WEBVTT 00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:12.720 This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota. 00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:27.519 Please take your Bible and make your way to the Old Testament book of Jeremiah. 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:31.760 Jeremiah is one of my biblical, one of my favorite biblical writers. 00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:36.960 And he also writes one of the largest books of the Bible, so it makes it easy to find. 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:38.479 Book of Jeremiah. 00:00:38.560 --> 00:00:45.359 If you would make your way there, please, as we look together at God's word this morning. 00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:52.880 Going to be looking specifically at Jeremiah chapter 18. 00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:55.200 Jeremiah 18. 00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:09.840 The United States of America has endured many polarizing periods in its history. 00:01:10.879 --> 00:01:23.120 It took less than a hundred years in our history for the spirit of independence to drive wedges into our people, leading to a civil war. 00:01:27.599 --> 00:01:46.799 If you follow through our nation's history, in the next hundred years after the Civil War, we would be brought into international politics such that we would endure world wars and fighting for allies. 00:01:47.280 --> 00:02:10.080 Along the way, this country has endured war opposition, civil rights conflicts, assertions of sexual rights, personal rights, gun rights, school choice rights, and of course abortion rights. 00:02:10.800 --> 00:02:16.719 And all of those have been polarizing in one form or another. 00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:42.319 Can we fail to mention COVID-19 lockdowns, vaccinations of all kinds, food and gasoline shortages, government and political scandals, freedom of religion, freedom of speech concerns, and riots from all of those that polarize? 00:02:43.680 --> 00:02:49.520 We're currently in the midst of economic polarization. 00:02:49.759 --> 00:02:55.680 And recent Supreme Court rulings have generated celebrations and conflagrations. 00:02:57.599 --> 00:03:01.439 What are we to make of our history? 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:07.919 That which is long past and that which is currently being established. 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:21.039 I saw a picture recently that endeavored to give some perspective, not on our history or our nation, just on the idea of perspective. 00:03:21.199 --> 00:03:26.960 The image was a lineup of planets next to the sun. 00:03:27.439 --> 00:03:36.400 And some creative person decided to put the words you are here, pointing to the earth compared to the sun. 00:03:38.719 --> 00:03:41.280 Perspective changes things, doesn't it? 00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:48.719 A wet spring stirs up anxiety if you've survived a 500-year flood. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:04:00.400 The power of flame on a match can bear a hideous intent if you fought wildfires or if you've lost a home to a fire. 00:04:01.840 --> 00:04:06.719 Drive to the Rocky Mountains and you will instantly feel quite small. 00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:16.639 But even those majestic mountains are exceedingly small in view of the sun's magnitude. 00:04:18.319 --> 00:04:23.439 And if the mountains are small compared to the sun's magnitude, where does that put us? 00:04:27.519 --> 00:04:31.920 Our sun is a small star in a universe. 00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:46.000 And even that universe is diminutive, is small, is tiny when we understand that God hung those stars in place with his fingertips and he knows each one by name. 00:04:48.079 --> 00:04:50.720 Perspective can be helpful. 00:04:51.600 --> 00:04:54.560 But perspective can also be very painful. 00:04:55.279 --> 00:04:57.920 This morning I want us to be open to both. 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:13.759 Both the helpful and the painful, from the words recorded by the prophet Jeremiah serving mainly in the city of Jerusalem, between roughly 625 BC and 685 B.C. 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:19.600 In the second chapter of Jeremiah, we read these words of God. 00:05:48.079 --> 00:05:52.480 O heavens, those stars in the sky, they should be appalled. 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:54.160 They should be shocked. 00:05:55.519 --> 00:05:57.759 They should be utterly desolated. 00:05:59.120 --> 00:05:59.759 Why? 00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:03.600 Because God says, My people have committed two evils. 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:10.000 They've forsaken me, number one, the fountain of living waters. 00:06:11.199 --> 00:06:20.160 And number two, because they've forsaken me, they've hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that hold no water. 00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:27.759 As a result, Jeremiah wrote that the nation of Israel had provoked God to anger. 00:06:29.120 --> 00:06:34.319 And as a result of his anger, God had decreed disaster against Israel. 00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:37.199 Of course, that astonished God's people. 00:06:37.279 --> 00:06:40.800 And so they asked, Well, what did we do to provoke you to anger? 00:06:41.279 --> 00:06:42.240 Why have you done this? 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:44.720 Why are we earning judgment? 00:06:44.959 --> 00:06:48.319 Here's what Jeremiah was to say. 00:06:50.160 --> 00:07:06.480 Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, because they've gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, and because you have done worse than your fathers. 00:07:07.279 --> 00:07:16.000 For behold, every one of you follows his own stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:21.920 Therefore, I will hurl you out of this land. 00:07:22.160 --> 00:07:29.040 By the way, that word hurl is the same word that Jonah uses for being hurled into the sea. 00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:42.399 I will, God says, hurl you out of this land, into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor. 00:07:44.800 --> 00:07:46.480 That sounds harsh. 00:07:46.800 --> 00:08:01.839 Until we understand that God had already been offering salvation and blessing and peace to his people again and again and again and again and again and again and again for hundreds of years. 00:08:03.279 --> 00:08:12.240 And over and over and over again there is this repeated refrain you did not listen. 00:08:13.519 --> 00:08:14.959 They spurned him. 00:08:16.079 --> 00:08:22.639 They chose broken cisterns that would not hold water, instead of choosing the water of life. 00:08:22.800 --> 00:08:25.199 And God had given, had had enough. 00:08:25.759 --> 00:08:28.240 His mercy gave way to his justice. 00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:35.679 And so he told Jeremiah that he would be sending a nation of warriors to kill and to destroy. 00:08:36.639 --> 00:08:42.159 And the prime target would be the beloved city of Jerusalem. 00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:51.360 When is it that grace and mercy gives way to justice? 00:08:53.440 --> 00:08:58.320 Now all of that is the background to Jeremiah chapter 18. 00:08:58.799 --> 00:09:03.519 If you have your Bible, I encourage you to turn there and we'll read if you would follow along with me. 00:09:04.159 --> 00:09:08.559 Jeremiah 18, the word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:15.840 Arise, Jeremiah, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words. 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:22.159 So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. 00:09:22.320 --> 00:09:26.399 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand. 00:09:27.120 --> 00:09:31.840 And he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:40.879 Then the word of Yahweh came to me, O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? 00:09:41.120 --> 00:09:42.399 declares Yahweh. 00:09:42.639 --> 00:09:49.200 Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 00:09:50.000 --> 00:10:08.000 If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. 00:10:08.559 --> 00:10:21.440 And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build it and plant it, and if it 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. 00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:41.039 Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Thus says Yahweh, look, I am shaping, fashioning, molding a disaster against you, and devising a plan against you. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:47.120 Return everyone from his evil way and amend your ways and your deeds. 00:10:47.360 --> 00:10:49.519 But they say, That's in vain. 00:10:49.840 --> 00:10:51.360 We will follow our own plans. 00:10:51.440 --> 00:10:56.240 We will every one act according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart. 00:10:56.799 --> 00:11:00.080 Therefore, thus says Yahweh, ask among the nations. 00:11:01.039 --> 00:11:03.120 Who has heard the like of this? 00:11:03.360 --> 00:11:06.480 The Virgin Israel has done a very horrible thing. 00:11:07.519 --> 00:11:11.519 Does the snow of Lebanon leave the crags of Syrian? 00:11:12.799 --> 00:11:17.279 Do the mountain waters run dry, those cold flowing streams? 00:11:18.320 --> 00:11:19.679 The answer is no. 00:11:20.559 --> 00:11:23.039 But my people have forgotten me. 00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:35.519 They make offerings to false gods, they made them stumble in their ways, in the ancient roads, and to walk into the side roads rather than the highway, making their land a horror, a thing to be hissed at forever. 00:11:35.759 --> 00:11:40.320 Everyone who passes by it is horrified and shakes his head. 00:11:40.799 --> 00:11:44.480 Like the east wind, I will scatter them before the enemy. 00:11:44.960 --> 00:11:50.559 I will show them my back, not my face, in the day of their calamity. 00:11:51.679 --> 00:11:52.320 Amen. 00:11:53.600 --> 00:11:59.519 Every disciple of Jesus should watch a potter work. 00:12:00.960 --> 00:12:02.879 It's best if it's in person. 00:12:04.080 --> 00:12:06.720 But YouTube could probably work in a pinch. 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:15.360 God described his interaction with his creation through the image of a potter. 00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:19.279 A potter's work is messy. 00:12:19.919 --> 00:12:28.240 Beginning with a lump of clay, he would work it with his hands, adding water to keep it moldable. 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:33.440 And it can be a splattery, watery, muddy mess of a job. 00:12:35.120 --> 00:12:38.960 That lump of clay sat on a wheel. 00:12:39.519 --> 00:12:44.159 The words that Jeremiah used here indicate a double wheel. 00:12:44.240 --> 00:12:50.000 So if you can imagine taking the axle off of your car with a wheel at each end and turning it on end. 00:12:50.159 --> 00:12:51.360 It's kind of what we have here. 00:12:51.759 --> 00:12:55.039 There's two wheels, a top and a bottom, with an axle in between. 00:12:55.279 --> 00:13:08.480 And the potter would sit on a bench or on a stool and turn that wheel with his feet on the bottom wheel so that the top wheel would be turning and he would have his hands free to work that clay. 00:13:10.240 --> 00:13:22.559 Softening the clay with water, he would spin it around and around while his hands added pressure to shape that moldable clay into a pitcher or a bowl. 00:13:23.919 --> 00:13:29.120 Had to be perfectly balanced, or the wheel's motion would cause it to just collapse on itself. 00:13:30.559 --> 00:13:37.440 The formation had to be smooth, with no pockets, no air bubbles. 00:13:38.080 --> 00:13:54.159 And if the potter saw, excuse me, some kind of defect in the clay, or somehow that the shape wasn't exactly taking the form that he wanted, he would add more water to it and return it to a simple clump of clay. 00:13:54.399 --> 00:13:58.240 And he would begin working it again into something useful. 00:13:59.279 --> 00:14:05.120 It's a task that is quite enjoyable, but takes a lot of patience. 00:14:06.399 --> 00:14:12.240 Like the image of a shepherd, the potter was an everyday picture for ancient Israel. 00:14:12.320 --> 00:14:16.480 It was an image everyone could understand, everyone could imagine it in their minds. 00:14:17.440 --> 00:14:23.360 But is that why Jeremiah was sent to the potter's house? 00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:28.000 So I went down to the potter's house. 00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:30.799 And there he was working at his wheel. 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:36.000 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in his hand. 00:14:36.639 --> 00:14:37.919 Something went wrong. 00:14:38.080 --> 00:14:43.840 And he reworked it into another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to do. 00:14:44.559 --> 00:14:51.519 God intended to give Jeremiah a message using an object lesson. 00:14:52.159 --> 00:14:57.440 But the lesson and the message were not only to the prophet. 00:14:58.159 --> 00:15:08.000 God was sending a message to his people, to the nation of Israel, to the people who had spurned his message again and again and again. 00:15:08.559 --> 00:15:20.960 So God is taking Jeremiah and he's saying, Go down to the potter's house, and I'm gonna give you a lesson through the potter, and you are to take that lesson and turn it into a message for the people of Israel. 00:15:21.200 --> 00:15:25.120 So what was it that God sent Jeremiah to learn? 00:15:26.559 --> 00:15:31.759 Well, we learn that Jeremiah was to watch the potter. 00:15:32.240 --> 00:15:43.360 Because like the potter works with the clay and is sovereign over that clay, making it into whatever he wants, so too God is sovereign over people. 00:15:44.480 --> 00:15:54.159 God sent Jeremiah to deliver a message then to the people in Jerusalem, to say to them, they're doing whatever they wanted to do. 00:15:55.440 --> 00:16:04.080 They believed that they were free, free to live and to act and to do whatever they wanted to do, however their hearts desired. 00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:06.320 They're God's chosen people, after all. 00:16:07.440 --> 00:16:14.480 Never mind that their kinfolk in the northern tribes had already been deported, scattered. 00:16:15.519 --> 00:16:18.879 But here God's people are still thinking, yeah, that's them. 00:16:19.039 --> 00:16:20.320 We're not like them. 00:16:23.279 --> 00:16:25.840 Isn't that always the way of our hearts? 00:16:26.399 --> 00:16:28.720 To think that we're not like that. 00:16:31.679 --> 00:16:38.559 The lesson of the potter is that people are like that clump of clay in God's hands. 00:16:39.039 --> 00:16:47.519 If they follow and obey him, he will mold them into something good, into something useful, into something proper for his use. 00:16:47.679 --> 00:16:55.279 But if they refuse to listen to him, if they refuse to obey him, then like the potter, God will begin to re-mold them. 00:16:55.840 --> 00:16:59.600 They will ultimately submit to him, whether they like it or not. 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:02.960 It's just how comfortable the process will be. 00:17:03.840 --> 00:17:09.680 Now, this is about ancient Israel, God's chosen people through whom he would send the Savior of all people. 00:17:09.920 --> 00:17:17.039 But passages like Isaiah 46 show us that this applies to people of all times and nations of all kinds. 00:17:18.160 --> 00:17:22.799 We are not free as we think we are free. 00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:33.359 For God stands over us to guide, to protect, and sometimes to reshape or even destroy. 00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:37.920 In some ways, we are like Jeremiah. 00:17:38.640 --> 00:17:47.599 It doesn't take much to look around us in our world and to see the rampant evil on display, even in our own country. 00:17:48.319 --> 00:17:56.400 We can see the need, not for more or even fewer laws. 00:17:56.640 --> 00:18:02.640 We can see the need for not more or even less governmental control, but a need for a change of heart. 00:18:04.079 --> 00:18:13.759 We celebrate changes and statutes that bring our country into a greater obedience to God's desires, but laws don't change hearts, do they? 00:18:15.039 --> 00:18:22.160 More than laws and regulations, people need a heart change that comes from God's saving grace. 00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:30.559 We also sense parallels in people's hearts today with those in Jeremiah's time. 00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:38.000 The rampant desire to do whatever one thinks is right for himself, for herself. 00:18:39.359 --> 00:18:43.279 Even if it celebrates the freedom to sin. 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:50.640 That should be a weight that drags us down, as it did the prophet Jeremiah. 00:18:51.519 --> 00:18:59.279 But there's encouragement here for those times when the depravity of culture overwhelms us and we feel that weight of the curse of sin. 00:18:59.359 --> 00:19:03.440 And that encouragement is God is sovereign over people. 00:19:05.279 --> 00:19:10.000 God is still the potter when the world seems out of control. 00:19:12.400 --> 00:19:15.359 God is still the potter who yells, stop. 00:19:17.200 --> 00:19:19.839 And no, I am God. 00:19:21.759 --> 00:19:26.559 And if people rebel too much, his mercy will end and his justice will act. 00:19:26.880 --> 00:19:31.759 As the potter with the clay, so too God is with the people he created. 00:19:32.960 --> 00:19:37.200 We are clay in the hands of God. 00:19:39.440 --> 00:19:47.680 When does grace and mercy give way to discipline and judgment? 00:19:49.599 --> 00:19:54.400 We learn that like the potter with the clay, God is sovereign over people. 00:19:54.799 --> 00:20:00.559 We also learn that like the potter with the clay, God is in control of all nations. 00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:05.680 Jeremiah recorded the words of God beginning in verse 7. 00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:18.960 If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation concerning which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do it. 00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:30.079 And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build it and plant it, and if it 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. 00:20:31.359 --> 00:20:38.319 We tend to look at the world and national events only from a human perspective. 00:20:38.559 --> 00:20:42.640 Tomorrow you may celebrate our nation's Independence Day. 00:20:42.880 --> 00:20:44.960 That's a fine thing to do. 00:20:46.240 --> 00:20:56.400 But the proper thing for a Christian to do is to celebrate it as independence given to us by the hand of God, not by the hand of revolutionaries. 00:20:58.799 --> 00:21:09.440 We tend to look at the world and national events, and we see nations coming into existence through war, separating people groups into distinct nations. 00:21:09.920 --> 00:21:20.480 Other countries go to war to subdue and to assimilate others, but we need to remember that God Himself says he is the one who brings those things to pass. 00:21:21.759 --> 00:21:22.400 Why? 00:21:23.200 --> 00:21:25.440 Because he is the potter. 00:21:27.119 --> 00:21:40.079 Nations at war with nations or people with people do not signify an absence of God, but the active presence of God molding the clay. 00:21:52.319 --> 00:21:56.720 Because, like the potter with the clay, God can determine to do differently. 00:21:57.039 --> 00:21:59.759 He can bring disaster on a nation and judge. 00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:01.440 Against them. 00:22:02.079 --> 00:22:08.079 And he can do differently if they repent and begin to listen to his words. 00:22:08.799 --> 00:22:13.359 But sadly, the typical response is a rejection of God's grace, isn't it? 00:22:13.599 --> 00:22:20.400 The more God's grace is displayed, the more his patience is on display, the more people forget about him. 00:22:20.960 --> 00:22:25.279 Look at the reaction of God's people for his call for repentance in verse 13. 00:22:28.160 --> 00:22:31.759 Therefore, thus says Yahweh, ask among the I'm sorry, verse 12. 00:22:31.920 --> 00:22:34.319 But they say, that is in vain. 00:22:35.200 --> 00:22:37.920 We will follow our own plans. 00:22:38.079 --> 00:22:41.359 And we will, everyone, act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart. 00:22:41.519 --> 00:22:43.440 God says, I'm going to give you one more chance. 00:22:43.599 --> 00:22:44.400 Return to me. 00:22:44.559 --> 00:22:45.920 Repent of your sinfulness. 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:48.640 Repent of doing what's right in your own eyes and listen to me. 00:22:48.799 --> 00:22:50.720 Ah, that's worthless. 00:22:51.759 --> 00:22:54.720 God, you know that's not going to get us where we want to go. 00:22:54.880 --> 00:22:57.920 Oh, of course, because where you want to go is not where you should go. 00:23:01.440 --> 00:23:02.880 What a reaction. 00:23:03.599 --> 00:23:17.599 God sent Jeremiah to the potter's house to teach his people the incredible power of their God so that they might be moved to repentance and return to their God in humble trust. 00:23:19.519 --> 00:23:23.440 And they say, that's not going to do any good. 00:23:25.359 --> 00:23:27.440 It's astounding, isn't it? 00:23:28.319 --> 00:23:30.799 And yet it's no different today. 00:23:32.400 --> 00:23:35.920 We still follow our own plans. 00:23:36.640 --> 00:23:41.119 We still act according to the stubbornness of our own hearts. 00:23:42.240 --> 00:23:42.880 We do. 00:23:44.160 --> 00:23:47.759 Whether we're willing to recognize it and admit it or not. 00:23:48.880 --> 00:23:52.640 When I was a boy, I did many foolish things. 00:23:52.720 --> 00:23:57.119 Well, I suppose I still do foolish things, but there are some that I no longer do. 00:23:58.720 --> 00:24:05.599 The railroad tracks ran through town just a few blocks from my home and behind my best friend's home. 00:24:05.920 --> 00:24:11.839 And about halfway in between us, those railroad tracks crossed the little Missouri River. 00:24:13.680 --> 00:24:22.400 So as boys are bound to do, the tracks and that particular bridge that you see there became a natural playground. 00:24:23.279 --> 00:24:33.519 Our parents eventually found out and told us not to play on the bridge, not to play around the tracks because of the danger of trains coming through. 00:24:33.839 --> 00:24:37.920 Listening to our parents was the wise thing to do. 00:24:39.920 --> 00:24:43.119 Obeying our parents would keep us safe. 00:24:43.920 --> 00:24:52.559 Listening to our parents would teach us wisdom and help us know the power and the danger of the trains. 00:24:54.640 --> 00:24:56.400 Do you think we listened? 00:24:58.319 --> 00:24:59.359 We were little boys. 00:24:59.440 --> 00:25:01.119 Of course we didn't. 00:25:02.160 --> 00:25:04.480 We knew better than our parents. 00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:10.799 We knew that the train only came through once or at most twice a day. 00:25:11.839 --> 00:25:14.799 So the chances of us being in danger were very slim. 00:25:14.880 --> 00:25:21.200 And this was a wide open stretch of railway about two miles long, just perfectly straight. 00:25:21.359 --> 00:25:24.960 So we knew we could see a train and get out of the way if it was coming. 00:25:27.519 --> 00:25:31.200 It continued to be our playground. 00:25:32.960 --> 00:25:38.880 This particular bridge has a walkway on one side of it that is outside of the bridge itself. 00:25:38.960 --> 00:25:40.799 It's perfectly safe. 00:25:41.519 --> 00:25:45.200 Might scare you quite a bit if a train came through. 00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:48.799 So we played on that walkway. 00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:51.119 It's not the only thing that we did. 00:25:51.359 --> 00:26:10.480 You will see if you look closely that there are concrete supports that go down from the middle of the bridge down to the river, and so we would walk down the middle of the tracks to those concrete supports, and we would crawl down between the bridge portions to get on top of those concrete things. 00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:16.240 There's no way we would have had time to get out of those situations if there was a train coming. 00:26:17.279 --> 00:26:22.400 By God's grace, I am alive today to tell you that that is an unwise decision. 00:26:23.039 --> 00:26:25.119 Kids, listen to your parents. 00:26:27.119 --> 00:26:35.039 I did not repent of playing on the railroad bridge because I thought that listening to my parents was a pointless thing to do. 00:26:36.960 --> 00:26:44.160 I thought hearing my parents' wisdom was in vain, and so we continued to play on the railroad bridge. 00:26:44.559 --> 00:26:50.559 The fun it presented was far more desirable to me than the safety that my parents encouraged. 00:26:51.039 --> 00:26:55.200 So I continued doing what I wanted to do in the stubbornness of my heart. 00:26:55.359 --> 00:26:57.759 And that's what sin does in us. 00:26:59.680 --> 00:27:06.720 God teaches us what is right, He shows us the wise way to walk. 00:27:06.960 --> 00:27:16.880 We hear our Father tell us to turn, and yet we refuse to stop playing where we should not play. 00:27:17.359 --> 00:27:23.519 We desire the pleasure of our sin more than we want to obey the voice of our Father. 00:27:23.759 --> 00:27:31.359 And if we continue in our sin long enough, eventually we will get struck by the train. 00:27:33.279 --> 00:27:36.480 There were no trains in Jeremiah's day. 00:27:37.759 --> 00:27:39.599 But there were potters. 00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:54.960 There were potters who would take great pains to carefully fashion an object, only to completely undo everything it created and start again. 00:27:56.000 --> 00:28:01.680 The people in the time of Jeremiah no longer cared to listen to the wisdom of God. 00:28:02.000 --> 00:28:03.759 They did not want his salvation. 00:28:03.839 --> 00:28:04.960 They refused his grace. 00:28:05.039 --> 00:28:06.400 They kept pursuing their sin. 00:28:06.480 --> 00:28:07.680 They refused to listen. 00:28:07.839 --> 00:28:09.359 It's astonishing. 00:28:12.240 --> 00:28:14.319 So when does the train come? 00:28:15.599 --> 00:28:20.400 When does God's mercy and grace turn to judgment? 00:28:20.880 --> 00:28:27.200 That's why God said to Jeremiah in verse 13, ask among all of the nations. 00:28:27.680 --> 00:28:31.839 Go take a pole, not of your own people, but of all the other nations. 00:28:33.119 --> 00:28:34.880 Who's ever heard of this? 00:28:35.920 --> 00:28:39.279 Who has ever heard of a people turning away from their God? 00:28:40.880 --> 00:28:42.319 My people have forgotten me. 00:28:42.400 --> 00:28:44.720 They've made offerings to false gods. 00:28:46.160 --> 00:28:57.839 Those gods have made them stumble in their ways, in the ancient roads, made them walk in the side roads, not the highway, making their whole land a horror, a thing to be hissed at forever. 00:28:58.000 --> 00:29:06.079 See, turning away from God to worship false gods made the people like drunkards who stumble around and can't find the road. 00:29:06.720 --> 00:29:12.240 In fact, they were a nation of drunkards who can't find the interstate. 00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:22.079 It's so astounding, God says, that everyone who passes by is horrified and just shakes his head in astonishment. 00:29:23.599 --> 00:29:28.160 See, the nations all around knew that Yahweh was Israel's God. 00:29:29.920 --> 00:29:32.880 They knew what God had done for his people. 00:29:33.519 --> 00:29:35.759 They feared Israel's God. 00:29:35.920 --> 00:29:38.000 They knew of his covenant with them. 00:29:38.240 --> 00:29:46.720 But because of their refusal to hear him any longer, those passers-by would now be horrified at Israel's astonishing spurning of her God. 00:29:50.160 --> 00:29:52.000 You would be horrified. 00:29:53.599 --> 00:30:10.640 If you invited someone over to dinner and you carefully prepared a wonderful meal for them, and when they arrived and saw what you had prepared, they said no, thank you, and instead went outside and enjoyed a maggot-infested meal. 00:30:14.240 --> 00:30:19.119 You would be shaking your head and go, I don't I don't understand this. 00:30:20.559 --> 00:30:22.799 It's no different with God's people. 00:30:23.680 --> 00:30:26.319 God had provided them with everything. 00:30:27.440 --> 00:30:31.920 And they chose something other than Him. 00:30:32.799 --> 00:30:39.200 And those on the outside could not understand why they would reject the water of life for leaky cisterns. 00:30:40.640 --> 00:30:45.839 And at this point, by implication, God returns to the image of the potter. 00:30:48.480 --> 00:30:54.640 The potter begins anew when there is a fault of some kind in the vessel he is making. 00:30:55.119 --> 00:31:05.839 God said to the Jewish people living in the promised land, he says, like the east wind, I will scatter them before the enemy, I will show them my back and not my face in the day of their calamity. 00:31:05.920 --> 00:31:14.880 And so we learn with Jeremiah that like the potter with the clay, God's mercy and grace can turn to judgment. 00:31:22.720 --> 00:31:29.440 God would turn his back on them in the time of their greatest need and rescue them no more. 00:31:31.200 --> 00:31:35.519 In other words, there's a time when God says, You want to play on the railroad bridge? 00:31:37.039 --> 00:31:37.759 Go ahead. 00:31:40.160 --> 00:31:40.880 Go ahead. 00:31:42.319 --> 00:31:43.920 That's the choice you want to make. 00:31:44.160 --> 00:31:44.880 Go ahead. 00:31:47.440 --> 00:31:49.119 But it's worse than that. 00:31:50.319 --> 00:31:58.079 In judgment for turning against him one too many times, God becomes the train. 00:32:01.200 --> 00:32:03.039 God becomes the enemy. 00:32:04.960 --> 00:32:09.759 God becomes the warriors beating down the people. 00:32:10.480 --> 00:32:17.039 God would act against his rebellious people like the spoiled clay vessel reworked in the potter's hands. 00:32:17.680 --> 00:32:29.599 And so we come away from this understanding that there are some fundamental principles for our life in this world and how we must go forward in an increasingly evil society. 00:32:29.759 --> 00:32:33.839 You see, Jeremiah describes an irreligious society. 00:32:35.759 --> 00:32:49.920 But it's a land with a past of great leaders, of magnificent kings like David, who were men after God's own heart, but had since drifted away to a place of deafness to the word of God. 00:32:51.359 --> 00:32:57.279 The world was a depraved mess of people doing what's right in their own eyes. 00:32:57.599 --> 00:33:03.599 Oh, sure, there were a handful of prophets declaring the word of God to people who would not listen. 00:33:05.119 --> 00:33:13.279 You would think I was talking about the year of our Lord 2022. 00:33:18.240 --> 00:33:22.400 This is Israel's national and personal history. 00:33:23.359 --> 00:33:31.920 But we fail to properly hear the word of God from Jeremiah until we seek to apply this truth to our lives. 00:33:32.160 --> 00:33:34.559 So what is there here that applies to us today? 00:33:34.799 --> 00:33:40.160 Well, first, I think we have to be impacted by the field trip to the potter's house. 00:33:41.119 --> 00:33:45.039 And there are at least two applications here, one national and one personal. 00:33:45.599 --> 00:33:52.240 What God showed to Jeremiah was intended to be directed to the national level. 00:33:52.880 --> 00:34:01.119 God says to the nation of Israel that he can pluck up, that he can tear down, he can even build up a nation if he so desires it. 00:34:02.240 --> 00:34:08.480 Just like the potter can do to the clay, so too God can do for entire countries. 00:34:10.480 --> 00:34:12.719 That's nothing new if we read our Bibles. 00:34:13.039 --> 00:34:22.559 God said through Job, He makes nations great and He destroys them. 00:34:23.760 --> 00:34:28.639 He enlarges nations and he leads them away. 00:34:33.280 --> 00:34:35.920 Are we listening to God? 00:34:37.119 --> 00:34:41.199 What about what Isaiah says in Isaiah chapter 40, verse 15? 00:34:41.760 --> 00:34:46.719 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket. 00:34:48.320 --> 00:34:53.360 And we are accounted as the dust on the scales. 00:34:53.519 --> 00:34:56.320 How much does the dust on the scales weigh? 00:34:59.039 --> 00:35:00.239 Perspective. 00:35:01.920 --> 00:35:03.599 We are insignificant. 00:35:06.480 --> 00:35:15.119 We must never forget, my friends, that our nation, all nations, are in the hand of God. 00:35:16.239 --> 00:35:18.960 And he does with them what he desires. 00:35:20.320 --> 00:35:30.159 We cannot assume that God will allow this country or any country to succeed. 00:35:31.039 --> 00:35:33.679 Or that he will keep it from failing. 00:35:34.159 --> 00:35:36.239 That it will continue forever. 00:35:36.480 --> 00:35:46.480 But we should know that we need not worry that things in our country or things in our world are outside of God's power to change. 00:35:48.400 --> 00:35:53.199 You need not worry about God's lack of control over politics. 00:35:53.440 --> 00:35:58.960 You need not be worried or anxious about God's lack of control over economics. 00:35:59.280 --> 00:36:03.840 You need not wonder if God is concerned about international policy. 00:36:08.400 --> 00:36:10.719 That old spiritual is right. 00:36:19.440 --> 00:36:23.039 But we must not forget that the potter can remake the vessel. 00:36:24.400 --> 00:36:33.039 Judgment may come, discipline may come, and God's own people may suffer because of that judgment. 00:36:33.360 --> 00:36:37.920 See, in Israel, the righteous suffered some consequences of the sin of the unrighteous. 00:36:38.239 --> 00:36:47.760 God's mercy and grace eventually do give way to his justice if there is no repentance, if there is continued refusal to hear. 00:36:48.239 --> 00:36:52.159 Jeremiah ends up carted off to Egypt against his will. 00:36:52.800 --> 00:36:58.079 Daniel, Azariah, Mishael, and Azariah end up being deported to Babylon. 00:36:59.360 --> 00:37:01.679 Ezekiel is in Babylon. 00:37:02.960 --> 00:37:07.679 Sometimes God's people suffer the consequences for the sin of their people. 00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:10.000 Israel was God's chosen people. 00:37:10.159 --> 00:37:13.920 They lived in the land God promised to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 00:37:14.079 --> 00:37:19.599 They had God's word, and yet judgment still came because the nation rejected him. 00:37:20.800 --> 00:37:25.920 Beloved, we have a wonderful country by the grace of God, but it is not beyond God's judgment. 00:37:27.280 --> 00:37:32.079 In fact, I would argue that if you read Scripture as a whole, it's already under the judgment of God. 00:37:34.559 --> 00:37:42.239 Like Jeremiah, we must be prepared for whatever the potter may choose to do in his sovereign control over all nations. 00:37:44.079 --> 00:37:50.239 And that may mean that we have to trust through suffering. 00:37:52.159 --> 00:37:54.000 Are you ready to do that? 00:37:55.679 --> 00:37:59.199 Are you ready to say the potter knows best? 00:38:01.760 --> 00:38:07.119 Jeremiah trusted God, but still suffered the effects of his people's sin. 00:38:07.280 --> 00:38:09.280 And yet God is very clear here. 00:38:10.239 --> 00:38:15.119 He says in verse 11, return to me and amend your ways. 00:38:16.159 --> 00:38:22.400 If anyone repents and turns to him, God will turn to something other than the severe judgment that he intended. 00:38:22.559 --> 00:38:30.719 It was not too late for Jeremiah's people, even though Nebuchadnezzar's war machine was marching toward Judah. 00:38:32.079 --> 00:38:34.559 It's not too late for our nation. 00:38:35.199 --> 00:38:37.199 It's not too late for any nation. 00:38:37.519 --> 00:38:40.639 God calls all people to repent, including our country. 00:38:40.800 --> 00:38:46.400 That's why the pastoral epistles say, pray for your nation. 00:38:47.360 --> 00:38:54.239 Pray for people in positions of authority and power, for kings, for governors, for mayors. 00:38:57.440 --> 00:39:02.880 But we cannot look at our nation as a whole and wait for something to happen. 00:39:04.880 --> 00:39:07.840 Repentance begins with the one who hears. 00:39:10.960 --> 00:39:12.400 And we are hearing. 00:39:14.559 --> 00:39:16.400 Do you have ears to hear? 00:39:17.199 --> 00:39:20.480 Repentance begins with our own hearts. 00:39:21.840 --> 00:39:26.800 You and I, my friend, are the clay in the potter's hand. 00:39:28.559 --> 00:39:30.559 We're made from dust, remember? 00:39:34.880 --> 00:39:43.119 God molds and makes us according to his will, just as he can build up a nation and tear it down, so he can do with us as individuals. 00:39:43.599 --> 00:39:49.679 If we have been pursuing our own ways, our own desires, rather than his heart. 00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.400 And he calls us to listen and to turn to him. 00:39:54.639 --> 00:39:56.559 He's constantly working in you. 00:39:57.519 --> 00:40:05.840 If you belong to him, he is working slowly and patiently with you, his piece of clay to mold you into the image of Jesus. 00:40:06.079 --> 00:40:07.360 The process is slow. 00:40:07.519 --> 00:40:10.800 It takes a lifetime, but the master potter is at work. 00:40:10.960 --> 00:40:14.239 Sometimes he has to restart what he's doing in us. 00:40:16.559 --> 00:40:18.000 He's sovereign. 00:40:18.719 --> 00:40:25.679 And if we fight against him, if we refuse to listen, doing what's right in our own eyes, he can start all over. 00:40:28.159 --> 00:40:33.280 There is a reason to be aware of God's pending judgment. 00:40:33.599 --> 00:40:41.199 There's a reason to be mindful of the need for repentance, both personally and nationally. 00:40:42.480 --> 00:40:43.840 But I don't want to end on that. 00:40:44.000 --> 00:40:46.159 I want to end on a positive tone. 00:40:47.920 --> 00:40:50.320 There is also every reason. 00:40:51.599 --> 00:40:58.159 No matter where you are on the face of this insignificant ball in the universe. 00:40:59.840 --> 00:41:12.079 No matter if you're on this side or the other side, if you're in the north or if you're in the south, there's every reason to trust your God when the world seems to be falling apart. 00:41:13.199 --> 00:41:16.639 Because he will never forsake his own. 00:41:19.199 --> 00:41:23.039 Jesus sent his disciples out into a world that would hate them. 00:41:23.519 --> 00:41:26.239 He sent them out into a world that would persecute them. 00:41:26.480 --> 00:41:29.599 He sent them out into a world that would not understand them. 00:41:31.039 --> 00:41:36.800 And yet he said, Do not fear, do not be anxious, for I will never leave you. 00:41:37.679 --> 00:41:39.760 I will never forsake you. 00:41:42.000 --> 00:41:53.519 There is no need to fear, my friends, the work of the potter's hands when you walk with him with open ears and faithful obedience. 00:41:55.039 --> 00:42:05.840 And one day soon, maybe today, the Lord will send his righteous ruler for the second time. 00:42:08.079 --> 00:42:18.800 And when he does, all sin and all wickedness and all rebellion and all refusal to hear will be destroyed. 00:42:21.119 --> 00:42:25.519 And Jesus will rule as the perfect king forever. 00:42:26.480 --> 00:42:31.920 And all his righteous ones will be with him forever. 00:42:33.760 --> 00:42:39.360 Therefore, lift up your eyes to the hills and see where your help comes from. 00:42:41.119 --> 00:42:45.760 It comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. 00:42:46.000 --> 00:42:46.880 Let's pray together. 00:42:47.039 --> 00:42:55.119 Lord Jesus, we come and we bow before you, acknowledging our allegiance first and foremost to you. 00:42:56.559 --> 00:42:58.880 The great King of all the earth. 00:43:00.639 --> 00:43:22.000 Who did not see his glory and his power as something to be held on to at all costs, but was willing to humbly set that aside so that you might come to this insignificant place and give it an untold significance. 00:43:24.639 --> 00:43:39.599 Because you, the glorious one, became a slave and died a slave's death, so that we might be rescued forever. 00:43:43.440 --> 00:43:57.440 Rescued from our own wills, our own desires, so that we might rejoice and seeing you and seeing your way and your will as the best thing for all of us. 00:43:59.599 --> 00:44:06.960 Lord, we beg for your grace, your grace to continue working in us and molding us into your image. 00:44:08.400 --> 00:44:32.800 We beg for your mercy that as we continue to close our ears and to continue to play on the railroad bridge, that you would be merciful to us, that you would forgive us of our sin, that you would forgive the sin of our people, that you would open the ears and the hearts of our president, of our congressmen, of our state and local leaders. 00:44:34.639 --> 00:44:45.280 And that you would open our ears and we all might be drawn to trust in the Potter who gave his life for us. 00:44:46.559 --> 00:44:59.599 May we see you, Lord Jesus, in the day of your coming and rejoice at your coming rather than groan for not having listened. 00:45:00.800 --> 00:45:08.000 We praise you that you've given your life for us, that you've given a ransom for us. 00:45:08.559 --> 00:45:12.000 We praise you that through your spirit our hearts can be changed. 00:45:12.400 --> 00:45:15.440 We ask that you would do that to the praise of your grace. 00:45:15.679 --> 00:45:16.320 Amen. 00:45:18.239 --> 00:45:22.000 That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church. 00:45:22.159 --> 00:45:29.039 Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus. 00:45:29.280 --> 00:45:33.280 You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.