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CLA I IN THE HANDS OF THE POTTER
Tabernacle Sermon by Reb. Len G. Broughton, D.D.
* i > Stenoffraphically reported for The Golden Age.—Copyright applied for.
TEXT.—Jeremiah 18:1, 2,3, 4: “The Word which
came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Arise and
go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause
thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the
potter’s house, and behold he wrought a work on the
. wheels. 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.”
T
HIS is one of the strongest texts in all
the B:ble, and like most very strong
texts it is often misinterpreted and per
haps more often misapplied. There are
those of the fatalistic type of theology
who would have us believe that tnis text
is for the purpose of showing that inde
pendent of the individual will and wish
with regard to any matter, even salva-
tion, God as a great Sovereign, elects to do whatso
ever He pleases. Os course, I do not feel that in this
presence it is necessary that I should deny this teach
ing.
The primary meaning of this text is seen further
on. No man can properly interpret it unless he
takes the whole context into account, and taking the
whole context into account it is easy to see that the
primary meaning is one concerning God’s election
with reference to Israel as a nation. In the plan of
God for the ages, it was arranged that Israel as a
nation should be His own particular and beloved peo
ple, and that through Israel as a nation He would
express Himself to the world. If it be asked “What
of election as taught in the epistle to the Romans?”
I would answer that the election taught in Romans
is identically the same as that taught here in this
chapter. It is an election of a people to a distinct
place and opportunity in the work of God in His
effort to save the world. It is in no sense an election
of the individual to heaven or consignment to hell.
AN INDIVIDUAL APPLICATION.
This text has a far wider and far more significant
application than this. It is to be applied to every
one of God’s creatures in so far as God’s plan for
his life is concerned. There never was yet born
in this world a man or woman that was not born
for the purpose of filling a definite office and prede
termined place for his life to fit in. Israel as a na
tion is a type of every individual born in this uni
verse. Os course, very few of the number created
ever realize the truthfulness of this fact, or, to say
the least of it, ever realize the deep significance of
it, and the failure of people to properly realize this
is the explanation of the failures that we see in life.
There is not a failure recorded among men that is
not traceable to the failure to recognize this great
underlying fact. Every ache, every sigh, every sor
row that this world has ever yet known has been a
result of the sounding of a discordant note on the
part of man. God, in His original conception of the
race of man, intended that he should be as the
strings in the harp, perfectly tuned, upon which His
own divine fingers would make the music of joy
and victory, and though disharmony reigns instead
of harmony, it is the result of man’s getting out of
tune with the plan and the purpose of God. If your
life has been a failure it is because your life
is not in harmony with God. God’s idea for your life
and for mine is one that would bring the highest pos
sible degree of success, the freest from sorrow and
pain, and though this is not realized, it is not God’s
fault; it is ours.
I think one of the wisest sayings accredited to
Abraham Lincoln, is a thing I heard only a few days
ago. A man who was an intimate friend of Abra
ham Lincoln’s brought forth an old letter that he
received from him long before his assassination. In
that letter he said to his personal friend, “I think
the greatest and most helpful lesson I ever learned
was when I saw that God had a plan for my life.”
I believe the seeing that and the falling in line with
it accounted for the great and mighty work that he
did. And so, my friends, the one supreme lesson for
every one of us to learn, is that God, the great God
of the universe, Maker and Creator of all things,
has a definite fixed place in the affairs of this world
The Golden Age for August 11, 1910.
for every human life. This place is a place that is
built up of God’s intimate knowledge of two things.
First, of the world’s need, and second, of the indi
vidual’s capacity. Both these two things are taken
into account with God in arranging the plan for your
life and mine. God knows what your capacity is; He
knows whether I can serve best here or there or yon
der; He knows all this, and knowing all this as He
does, He determines a place for your life and mine
to fit in.
But someone says: “I can readily see that; I could
not see it otherwise, believing in an all-wise God who
sits back of all created things planning the universe;
He must have a place in that great plan for every
human life, and therefore for mine, but the ques
tion is, how am I to know God’s plan, and knowing
God’s plan, how am I to work upon God’s plan? The
whole thing hinges on that little but all-important
word “if.” God has a plan, if we will get in that
plan we will meet God’s purpose; if we fail to get in
that plan, the plan, so far as we are concerned, is
wrecked. If the clay never got into the hands of
the potter, then what? How could it be modeled ac
cording to the potter’s will? How, then, am I to
know the plan of God for my life? There are two
words that indicate our part: First, abandonment;
second, adjustment. These two words properly kept
together will give us an answer to this question.
First, abandonment. There are three subdivisions
that I want you to get—abandonment of self will,
abandonment of self plans, abandonment of self af
fairs. There is no use whatever to go and ask God
for a revelation of His plan and purpose and place
for your life until you have come to the place where
you lay your own personal will down. The equivalent
of this is found in the epistle of James, first chapter:
“If any of you lack wisdom.” This word “lack” can
not properly be translated; there is no English wbrd
that properly expresses the idea. The nearest akin
to the idea is our English word “vacuum.” If any
man have a vacuum. A vacuum is a sp.ace without
contents. If any have come to the place where
you have laid your own will and wisdom down, so
that there is not a whit of it left, then let him ask
of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth
not. This is not only true as applied to His revela
tion to us, but we find the same true in any phase of
life. The pupil who comes to his teacher must first
of all lay his own wisdom down; he must have no
will or desire as to the means and method of obtain
ing knowledge; he must lay his own opinions down
and rely absolutely on his teacher.
THE SECOND STEP.
The second thought is with reference to the aban
donment of our plans. It is much harder to abandon
our plans than our wills, because our plans are often
times public and the question of ambition and pride
enters when we have to give up our plans. A friend
of mine was telling me of an occurrence that to my
mind very forcibly illustrates the point that I want
to make. He had in his acquaintance a man who
was rapidly making a fortune. He planned on the
twenty-fifth anniversary of his marriage to give his
wife a beautiful diamond brooch. He thought it
would be pleasing to her, and since they had lived
happily together for those twenty-five years it would
be perfectly proper and beautiful for him to give her
this gift, and he was so absorbed he could not keep
his plan secret. He confided it to her, and of course
she had to tell her nearest friends, and so it got out
that on the night of their twenty-fifth anniversary he
was to present her with this beautiful brooch, for
which he had planned to pay one thousand dollars.
But one night he was saying his prayers, and that
diamond brooch, wuich he had not yet purchased
came up and shook itself in his face, and he tried
to avoid thinking of it, but could not. Finally he
ended his prayer, and after he had retired his mind
was led into this channel of thought: “A thousand
dollars for a diamond brooch, and it will not add one
whit to her attractiveness, and here is a great big
city in the hot summer months and practically no
aggressive church work, and certainly no evangelistic
work and no money at hand to carry any on; with a
thousand dollars handed over to my pastor we could
run for three months a red-hot evangelistic campaign
that would set this city on fire.” And more and
more that thing bothered him. He saw the people
swayed by the gospel when otherwise they would be
swayed by all sorts of amusements and worldliness.
He went to his wife and told her that he had con
cluded that the thing to do was to put that SI,OOO
into the hands of his pastor, and he explained
the purpose to her. She was not a Christian; she
thought it was fanaticism. Finally he called his pas
tor in and told him about it. He did not offer any
suggestions as to the solution of the problems, but
said: “If it is put in my hands I will use it as unto
God.” The money was put in his pastor’s hand. The
wife would not allow any anniversary celebration at
all. He was humiliated and she was more so. But
the pastor went to work to employ a number of
helpers, districted the town and went to work on a
great revival; the first soul converted was that man’s
wife. Before the campaign was over his daughter
and son were both converted. At the expiration of
the three months in that one church they received
over three hundred as the result of that campaign.
Look at the contrast: a thousand-dollar brooch on
the breast of an attractive woman and his wife—
and a lost city; why a thousand dollars may mean in
the end the salvation of an empire. Our plans must
be subject to His will; our financial plans; plans for
pleasure; domestic plans, must be turned over to Him.
PERSONAL FEARS.
It is just as essential that we should lay down our
personal fears as our wills and our plans, for the
presence of fear is an indication of a lack of faith,
and God can not operate upon such a plane. Some
people say, “I would be glad.to hand my life over to
God, but I am afraid God would not satisfy my life.
I am afraid I would have the old appetites and long
ings to come up that would not down, and I would
find God not satisfying my life; I will give God
a part and hold a part, I will not entirely surrender.
How unworthy that is, and how unjust. Many act as
if God wanted us to surrender to Him that we might
be in His power so that He could fret us and tease
us and tyranize over us. The man who thus fears
is a man who has never seen the love of God as ex
emplified on Calvary. He is a man who has simply
lived under the roars of the thunders of Sinai. He is
a man whose eyes have only seen the flashing pf
the lightning around the place of law. He is not the
man who has seen Calvary baptized in love; else he
would not be afraid to trust God.
But I must go hurriedly to the last condition —ad-
justment. And here again I find three sub-divls
ions necessary. First, there is the adjustment of
ourselves to the new revelation. Second, to the new
occupation, and, third, to the new termination. We
will take the new revelation and new occupation to
gether for lack of time sufficient for each. A new
revelation and a new occupation. It is just as es
sential that we shall, after we learn the will of God
for our individual life with reference to our life as
a whole or any part of our life, it is just as neces
sary to have a proper adjustment of ourselves to that
revelation as that we should have the revelation at
all, else the revelation would be useless.
Moses is a fitting type of what I am trying to
say. Moses is intensely human, and yet a man in
whom the human finally is conquered by the divine,
as he yields his life in accordance with it. When he
was called by the side of the burning bush to go as
the messenger of God to Pharoah, Moses was not
so sure of God, and was disposed to argue the case.
“Whom am I that I should be sent upon such a mis
sion? and who art thou? They will not believe me if
I go; I am not eloquent; I am slow of speech.” But
when Moses recognized the voice of God there was
no more failure to co-operate, and we know how
God took care of the life of Moses and led him every
step, and we know of the success that crowned him.
After our lives are placed in His hands it may be
necessary for Him to bring testing and trial in order
to develop us, to show us our strength and our weak
ness, to teach us dependence upon Him. We may
shrink from this, as the clay might have shrunk from
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