Episode Transcript
Now shall we just bow together a further word of prayer?
Dear Lord, how we praise thee and worship thee for all thy goodness and greatness toward us. Each one of us who knows thee must say from the heart, “Amazing grace.” O beloved Lord, the more we go on, the more we see just how amazing that grace is. And thou hast laid hold of us, Lord, and not only saved us but thou hast kept us. And this day we can say that thou art with us. O beloved Lord, we praise thee and we worship thee. As we turn to thy word, wilt thou, Lord, make it live to us? Wilt thou take thy word and by thy spirit, Lord, make it life to every one of us, make it food, Lord, we pray. O thou seest all the need in each of our lives. Lord, take thy word and feed us at the different levels of need that there are in this company this morning.
And Lord, we must remember those who suffer this day. We remember our beloved brother Watchman Nee. We pray, Lord, thou be greatly with him as he has been in his release. Lord be with him, we pray, very greatly. We pray too for all those who suffered in Rhodesia in that mine accident, those bereaved families, many of them dear believers. O Father, we pray, comfort them as only thou canst comfort them. And the same with this catastrophe, Lord, in South Dakota, Lord, be with all of those dear people we pray, save many. Lord, we pray, turn many hearts to thyself. May good come out of it, Lord, we pray. So we would not be unmindful, Lord, of those who suffer this morning whilst we are here with this luxury of freedom and everything so wonderfully provided. We praise thee and worship thee. Now, Lord, take thy word. Make it live to us in Jesus’ name. Amen.
I want to turn you to a verse in Romans chapter nine. It is a verse that I have already, I think, once spoken upon here if my memory is right this year. It has come to me so livingly that I want to pass it on with a different emphasis. Chapter nine of Romans verse 23 and 24, “And that he [that is God] might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy which he afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles” And again, “that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy.”
Now our time is nearly gone so we will not say anything about introduction but we will go straight into this matter. First of all I want you just to underline the last part of verse 23 “which he afore prepared unto glory.” Unto glory. Oh, the most wonderful thing about our salvation is that it's not just deliverance, it's unto glory. There's purpose in it. It's not just negative. It's not just that God has got us out of this world. It's not that God has just got us out of a system. It's not just that God has canceled out our sin, tremendous as that is. It's not just that we've been delivered from the power of darkness. There is a purpose in it all. It is unto glory “which he afore prepared” unto glory. Are you a vessel of mercy? Are you one of God's children in covenant relationship with him? Then the whole purpose in his calling you and drawing you out is unto glory.
What is glory? Well, I thought of a whole number of scriptures. Take your Bible, Ephesians, chapter one and verse five. “Having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself according to the good pleasure of his will.” Verse six, “To the praise of the glory of his grace.” To the praise of the glory of his grace, that grace which has made you a vessel of mercy, which has taken hold of you to the praise of his glory. In verse 12, it speaks again about us being in him. It says that everything's going to be summed up in Christ. Verse 9-10, every single thing in heaven and on earth and under the earth is all going to be headed up and summed up in Jesus Christ. And then it says in verse eleven, we are in him. We have been made a heritage in him. What a wonderful thing. We are the heritage of God. We are the heritage of Christ, something he's come into.
Isn't that wonderful? And then verse twelve to the end that we should be unto the praise of his glory. What does it mean, the praise of his glory? First it means the glory is there and then everyone's going to praise the glory. Everyone's going to praise his glory. People will speak in hushed tones about it, just like they do when you see something tremendous, you go to somebody and say “It was absolutely incredible. You should have been there. It was marvelous. I can't describe it to you. It was absolutely wonderful.” You know how people go on and on about something, especially if you've not been there. On and on and on they go and they praise something. We should be to the praise of his glory. Verse 14, here, three times this phrase comes in the early part of this one chapter, “which is the earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God's own possession, unto the praise of his glory.” This is speaking about the Holy Spirit, “in whom also having believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” There was a seal on your conversion. There was a seal placed on your salvation. There was a seal placed on your birth. What is the seal? The Holy Spirit himself, who is the earnest of our inheritance, that is the deposit, is the way we would say it in modern language. God has given us the deposit. We're sealed with the Holy Spirit. That is the guarantee of our inheritance, the deposit placed already on our inheritance, unto the redemption of God's own possession, unto the praise of his glory.
I thought of Hebrews, chapter two, verse ten. “For it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.” Bringing many sons unto glory. What a work the Lord Jesus has done, bringing many sons unto glory - not just getting us out of things, but getting us into something.
God is not negative. He's positive. He saved us in order that we might come into his glory. I think of 1 Thessalonians, chapter two and verse twelve. One Thessalonians, chapter two, verse twelve. To the end that ye should walk worthily of God, who calleth you unto his own kingdom and glory.” He has called us into his own kingdom and glory. I think of 1 Peter, chapter five, verse ten. “And the God of all grace who called you unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a little while, shall himself perfect, establish, strengthen you.”
Now what is glory? What is glory? We have this phrase, eternal glory in Christ. So there's one key. It's in Christ. Eternal glory in Christ. You and I have been called into that eternal glory in Christ, unto his eternal glory in Christ.
Well, I think of Colossians chapter one, verse 27. Here we have it even more clearly put. “To whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you the hope of glory.” Christ in you the hope of glory. So God is going to one day glorify everything that's of Christ. The very radiance of his presence is going to shine out of Christ in a way that's never been seen before. The whole earth is going to be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God “as the waters cover the sea.” It speaks in Romans eight of the whole natural creation waiting for that day. It says in Romans chapter eight, verse 18, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to usward. For the earnest expectation of the creation,” (that is, the whole natural creation,) “waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it in hope, that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.”
We have a tremendous prospect in front of us. In Revelation 21, verse 9 and 10, the very last scene that we have in the Bible we are told that “he carried me away in the spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God…”
So we find that glory is something to do with Jesus Christ, and it is something to do with our being in Christ and Christ being in us. It is something to do with union with God in Christ by the Holy Spirit. And one day, when that union has taken place practically, for we are only engaged at present, when that union has taken place practically, then the glory is going to shine through the Lamb and the wife of the Lamb, the city of God to the ends of the whole earth. And it says that the nations shall walk in the light of it.
What a tremendous prospect. We know so little about it. We have so little idea of exactly what it means, what it entails, but this we know, that we have been afore prepared unto glory. Now, there's no need to get all worked up on this matter of predestination. The fact is that it's as simple as the statement. God has afore prepared vessels of mercy unto glory. Something about your conversion goes right back beyond time, right back beyond the date that you were converted, beyond the date you were born, beyond your great great great grandparents’ birth, right back not only to Calvary, beyond Calvary, right down the Old Testament age, beyond Abraham, right beyond Noah to Adam, beyond Adam, into before times eternal. And somewhere there in those times, God took certain decisions, took certain steps.
And one of them is this - vessels of mercy afore prepared unto glory. Even us whom he called. What a wonderful thing that is. Even us whom he called. He's called us. This is the calling. Now, I could give you a whole lot more scriptures about this. It says in Romans, chapter eight, verse 28, “we know that to them that love God, all things work together for good, even to them who are called according to his purpose.” And then in verse 30, it tells us what his purpose is. “Whom he foreordained, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”
Vessels of mercy afore prepared unto glory, even us whom he called.
What a wonderful thing it all is. I think of Ephesians chapter four and verse one. We have so little time, we can't dwell on these. But anyway, some of you take it down. You may get something out of it later by looking up these Ephesians four one. I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called. Oh, these tremendous first three chapters of Ephesians, where the apostle Paul, as it were, just soars into the heavens and gives us a panoramic vision, the purpose of God from eternity to eternity. And then he says, you must walk worthily of this calling wherewith ye were called.
Do you know what your calling is? In Philippians chapter three and verse 14, the apostle Paul, having written letter after letter, having been caught up to the third heaven, where he heard things it wasn't even lawful to utter, even having all the experience behind him of his own conversion and walk with God, says this in verse 14 of chapter three,” I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” unto glory!
Well, there's the first thing, now, the second thing. Let's have a look again while we've got time. Vessels of mercy. Now, there are two things here. The first we’ll look at straightaway. Mercy. Vessels of mercy. How wonderful this is. God didn't call us vessels of glory. He could have done. No, he called us vessels of mercy. He didn't call us vessels of holiness. He could have done. He called us vessels of mercy. He didn't call us vessels of wisdom. Could have done. No, he called us vessels of mercy. He didn't call us vessels of eternal life. Could have done. No, he called us vessels of mercy.
Oh, this wonderful word, mercy. When I was first saved, I didn't think much of this word. I used to think it was an old fashioned word. I remember the queen always granting mercy or clemency, as it was put so often. Clemency and mercy to some person sentenced to death. It didn't mean much to me. I wasn't sentenced to death. So I used to think. Queer word, that. It's got a feeling of superiority in it, you know, someone very high and mighty bestowing something upon some poor creature.
It never meant much to me, mercy. And then, of course, I noticed that when we got our newer versions, or at least when I became acquainted with the newer versions, they changed this word mercy in the Old Testament, first in the revised version of 1882. I wasn't alive then, of course, but in 1882 they changed it to loving kindness. And then, of course, the 1951 or 52 Revised Standard Version changed it to steadfast love. That's rather beautiful. But this gives you some idea of the difficulty of this word, this Hebrew word in the Old Testament, which is translated mercy. I see now that the New American Standard Bible has gone back to loving kindness.
It is a word which is very hard, I think, to put into English. I looked it up in the modern Hebrew dictionary. In the modern Hebrew, it means grace. It's very strange. In the Old Testament, you don't have the word grace used very much. But this word chesed, from which we get, from the Hebrew root, the word hasid, which means the righteous or pious ones, from which we got the word Pharisees, being originally a group of people who were very godly and very pious and very holy. But what does it mean?
Mercy, I think of Psalm 103, vessels of mercy. This word, as I say in Hebrew, is the relationship between husband and wife, covenant relationship. It's the kind of love which is more than just affection or more than just emotion or more than feeling. It is that kind of covenant bond by which two people give themselves one to the other. Loving kindness, when the Lord uses it of course, it means something much more than that.
Psalm 103 and verse eight: the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and now this version says, abundant in loving kindness. But the old version says, “plenteous in mercy.” He will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his loving kindness, his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Mercy. Oh, what a wonderful word it is. I suppose everyone who's really found the Lord and starts to go on with the Lord, begins to get an insight into the word mercy.
And personally, I go back to the authorized version now more and more in this matter, and I'm not so keen on this word loving kindness. For me, I think the word mercy has much more in it. But of course, the idea of mercy doesn't just mean that God in grace has moved towards us. Of course it is that, but it means more than that. It means he's covenanted himself. It's much more than just that, he, even though we didn't deserve it, has come towards us. He has actually covenanted himself. It's got this idea of glory in it. He's given himself to us. He said, here I am. I don't only want to save you. I want to bring you into a relationship like husband and wife to myself. I want to bring you into a covenant relationship which is eternal. I want to bind you to myself willingly and myself to you forever.
What a wonderful word. Of course, when we come to the New Testament, then the Greek uses the word in the way we understand it much more. We have it, for instance, in Ephesians, chapter two. Ephesians two, verse four, “But God, being rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.” Or again, I think of 1 Peter. We've had some of these scriptures quoted to us this morning. 1 Peter, chapter one, verse three, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy, begat us again unto a living hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead unto an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, according to his great mercy.”
I think of Titus, chapter three, verse five. “Not by works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.” Oh, we could go on. And we could go on.
You are a vessel of mercy. I am a vessel of mercy. I think that's the most wonderful description that God could have given to us, if you understand what I mean, the most basic way he could have described us. If he'd said vessels of holiness, many of us would have felt condemned, perhaps. If he'd said vessels of eternal life or life more abundant, we might have thought Oh, dear, I don't feel I've really got there yet. Or if he had said vessels of wisdom, we might have all felt very bad. Or if he'd used many other descriptions, which would have been perfectly right in Christ. But he took this wonderful word, vessels of mercy. And in doing so, he brought every child of God from the highest and most greatly used to the most simple and unworthy, and put us all together, vessels of mercy.
When I go in through the gates, that's the only word I shall ever be able to say to whoever's on the gate - I am a vessel of mercy. And the gates will swing wide open. That's the marvelous thing. They'll swing wide open. Come in. There are only vessels of mercy here. A vessel of mercy.
And then think of that word vessel. This word vessel is used again and again in the New Testament for any old pot or pan. It's the common word for a cooking pot, a common word for any instrument that's used for carrying water. Leslie read to us from the gospel this morning, and it said there was a vessel full of vinegar there. That's the word vessel. Just any old pot. It may be metal, it may be earthenware, it may be bronze, it may be gold, it may be silver. But it's a pot. Something that contains something.
Oh, dear child of God, you're a vessel of mercy. A vessel constituted by the mercy of God. A container. That's all you are. Oh, it doesn't matter what the vessel is, so long as it's empty. You can have a gold vessel which is full and God can't use it. But you can have an old earthenware one, like one of those old flower pots. It may even be a bit cracked, but it still can contain something. And God says, I can use that more than the gold vessel which is full of something else.
Take that lesson home. Every one of us, you who are young in the Lord, we can think we are something, but when we are full of ourselves, God can't use us. He wants vessels constituted through his mercy, which are empty vessels. See what it says in 2 Corinthians, chapter four and verse seven. “We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves.” This treasure in earthen vessels, vessels of mercy.
Only mercy could have taken some of us. No one else could have taken us but mercy. The mercy of God got hold of us, not only to cleanse us from sin, not only to justify us, but to bring us into a relationship with himself so that we become vessels in which eternal treasure is deposited. Now, God doesn't just put treasure in and take it out again. God puts his treasure in forever, that it may be unto the praise of his glory.
That's what it's going to be, praise of his glory. If I had some vessel that was full of the most beautiful jewels and so on, I don't suppose it would mean a lot to some, but those who've got some appreciation would perhaps come and I would open my vessel and you would all be humming and hawing. Oh, look at that, you would say, look at that emerald. Oh, I've never seen an emerald the size of a pigeon's egg. Oh, here's a ruby. You'd look at it. You see, the treasure that God's putting in us is his son. And one day, it says, Christ will be marveled at in all them that believe.
We don't know who's going to do the marveling. We will leave that. But whether it's the angelic creation or whoever it is, all we know is that there are those who are going to do marveling and they're going to marvel and marvel at what they see - vessels. We have this treasure in earthen vessels.
Now, lastly, the riches of his glory. The riches of his glory. This is what God wants this vessel of mercy for, that he might pour into it the riches of his glory. Riches of his glory. It's not the vessel, it's the riches that matter. How extraordinary God is. He takes someone like Gladys Aylward and pours into that dear little frame eternal treasure, so that for some of us who can remember her, we could all but weep. So beautiful was the treasure in the old vessel. I think of others. I better be careful. Those who are in the glory we can speak more easily about. But we saw treasure in the vessel, something God had done, not cheaply, but at tremendous cost. He put something in those vessels. He poured riches of glory into them. That's what God wants to do with you and with me. It's not the vessel, it's the glory. It's the riches of glory. It is Christ. The treasure is the thing that matters, not the vessel. And these riches of glory are all in Christ.
I think of Ephesians, chapter three, verse eight. The apostle Paul says, “To me was this grace given, to preach unto the Gentile the unsearchable riches of Christ.” Oh, to have some unsearchable riches in us. Have you got something like that? They often say of great people that when you were with them, they were unpredictable.There was always mystery about them. They say this sometimes about great people, but I don't think that's true of us, is it? You and me, we're not like that. But when we've got unsearchable riches in us, they're unsearchable.The very infinity of God gets into these old vessels. And when people touch us, they touch the infinity of God. They touch the unsearchable riches of Christ. They touch unexplored, fathomless depths.
That's what you and I were created for. That's what God originally created man for, that we should be this kind of vessel. Then I think of Colossians 1:27, which we've already read. “The riches of the glory of this mystery which is Christ, in you the hope of glory.” Or I thought of the same Colossian letter, chapter one, verse 19, “For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fulness dwell.” All the fulness dwell. And then chapter two, verse nine. “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And in him ye are made complete.” Riches of glory. It's all in Christ. Don't search for them outside of Christ. You'll never get them anywhere else. They're all in him, all the riches. I have got in me this morning, at this very moment, the one who holds the whole universe together. Did you know that? And so have you. You have got within you the one in whom all things hold together. It is amazing, isn't it? I tell you, Paul Getty, he's a poor man. He's a poor man. All these oil sheiks in Saudi Arabia, they're poor people. They haven't got in them, unless they're born of God, by the grace of God, they haven't got in them the one who created all things, through whom all things were created and unto whom all things were created. And here am I with nothing and everything. Why, I've got something more. So have you. We've got someone - unsearchable riches. We could go on and on, but the time's gone.
How do we know these riches of glory? By the spirit. One Corinthians, chapter two, verse twelve, “We receive not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us of God.” No one can know the riches of his glory apart from the ministry of the Holy Spirit. That's why many Christian lives are cramped, why many Christian lives are paralyzed, why many Christians’ lives are poor. You're told again and again you've got it all. But it seems as if there's a hollow laugh somewhere.
You say you sing hymns about being rich, about having everything, about being filled. And somehow or other you think it's not true. But what is it? Is the gospel wrong? Does it not work? What is the matter? The matter is that perhaps you're a stranger to the gracious ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who unfailingly leads us into the riches of God's glory in Christ. The spirit of truth, the spirit of reality. Not froth and bubble, but something deep and solid and lasting. The spirit of reality himself, leading us into all reality, taking of the things of Christ and making them real to us, declaring them to us. Well, I have to leave that and say another thing about these riches of glory. They're in Christ. They're known by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
And thirdly, it is through life, let me put it this way, through living, actual living, not daydreaming, actual living, that we come into them. Some people seem to think that all they've got to do is daydream and these riches will pour on them. Dear child of God, you're living in a fool's paradise. They don't drop on anybody. The Holy Spirit will not touch you until he sees that you're prepared to go on. If you're prepared to surrender to the claims of the Lordship of Jesus Christ, as well as his claim of Savior on your life, then the Holy Spirit will start taking you into the riches of his glory. You can be like the prophets of Baal, dance up and down all day from morn to night, cutting yourselves with knives and shouting all kinds of things and the fire will not fall. You can be like Elijah, pour water on the altar and then stand up and say, Lord, let the fire fall and it will come just like that. It is because you've got to be prepared for the ways of God and the ways of God cost.
Now, if you look at 2 Corinthians 3:18, that's exactly what it says really. I don't suppose we've thought of it like that. “We all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are transformed into the same image from glory to glory.” It's a progression. It's a progression from glory to glory as we see the Lord, as we behold the glory of the Lord, as we see the Lamb. Then the Holy Spirit gets hold of us and he takes us from glory to glory. How does he do that? He takes us into situations where we're at our wits end, we don't know how we're going to go through. And then we find the answers in Christ. Oh, we say, how silly. I heard so and so say that so many times on the platform. Now it's yours. It's yours. Glory.
That's glory. Something of Christ, something of the riches of Christ have become yours. You've got them in your own hand by the grace of God. Now, after a little while of rejoicing, you go into your next classroom. One stage up and something else comes along. Maybe not dark or terrible, but something else. It's the next stage of education - from glory to glory.
Let me just say that this is exactly what the apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:14. “I press on.” I press on. It's through life, through living, actual living. The apostle Paul didn't live in a fool's paradise. My, that man suffered. My, the experiences that man passed through. But it was from glory to glory. Then I must say that it is through deep experience then that we come into these riches of his glory. There is a most beautiful passage that means so much to me that I very rarely ever quote it. But here it is. It's in Isaiah 54 and verse eleven and twelve. How many times I remember dear Auntie Ella in all the sorrow of her life, quoting these words: “O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest and not comforted, behold, I will set thy stones in fair colours and lay thy foundations with sapphires. I will make thy pinnacles of rubies and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of precious stones and all thy children shall be taught of the Lord.” What a wonderful promise.
Here's treasure. Riches. Think of this. Set thy stones in fair colours. An amazingly intricate work wrought by God with precious stone. Sapphire, thy foundations. Who's ever heard of foundations with sapphires? My, my. Rubies, thy pinnacles. I see it says in the margin, windows. Who's ever thought of windows made out of rubies? What is this a description of? It's a description, surely, of the city, isn't it?
All those precious stones we read of in Revelation 21, out of which the city has been built. O child of God, you have been made a vessel of mercy that God might pour the riches of his glory into. How wonderful that is. Riches of glory. I close with just this well-known verse from 2 Corinthians, chapter four and verse 17. “For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory.” Vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory. That he might show the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory, even us whom he called.
Dear Lord, we pray that thou wilt take something from this morning and make it real to every one of us, whatever our age or whatever our condition. We pray, Lord, for some of us who may not understand all that's been said today, that thou wilt, Lord, by thy spirit, work a miracle and retain it in our memory so that, Lord, in later years, these words will come back to us and mean more than we can ever tell or say.
Lord, we thank thee. Every one of us born of thy spirit is a vessel of mercy. Lord, we don't understand it, but we praise thee and we worship thee. Now, Lord, we don't want to just stop at vessels of mercy. We want to be filled with thy eternal treasure, Christ himself. Fill us, Lord, by thy spirit. Cause us to know the things that have been so freely given to us of thee. Bring us more and more from glory to glory.
We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
