Seeking for the help of the Lord
I direct your prayerful attention to the chapter that we read,
the epistle of Paul to Romans chapter 9 and reading for our
text just a few words in verse 23 Verse 23, the words in the middle
of this verse, vessels of mercy. The whole verse reads, and that
he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of
mercy which he had aforeprepared unto glory. These vessels of
mercy that are here in this text, Romans 9 verse 23, they are people. They are people spoken of as
vessels and they are people that have been shown mercy and received
mercy and that they are being prepared for glory. I want to before we look further
at this word and how that the idea of the people of God as
being vessels is opened up through the scriptures I want to just
give a brief overview of this chapter 9 that Paul writes to
the Romans because it is good for us to actually have the context
and what is meant, especially when we have a text just of a
few words, I don't want to rest those out of its context and
so we need to look at that at first so we see it is consistent
with what is taught here. The Apostle Paul as he begins
this chapter in the first five verses He expresses his sorrow
for the Jewish nation, the Jewish nation of which Christ came,
and were entrusted with the types and the shadows, with the Word
of God, and it was that nation that the Lord came to. And yet
it was that nation that didn't receive Him. Some did, as many
as received Him. To them gave He power to become
the sons of God. But as a whole, they had rejected
the Lord, they'd crucified Him, they'd cast Him out as not being
the Messiah. And so He testifies that He spoke
the truth, and the Holy Ghost is witness that in verse 2 he
had great heaviness of heart because of his brethren, those
that were really those Israelites and he expresses that in the
very first place here then he makes known in verses 6 through
to 13 that the original promise, the promise that was given to
Abraham was not to all of his descendants, as every single
one of them. When Christ was upon the earth,
there were those, the scribes and the Pharisees, that they
really prided themselves that they were of Abraham. Abraham was their father. Moses
they knew, Jesus they didn't, they rejected him. But they made
this their pride, that their line, it went back to Abraham. But Paul, he shows here, and
by really a simple illustration right at the beginning, that
God never intended and certainly didn't save every one of those
Israelites. There were many that were not
saved, they did not have faith, they did not believe. And so,
right from the beginning, and he's saying, though I feel heaviness
and sorrow in my heart, for my nation yet I know it is not outside
of God's plan and we were never to expect that all of Abraham's
descendants were saved and he goes right back and he takes
well Abraham had Isaac and then Isaac had two sons Esau and Jacob
and he says now here is the illustration here is two descendants and close
descendants the grandchildren of Abraham and one of them is
saved and one of them is not and just that one instance proves
that we cannot rest upon a bloodline we have it clearly in John chapter
1 those that are born not of blood not of the will of the
flesh it is not that bloodline just because you and I might
be born to godly parents and have godly grandparents, yet
the true grace of God does not come through that line at all. And the other side of it, if
you are listening tonight and you think, well, my parents,
they didn't believe, my grandparents, they didn't believe, there are
those that didn't follow at all in the ways of the Lord and We
think then of those that would be discouraged in that, that
they would seek to be encouraged to wait upon the Lord, that they
would be saved nevertheless, and in spite of all the discouragements
that are in the way, yet they would press on and trust and
hope and believe that they would be saved as well. Now we have
this then in the verses that are 6 to 13, and then from verses
14 to 18, we have a reminder that God is not unrighteous in
showing unmerited good on whom he pleases. And he says, introduces
in verse 14, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness
with God? God forbid. And he explains there
that God will have mercy on whom he will have mercy. And the truth
of this, the reality is that no one deserves mercy there's
none at all that would deserve it at all and so if God shows
mercy on any then it is his sovereign right to do that whether he shows
mercy on one or on another or doesn't show mercy on any he
would still be righteous in doing that he's not unrighteous and
then from verse 19 through to verse 24 we have that God is
free to exercise his sovereignty and so he again uses the example
and he uses the example of a potter a potter that is making a pot
with clay and he has power that potter can make it either a lump
unto honour, or a lump unto dishonour, he can either make it to be something
nice, or if he doesn't like it, he crushes it down and he makes
something else of that. And so it is from this type,
and this is the context of where our text is, that he then uses
the illustration, the example, of an actual vessel, a vessel
that is being made by the potter, made in the hands of the potter,
and it is a beautiful illustration as the Lord, as the heavenly
potter, forming and fashioning a people as He will, and dealing
with them as He will. And then we have in verses 25
to 29, the calling of the Gentiles, Now, this has been foretold by
Isaiah, and he says, as he saith also in Osi, I will call them
my people which were not my people, and her beloved which was not
beloved. And that is taken from Isaiah
chapter 10 and verse 22. And so it is foretold that though
the Jews rejected Christ and that the apostles then had to
turn from the Jews and turn to the Gentiles, that this has already
been foretold. Again, it was God's sovereign
will. The things that are happening,
the things that had happened, the Apostle is showing so that
it doesn't stumble any, he's showing that this already has
been foretold, it is in God's plan, it is in God's desire that
the Gentiles then should be saved. So then moving on from verses
30 and 31, he makes this statement that not only was the Gentiles
foretold in Isaiah that they would be saved but they have
been and so in verse 30 he says what shall we say then the Gentiles
which followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness
even the righteousness which is of faith and so he says this
actually has come to pass but Israel which followed not after
the Law of Righteousness, had not attained to the Law of Righteousness."
Now he asks the question in verse 32, what is the reason? Why was
it the case that the Gentiles have attained this but the Jews
not? And the reason simply is put
because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the
works of the law. They sought by some good works
and things of their own that they would then be saved. And
they could not be saved by that way, but only by faith. And so with the Gentiles, they
sought it by faith. And the apostle later on in Romans
chapter 10, He then enlarges on that even more and he desires
of that Israel might be saved but he bears them record that
they had a zeal of God but not according to knowledge and there
they were going after works and their own righteousnesses. So in chapter 9 we see the sovereignty
of God and Paul very clearly showing that The things that
had happened with the Jews, with the Gentiles, are all in God's
plan. God has a sovereign right to
do what he will with his own, whether he's Jew or Gentiles,
to show mercy to one and not to another. And it is in this
context then we have in our text these words, vessels of mercy,
that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels
of mercy. those which the potter has fashioned
and formed, those people that are spoken of as vessels here,
which he had afore or beforehand, previously, prepared unto glory. God's people are a prepared people
for a prepared place. Well this evening with the Lord's
help I want to look at the teaching and the scriptures regarding
this type of a vessel in regard to the people of God. Now rather than just three points
I wish to bring seven instances and one by one as we go through
them through the scriptures where this is taught and of course
we have in the context here the potter so it is speaking of clay
and an earthen vessel. The Apostle Paul when he writes
to the Corinthians he also uses this example in his second epistle
to them and he speaks of the treasure and blessing of the
gospel in chapter 4 and he says this that we have this treasure
in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us and he says this that we preach not ourselves but Christ
Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has
shined in our hearts. And it is to give the light to
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It's a wonderful blessing that
is bestowed upon a believer, a people, that the God of heaven
and earth has shined upon their dark hearts and shown them the
truth, revealed the truth to them and made known to them.
the way of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ but then he says
we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of
the power may be of God and not of us and there's a picture of
what man is poor man, creature of the dust formed out of the
clay and we look upon man and we look upon him when in his
frailty and when he starts to fail and to be brought down but
we look upon him in all the infirmities in all what he is very very far
from perfect and God would have us to know that though we are
of the earth as an earthen vessel yet we have this treasure if
the Lord has worked in our hearts if he's blessed us then we have
this treasure within, it is within this earthen vessel. Now sometimes
we might be much tempted to think, well, how can ever we be truly
so blessed of God? I feel, I feel like an earthen
vessel, so easy broken, so easy smashed, so much of the earth,
so many infirmities, so many weaknesses, and it bears so little
resemblance to what is spoken of as the glories of salvation
and the wonders of the Lord Jesus Christ and what is revealed and
set forth in the Word about Him. Well if we had a literal pot,
a vessel, and it was just a clay pot like you'd go to a nursery
garden centre and you get this clay pot and it doesn't look
very beautiful at all but you put inside it you put some gems
and you put some gold and you put some precious things and
you look from outside so that you just see the pot you can't
see that which is precious but when you look in Then you see
what is so precious and lovely there. We think of the type,
the type of the Ark of the Covenant, the children of Israel going
through the wilderness, and when they moved from place to place,
then the Ark had to be covered with the veil. And the veil,
it covered the gold, the Ark was gold, which sets forth the
Lord Jesus Christ in all his preciousness. But it was completely
covered, so all the Israelites saw was the badger skins. But
then over that there was put a cloth of blue, which sets forth
the grace of the Lord. When our Lord was on earth, there
were many that saw him, and they wondered at the gracious words
that proceeded out of his lips. But then they saw, this is Jesus,
the son of Joseph, the carpenter's son. How can any good thing come
out of Nazareth? stumbling at the outside. There
is no form nor comeliness that we should desire him. Those looked
at the Lord they couldn't see. Godhead, veiled in flesh, the
Godhead see. And there were times, like when
he was asleep in the ship, you get an idea of his humanity and
his tiredness, his sleeping, And then you have Him rising,
rebuking the winds and the waves, and you see His Godhead. The
God shines gracious through the man. And so even with our Lord,
we have this idea of an earthen vessel, of a vessel that is hiding
the real glory and the real wonder of what is there. And so with
the child of God in that way, when the Lord works in the heart,
we're still in a way that same person we are still with the
same it may be habits and ways and personality those things
are the same but by grace it will affect many parts of our
lives all of our lives but we'll still be the same and we'll still
feel to be of the earth a creature of the earth and so the apostle
says this treasure we have that is in earthen vessels and those
of you who may feel very much a earthen vessel we think of
the hymn writer that this speaking of the mud wall cottage shake
and the trembling of their tabernacle that one day this vessel will
be taken down the soul is to be loosed from it and to ascend
to be with God and then clothed with a new vessel as it were
a new a new body in which we shall live and so though in our
text is speaking the vessel as the actual person themselves
really our bodies, our soul, we are one person but we are
body and soul and the soul shall at death return to God who gave
it and we shall in the resurrection be given that new body again. So the first thought then is
an earthen vessel. These vessels of mercy firstly
are earthen vessels Secondly, they are chosen vessels. We have the Apostle Paul who
is writing here to the Romans and who wrote to the Corinthians
and we read when he was called when the light first shone into
his soul, and Ananias was told to go and to see him, to visit
him. And Ananias said that he had
this objection. He said, I have heard by many
of this man how much evil he had done to thy saints at Jerusalem,
and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all
that call on thy name. But the Lord said unto him, Go
thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before
the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. The apostle
Paul was a chosen vessel, a chosen vessel, and we may say, that
every one of God's children are chosen vessels chosen in Christ
from the foundation of the world and what a character the Apostle
Paul he says that he's the chief of his sinners the Lord had mercy
on him to show that all could obtain mercy because he was the
chief when the Lord opens the eyes of his people as he begins
to work in their hearts They said, can ever God well hear?
They feel themselves most sinful. The apostle would say, however
you feel, I am worse. And the people of God are to
be assured that Christ came to save sinners. Yes, the very worst
of sinners, those that feel their need of the Saviour, their need
of Christ, they shall find Him, they shall be blessed. in him,
you never send any away that come seeking for mercy and there's
the Lord passing by the Apostle here bidding him live not allowing
him to go on persecuting the people of God but opening his
eyes and blessing him a chosen vessel, a chosen in his case
to an office but all of God's children are chosen in him they
are not chosen for any good in themselves or anything that God
foresaw of good in them but just because of the sovereign will
and purpose of God as what is being taught in this ninth chapter
of Romans the sovereignty of God a chosen vessel for these
chosen vessels that are chosen by God They are then, in the
words of our text, in our third place, they are vessels of mercy. They are vessels of mercy that
are prepared unto glory. And it is a reminder that everyone
that is saved is saved on mercy's ground. Mercy can never ever
be deserved, is not of works, lest any man should boast. And
when we think of the last verses in this chapter, when the apostle
is saying that why did they stumble? Why did the Jews stumble? Because
they sought it by wax. That was the only way they knew.
and fallen man we were created under a covenant of works and
we fall back to that all the time the thought that we've got
nothing to recommend us to God the thought that we have all
of even our good works as the scripture says all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags that's not our bad works that's our good
works and man doesn't like to be told that one of our hymns
says The sight is too killing for pride to behold. Men aren't
willing to be told how sinful and vile and evil and wretched
and undone we are. We like to think there's something
good where we may, as Job says, our goodness, or Elihu says,
our goodness extendeth not unto God, but unto man, unto those
that dwell upon the earth. We may be good one to another,
but that does not bring us a righteousness to atone for our sins or to fit
us for heaven at all. If the Lord really does show
us what we are and how sin is mixed with everything, then we
will truly know that we dare not appear in the presence of
God in that state. And so it is mercy, it is mercy
alone, but it's not just any mercy, it's blood-bought mercy.
It is that God himself has suffered in the place of his people. He
just doesn't say, well, here is all of humanity, all deserve
eternal death, and I'm going to decide to just save some and
not others. He says, I will save some. But
I will suffer for the sins of that sum. I will endure the wrath
of God for them. It will be at cost. It will be not at any cost. It
will be at the cost that is prescribed by God. The soul that sinneth,
it shall die. Christ himself must then lay
down his life, not by constraint, but willingly, and that he might
then make atonement for the sins of his people. And it is through
what Christ has accomplished at Calvary, what He has done
there, that He then is able to show mercy to an innumerable
number that shall be with Him in heaven at last. And that mercy
is a mercy of preparing. We have in our text, the context
here, that he might make known the riches of his glory that
is what he does to these vessels of mercy makes known those riches
of glory by nature how we're born into the world we don't
want to know we don't know it and we see no beauty in Christ
we do not desire him we do not seek him at all and yet he makes
that known on these vessels of mercy which he had afore or previously
prepared unto glory. And it is that preparing work
that he prepares here below. In one sense, the preparing work
begins when he first chooses his people, then when he chooses
the time that they shall come into this life, and when he chooses
the time when they shall hear the Gospel, when they shall first
receive the Lord and believe in Him. But then all the way
through their lives, He instructs them and teaches them and unfolds
unto them the way of salvation. And so it is these vessels of
mercy that there is a preparing work that is being done in their
hearts. The Apostle says in another of
his letters, He which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it unto the day of Jesus Christ. We need that preparation by God
as a workman, as the heavenly potter to form us, fit us, shape
us and make us a people for His praise. The apostle says of himself,
I am what I am by the grace of God. So then the other vessels
that we have set forth in scripture some of them they're speaking
of this preparing work and I want to look then at the next one
the fourth instance which is taken from an account that is
in 2 Kings and chapter 4 verse 3 And it is when a certain woman
of the wives of the prophets, she said to Elisha that her husband
was dead and that he feared the Lord, but the creditor has now
come to take her two sons into bondmen. And Elisha said unto
her, What shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in the
house? And she said, thy handmaid hath nothing but a pot of oil. And he gives her this instruction,
he said, go borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours,
even empty vessels, not a few. And she brings them all, and
she then shut the door upon her in the house, and she started
pouring out, and as she poured out, the oil multiplied miraculously,
filled all of those vessels and then he said to her go sell the
oil and pay thy debt and live thou of the rest. It was a miracle
that was performed by Elisha in providing for the widow and
stopping her sons being sent into servitude. And yet there
is a spiritual application and teaching that we may draw from
that. What she had to have was empty
vessels, and thinking back of what it said of these vessels
of mercy and these earthen vessels, what good is it if we have a
vessel, even naturally, and it's already full? There's no use
of putting anything more in it. We might have had many instances
where we have been packing or doing something and we've seen
a box and we think, that's just what I want. But you look and
it's already used, it's already full, it's got things in it.
So we think, well I better take those things out so then I can
use it for what I want to use it for. A full box, a full vessel
is no good. And by nature, these vessels
of mercy are full. They are full of self-righteousness. They are full of the world. They
are full of self. They are full of all uncleanness. There is no room for Christ. It was said of Christ, there
is no room for Him in the inn. And there is so many today, and
it is in every generation. But we live in a day of much
plenty. And remember the children of
Israel, the Lord warned them when they went into the promised
land, that when He blessed them, and they were filled to the full,
when they had all their lands, when they had everything, that
they are not to forget Him and turn aside from Him. But a people
that has got everything, you go to them, you speak to them
about the Gospel today, and they say, why do I need the Gospel?
Why do I need to know about the Lord Jesus Christ? I've a nice
house, I've got a car, I've got a wife, I've got children, I've
got everything that I need, and what's it going to add to my
life? And there's just no room for the Lord in the lives of
a person by nature. They don't see any attraction
in Him, they don't see any reason why they should know the Gospel,
or know the things of God at all. So it is God's work to make
room. He tells us a parable, the parable
of the prodigal son, and how it is that One of the sons went
into a far country and spent his substance with riotous living.
He wanted his inheritance now and he went and after he spent
it all then there was a great famine in the land and he was
sent to feed the swine and he would rather like to fill his
belly with the husk that the swine did eat. No one gave him
to eat at all. and it was coming into want and
need, it's like a person that has had everything and then they
lose everything and they lose their job and they lose their
wealth and all of these things go and suddenly there is a void
in their life, there's a blank put on all of those things they
once loved and went after and as in that parable that was used
to make that son think of his father's house And the Lord uses
those sort of things to bring a people to have an ear to the
Word of God. It would be a wonderful thing
if those listening tonight in maybe times of sorrow and difficulty,
which I wouldn't wish in any way upon anyone, but if it was
used in this way it would be a great blessing that has opened
your ear to hear the Word of God and to hear the Gospel because
of things that have come, that have been emptied out of your
life, that once filled your life. Other times the Lord will use
things like illness and sickness. However much man has of this
world's goods, if he is a billionaire, if he becomes sick, if he loses
his health, he loses his life, What good will those riches do?
Our Lord again, He spoke the parable of a rich man, a farmer
that had a good crop. He said, where will I bestow
all my goods? I know what I'll do. I'll pull
down my barns, I'll build greater. I'll then fill them. I'll say
to my soul, I have all much goods for many years to come. And I'll
just take my ease and be merry. And the Lord said to him, Thou
fool, this day shalt thou slow soul be required of thee. You're
going to die tonight. What's these goods going to do
to you then? And this is the warning and this
is what God will sometimes use in a very natural way to take
away and to empty that which is already in the heart and to
make room for himself. Sometimes the Lord will do in
the two different ways. He'll make there to be a real
aching void which the world cannot fill, an emptiness, a hollowness,
that which Solomon said, a vanity of vanities, all is vanity. You
might not understand why. Why do I feel this? Why do I
feel that vanity and emptiness in all the things in my life
that I once enjoyed and once went after? and you might not
understand why that is the case and at the same time be drawn
to the word of God and be drawn to the people of God and to want
to know and to want to be taught and the Lord uses these things
to make an empty vessel and empty that vessel and I say to your
encouragement wherever the Lord empties then he fills it is the
work of the Lord to empty and to fill, to make room for himself
and to come, and to fill that vessel with this treasure and
with mercy. Be really encouraged in that. If you feel in that way that
your life is falling apart, there's things being emptied, but bless
be God if there's that, then hunger after God or a willingness
even to hear the Word of God, a willingness even to investigate
and to inquire into the Bible and into its teachings and into
those things concerning our own soul and what is needed. And so we have in the Scriptures
here this illustration from the Old Testament with Elisha, empty
vessels, not a few. And we may say this, that every
one of God's people they are emptied the Lord makes room for
himself every one of them in the beginning there was no room
for him but when the Lord works there is room for him and how
many of you listening tonight could truly say this that the
Lord has made room for himself and the Lord has in your heart
put in those things that are precious they are treasures they're
things you value the psalmist David he says my cup runneth
over so filled that it ran over so then empty vessels that is
one of the Lord's works to empty the vessel first then we have
another and this is emptied from vessel to vessel and this is
in Jeremiah and chapter 48 and verse 11 and this is spoken of
as to what the children of Israel didn't have or experience, or
Moab. Moab hath been at ease from his
youth, and he hath settled on his lease, and hath not been
emptied from vessel to vessel. neither hath he gone into captivity
therefore his taste remaineth in him and his scent is not changed
and so it's spoken of as something that because Moab was not emptied
from vessel to vessel so it didn't change his life at all he was
still going in the same way in a sense by nature our scent is
to go after the things of the world, not the things of God.
And yet with Moab it is said that, really implied, if he had
been emptied from vessel to vessel, then his taste would have changed
and his scent would have changed. What does it mean? Well, I take
it to mean the trials that the Lord brings in his people. He must, through much tribulation,
enter the kingdom. Our Lord was insistent on this. In the world you shall have tribulation,
in me you shall have peace, but in the world, tribulation. And
so the trials, we go from one trial to another trial, one difficulty
to another difficulty, emptied from vessel to vessel, as it
were. another thought on this as well
is for the people of God and it is very much with the preaching
and we think of our hymns as well that speak the experience
of the people of God that that which one has walked through
and they breathe the experiences and the psalms are full of the
experience of the people of God Also we think of the account
in Isaiah with Hezekiah, by these things men live, in all these
things of the life of my spirit. And we read what one vessel of
mercy experienced, what they've gone through, the trial they've
gone in, Hezekiah unto death and then brought out of death,
and the troubles that they have, and that those things are a help
and a blessing unto others of the people of God. And the experience
of God's people, the experience of our Lord, is to be of a comfort
to the people of God. But it is in those trials, in
those being emptied, and from one trial to another trial, and
one difficulty to another difficulty, that there is the blessing of
the Lord. We read in this that they that
have no changes, They fear not God and the people of God do
have changes and may feel at times to be so tossed to and
fro, emptied from vessel to vessel. You think again of another thought,
we use the illustration of having a box and emptying out that,
putting it somewhere else so we can use it. And we might find,
well, now the place where we put it in, we'd like to use that
now. So we've got to empty it from
that to another vessel. And we find very much with our
hearts that we might think that the Lord has emptied one thing
out of us, banished the world, got rid of that. And then in
comes pride, and that fills us again. The Lord has to deal with
that, get rid of our pride. So many different things will
come and take the place of the Lord, emptied from vessel to
vessel. Well, the sixth one that I set
before you is that direction in sanctification that the Apostle
sets before firstly the Thessalonians and then also he gives direction
to Timothy in it but with the Thessalonians he says of them
that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel
in sanctification and honour not in the lust of concupiscence,
even as the Gentiles which know not God. that if a man therefore purge
himself from these, he says, but in a great house there are
not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and
of earth, and some to honour and some to dishonour. Again
he's using the type of a vessel If a man therefore purge himself
from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and
made for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work."
And this then is speaking to the people of God, vessels of
mercy, those who have been taught by God, and the exhortation is
that there be an emptying out, a willingness to part with those
things that are in our hearts, those things that are in our
lives, that are grieving the Spirit, taking the place of the
Lord, making no room for the Lord, that those things be put
out. Now we need many things to be
put out. And we need the Lord's grace
and help, but willingness to put these things out. And so
the apostle says that we should know how to possess our vessel
in sanctification and honour. And we may ask, I may ask myself,
I ask you, do you know how to keep your vessel clean, pure
in thought, affections, in all that is going on within? How
many of our thoughts, you know, dear Job, he sought to keep his
vessel clean. He said, I've made a covenant
with mine eyes. Why then should I think upon
a maid? The apostle writing to the Philippians,
he says, gives them directions what to think upon. Many of our
thoughts, they defile us and those things that we go over
in their minds and so this is another those vessels of mercy
are to be sanctified vessels they are vessels for the Lord
that once were for themselves and used for themselves and the
world or to put anything into it but the apostle says no if
you're a vessel of mercy you be careful what is in your vessel
you keep that vessel clean You imagine if you wanted to go to
the fountain or go to a water button to get some nice clean
water, and the vessel that you chose to get it, you looked in
it and it was all dirty. It had something in it that defiled
it, and so it's a lovely vessel, it's just what I want, it's the
right size, it's strong enough, but I can't use it because it's
all filthy and all unclean. It needs to be kept clean. And
so the Lord says with his people again that they should keep their
vessels clean. How much blessing we forfeit,
how much sorrow we have when we're careless and indifferent
of what we hear, what we see. I speak more to myself than anyone
who's listening tonight. Then we have one last thought
and this is the Lord's teaching concerning those that wait for
their Lord. He does this in Matthew chapter
25 and with the account of the five wise and the five foolish
virgins. He says of them that they had
lamps and they had vessels with their lamps as well but we read
in the beginning of that parable that five were wise, five were
foolish. They that were foolish took their
lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their
vessels with their lamps. They all waited till the bridegroom
came at midnight. There was a cry made, and they'd
all slumbered and slept. The bridegroom cometh, Go ye
out to meet him. Then those that were wise, they
trimmed their lamps, they went out. But those that were foolish,
they said, our lamps have gone out. And they had to go and buy. And while they went to buy, the
bridegroom came. Well, the typical illustration
is the lamps are like a lamp of profession. We are told to
let our light shine before men. We are to show forth the praises
of him. who has called us out of nature's
darkness and into his marvellous light, that we can have a profession,
but not have the spring of the source of it, the grace of God
in the heart, is all our own work, it's all coming from self,
is not supplied by the Lord at all. And so in those that wait
for the Lord, the important thing was that they had oil in their
vessels with their lambs they had a source of life and how
vital it is and it will be the case with these vessels of mercy
that the Lord is pleased to give them grace and the source of
grace is himself he is the God of all grace we read He giveth
more grace, and he giveth grace for grace. He said to the Apostle
Paul, My grace is sufficient for thee. And so that supply
is in God and not in us. The power comes from God. It
is not entrusted to us. It is not in us. but it is in
the Lord. And how vital that that is the
case, that we have oil in our vessels with our lamps, as well
as a profession, we have that which keeps it alive. And this
goes hand in hand with the trials, the tribulations. Grace is the
hymn writer, though the smallest shall surely be tried, and the
fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If it is
just of ourselves, it will go out. If it is coming from heaven,
it will keep going. Those of you who know the Pilgrim's
Progress, Bunyan, John Bunyan, his Christian was brought into
the interpreter's house and he was shown a fire and water was
being poured upon this fire, but the fire didn't go out. It
burned just as brightly and he couldn't work it out until he
was shown the other side of the wall but then there was a secret
supply of oil and that's why the fire didn't go out and so
it is that secret supply the Lord gives to his people that
that life of God does not go out and that is what we need,
a vital need we don't want to just change over a new leaf,
change our thoughts but we want that sovereign mercy, saving
mercy of God showing us the riches of Christ's glory in us, showing
what He has accomplished at Calvary, showing that sufferings that
He endured and that which He has done in putting away sin
by the sacrifice of Himself, showing what a precious thing
it is to have that revealed to us and made known to us, and
showing to us our own interest in it. that this is what we need,
and this is the blessing of the Lord for us. And so we have this
word, short word, vessels of mercy, but what a blessing it
would be if this evening the Spirit bore witness that we are
vessels of mercy. Yes, we are earthen vessels,
but we're also chosen vessels. Vessels of mercy that have been
empty and then they've been filled with the treasures of His Word
and of His grace and His mercy. Those who value the blessing
of the Lord in their souls and so are careful as they walk in
this life that their vessels be kept holy and pure and yet
feeling much the defilement, we will feel it, we do not believe
that there will be that perfection in the flesh. but our desire
is that we would be kept from evil and kept pure, and that
there be nothing that causes the spirit to withdraw, and that
there be no room for that which is pure and holy and precious
to be put into our hearts. And as we wait for the Lord,
as we would expect His coming, whether by death or the end of
the world, that we have that grace. whereby we may serve God
acceptably with reverence and godly fear. May the Lord add
his blessing. Amen.