Truth Archive

There’s a verse in II Corinthians 4:7, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.” We have this treasure in earthen vessels. It’s really a very amazing thing that God would entrust to us the treasures of heaven, the treasure of salvation and all that accompanies salvation in this life and then all eternity. He puts the most valuable things in all eternity into earthen vessels, into our hearts, into our lives. To me, it’s an amazing thing. I’m very sure that when we have something of value at home, we would seek to put it in a very safe place where it is well kept and kept safe and guarded and there is no danger of losing it. You wouldn’t put something very precious or something very valuable onto just a vase on a mantelpiece because the local bank most likely will find a vault somewhere and with a key that would shut it and shut it very well.

Things that are of great value, we put it in a very safe place and to me that’s our earthen vessels, our lives, our hearts, our whole being are not very safe. We know the enemy can break in just so easily and make inroads into our lives and rob us of what God has given us and wants to give us, even in future days. To me, the amazing thing that God entrusts us with just so much. He trusts us with salvation, He trusts us with His love, with His mercy, with His peace, with His joy, with His rest, with just so much, He puts all that into these earthen vessels of ours and to me it’s amazing thing that God so much trust in us because, who are we? We know our tendencies, we know our human nature, we know what we do and how we fail, how we’re weak in so many avenues of life, yet God trusts us. He gives us just so much, something of great value, with the most precious thing in the whole world, that is salvation.

Here in this verse, it says earthen vessels, in our lives. The question arises, where was it before it was in this earthen vessel? The treasure, salvation, the riches of eternity, the riches of heaven, where were they before they were found in our hearts, in our soul, in our being? We have the answer in Matthew 13. We read there about a treasure hid in the field, which a man found, and sold all that he had, to buy that field. We know this parable very well, we’ve heard it many, many times, spoken about in Gospel Meetings about this treasure hid in field. But before it is in our hearts, in our lives, in our beings, it’s there in the field. The question arises, what is then the field, spiritually speaking? Where do we find this field and what is this field? For me, it just simply is this, the field is the Will of God. We find wonderful treasures and priceless things, things of great value, for this life and for all eternity, in the Will of God. This man, who saw this field, who saw the possibilities here for this treasure, he realised that it’s worth more than everything I have.

He may have possessed many things, we do not know, he could have possessed a house, land, animals, we do not know. He said one thing, this particular field with all its possibilities, its potential, the treasure in there is of more value than anything else in my life and was prepared to sell everything to buy that Will, buy that field. When I think of the Will of God being like that field, where these treasures are hidden, what is the price? Very simply, it’s our will for His Will. We give up our will to accept God’s Will. That give us this field, this treasure in the field, treasure in the Will of God. It became very clear to me, thinking about the meeting this morning and trying to prepare over the last day or two that actually there many fields in life for God’s people, many experiences. There are good experiences, pleasant experiences, happy experiences. There are also difficult times, dark times, hard times, there’s sorrow and suffering and misunderstandings and injustices and all the rest of it. There are all these types of experiences in our life as a child of God and in every field and every experience, there is a treasure. There can something very hard, something very difficult, can be an injustice, can be a wrongdoing, all sorts of experiences, but can we remember that also here there is a treasure to be found. So often, we don’t find the treasure in the different fields or different experiences in our life. We can get caught up with negative side, with the suffering and with the pain and loss. We don’t see, here is a treasure, something to be gained, something to be won, something to possess in our lives. In every field, there is a treasure, because it is in the Will of God. If we are in the Will of God, God allows different experiences in our lives, and as I said before, not always pleasant ones, sometimes difficult ones and hard ones, misunderstandings, God allows them. The thought in mind, in every experience, there is a treasure, but it’s up to us to find the treasure. Something of value, something really priceless can be found in every experience and so often, we just miss finding the treasure.

When we think of the life of Job in the Old Testament, we read about Job in recent times, we know the stories so well of what Job went through. No one suffers, here in this country, I venture to say, like Job suffered. Losing everything, losing all his possessions, all his goods, losing all his family, except for his wife and even she misunderstood what was happening and she told him to curse God and to die. He lost his health and sat there in pain, in agony, for a length of time, it couldn’t be a worse situation, such as this experience. He was being tested, he was being tried, he was being proved, the enemy was being so cruel, and God allowed it. It wasn’t of God, but God allowed this experience. We read there in the Book of Job that Job said, later in that Book, that I know the day will come when I shall come forth as gold. He realised, even in this, there’s so much loss and so much pain, so much misunderstanding and everything seemed to be going wrong, but somewhere, somehow there’s going to be gold in this. There’s a treasure here and one day I’ll find that treasure, “I shall come forth as gold,” this is what Job said. He found the treasure in that experience.

We’ve heard in these meetings about Jesus. About Jesus being there in the garden and Jesus prayed the same prayer three times, we read of Jesus there in agony, stress and wrestling and doing his very best to say, “Not My will but Thy will be done.” It was a struggle, a desperate struggle, one of the greatest struggles of His life, there in the garden, before going to Calvary’s cross to give His life. There to find the willingness there to yield, there to surrender, there to say to God, “Not My will, but Thy will be done.” For sure, His will was a good will, but it wasn’t God’s will. Here was Jesus, wrestling with Himself, wrestling with His own reasonings and His own thoughts and His own will to come to the place where He could say, “Not My will, but Thy will be done.”

In this struggle, in this experience, so difficult, so hard, all alone, left alone by His own disciples, left alone to pray and agonise in the garden, there was a treasure. It was the most wonderful treasure, and the treasure was salvation for all mankind. So much came out of that prayer, out of that agonising, out of that suffering, drops of perspiration, like drops of blood from his brow, what resulted from all that, was salvation for all mankind. If He had not found the willingness to go to Calvary’s cross, where would we be today? In that experience, there was a treasure. So, it’s a great thing to understand that, no matter what happens in life, if we are in the Will of God, if we are doing the will of God, there is a treasure to be found. It may seem negative, it may seem wrong, it may seem unjust, it may seem a very strange thing where we’re going through, but somewhere in there, there is a treasure to be found. A treasure to be put into our earthen vessel and enrich us in this life and for all eternity.

I look back over my own life, my own experience in the service of God, in the harvest field and it’s been my privilege to labour in a number of countries, over there in Europe mainly. I’ve asked myself sometimes, “What was the main, principal lesson I have learnt in each country?” I have found the answer each time. For me, those lessons I have learnt, a lesson in Switzerland, a lesson in Italy, a lesson in Holland, a lesson in Germany, a lesson even in Haiti in the Caribbean, I found I learned something, and those things have been like treasures in my earthen vessel. There’s not time to share them this morning, what they are, but they mean so much to me. Going through things which cost me a lot to do, all those different changes, but seeing it was the Will of God, there was a treasure to be found. Let us understand and realise that when things don’t seem to be going very well or when things are going wrong, let us understand that somewhere here hidden in this field, in this experience, there is something very valuable which we can learn and gain for ourselves, enrich our soul and enrich us for all eternity, in every field, there is a treasure. It says here, that we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. It’s not about the vessel, it’s about the treasure, that’s the important thing. It’s not about the vessel, it’s not about our human lives, not about our human being, not about what we are or what we might not be, what matters here is the treasure.

For example, if we’re going to the shops somewhere or out in the field somewhere and pick some flowers or buy some flowers, some very nice flowers, some very pretty flowers. We take them home, a very nice bouquet of flowers, we then look for vase, we look for a vessel to put those flowers into. We pick a vase for that bouquet of flowers, for what reason? That we might see the vase? So that the vase might be very evident, for those that might come into the home for a visit or those that live there, to see the vase and say what a beautiful vase? No, we find a vessel that would portray the beauty of the flowers for it’s not about the vase, it’s about the flowers. You would arrange the flowers in such a way, in such a manner that the flowers can be seen, their beauty would be evident, their prettiness and so forth, for it’s not about the vase, it’s about the flowers, it’s about the treasure, it’s not about our lives, our human lives, it’s not what we might be.

Some may be very intelligent, some may be less intelligent, some may be Doctors, Engineers, Professors, some maybe rubbish collectors, it doesn’t matter, it’s about the treasure, not about our human lives. Some may be healthy, some may be less healthy, some may have wonderful health and no pain, others may have lots of pain, it’s not about that, it’s about the treasure in our lives. It’s not about who we are or where we have come from, which nation or what language we speak, it’s not about that at all, it’s about the treasure in our lives, what God wants to give to us. If we rich or poor, if we are old or young, intelligent or less intelligent, it doesn’t really matter, what really matters is all about the treasure that God has to give and wants to put in our lives. Some are successful, some have become rich, others have remained poor, it’s not about that at all. It’s about the treasure in our lives, the Spirit of God, the word of God and what God has to give through the Word of God and through His Spirit, it’s all about the treasure and not about the vessel and not about the vase.

We’ve heard, in these meetings about Martha and Mary. There in that home, there was Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to His words. There was Martha being cumbered about with serving and very concerned with preparing and providing a meal for the disciples, she says to Jesus, “Mary is sitting there doing nothing, my sister, she’s not helping me, I need some help!” She was told by Jesus, she was concerned and worried about many things, but one thing is needful. I would just like to emphasise, that what Martha was doing was not unimportant, it was important. Someone had to think about that meal for all those men, someone had to find the necessary things to prepare a meal, it was important, it wasn’t unimportant, it belonged to this visit. Those men also may have come to be fed and nourished, they had possibly been travelling and here were 13 men and possibly 13 men that could have been hungry, it was important to have meal sometime during that visit there in that home. It wasn’t unimportant, it was important, but Jesus stressed that only one thing was needful. It’s not about the vessel, it’s not about the vase, it’s about the treasure, that is the most important thing. Here in that very home with Martha and Mary, it wasn’t about the meal, it wasn’t about preparing the vegetables or meat or whatever it may have been, it was about sitting at the feet of Jesus, but what she did was not unimportant, it was important, but only, only one thing was needful.

Many, many things in life are important and even, very important, it’s important to go to school, very important to go to school to learn. It’s important even perhaps to study to go to University, it’s important to learn some trade or some profession. We have to live in this life, it’s important to earn money, to have a place to live, when we leave home. It’s also important, to get married, not unimportant, to have a partner, to have husband or wife in this life. It’s not unimportant, it’s very important. Others can perhaps start up a business on their own, it’s not unimportant, it is important, others become professional people, we’re very grateful for the medical professions, those who become Doctors and Nurses, it’s all very important. All that happens in life where we may be occupied, it is important, but only one thing is needful and sometimes we forget that and here was Martha, what she was doing, what she was concerned about, it was not unimportant, but only one thing is needful. It’s just so very hard sometimes to get things in the right balance and there are important things, very important things. Parents care for their children, there must be food on the table, clothes for their children, a roof over their heads, all that is very important, but only one thing is needful. It’s not about the vase, it’s not about the vessel, it’s about the treasure in the vessel, that is the most important thing.

In the Bible, there is a parable, it’s about a great Supper that a man had prepared. He invited people to that supper. One man said, “I bought some land and I’ve got to go and see it.” Another man said, “I have bought some oxen and must go and try them, I cannot come.” A third man said, “I have married a wife, I cannot come.” This was a supper, this was an invitation, this was a very noble person who gave the inviting, this was very important, but these other three men found other things more important. There was this man who bought this land and thought, “I must go and see it, it’s my possession, I’ve paid money for it, it’s cost me something and I must go and see how everything is with that land.” It was important, but he forgot that only one thing was needful.

It came to mind, today or was it yesterday, about a particular person over there in Europe and this man had his own home, he had garden at the back of the house, perhaps a lawn at the front of the house, he was living in suburb of the city. It come to convention time he said, “I’m very sorry, I can’t come to convention this year, because there in my back garden, I’ve got some berry fruit growing and it’s ripe just at convention time. If I don’t pick those berries, at convention time, they will be lost. The birds will come and eat them or otherwise they’ll all rot and for that reason, I can’t come to convention, I have to pick these berries in my garden.” What he possessed was hindering him from enjoying the very best. It sounds ridiculous, it sounds really unreasonable what he did in the eyes of God, in the light of eternity, but just because of a few berries, there in the back garden, he didn’t come to convention, what he possessed was a hinderance. We may possess many things in life, but it’s good to consider matters. Is it my farm, is it my business, is it my car, is it any other things that I possess in life? Are they really helping me or hindering me to obtain this treasure in my heart in my spirit in my life? It’s good to look at things with a very open mind. What has first place in my heart? What is really very needful? As far as I am concerned.

This second man had to try his oxen, this was his occupation, to work with oxen, possibly to plough fields or draw carts or for some useful purpose. He said, “I can’t come because of that.” What he was doing was his hinderance. Again, something comes to my mind, and it’s going back a number of years, over there in Europe at Convention. One man gave his testimony and of all that convention I’ve forgotten everything else except his testimony and I’ll tell you what it was but first of all I’ll fill you in on the background. This man was dedicated to caring for people, he was in the medical profession. As the case was there with this particular man, he was the ambulance driver and the ambulance belonged to him. He was the one that was called upon when there was an accident, he was the one that they called on if someone had a heart attack or if someone needed to be transported to hospital. I’ve been with him in his home on a Sunday morning, when it’s time for the meeting and the meeting was going on in his home and all of a sudden, the phone would ring as there had been an accident and up he would jump and leave the meeting and get into his ambulance and go to where the accident took place. It was important for him to do that, it was his life, he was very dedicated to it and he missed many a meeting. Sometimes he got only half a meeting, sometimes no meeting whatsoever because of the health care in the community. It was something very, very good, something very helpful, he was giving a good service there in the community, he was well cared for and liked because of it and held in high esteem because of it.

Now as an old man, retired and no longer the ambulance, no longer the care for the sick and the injured and so forth, eventually he gives his testimony and he says he looks back over 30 wasted years, “This is my first full convention in 30 years,” the regret he had in his life. He only lived another year or two after that, he was a faithful man, a true man, he loved the way of God and loved the little church in his home. He had great respect for the workers, the servants of God. He was a very generous man, did all he could to be a help to others but because of something good, he missed the very best. At the end of his life, he said, “This is the first time in 30 years I’ve had a full convention, they are 30 wasted years.” Like the man that said, “I’ve bought some oxen, I must go and try them.” It was very important to him and they had first place in his life. It’s not about the vase, not about the vessel, it’s not about our business, not about our home, not about what we possess in life, or what we do in life, it’s about the treasures in our life, in our heart, in our soul, very, very, important.

Then, the third man, he said, “I can’t come because I’ve married a wife.” He married the wrong woman, quite simply that! Because she didn’t want to go either apparently, it’s just so necessary to make the right choice as far as marriage is concerned. There is a Proverb that comes from Japan, I heard this many years ago from a brother worker who laboured in Japan, he said, “You can marry a pretty face, but you live with the mind.” There is some truth to that, too. It’s just to say this particular man, he married the wrong woman, so he couldn’t go to the feast, it’s just so important to consider, when we look for a partner in life, is it of God? Will it help my soul’s salvation, will it enrichen my life as far as God is concerned and as far as eternity are concerned? It’s so important to make the right choice and it’s just so easy it seems to me to make the wrong choice in this respect. It needs a lot of prayer and a lot of care and a lot of time, a lot of thought getting God’s mind on the matter. This man missed the feast because he married the wrong woman. There’s treasure in the earthen vessels in every aspect of this treasure in earthen vessels and I will try and explain it in a way that it appeals to me. For me my eyes and my sight are very important, I realise the day may come when I lose my sight, I have no guarantee that my sight will remain for the rest of my life. What time remains as far as life and time are concerned, I do not know. I am glad for the care of specialists and those that know how to handle such matters, but it is a very precious thing, for me especially.

My own father was blind for the last 9 years of his life, unfortunately it was his own fault because he neglected what was wrong with his eyes. To see my father blind, I was there on a home visit once and went to visit him and there he was in the care home. One day, he said to me, “How long have I been blind?” I said to him, “Father it’s been 8 years.” All he said to me was, “I hope it’s not another 8 years,” and then he died a year later, age of 96. He realised too late, just how valuable his sight was and he neglected it in a certain sense. Sight is a treasure, sight is valuable, sight is very, very, precious. Even our hearing is a very important thing, from the aspect of our lives.

There is a person I knew over there in Switzerland, she was an elderly person, a grandmother. She was 90 years of age and we sat around that table for a meal from time to time, may have been 8 or 9 around the table. It was a happy time a joyful time, there was conversation, there was happiness and there was laughter, just a happy time around that table. But many a time during that meal, this grandmother would get up from the table and leave the room because she was stone deaf, just couldn’t hear what was going on. She saw the happy faces and saw the joyful faces, saw the sparkling eyes, she saw the happiness around the table, she had no part in it because she could not hear, being stone deaf, and hearing is also something very valuable. You may feel there are other things that can be like a treasure in our hearts and lives, in our being, in our earthen vessel, but there is something more important and that is our soul. Our soul is worth more than our sight, more than our hearing, our soul is the most important aspect of our lives, this is something that is going to live forever, for all eternity. Jesus tried to show when he spoke these things, just how important, how precious and how valuable our soul is. He said one day, “What can a man give in exchange for his soul?” Is there anything which is more important than a soul?

Can you find anything anywhere, which might be very, very, valuable that can be given in exchange for a soul, and of course, the answer is nothing, nothing can be given in exchange for our soul. It is the most valuable, most precious thing we have in this life. Then he said also, the very same word wasn’t it, “What profit is a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” He said even a whole world, it is not worth it, he might be the richest man in the world, and even more than that. If it were possible to possess the whole world, all the riches, all the possessions, everything, everywhere in every country, he had all of that he said, “… and lose your own soul, it’s just not worth it.” He is trying to show the value of our soul. I don’t neglect my eyes, I don’t neglect my hearing, I don’t neglect my health, as far as I know. I will tell you I do all I can to maintain my health, but I am inclined to neglect my soul, the most valuable part and the most precious part of my whole being, it’s just so easy to neglect our soul, the only thing we can save for all eternity. We can’t save anything else, we lose everything else. We lose our health, we lose our sight, we lose our hearing, we lose our lives, we lose our homes, we lose our businesses, we lose our bank account, we even lose our earthly family, we lose everything in this life, then at the end, when death comes in, there is only one thing that will remain and that is our soul, and is our soul prepared for all eternity. Does our soul possess this treasure, this salvation, this one thing that is valuable as far as life is concerned?

My second year in Switzerland, we had a mission, we had a mission in a portable hall. It was up there in the Jura mountains, there were no friends in that vicinity, we were alone my companion and myself in that mission. We had a few souls come and one soul made her choice to serve God. A mother of a young family, she had three young boys, they were still preschool at that time. This particular mother back in 1965 it must have been, she made her choice to serve God, and it was just this year she was laid to rest. A faithful soul and down through the years, decade after decade there were only two for the Sunday morning meeting, only two, herself and another person in a neighbouring village. She and the other person kept true down through the decades. Just earlier this year, her health declined at over 90 years of age and she went into eternity, a faithful soul. But back when she first came to meetings, she told me one day, all those years ago, she said just recently I was very ill, I had to go to hospital and I knew it was very serious and my health was just hanging by a thread and she said to herself, “I just have to come home again because of my family, my boys need me, they’re just so young still, I don’t dare to die, I’ve got to come home again,” that was her cry. She went off to hospital and I believe an operation and just wavering there between life and death, and the thought came, “I must get better, I must regain my health, I must regain strength to return home.”

No, it wasn’t that thought now, in the face of death, in the light of eternity, feeling at the end of her life, she said she felt one thing and asked herself one question, “Am I ready? Is my soul ready to meet my Maker?” Under such circumstances, she understood the value of her soul and shortly after that we came to that little mountain village to have Gospel meetings and she came. One meeting there, we spoke about the peace of God and going out after the meeting, she said with tears streaming down her face, “I want this peace, I must have this peace, I need this peace in my soul.” It wasn’t about the family, it wasn’t about the farm, it wasn’t about the animals or work on the farm, it was about the treasure in the earthen vessel. I hope we can realise more than ever when we leave convention again, it’s not about the earthen vessel, it’s there, there are important things, and very important things in life, they have to be done, we have certain tasks in life, duties in life and we have to fulfil them, we’re in a community, we’re in a family, or in a business, wherever we may be, there are important things there, but only one thing is needful. That’s what Mary found at the feet of Jesus, it’s not about the vessel, it’s about the treasure in the vessel. May God help us to appreciate more and more our soul and appreciate our salvation for this soul.