"VESSELS TO HONOUR"
“VESSELS TO HONOUR”
Romans 9:21-26; 2 Timothy 2:20,21
CAC My thought was that we might look at the difference between what the saints are as vessels to honour by the purpose and call of God, which nothing can possibly invalidate, and that which it is the privilege of saints to be as vessels to honour in spiritual condition and associations.
In Romans 9 it is purely a question of God’s sovereignty, and every one who is the subject of His blessed call is constituted thereby a vessel to honour. God is going to bring out the riches of His glory in every one of His called ones. There is no difference between men naturally; they are all of the same lump of clay, but the Potter has power over it. The teaching of the epistle is that there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Therefore if any difference comes about it is through the sovereign call of God which constitutes His saints vessels of mercy. Mercy is sovereign. There is no intrinsic value in clay; if any form of beauty or any honour is bestowed on it, it is by the will of the Potter. But the vessels to honour in 2 Timothy have intrinsic value; they are vessels of gold and silver.
Ques Is it like the potter in Jeremiah 18?
CAC I think that is very suggestive of the gracious work of God when ruin has come in. Romans 3 describes the marred vessel. Man as fallen is a marred vessel, but then God works in grace to bring about repentance that He may secure, after all, vessels to honour. The kind of honour is that He is going to make known upon them the riches of His glory. We have done nothing to deserve it; we are of the same clay as the most ungodly sinners on the face of the earth; but God in His sovereign mercy has chosen to work in order to constitute us vessels to honour. We all have to admit that naturally there is no difference between us and those [p. 562] who find their pleasure in going on without God and without Christ, and who have no true honour.
One of the first features in the riches of God’s glory is redemption. It has been thoroughly proved what man is, and now God says, ‘I am going to make what man is the opportunity to show what I am. I will make known the riches of My glory on that fallen creature, and make him a vessel of mercy’. All God’s operations with the clay are on the ground of the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. God has a blessed and righteous ground on which He can constitute His called ones the vessels of His praise. Man has been alienated from God by falling under the power of evil and has incurred great liabilities, but the redemption that is in Christ Jesus meets the whole condition. Redemption is in a risen and glorified Man. God’s beloved Son has been set forth a Mercy-seat in the power of His blood, but He has gone back to God as a risen and glorified Man, and redemption is in Him. Redemption secures that we shall be brought back to God ultimately in the condition of the risen and glorified Man. God clothes His called ones with this honour. Vessels of honour suggest the result that is in view; vessels of mercy bring out the character of divine acting through which we are brought into the honour. It is purely on the principle of mercy because we are of the same lump of clay as every one of Adam’s race. No angel has ever been called to the honour of expressing the riches of God’s glory; it could not be shown in angels, but it is going to be exhibited throughout eternity in man.
The riches of God’s glory cover the whole wealth of what has come out from God through our Lord Jesus Christ; not all the powers of earth and hell are able to hinder or invalidate it; it stands in the sovereign power of God. What stability the sense of this gives to the souls of His called ones!
Ques Is it put on the saints now?
CAC I think it is. It comes out now in three characters which are mentioned here in the quotation from Hosea. “I will call not-my-people My people; and the-not-beloved [p. 563] Beloved. And it shall be, in the place where it was said to them, Ye are not my people, there shall they be called Sons of the living God” (Romans 9:25,26). These three thoughts put together describe the vessels to honour, that is, vessels to the honour of God. How wonderful that we, who have been such a dishonour to Him in our natural history, should become vessels to honour to the blessed God as His people, as beloved, and as sons of the living God! And it is “in the place where it was said to them, Ye are not my people”. It is in the place where we were so contrary to God that we have now become objects of delight to His heart. First as “my people”, then “beloved” in covenant relations, and finally “Sons of the living God” in family relationships and affections. If we put the three thoughts together we shall get some apprehension of what the saints are as vessels to honour, and this purely as being vessels of mercy. Believers generally dwell on the past and the future, but do not think enough of the present. But we have the peculiar distinction of being vessels to honour at the present time. The calling of God has dignified and glorified us. We see in redemption the riches of His glory, and on that ground He is the Justifier and the Reconciler. We have to rise up to the wealth of it; it makes us rich in the knowledge of God, and of the love which is the spring of all in His heart.
Ques How do we rise up to it?
CAC By the call of God. He called us by the glad tidings out of the dark abyss in which we were found naturally “to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 2: 14). He calls us into the greatness of that, and does it sovereignly; on our side we were part of the same lump of clay as others.
There are vessels indeed to dishonour, and it pleases God to endure them with much long-suffering, with a view eventually to making known in them His power and His wrath. Every creature of God must eventually honour God, though it may be in a terrible way of judgment. Even the lost will [p. 564] honour God, and God will show in them His power and His wrath. But God does not fit them for destruction; they fit themselves for it by their wickedness, their disobedience, lawlessness and rebellion. Mark the words, “endured with much long-suffering”. God is patiently waiting, that sinful persons may repent and turn to Him, and become vessels of mercy. God’s sovereignty does not shut anybody out, but it brings many in who would never come in on any other ground. People think that the sovereignty of God is a narrowing up and restricting of blessing, but Paul is carefully showing that it widens out blessing. Elijah said, “I am left, I alone”. No! God says, “Yet I have left myself seven thousand” (1 Kings 19: 10, 18). God’s sovereignty was seven thousand times wider in its scope than Elijah thought. In divine sovereignty God widens out His blessed thoughts to bring many in who would otherwise have no blessing at all. That is why we Gentiles are sitting here in the enjoyment of divine favour; it is because the sovereignty of God has widened out to let us in. The sovereignty of God is so large that He will have His house full, and the Jew was not big enough to fill it, so God says, ‘I must have the Gentile too’! None of us here would have had blessing if it were not for the sovereign mercy of God. The moment a sinner repents he has become, by the fact of his repentance, a vessel of mercy. There could not possibly be such a thing as a repentant sinner wanting the blessing of God, and being unable to get it. The sovereignty of God makes blessing certain for every repentant sinner. The gospel reveals to us that God gave His only-begotten Son to go to the cross and be made sin, and that He is now operating in myriads of hearts by His Spirit in order that He may make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy. My next-door neighbour has not a thought for his soul, goes his own way, does his own will, with no reference to God! How is it that I am different? Only mercy, just sovereign mercy.
The apostle’s object is to intensify in our souls the sense of sovereign mercy; he would have us preserved from being [p. 565] high-minded; we are just of the same lump of clay as the most dreadful enemy of God there ever was. God’s sovereign call has made the great difference; we have been called to be vessels upon whom God will make known the riches of His glory.
We are His people as redeemed. In Exodus 15, Israel referred to themselves as “Thy people”. God had taken them for Himself on the ground of redemption; He had put His wing over them in the passover, and brought them through the Red Sea. He had now a people who knew Him as their strength, their song and their salvation, and it was a pleasure to Him to have such a people. Then in Exodus 19 He introduced the thought of a covenant; it was as much as to say, ‘I want a definite bond to subsist between Myself and you’. The figure of marriage relationship is often used in connection with the covenant; it is a relationship of affection in which as knowing God and committed to Him in love we are in the place of being beloved of God. Those who have received Christ are beloved of God. Israel rejected Him, but we are beloved of God as having had our hearts opened to receive Him. Every first day of the week when we eat the Supper we are reminded that we are in the bond of the covenant — “This cup is the new covenant in my blood”. Then, finally, we are sons of the living God. God is glorifying Himself in the place which He gives His people before Him. They were, according to nature, of the same lump of clay as others, but as vessels to honour and vessels of mercy God glorifies Himself in them.
In 2 Timothy we read of vessels of gold and silver as coming into evidence in the last days. It is at the present time available to us to have this precious character. In this case the suggestion is that the vessels have intrinsic value. The thought is introduced of being vessels to honour in a distinctive way in the christian profession. Vessels to honour in Romans 9 would take in all saints, but we could not say that every called one was a vessel to honour in the sense of 2 Timothy. I think the Lord would exercise us about being [p. 566] vessels of gold and silver. As vessels of clay we learn what God is for us, and what Christ is for us, and in a sense what the Spirit is for us, but the vessels of gold and silver refer to what we may be as approved of God and as serviceable to the Master. It is not what divine Persons are for us, but what we are for divine Persons. It now becomes our exercise to be characterised by what is divine and spiritual. This is a great exercise. It has to be reached from our side, because it says, “If therefore one shall have purified himself from these, in separating himself from them, he shall be a vessel to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work” (verse 21). It works from the exercises of the individual; it is not exactly what God does for him, but what he does for himself. Most of us here are in a position of outward separation, but are we really vessels of gold and silver?
I think a gold vessel would be one who recognised the presence of the Spirit of God dwelling in him. No one could come to the recognition of that without a profound effect being produced in his whole moral constitution; he is no longer merely clay but gold. There comes a moment when a saint recognises that his body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
In Zechariah 4 we read of a lamp-stand all of gold, and golden tubes that empty the gold out of themselves, and when the prophet asks what is the meaning, the answer is, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit”. Gold in Scripture is figurative of what is divine, of what is of God.
The candlestick at the present time is a golden one; there is divine material there, otherwise there would be no divine light. If a saint recognises that he is indwelt by the Spirit of God there is something there altogether different from clay.
The assemblies in Revelation are seen as the lamp-stand; it is golden; nothing else could yield divine light. I think the recognition of the Spirit would constitute one a golden vessel. The true recognition of the Spirit must have far-reaching effects: it has liberated thousands of saints from human order.
Where the Spirit is recognised it brings in the truth of the [p. 567] body, of the house, and of the anointing; it gives everything that is of God a place in the soul. There is something there which has intrinsic value, something which is of God made good in the soul of the believer.
There is a thought definitely connected in Scripture with silver which is not so prominent in connection with gold, and that is the thought of refining. There is not much in Scripture about the refining of gold; one scripture speaks of the altar of incense being made of refined gold; but the refining of silver is more often mentioned. Therefore silver vessels might suggest the result of a process of exercise of refining character. In Proverbs 25: 4 we read, “Take away the dross from the silver, and there cometh forth a vessel for the refiner”.
Vessels of gold and silver are in contrast with vessels of wood and earth, which would represent what persons are naturally. Vessels of wood and earth may be attractive in a natural way, but vessels to honour are of gold and silver — gold as deriving character from the presence of the Spirit, and silver as having been refined by a process of exercise which has gone on under the eye of God which has had the effect of eliminating dross and bringing out vessels for the refiner.
Vessels to honour are for service; they are “vessels of service” (Hebrews 9: 21). The end is not reached until they become “serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work”. To be separated from vessels to dishonour, and to meet together in a scriptural way and have enjoyable times, is not to be regarded as the end to which vessels to honour are to be devoted. The divine thought is that we come through spiritual exercises into separation that we may serve the Lord according to His pleasure — that we may be absolutely at His disposal for service. This should ever be before us.
The Lord is sitting “as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he will purify the children of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver; and they shall offer unto Jehovah an oblation in righteousness” (Malachi 3: 3). We cannot be near the Lord without being refined, and the refining has in view our being purified so as to be acceptable in service. The spiritual condition set forth in vessels of gold and silver would qualify us to serve the Lord in purity, power and zeal more acceptable than anything that could be found apart from separation.
The prudent virgins are marked by having oil in their vessels; they are not content with having oil in their lamps only, representing their public witness, but they have also oil in their vessels. Themselves as vessels become characterised by the presence of the Spirit of God. Then as near the Lord the dross will be taken away; He will refine us so that we shall come forth a vessel, for the Refiner; we shall be sanctified and made in every way suitable for the service of the Lord. The true principle of separation is not merely that we stand apart from what is iniquitous and of human order, but that we do so that we may absolutely and devotedly serve the Lord. As gold and silver vessels we are to be absolutely for the pleasure of the Master, and nothing that is low or mean — that has the character of wood or earth — should be seen in us. We often, like the Corinthians, “walk according to man” (1 Corinthians 3: 3), but that is wooden or earthen, not gold or silver. Paul wrote the first epistle to them so that through self-judgment they might acquire a truly precious character. In speaking of building he says, ‘You who minister among the saints, mind what you are doing; do not build wood, grass and straw; that will not abide the fire. Rather build gold, silver, precious stones — things that have divine and spiritual value — so that the saints may acquire intrinsic value’.
While we may be thankful to know that we have received the Spirit on the ground of the value of the death of Christ, it is quite another thing so to recognise the Spirit that we take character from His presence. The Corinthians had received the Spirit, but they had not recognised the Spirit so as to be characterised by His presence; they were not spiritual. Paul was labouring that they might become vessels of gold and [p. 569] silver; and I believe the Spirit is giving exercise at the present time that we may be found truly vessels to honour.
If we love God we shall desire to be found agreeable to Him. “Strive diligently to present thyself approved to God”. If one loves the Lord one would like to be acceptable to Him for service, to be at His disposal, to be ready for every good work. We have probably not thought enough of service. What must it be to the Lord in the midst of such a corrupt state of things as exists in the christian profession now, in which even true believers are ensnared and hampered by human thoughts and arrangements, to have vessels to honour that are at His disposal for service, to serve His loved assembly in communion with Him, and also to be holy vessels of service in praise Godward. To be “vessels of service” is a distinction to be much coveted.