Jeremiah 18:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD saying, 2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.” 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. 4 But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, 6 “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.”
Isaiah 64:6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. 7 There is no one who calls on Your name, Who arouses himself to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us And have delivered us into the power of our iniquities. 8 But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand. 9 Do not be angry beyond measure, O LORD, Nor remember iniquity forever; Behold, look now, all of us are Your people.
When a human being wants to come to the true God in truth, that person must come to God as He is and come as the person really is. The human being must come to the Lord as a creature that depends on God for all that it receives and as the One that all things happen as He pleases. The human being must come to the Lord as the supreme and sovereign Lord of the universe, but not only that the supreme and sovereign of each and every thing (regardless of how small) and of each and every thing that happens. The supreme and sovereign Lord is sovereign over the planets and yet of the smallest sub-atomic parts of the universe and even of every cell in the body.
The heart that has been hardened by God in sin can only be softened and humbled by the Lord who hardened it. No one can deliver him or herself out of the hand of God and no one can turn back what the Lord has done. As the potter takes a piece of clay and hardens it according to his will and the clay cannot overcome the potter, so the hand of the Sovereign Potter in hardening hearts cannot be overcome either. The soul must be awakened to its sin and know that even at that point it has been delivered into the power of sin and is the work of His hand. The only recourse is not to strive to be moral, but to seek the Divine Potter for repentance and faith. But once again, if the Divine Potter has hardened the heart, what mortal can possibly think that s/he can reverse that?
The poor sinner that has been awakened by grace in showing the sinner what s/he is must be aware that s/he can no longer consider that s/he can save self. It is God alone who can break the hard heart and give it eyes to see and ears to hear. It is God alone who can take the water of His Word and use it to soften the hearts of sinners. It is God alone who can humble and break the heart so that it can be a tender heart before Him. It is God alone who can take that humbled heart and bring life into the soul by regeneration.
If the poor sinner comes to God and thinks that it can humble itself and prepare itself for the Gospel or for salvation, that is a poor deluded soul. The sinner that has been truly humbled and broken by God is a sinner that has given up all hope in humbling itself and breaking itself. This sinner no longer looks to his own power or strength or its free-will to do what God alone can do, but it has been broken from any hope in its own will and it will no longer resist the humbling and breaking work that God alone can do. Now the soul seeks the Lord to do this work and cries out for God to tear pride from the heart at all cost, though indeed the heart fears when it prays that because it is not perfectly broken and conformed to His will.
When this soul has been worked on by God using the water of His Word and the Spirit to break the sinner and bring it low in order to make it a temple of the living God, the sinner knows that the power to awaken and arouse self to take hold of God is not in its power. Instead of that the sinner cries out that God would take hold of the sinner and deliver the sinner from all hope in self and all pride in self. For the sinner to truly come to the Divine Potter is for the sinner to give up on anything it can do for self and look to grace alone. The sinner has been awakened to see that it is indeed the work of the hand of God and it knows that for it to be a vessel of honor rather than a vessel of wrath that it must have the hand of God do this work as well. The Lord will tame the wild and proud at heart by breaking the vessel and using the water of the Word to reform according to Himself. It is grace.
Jeremiah 18:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD saying, 2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.” 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. 4 But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, 6 “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.”
Isaiah 64:6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. 7 There is no one who calls on Your name, Who arouses himself to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us And have delivered us into the power of our iniquities. 8 But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand. 9 Do not be angry beyond measure, O LORD, Nor remember iniquity forever; Behold, look now, all of us are Your people.
When a human being wants to come to the true God in truth, that person must come to God as He is and come as the person really is. The human being must come to the Lord as a creature that depends on God for all that it receives and as the One that all things happen as He pleases. The human being must come to the Lord as the supreme and sovereign Lord of the universe, but not only that the supreme and sovereign of each and every thing (regardless of how small) and of each and every thing that happens. The supreme and sovereign Lord is sovereign over the planets and yet of the smallest sub-atomic parts of the universe and even of every cell in the body.
The heart that has been hardened by God in sin can only be softened and humbled by the Lord who hardened it. No one can deliver him or herself out of the hand of God and no one can turn back what the Lord has done. As the potter takes a piece of clay and hardens it according to his will and the clay cannot overcome the potter, so the hand of the Sovereign Potter in hardening hearts cannot be overcome either. The soul must be awakened to its sin and know that even at that point it has been delivered into the power of sin and is the work of His hand. The only recourse is not to strive to be moral, but to seek the Divine Potter for repentance and faith. But once again, if the Divine Potter has hardened the heart, what mortal can possibly think that s/he can reverse that?
The poor sinner that has been awakened by grace in showing the sinner what s/he is must be aware that s/he can no longer consider that s/he can save self. It is God alone who can break the hard heart and give it eyes to see and ears to hear. It is God alone who can take the water of His Word and use it to soften the hearts of sinners. It is God alone who can humble and break the heart so that it can be a tender heart before Him. It is God alone who can take that humbled heart and bring life into the soul by regeneration.
If the poor sinner comes to God and thinks that it can humble itself and prepare itself for the Gospel or for salvation, that is a poor deluded soul. The sinner that has been truly humbled and broken by God is a sinner that has given up all hope in humbling itself and breaking itself. This sinner no longer looks to his own power or strength or its free-will to do what God alone can do, but it has been broken from any hope in its own will and it will no longer resist the humbling and breaking work that God alone can do. Now the soul seeks the Lord to do this work and cries out for God to tear pride from the heart at all cost, though indeed the heart fears when it prays that because it is not perfectly broken and conformed to His will.
When this soul has been worked on by God using the water of His Word and the Spirit to break the sinner and bring it low in order to make it a temple of the living God, the sinner knows that the power to awaken and arouse self to take hold of God is not in its power. Instead of that the sinner cries out that God would take hold of the sinner and deliver the sinner from all hope in self and all pride in self. For the sinner to truly come to the Divine Potter is for the sinner to give up on anything it can do for self and look to grace alone. The sinner has been awakened to see that it is indeed the work of the hand of God and it knows that for it to be a vessel of honor rather than a vessel of wrath that it must have the hand of God do this work as well. The Lord will tame the wild and proud at heart by breaking the vessel and using the water of the Word to reform according to Himself. It is grace.
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