Heavenly Treasures in Earthly Vessels 1981

What I'd like to share today is taken mostly from 2 Corinthians chapters 3 and 4. I'll be skipping around, and it would be probably profitable if you're able to do so to have a closer look at these two chapters later on in the day, maybe, if you forget which ones they are. They're on the bottom of the bulletin. Chapters 3 and 4 are quoted in there, inside the bulletin.

Now, I'd like to begin by reading the first six verses of chapter 3 of 2 Corinthians, and then skip over and read the seventh verse of chapter 4. And Paul, as you listen, almost sounds like he's defending himself, but he's really not just defending himself. At least he's not emotionally, in kind of a vague, unspecific way, standing up for himself. But he's pointing to specific things that he's getting done, and it's important to see that, and as you read it, you think, gee, why does he have to do that? He has every right to say the things that he's saying here.

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again, or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts, to be known and read by all men. And you show that you are a letter from Christ, delivered by us, written, not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us.

Our sufficiency is from God, who has qualified us to be ministers of a new covenant, not in a written code, but in the spirit, for the written code kills, but the spirit gives life. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. And what we're looking at here is the testimony of a man who could walk into a city of half a million people, half a million people, 500,000, who had never heard the name of Jesus, stay there for 18 months and then walk away, leaving behind him a church so ablaze with the life of God that that entire city and regions far beyond that city are hearing the name of Jesus.

Paul knew that he was getting things done. He wasn't sitting around wringing his hands, wondering what he should do next or whether he was accomplishing anything or whether his life was coming for any purpose. Paul was very clear in his heart, he knew that he was getting somewhere, that things of eternal consequence were taking place in people's lives.

You yourselves are our letter of recommendation written on your hearts to be known and read by all men. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not within, but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. Now, this is the kind of thing all of us are really after.

We want to be able to impart the life of God to people in such a way that it remains with them. We want to bring people from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God. We want to bear fruit, as Jesus promised we would, that would remain.

We want to see them stay alive in God after we have in some way served them in the name of Jesus in such a way that they stay alive in God once they've done so, once they've heard, once they've responded. So how come these things are not happening with consistency in our lives? How come it seems to take us a lifetime to accomplish what Paul got done in two weeks? Is it because the Heavenly Father, as Paul was winding up his ministry, decreed, my servant Paul is going to be the last of his kind, after him, there will be no manifestations of my grace and power in such an order until the kingdom comes in its fullness. Or, was this life that flowed from Paul the result of the fact that Paul was willing, that the power of the Spirit that qualified him to be an able minister, servant of the new covenant, would remain in Paul, contained in an earthen vessel, all his life? Inwardly, Paul was ablaze with the life of God, but outwardly, Paul never became a golden bowl or a silver chalice.

He remained a vessel of clay, of earth. Back into the third chapter of 2 Corinthians. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to claim anything is coming from us.

Our sufficiency is from God who qualified us to be ministers of a new covenant, not in a written code, but in the Spirit. For the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels to show that the transcended power is from God and not from us.

The power that brings people from death to life, that opens their eyes to the reality of God, is contained on this earth, only in earthen vessels, never in any other covenant. And God will never entrust this power to us unless we are willing to be earthen vessels. Many will come to me in that day and say, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name? Didn't we cast out demons in your name? We did many mighty works in your name.

And I will say to them, depart from me, I never knew you, you evil doers, evil doers, people who prophesy in the name of Jesus and cast out demons in the name of Jesus. How can such people be called evil doers? Are such things evil deeds? They look like impressive fruit, these things that they do, but it's actually evil fruit because it comes from an evil tree of an evil heart. Instead of heavenly treasure dwelling in an earthen vessel, it becomes evil treasure coming from a golden bowl.

And it looks impressive on the outside, but inwardly it is evil because it comes from an evil source. The world, particularly the religious world, always concentrates on the appearance, on the outside. The Pharisees and the scribes are all the time shining up the outside of the cup, even though the inside is filthy.

Always slapping another coat of whitewash on the tomb. But this doesn't change the fact that inside the tomb it's full of dead man's bones and all kinds of uncleanness. The kingdom operates on the very opposite principle, if you want to call it a principle.

It takes the life of heaven and brings it down into the world and wraps it in the ordinary. Jesus was not born in a palace and he was not wrapped in silk. He was born in a stable and he was wrapped in ordinary rags, clean that they may be.

They were nevertheless ordinary and he was put in an animal's feed trough. He came up like a root out of dry ground. He had no form of commonness that we should look at him.

No beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected of men, an earthen vessel, forever showing that the divine power, transcendent glory that was coming forth from his life was coming from the Father who sent him, not from him. Christendom always puts its efforts into the package because it's the package that sells.

But inside the package is a vacuum. There's no substance, there's no life, there's no reality. The kingdom puts its efforts into, in fact, downgrading the package.

It never puts the heavenly treasure in a golden bowl or a silver chalice. Always it puts it in an earthen vessel, wraps it in the ordinary. How does Jesus come to us today in this place? He comes to us in a piece of bread and a glass of wine, which are earthen vessels.

And he goes forth from this place to touch the world out there through ordinary men and women who are being pressed from every side by problems, people who are afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, cast down, who are experiencing inside themselves the power of death at work in their mortal flesh. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus might also be manifested in our bodies.

For while we live, we are always being delivered up to death for Jesus' sake so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us but life in you. The more willing we are to in fact be earthen vessels, the more freely the life of the Spirit of God will flow forth from us for healing and salvation and conquering of evil.

What we need to do is forget about the package and be content that the package should be always earthen and concentrate on making sure that inside the package, the inside of the earthen vessel is fit to contain the heavenly treasure. The power of heaven will burn in the earthen vessel of our lives if we are willing to concentrate on keeping the earthen vessel inwardly clean. Hebrews 9. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, and that sprinkling was external, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And that sprinkling of blood on the conscience is inward.

Now, the external side of the earthen vessel is God's business, not ours. We don't have to worry about that. Our department is to make sure that the inside of the vessel is cleansed by the blood, that there is nothing hidden in here that has not been confessed or washed by that blood.

Our attitudes, our secret idolatry, and vanity, and lust are hidden grudges. Now we take the inmost door of our inmost heart and open it. Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.

And he says, of course I will. Be clean. And he plunges the whole mess that's inside us under the blood and washes it away.

The power of heaven will burn in the earthen vessel of our lives if we are willing to make sure that the earthen vessel inwardly is nailed to the cross all the time. Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

So death is at work in us, but life in you. Inwardly, we're all the time touching the cross. In a mystery, our inmost life is to be nailed to the cross of Jesus.

I am crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. There is no way that I can have Christ living in me unless I am willing to be crucified with him, nailed to his cross with him, bearing his reproach, following him outside the city, knowing him in the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.

The cross of Jesus is not only something that atoned for your sins 20 centuries ago, which it is, but that won't mean things in your life unless you also know that the cross of Jesus has been planted in your heart. It's your center. It's the source of your life.

Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, what does that mean? But to join yourself to his cross, you have no life in you. The power of heaven will burn in the earthen vessels of our lives if we are willing to make sure that the earthen vessel is inwardly renewed every day. It's going on in 2 Corinthians 4. So we do not lose heart.

Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

And the things that are unseen and eternal are inward. Sir, as we daily experience renewal and cleansing, as inwardly we with unveiled face behold the glory of the Lord and are changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another by the Spirit of the Lord, we will see the glory of God in the starry heavens. We will behold the wisdom of the Lord in the ocean and the mountains and the trees and the flowers and the rain and the wind.

When we learn to worship the glory of the Lord, which has now come to dwell forever within the earthen vessel, in the Holy of Holies, which God has created in our inmost heart, God help us to find him there and practice his presence there day by day. The power of heaven will burn in the earthen vessel of our lives when we are willing to give for alms such things as are within, when we are willing to start giving forth the mercy which God has put in us. Luke chapter 11, while he was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him.

So he went in and sat at a table. The Pharisee was astonished to see that he had not first washed before dinner. And the Lord said to him, now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of extortion and wickedness.

You fools, did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give for alms those things which are within, and behold, everything is clean for you. So God puts his peace inside us. He puts it there not only for our own satisfaction, but so that we can give that peace forth and touch other lives with his peace.

He puts his mercy in our inmost hearts. What a change that brings about in our living. But it's not just for us.

It's so that we may take that mercy and give it forth, that we may give for alms those things that are within. And until it becomes our life, our second nature, to continuously pull out and give forth what God puts in, that we work out our salvation which God worked in. Until we do that, we stagnate.

This happens to us as individuals. It also happens to us as a body. If we don't give forth what God puts in, we rot.

If God had said, my servant Paul is the last of his kind, after him there will be no manifestations of that order until the kingdom comes in its fullness. If God had said that, then we'd be off the hook. We would have an excuse.

But there have been countless people who have ministered the life of the new covenant, just as Paul did, who were qualified by God's Spirit to minister that life. Countless people since Paul, and there will be countless more, even if we only have a short time to go. The hour has come for us to decide whether we are willing to let God qualify us to in fact be servants of the new covenant of the Spirit.

To jump into that deep and allow God to make us and use us to touch the hungry, thirsty, painful, suffering world out there with his life to a degree we've never done it. The issue is very simple. It's twofold.

Are we willing to be earthen vessels and are we willing to keep the earthen vessel thick for the heavenly treasure? Let's pray.