Well, I had the most questions because everybody wanted to know more about the earthen vessel. And, of course, you can see how long it takes me to get my earthen vessel up here these days, so I am familiar with this problem.
I think we have a hard time accepting that we are just an earthen vessel. But in the questions, well, here is one:
You mentioned in your message 2 Corinthians 4:7, which states that we have these earthen vessels and are subject to their frailties—physical, psychological, et cetera. However, 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away.” How can we reconcile the old things having passed away with the frailties of the earthen vessel that never changes?
What are the old things that have passed away? Well, I used to be ugly, but then I got saved. Suddenly, I became a handsome man.
We are not talking about outward things. The old that has passed away is talking about the old man, with his old attitudes and his old concepts and his propensity for sin. These things have passed away.
In the context of 2 Corinthians 5:17, the application is that you should not look at anyone according to the flesh. That is old stuff. You need to treat your brothers and sisters as a new creation in Christ and be an ambassador of reconciliation. That is all in that context.
But now, dealing with the earthen vessel, I know I almost gave permission for some people to bellyache about their problems: “Oh, my anxieties. Let me tell you my problems,” you know.
The earthen vessel is, as Paul would put it here, neutral. It is not good or bad. It is your human humanness. You were made out of clay, and you are an earthen vessel. Now, it is not to in any way excuse your neuroses, your hypochondria, or anything like that.
But when he mentions the fact that he is just an earthen vessel, he is mentioning it because his life is an obvious paradox. If you listened to what I said last night, this new creation is a paradox. How could such a normal clay human being convey such a glorious treasure? It just does not make sense. There must be something more to this man than what meets the eye.
Now, taking Paul himself, there is an interesting book written in the second century AD called The Acts of Paul and Thecla. I will not get much into that, except that it says Titus gave Thecla a description of what Paul looked like because she was waiting for him on the Roman road. Scholars say there is no reason they would not have known what Paul looked like in those days; it had just never been mentioned in the Bible.
According to this book, Paul was of short stature. He was bald. His eyebrows came together. His eyes were set deep, and he had a long, crooked nose. He had bow legs, but he was strong in physique. And the grace of God was upon him, because sometimes he had the face of a man and sometimes the face of an angel.
Now, how do you reconcile that except by the miracle of the new creation? Here is a short guy, and you would not notice him twice if you saw him on the road. But then he begins to speak, and a glorious something comes out—a gospel of life, even a touch of healing, or whatever it is, out of this earthen vessel.
And so we are dealing with a paradox, brothers and sisters. The idea is not for you to say, “Oh, I am just an earthen vessel full of aches and pains and neuroses and complaints and anxieties and everything,” you know.
This present millennial generation, as young adults, is dealing with more and more anxiety than we have ever known in our lifetime. As an old guy, I grew up with a father who was a psychiatrist. I did not know what was going on in me. When I was afraid, I was afraid, but I did not know I was afraid. Kids today know that they are afraid, understand why they are afraid, and notice the psychology of being afraid.
So kids today become so self-centered in their own feelings. You know what I mean? I fell down, I cut myself, I went home, I was okay. Now you cut yourself, and you fall apart.
Now, all of these things have happened. So when we are dealing with our present generation, you know, they are a bundle of neuroses. And the Lord saves them, and they become a new creation. They become a paradox.
Why? Because here is the deal: we are just earthen vessels, but by faith in Christ we live a life that overcomes despite our earthiness.
What does it mean to overcome? I may be physically weak, but I stand up and, by the faith of God, I say, “Lord Jesus, be my healing today, so that I might share the things You have for me to share.” And you trust the Lord that He will come through an earthen vessel.
Just as it says in Revelation 12, we overcome by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of our testimony, and we are not afraid to lay down our lives. So we, as earthen vessels, do not just lie on a couch, vegging out as an earthen vessel. No. By faith in Christ, I say, “I have a purpose in God.”
If I have a physical limitation and I have to stay at home, still I claim that I have a calling in my life. I pursue it, and just in that very pursuit, I overcome. That is the paradox.
Paul talks about the whole basis for that thorn in the flesh. Paul says, “Now I want to boast about a man, a man in Christ, I knew fourteen years ago, who got caught up into paradise and heard things that he cannot even relate to human beings. Now, I will not talk about myself, but I will talk about that man”—full of ecstasy.
Then the Lord saw that man and said, “I have to remind him of something. You are just an earthen vessel, Paul. Do not get all caught up in your magnificent visions.” So here you go: the stake in the side.
Suddenly, Paul is back to where you and I are, with hopeless dependence upon the Lord Jesus for our life and our resurrection power. By faith, we take hold of it.
Wherever you are, whatever your problems, whatever your weaknesses—and those things are often very legitimate—you must remember this: as a born-again person, there is a deeper layer of your life than you immediately are aware of.
Let us turn to Psalm 42. Now, you know I have four questions in six minutes, so I may just answer one question here, but here we go.
We are all familiar with this Sons of Korah song:
As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So my soul pants for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;
When shall I come and appear before God?
My tears have been my food day and night,
While they say to me all day, “Where is your God?”
These things I remember and pour out my soul within me;
For I used to go along with the throng
And lead them in procession to the house of God,
With a voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you in despair, O my soul?
Why have you become disturbed within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him
For the help of His presence.
Now, let us put it this way: the earthen vessel has a soul, and in that soul are emotions. Probably the emotions are the most undependable part of our soul.
When a person has soulish problems, emotional problems of various kinds, there come many, many moments in their lives where they cannot feel God. Your emotions have been nixed by your anxieties or by your fears. Something has made those emotions undependable.
This psalm is actually—not that we are not supposed to hunger after God—but it is not fainting as a deer: “Oh, where is God? I need a drink of water so bad, so bad.” Well, now this is our emotions, and we cannot feel God. “I cannot feel God. I cannot feel God.”
Then, in the midst of the thing, the Sons of Korah come back to a deeper layer they have within them. There is a deep stream of the Spirit that lies in the life of a believer. Finally, the spirit rises up and says, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God.”
What is happening here is that the Christian has found the spirit speaking deep within and correcting the soul’s faulty emotions. Whether you feel God is there or not, He is there.
When your soul gets out of its season of trial, suddenly you sense His presence again, even in your soul. We are meant to experience God in body, soul, emotions, intellect, and will. But when we go through trials, often we lose that emotion. Then we think something is wrong.
Then we discover that our spirit all the time knows that God is real, God is with you, and God is there. “Why are you cast down, O my soul? Now listen, soul. You have run me long enough. I am going to be run by the Holy Spirit who lives within.” And you overcome.
So the life of a new creation is a paradox, because despite our infirmities and our weaknesses, we are always able to overcome by faith. It is a life of faith.
I remember one time Lance said that, when he was a teenager, he used to go to a famous Baptist church in London. One time they had a victory conference there. You know, the Keswick teaching has victory conferences, and they talk about coming through to victory in the Lord and all that.
Lance went up and spoke to Alan Redpath, the pastor. He said, “You know, I do not know the victory everybody is talking about. I do not feel like I have victory. I have questions. I do not have victory.”
And do you know what the pastor said? “Well, we all claim we have victory, but none of us feel that way either.”
But now, I do not want to totally kibosh it, because what they are saying is that by faith we stand in the victory even when we do not feel it. The Lord confirms that He has gained the victory if we will stand in that way. You understand what I am saying?
When we talk about walking in victory, now, you know, back in the old days I was a charismatic. Everybody came up to you: “Hey, how are you doing, brother? Praise the Lord! How are you? Praise the Lord! I hear your dog died.” “Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Everything is fine. Praise the Lord!”
You know, there was a little bit of unreality there. I do not know if you picked it up.
Now, the Lord does not want us dragging around, and every time somebody asks, “How are you?” you say, “You got an hour and a half?”
Because this world just wants to hear that you are fine. They go by outward appearances, and sometimes if they see that you do not have an outward appearance that looks like you are happy, they ask you what is wrong.
Now, if you say, “You know, I am going through a difficult time spiritually, but I am trusting God,” they might not like that answer. They want you to say, “Oh no, I am fine. Everything is fine. Yeah, yeah, everything is fine.”
But, you know, a Christian goes through seasons where everything is not fine. Do you trust Him in those times?
You may be somebody who, because of your makeup as an earthen vessel, has emotional swings and ups and downs for your whole life—a sine curve of joy and emotion and depression. This may be your course, and this course is not going to change. When you get saved, the sine curve does not level out to a line.
But in those moments where you go down into depression, if you have learned and lived with the Lord long enough, you will learn: when I cannot even pray, the Lord is praying with me.
One of our favorite psalms is Psalm 103, right?
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
Then it says down there in Psalm 103:13 that God is merciful to us because He knows our frame; we are but dust.
Do you not know God knows your frame? Do you think He says, “Oh, you did not say, ‘Praise the Lord, I am living in victory today’”? No, no. He knows your frame. He just says, “Are you weak and weary? Come unto Me. I will give you rest. Do you not have an answer for the problem you are going through? Come to Me. I will be your answer. I will tell you, but hang in here with Me. We will get through this together.”
See, Paul, when he talks about God coming as a Comforter, says He is a God of mercies and a God of comfort, because He comes and comforts us with those problems that we have that defy easy answers.
Oh, listen, dear earthen vessels. There will come a day, in the twinkling of an eye, when the corruptible will put on incorruption, and the inglorious will put on glory. You and I will be earthen vessels transformed in glory, even as our Lord Jesus, and we will not have to deal with all these frailties of our earthen vessel.
But until that day, we have to overcome by faith. The Lord knows your frame. The Lord has supply for that which you need.
Our dear brothers and sisters who wrote all those great hymns we sing have all been through the mill of difficulties and everything. I do not know—the name has escaped me right now—but who was the dear sister in India who was bedridden for years? Amy Carmichael.
When you read her writings, see her poems, and sing her songs, can you believe that woman was bedridden for twenty-five years and ministered in that position?
Just an earthen vessel, consecrated to the Lord. If you had visited that dear sister, you could have gone into that little house where she stayed in India, with all that work going on and everything God had done out of that woman, out of the frail woman’s vision.
You go in and look at this dear sister who has been lying there twenty-five years, and she has the face of an angel. She has overcome.
Just an earthen vessel, but believing that there is a treasure inside. Do you believe Christ dwells in you, that you have an incomparable treasure inside?
Sometimes God has to squeeze you. Again, like all our kids now in the Manhattan Fellowship, who have these squeeze juices—it is not even juice; it is some kind of slimy stuff they are eating all the time. We are just earthen vessels, and God gives us a little squeeze, and out comes that wonderful mango ooze.
Oh, listen. I guarantee you, you have a treasure because Christ dwells in you. If you will just submit your mortal body, as weak and frail and fraught as it is, He will find a way of squeezing treasure out of you.
People will say, “You see that woman? She is a walking paradox. She should be dismayed. She should be depressed. She should be just staying at home or quitting, but she is not. She is pressing on. She is finding reason to be alive and serve.”
Oh, may you be a paradox that the world cannot understand—just an earthen vessel like them, but living such a different life.
I sometimes like reading John Piper. He is a very precious brother, and he said this one time: Christians, in the midst of difficulties, are not supposed to live a different life that is just a life of happiness. The Christian life is not a life of total happiness all the time: “Praise the Lord, everything is fine.”
A Christian faces problems with a whole different attitude. When your work associates see the way you handle the problems in your earthen vessel, it is a testimony that there is something in you that they may desire.
So there we are: the earthen vessel. Well, I have one question, two questions, three questions, four questions, five questions. Earthen vessels, you contain a treasure. Do not lie there and bemoan your earthiness.
If you are young and healthy and strong, thank God for the strength of your youth, and serve the Lord in the strength of your youth. If you are frail and feeble, and it is hard to even get around, stand up by the grace of God and let the Lord use you to the capacity He wants to use you.
Remember, all you need to do is be obedient to that spirit within. When your soul gets downcast, remember that your spirit overcomes by faith.
What is the victory that overcomes the world? Even our faith. What He means by that is our spirit rising up through our soul with the truth: “I am in Christ. I am a vessel of Christ. I stand under His precious blood.”
By the way, our earthen vessels, even on this earth, do change somewhat. In the presence of the Lord, there is healing power.
I wish I could tell you the story of A. B. Simpson, but all I am going to say is this: the famous guy who wrote, “Once it was the blessing, now it is the Lord”—here is what he learned. He kept seeking God for healing in his life because he had chronic fatigue syndrome. It caused him, at thirty-two years old, to have to leave the ministry.
He sought healing and healing and healing, and one day the Lord came to him and said, “I am not going to heal you, but you can take Me as your healing.”
From that day on, he did not claim he ever got healed, but that he had Christ dwelling in him as his Healer. He served the Lord for another fifty years in the power of God through Jesus, his healing.
When Jesus’ presence is within you, there is a certain healing presence there. The Bible says that the Spirit of God, when we walk in the Spirit, is able to quicken our mortal bodies.
So I am not going to say the earthen vessel just remains unchanged. I tell you what, even in my condition, as my earthen vessel, I want the presence of Christ in my life because it is my healing. It is my grace, and I am able to do whatever I can do. If His presence was not there, I am sure I would fall apart.
How about you? Do you realize you are being carried on by the grace of God? You see a testimony even this weekend of a brother who is going to be one hundred and five years old pretty soon. What is carrying him on? What do you think?
Just an earthen vessel, consecrated to the Lord. What do you see? Resurrection. Glory. Face of an angel? I do not know about that.
But it is wonderful to know that we are all like that because Christ dwells within.
Lord, help us to live fully before You. Help us not to be so overly concerned and obsessed with our earthen vessel, but to realize that You are working from inside out—spirit, soul, through body.
You want us to lay hold of the Christ within as our source of life and all. Teach us these wonderful lessons day by day. In Jesus’ name we pray.