"What Can God Do?"

Dan Newburg

First Baptist Church of Devine

2022 Chronological Bible • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago • Presented 2 years ago

Jeremiah 18

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I am often amazed by how much we learn just by observation.

A few weeks ago at our table, I overheard a conversation between my girls as they were discussing what creatures and plants are edible. And I heard things like cows and chickens and fish and all the run of the mill things we might be comfortable eating when one of them started talking about eating insects. Talking about grasshoppers and crickets and stuff like that. She was thinking back to something she had watched that talked about how a man survived in the wild while foraging for insects and such. Because she had seen it, it must be ok. And while I’m not sure where insects fit in on the USDA’s food pyramid, I think many of us have heard of or seen examples of getting by on less than common food sources, if we haven’t snacked on a few ourselves.

But that conversation reminded me of a story I read about that took place in Australia. If you’re familiar with the continent of Australia, most of civilization lives on the perimeter of the continent because the central regions are really harsh conditions. You may have heard this region that I’m talking about called the Outback. And no, I’m not talking about the a restaurant or bloomin’ onions. But this story recounts the time before Australia was as populated as it is today, when the Outback was an area still under exploration. There was a group that was exploring the Outback who was led by a man named Captain King.

Some time into their trip in the Outback, the explorers ran out of food. Their surroundings didn’t have much to offer in terms of food, aside from a particular fern plant that’s known today by the name of nardoo. Captain King had seen natives of the Outback eat it along their journey, so in their despair, King recommended that he and his men eat the nardoo plant. And so day after day, they fed on it. They discovered that when you eat the nardoo plant, at first you feel surprisingly content, like in those few moments between finishing off a nice meal at the Outback before the check comes. But despite how they felt, in a matter of days, their strength began to fail and before long, the nardoo plant killed them. They had no strength to move, so under the desert sun they laid until they died of starvation.

Tension

“Well, that’s not entirely uplifting, preacher.” No, no it’s not. It’s nowhere close to uplifting. In fact, it’s really depressing when you think about it. I don’t know how many lives were under his responsibility, but all but one of King’s men died. It’s because of that survivor that we know of the fate of Captain King’s and his men. The team’s mission was to explore and discover in Australia’s Outback. The group had planned to return to report their findings. They didn’t plan to run out of food. And when things got tough, they went all in on a plant that they thought would sustain their lives and sadly, to their demise, what they thought would give life, took it from them.

And in many respects, our lives are complex layers of things we believe or are convinced of. There are things we believe that can serve to be firm foundations from which we can build great lives and draw great strength from, but of even greater variety are the things we can be convinced of that do nothing but deceive us and steal away any strength we might have had. At times they may seem satisfying, but what you thought would give life actually takes it. These life taking beliefs invite us to sink our teeth in to them without our awareness of the relationship with the Lord that’s being robbed from us. It’s my hope to invite us to weigh a few of them in light of what God has led Jeremiah to say and write in this chapter of God’s Word and reveal how they will bring death.

Text

Lie #1: “I’m too far gone.”

As God speaks through the prophet, he begins by telling Jeremiah to go down to a potter’s house. It’s when Jeremiah is at that particular house that the Lord will speak his word. So Jeremiah goes. The air must’ve been thick with the inescapable smell of moist clay. As he surveyed the entirety of the home, there no doubt would have been jars and bowls that were hanging out to dry, whose beauty was so evident even though the vessels themselves were incomplete.

Jeremiah’s eyes scanned further, moving from the drying racks to the painting station where the potter would bring his work to completion. His eyes scanned further to the other side of the house where the morning sun’s rays were shining brightly through the window. The brightness overwhelmed Jeremiah’s eyes and all he could make out at first were the particles of dust that were floating in the air, whose presence was revealed as the sun glimmered off of them. Then his eyes adjusted and they were set upon the scene of the potter himself. The potter had pushed his wheel’s pedal twice more before he stopped to look over the clay that he was shaping upon the wheel. The potter’s hands had been steadily fixed, giving shape to the clay that spun between them. It was clear to Jeremiah that the potter was shaping this clay on his wheel into a jar, however the clay had become warped, not because of the potter’s inability or lack of experience, but because of the nature of the clay.

What Jeremiah saw that day was the persistence of the potter. He didn’t set aside the clay to give up on it, but once it was evident that it was not taking the shape as he would like, the potter took the clay into his hands and he reworked it to a bowl.

Speaking about what Jeremiah had seen the potter do, the Lord asks, Jeremiah 18:6 “6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done?” Israel had been purposed to be the light unto the nations, yet as the potter’s wheel turned, the clay had resisted her maker’s intention. The clay was taking a form other than what the Potter intended. The clay had abandoned what her Master desired for it and was going along believing that there were not those two hands that were at work, forming the clay into the beauty of its Master’s eye. Israel’s resistance, the clay’s disobedience, has led to the Potter taking the clay from the wheel in this most special way. Not to throw the clay away, but to warn it. To say to the nation, “Wake up you rebellious people! I am the Lord your God and you have defied my Law in every way. You have gone out on your own and I am preparing to place you upon this wheel to craft you into a vessel that will receive the wrath of my judgement!”

And as we will find soon enough as we continue to read together, the clay that is the nation of Israel doesn’t heed the Lord’s warning. They ignore the opportunity to be crafted into a vessel to receive God’s mercy and grace and are subjects of his judgement. And we might wonder why? Maybe life for them was comfortable. Maybe they felt the Lord’s demands were too great. Maybe they thought they were just too far gone.

I was thinking about this potter that God sent Jeremiah to see and I was realized how quite unlike the potter I am. It caused me to think back to my memories of the homes I’ve lived in throughout my life. I think there are ten different places I’ve called home in my 38 years… but that aside, with each memory I can recall possessions that I no longer have. And I don’t own those things anymore because they weren’t of value to me any longer. They had no purpose for me and I wasn’t about to make room for things of no value to me, so what did I do? I just threw them away.

Sometimes I think we find ourselves in places in life where we would view others or even ourselves as all those possessions I’ve thrown away over the years. Convinced that some people or we ourselves are too far gone and have no value. That things have been so screwed up, there’s no turning back. And this is the danger of thinking ourselves to be potters with our lives in our own hands, as if we can give shape or meaning to our own existence.

But friends, the Lord is the one seated at the potter’s wheel. The Lord is the Potter.

No matter what you’ve dealt with this week, this month, this summer, or this year, take comfort in knowing that you are in the Great Potter’s hands. As the Great Potter, he owns each of us as clay. And we as clay are spinning upon that wheel and though we rebel against the direction of the hands that are shaping us, he will not toss us away with Tuesday morning’s trash. The Lord declares that it is our lives that are subject to his molding and making in his hands, and if we would each but repent and trust upon the gospel message of Jesus Christ, he will make us into vessels to receive his mercy and grace.

Lie #2 - “Follow your heart.”

And in the face of such a gracious offer, surely everyone would just be running down the aisles of churches, publicly confessing that Christ is Lord, that their sins have been atoned for by Christ’s standing in for them to take upon himself the judgement and death due everyone, and that in his resurrection they have no need to fear the final enemy of death because Jesus is risen. Surely. Surely everyone would hear this good news and respond to it with the desire to begin to walk in the newness of life that Jesus invites us each to, right?

You would think so, but the thing about God’s offer of salvation is that it involves following a crucified King and as many come to discover, the idea of dying to self is costly.

See, when God does the work of transforming us from death to life, with that work comes repentance and faith. And it’s by his grace that he’s saved us through faith, yet genuine faith is marked by fruit in keeping with repentance. And so often men and women desire grace but aren’t willing to repent and obey, because well, that obedience thing might offend all the “Follow your heart” t-shirts in our closets and invalidate all the likes on our cozy Instagram posts.

Following our hearts is what we’re supposed to do, at least that’s what we’re told so often. Writing just a month ago on a blog, a gentleman named Mark Lynch says, “It’s never too late to follow your heart and to start something you’ve always wanted to do. It doesn’t matter what you think is holding you back; let’s just call them what they are: excuses. … The only question that matters is whether or not doing it would make you happy—do you follow your heart and live the life you want?” (https://www.lifehack.org/887332/follow-your-heart)

I’m sure Mr. Lynch would’ve received as much positive feedback if he spoke these words in Ancient Israel as he has in our modern day.

There are many calls to “follow your heart” in movies, novels, slogans, blogs, and memes. Related pieces of advice are “trust yourself” and “follow your instincts” as well as “your heart will never lead you astray.” The problem is that doing what makes us happy is what has gotten us in to the position we are in: rebellion against God. There’s nothing in the Bible that gets remotely close to affirming follow your heart. Rather than trust our hearts, we are to commit our hearts to God: Proverbs 3:5-6 “5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” This passage gives an explicit command not to trust ourselves. And it gives the promise of guidance to those who choose to follow the Lord.

For anything to provide proper direction it must be based on objective truth. That is to say that whatever is consulted for guidance must reach a conclusion based on objective truth and not what feels most right to me or you. The Bible teaches that man is to follow God. In the chapter before this morning’s text, God declares Jeremiah 17:7 ““Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.”

God has perfect knowledge of everything. God’s knowledge is not limited in any way. God is aware of all events that have ever transpired, are currently occurring, and will ever happen (Isaiah 46:9–10). God’s knowledge goes beyond mere events and extends to thoughts and intentions (John 2:25; Acts 1:24). It is not all this knowledge, however, that makes God a perfectly reliable source of guidance. God is also aware of every possibility, every eventuality, every imaginable outcome of any series of events (Matthew 11:21). That ability, combined with God’s goodness, enables God to give the best possible direction for people to follow. And God says this about the heart that has not been transformed by the Holy Spirit: Jeremiah 17:9 “9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Now there’s a coffee mug that’ll grab some attention around the office. For ancient Israel, they weren’t willing to respond to the Lord’s call to return to him. It’s written in verse Jeremiah 18:12 “12 “But they say, ‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’”

Permit me to make clear two reasons why none of us should take comfort in following our hearts. First, there is nothing more deceitful in all of creation than the heart of man because of his inherited sin nature. If we follow our heart, we follow an untrustworthy guide. We are, in fact, blinded to our own heart’s deceitful nature. As Jeremiah asks, “Who can understand it?” When we rely on ourselves for wisdom, we end up unable to tell right from wrong. That’s what God is saying from verses 13-17. Israel has been so blinded, they cannot separate the light from the darkness.

Anyone heard the song “You Light Up My Life”? I think it’s from the ‘70s. And it contains these unfortunate words: “It can’t be wrong / When it feels so right.” Determining right from wrong based on “feelings” is a dangerous (and unbiblical) way to live. The second problem for us is that the heart is desperately sick. There is no way to fix the heart. Every last one of us needs a new heart. That is why, when a person comes to faith in Christ, he is made a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). Jesus does not fix the heart; instead, he replaces it with a new one. Friend, has Jesus given you a new heart? Don’t let your heart be the judge of that. God will give us wisdom if we ask for it and we have his perfect Word to speak to our circumstance. Have you a new heart? If you don’t, when the day of your judgement comes, it will not be the Lord’s face that you look upon, but his back will be turned to you.

Lie #3 - “I don’t need to change anything.”

And if you or I are convinced that the hearts we’ve had since birth are just fine, then similarly, we might just settle on the idea that there’s really nothing about us that needs transforming. And when we’ve settled on the idea that nothing about us needs changing, then really, it’s of no surprise when just about everyone who doesn’t affirm us, offends us.

How do you respond to the suggestion that anyone who comes to you with the truth of God’s word should be received as God’s messenger? Sure, you might be receptive to something I or Pastors Carlos or Johnny have to say, but what is your attitude when a fellow church member confronts you with God’s truth? “I’ve noticed you have a bit of a problem with your tongue.” “I’ve noticed that you don’t seem to be treating your spouse with love and honor.” “I’d like to speak to you about the way you talk to (or about) your parents.” “I’d like to speak to you about the way you talk about other races.” If your temptation is to ignore biblical oversight and to instead begin looking for others who will scratch your ears, you have begun to forget God and are on the path to enmity with God. If you have use for the church and the messengers of God only when they can benefit you, you have begun to forget God.

Israel is convinced that nothing about them needs to be changed and the message from God has cut so deep, they’ve rejected the messenger. The prophet’s prayer from Jeremiah 18:19-23 is difficult to deal with. It is not exactly the type of prayer that we like to think of spiritual leaders praying for God’s people.

Jeremiah wasn’t angry about sin in the world but about sin in the church. His prayer was not aimed at a godless people, but at God’s covenant people. How should we make sense of Jeremiah’s seemingly harsh words against the people? A careful reading of his words here perhaps give some insight into his burden. Jeremiah prayed basically for six things: famine ; war ; loss of children ; pestilence ; loss in time of war ; and plundering of property. Jeremiah was praying God’s word back to him. He was reminding God of what God said he would do to anyone who did not keep the covenant he had made with the people.

And this comes from Jeremiah after he’s gone to Israel to warn them, confronting them with the truth. From this, we should extract that we each must be open-minded enough to hear from messengers who would come to us with the truth of God’s word when we’re confronted with God’s truth. The messenger comes with love for the Lord and for you.

And just a brief word for each of us, when the Lord places us in the messenger seat. And he will! Jeremiah was an intercessor for God’s people. He had prayed for them, he had proclaimed the Word to them, but ultimately they rejected him and so he prayed in this manner as he’s led that is fitting and just. In contrast, in the New Testament when the people in Judah later turn against Jesus who is a much greater intercessor and plot to kill him, he says, Luke 23:34 “34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” It is the model of Jesus that we are to embrace, forgiving those who oppose us and persecute us on account of our obedience to God.

Application

So, we’ve dispelled the lies that we can be too far gone, that we should just follow our hearts wherever they lead us, and the danger of believing that there’s nothing about us that needs to change.

God, being the Great and Sovereign Potter, is at his wheel, with the clay of all creation and all life in his hands. The final result of the Lord’s handiwork at the wheel will be a renewed and perfect creation - this is what his ultimate plan is. And within that, he’s also preparing judgement for all who reject his mercy and grace - his holiness and his love demand judgement. And God can reshape his plans for anyone who would repent of their ways and trust upon Jesus Christ unto salvation.

Do you know what this has actually done? It’s shown to us that we can’t be too far gone because it’s God’s hands that we are each in. It’s shown to us that our heart lies and that we need a new one and that the Lord would provide that need. It’s shown to us that God is calling us continually to return to him.

Repentance and faith provide grace-given shape to your life.

Inspiration

There’s a song from a man named Michael Combs, called Drinking from my Saucer. These are words from a man who has repented of his ways and placed his faith in Jesus Christ and none other:

I've Never Made A Fortune and It's Probably Too Late Now but I Don't Worry About That Much I'm Happy Anyhow and As I Go Along Life's Journey I'm Reaping Better Than I Sow I'm Drinking From My Saucer 'cause My Cup Has Overflowed

Action

Is your cup running over with the satisfaction only found in Jesus? Or does the bitterness of the world that keeps it empty? It’s only repentance and faith that provide grace-given shape to your life.

There is no comfort or satisfaction found anywhere but in the surrender of our lives into the arms of Jesus Christ. There are many things that would steal and lie to us like the nardoo plant or one-liners that feel so right, but they will leave us empty and wanting. A relationship with the living God is what satisfies, friends! Psalm 34:8 “8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!” Come to the risen King Jesus, who is the bread of life and find that when you come to him, you shall not hunger and your belief in him will ensure you never thirst. (John 6:35)

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