Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and
reading for our text verse 7. Verse 7, but we have this treasure
in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. to Corinthians 4 verse 7 and
specifically thinking this evening of the earthen vessels. Continuing the series we started
last week on the theme of a vessel in scripture, the illustrations
that are used by the Holy Spirit. And here we have a earthen vessel,
really speaking of the Apostle Paul in the first place, but
speaking of men, men that are formed out of the earth and as
vessels, that into those vessels, the vessels meant to hold something,
is put the treasure of the Gospel of the Word of God. And the reason
that is given here is that the excellency of the power may be
of God and not of us. There's a word that when I was
exercised on the ministry was really blessed to me through
Edward Carr's music in Green Pastures, drawing attention to
this verse. And what a help it is when a
man feels to be a man, feels to be but an earthen vessel,
and to get a right view that this is what God has appointed
and ordained. It is for his honour and glory,
it is how he blesses the word, how he brings that treasure to
others. And there is strength in realising
God's plan, the truths of God, And whether we are a believer
that never is in the ministry, we still also have that treasure
of the knowledge and light of God in our bodies here below. And those that are called to
priests, they have that which they then impart to others. So may the Lord help us to look
at this verse this evening, especially the words the earthen vessels
but the whole verse I wish to speak on that we have this treasure
in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. So I want to look firstly at
the treasure which is the gospel and then secondly the way in
which God conveys it to men is in earthen vessels and then thirdly
the reason given for God's choice of this means is that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not of us. Firstly we have the treasure
but we have this treasure Now the Lord spoke the parables of
the man that found the treasure in the field and that then he
went and sold all that he had so he could buy that field and
have that treasure. And he points out the value when
it is seen of the gospel, when it is found, when it is realised,
that it is a treasure. In another part, when asked what
one might do that he might inherit eternal life, the Lord then bid
him to sell all that he had and give to the poor and then come
follow me and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. But here
it is speaking not of that treasure which is in heaven, Now of course
that is the end and expectation and desire of the people of God
here that declare that there are strangers and pilgrims in
the earth and that in saying that they seek, declare plainly
that they seek a heavenly country and that we have respect unto
the recompense of the reward in heaven. That is a treasure,
but it's not a treasure that is in the earthen vessels here,
here below. That is what the knowledge is
of the expectancy of it, and that is the hope set before us. But the treasure here is spoken
of actually being in the vessel. And so we have in the words immediately
prior to our text the meaning of this treasure. and it is in
the Gospel, in our Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle makes the
solemn statement that if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them
that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the
minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious
Gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them. And so we have in these verses
that precede our text, a little picture of what this treasure
is. And firstly it centers in the
person of our Lord Jesus Christ himself. We have stated that
in verse four, that who is in the image of God. The gospel of Christ who is the
image of God. The light of the knowledge of
that. The whole treasure is the knowledge
of the truths of the gospel. As the light of truth and the
light of revelation shines upon these precious truths, that is
the treasure. And so the first facet or aspect
of the treasure is our Lord who is the image of God. This is one of the themes that
John, especially in his Gospels, that Jesus of Nazareth, that
he is the Son of God, that he is God manifest in the flesh. We know of course that man was
made in the image of God, made he them. And our Lord Jesus Christ,
he then was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. If man was made, if Adam was
made in the image of God, and we have the Lord made like unto
his brethren in the image of God, We have the Lord Jesus Christ
not just seen as God, and not just seen as man, but really
God and man. The Gospel, glorious Gospel of
Christ, who is the image of God. And yet we might say with the
Apostle, well, isn't every man the image of God. But what we
must remember is that we are sinners. We have fallen from
the image of God. We are not in that way that God
pronounces creation good, but we have fallen from that image,
estranged from God, alienated from God by wicked works. Our Lord, we are told in Hebrews,
was made like unto his brethren, In all points, sin accepted. So that image is truly the image
of God, the sinless one, the spotless one, the perfect one,
God and man in one person. And the light of that knowledge
is a treasure, a treasure that many do not have, a treasure
that is imparted by God to His ministers and to His people,
that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ
whom Thou hast sent, to be able to look on Him and see in Him
the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And
so this first aspect of that treasure is to see the Lord as
He truly is, and truly worship Him as He is. And so that treasure
is the light of that knowledge. In verse 5 then we have another
aspect, for we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord. Another, the Lord says, Ye call
me Lord and Master, And you say, well, for so I am, but you do
not the things that I say. But the Lord was the Lord. He
is the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that, again, is one of the
aspects of this treasure, this knowledge, this understanding
and light in viewing the Lord as truly our Lord. Dear Thomas,
when he eventually saw the Lord. He said that, except I thrust
my finger into the print of the nails and my hand into his side,
I will not believe. But when he saw him on that second,
first day of the week after the Lord had risen from the dead,
then his words was, my Lord and my God. May we have that knowledge and
that treasure as well. Then we have a third in verse
six, with the glory of God. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And here we have joined together
the creation, that same God who created, commanded that light
to shine out of darkness in creation, that He brings that treasure
as shining, as a light, and to give the light to the knowledge
of the glory of God, and it is in the face of Jesus Christ. We look upon the Lord Jesus Christ
and we see the glory of God. the glory of God in salvation,
the glory of God to devise a way to save rebellious and ruined
man and to put away his sin, to blot out his transgressions
and to bring him to be with him in glory. It is this glory that
belongs especially to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is none other
name given among men whereby we must be saved. And all that
would rob the Lord Jesus of His glory, of His divinity, of His
Godhead, of His work, who would suggest that man needs to add
to it, then they rob God of His glory. The Lord Jesus Christ
is He. Of whom the Father said, this
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. So we have the
treasure centering first in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ
in the image of God as our Lord and as viewing the glory of God. Then we have his actual work. The fourth verse, if we go back
to that, we have the description of the Gospel. Not just the Gospel
of Christ, the good news of salvation, but describing it as the light
of the glorious Gospel of Christ. The light of that Gospel. Light makes manifest. And the
very first thing, in creation that God did was to give light. Let there be light, light shining
out of darkness. When the Lord rose from the dead,
then opened he their understanding that they might understand the
scriptures. In every place where the message
and news of the gospel comes, it is light shining upon the
world, shining in our hearts. shining where those dark marks
of sin are and where evil is, making manifest the malady and
then shining upon the remedy, shining upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Spoken of here as a glorious
gospel, gospel that gives God all the honour and the glory. A gospel that is glorious in
that it fully deals with sin. It puts away sin, the payment
is completely made in the precious blood of Christ. It provides
a robe of righteousness for those who have sinned and their sins
put away and they believe in the Lord and with that righteousness
they will stand faultless before the throne. It is a gospel that
saves a people while they are in this world, so they may know
they are saved, and delivers them from the power and dominion
of sin in their bodies. So though we are not yet in heaven,
we are not out of the body of death, we are compassed with
the world and with Satan and with sin within and without,
yet there is provision in this glorious gospel to save us from
those sins. It is a glorious gospel because
it is enforced and sent forth with the power of the Holy Ghost
from heaven. I will pray the Father and he
will give you another comforter which shall abide with you forever. He shall receive of mine and
shall show it unto you. Tower ye at Jerusalem until ye
be endued with power from on high. And it is a glorious gospel
because it comes with that authority and power to convert a sinner
in spite of themselves and yet make them willing in the day
of his power so they are not forced but sweetly constrained. to believe and walk in the ways
of the Lord, and that grace that is given is irresistible, it
must be effectual. And it is glorious because it
is effectual. My word shall not return unto
me void, but it shall accomplish the thing whereto I sent it. And it is glorious because the
Lord has ordained himself to be, and the Father has appointed
him to be, that minister of the New Testament that is sealed
in his own precious blood. He is our advocate with the Father,
he is appearing in the presence of God for us, and he speaks
for us in heaven's high court for good. The provision of the
Gospel is that we do have a voice at court, we do have one that
speaks for us. And so, and we have the evidence
of that when the Lord says, I pray the Father, tarry at Jerusalem. And the Holy Spirit did come,
the evidence of the Lord's ascension and intercession and the gift
of the Holy Spirit. is a glorious gospel that cannot
be overturned by man, who is he that saith, and cometh to
pass when the Lord commandeth it not. It is a gospel that is
traced back to eternity past. The people of God have been loved
with an everlasting love, and therefore with loving kindness
have they been drawn. They've been chosen in Christ
from the foundation of the world and they're chosen unto eternal
glory. Now the Lord says in John 10
and prays, Father I will that they whom thou hast given me
be with me where I am that they may behold my glory. So it is a glorious gospel because
it does give glory to God and it brings the people that are
subjects of it to behold that glory here below and to behold
it in the face of Jesus Christ above, is a gospel that is ordered
in all things and sure. And so this treasure, this treasure
of the gospel the revelation of God to his people. It is a glorious gospel of Christ. He is the center of it. He is
the one that has brought it. He is the one that has brought
it about. He is the one that has sealed
it with his own precious blood. So we have the treasure the treasure
of the Gospel, really all of the doctrines, all of the teaching
of this Gospel, the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ is to
be held in the hearts of the people of God, held within their
vessels and so on to look then in the second place the way in
which God conveys it to men. Paul is speaking here of a ministry
that he has received of God. And we know from his testimony
on the Damascus Road how God gave him that ministry, and directly
from our Lord, making him an apostle, one born out of due
time, as he says. He says, therefore seeing we
have this ministry, this is verse one of the chapter where our
text is, we have received mercy, we faint not. The ministry that he received,
he received in himself as an earthen vessel. God has ordained
to do it in this way. And may we remember that we are
indeed formed out of the earth. We read in Genesis 2 verse 9,
And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that
is pleasant, that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food,
the tree of life also, and the midst of the garden, the tree
of knowledge of good and evil. And in verse seven we read, and
the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life, And man became a living
soul. And so we are of the dust. And when we fell in Adam, when
Adam fell, the pronouncement part of that curse upon man,
in the sweat of thy face, in Genesis 3 verse 19, the sweat
of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground.
For out of it was thou taken. for thus thou art and unto dust
shalt thou return. And so we are truly formed out
of the dust and we shall return to the dust. In the book of Job,
Elihu, when he came to speak to Job, he says to Job, that
he is in God's stead. But he says, I also am full formed
out of the clay. And in speaking to Job, he reminds
Job that he also is a man. He also is of the dust. He is
also a vessel, an earthen vessel. And he is speaking to Job in
that way, a man to man, a sinner to a sinner, and yet Elihu is
bringing the Word of God. All those who have truly known
and feared God have realised and known what they are before
God. Abraham, when he pleaded for
Lot, he says that he called himself his who am but dust and ashes. He felt unworthy to be pleading
with God and to make intercession for Lot in Sodom. And then we have in Psalm 103,
those beautiful words that he remembereth that we are dust. The Lord does remember that we
are creatures of the earth, we are dust. so soon crushed, so
soon to pass away and to return unto the dust again. In Acts chapter 10, when the
gospel, this treasure, this good news was first brought to the
Gentiles through the house of Cornelius, then it was an angel
that appeared to Cornelius, but he did not preach to him the
gospel. He bade him to go and fetch one
Peter from Joppa in the house of Simon Attena. And so they
sent men to bring Peter and Peter was prepared by God through a
vision to preach to the Gentiles and speak the gospel to them.
You can read it in that chapter how wonderfully Peter comes and
he opens his mouth and begins and he speaks in and the record
is very simple in the word of God as to the gospel that he
brings and he speaks to them of our Lord Jesus Christ very
simply of what he did at Jerusalem in his death in his resurrection
and God's blessing upon our Lord and while he spoke those words
Then the Holy Spirit fell upon them as it was at the beginning
at Pentecost, and many believed. All those that gathered together,
they believed. The light through the testimony,
through the preaching of Peter, shone into their hearts, lighted
their hearts, brought them to see and to believe that gospel
and personally to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so God
has ordained that men, not angels, preach this gospel, that they
have in their vessels this treasure. They are earthen vessels. They
are vessels that have no beauty in themselves. They are vessels
that are easy broken. They are vessels that have no
glory of themselves. And they are vessels that are
the same as the vessels They minister to and preach to. They know they themselves must
one day die. And the truths of the gospel
that they point others to, they rest in as well. They hope in
as well. They have no other gospel, no
other resting place than the word they bring. And that is
a wonderful testimony. We wouldn't think of Going to
someone who was trying to sell some goods and yet they never
had them themselves. Saying, this is a wonderful car,
beautiful car. You say, what car have you got?
And they haven't got that make of a car. They've got something
else. Or setting forth some wonderful cure to some disease that they
have got. And they'll say, well, how has
it worked for you? They said, oh, we don't use that
cure. We use something else. you would never trust in that
person, in what they were saying. But if you have one that says,
this is a cure, I have tried it, I use it, it works for me,
I trust in it, then that carries a much more weight. The Apostle
Paul, certainly himself, testifies that God had mercy upon him first,
who he felt to be the chiefest of sinners, so that none might
despair, that none might think that their case was so bad that
they could not be saved. And so it is very necessary and
it is God's plan as he has ordained to have sinners preach to sinners. Our text is in Paul's epistles
to the Corinthians and the first epistle that he wrote to them
in the first chapter, he goes into again the preaching of the
gospel and he testifies that Christ sent him to preach the
gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should
be made of none effect. And he sets before them the preaching
in a way is described as the 21. For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching, to save them that belief. and that God through that means
will cause the blessing to rest upon the word, rest upon the
preaching. And so we have it in our text
that we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not of us. Whoever hears the
gospel preached, they are to remember this, The one that they
hear preaching and see preaching is but an earthen vessel, and
they may be contemptible, their speech might not be clear, their
articulation might not be quite right, but the message, if they
have the true message of the Gospel, is a treasure, is worth
more than all of this world can ever afford. It is a blessing
that if known, It has eternal blessings in it, eternal life,
the pardon and forgiveness of sins, and peace with God, and
reconciliation with God, and a title to eternal glory. And God then has chosen the way,
appointed the way that this news should go forth. He commissioned
the disciples, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel
to every creature He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. And he said to them, when they
persecute you in one city, then go to the next. And that is how
they were to go. And certainly in the Acts of
the Apostles, that is how they went from one city to the other.
The Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs
following. So we have the treasure and then
we have the earthen vessel in what the treasure is in, the
gospel being preached by sinners to sinners. Then we have thirdly
the reason why, the reason given for God's choice of this means. In our text it is that the Excellency
of the power may be of God and not of us. It is not by the minister's
persuasion, though he may persuade. It is not by his eloquence, though
he may have an eloquent delivery. It is not to be of man. Man is
to be weak and powerless and incapable of saving another,
but the work must be of God. If our salvation is to be owned
by God, it must be seen to come from God and known to be God's
work here below. This is the work of God, that
ye believe in him whom God hath sent. The Lord told of those
solemn cases of those that appeared before him at the last day, and
they said, Open to us. And he said to them, I never
knew you, But they said that thou hast taught in our streets,
we have been called by thy name. But he says, depart from me,
all ye that work iniquity, I never knew you. How could it be that
there be those that think, that think they have had the teaching
of God, think they have a warrant for heaven, but God knows nothing
about it? Whatever they had had was just
on a a earthly plane, a natural plane. It had not been from any
power, any work of God, otherwise God would truly have known about
it. And so it is vital that we do
know, like the Thessalonians knew, that the word of the gospel
came not unto them in word only, but in demonstration of the spirit
and of power and it is essential that the power is attending the
word to quicken a soul, to bring him into life and to make a real
change in that person. And so the preacher goes forth
and he has the message but he does not have the power. Perhaps
I could use Just a simple illustration some of you might be familiar
with. We have powered speakers. We
have them in this chapel. And we have a signal going from
the computer into those speakers. But they need power. They need
to be put, plugged into a power supply. Without that power, then
that signal, you can hardly hear it at all. You need the signal,
you need the message through that, but you need the power.
And as soon as you turn the power on, then you can hear, then it
is doing the job. And so with the Gospel, there
must be the preaching, though it is, as Paul says, his speech
was weak, it was contemptible, there must be. we have in Paul's
epistle to the Romans and chapter 10. He says, whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall
they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall
they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. But he speaks of the need of
there to be that power, that faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. And the author and finisher of
faith is our Lord Jesus Christ. When Paul writes to the Ephesians,
he tells them in the first chapter that the belief that they were
brought to believe was of the same power. that brought our
Lord from the dead. He says of them in chapter one,
verse 18, that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened
that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what
the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and
what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe
according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought
in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at
his own right hand in the heavenly places. It is not a light thing,
it's not a small thing to be a believer. And every believer
is to know that, to understand what power is put forth in making
them to be a believer. And many times, just like the
Apostle Paul, he resisted the word first. God said of him,
it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks, and yet the power
of God is seen in breaking through those barriers. John, when he
writes in his first general epistle in chapter 5, says in verse 13,
these things have I written unto you that believe on the name
of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life,
and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." You
might think, why write to those that already believe? You're
right to tell them what that believing means. That where they
believe on the Lord, that power that is put forth, they have
eternal life. It is begun, and it begins here
below, in the light that is given them from God. and the gospel
that they have received. And so the power must be of God. And the reason, again, that the,
not only the power, but it is also the glory of God. And the apostle makes this known
earlier on in his epistles, that the excellency of the power we
have in our text may be of God, but if we were to read down a
little bit further in that first epistle and chapter one, he says
that no flesh should glory in his presence, and that according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. In
the Old Testament, we have the illustration of Gideon, when
the Midianites came and invaded the land, a great, mighty enemy
in their midst. And yet God chose Gideon, a man
who felt his weakness in poverty and his small position in Israel. And God then weakened his army
right down just to 300, and then didn't give them submachine guns
or anything like that, but just a trumpet, and a lamp, and vessels,
and those vessels, those pictures, they had to be broken, and the
light that was in the pictures, then it shone forth, and the
trumpet was heard. In one sense, it's a beautiful
picture of the Gospel, a picture of our text, where the ministers
of the Gospel go forth, and it's through their broken vessels,
it's through the light that's in their vessels, that light
shines forth and that's what overcomes the enemy, that's what
delivers the people of God, that's what saves them, the trumpet
of the gospel. And so with Gideon it was that
God said the reason why they had to be reduced so low was
so that they didn't say their own hand and their own might
saved them. God will make sure that you and
I, whether we are a minister, or whether we are a believer,
and in some other role in the Church of God, that we will feel,
and we will feel from time to time, more than other times,
that we are but earthen vessels. We feel the weakness of our bodies,
the weakness of our minds. We feel to lack strength. We feel so much to need that
help of the Lord. And we feel to be really sinners,
like those we walk before, mix with and preach to. And this
is what God has designed, the way God has designed, that the
power, not just the power, but the excellency of the power may
be of God and not of us. It is a great encouragement to
pray, to pray and to look to the Lord to bless the word with
power, to bless especially that word we would be tempted to despise
or pass by as not being used or not being effectual enough. Fear, it is so today, we're looking
More and more, as it were, we test the ministers of the gospel
by university lecturers or by natural means and not looking
for the power of God to attend that word. God will never honour
that. It won't be the glory to his
name, won't be the comfort, the assurance that is to be given
by him alone. Salvation is of God, and he which
hath begun a good work in you, he will perform unto the day
of Jesus Christ. And our Lord testifies that without
me ye can do nothing. They're towering at Jerusalem
when they went forth to preach the gospel, towering at Jerusalem
until ye be endued with power from on high. Without that there
was no need to preach. They couldn't preach. however
eloquent they were, it would not be blessed. And so we have
God's plan and God's purpose here, that we are to be real
and understanding in what God's plan is. Not think about man
what he really is, as an earthen vessel. not think lightly of
the Gospel, it is a treasure, it is a most blessed treasure
that many do not have, and bless the Lord if we do have it, and
the Lord has shone in our hearts and given us that light. And
it is a sweet evidence of power that moves a sinner's heart. The Hymn writer says, my heart
will move at thy command. Some of us may Feel this evening
much the need, that moving power of the Lord, that which shall
soften our hearts, that which shall draw us after the Lord. Our Lord says, no man can come
unto me except the Father which sent me draw him, and I'll raise
him up at the last day. It is that irresistible power. We know what it is. If you've
got a piece of steel and a magnet, You might not see anything between
the two, but there is a power that draws one to the other.
And we need that unseen but irresistible power of God to draw us to the
Lord, to draw us to his word, and to make us to be what he'd
have us to be. The Apostle Paul was able to
say so clearly what I am. I am by the grace of God, the
free and merited favor of God, the power of God. And may we
be able to say the same without reserve, not thinking, well,
maybe I am what I am just because I've been brought up under the
truth, or just because I've learned it as a schoolboy learned the
task, but when we can trace back and see that the Lord has begun
with us and that he has dealt with our hard heart and softened
our heart and drawn us to him and opened our hearts to receive
the word. Then we know something to the
excellency of that power, a power that doesn't destroy, doesn't
crush a people, that saves a people. The Lord said when he was to
be taken in the garden of Gethsemane, and they put forth a sword, put
up thy sword within its sheath. And he says, thinkest thou not
that I could pray my father, and he had presently given me
12 legions of angels? Great power. But how then should
the scripture be fulfilled? The power of God was to be wrought
in submission to their Father's will, in obedience, in suffering,
in death. And the power of the Lord in
the Gospel is, as the Lord said, the Son of Man came not to destroy
men's lives, but to save them. And His power is not to crush,
but to heal and to lift up. And may we remember that. And
any bruised soul, wounded soul, guilty soul this evening, I remember
that the power of God in the Gospel is not to destroy you,
but to save you. To shed abroad a Saviour's love
and light, and to pluck as a bran from the burning, and to give
a hope, a good hope, beyond the grave, a hope in the Lord Jesus
Christ, in what He has done, and what He has accomplished
for us. May the Lord bless this word,
and we find ourselves in this text, knowing about the treasure,
feeling the earthen vessel, and knowing something of the power
of God as well. The Lord add his blessing. Amen.