Gods Free, Sovereign Grace

Jeremiah was called by the Lord during a very difficult time. More and more the nation of Israel was making itself ready for the judgments of the Lord. As a people, they had departed from the ways of the Lord.

Jeremiah was to go and speak unto them that God's judgments were coming closer and closer. Not a very pleasant message for Jeremiah to bring. The Lord showed him in a vision what is about to take place. He sees his people going into Babylonian captivity. Then comes a time in his life that he does not know which way to go anymore. On the one side, he sees nothing but a departing from the ways of the Lord, and on the other side, he is reminded of the convenantal promise of the Lord concerning this people.

But how can Cod's promise be fulfilled concerning them? Oh, when man does not know where to turn anymore, then the Lord has an answer! The Word of the Lord came to him. "Arise and go down to the potter's house and there I will cause thee to hear my words." There the Lord will give unto His servant all the material necessary for his next sermon. There he may see that salvation is a one-sided work of God in the beginning and in continuance.

Jeremiah went down. What a deep spiritual thought we may see here. He did not go up to seek for the potter's house, but down into the depth of the valley.

When the Lord teaches His children new spiritual lessons, He takes them down into the valley. This is so that in the depths they may learn the ways of the Lord with His people. That is never a way which is easy for the flesh. We always want to go up. But what a wonder that the Lord deems it better that we go down. This is a place where we may learn to know the depths of our guilt and iniquity. There we may be uncovered and discovered. This is so necessary in the life of that people for they always seek to cover themselves with coverings which cannot stand up in that day.

Oh, how much work the Lord has to take away all those coverings so that as a guilt-ridden, naked sinner I may be led unto that covering which the Lord in His wisdom has prepared from the stillness of eternity.

Reader, may you know something of those depths? Is it always in the depths? No, there are times that God's people may be upon the top of the mountain. There they may say, "Come and listen unto me and I will tell you what the Lord has done unto my soul." But what they may say there has been taught in the depths.

Jeremiah opens the door of the potter's house and there before his eyes is the potter behind the potter's wheel. That wheel must be explained. He sees a large wheel at the level of his feet. From this is a shaft upward with another wheel at the level of his hands. Jeremiah then sees how the potter reaches down into the clay pit. No, not the first or the second layer, but deep down, and pulls up the most worthless clay.

Oh, what a message for him and for all of us! His nation! The Lord, as the great potter in a free and sovereign way, has pulled that nation from among all other nations. What a free and sovereign God who has lifted you, people of God, out of the mire of sin! No, not because of my tears or my prayers. But because that God has loved a people from the stillness of eternity.

Jeremiah again sees how the clay is in the hands of the potter. No, it is not immediately brought to the table. First, it is to be worked, trodden, and cleansed. He sees how the potter takes the clay and with his hands works the clay.

What a lesson! This is the way the Lord works in the heart of the sinner. They learn to know the depth of their misery and experience that they miss everything. How unhappy and unconverted they become! They come to the knowledge that from their side there can never be any hope or expectation. They must die and cannot die. They pray unto their Judge if they can yet be converted; that becomes their work.

They see God's holy law and begin to do the works of that law, so that by the works of the law they may find salvation. But they are works that are broken off at their hands. Cursed is everyone that does not do all that is written in the book of this law.

How necessary the working of the clay, so that place may be made for the mediatorial work of the Son of God! Jeremiah sees how something else must be done before clay can be brought to the table. Clay must be mixed with a broken vessel.

Clay must be mixed with a broken vessel.

The prophet may see such a precious lesson at this point. The Lord brings His people upon the wheels of His mercy and grace. And that can only be because of that perfect vessel of God, given from eternity, broken in time, to prepare such worthless clay for the table of the great potter.

There in the potter's house the table begins to turn. Lovingly, the hands of the potter work with his clay. Jeremiah has seen how that the clay was worthless, but how that the Lord has picked up the clay. Oh, then He reaches so far for His clay!

There upon the walls of Jericho is such a lump of clay, there in the depths of the dungeon of Babel He reaches for His clay. Reader, have you already felt the hand of the potter? Once He has taken hold of that clay, He never lets go again.

Faster and faster the wheel turns in the potter's house. More and more you can see the workmanship of his hands. And then suddenly the vessel falls from his table, "And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter."

What a lesson for Jeremiah! How often his nation has turned away from the Lord. They have followed the evil inclination of their own wicked hearts. The prophet sees how marred that vessel has become. But also how that the potter will not cast that vessel away.

"So he made it again, another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it." He presses that vessel together and again with his clay upon the table begins to turn. Oh, what patience the great potter has! Jeremiah sees how marred and cracked the vessel has become. Must not the Lord cast them away? There is a people who by the grace of God may know that as a lump of worthless clay He has pulled them out of the clay-pit. Times when they may say, "Oh, Lord what caused Thee to make a difference?" A time when they said, "We will go from strength to strength." But what an eternal wonder when they may come to see how marred they have become. Times when they say, "Lord, must Thou not cast me away?"

Those whom He has brought
upon the wheels of His grace,
He will not leave over to
themselves.

But that free, sovereign grace of God has pulled them loose and will never let them go again. For He who has power over the clay will make a vessel unto His honor. Jeremiah may see that God's work will continue. Those whom

He has brought upon the wheels of His grace, He will not leave over to themselves. Because of the works of His hands the Lord has a people who will spend an endless eternity praising and glorifying Him.

The beginning in the life of God's people is where the clay is separated and pulled out of the clay-pit. That clay does not ask for that, as that is the one-sided work of the Lord of which the Word of God gives a full and clear testimony. The continuance of their life is clay in the hands of the potter. They learn that it is only those hands which can make a vessel which is worthy to be displayed in the house of the great potter. May you come to know the beginning. Then you will never miss the end. Not because of anything from your side, but all because of a triune God who works His salvation freely and sovereignly in the life of a lost sinner.

Rev. I. Den Hoed is pastor of the Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Rock Valley, Iowa.

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