HEAVENLY
TREASURES IN EARTHEN VESSELS
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 competent of ourselves to
claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, who
has made us competent 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.
2 Corinthians 3:1-6
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,
to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.
2 Corinthians 4:7
Paul
is pointing to specific things he is getting done. This is a testimony of a man
who can walk into a city of half a million people, 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 counting 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 with ink 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 remains.
We
want to see them stay alive and 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 respond.
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 decreed that “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 on
earth.
Such
is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are
sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our
sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new
covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter 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.
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 kind.
And
God will never entrust this power to us unless we are willing to be earthen
vessels.
On that day
many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast
out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will
I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.’
Matthew 7:22-23
Evildoers?
People who prophesy in the name of Jesus and cast out demons in the name of
Jesus, how can such people be called evildoers? 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. 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 scribes were all the time shining up the
outside of the cup, even though the inside was filthy, always slapping another
coat of whitewash on the tomb. But this didn’t change the fact that inside the tomb
it was full of dead men’s bones and all kinds of uncleanness.
The
Kingdom operates on the very opposite 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, and he was put in an animal’s feed trough.
For
he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we
should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men;
Isaiah 53
An
earthen vessel …. forever showing that the divine power, the 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 is no substance. There is no life. There
is no reality.
The
Kingdom puts its efforts into downgrading the package. It never puts the
heavenly treasure in a golden bowl or a silver chalice, always
its’ put into an earthen vessel, wraps it in
the ordinary.
How
does Jesus come to us today, in our churches? He comes to us in a piece of
bread and a glass of wine… which are earthen vessels.
And
he goes forth 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 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.
The
more willing we are to be earthen vessels, the more freely the life of the Spirit
of God will flow forth from us… for healing, for salvation, for conquering
evil.
What
we need to do is forget about the packaging 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.
For
if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with
the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification 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.
Hebrews 9
And
this sprinkling of blood on the conscience… is inward.
Now
the external side of the earthen vessel is God's business, not ours, we are not
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 us… that has
not been confessed or washed by that blood....
Our
attitudes.
Our
secret idolatry.
Our
vanity.
Our
lust.
Our
hidden grudges.
Now
we take the inmost door, of our inmost heart, and open them… “Lord , If you will, you
can make me clean.” And he says, of course I will make you 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. 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 have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I
who live, but Christ lives in me;
Galatians 2
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 anything in your life unless you also know
that the cross of Jesus has been planted in your heart, that 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, unless you do, 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.
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 for us 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.
2
Corinthians 4:16-18
And the
things that are unseen and eternal are inward. As we daily experience renewal
and cleansing.
And we all, with unveiled face,
beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from
one degree of glory to another.
2
Corinthians 3:18
And
inwardly, 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...
While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee
asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. The Pharisee
was astonished to see that he did not first wash 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 greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also?
But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean
for you.
Luke 11:37-41
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 parts, 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. Stagnation not only happens to us as individuals but it will also happen to us as a body. If we don't give forth what God puts in we will 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”… 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 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 before.
The issue
is very simple. It’s twofold…
Are
we willing to be earthen vessels?
Are
we willing to keep the earthen vessel fit for the heavenly treasure?
Richard E Bieber 1981; Audio Link to original sermon https://id3434.securedata.net/mmirror/MP%203%20FILES/Heavenly_Treasures_in_Earthly_Vessels_1981.mp3
Transcribed and edited by Maranatha Mirror 2022