Truth Seekers Ministries Presents…
The Potter’s House, A lesson on Jeremiah 18
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 thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter’s house and, behold, he wrought a (HIS) 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 ye in mine hand, O house of Israel…”
“For all the promises of God in him (Christ) are yes, (mine to take if I am in Christ) and in him (Christ) Amen, (So be it) to the glory of God” 2 Corinthians 1:20
Before I begin this study, I want to thank Dr. Gene Scott, for turning on the light of truth, and for his messages on the Potter’s House, and many others, that have enabled me to then write about and to teach this subject and many others. RIP.. Dr. EuGene Scott, PHD. You have done well in preparing other truth seekers, whose task it now goes, to keep teaching the truth’s you have so eloquently taught on. You made learning easy and I’ll never forget your impact on my life. I admonish anyone reading this, that has learned from the Doc; If you aren’t already, then do something with what you have been given. For whom much is given, much is required. If you’ve learned from Dr. Scott, you have been given much, at the very least start spreading the truth’s he has taught us, God will handle the details. I, by no means, am implying that I or most anyone else could take Doc’s place, but considering the many thousands that he taught regularly, as a whole we can have an impact. Satan pulled a thorn out of his paw, only to find himself stuck in the middle of a briar patch. That’s the way I see it. Patrick Robinson, Minister 3/19/2012
This subject can be divided into four sections for easy remembrance. In the parable, there are three items, the Potter, who is GOD, the Clay, which is each of us, called of God, and indwelt with that seed of faith, the earnest of our inheritance, and of course, the Wheel, which represents our earthly life and circumstances. Keeping this simple, we can start each section you want to remember with the same letter. So this way, this parable can be easily remembered by four things.
You have to realize, exactly what main thing it is, that God is trying to tell us, which is what is called, the Principal, then, what is His reason for that completed clay vessel, which is the Purpose, then you have, what it is going to take, to complete this vessel, which is the Process, and then the outcome and our relationship with the Person who is responsible for your creation and molding.
THE PRINCIPAL—“GOD IS THE BOSS”, period.
What is it that makes God,..God? Absolute Power. Many people say that, “God is Love”. But God is not Love. One of God’s attributes is Love, and thank God for that. He is also jealous, vengeful, merciful and kind. But, what makes God, God, is absolute power over everything. If the devil had more power than God, then he would be God, and our lives would be quite different, but he doesn’t have more power, and Satan can only work within the realm of what God is allowing. God’s Grace is sufficient, and He will not allow us to go through more than we can bear, because He is the Almighty, He’s the Boss, and He only allows Satan so much leeway. You may say that, “God works together all things for our good”, but the original does not say that. What it says, is that God enters into all things to work “His” good to those that are called…” All things that happen are not good for us, but God will enter into all things, good and bad, to work “His” good will. Because God is all powerful, He is the Boss. What He says goes, and His Word is the final “Word” on the matter.
If you are a Christian, then you have been called by God, to be a Saint. You may not think you are one, but if you have been saved and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the Life of Christ, then you are indeed a Saint. You are not your own, but were bought with a price. We are God’s, We are Chosen, and the “Boss” takes us as the clay, just as we are, and works on us. Notice that the potter works, “His” work, not “a” work. We are God’s “Out Called Ones” which is what the church is, a people that belong to the Lord. We are also told in the parable that God would cause us to hear his voice, “There”. Only in the potter’s house, will we hear God’s voice. If you are not in the potter’s house, within GOD’s Control and influence, then you cannot hear God’s voice.
The true original sin, and the basis for all sin, is that we always have to have our own way. It’s called “Iniquity”. We want what we want, when we want it, and how we want it. We don’t like being told what to do or what not to do, which made God’s command to leave “one” tree alone, in that vast garden, all the more powerful for the tempter. What God desires most, from his creation, is trust. He willingly accepted the risks of sin, knowing it would take Him to the Cross, in order to call unto himself people that will trust him. Any parent knows, that what we desire from our children is not perfection, but absolute trust. The one thing needed for someone to trust you is freewill on the part of the person doing the trusting. We can be robots, under the rule of some God that demands exact perfectness, and even fulfill his demands, but there would be no trust, no connection, no eagerness to be with Him and to do His bidding. His desire is to fill the third of heaven, vacated by Satan and his minions, by people that would simply trust him in order to obtain their reward.
The word “Repent”, from the Latin, carries with it all the outward emotions we commonly see and relate with someone’s repentance, these days. The original Greek, however, has no such connotation. It simply means to “Turn From, ..To”. No emotions needed, you just stop your direction, turn around and get back into God’s will for your life. Your many words, and tears a plenty, have no impact whatsoever on your “Repentance”, hence your “Forgiveness”. Not that true inner sorrow, for some known wrong done, shouldn’t show on the surface with some emotion, that is just our nature. And, just because some of you can’t muster up a tear, does not mean you can’t repent and be forgiven. We have to just stop going our own way, and start following our Lord. God wants you, and I, to simply trust him, turn from our own way, and follow His leading. God risks our sin, to give us freewill, in order that we can even be able to trust Him. When we, “Like sheep have all gone astray”, and we find ourselves heading down that “Wide path” of our own desires of this world, we just do a 180, an about face, and for simply trusting God, He begins again to work a good work in our lives. As you live with someone, you come to know their ways. God is no different. God lamented that Isaiah didn’t come to know His ways, but Moses did come to know the “Ways” of God. As we live with God as a priority in our lives, we come to know His ways, and over time, since He’s the Boss, we eventually will reflect His ways to the world as we yield to God, and his molding of our lives.
When God says something more than once, we especially need to pay attention to what He is saying. Regarding this parable, we have three of the toughest of God’s chosen, that God sent to the Potter’s House. Jeremiah, withstood evil with truth through five kingdoms. God used Isaiah’s life as a drama and witness of God to Israel, in some very dramatic ways, and Paul went through more tough times and hardships than most anyone. That should be of a comfort to us, because God takes these tough men of faith, and shows them how God works on us. Even God’s best and toughest have to be molded, and beat on, as God is making them into His purpose for them. God takes us to the Potter’s house to teach us His ways. We should pay attention to the message of the “Potter’s House”.
God seems to have no sense of time. He is always late, so we many times try to help out God. In doing so, however, is not the clay talking back to the potter, “What Makest Thou”. We have no right to talk back to the potter. We are chosen “In Christ” before the worlds were formed. Jeremiah was called when he was in the womb. He had no choice, and we don’t either. God is the Boss.
THE PURPOSE: “LET US MAKE ADAM IN OUR IMAGE”
God’s purpose in dealing with us is to make us like Himself. We are to be conformed into the image and likeness of Jesus the Christ. Not that we will all look the same, but we all will have the nature, the presence, the thoughts, and ambitions of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are to come to the “Unity of the Faith” and we will all come to the knowledge of that perfect man. In the ages to come, we will be God’s representatives, just as Jesus was, and when people see and talk to us it will be as if they are talking to Jesus Himself, because Jesus will be there, living and speaking through us.
This is also why we can’t judge or condemn someone else for their sins. Not only is self-righteousness, a sin worse than the sins that they are judging, but we can’t know when someone is past redemption. In this day and age, there is an open door, and it matters not what people have done in their lives, if they truly repent, and turn to God, then God will save them. It will take some molding and beating to make some clay pliable enough to even work into a vessel suitable for God’s use, but we all seem “Kick against the pricks”, and buck the system. No one, can prevent anyone else, from being able to go to the potters house. So anyone who desires to come to God, has the Holy Spirit drawing them, for “No one comes to the Father save the Spirit Draw Them”. The fact that they want to come to God, means they aren’t past redemption, and they should be encouraged to take that trip. If people have the desire to come to God then the Spirit is Drawing them. We all have to yield to the hand of the potter, and as we submit to his working on us, we will be changed, and molded into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. It may take some time, and a lot of time for most, but if you take that trip, trusting GOD to see you through, the end result will be well worth it.
THE PROCESS: The “Wheel of Life”-
The Potter’s Wheel is representative of the experiences that God uses to shape us and to mold us as He, “The Boss”, see’s fit. Now, no one likes change but some people yield easily to the potter’s hands, and you can see it by the “Fruits of the Spirit” that we can see shining in their lives, This in no way excludes them from the occasional pounding and squeezing by the potters hands. Other people though, constantly resist change and buck the system so that God has to shape and mold more intensely than the rest. We all want the easy way out, the easy process, but sometimes, depending on the makeup of the clay, we have to be pounded, and smashed, and rolled up, and pounded again, spinning the wheel faster or slower, before God can start over with the forming of the vessel as He, “The Boss” see’s fit.
God gives us the freedom to resist his workings, in order to gain our trust, that He will be able to bring this vessel, for whatever use God intends it for, to it’s ultimate completion. We are to be today, vessels that as lamps, are shining our light of truth and God’s Grace and Mercy to this world, and as we yield to the makers hands, we will find our light shining ever more brightly. Let your light so shine, that when others see it, they will praise the Father in Heaven.
For those who are the called, the chosen, God will not stop shaping us, His hand constantly on each and every one of us, until our Vessels are Perfect and Complete, and then He can “Show Us Off” As I said earlier, God enters into all things, good and bad, to work His good will, in a called ones lives. Tough times are indeed the lot for everyone, Jesus himself said that in the world we would have “tribulation”, but be of good cheer, for He overcame the world. Thank God that His hand is on your life, for if you think it is bad now, if God wasn’t in control, things could be a whole lot worse. A spinning potters wheel, with clay on it, with no potter at the controls, results in the clay being slung across the room. That would probably hurt. Also bear in mind that in order to bring you to completion, to the fullness of the stature of our Lord, then our Faith has to be trained and increased. The only way for that to happen is for greater tests to come at us that we then have to summon up a greater measure of Faith to achieve the victory. Just as Gold is refined in the fire, the hotter the fire, the purer the gold, so are we on this wheel of life, given more and more pressure to achieve what God, “The Boss” wants to do in our lives. Then when God sees a complete vessel, He puts us in the furnace, the fire or “Pyros” in Greek, to take that complete vessel and make it permanent. Just because our vessel is almost complete, doesn’t mean that the heat is over, for the real heat is just beginning. God is in the process of making tough Christians. Through tribulation we learn endurance, through that we learn, triteness, which is a “proved up endurance”, a toughness that can come against anything, and through that we obtain Hope. So joy in your troubles and trials, knowing that God is working His good work. We’ve got to, myself included, stop struggling against the wheel, and the pressure, and then the process that God uses in bringing us to completion, may be a little smoother.
THE PERSON: The Lord Jesus Christ
The night Jesus was betrayed, Judas sold out our Lord, for 30 pieces of Silver. After realizing what he had done, Judas took the money back but the Priests wouldn’t take it, and Judas threw the money down, then went and hanged himself. The Priests took that money, the Price of our Lords Life, that Price of Redemption, and bought the “Potter’s Field” to bury strangers in. They called this field the “Field of Blood” ever since. This was no accident. The potters field they had purchased, is where all the rejects, the broken and marred vessels, those that failed in the potters hands, were all thrown into this field. It is written that Jesus paid the price for the “whole field”, that “Field of Blood”, giving up His own blood, in order to obtain the treasure within. We are told that we have this, “Treasure in Earthen Vessels”. Jesus death, paid the price for the whole field, including all the broken and rejected pieces, and He is willing to start over with them, with you, and with me, and every time I find myself failing, going my own way, seeking my own way, and turn back to Him, His promise is that “As we turn unto Him, He would turn unto us”. And, He takes me as I am, back into His arms, and He, “The Boss”, begins again with this vessel. We are all marred, rejected, and broken vessels, but God will not give up on us, He will never give up on us, so don’t you give up on Him. Jesus, willingly gave up His Glory in Heaven, came and was born into sinful flesh, was tempted in every way as we are, overcame the Devil, witnessed to this world, of God, and Died as a Ransom for the sin of the Whole World. But that is not the end of the story, because after three days and three nights, Jesus came out of that tomb. We do not serve some dead prophet, but a Live, Glorious, Risen Savior, who Ascended to the Right Hand of God, who loves us and truly has our best interests at heart. Now if Jesus, by Faith, submitted to the “Potter’s Wheel” Himself, leaving His Glory in heaven, and living in a physical life of sin, full of strife and turmoil, to the point of laying down His life in Faith, knowing that God was in control and would raise Him up, how much more should we, be willing to submit to the “New Boss” and allow His guidance in our lives. For Christ, is that Potter now, and He died for you and me, to give us eternal life through Faith, and for trusting God and Christ. The Father and Son Potter’s, will bring us through to completion.
SUMMATION:
“GOD IS THE BOSS” – He has the right to do anything He wants with us, all we are is a glob of mud, and nothing, can enter into and become the circumstances of our lives, without passing through His hands first. We were created for His Glory, His Purposes, and we are called to be Saints. The Hebrew word for Saint is “chasid”, meaning kind, pious, holy (Set Apart), favored or gracious ones. We “Saint” ourselves on the Altar of the Lord, giving ourselves wholly unto Him. The Church is not a building, not “his” church, or “her” church, it was bought and paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ. We are, “Kurios” the Church, “The Lords”, in the Greek meaning “Absolute Mastery”, and “Ecclesia” or “Out Called Ones” from the Latin. The Church does not exist for you or me, it exists solely for the Lord. We are called out from amongst the nations to be a peculiar people. A people set apart for our Lord. We were bought with a price, and if you are going to be a Christian, then BE ONE, and stop living “Of the World”. Get over yourself, this trip we are on is going to be full of trials and testing, but it is a trip worth taking.
If you are not a Christian, then you must have some kind of desire to come to God, or else why have you read this far. If you haven’t made up your mind about this Christ, then read my “Resurrection” letter. If you are a Christian, but feel that God should be some kind of, “Take me by the hand and lead me” kind of God, well God may start out leading you by the hand, but we are commanded to get off the “Milk” and get into the meat of the Word. Stop trying to be cuddled by the “All Breasted One”, and get off your whiny buts and start walking daily in faith, following the Lord, not holding His hand, through your valleys, knowing, that your Lord is the Lord over All, and that God will help us to make it through. God is creating “Tough” Christians, and the longer your walk with God, the tougher you will become.
You may say, “We’ll, I don’t know if I want to serve a God like that”. Well dumb a**, you have every right to walk straight into hell, no one will stop you. Don’t let your arrogance or pride keep you from humbling yourself under the will of God. Christianity is a “One Way Contract”. God writes all the terms. His Old Testament contract, could never be fulfilled to his demands, and the last word in that “Testament” is “curse”. The best anyone can do under the law, is to be cursed. The New Testament Contract, is also a “One Way Contract”, in that for simple child like faith and trust in God, he puts into your inmost being, that seed of faith, the implant of the Holy Spirit, “Christ in us the Hope of Glory”. We can’t negotiate the terms, you either accept the free gift, of the Sacrifice of Christ and His shed blood for your sins, which brings you back into God’s fold, or you don’t, and get condemned to hell. Dr. Scott gave this illustration, well he gave many, but this one applies here. In the Garden of Eden, Eden means “Heart of God”. In this garden you have eternal life, health, happiness, and eternity with the source of life. God only claimed one thing as off limits, one tree that if they ate it they would die. You know what happened. They didn’t believe God, they believed the Devil. Now we live in a world full of death, sickness, disease, and we are separated from the source of Life which is God. And for a simple act of faith and trust on our part, we can now receive anew that life eternal, which Adam and Eve so easily threw away, impacting everyone since then. Don’t believe the Devil’s lies again, and forfeit eternity with our Lord. You will live forever, “In Christ” or not, but the real question is where. Eternally Separated from God and Christ, the source of all life, put into a place of tortures forever. Or will you be taking up your place, in that third of heaven that Lucifer so foolishly gave up, and spending eternity with our Lord, the source of all good things. It is your choice. C.S Lewis stated that in the end there would only be two groups of people. Those that say to God, “THY WILL BE DONE”, and to the other group God will say to them, “THY WILL BE DONE”, as He casts them out.
“He that saveth his life shall lose it, but he that loseth his life for my sake and the gospel, shall gain it unto life eternal”
3/20/2012
Patrick Robinson, Minister
Truth Seekers Ministries