Sermon Outlines

By Frederick F. Schwindt, Evangelist

MARRED VESSELS

1. Our text is another illustration of how God used the life of the common people to teach great truths:
   1. We think of the great Master teacher, Jesus Christ, and His method of teaching the people the gospel of the kingdom -
      1. The sower, the seed, and the soil - Matt. 13:18-40
      2. The woman, the leaven, and the meal - Luke 13:21
      3. The vineyardist, the vineyard, and the fruit - Matt. 21:33-45
   2. In our text God compares Himself to the potter, and His people to the clay.
2. The vessel was marred in the hand of the potter; some people are marred by sin while God is working with them:

1. God the Potter:
   1. Here we have a great gospel truth brought to view under the simile of a potter - Lam. 4:2
   2. This shows that my life is not an accident, but a design in the hand of God - Gal. 1:15
   3. We are the workmanship of the great Potter of our life - Eph. 2:10; 4:24
2. The people, the clay:
   1. This fact receives repeated emphasis in the Word of God - Job 10:4; 33:6; Ps. 40:2; Isa. 29:16; 64:8
   2. Clay, left to itself, is helpless; it is utterly unable to make anything out of itself; so is man helpless, unless God makes something out of him.
3. The Pattern:
   1. The potter is an artist in his own right. He uses a pattern when he fashions a vessel.
   2. Jesus Christ is God's Pattern after whose likeness he seeks to fashion our lives - Rom. 8:29
   3. Paul understood this great truth as well as John - Phil. 3:8-12; 1 John 3:1-3

1. Here, again, God admits:
   1. That in spite of His divine skill and effort, He fails to achieve His original design in the life of His people.
   2. This shows that we are free moral agents, that we must cooperate with God if He is to succeed in our life.
   3. That no amount of effort by God can do anything with us without our will and cooperation.
2. The meaning of the word "Marred":
   1. To mar is to damage, to impair, to impede, to disfigure.
   2. All these and more are very much in evidence in the human race - EXAMPLES -
      1. The image of Cain - Gen. 4:15
      2. The image of Solomon - Neh. 13:26
      3. The image of Judas - Matt. 27:1-5
3. The Potter and the marred vessel:
   1. What did the Potter do with the vessel that was marred? Did He cast it away as a total failure, unworthy of further effort?
   2. Not at all, He made it another vessel. He did the next best thing with it.
   3. What does God do with our marred life? Does He cast us away, as hopeless? Not at all, He works us over, makes the next best vessel out of us. EXAMPLES -
      1. The thief on the cross, a brand plucked out of the fire - Luke 23:42-44; Zech. 3:2
      2. Jacob, a broken vessel - Gen. 32:29
      3. Peter, a broken vessel - Mark 14:70-72
      4. Paul, a broken vessel - Acts 9:15
4. What a picture of God's effort to save us for the kingdom of God!
   1. The infinite one occupies Himself with working over marred lives - Isa. 43:24
   2. Admits failure with many of us; this, in spite of His skill and power.
   3. But He never gives up, He does the next best for us.