VESSELS OF MERCY
[p. 145] VESSELS OF MERCY
Romans 9: 21 - 24; Jeremiah 18: 1 - 6; Jeremiah 19:1,2; Jeremiah 19:10,11
You will observe the recurrence of the idea of a vessel in these passages, and it is of this I wish to speak, especially from the standpoint of Romans, in which we have the idea of the sovereignty of God. There believers are referred to as “vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, even us”. The apostle in dealing with the subject of God’s sovereignty, connects it immediately with christians. They were taken up, both from among Jews and gentiles, for divine use, for this is the thought of a vessel — that it should be for use.
We have, indeed, the thought carried through and seen in the heavenly city as it comes down from God out of heaven, it is a containing vessel, a great vessel. We have its measurements and it is said to have the glory of God. It is the aggregate, really, of those vessels spoken of in Romans 9 — vessels of mercy, fitted for glory, and as thus fitted, put together as an immense containing vessel, great enough to contain the glory of God. This is a wonderful thought, and one that should touch every believer, that this is what he is called to, and that God has taken him up of His own sovereign will as a vessel of mercy fitted for glory. For it is said, “Of his own will begat he us”. The more we are subject to that, the more we recognise that God has a will, and that His will is moved by His love, the more ready we shall be to submit.
One who would refuse God’s sovereignty is quoted in this passage as saying, “Who hath resisted his will?” He could have more truthfully asked, ‘Who has not resisted his will?’ Certainly no one among [p. 146] the sons of Adam has failed to resist in some measure the will of God, and a large number, unknown to us, of angelic beings have sought to resist the will of God; to their irretrievable ruin indeed, but nevertheless they have resisted it.
Perhaps the best illustration of one who resisted the will of God is in the writer of this very epistle, Saul of Tarsus. He, as a natural man, was extremely zealous for the religion of his fathers, and so when Stephen was to be put to death, he held the clothes of those who stoned him; not in the way of a spectator, his will was in it — his heart was in it: “Saul was consenting unto his death”. Acts 8:1 This consent to the deed of murder was deliberate, and continued. He also made havoc of the church, and not content with resisting the will of God in his own sphere in Jerusalem he sought letters from the high priest to go to foreign cities. Such was his determination to resist the will of God, but he was brought down. He is perhaps the greatest evidence in Scripture — the greatest object — of divine mercy! According to His mercy He saved us! And again, God being rich in mercy (Ephesians 2:4) — rich in mercy! so that Saul was brought down. He was the first person in the New Testament who is formally called a vessel. The Lord Jesus says of him to Ananias, he is a “vessel to me” (Acts 9:15) — God would use him.
Now he refers to that here in saying there were vessels of mercy, fitted, not for destruction, but for glory, “even us”. I would appeal to all, knowing that most of us are vessels of mercy; I would also appeal to those who may not be so in their own consciousness. In the faith of your parents it may be that you are, and parents are entitled so to regard their children, but what is most important is what is in your own mind; whether in your mind any such designation may be applied — whether the idea of mercy has come into your history. It is a wonderful [p. 147] moment when it does. Not indeed but that you have been partaking of mercies from the outset of your being. The first breath that you breathed was thus provided for you. And so, too, your food and clothing. Not one thing that we enjoy as men, women and children, but which is a mercy of God, sovereignly provided. As Paul says, “in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness”, Acts 14:17.
God did all this of Himself. He would have men in this world, and He would support them as in it. When the prodigal returned, the first thing he said was, “I have sinned against heaven”. Luke 15:18 No doubt he alluded to these bountiful things. Everything he partook of hitherto was brought about by the influence of heaven. He did not recognise it and never gave thanks. He wasted it; so he says to his father, “I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight”.
The mercy that saves your soul is a further thing — a greater thing: “According to his own mercy he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit”, Titus 3: 5. That is by the death of Christ. He has provided in the death of Christ the means of washing.
The book of Revelation speaks of washing in three ways. The Lord has washed us in His own blood; Revelation 1. He has done that. Then in chapter 7 it says of the “great multitude”, “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7: 14) — they have done it! In the washing of regeneration Christ does it, but I do it, too — I do it by faith, by the application of the means of cleansing. I have no doubt it is baptism that is alluded to. Baptism is a figure of Christ’s death, through which alone we can be saved. Then also it is by the Holy Spirit. God gives us the Holy Spirit on the principle of mercy, so that we should be saved. Thus we have “the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit”, Titus 3: 5.
Now I want to show from these passages in Jeremiah how man as a vessel is in the mind of God. In chapter 18 he is in view in the potter’s house. The prophet is directed to go to the potter’s house, where he is making vessels of clay — a most interesting house! an allusion to God, undoubtedly. The potter is making vessels, and he makes one vessel that becomes marred. This typifies Adam and his posterity. Men and women strut about this world, embellished and powdered and what not, to make themselves beautiful, forgetting that they are marred vessels and cannot be improved. He makes another vessel, that is not marred; he makes it as it pleases him.
Now this is a most interesting passage. It includes the whole history of mankind — first a history of marred vessels. Whatever they may have pretended, they are all marred. But the potter makes another vessel, one that pleases him. God is not making marred vessels now, He is making vessels that please Him, that is what God is doing. You want to go into this house! God is making in it now vessels that please Him.
In chapter 19 it is not the house of the potter, nor of a vessel being made, but being bought — “buy a potter’s earthen flagon”. I want you to note this. God has bought men. He has paid the price for them. He has not sealed them all — He has not put His mark upon them all. Those who have accepted His ownership through “the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24) He seals. The idea of a seal is that He puts His mark upon them. He has bought them and they are publicly known to be His. Such are all true christians. We who believe are justified, and as justified through the redemptive work of Christ, God has put His seal upon us. But then He has bought [p. 149] all men, for Christ has given Himself a ransom for all.
If God falls back on His rights, He has a right to every one of us, not only because He is Creator, but because the Lord Jesus has bought the field. God puts His mark on all those who are really subject to Him. He would not have His name identified with a lawless man. When I go to the Hall of Records, so to speak, I find He has the title to all, but only those who embrace the offer of redemption are marked. True believers are all marked by the seal of the Spirit. They are the recognised property of the Lord. They are property that He commits Himself to, they are His. He would lay claim to you this very day through the gospel. The gospel is to assert in men’s hearing that God has a right to them. He would have you on no other principle than that of faith. Millions of men nominally profess Christ, but not on that principle, and He never puts His mark on them. They have simply taken on christianity on the principle of sight, as they might take on any religion. The Lord repudiates all that. He never puts His seal on mere mental assent to the truth. The glad tidings is on the principle of faith, and to faith. The preacher is preaching on the principle of faith, and he preaches to faith, so that where there is faith the gospel is received and the Holy Spirit is given. The Lord commits Himself to that principle, and to that only. This chapter contemplates that there has not been the acceptance of that principle. There was no evidence whatever that it belonged to the purchaser.
The prophet is told to go to the “valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate”, that is the place of judgment. But the east gate would be the gate that looked toward the sun, that is to say, this dispensation of God has been a wonderfully favourable one. It has been marked by the favour of God. God has shone in it in Christ.
[p. 150] As the sun shines daily, as evidence of His goodness, so Christ shines — beams on men. He expresses toward them the fulness of divine grace. In Him grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life.
I suppose the clay vessels were spread out there, so as to be affected, but the vessel was broken, it was fragile, in the sense that it was not a living, eternal thing. He that does the will of God abides for ever, but here the vessel was to be broken (verse 11). It is “as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again”. You see how serious it is not to visit the house where the vessels are being made that please God. This chapter 19 contemplates a vessel that is broken, never to be brought together again. This, however, does not mean annihilation. It means that men are never to be set up again on this earth as a whole being. The wicked dead shall come up before God to be judged. The severest judgment is on those who refuse to bow to the gospel; those who have been in the light of the Sun, who have been in the favour of God, who have heard the gospel, but have never obeyed it. So the most awful judgment is pictured here; it says, bury them in Tophet till there be no place to bury (verse 11). Tophet as we learn in another prophet, was ordained of old for “the king” — (Isaiah 30:33) for Satan. It is enlarged — Tophet is enlarged; it is also for those “who obey not the gospel”.
I dwell on this a little because of some here who have had great opportunities, and have failed to embrace them. They are in the light of the redemptive work of Christ, but they have never gone on. It is no use taking the place of being a christian. The christian religion in its present public character, has no more virtue than any other religion. It is merely on the principle of sight, whereas God approaches men on the principle of faith — we are justified on the principle of faith. The believer is [p. 151] brought up from the grave. We read of the believer’s body, “It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory”, 1 Corinthians 15:43. The believer is brought together everlastingly, never to be broken, but the unbeliever, those who die Christ — rejecters or Christ — neglecters, shall never be brought together on earth. Their place is to be banished from the presence of the Lord to everlasting destruction. “Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared” (Isaiah 30: 33) — that is, for Satan. Satan was in the mind of God when He prepared it. Very little is said about it, but God had ordained it for him and his angels, and men who are rejecters of Christ share that doom.
I pass now to chapter 18. There is the house, and he made that vessel as seemed good to the potter to make it, and he says, “Cannot I do with you as this potter?” (verse 6).
That is a word for everybody here. That is what God is doing — He is making another vessel as it pleases Him. That is true in Christ — the man that pleased Him. Of course He was not ‘made’. He was a divine Person in manhood, but He presents the divine thought, and God is working to that. It is a wonderful delight to the believer. “We are his workmanship”. There is no such skill seen in any other house. Take man as he is, “fearfully and wonderfully made” Psalm 139:14; there is no being like him. How much more new creation! This is the time of new creation. The new man is created after God in truthful righteousness and holiness. That is what God is doing. Would not each one here like to be in the house of the Potter — the blessed, divine Potter? He is making a vessel as it pleases Him. He is going to fill heaven with vessels that please Himself. He is doing it now! Cannot I do with you as this potter? He says. So I would ask you to put yourself in His hands — see what He will do with you!
[p. 152] But it must be on the principle of faith. There must be no compromise! God is fashioning it as it pleases Him. “If any one be in Christ, there is a new creation”. 2 Corinthians 5:17 Think of being a vessel in which there is not one thing which is not of God — and that abides for ever — new creation abides for ever! It shall never pass away. There shall be a new heavens and a new earth; all these vessels of mercy, fitted for glory, shall be there. All is the work of God.