VESSELS

^[p. 56] VESSELS

1 Thessalonians 4: 4; 2 Timothy 2: 20, 21; Romans 9: 23, 24

These scriptures speak of vessels; the idea is prevalent in the Scriptures, as most of you will be aware, and indeed has often been presented in ministry amongst us by one and another, and profitably but not exhaustively. No spiritual subject can be presented exhaustively. Spiritual subjects are in such settings as to preclude exhaustiveness; we never reach the limits or depths. The Spirit of God has indited the Scriptures and presented the subjects in their own proper settings, and they belong to what we may call the depths of God. There are the breadth and the length and the height and the depth, so that we can only speak of them in part at any time, and that is what I would aim at in speaking of this subject, to bring forth what may be applicable to us in a prophetic way if the Lord gives force to the words; what may be remarked at the outset is that the idea of vessels is that of persons, for in the spiritual realm that is how matters will stand; instrumentalities will be persons, and so it is now. Another remark important to be made is that we are living in remnant times, mourning times, in which some have been recovered from Babylon, from the religious world. We should not have been there, but some have been recovered and the idea is that each is to be usable. He is not only recovered for his own enjoyment, his own benefit, but to be usable, available too, for use; and so we find that in the recovery in the Old Testament a great deal is made of vessels; and the deliverer of God’s people at that time, Cyrus, who not only released them but directed their way, and delivered them, a great monarch who had ^[p. 57] prophetic mention long before he was born, had in mind that if God would have His people delivered out of Babylon or captivity, He needed them. This is an important word in a practical way for every person here, that he is to be usable and available for divine purpose, for divine service. The first scripture read contemplates the believer in this way, not that he is yet God’s vessel, but he is his own vessel; that is, he has a vessel, which he is to possess in sanctification and honour. He will understand something of God owning him as a vessel in time, as he begins by regarding himself as his own vessel.

The verse indicates to us what is in mind in the use of the word in Scripture, how one begins as a believer to regard himself, that is, viewed as possessing organs and faculties and qualities and affections; that all these are wonderfully blended by the Creator and intended to be usable to the person, for enjoyment depends on these faculties and qualities that God has so wonderfully combined in the human being. They are for his use. They may seem to function automatically, as indeed they do in a babe and a child, but presently the person wakes to consciousness and understanding, and begins to see that he is master of the institution, as it were, and as a believer he is enjoined here in regard of this. As born of the flesh, one finds these functions, qualities and capabilities are almost certain to be used for the natural will, working out in uncleanness and viciousness, but, as born anew, the person begins to discern, to be conscious of instincts of another kind, for he is not only born of the Spirit, he is born of water. He is born of the Spirit and there is spiritual substance involved in that, but there is accompanying it the idea of purification. One of the greatest essentials, initial at least to the believer, is the idea of purification, and following on that, the idea of holiness, and following on that, the idea of honour. God has in mind that this ^[p. 58] wonderful mechanism is to be for His glory; but the possessor of it is to work it out in this way in sanctification and in honour, so that he is, as it were, morally fitted for the realm of God.

I want to show later from Romans how he is a vessel of mercy fitted for glory, which is another great thought, another final thought indeed, but young people here will do well to pay attention to what has been said as to this idea of sanctification and honour in regard to the vessel that he possesses. So with this in mind we see that the epistle to the Romans, on the doctrinal side of it, works out how a believer begins to reckon as baptised, and how his members are, through the gospel, through the light and the power of the Spirit, to become released from the domination of sin, that his members are not henceforth to be yielded as instruments of unrighteousness — they have been, but are not to be henceforth — and so the apostle proceeds as he does in such an orderly way in Romans 6, Romans 7 and Romans 8 to deal with what is inside of us. In chapter 6 he deals more with what is outside of us, what would affect us externally, and sin as a principle, but in chapter 7 he deals with what is inside of us. One of the most crucial lessons to be learned by the young believer is in that chapter, and the more he goes on with God, the more he discovers it, how utterly mean he is, viewed in this way. The analysis brings out what he never thought existed, the further he goes on with God, the more he walks with God, the more he discovers it, what is utterly mean, and how it comes up with abhorrence at times when it should be far away, this unutterable meanness that belongs to us in a variety of ways, operating even without our wills, operating automatically through our organs. It is a great lesson often alluded to, perhaps not so much as it used to be, and young people do well to look into this matter, because the enemy is working, and working ^[p. 59] silently but steadily, and presently something happens if we are not on our guard, and find our feet, as the writer does when he says, “With the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin”, Romans 7: 25. Not that “I myself” serve with the flesh; that is what it is; it will never do anything else but serve sin. But he has found his feet and is victorious to that extent that he has reached a decision through a spiritual analysis. That is to say, the mind is enthroned. “With the mind I myself serve the law of God”. “I myself”. The mind has got its place, the place it should have. The apostle makes provision further in regard to that by the renewing of the mind, but I cannot go over that ground, only to suggest a few thoughts in regard to this matter, to lead up to a thought in Romans 8 which says, “If Christ be in you”. That is put hypothetically. “If Christ be in you, the body is dead on account of sin”. I apprehend that is what is in view in the body being brought to that, Christ having a place in the believer, and the Spirit as life on account of righteousness. “The Spirit is life”.

There are potentialities to be worked out. The Spirit is life because, or in view, of righteousness, on account of righteousness. That is what God will have, and He has done His utmost, and His utmost is perfect, to constitute the believer in a position to bear fruit in that way, to be righteous.

And so as to illustrate that verse often quoted amongst us, one would refer to the well-known character, the woman of Sychar, as to what is meant by Christ being in the christian. The story is well known, it is one of the most used, and always fresh; it was the Lord’s conversation, the Lord come down in wondrous grace to her and sitting on the well. He made no effort to disguise His weariness, but says, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest ^[p. 60] have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water”, John 4: 10. Who it is; God was there. She is in the presence of the Deity. He puts it to her. However little she could understand, it was there. One would love to convey that thought — Who it is. He came so low to get her soul, and He reached it, so that Christ was in her. He had not died nor had christianity been established; He had not died yet, but we get things in the principle of them in the gospels. Christ was in that woman. She left her waterpot, which meant she understood that the vessel was herself. The waterpot was a vessel, she understood now that she was that, and she went her way into the city to the men. They knew her, but then another Man had come into her heart and mind; Christ was in her. I hardly know of a better illustration of that verse in Romans; it means that Christ has got His place, and no other man can influence her.

The Colossians were in danger of being influenced by men. This woman was immune from the influence of the men. She went to them and said, “Come, see a man”, and that Man was filling her mind. What a woman she was! If you were to meet and accost her on the way back, how different would her countenance be, how different her gait, how different her manner! What a change, beloved friends! Christ was in her. “Come, see a man”, she says, and Christ was in her in such a way as to convey to them, as she spoke of Him that He had had to do with her in regard to her internal relations. She had had to be searched out. He “told me all things that ever I did”, John 4:29. He had created a place for Himself, her mind was now pure, it had been impure, her mind had been rendered pure, it was become a vessel of righteousness, not as hitherto but a vessel in which righteousness was working unto holiness, a vessel unto honour, now being held in sanctification and in honour, and hence utterly immune from the influence ^[p. 61] of the men of the city. She had influence over them. She directed them to another Man, and that Man was not simply sitting on the well; He was in her heart, He was there. She did not have the Spirit, of course, she did not know redemption, but the Spirit of God puts the things in John in their own settings, and the thing is manifest that that woman had Christ in her heart. Her body was dead — gone — I do not mean literally, for it was possibly coming up again, but that is what is presented to us, that she was no longer governed by the old emotions and affections — her body was dead, and the Spirit, in principle, was life in view of righteousness. She was righteous, she was working righteousness, she was calling attention to Christ, and was superior to the influence of sin.

Now what I am saying is most important for us all, but especially for young people, that each should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and in honour, and as he does, he will begin to see that God has rights over that vessel, too, that “ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price”, 1 Corinthians 6: 19,20.

So the next verses I read, those in 2 Timothy, bring before us the idea of a vessel for God, and the passage contemplates what I have been saying. It is not here the question of the doctrine of Romans, it is a question of having to do with religious associations, and how we are to become vessels unto honour in the service of God, “sanctified, and meet”, as it says, “for the master’s use”. The master — that is not yourself, it is another. He has use for you — He has need of you; He has need of His own. Indeed, of the colt the word was “the Lord has need of it”,

Mark 11:3. The Lord has need, and if there is anyone here who is religiously linked with associations that are not of God, or who is linked with persons — that is the point here — who are perhaps teaching modernism, denying, it may be, the authenticity of ^[p. 62] the Scriptures, eliminating certain books as uninspired, perhaps casting doubt on the deity of Christ, or denying eternal punishment, or any other such person, if there are any here linked up with such, this word is for you. “If a man therefore purge himself from these”. One good translator says “in separating himself from them” — I have no doubt that is what is meant — “he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work”. There is a call in this. The Lord has need of you, but on His own terms, and what one is exercised to say, dear brethren, in regard to this great matter of sanctification and honour and service and usefulness, is as to how much the Lord has had to put up with him as a vessel, and how much the brethren, too, have had to put up with him. There are things in a vessel that he cannot overcome. A man might be a stammerer, for instance, and yet have gift from the Lord. Well, the brethren would have to put up with that. He cannot help it, maybe.

Paul’s eyes were in such a state that they must have been a cause of concern to the brethren. There are some physical conditions that cannot be overcome, and the brethren, of course, may complain. It is perhaps a little unfair for me to complain about the brethren complaining, but I do say that brethren are often very unfair in their complaints, especially in regard to hearing. If a brother has gold, pure gold, then you will have to bear a little tax to get it. I do not mean on material things, these are nothing. The apostle says, “I seek not yours, but you”. It is a question of you, and certainly if gold is available, you deserve to be taxed a little to get it, not in a material way, but if it is gold it is gold and it is worth getting. Gold diggers have to suffer if they are to get to gold.

They sometimes have to go down six thousand feet to get to gold, and if things come too easily to us we do not value them as much as if we have to pay for them.

^[p. 63] The time comes when the Lord says, “I counsel thee to buy of me”, Revelation 3: 18. Pay for the thing. Well, this buying may imply things you do not like in the ministers, but then, on the other hand, why should the brethren suffer, for after all, the ministers are yours, as the apostle says, “Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas ... all are yours”, 1 Corinthians 3: 22. Certainly it is a little incongruous if the possession of your property in this sense should be occasioning you discomfort. It is obligatory on the servant to consider the served. “Ourselves your servants”, and the minister can never forget that, so that he does not make the tax too high, and he is concerned, too, that there is no moral effect after his ministry, which is the most important thing of all, the after effects detracting from the ministry, as it were. The minister certainly as a vessel, should not force the Lord to have to put up with too much. The Lord is wonderfully gracious and puts up with much in one, and I do not know of anything that has challenged one more than this, how much one has forced the Lord to put up with. But He does bear with us. It will do Him no harm, so to speak, but there are things that may do the saints harm, and that is what the vessel should have in mind, that he should see to it that he in no way causes harm to the brethren. Physical effects they can stand, but the moral effects are the dangerous ones. What I am saying includes every person listening; each is to be a vessel. Each has to consider for himself how much he is forcing the Lord to put up with (and the Lord is obliged to do it, and does it) and how much the saints have to put up with. This works out in a variety of ways and one challenges oneself — why am I forcing the brethren to put up with things that they should not have to put up with?

All this enters into the idea of the vessel, and I believe it is not without divine wisdom that the great ^[p. 64] servant, that is, Paul, is the only one formally called in the New Testament “a vessel”, I mean as a servant. Every person is a vessel, and the sisters, the women, are said to be weaker vessels, which has also to be borne in mind, but the apostle Paul is called by the Lord Jesus “an elect vessel”, Acts 9: 15. What consideration there must have been beforehand in view of the servant, his ancestry, his parentage, his schooling, his experience! Everything was forced to serve the great divine thought in this matter. He “is an elect vessel to me”, says the Lord. I doubt not the Lord had in His mind in this great vessel, ‘Well, I will not have much to put up with in him’, nor had He. Not that the apostle Paul is immune from criticism, he is not indeed, but I am speaking now in a general way of what the Lord had in mind. He would say in effect, ‘I will not have much to put up with in him’. I am sure that the Lord Jesus had perfect delight in the apostle Paul. I am assured that the Lord had pleasure every day while that man lived as His servant. One would like to be a little like that in the service, that one should not be compelling the Lord to put up with things, but affording Him pleasure in one’s motives, in one’s manner, in one’s ways, and in the way one speaks in the ministry and in the ministry itself, for a meeting like this is not exclusive of Christ. He is here to help us, but He is here to enjoy. Do not forget that. Whatever is to be enjoyed, He enjoys it more than any one of us, and why should it not be so? Why should there not be history made in heaven constantly by us in relation to what divine Persons find in us, and what the Lord must have found in that great servant! He says, he “is an elect vessel to me”. Was it just then? The Lord had it in His mind long before, that this man should appear on schedule time, and should stand out as fully answering to the divine requirements. He is according to pattern, the pattern is Christ ^[p. 65] Himself. And so it is in Luke we have such a beautiful presentation of Christ as the Minister. Heaven announced, at the very outset, its delight in Him, but now men have delight in Him. They are not affected spiritually, yet they “wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth”. Luke 4:22. Every movement came under their notice, every movement in the synagogue of Nazareth. Was not heaven delighted in that scene? That was a great day for heaven, the infinitely perfect ideal of heaven was there. He was there before men in ministry. Luke loves to dwell on that throughout his writings, and the apostle Paul was according to that pattern — “an elect vessel to me”, the Lord says.

Well, so much for the ministers, and now for the eternal state of things. The epistle to the Romans, in the verse I read, brings forward the saints as vessels of mercy fitted for glory — “Even us”, says the apostle, both the Jews and the gentiles. God had called out persons from among the Jews and gentiles who are designated here as vessels of mercy fitted for glory. This is the sovereign side of the subject. The other two verses deal directly with our responsibility, but here we are directly on the line of God’s sovereign selection in mercy. And how expanding and stimulating the thought of sovereignty is, dear brethren, that God has taken us up separately in His sovereignty”according to his mercy he saved us”, Titus 3: 5. We are told in Titus how it happened, the instrumentality, but here it is “vessels of mercy”. That would mean that God has taken us up in relation to these faculties that I have been speaking of, and using them now in that relation, but with a view to our eternal relations. And what a thought! — “vessels of mercy ... prepared unto glory” — that one is to be there equal to the glory. We had glory before us this afternoon, and the Lord would keep it before us. Christianity is inaugurated in glory; the Spirit here ^[p. 66] is the Spirit of glory, and indeed in Romans 8: 30 it says God has already glorified us as having justified us. The idea is that we are to understand how to bear glory, the Spirit of glory and of God resting upon us. How one can carry such thoughts as that! What a vessel one is who can carry such thoughts as that, as referring to himself, and how delivering the thought is from all human glory, as the apostle Paul says, an “eternal weight of glory”. But what I am speaking of is a vessel fitted for glory, already bearing it here in a moral way in the reception of the Spirit, the use one makes of Him, and the use the Spirit makes of one. We have the idea of glory resting upon us. What dignity! Where is all the glory of this world in relation to this? One is constituted a vessel of mercy fitted for glory, so that one learns how to wear his dress. It is said of Moses and Elijah that they appeared in glory. The heavenly saints will have that dress actually; they will shine out actually fitted for it. It will not be beyond us, we shall be equal to what the apostle Paul calls an “eternal weight of glory”. We learn how to bear the glory.

Time has gone, but how much could be said of this great matter of being fitted for glory. How delivering it is from the petty wretched things that are presented to us — the tinsel of this world to attract us — how poor when we see that we are fitted for glory! That is, the glory of God, and to learn to wear that dress now! So that as entering into our own realm, as glorified together with Christ, as suffering with Him, we are glorified together with Him. It says, “glorified with him” — as we enter on that which is not new to us, we have already learned something of bearing the glory, of wearing that heavenly dress here, as fitted for glory. I have no doubt that the present allusion is to the Spirit. The Spirit here is the Spirit of glory, and in the Spirit we are “clothed with power from on high”. It is the glorious dress in ^[p. 67] which we are here, and in which we are about to enter as fitted to enjoy our portion above, in full ability to shine in the place that eternal counsel has designed for us. May God help us in this! I feel encouraged to bring it before you so that we may get a little more on what we call the ‘up line’. The Lord is aiming at it in view of the imminent translation of the saints from earth to heaven, that there should be some little indication of the realm to which we are going, and the weight of glory that is designed for us.