VESSELS OF MERCY
[p. 138] VESSELS OF MERCY
Jeremiah 18: 1 - 6; Romans 9: 23, 24; 2 Corinthians 4: 7
We closed our meeting this afternoon with a reference to the service of the levitical family, the Merarites, noting that their service had to do, typically, with the saints. They had to do with the pillars, and bars, and doors, and so forth, of the tabernacle; these representing the people of God, for the tabernacle in its earthly form as in testimony here is composed of saints — of persons. It is said to be a figurative representation of things in the heavens (Hebrews 9: 23). It is not of this creation, it is not formed of such material as is used in the wilderness. It is a great moral system in which God shines, in which God resides; which for the moment has its expression here on earth in the people of God, as set up in divine skill in relation to Christ, and in relation to one another. Hence the people of God become of peculiar interest; and the believer can see, however weak and feeble he may be, that the word for him is, “The Lord has need of it”. He has a place for you, that cannot be filled by another, and so He must have you. You are of great importance in His eye.
The Scriptures are full of that thought, the Old Testament as well as the New; and the Spirit of God would engage us with it, so that we might rightly value each other; that we might not despise or disregard in any way the feeblest, the weakest, the most insignificant of God’s people, even the weak brother, for whom as the apostle Paul says, “Christ died”, Romans 14: 15. John’s gospel may be cited as setting out this thought as much as any other. Not that it is exclusive to John, but he has a way of speaking of the saints that is stimulating to love. He speaks of one “whom Jesus loved”. You would like to meet that one, would you not?
You say, ‘He loves us all’; well, He does, but John does not mean that when he speaks of “the disciple whom Jesus loved”: he means that a certain one is singled out by the Lord as being peculiarly lovable.
John is not here now, but the Lord is not without someone like him. For instance, the Lord takes a little child and sets him by Him. Never did that little child look so beautiful as when he was set beside the Lord Jesus! You might say that the glory of Christ would eclipse whatever glory there was in the child, but no, the glory of the feeblest of us, and we are “vessels of mercy ... before prepared for glory”, will not be eclipsed by the glory of Christ. We reflect His glory, in fact. So that the little child is set by the Lord, and He refers to him. In Matthew 18: 2 it says, “Jesus having called a little child to him”, meaning that the child was amenable to the Lord’s will; he was not a wayward child, that is, not a wayward saint. He says to the disciples, “Unless ye are converted and become as little children ...” And then in verse 4 He says, “as this little child”. So that the Lord has someone at all times amenable to His will, and suitable for any specific purpose that He may have in mind, so that He can point to him. Now, I can understand that every lover of Christ would aspire to that — to be in such a state of subjection and moral beauty that the Lord can say of him, as He did in the Pharisee’s house — “Seest thou” this person? You might say, Well, if I were in other circumstances I could shine better, and be more for Christ. But here is a woman, in the most withering circumstances as far as she was concerned, a woman of the city, but the Lord turns to her, and says to Simon, “Seest thou this woman?” There was something there as corresponding to Himself that the Lord could call attention to. She illustrates a feature of the personnel of the assembly; that is, of that vessel in which God sets out His testimony at the present time. There are many features among these persons; she is one to whom the Lord can turn and say, “Seest thou this woman?” And then He goes over the details of her service.
I mention all this, so that there might be an appeal as to it, that one might not complain of one’s circumstances or assume that one could shine better in others. It is an utter mistake. If the Lord has placed you in circumstances that appear to be adverse, He intends to enhance your glory. If He has placed you in them, He will cause you to shine in them; as it is said, “Among whom ye appear as lights in the world”, Philippians 2: 15. “Ye appear as lights”; the allusion is to the stars. The Lord could use one star to illuminate the whole scene! How great that is! If I were to go over the ground, through Scripture, that speaks of shining, you would be affected by what is presented. For instance, Deborah says, “let them that love him be as the rising of the sun in its might”, Judges 5: 31. What a fine thought that is, and it is within the range of all the lovers of God! It is really a prayer, and the prayer of a woman, too. And again, it is said in Daniel, “they that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the expanse”, Daniel 12: 3. Now, the firmament holds the great body of luminaries, the stars. What a conception that is! That wise and righteous persons shall shine thus! You can see what enters into the personnel of the vessel of testimony, what one person may be, what a wise brother or sister may be. And then the Lord says in Matthew 13: 43, “Then the righteous shall shine forth as the sun”.
You can see therefore, how a few saints in a place may be very effective in their testimony, say in this city. Jehovah says to Moses, “five of you shall chase a hundred”, Leviticus 26: 8. That is, a few of His people under conditions suitable to Him. Now, you can see, dear brethren, what a power a few saints may be. It is a question of power there, “A hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight”. Now, as you proceed on the principle of multiplication, see how comparatively few saints are needed to cope with the opposition of [p. 141] a million people! As soon as we begin to reckon thus our difficulties begin to diminish, and the power and influence of the saints increases enormously. If you reckon according to that rule, if the ratio runs on like that, see what a hundred saints in a city means; for that is what God has in His mind. And if it be a question of prayer, the Lord says, “if two of you shall agree on earth concerning any matter, whatsoever it may be that they shall ask, it shall come to them from my Father who is in the heavens”, Matthew 18: 19. You thus can see what two praying people may accomplish.
I say all these things so as to encourage the brethren, especially in this city and State, that there may be no feeling of disheartenment, or discouragement, but a feeling of stimulation, in humble dependence, of course, but still a definite stimulation as to what God may do with us. It is a question of what we are. The great principle underlying all this, as I understand it, is in these verses in Jeremiah. Jehovah directs the prophet to go down to the potter’s house; and here we have a principle of great importance as to understanding things; that is, that we are to get into the circumstances to which the things apply. The word of the Lord regarding the thing in question is to be given to the prophet in the circumstances which are in keeping with the matter, that is, in the potter’s house. So we must learn what it is to go to the potter’s house.
The idea of the potter’s house, if we may reverently apply it to God, began very early in the history of this creation with which we have to do. We have it in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible, and the word to Jeremiah is to go to that house. It is where God began to make vessels. He made one. The Spirit of God makes much of it, but in the third chapter of the book we learn how it was marred. It says here, “the vessel ... was marred”. We have not to go far, dear brethren, for that marred vessel. We can find it by the thousand in this country, and in every country. We are [p. 142] conversant with it in our own experience, we know how marred we became by sin, how shapen in it. But then, Jehovah says, the potter made “another vessel”.
This vessel is specially to be noted. It is also made in the potter’s house. That is to say, the Lord says, “My Father worketh hitherto and I work”, John 5: 17. God’s hands were not let down as the first vessel was marred; He made another vessel. That other vessel began to take form in Abel. I do not doubt but that it took form in Adam and Eve, but they must suffer in the government of God: the other vessel must not be either of them. It must be another vessel. That other vessel began to take form in Abel, and so, right down the line of faith, as we get it in Hebrews 11, we have the formation of that vessel. And it says here, that it “seemed good to the potter”. The second vessel pleased the potter, and we have not to wait long to find out what God thinks of the new vessel. Abel offers a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain. Enoch, we are told, “walked with God” by faith, and he was translated so that he should not see death, but “before his translation he has the testimony that he had pleased God”. If we are to understand this new vessel, we must read down the line, and see the different features of it, for each of these men of faith in Hebrews 11 represents a certain feature of the vessel that pleases God. They all anticipated Christ, taking character from Him by faith.
As soon as faith begins to appear, Jesus is discerned; He is in view. Faith is laying hold of the divine conception, it was not yet visible to the naked eye, but it was visible to faith; and that visibility must begin with some operation of God. And what was the first operation of God? Well, we are told that He made coats of skin for Adam and Eve; that was a divine operation. The divine movement is that of which faith lays hold; faith is thus doing something that pleases God. As God is doing something that pleases Himself, faith discerns it [p. 143] and appropriates it. We have to look at these suits of clothes — these coats of skin. God is the first clothes-maker. And faith discerned that there was something in mind; someone had to suffer before those clothes could be made. You know, a great deal more occurred than is written down since God intervened in testimony. Who was that Sufferer? Abel laid hold of the thought that God gave expression to, that someone had to suffer if God was to be pleased. God was pleased to make these clothes to cover His erring creatures, but for this, someone had to suffer. Someone had suffered, and Abel saw that by faith, and that is where the new vessel began. It may have been seen very dimly in his day, but there was the idea there that faith laid hold of: that God had to be met by sacrifice, and if there is to be a sacrifice, someone has to suffer. We know that that Sufferer was Jesus.
A study of Hebrews 11 brings out to the intelligent believer the great features that go to the formation of the vessel that pleased God. The potter “made it again another vessel, as seemed good” to him. That vessel is not broken nor marred; and this leads me to Romans, where we get the vessel that God was pleased to make out of the lump; it says, “that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he had before prepared for glory, us, whom he has also called”, Romans 9: 23, 24. Will we put it beyond us? Is there anyone here that would put this beyond him, and say it does not include him? The apostle says, “us, whom he has also called” (verse 24). And what is that vessel? It is a vessel of mercy, fitted for glory. If I begin to look at the saints in this way, my view of them is pretty sure to be greatly altered. Their histories really antedate Adam and Abel. It says here, “that he might make known the riches of his glory upon the vessels of mercy, which he had before prepared for glory”. That is a question of counsel.
Think, dear brethren, of the distance back that this [p. 144] conception goes as to us! It is, “before prepared for glory”, and then, even “us, whom he hath called”. One would love to be able to lead the brethren to look at the saints in this way. Jehovah took great pains to give Balaam a view of them. He had recourse to enchantments in his efforts to curse Israel, but he saw that God was standing athwart his purpose (see Numbers 23 and 24). You cannot curse Israel. Israel is fixed for blessing in the purpose of God, and that fixedness is unalterable. When Balaam saw this he cast aside his enchantments. It would be well if we learned what that means; to look at the saints with an open, transparent, discriminating mind; and the more you see them from the standpoint of the vision of the Almighty, the more they will bear discrimination. It will be seen that they can bear the closest, keenest scrutiny. The nearer you get, the greater the view, and the greater the glory you will see. It was God who stood firmly by Balaam, and refused to allow him to say one word against His people. A word spoken against the saints is abomination to heaven! And God was so concerned that He would not allow one of the wickedest men spoken of in scripture to say a single word against His people. Instead of that, He causes him to say the most wonderful things about them. “The man of opened eye”, the man who “seeth the vision of the Almighty”, the man who, from the top of the rocks, saw them as God would have him to see them. God would say, ‘Come here, and see them from this angle’ — and there they are, abiding in their tents, according to their tribes, that is, their place according to eternal purpose as formed in love. They are beautiful, they are glorious — they are “vessels of mercy ... before prepared for glory”. They include ourselves — “us” as the apostle says, that is, all christians.
Thus, dear brethren, you can see how important it is to have a right view of each other. First, as to what even one of us may do, or two of us may do, and then [p. 145] how we please God; because we are His own handiwork; and then how He delights in us, and how He would force the wickedest man to see us as He sees us. So that Balaam is forced to say the most beautiful things about Israel. Instead of cursing them as Balak intended him to do, he is blessing every time. “They are blessed”, he says, Numbers 22: 12. There is no repentance with God. The saints are what they are in His eternal counsels, and they will come to His thought exactly. He is the Potter and He will make them just as He pleases, and He is doing this even now.
The verses in 2 Corinthians are to bring out what the saints are in the hands of God now, to contain the most precious thing, called a “treasure”: that is to say, the testimony of God by the Spirit in regard of Christ; it is really the shining out of God, what God is, in Christ. It is a question of the Person of Christ, “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”. It is a question of His personality, because the face discloses what He is personally, and that is available to God for the shining out of His glory. And that glory is to be in every Christian’s heart; it is the greatest treasure of which you can conceive. We are very slow. I am speaking of this because I have in mind that the saints should advance on the line of excellency, that they should “judge of and approve the things that are more excellent”, Philippians 1: 10. That treasure is all that God is, shining out in the face of a Man, in testimony, and that is to be reflected, to be carried about in this world, in vessels such as we are here, in flesh and blood conditions.
It is not the saints yet viewed in their absolute state as formed of God for eternity in heaven, although that has already begun, but we are still here — fragile things, and the word “earthen” signifies what is breakable — that God has put the most precious thing into you and me. You might say, But an automobile may strike me as I am crossing the street, and kill me.
[p. 146] But then, you see, it does not strike you, if you see what I mean, you are preserved of God. I do not say that these things do not happen, I am only speaking of how we are situated, that we are here in fragility; every moment we are dependent on God. Not only because your life is precious — it is precious to God — but because this treasure is in you. The treasure is the testimony; what we are in relation to God here; so that God watches over the saints as they cross the street. One always feels the need nowadays of saying to God as one goes out, “Preserve me, O God”. I am thinking of the physical preservation. That should be the prayer of the heart, even if not spoken; it is the attitude of heart of a fragile vessel, not only because your life is precious, which it is, but because of the treasure that God has put into you.
In the pattern of the house that David had by the Spirit we have “treasuries” (1 Chronicles 28: 12). The things that he had by the Spirit included not only one treasury, it is in the plural, “treasuries”. I conceive that the thought includes all the saints, that every saint is a treasury. And as soon as I see that, I begin to look at myself somewhat differently: my life is precious, it may be, to my family, or to the saints; but there is something in me as I stand here, or in you as you sit there, that is of God. It is a treasure. No angel ever had it, nor ever will have it! It is a treasure we have in earthen vessels. I quite admit that was peculiarly true of Paul, but it is true in measure of every one who has the Spirit, and it is particularly seen in those who are concerned about the testimony.
The Lord, speaking of a scribe who was discipled into the kingdom of the heavens, said he would bring out of his treasure things new and old. It is important not only to have things, but to bring them out and to show them: not to cast pearls before swine, indeed, but to show them to appreciative eyes: “things new and old”. How God values a man who has such things!
[p. 147] In the upper room in Jerusalem, we have the eleven apostles and several women; it says, “and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren”, each one had this treasure. Take Peter, for instance, what did he have in his heart? Not only the training that he had from the Lord for his service, but what he knew of Jesus and of God in Him. There were certain things that were peculiar to himself. Then John, and so all the apostles, for each had his own view of Christ. It is not only that each apostle was a believer, and that he was quite competent to preach and to teach, but he had a view of Christ that was peculiar to himself. And so it is with every saint; he has something peculiar, and that is a treasure. The aggregate of these peculiar features that are distributed amongst the saints makes up Christ as presented in testimony; “so also is the Christ”, as is said in 1 Corinthians 12.
And then, Mary, the Lord’s mother — think of what she had! You would speak of her with peculiar respect; not with superstitious reverence, as is common today, that is idolatry — for she was just a saint like ourselves. But I would say to her with respect, ‘You have things that I have not, no one else has what you have’. ‘Yes’, she would say, ‘that is true’. And I would say to John, ‘You have the Lord’s mother in your house’. The Lord said at the cross to her, “Woman, behold thy son”. That, you will understand, does not refer to Himself. He did not ask her to look at Him there; He referred to John; that is, He constituted her in that word a mother to John, so that John would have her in his house in that relation. Hence she would open up to John things about Jesus that John would never otherwise have known. How tenderly John would regard her!
Mary would not talk lightly or to satisfy natural curiosity about these things; they were pearls which she would not cast “before swine”; she would not satisfy the curious enquiries of ungodly people about [p. 148] the Lord Jesus; no. She would treasure them within her heart. She was in this sense a treasury of God. She would speak of Jesus with feelings of holiness. She was being formed in this respect as early as the beginning of Luke. We are told in Luke 2 that she “kept all these things in her mind, pondering them in her heart”. And so it is with every christian in his measure; as he takes in the thoughts of God as revealed in Jesus, by the Spirit, he values them. I am persuaded that we do not value them enough, that we deal with them too lightly. We are constituted holy vessels — vessels of mercy, as it says, competent to receive these things, and to cherish them, and to keep them, as mysterious things to be unfolded only to appreciative eyes and ears.
That is what I had in mind. May the Lord open our eyes, so that we might see the value of each one saint, what he can do, what he may be. Whether as viewed militarily, or as a star shining, or as a praying man: what one man may do, as we get in James, for James represents this side in his epistle; the Lord appeared to him by himself (1 Corinthians 15: 7). He speaks of Elijah. He says Elijah was a man of like passions with ourselves; but he prayed with prayer, and the heavens were shut up for three years and six months. That is what one believer can do. And he prayed again, “and the heaven gave rain, and the earth caused its fruit to spring forth”, James 5: 18. May the Lord give us opened eyes; that we may have the vision of the Almighty, and see the saints in their true value; that each may hold himself as “a vessel to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master”.
Pages 149 - 268 — “Christ’s Sonship in Matthew’s Gospel”. London 1934 (Volume 119)