand. We are all the work of God's hands. We all will give account of the sovereign God. So, after God states this truth of the potter's rights over the clay in verses 7 to 10, God then tells Jeremiah down in verse 11 to tell the people of Israel, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. And then God in his grace, pleads with Judah to repent, pleads with Israel to repent. He says, return everyone from his evil way and reform your ways and your deeds. So God is telling Judah, I am planning destruction for you, but I want to give you the warning to turn away from your sin so that I don't have to bring that judgment upon you. But then we read in verse 12, we have the stubborn, arrogant response of the heart of the people of Judah. They say to God, your warning to us is hopeless. God, you're wasting your breath by telling us to repent because we are going to do, according to the stubbornness of our evil hearts, we are going to follow our plan how much you plead with us to repent." I'd like to make some practical application here. This truth of God is the potter and man is the clay really rankles most people because it's a matter of control and submissiveness. It's a matter of a sovereign God ruling over man whom he has created and man not wanting to be responsible and accountable to his creator, God. And this applies to an unbeliever who wants to live his life in disregard of God. It also applies to a believer. You know, just because a person is a believer doesn't mean that he has no struggle with God as the potter. I can be a believer and still want everything to go my way as far as my family life is concerned. I can want my way in everything in the church that I attend and serve in. I can want my own way and control over the Christian ministry and service that God has allowed me to be a part of. There are several verses in the book speak of God as the potter and we as the clay. I've already mentioned Isaiah chapter 64 verse 8 that says that God is the universal father of all as well as the father of believers. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 6 says there is one God and father who is over all and through all and in all. And again, this brings out the truth of God's sovereignty. God is over all and in all and through all. 1 Corinthians 8, verse 6 puts it as, there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we all exist. This universal fatherhood of God teaches that The existence and the creation of all things is for God's purposes and for God's glory. You know, if there was no God and things just evolved, there would be no eternal purpose and meaning for our existence. there would be no ultimate accountability for what we do. So this universal fatherhood of God as the master potter is important because it gives a real meaning and accountability and dignity to each and every human being. Isaiah chapter 40, not five, verse nine says, woe to the man who quarrels with his maker. does the clay say to the potter, what are you doing? This verse here tells us of the rights of the potter. God says, the clay in the hand of the potter doesn't say to the potter, what are you doing? Why have you shaped me the way that you have? We have to remember that you and I are clay in God's hands, and he is the potter. I don't have the right to quarrel with my maker. I don't have the right to question God's character. I don't have the right to say to God, what are you doing with me? What are you doing with my life? I would venture to say that most, if not all of us, have you know, questioned God at some point or points in our life, you know, and said, you know, God, what are you doing here with my life? You know, God asked Job in Job chapter 40, verse eight, Job, are you really going to set aside my judgment? Will you condemn me and what I've done in order to justify yourself? And then we have Elihu confronting Job in Job chapter 32, and he tells Job, Job, you are justifying yourself more than God, and you are complaining to God that God does not give you an account of all of his doings towards you. I think this is a real struggle for many of us. We can look at other people's wealth or jobs or family, or marital status, or health, and we can say, you know, God, that person over there is no better than me. So that why then does he have all those things and not me? You know, one more verse on this, Isaiah 29, verse 16 says, shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay? that what is made would say to its maker, he did not make me, or will what is formed say to him who formed it, he has no understanding at all. How do you, how do I look at God? Do we consider ourselves and our wisdom equal to that of God? Do I continue, I need to continually remember that it is God who has made me and not me myself. You know, we've all heard people say, you know, kind of puff out their chest a little bit and say, you know, I'm a self-made person. My success in life, the place that I've achieved in my life is due to my wisdom, my perseverance, and my hard work. Well, Moses said in Deuteronomy 8, verse 17, beware of saying, my power and my might have made me my money. Remember, it is the Lord your God who has given you the power and the strength to make your money. So may you and I remember that God is the potter and we are the clay and that God has the right to humble us. He has the right to crush us and alter our life circumstances for his glory and ultimately for our good. Let's go on to our second heading here. We have the unnatural behavior of the nation of Israel. Let's read verses 13 to 17. It says, Therefore, thus says the Lord, ask among the nations, who has heard the likes of this? The virgin Israel has done a very horrible thing. Does the snow ever disappear from the mountaintops of Lebanon? Do the cold streams flowing those distant mountains ever run dry. But my people have forgotten me. They make offerings to false gods. They make them stumble in their ways in the ancient roads and to walk into side roads and not the highway, making their land a horror, a thing to be hissed at forever. Everyone who passes by it is horrified and shakes his head. Like the east wind, I will scatter them before the enemy and I will show them my back and not my face in the day of their calamity." In verses 11 and 12, we had God telling Judah, I am planning to bring disaster against you because of your sin. And then we saw that God pleaded with Judah to repent, and Judah responded by telling God, We are going to do our own thing. We are going to follow our own plans and walk according to the stubbornness of our hearts. Now here in verse 13, we have God's response to the rebelliousness of Judah. God says here in verse 13, ask all of the surrounding nations. Have you ever heard the likes of what Judah is doing? And then God says, it's appalling what they're doing. It's unnatural what they're doing. You know, we mentioned that verse 14 asks a couple of rhetorical questions. Does the snow ever disappear from the mountaintops of Lebanon? Do the cold streams flowing from those mountains ever run dry? And the implied answer is no. The snow does not leave the high mountains of Lebanon. The mountain streams don't run dry. Back in Jeremiah 8, verse 7, some weeks ago, we read there that the turtle dove and the swallow and the thrush always observe the times of their migrations. The animals and the snow made them for, but sinful man does not. Sinful man does his own thing and chooses to worship worthless idols instead of his creator God. Verse 15 gives us the reason for Judah's appalling behavior. It says, my people have forgotten me. My people have forgotten me. And the end result of Judah's forgetfulness of God is that they have turned to worship and to follow worthless idols. They have stumbled off the ancient path that God had described in his Old Testament law to walk in bypass or to walk on side roads. paths of their own making and not a true highway. And the result of walking in their own way ruined their land. It ruined their country. It desolated their country. And it says it made it a place that people would hiss at in disapproval. You know, when you look at the, when you look at the history of our country, You know, in the last 60 or 70 years or so, you see a whole bunch of things. You see the sexual revolution of the 1960s with all of its promises of free love. And I think, you know, you all know that free love is anything but free. Then we had the 1973 decision to legalize the murder of babies. More recently, we had legalized gay marriage. We have the rights for school, for grade school children to change their gender without having to inform the parents of that. We have things like defunding the police. We have things even like our governor here, not calling mothers mothers anymore, but birthing persons. Many people would call these things progress, and they would call those who oppose those things hateful and bigoted. Our country, like Judah, has burned incense to false gods and stumbled off of that ancient path that God had laid out in his Word, and the result has brought devastation to our country, especially to families. You know, sin and disobedience to the Word of God is not progress. Rather, it has produced a depraved mindset that calls good evil and evil good. I want to make some practical application from verse 15. I mentioned that Israel's trouble began with their forgetting God. They forgot that they were God's people and they began to worship false gods and they stumbled from the ancient path that God had made in the Old Testament law. This phrase, ancient path, is significant. You know, back in Jeremiah 6, verse 16, we have another mention of that term, ancient path. Jeremiah 6, verse 16 says, stand by and ask for the ancient path where the good way is and walk in it and there you will find rest for your souls. But Israel said, we will not walk in it. God says that the ancient path was the way in which his people were to walk. It was the good way. And in the ancient path, you would find rest for your soul. But we read Israel said, we are not going to walk in that ancient path. Do you remember what Jesus said about where you are to find rest for your soul? Jesus says in Matthew 11 verse 28, come to me all you who labor and are heavy burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and you will find rest for your soul. would plow a field and make for a fruitful harvest, Jesus calls all men and women to be yoked together with him, to live their life in yoke with him, to walk together in the highway of life, obedient to and submissive to his word and his leading us as we go through our life. And that kind of yoking together with Jesus will bring rest to our souls. And everyone wants rest and peace for their soul, but most are not going about it in the right way. We naturally think that we know better than God which way will be a good way for us to go through life and to bring us rest and peace. The idea of being yoked together with Jesus on the ancient path seems like a way of restriction. It seems like a way of boredom to many people. Psalm chapter 2, verse 2 says, the people of this world take counsel together against God and say, let us tear God's shackles off of us. Let us cast off his chains from ourselves. Walking obediently to God's word is considered enslaving to the natural man. I would urge you today, don't swallow this world's wisdom and false teaching about Jesus. Look at the real Jesus as the Bible describes him. Read the actual words that Jesus spoke in his word and see his love. and his grace and his compassion and his forgiveness. Jesus is the Savior who said, all of you who are weary and heavy laden, come to me and I will give you rest. The pathway of your sin is heavy and harsh and enslaving, but the yoke of Jesus Christ is easy and his burden is light. Let's go to our third heading. We have Judah's persecution of Jeremiah. Judah's persecution of Jeremiah. Let's read verses 18 to 23. It says there, then they said, that's the people of Judah, come and let us make plots against Jeremiah. For the law will not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. and let us strike him with our tongue, and let us not pay any attention to his words." And then Jeremiah responds by praying to God. He says, "'Hear me, O Lord. Listen to the voice of my adversaries. Should good be repaid with evil? They have dug a pit for my life. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them and to turn away your wrath from them. Therefore, deliver up their children to famine. Give them over to the power of the sword. Let their wives become childless and widowed. May their men meet death by pestilence. Their youths be struck down by the sword in battle. May a cry be heard from their houses when you bring the plunder suddenly upon them. They have dug a pit to take me. They have laid snares for my feet. Yet you, O Lord, give their iniquity, nor blot out their sin from your sight. Let them be overthrown before you, and deal with them in the time of your anger." After Jeremiah had told the people of the coming destruction due to their idolatry in verse 17, Judah responds in verse 18 by basically saying, let's get rid of the messenger, let's make plans to deal with Jeremiah. And notice that they say the words of the priest and the sage and the prophet are always going to be around. Jeremiah is only one prophet. We don't want to listen to his words, but we will listen to all of the false prophets who are telling us what we want to hear and we'll just do away with the one prophet who is telling the things that we don't want to hear. Now, even though Jeremiah was the only prophet who was actually speaking God's truth to them. In verses 19 and 20, we have Jeremiah, he has heard the words of what the people want to do to him, and he cries out to God, for God's help. He says, hear me, O Lord, and listen to the voice of my adversaries. To stand for the truth in Jeremiah's day and to stand for the truth today as well, this will bring opposition. You know, I think we all know 2 Timothy 3, verse 12, which says all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Isaiah chapter 59 verse 15 says, truth is lacking and he who turns aside from evil makes himself a prey. He who turns aside from evil makes himself a prey. And you could ask the question, why is this? Well, if your life is lived in an outwardly Godly way and you don't participate in the sins of others around you the others around you are going to slander you and malign you and Because their conscience is being convicted about their own sin and your godly behavior is convicting to their heart and to their conscience that and they will respond with maligning and even persecution. Your separating yourself from evil makes you a prey to those who want to indulge their sins. So here the people of Judah say, let's plot against Jeremiah. let's dig a pit to kill him, and most of all, let's not listen to any of his words. Verse 18 also notes that the people of Judah still plan to go through the rituals of religion. They say the law is not going to be lost Religious today you could say people many people still want to go to a church perhaps to read their Bible But they are not willing to turn away from their sin. They wanted to continue to worship their idols Indulge in their immorality and so on and it's no different today people will often donate money or time to a religious cause and They will sit through a church service to feel good about themselves, but they have no desire to repent and to turn away from their sin. Paul wrote about this in 2 Timothy 4, verse 2, when he said, preach the word. Preach the word because the time is coming when men will not put up with sound teaching. They will have itching ears and accumulate for themselves teachers who will teach them according to their own desires and they will turn away their ears from the truth. Outward religion is fine and acceptable to the wisdom of this world, but when the truth of God is actually preached from the Word of God with a call to turn away from sin and take Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. People don't want to hear that. Verses 19 and 20, we can almost feel Jeremiah's aloneness and his anguish. He cries out, Lord, don't you hear what my opponents are saying? Should all of the good that I've done be rewarded with evil against me? And he says, I stood before you, O God, even to the point of asking for mercy to be shown to these disobedient people of Judah, and all I've gotten is to be rewarded by them trying to kill me. Then in verse 21 to 23, Jeremiah ends his prayer by saying, God, give these disobedient people of Judah over to your judgment of their sin. You know, when you read these verses here, they sound pretty harsh, don't they? You can say that this prayer of Jeremiah is a prayer for vengeance. He asks God to punish the people of Judah for their sins. Jeremiah has endured their harsh words and their plots against his life. And we'll see in the next couple of chapters of Jeremiah that Jeremiah himself will be beaten and thrown into the stocks for his preaching of the word of God. But I don't think we should be too hard on Jeremiah here. You know, I'm sure many people, many believers today in the Lord Jesus also want wrongdoers to be punished as well, just like Jeremiah did. You know, I thought about this a little bit. You know, when it comes to people who have rioted and burned down cities, we've seen this happen right here in Kenosha. We've seen and heard of judges who have defended and hidden violent criminals. We know about legislators who have defended the right to murder babies. We've seen judges who allow biological men to compete with women in athletics and to go prancing through the locker rooms of women. I confess, I get angry about these things. I do, and perhaps some of you do as well. And I want justice, and I want the truth of God's word to prevail. And here, Jeremiah prays for God to act in justice. And here's the important thing. Notice that Jeremiah does not take vengeance. He does not take matters into his own hands. He prays his prayer for God's judgment, and then he leaves God to act. Romans 12, verse 19 says, do not avenge yourselves, but leave it to God, for it is written, vengeance is mine and I will repay, says the Lord." You know, we can pray for God to act in judgment upon sin in His time. And in the meantime, we can pray that God will perhaps save some of those people who are committing these kinds of sins. We can pray for those legislators who have legislated these approvals of sin. Jeremiah lived in a very difficult time. He preached the truth of God's word while standing alone. And today, I think, you know, we can feel alone as well, especially when we turn away from evil and make ourselves a prey. So may you and I, who are believers, continue to preach the word of God. May we continue to meet together as believers, to encourage each other, to pray together, to remember the Lord in his death week by week so that we don't forget our Savior and that we don't forget his great work of salvation for us. Let's pray. Our God and Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this chapter 18 Jeremiah, we thank you that you are God the potter. Help us to remember that we are clay and that we are clay in the hands of the master potter. May we recognize and even accept the fact that you would mold us as you see fit, that you would do so to use us for your own pleasure and for your own honor and glory. Help us to remember that we don't belong to ourselves, we belong to you and you have the right to be that potter as we are the clay. Father, give us grace as we live in this world which is full of sin and rebellion against you. May we be encouraged to preach your word May we realize even the opposition that preaching the truth of your word will bring, and give us grace, give us endurance, even to get through those times that we would face opposition. May we trust you, may we stand faithful to you. Give us the courage, give us your power, Give us your strength to stand. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.