Page 51 - Fundamentals Ebook

There is still a work in process. God is still conforming us to Jesus.
He won’t complete the work. In His mind and in His purpose it’s
already finished. Romans 8:30, “…and whom He predestined, these
He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and
whom He justified, these He also glorified.” Entering rest is not
only believing that everything that He has already done makes Him
happy but we must also believe that everything that He is doing right
now in our lives, He is satisfied with. If I start believing that, the
peace of God will flow over on all sides and at all times.

What I would like to do is to illustrate His present work, right now
and how His present work pleases Him. I want to illustrate it by His
title “The Potter”. Isaiah 64:8, “But now, O Lord, Thou art our
Father. We are the clay, and Thou our potter; and all of us are the
work of Thy hand.” If we can understand the potter and the clay, it
will help us with His present work. The illustration that I want to
give is from Jeremiah 18 which talks about the prophet going to the
potter’s house. “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there
I shall announce My words to you.” Let me give the background of
this story.

The background is that God, after the captivity, was going to bring
them back to Jerusalem. To do that he was going to use a man
named “Cyrus”. Just like they didn’t understand how a Holy God
could use sinful Babylon, they couldn’t understand how a Holy God
could take a sinful man like Cyrus and bring them back to the land.
They were happy that they were going back but they didn’t like
God’s method. “Do it another way.” They had a controversy with
God. They had an argument with the Lord, not about the end but
about the means to the end. “I want to be conformed to Christ but
do I have to go through bankruptcy?” “I want to be conformed to
Christ but does that mean I have to get cancer?” “Does that mean
that my children must go in a wrong direction?” “Does that mean
divorce will come into my life?” “I like the end but I don’t like the
means.”