VESSEL OF MERCY, PREPARED FOR GLORY
[p. 145] VESSEL OF MERCY, PREPARED FOR GLORY
Romans 9: 23, 24; 2 Corinthians 8: 23; Revelation 21: 10, 11
I have in mind to speak about the saints as vessels of God’s glory, and I have put these three passages together in order, by the Lord’s help, to work this out, and first of all as regards the sovereignty of God in forming us.
The chapter in Romans from which I read speaks of God’s sovereignty, and among other things Paul brings in this thought, that those whom God has called are vessels formed for glory; “vessels of mercy ... ... prepared for glory”. Wonderful thought for us! God, having had us in mind at the outset before His works of old, has in time formed us. There was no clay out of which to form us when He predestined us, as we may say, for we were predestined before the world was, indeed, not only predestined but chosen in Christ before the world was. God, therefore, had us in His mind, and not only in His mind, but in His heart, for He chose us in love, “in the Beloved”. He had Christ in His mind, Christ as Man. He had in mind that the Son should become Man, and, as Man, should be known as “an only begotten with a father”, (John 1: 14) and He had also in mind that there should be others. As it is said, “chosen us in him before the foundation of the world”. (Ephesians 1: 4) All that was purpose, a word that we do well to receive into our souls. The purpose was there long before the material, of which our natural bodies are formed, existed,
As regards Adam God took the dust of the ground and out of it formed the man. What handiwork, beloved friends, is seen there! The Potter! Nothing in all the realm of creation could be compared with the vessel thus formed. As one well instructed afterwards said, “Fearfully and wonderfully made”, Psalm 139: 14. The skill shown exceeds that shown in anything else. As we have often remarked, there was a divine consultation; “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”. (Genesis 1: 26) We can well under-stand that divine skill would be called into action in view of the wonderful model, for man was to be made after the image of God, and in the likeness of God.
The vessel was thus formed, and so, as formed, God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became”, it says, “a living soul”. (Genesis 2: 7) He became that. So that in Adam thus formed (the word “form” is used) and breathed into, we have a vessel divinely fitted. Now he was but a “figure”, as we read in Romans 5, “of him that was to come”. That is to say, he was the figure of Him who was to be the Head of a new race of men, and in connection with that I desired to just call attention to a passage in Isaiah, so that you may see how the thought runs in Scripture.
Isaiah speaks about One upon whom should hang all the glory of His Father’s house; Isaiah 22: 24. That is to say, the house of Israel. One could not predicate that of Adam, for had you hung anything on him down it would come with him. Indeed many things were hung on him, but he did not sustain them. Now of Christ it is said by the prophet, that upon Him should hang the glory of His Father’s house. Indeed, as one might say, every divine thought introduced, involving glory, was hung on Christ. As we have had it today, “he shall bear the glory”. So that the glory of His Father’s house hangs on Christ.
But then, not only that, all small vessels, it says, hang upon Him. However tiny you may be, and there are degrees of size, all vessels are to hang on Christ. You say, I am a tiny vessel, easily filled, but if you are a vessel at all you must hang on [p. 147] Christ. Now is it so with you? However small you are, small vessels are said to hang on Him. Now is it so with your soul and mine? I refer to the spirit of dependence. If we are to be available as vessels we must be found, as it were, hanging there. I have no doubt that the reference to vessels in 2 Timothy 2 involves our hanging on the Lord. In a great house, it says, there are vessels of gold, wood and earth, vessels to honour and dishonour, but they are not said to hang on anything. They are in a great house.
A “great house” is a wide idea, but it says “If a man therefore purge himself from these” (vessels to dishonour - the last mentioned) “he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work”. That is to say, I apprehend, that he has come to discover that he must hang on Christ. He names the name of the Lord Jesus, he calls upon that name. He is dependent on that Man. He draws all his strength from that Man. However small or great, to be available, to be sanctified, to be meet for the Master’s use, he must hang on Christ. Naught else affords anything in the way of availability for God save that which is dependent upon Christ. There must be dependence on Christ. We must hang upon Him, so to speak.
Well now, the prophet says that all small vessels, and vessels of cups. That is to say, that series of vessels, different sizes no doubt, but all vessels of cups, drinking vessels as one might say, hang on the nail. One might enlarge on the idea of vessels for drinking purposes; there must, of course, be the water, but the water will be available if the vessel is. And then it says, “All the vessels of flagons”, namely, vessels of a larger capacity in which the water is stored, preserved, all such vessels are hung on Christ.
[p. 148] So that Adam being the figure of Him that was to come, Christ is the great Vessel, not indeed created, thank God! (I speak reverently of Him. ) No, “the Word became flesh”. It was an act of His own. “The Word became flesh”, says John, “and dwelt among us”. (John 1: 14) That is to say, He dwelt so as to be known. And then he says, “We have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only begotten with a father, full of grace and truth”. What a Person He was! As He was baptised having attained His full age, the age of thirty, full manhood, the heavens are opened on Him, and there is heaven’s delight announced in this wonderful Person; and so the Holy Spirit comes into that Person, to bring within the range of man all that God is, the grace of God, for it is said, “Grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ”. All that God is, as available for the need of man here on earth, is found in Him. “Grace and truth subsists” (subsists - the verb is in the singular) showing it is one idea in the mind of God perfectly blended in Christ. It subsists through Jesus Christ, so that grace and truth go together, but they are all in that blessed Person. The Word became flesh and dwelt among men, placing Himself to be reached, as it were. He is there, He is among men. “Who went about”, it is said, “doing good”. (Acts 10: 38) He went about. He sought out the need and met it, “Who went about doing good, ... ... for God was with him”. The glory was there. Every divine thought involving glory was in Christ. Wonderful to contemplate! It is well to have the Lord ever in that way before us, for our souls to feed upon. The Person was so great that He sustained every divine thought. All was, so to speak; hung there.
But not only that, every other vessel that God had hung upon Him. That is, there should be an increase of the vessels, and so one after another comes to Christ and is formed by Him into a vessel, and then [p. 149] that vessel must learn to hang on Christ. The Lord says, “without me ye can do nothing”. (John 15: 5) He says, “if ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ash what ye will, and it shall be done unto you”. (John 15: 7) What a lesson there is for us in that. The expression of His mind (”my words”) abiding in your heart, and you abiding in Him, everything comes to pass.
So one might enlarge on that; how in the gospel one vessel after another was formed, and all set up, all hanged on Christ and in perfect order. For instance in the Acts, in the first chapter and in the second chapter, how perfectly formed they were after the great Pattern. In the absence of Christ (mark you, it is in the absence of Christ that you are put to the test as to how much you are formed) they are left for ten days. After forty days He was received up into heaven and they are left by themselves in Jerusalem for ten days. That is, the period between His ascension and the descent of the Spirit. Now what are they going to do? Well, I think what they do qualifies them as vessels. They were acquainted with the Scriptures. They knew the scripture that governed the position at the moment. You may be assured that you can find yourself in no position that is not governed by Scripture. It is good for you to know that, for you to know the scripture that fits your circumstances. Hence the importance of knowing Scripture. The Lord appealed to the Jews, “Search the scriptures” (John 5: 39) and if you search them you will find the scripture that applies to you.
Now Peter and those with him found out that, “his bishopric let another take”. Judas must be replaced by another, and that other must be indicated by God. Hence they pray, they are dependent. They qualify in that way as vessels, and so the Holy Spirit comes, and what vessels they were as possessed by Him! They contained all the light that shines [p. 150] in the face of Jesus in heaven, it was brought into those vessels in the power of the Spirit of God. As Paul says later, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels”. Although earthen, the treasure is there. The light of the assembly, of the glory of God in the face of Jesus, was in Paul’s heart, in that vessel. And so in Peter, and so in John. And then in the second chapter the order in which the service is carried out shows how they had qualified. It says, that Peter stood up with the eleven. The Lord had ordered how the vessels were to be set and used. There were great and small ones. The eleven and Peter were twelve. They represented the authority of Christ. It does not say he stood up with the one hundred and twenty. They were there. They were the standers-by, as we speak. They were in sympathy and interested, but Peter and the eleven only stood up. Compare Zechariah 3: 7. That was according to the pattern. The Lord had commissioned them. He had given them a place that was unique, and they accepted it, whereas the others did not assume it. It is well, dear brethren, for us to find our place in the house, in that sense, as vessels, to know the use the Lord is to make of us, whether we are to be a vessel of the cup series or the flagon series, or whatever it be. Find out from the Lord, and then there you hang, in dependence. In the faith of your soul there you hang until you are needed.
Well now, I take that passage in 2 Corinthians as illustrative in a marked degree of the idea that I am seeking to propound. The apostle says, “Whether any do inquire of Titus, he is my partner” (”inquire” is not in the original, but it is implied) “and fellow-helper concerning you”. That was that vessel. He was content to be subordinate. It is a very important thing to learn to be subordinate in the service, for in the ways of God there must be subordinates. What a thing it is, although serving subordinately, yet [p. 151] to havepartnership in this wonderful service, the service that the Lord is carrying on down here now. To have part in that! There are claims now, of course, no doubt right to put forth, which we have to respond to in the will of God, but let us see to it, dear brethren, that the claims of Christ are acknowledged. Nothing should interfere with that. I retain my responsibility as a vessel under all circumstances, and the Lord is carrying on His service and is graciously disposed to give me part in it, that I should be a partner in it, and I want to be known in that capacity. Paul wished that Titus should be known in that capacity. He says, “He is my partner and fellow-helper concerning you”. He served with Paul concerning the Corinthians. That was Titus’ employment. And now he says, “or our brethren be inquired of, they are the messengers of the churches, and the glory of Christ”. Remarkable passage! These brethren are not named. Their function for the moment was to carry certain money subscribed by the brethren for the benefit of need, or needy ones, elsewhere, and the apostle says, in effect, ‘If anybody inquires about those men do not say to them that they are simply treasurers or custodians. No, they are ministers of the assemblies’; and then he adds “and the glory of Christ”.
It is well to keep that in mind when you contribute to the box. What you put in it not the point. It is the spirit and motive, beloved brethren. I often recall the Lord’s posthumous saying, as it has been called, recorded in Acts 20, “Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive”. The glory is in the giving, and so as these assemblies gave, the money was entrusted to certain brothers, and so, as the apostle says, the service that they were performing in the capacity of ministers, representatives of the bounty of the saints, was to the glory of Christ. How exalted trivial things become when taken up in this [p. 152] way by the Spirit in relation to God and His service! The material gift of the saints to meet the need of others is regarded in this light, “the glory of Christ”. It is the reflection of Christ.
I have often dwelt on the Lord placing Himself over against the treasury, as if He would say, I would love to see the reflection of My own giving disposition there. What did He give? This very chapter tells us; “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich”, 2 Corinthians 8: 9. What giving was that! What wealth He gave up in order that we might be enriched, and hence, as I was saying before, He gives us the idea of glory. It is in giving or sacrificing. So as the saints gave they were the glory of Christ. It was the expression of Christ. “It is more blessed to give than to receive”. How it would enlarge our giving if we were conscious that the Lord was standing over against the treasury, and conscious that He was saying, ‘I would like to see the reflection of My own giving disposition there’. Now that is what the box is. If you look upon it as that in which the glory of Christ shines how expanded the giving should be. As it says, “God loveth a cheerful giver”, 2 Corinthians 9: 7. Mark you! He looks at your conscience and looks at your heart as you give. He does not say He loves your gift, but you as giving it. He loves a cheerful giver.
Well now, in turning to the last scripture in Revelation 21: 10, I wanted to show how the great idea of the vessel is carried forward. As we are sovereignly formed by the Potter “vessels of mercy” (signifying that we are taken up according to sovereign mercy) “prepared for glory”, we become in the aggregate a great vessel for the shining out of the glory of God. No one of us could be that, I need not say. Christ only could be regarded as great enough to contain [p. 153] and set forth fully the glory of God. Indeed He is said to be the effulgence of the divine glory. That is what Christ is; and the assembly, being His body, is seen here as “having the glory of God”.
The heavenly city, being formed of the saints, is taken account of in this chapter in Revelation, and I just wish to dwell upon it for the remainder of the time. It says in verse 10, which I read, “And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God”.
I desire by the Lord’s help to keep your interest so that you might see how in the aggregate we are to be the vessel of God’s glory, as descending from God out of heaven. I have no doubt that the assembly may be viewed, and is viewed, in a retrospective way in this chapter. That is, she is looked upon as the wife; that character has marked her, viewed according to what she was as formed of the Spirit, throughout the long night of the Lord’s absence. A wife is to be trusted. You will recall how the false wife described in Proverbs says, that her husband has gone a long way on a journey, and has taken a bag of money with him, and so she abandons herself to unfaithfulness in his absence. That is the false one. She was not a true vessel. She is utterly untrustworthy. She is not staunch. Now in the end of the book of Proverbs you have the true idea of the wife. She is virtuous. It is a most essential feature, we know in a practical way, to be virtuous. I have often endeavoured to define virtue and have put it this way, It is the power in your soul to say no to evil, and to say yes to good, as in fidelity to Christ. That is what I think virtue is, briefly. That is, you refuse all that involves unfaithfulness to Christ. You close the door on that. There is to be no admission in thought, or in ways, that involves unfaithfulness to Christ. The [p. 154] wife is, normally, to be trusted. And so the assembly (I am not referring to the great public body) in principle at least, has been confided in by Christ, and now the time of her display has come. She has held to what belonged to Him in the hour of His rejection, and now it says, “The marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready”, Revelation 19: 7 That is, she is preparing now for the public nuptials and display.
You will all remember that there was no marriage ceremony between Isaac and Rebekah. There was nothing of display at all. The union was there, but all was of a private nature. She was a comfort to him. But now the hour of display has come, and so it says “his wife”, not the one that is going to be His wife, but the wife, the one that is trusted. It is the one who has known His mind, who has been a comfort to Him. Romans itself teaches us that we are “married to another” already, and Ephesians and Colossians teach union with Christ, so that the wife relationship exists now. But I am dwelling for the moment on the point of faithfulness. The wife is to be trusted. Paul says, “Keep ... ... . the good deposit entrusted”. (2 Timothy 1: 14) But how keep it? “By the Holy Spirit”. You cannot keep it any other way. You might write down, and subscribe to the “thirty-nine articles”, the so-called fundamentals of Christianity, as many did in the Reformation, but that is not keeping by the Holy Spirit the good deposit entrusted. The truth is to be held in our souls in faithfulness. Is there anyone who does not love the truth? The absence of love of the truth brings sudden destruction presently; 2 Thessalonians 2: 10. There may be certain features of the truth that are not directly applicable today, but everyone who loves it treasures it, and keeps it in the soul by the Holy Spirit. There is no other way to keep it. “Keep, by the Holy Spirit”, he says, “the good deposit entrusted”. You are faithful to Christ. You use the Spirit, speaking in that way, in order to conserve the truth. You are keen in regard to the truth. You must not let one iota of it go.
Now the wife, I apprehend, comparing the passage with Proverbs 31, holds to that. She loves the truth. The false one says, “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow”. She cares nothing for the truth. Do you think Rome cares anything for the truth? Nothing! Like Judas, she would sell not only the truth, she would sell the Lord; indeed, she has done so. We are told to “Buy the truth, and sell it not”. (Proverbs 23: 23) Judas sold the Lord. The true wife conserves the truth. As I said, she keeps by the Holy Spirit the good deposit entrusted.
And so now the time of the display, “The marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready. And it was given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, bright and pure; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints”; Revelation 19: 8. That is, she had been marked by righteousnesses. The word is in the plural, and would include, I suppose, all the practical righteousnesses from Pentecost until the rapture. It is a record of all she had kept. Practical righteousness is a wonderful thing, you know, in the testimony. “If ye know that he is righteous”, says John, “know that everyone who practises righteousness is begotten of him”, 1 John 2: 29. Practical righteousness now is, as it were, formed into a robe in which the wife is to be arrayed. It is her marriage trousseau!
“It was given to her”. There is the principle of sovereignty in it. “It was given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, bright and pure; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints”. What I do or you do, as a vessel, as used of the Lord, shall all be seen there, and we will come out in our [p. 156] wedding garments, beloved, suitable for Christ, suitably arrayed to be presented to the Bridegroom, to the Lamb, the suffering One, for it us the suffering One. He is the suffering One now, but He has this wonderful city as His bride. And so the angel takes the prophet, for John is a prophet here, to a high mountain, as it says: “he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God”.
Now this is the wife. John has to be taken up from earth to see her. One has to be withdrawn from the earth to the high mountain to see this, the assembly in this light. And so he says, “that great city, the holy Jerusalem”. There have been many great cities, but there is only one holy one. This one is great and holy, so that, beloved brethren, if we look for greatness let us not look for it apart from holiness. To be great in this world is not to be holy, whereas to be great with God you must be holy. Greatness and holiness must go together. Hence the great city, holy Jerusalem, she is described as here, and she is seen as descending from heaven from God. How lovely to have before our souls the thought of being taken to God, taken up by the Lord Jesus, who descends, as it is said. He descends and we shall be caught up, as changed, to be together with Him, for ever. He takes us up and now we come out, as John says, He “showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God”.
Well, that is what I have to say. He adds, “And her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal”. That is, the assembly is the vessel of the divine glory, coming out in dignity and in liberty.
There is only just one word I would add to that, and that is the necessity now for clearness, for [p. 157] transparency As vessels we are to be transparent. There are in this book of Revelation several references to it. The first is the sea of glass. The victorious ones are said to stand on the sea of glass; all there is transparent. There is nothing hidden, no secret counsels. All is open. It is a lovely trait amongst us, as brethren, to have that transparency of glass; to be such vessels in that sense, that all that is done is open, no mixed motives, nor hidden ones. All is in the simplicity of love. As the apostle says, “By love serve one another”. (Galatians 5: 13) So that the city’s light is clear as crystal. All is perfectly open there.
Well I hope what I have said may be a help to us, dear brethren, in view of what we have had, that we may see that we are taken up sovereignly, formed by the Potter, so to speak, “vessels of mercy, ... prepared for glory”. (Romans 9: 23) We are prepared; there shall be no disparity between us and the glory. We are fitted for the glory, and while down here in whatever we do there is to be a reflection of the glory of Christ and of God. If we are to be fitted and finally to come out as changed in regard of our bodies, having bodies of glory, as it is said, we shall be in the aggregate a great vessel. The city lieth four-square. She includes all, but she lies four-square, in every way formed after God so as to express Him universally in His nature, the shining out in the light most precious, the whole realm of creation shall bask in it. May God grant blessing to His word, to each of us.
Pages 158 - 221, “Spiritual Food and Priestly Clothing”, Glasgow, January, 1919 (Volume 40).