OPPORTUNITY TO CHANGE THE POTTER'S DESIGN

MF Blume
April 17
, 2016


Jeremiah 18:1-10  The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,  (2)  Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.  (3)  Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.  (4)  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.  (5)  Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,  (6)  O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.  (7)  At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;  (8)  If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.  (9)  And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;  (10)  If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.


God told Jeremiah to visit a potter’s house.
•    Watch how the pottery is formed.
•    He sees a marring and reshaping into ANOTHER VESSEL.

God deals with how we react to His word as a potter molds clay to create a vessel.

He told Israel He “frames” nations for destruction due to sin.
•    But adds that can CHANGE.
•    HIS DESIGN can be changed.

Jeremiah 18:11  Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.

The word "FRAME" is the same Hebrew word for FORMED, when God FORMED Adam from the dust of the ground.

Jeremiah 19:1-4  Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;  (2)  And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee,  (3)  And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.  (4)  Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;
Jeremiah 19:10-11  Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,  (11)  And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.

In Chapter 18, the picture was of a potter still molding the clay.

The clay was soft and pliable.

AT THAT POINT Any change at all could only be a smashing.

We read that Jeremiah saw the potter's hands mold the clay.
•    And partway through the process, the clay was marred in his hands.
•    But all was not lost. 
•    Since it was still soft and wet, the potter would change his design for the clay.
•    Instead of it being meant for the original design, the mar in the still soft and wet clay caused him to be able to start over and form something else.

Then God told Jeremiah He does the same with people's lives.

Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
•    Jeremiah 18:11 said I FRAME EVIL AGAINST YOU.
•    Jeremiah 19:3 says I WILL BRING EVIL AGAINST YOU.
•    FRAME means FORM OR MOLD AND FASHION.
•    There is quite a bit of difference between MOLDING towards evil and OUTRIGHT BRINGING EVIL.

But once the bottle is hardened, there can be no change if there is a problem in the shape.

Chapter 18's HOPE:

He begins fashioning.
•    His fingers squeeze and press and twist.
•    Life's experiences are the squeezing and the pressing and the twisting.
•    To those who love God, all things work together for good.
•    All life's experiences are towards the fashion for goodness.
•    The pressures and the tights spots, are all for our good, so that we wind up being what the Bible calls a vessel of honour.

Our lives are going to end up in one of the two categories of either vessels of honour or vessels of dishonour (2 Timothy 2).

2 Timothy 2:20-21  But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.  (21)  If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.

Vessels of wrath are fitted for destruction.

Romans 2:5  But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
•    Notice that it’s HARDNESS of heart that causes one to treasure wrath against the day of wrath.

Hardness in the clay is marring the work of fashioning soft clay.

Peter messed it up time and time again.

•    Matt 14 -- He saw Jesus walking on water and asked for Jesus to bid him walk.
•    He started and sunk.
•    Matt 15 -- He heard Jesus speak of blind leading blind and could not understand.
•    Matt 16 -- When He does get revelation who Jesus is, the Son of Living God, two minutes later he rebukes Jesus for thinking about dying for them.
•    Matt 17 -- He sees Jesus and Moses and Elijah on the mount, and proposed three tabernacles be built.  God rebukes him by saying Hear Jesus only.
•    He was warned of denying Christ thrice.

However, Judas seemed to do well.
•    Until one moment when Mary broke the alabaster bottle and anointed Jesus' head.

Judas' lied about his concerns.

Mark 14:3-4  And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.  (4)  And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made?

John 12:4-5  Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him,  (5)  Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?  (6)  This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.

Notice Judas was concerned over the breaking of the vessel.

What was the last straw with Judas?
•    SELLING JESUS FOR MONEY.

He should have been concerned over his own hardness and his own breaking.

Matthew 18:15-17  Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault (ONE FAULT) between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.  (16)  But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.  (17)  And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

Matthew 18:21-22  Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?  (22)  Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

Judas like the man who committed one sin and could not be forgiven due to his hard-heartedness.
•    Peter is like the man forgiven of 70 times 7 sins due to his soft heartedness.

In Jeremiah 19, Jeremiah took a dried and hardened bottle from the potter's house.

God told him to rebuke Jerusalem for their wickedness, and to throw the bottle down and smash it in the valley of Tophet, of Hinnom.
•    Garbage and waste was cast there.
•    Animal's entrails were thrown down.
•    Flies and maggots infested the region.

It must have been practically the same piece of ground associated with Judas' betrayal!

The Potter's field was aside the valley of hinnom!

When the priests bribed Judas to betray Christ, it seems Judas sought to buy a potter's field with the sum.

But he returned and grieved over his betrayal and threw the money on the temple floor, back to the priests.
•    They refused to accept it in the temple (as though being quite pious, after choosing to kill Jesus -- swallowing a camel while straining at a gnat).
•    And they spent the money on the same potter's field to make it a cemetery for the outsiders of Israel.

Matthew 27:3-7  Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,  (4)  Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.  (5)  And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.  (6)  And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood.  (7)  And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in.

Zechariah 11:13  And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.

IN THE TEMPLE.

Judas then ran to the field and hung himself.

He became an outsider of the Israel of God, the church.

A stranger to God.

And as Jeremiah held the bottle atop the valley below and threw it down smashing it, Judas' body caused the limb of his hanging tree to break, and his body fell below and smashed on the rocks below.

The valley of HINNOM is the origin of the greek word GEHENNA which is translated HELL in the Bible.
•    Nobody has to go to hell.

We can change so long as we don't get hard hearts.
•    Hard hearts are the results of feeling God's urges inside, and resisting it.
•    Resisting it over and over again, as time goes by, is seeing the moisture dry away and the softness harden.
•    And finally there is no time left for molding.
•    The vessel is finished.
•    The only change it can experience then is smashing.

Acts 1:16-19  Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.  (17)  For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry.  (18)  Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.  (19)  And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood.

•    Like a clay vessel that finally hardened and was beyond remolding, all that could be done with Judas was to be cast down into the potter's field and broken.
•    Judas body literally broke open in the midst – belly – and bowels flew out.
•    Something was worth far more than an alabaster box filled with ointment – it was a body that contained the soul of Judas.

Due to His refusal to see Christ anointed, he was broken and smashed in the potter's field.
•    The greed to gain the value of the box and ointment superseded his desire to see Christ glorified.
•    That greed stayed in him, and he sought money through betraying Jesus.
•    He loved money more than Jesus.
•    He was Cast away.

He was still being formed and shaped when he saw the alabaster box broken.
•    He obtained part of the ministry.

Acts 1:17  For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry.

There was temptation that he could have resisted at that point.

But he gave in and yielded to temptation.
•    The problem remained in him and it marred the work.
•    Judas was a vessel used by God.

Like ointment inside, God's Spirit was to fill Him.

But on the very eve of the day when God's Spirit would filled the 120, Judas' fate was also noted.
•    FILLED is used in speaking of people like Vessels.

When the others would be filled as vessels of God's Spirit according to Acts 2...
•    When their lives were molded and shaped by Jesus' earthly ministry to be meet for the Master's use and filled With His ointment...
•    Judas was noted as a vessel cast into the potter's field and broken into pieces being rejected in Acts 1.

The Master originally intended blessing and glory, and fashioned him that way, but he marred the work and was fashioned another way.

Acts 1:25  That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.

•    His place was Hell.
•    After Balaam took money to curse Israel, we read "he went to his place".
•    Laban who fought with Jacob and argued, settled things and "went to his place".
•    These instances all seem to say a bit more than returning home.

When the fingers of God press and squeeze, allow Him to form you.

Even towards forming for blessing, there is pressure and squeezing.
•    Keep a good attitude.
•    Stay soft and pliable.
•    When people talk about you and malign you, stay soft in God's hands.
•    Do not become hard-hearted.
•    God has allowed it.
•    And in effect you are hardening against God and not really people, because all that occurs against you is actually intended to form you.

James 1:3-4  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

Romans 2:5  But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;

A hard heart will find itself smashed one day.

Hardness of heart is associated with day of wrath just as a hardened bottle is associated with breaking in the potter's field.

The fanciest of all sculpted and molded and formed vessels are of most value.

But the fancier they are, the more meticulous molding and shaping had to occur.
•    More intricate squeezing and pressing.
•    More time.
•    More time for pressure.
•    Finer digging.
•    Some souls are so wonderful in working with people.

They really and effectively help people.
•    Mark it down -- they have been tried and squeezed and pressed.
•    They endured it.
•    Moses was to lead Israel for 40 years in the wilderness.

Go back in time and learn that Moses had his own forty years of wilderness before he ever told Pharaoh to let Israel go and begin their 40 year Exodus.
•    The very battles you face today, if you endure the pressure will actually be the traits that qualify you to minister to others.
•    It was the potter's field that was purchased with the money to pay for Jesus' blood.

The priests wanted Him dead, and Judas gave them the chance.
•    Those 30 pieces of silver were used to buy the potter's field where shards of pots were formerly thrown away.
•    Low quality land.
•    Only enough money to buy a junk yard that could not even be converted for anything more than a burial place for foreigners who were outside the Jewish commonwealth.
•    It was cheap.
•    Jesus' blood would set souls free from hell and give them eternal life and reinstate fellowship with God.
•    Souls that would hear about the blood, who were originally fashioned for wrath, would be marred with repentance from sins, so as to cause God to change His designs and fashion them towards life.

And all it was worth to the priests was 30 pieces of silver that could buy nothing more than a junk yard?

Hebrews 10:29  Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

As Judas fell into the potter's field later used for a cemetery for aliens to Israel, the potter would throw down the pottery that was ill shaped -- like a cemetery for flawed pottery.

When we harden our hearts and buck against God's life-fashioning pressures and squeezing, its because we lack understanding concerning for what BLESSED DESTINY the BLOOD OF JESUS has paid.  

Hebrews 10:32  But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions;

Hebrews 10:35-39  Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.  (36)  For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.  (37)  For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.  (38)  Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.  (39)  But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

•    Don't draw back.

Believe.
•    Draw back to perdition.
•    Or believe to the saving of the soul.
•    It’s our choice



SERMONS