Will you please turn to the book of Acts, chapter 9? Acts, the ninth chapter.
Just two verses, 15 and 16: Acts 9:15-16.
And the Lord said unto him, Go, for he is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel:
For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.
This man is an elect vessel to Me.
As I waited upon the Lord for this time, I felt that probably it is of the Lord that we should consider together before the Lord this matter of an elect vessel to God.
Now, the word elect here means picked out, selected, choice, chosen. So literally, it means a vessel of choice to Me—a vessel of choice to God.
This can be applied specifically and generally. Specifically, Paul is a vessel of choice to God. He is a chosen vessel, a very special vessel chosen for a very special purpose. There is none other like him. He is the only Paul.
Sometimes, you know, people today say, “Well, this is the Billy Graham of China,” or “the Moody of India,” or whatever it may be. But actually, you know, there is no such thing, because there is only one Billy Graham, one D. L. Moody, and one Paul. You cannot duplicate him. There will be no reproduction. It is special. Paul is a vessel of choice to God.
But on the other hand, we can apply this in a general way. Generally speaking, every believer is a vessel of choice to God. Now, that gives us hope.
We are all specially chosen, even before the foundation of the world. Every one of us is being chosen as a special vessel, because God has a special purpose for each one of us.
Choice. Special. Of God. And that is what we all are.
Here again, you find that Paul is a vessel of choice—a vessel. We know that a vessel is not an end in itself. A vessel is a means to an end. A vessel is for the purpose of containing something. A vessel belongs to someone, and a vessel is used for special reasons.
This is what Paul is. Paul is a vessel. He is not an end in himself; he is a means to an end. He is especially called by God to be an apostle, a herald of the gospel, and a teacher to the nations.
In a sense, we are all vessels. We are earthen vessels, but we have a treasure in the earthen vessels, to manifest the surpassing power of God and not of us.
So, being a vessel of choice, how do you respond to God’s choice? God has chosen him, and because God has chosen him, he has a tremendous responsibility. He has a responsibility to respond to God’s choice.
How did he respond? Maybe we can look at a few verses as to the way that he responded to God.
For instance, you find in 1 Timothy, chapter 1, verse 12:
I thank Him that enabled me, even Christ Jesus our Lord, for that He counted me faithful, appointing me to His service;
Though I was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: howbeit I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief;
And the grace of our Lord abounded exceedingly with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
When God chose him, here you find he responded with faithfulness. He responded with faith and love.
Then, in 1 Corinthians 9:27:
But I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected.
Because God had chosen him to be a special vessel, he responded by buffeting his body, beating his body, and leading it captive. He said, “Lest after having preached to others, I should be myself rejected.”
Then in Philippians 3, verse 12:
Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,
I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
This is the way that we find Paul responding to God’s calling, to God’s choice. Because of that, he became a faithful servant of God.
Toward the end of his life, he was able to say, “I have finished the course, I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness.” No doubt, he will hear the Lord say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
This is the way that Paul responded to God.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, in a general sense, we all are vessels of choice to God. The grace of God has come upon every one of us, and He has a very definite purpose for each one of us to fulfill.
But because of this, we have a tremendous responsibility. You know, sometimes we only think of the grace of God, and the grace of God is tremendous. But we tend to overlook our responsibility.
Our responsibility simply means: How do we respond to the grace of God?
You find even in 2 Peter 1 that we need to make our calling and election sure. That means entering into the kingdom abundantly. We have a responsibility in the way that we respond to God’s choice.
You remember the prophet Jeremiah. One day God told him, “Go down to the house of the potter,” in Jeremiah 18.
There he saw how a potter would take a lump of clay, put it on the wheel, begin to turn the wheel, and work the lump of clay with his hand, trying to make that clay into a vessel.
Now, the potter has a very definite idea as to what he is going to make with this clay. But unfortunately, the clay was marred in his hand. It was broken—not because the potter was unskillful, but because there was some resistance in the clay. It would not respond to the hands of the potter, so the clay was marred.
If you visit a potter’s house, you will find in the potter’s field all kinds of broken pieces—vessels that were broken in the process. You will find pieces scattered all over the field, and these pieces may not be able to be used for any purpose. Many were marred and broken.
But thank God, when Jeremiah was observing, he found that even though the clay was marred in the potter’s hand, the potter decided not to throw it away, but to remake it into a new vessel.
As a matter of fact, we were all broken once in the Potter’s hand. The old creation was marred by sin and was broken through rebellion. We were no good.
We were supposed to be cast away, scattered in the potter’s field, useless—not even fit to scoop a little water. Pieces, bits: that was what we were naturally.
But thank God, in His great mercy, He decided to remake us in Christ. He has not thrown us away, not because we are worth anything, but because of His mercy.
He decided to recreate us in Christ Jesus, and He recreated us to be a new vessel—a vessel of honor, not a vessel of dishonor, but a vessel of honor—that He may show forth the riches of His glory in these vessels of mercy, which He has prepared for glory.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, this is where we are. We are today vessels of honor, vessels of mercy, vessels of choice, vessels of grace.
Because God has been so gracious to us, I think we should feel a deep responsibility as to how we will respond to His grace—whether we will respond with faithfulness, with love and faith, or whether we will just waste His grace.
The purpose of God is not just a matter of whether we can find ourselves, whether we will be able to receive His praise when we see His face. It is more a matter of whether God’s purpose concerning our lives will be fulfilled.
I think that is much more important than what we will get when we see Him. So I do feel very deeply that, being vessels of choice, we have a tremendous responsibility before the Lord.
This is the reason why we gather together for this time: because we want to know how we should respond to Him, that we may, as vessels of choice, fulfill that which God has called us to.
I think the best thing to do is to look into the life of the apostle, because Apostle Paul is no doubt a choice vessel of God. I believe that in him we can learn many lessons as to how we should respond to God’s choice, that we will make our election sure.
God willing, we would like in these three different sessions to touch upon three different aspects. The first aspect will be the life aspect; the second, the knowledge aspect; and the third, the service aspect.
When we touch upon the life of Paul, I think we are so occupied by his ministry, by the work that God has done through him, that we tend to forget Paul as a man of God.
In other words, we emphasize more of his work and ministry, and we try to learn much from them, instead of seeing Paul as a person—seeing Paul’s life before God.
As a matter of fact, life is more basic than work. Being is the foundation of doing. In other words, God looks upon us much more than He looks upon our work.
If we are not what He wants us to be, we will not be able to do what He wants us to do. So first of all, I think the most important thing is the life aspect.
What about our life with the Lord? How about our life in Christ? What is the measure of our life? How much do we know Him as our life? How much of His life is real in us? How much of His life is able to be poured out from us?
I think this is the most important thing when we come to this matter of being a vessel of choice. Our vessel is to contain something, and no doubt that vessel is to contain life.
It is only in the measure of how much life you have that your real ministry will be measured. So first of all, we need to look into Paul concerning his life in Christ—Paul as a person.
For the time being, we will forget what he has done and how much God has used him. Let us just focus ourselves upon Paul as a man in Christ—Paul, in his life with the Lord, and how much he really knew His life.
When you read his writings, at different times he makes four statements. These four statements reveal his life with the Lord.
The first statement is found in Acts 23:6:
But Paul, perceiving that the one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, cried out in the council, Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees: touching the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.
“I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees.”
Even though he made that statement in the latter part of his years as a kind of defense before the Sanhedrin, that statement really sums up his life before he met Christ on the road to Damascus.
Before he met Christ, his whole life was the life of a Pharisee. He took great pride in being a Pharisee.
Paul actually was born in a Gentile city, Tarsus. But very early in his life, he came to Jerusalem. We do not know exactly when; probably it was after he was made a son of the law, perhaps at twelve or thirteen years of age.
He was brought to Jerusalem to sit under the feet of Gamaliel, the greatest teacher of that time, that he might learn Judaism—his religion.
Judaism at that time was the purest religion in the whole world. Many Gentiles were converted to Judaism as half-proselytes or full proselytes because they saw the purity in Judaism.
Judaism had its origin from God. Even though it was developed to such an extent that the law of God and the commandment of God were buried under heaps and mountains of the traditions of the fathers, still Judaism at that time was the purest of all religions. Originally, it was of God.
Paul, or Saul, learned everything about Judaism from the best teacher. He joined the sect of the Pharisees.
At that time there were two sects in Judaism: the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Sadducees were more like the liberals of Christianity, but the Pharisees were fundamentalists. They were very orthodox. They believed the whole Old Testament as the oracles of God, and they kept very strictly every letter of the law.
Paul was a true Pharisee. Now, there were many hypocrites among the Pharisees. You remember, when our Lord Jesus was here, they were the people He denounced: “Woe unto you, Pharisees, hypocrites!”
Why? Because they did outward things before men, but inwardly, behind men, it was another story. But Saul was not like that. He was a Pharisee, a true Pharisee.
In other words, so far as he knew and so far as he understood, he did everything that was required. That is the reason why, in Philippians 3, he said that according to the righteousness which is in the law, he was blameless. He was perfect. He did everything that he knew of.
A true Pharisee, a Pharisee of Pharisees—and he boasted of it. He considered it a great achievement. At that time, when Paul said, “I am a Pharisee,” it was a tremendous statement. He had achieved greatly in the moral and religious area.
But according to the best Pharisaic tradition, he served God. When he persecuted the followers of Jesus, entered into houses, seized men and women, and sentenced them, he thought he was serving God.
He was most sincere and honest. He did it with all his heart, according to what he knew, according to the tradition of the fathers. He did not know that he was a persecutor, a blasphemer, and an insolent, overbearing man.
We could say that he was the best specimen of a human being that you could find in the world. He was proud of his moral achievements, his intellectual attainments—you name it, and he had all these as a Pharisee.
He took great pride in being a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. Maybe his father was a Pharisee, and maybe his grandfather was a Pharisee. He came from a Pharisee family.
That was his first state.
Then the second statement is found in 1 Corinthians 15:9:
For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
The Lord met him on the road to Damascus. The Lord set him apart. From a great Pharisee, he became an apostle—one sent by the risen Lord. He was sent by the Holy Spirit to do the work that God appointed him to do: an apostle, a herald of the gospel, and a teacher to the nations.
While he was doing his apostolic work, you know, when he wrote 1 Corinthians, he had already been doing the apostolic work for years.
After he was converted, he remained with the believers in Damascus for a short while. Then he went to Arabia for about three years. He returned to Damascus, then went to Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem he was sent back to Tarsus.
We do not know how many years he was in Tarsus until Barnabas found him and took him to Antioch. He worked with Barnabas for a whole year. Then, in Acts 13, when the five prophets and teachers were ministering unto the Lord in the church in Antioch, the Holy Spirit said, “Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.”
From that day onward, Paul became an apostle. He was commissioned to do the apostolic work of planting the churches of God from Asia to Europe.
God used him in a mighty way. Not only did churches grow up in Asia, but churches began to come up in Europe, mainly through the labor of Paul as an apostle.
But how did he feel about himself? He said in 1 Corinthians 15, “I am the least of all the apostles.”
We would think he was the greatest of the apostles. Anyone who reads the New Testament will probably come to that conclusion. Aside from the Lord Jesus, who is the Apostle, of course no one can be compared with Him. He is in another category. He is the Apostle of our confession, as the writer of Hebrews says.
But so far as those who are called of the Lord to serve Him in New Testament times are concerned—not only in the time of the book of Acts, but even through the centuries—I do not think we can find anyone greater than Paul as an apostle. Surely, Paul is the greatest apostle of all ages.
Look at what he did, the accomplishment. But if you asked Paul, it is true, on the one hand, that when he was thinking of the grace of God and the calling of God, he would say that he was not in any way behind any apostle. That is true.
But so far as he himself was concerned, this is the way he felt: he felt that he was the least of the apostles. Why? Because he said, “I am unfit to be an apostle. I have persecuted the church of God.” He could never forget that.
He counted himself unworthy—unworthy to be called an apostle, unworthy to serve God, unworthy to be used of God to found churches. Why? Because once upon a time he had persecuted the church of God.
It was only through mercy and grace that he could do such a work and was called to do such a work. So far as he himself was concerned, he considered himself the least of the apostles.
From the great Pharisee to the least of the apostles.
You know, brothers and sisters, our problem is that when God begins to use us a little bit, we become too great to be used more. But the opposite should be true.
The more God uses us, the more we should feel ourselves unfit. The more we should feel that we are the least. We are not fit. We wonder why God should ever choose us and why God should ever use us.
That should be the right attitude. This is life.
Then we find his third statement, in Ephesians 3:8:
Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Less than the least of all saints.
He considered himself a saint—not in the sense of being canonized, but in the sense that we are all called saints. All believers are saints by calling, not by human appointment, but by calling.
God has delivered us and transformed us from sinners to saints. We are all saints. So the saints here means believers. But Paul considered himself as less than the least of all saints.
He did not say that he was the least of all saints. He said that he considered himself less than the least of all saints. I do not know how to figure this out, but anyway, this was true with him.
When he considered the unsearchable riches of Christ, he realized how little he really knew and possessed. When you begin to see the unsearchable riches of Christ, then you realize how little you really have.
That makes you feel less than the least of all the saints. You may think, “Well, brother and sister, you have known the riches of Christ. You have known Christ as this and as that. You all have known Christ, but it seems that I do not know Christ as I should.”
The more you grow in the Lord in life, the more you begin to see the unsearchable riches of Christ. The more you will feel that you are the least of the saints—less than the least of the saints.
Then finally, he made the fourth statement. This is in 1 Timothy 1:15:
Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
Paul wrote 1 Timothy after he was released from his first Roman imprisonment, if there were indeed two Roman imprisonments. First Timothy was written after the letter to the Ephesians and after the first letter to the Corinthians.
As he looked back through his life, his last declaration was, “Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”
As he came to know the Lord more and more, he began to feel more deeply that he was the chief of sinners, saved by grace.
Dear brothers and sisters, I do believe that in these four statements, in this order, you find the progress of spiritual life.
Before we knew the Lord, usually we thought of ourselves as great. We thought ourselves to be somebody. We had some achievement to point to. We considered ourselves better than most people—moral, religious, zealous, intellectual, and so forth.
We really thought highly of ourselves—higher than we actually should—because we really did not know ourselves. We were in darkness.
Well, thank God, one day when His grace came upon us, we were called, we were chosen, and then we began to do something for Him. Probably He began to use us in some small way.
When He began to use us in some small way, we began to feel, “Look, we are used of God.” Hopefully, if God uses us more, then we will begin to see that we are the least of the apostles.
But as we begin to grow more in grace, then you find it is not a matter of work. It is a matter of knowing the Lord, knowing His unsearchable riches. The more we begin to see His unsearchable riches, the more we realize how little we really know.
Then we come to this matter of being less than the least of the saints. We can really esteem our brothers and sisters as more excellent than we are.
God may have given us more opportunities than some other people, and yet they can know the Lord to such a degree. With such opportunities, if we do not know Him as we should, are we not less than the least of all the saints?
As we grow more in the Lord, what can we say? All we can say is that we are the chief of sinners, saved by grace. How worthy is the saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
In spiritual life, it is from graduate school to college, from college to primary school, to kindergarten. Now, that is life. That is spiritual life.
When we read the writings of the Apostle Paul, you find he has much to say about life. He has lots to say about life.
I do not think we are able to go through all the passages in which he talked about life, because as a matter of fact, he talked of nothing but life—not life as a theory, but life as something that he knew and experienced himself.
For our consideration, perhaps it will be helpful if we trace different words that he spoke on life and see how life developed in him, and thus in us.
For this, we have to begin from the very beginning. From the very beginning, there was no life.
Let us turn to Ephesians 4, verse 18. Paul was talking about the nations:
Being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart.
Estranged from the life of God. Then Ephesians 2:1:
And you did He make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins,
Wherein ye once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience.
Naturally, Paul would never have said these words. Why? Because when he was a Pharisee, he thought he had lots of life.
He thought he was righteous. He thought he was not dead in sins and transgressions. He thought he kept all the letters of the law. He thought he was great, alive, living, active, and full of life. That was what he thought.
But when he knew life, he realized that Saul was estranged from the life of God. Anyone who is estranged from the life of God has no life.
In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.
Life is in Christ. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son does not have life, for the wrath of God is upon him.
The Pharisee did not know that. All he knew was that according to the Old Testament, if you kept the law, you would live. He thought he kept the law, so he lived.
Until in God’s light he saw that he had no life of God. He was dead in sins and transgressions. He was estranged from the life of God.
His life was a natural life, and that natural life was a sinful life, a soulish life, a corrupted life, a life subject to death. So far as the spirit was concerned, he was dead in sins and transgressions. Because of that, all his works were considered dead works in the sight of God.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, we have to see this very clearly. That is where we have to begin.
Remember that outside of Christ there is no life. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. In other words, if it is not Christ, if it is not this life, then the life that we have does not give us the light—the true light—in which we can see exactly where we are and what we are.
We are all like people who kindle our own fire, as Isaiah says, and surround ourselves with our own fire. We think that we see. But remember, even the light with which we surround ourselves is darkness. Isaiah says that we will lie down in sorrow.
We have no light. It is basic, but we need to understand this. I want to underline it, because we have to start at that point.
Life comes from God. Life is in Christ. Without Him, there is no life. He is life.
Then we come to 2 Timothy 1:1:
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, according to the promise of the life which is in Christ Jesus.
According to the promise of life, the life which is in Christ Jesus.
Then in 2 Timothy 1:10:
But hath now been manifested by the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel.
It is through the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ that he came to know that. He abolished death and brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel.
It is through the gospel that we come to see what life really is. We know that life which is life indeed is incorruptible. The life that we had in ourselves was a corruptible life, a corrupted life. But life that is really life is incorruptible, and this only comes through our Lord Jesus Christ, through the gospel.
Then in Romans 5:18:
So then as through one trespass the judgment came unto all men to condemnation; even so through one act of righteousness the free gift came unto all men to justification of life.
Through the one righteous act of our Christ Jesus—because of what He did on Calvary’s cross—we receive justification of life.
Thank God, this is how life begins in us. Before we knew the Lord Jesus, before we received the gospel, we had no life. But thank God, we hear the gospel, we see the finished work of Christ on Calvary’s cross, and by believing Him, we receive His life in us. We now have life.
The problem is—and it was the same with Paul; he was no different—even after we have received life, that true life in us, we do not live by that life much. We still live by the old, corrupted life.
We do not realize that God gave us life. Christ is our life, but we do not know what it means.
We think that we have received the life of Christ, we have received eternal life, and for many people eternal life is just an insurance policy for the future. It is not for today.
We do not know that the life of Christ in us is meant to be lived. God has given us life now. Now we can live by that life and live like Christ, but we do not know that.
After we are saved, we know that we need to live by Christ. But strangely, instead of depending upon the new life that we have received, which is meant for that very purpose, we reach back to our own life and try to change our own life and make it live like Christ.
We have all done that. According to Romans 7, you find that man did the same thing. He said, “I should not be greedy, and I did not want to be greedy. So I tried to remind myself not to be greedy. But as I was reminding myself, I became more greedy.”
“The good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” I believe that we have all gone through this.
Not to enter into theological arguments, but just to come from our own experience, we know that we have all gone through this. Hopefully not thirty-eight years, but we have gone round and round and round, just like the children of Israel in the wilderness.
Until we come to know the frailty of our flesh, until we give up ourselves, until we accept what Christ has done on Calvary’s cross for us.
Notice these words of the apostle in Romans 6:
We were buried therefore with Him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
Colossians 3:3-4:
For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with Him be manifested in glory.
Galatians 2:20:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.
Now these verses become very real. We begin to look back to our baptism. Yes, perhaps after we were saved, if not on the very same day, we were baptized—probably within the month.
When you read the book of Acts, you find that on the very day they received the Lord, they were baptized. Now we look back to our baptism and begin to realize that we have done something, yet we did not realize what we had done.
Why were we baptized? What does baptism mean? Why did we go down into the water? Why did we come under the water? Why did we come out of the water?
It is because we died with Christ, were buried with Him, and were raised together with Him. That is what baptism means.
We look back and begin to realize that when Christ was crucified on the cross, He took us with Him. We were crucified with Christ.
We cannot crucify ourselves. There is no way. We do not need to, because two thousand years ago, when Christ was crucified, He took us in Him, and with Him we were crucified.
Therefore we went to baptism. Since we were dead, we were buried out of sight. Now it is no longer we who live; it is Christ who lives in us.
We are beginning to see that Christ is our life. Not only do we have the life of Christ; Christ is our life. This life is to live for us. We do not need to live any more. It is Christ who lives in us.
Dear brothers and sisters, Paul said, “O wretched man that I am! Who can deliver me from this body of death?”
We are told that perhaps it refers to a Roman punishment. A murderer would be tied to the body of the one whom he murdered, face to face. Gradually that corpse would corrupt, and the poison would enter into the criminal, and finally he would die.
That is what Paul means. “I try to free myself. I told him, ‘Get away from me.’ He is killing me. What can I do?” Then he immediately answered, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Our hope is in Christ. Dear brothers and sisters, how can we overcome the power of sin? By seeing that we were crucified with Him on the cross.
How can we be set free from the tyranny of self? By seeing that we were crucified. How can we be separated from the world? By seeing that the cross has crucified us.
It is the cross of our Lord Jesus, and it is His life in us that enables us to walk in newness of life. We have to see this.
Then you find another group of verses in Romans 8. Verse 1:
There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.
Verse 6:
For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace.
Not only in the negative sense, by seeing our co-crucifixion with Christ, are we delivered from the power of sin and sanctified, or set apart; but positively, we now find the law of the Spirit of life working in us in Christ Jesus.
Because we are in Christ Jesus, another law is now working in our life, and it is the law of the Spirit of life.
There are not many rules and regulations anymore. There is only one law, and it is the law of the Spirit of life.
If we mind the Spirit, the things of the Spirit, it gives us life and peace. If we mind the things of the flesh, then we immediately sense death within us.
Here we begin to move on to the positive side and begin to know how to live by life. The way to live by this new life is to follow the law of the Spirit of life.
If we follow the law of the Spirit of life, we live in life, and this life is resurrection life. We begin to experience peace within us.
We begin to find that this life is well able to do anything that God wants us to do. There is nothing that cannot be done. All things are possible to God, and all things are possible through Him who enables and empowers us.
So, brothers and sisters, we need to continue to grow and see more of this life. How can we know more of this life, the power of resurrection life? It is by following the law of the Spirit of life.
The Holy Spirit teaches us in our spirit. He is our law.
You do not need anyone to teach you, because the anointing within you will teach you in all things. As it teaches you and you follow Him, you experience life more abundantly. This is the way that we enter into life.
Then you find another set of Scriptures. I will mention one place: 2 Corinthians 4:10-13.
Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body.
For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, I believed, and therefore did I speak; we also believe, and therefore also we speak.
As we begin to know more of resurrection life through the law of the Spirit of life, then we enter into a deeper experience. The deeper experience is that we bear in our body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be manifested not only in us, but also in other people.
That refers to ministry. We know that 2 Corinthians 3 and 4 deal with ministry, and ministry is the imparting of life.
We need to impart life to other people, but how can we impart life unless we are willing to die daily? We must be willing to bear in our body the dying of Jesus.
For Jesus’ sake, we are willing to be delivered unto death through the discipline of the Holy Spirit. Our vessel will be broken.
God will raise up circumstances to break that earthen vessel so that the radiance of the treasure within the vessel may be manifested.
Dear brothers and sisters, as we know more of life, you will find that it is not for ourselves; it is for the body of Christ.
We begin to realize that many experiences God has allowed us to go through are not because of us. They are because of the Body’s sake. We will be willing to give ourselves completely to the Lord, for Him to break us and use us, at whatever cost, that the body of Christ may be built up.
Just like Paul said, “I fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body’s sake, which is the church.”
This is getting closer and closer to what we would call apostolic life. Apostolic life is a life completely given over to God, poured out for completing the body of Christ.
Finally, we find other verses in 2 Corinthians 5:4:
For indeed we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed, but that we would be clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life.
One day, even this mortal body will be swallowed up by life. Today, this mortal body has not become immortal yet, but even in this mortal body, according to Romans 8, it can be quickened by the Spirit of life.
One day this mortal body will be swallowed up by life. We will put on an immortal body, a body of glory, just like our Lord Jesus in His resurrection. At that time, life will be fully manifested.
Through the writings of Paul, we find that he is a person who knows very much about life—what life really is: life in Christ, Christ as life, Christ living in him, the law of the Spirit of life, and the life of Christ in other people.
All these things are the experiences of Paul. No wonder a person who knows life in such a way is a vessel of choice to God.
Not only justification, not only sanctification by the cross, but also glorification through the Spirit. Here you find life. It is all before God.
So, dear brothers and sisters, this is my feeling and my prayer: we too are vessels of choice to God.
Whatever the measure may be, we are vessels of honor, vessels of mercy, vessels of choice. Thank God, He has something for us.
God is going to use us in His way, in different capacities. We believe that. He wants to fill us. He wants to use us.
For this reason, how much more attention we need to pay to this matter of life.
What about our life? Do we have a hidden life with Christ? Do we find our life hidden with Christ in God? Are we seeking the things above?
When the Spirit of God is moving in us, what is our reaction? When the discipline of the Holy Spirit comes upon us, what is our reaction?
All these are very practical things that we really need to consider very seriously before the Lord. Unless we have a solid life with the Lord, we will not be able to fulfill God’s purpose in choosing us.
So may the Lord help us. Shall we pray?
Our heavenly Father, as we think of Thy mercy and grace, we marvel. Who are we that Thou wouldst choose us? Yet Thou hast chosen us as vessels of honor, vessels of mercy, vessels of glory.
Oh, as we think of Thy election, we cannot but worship Thee. Lord, as we look into our condition, we see and feel that our life is so often so young, so poor, so immature, and so unlearned.
How can we expect Thy very purpose to be fully realized in these vessels? So we cry to Thee in Thy name.
Show us more of Thy life. Deliver us from all that is not life. Deliver us from ourselves, that we may not be deceived.
Thou knowest that we are reduced to almost nothing. Well, maybe so. But may we truly live Thy life, and through life minister unto Thee and unto Thy church.
We ask in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.