What type of vessel are you?

What type of vessel are you?

Thursday, June 4, 2009

God’s election of us, and His molding us into an honorable vessel, is based on the fact that God knew our free will decisions in advance, and based on His foreknowledge of our volition towards His Plan, He went forward and transformed us in a certain way.

It is not ability that God is looking for, it’s availability!
It is positive choices toward His Will and His Word that God can then use.

MAT 10:32 "Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.

MAT 9:9 As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man called Matthew, sitting in the tax collector’s booth; and He said to him, "Follow Me!" And he got up and followed Him.

JOH 10:27-28 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.

When man objects to the printout of all his free-will decisions in light of election and predestination, he fails to realize that his own volition determines his exclusion from the blessings of God.

Man’s irresponsibility and depravity is never more dramatically portrayed than when he seeks to blame God for his own thoughts, decisions, and actions.

God’s obligation is to Himself. God’s obligation is to His policy - grace. God does not make an exception for the nicest person who ever lived, the sweetest personality, the most sincere, the kindest, etc… He simply honours the vessel who honours Him.

Man is always trying to bend God to his own thinking and then saying, “This is God’s will.”

This is a picture of the person who is ignorant of God’s hand upon them, and they are in denial, thinking they are self-sufficient and even self-created!

God has the authority, but that isn’t the issue. The issue is, does the individual pot recognize divine authority?
Does the individual pot make decisions compatible with divine authority?

God has done everything He can to save mankind, but free-will is the issue, therefore the reality is;
Vs 22 - vessels of wrath are unbelievers and in vs. 23 - vessels of mercy are believers.

In ACT 9:15 we have the doctrine of election related to a vessel.

ACT 9:15 But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument [same word used in Rom 9 (skeuos) = vessel] of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel;

The word “vessel” always means a container. It is empty until it is filled and once Paul was filled with the 40 grace gifts and Bible doctrine then he became the Lord’s representative in a very unique way.

In 2CO 4:7 vessels were used to provide an analogy between Bible doctrine resident in the soul and capacity for life among those who are mature believers - “we have this treasure in clay vessels…”

As believers, our vessel contains something that is the greatest of all treasures in the 40 grace gifts, and with maximum doctrine resident in the soul can come great capacity for life.

In 2 Timothy 2:20,21 vessels are used to set up a contrast between the believer who is mature and the believer who is in reversionism.

In Proverbs 25:4,
God is the Silversmith and the believer is the one mentioned as the pure silver. Take away the dross (contaminants) from the silver,
And there comes out a vessel for the smith;

God is constantly, through His Spirit and Word, flushing out the garbage in our souls, one day at a time, so out comes a beautiful vessel for His glory.
JOH 4:24

Vessels are related to category #2 love,
which is the love of right man/right woman in
1 Thessalonians 4:4.

The woman is an empty pot. There is a great field for learning for men in how to possess a woman, how to be the ruler over a woman and to do it in a way which is honorable -
1 Peter 3:7.

“Weaker vessel” has to do with the function of the soul. When a person is designed by God to be a responder, it means that in being a responder you are weaker, and you depend upon someone else to whom you can respond.

Things will never be perfect in this world, and the term Right Man or Right Woman does not mean Perfect Man or Perfect Woman.