THE GREAT HOUSE AND THE VESSELS IN IT.
By C. H. Spurgeon
[Extract from a Sermon by C. H. Spurgeon.] “But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use, and be prepared unto every good work.” 2 Tim. 2:20, 21. We go inside this great house, and we at once observe that it is well furnished. Our text, however, invites us to note that it contains a number of Articles of the coarser kind for ordinary and common uses. Here are trenchers and buckets of wood, and pitchers and pots, and divers vessels of coarse pottery. Some have thought that this figure of vessels to dishonor relates to Christians of a lower grade, persons of small grace and of less sanctified conversation. Now, although believers may from some points of view be comparable to earthen vessels, yet I dare not look upon any child of God, however low in grace, as a vessel to dishonor. Moreover, the word “these” refers to the earthen and wooden vessels, and surely they cannot represent saints, or we should never be told to purge ourselves from them. If a man be God’s child, into whatever state and condition he may fall it is our business to look after him and endeavor to restore him, remembering ourselves also, lest we also be tempted; but it cannot be right to purge ourselves from the least of our believing brethren. Besides, that is not the run of the chapter at all. The real meaning is that in the church of God there are unworthy persons serving inferior and temporary purposes, who are vessels to dishonor. The apostle does not tell us how they came there, for it was not his intent to do so, and no parable or metaphor could teach everything; neither will I stay to describe how some professors have come into the church of God, some by distinct falsehood and by making professions which they knew were untrue, others through ignorance, and others again by being self-deceived and carried away with excitement. The parable does not say how they got there, but there they are, and yet they are only vessels of wood and vessels of earth. It is no credit to them that they are where they are, for they are not vessels to honor though in an honorable place. It is no honor to any man to be a member of a Christian church if he be in himself intrinsically worthless. Though they make a minister of him, or elect him deacon, it is no honor to him to be in office if the metal he is made of does not fit him for so honorable a purpose. He is an intruder in an honorable position, and it is a dishonor to him to be where he is. It is no honor to a weed to grow in the best part of the garden, no honor to a barren fig-tree to cumber the finest ground in the vineyard. Ah, dear friend, if you are in the church of God, but not truly one of the Lord’s people, it is a dishonorable thing of you to have come there, and it is equally dishonorable for you to remain there without fulfilling that great requisite which is demanded of every one who names the name of Jesus, that he depart from all iniquity. The vessels in the great house are, however, of some use, even though they are made of wood and earth; and so there are persons in the church of God whom the Lord Jesus will not own as his treasure, but he nevertheless turns them to some temporary purpose. Some are useful as the scaffold to a house, or the dogshores to a ship, or the hedges to a field. I believe that some unworthy members of the church are useful in the way of watch dogs to keep others awake, or lancets to let blood, or burdens to try strength. Some quarrelsome members of the church help to scour the other vessels, lest they should rust through being peaceful. The church is made up of men who are yet in the body, and it has to deal with the outside world, and sometimes the worldly men who are in her serve some purpose in connection with this her lowest need. Judas made a good treasurer, for his economy saved more than he stole. Joab was a good warrior for David, though he was by no means a saint. False professors do not make the gospel untrue, and sometimes when they have spoken it God has blessed it. You may see, if you go down the Kennington-park-road to-day, a row of young trees planted by the road. How are they kept up while yet they are slender? Why, small posts of dead timber hold them up; and even so a dead Sunday-school teacher may yet be useful to a really Christian child, and a dead deacon may be the financial support of a living church. Ay, and there are dead preachers, too, who nevertheless serve to fill up a space, but what vessels to dishonor they are. It is a dreadful thing, however, for those who are like the posts I have now mentioned, because the quicker the young tree grows the sooner will the post be taken away, being no participant in the life which it helped to support. You see, then, that the base professors who get into the church are turned to some account by our great Master; the servants of the great house can use the wooden ware and the earthen ware for awhile for rough everyday purposes, even as mere formalists can be employed in some scullery work or another. There is one thing noticeable, viz., that the wooden and earthen vessels are not for the Master’s use. When he holds high festival his cups are all of precious metal. “All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold.” Would you have the King of kings set an earthen pot upon his royal table? Shall the guests at his table eat from wooden bowls? So false professors are only useful to the servants, not to the Master; they serve base purposes, and are not to be seen on those great days when he manifests his glory. How sad it is that many Christians are useful to the church in various ways, but as for personal service rendered to the Lord Jesus Christ himself, in that they have no share whatever, and never can have till grace changes them from wood to silver, or from earth to gold. Note that in these vessels of which the apostle speaks, the substance is base. They are wood, or they are earth, nothing more. So are we all by nature of base material, and grace must make us into silver or into golden vessels, or the Master cannot himself use us, nor can our use in the church ever be to honor. The wooden vessels in the church are very easily hacked, and carved, and spoiled; if a man be inclined to mischief, he can put his knife to them and can cut great notches in them, ruin their character, and render them worthless. Cunning teachers can soon take away from merely nominal Christians what they profess to believe, for they are very readily cut and hacked by those who play at such games. As for the earthen vessels, how soon they are broken. Outside of any great house there are the remains of many broken pots, which fell to the ground and went to pieces; and, I am sorry to say, we also can find enough of such relics to sadden us all. There were some in this house once who were comely to look upon, but there came a temptation and brushed them from the table, and they were shivered in a moment. Others of precious metal have endured far more shocks and tests of a severe kind, but these, being only of earth, were broken at once. Heaps of crockery accumulate outside every great house, and certainly outside the great house of Christ. These vessels unto dishonor, though turned to some account, require a great deal of care on the part of the servants. When our fore-fathers used to eat from wooden trenchers, the time the good wives used to spend in scalding and cleaning to keep them at all sweet to eat upon was something terrible, and there are members of the church who take a world of time from pastors and elders to keep them at all decent. We are continually trying to set them right, or keep them right, in the common relationships of life. There are quarrels in their families which must be settled lest they become scandals, and these occupy the careful thought of their fellow-Christians who have to watch for their good; or they get lax in their doctrines, or foolish in their habits, or loose in their business transactions, and we have to be scouring and cleaning them times without number. Certain sorts of earthen vessels you have to be very particular in handling. Like egg-shell china, you may hardly look at them. Certain earthen vessels get dreadfully chipped unless they have dainty handling. If a brother does not take his hat off to them in very lowly style, and behave very reverently, they are ready to take offense. They feel themselves hurt and slighted when no such thing was intended; they stand upon their dignity and expect the fullest recognition of it. These are real earthen pots, very apt to be chipped, perhaps a little cracked already, and need a deal of care and trouble on the part of the Lord’s servants, lest they should go to pieces and spill everything that is put into them. True Christians are the glory of Christ, but false professors at their very best are unto dishonor. Better the smallest silver vessel than the largest earthen one; better the least of all the saints than the greatest of vain professors. So much upon the vessels to dishonor. We are now going into the treasury, or plate room, and will think of These are, first of all, of solid metal, vessels of silver and vessels of gold. They are not all equally valuable, but they are all precious. Here is weight for you; here is something that is worth treasuring, something which will last for ages, and at any time will endure the fire. Now, in real Christians, those who really love the Lord, there is something substantial and weighty, and when you get hold of them you know the difference between them and the wooden professor. Even those who do not like them—strange taste that which does not appreciate silver and gold—are nevertheless compelled to say, “That is a genuine article, worth a great deal, weighty and substantial.” Now, we shall none of us ever be vessels of silver and gold unless the Lord make us so by divine grace. Vessels of earth are things of nature, any potter can make them; vessels of wood are common enough, the cooper soon produces a pail; but a vessel of silver or of gold is a rarer thing; it costs mining and searching, furnace work and fashioning, toil and skill. On each vessel unto honor, Jesus himself has put his hand to mold and fashion it, and to cause it to be “prepared unto glory.” On the vessels to honor you can see the hall mark. What is the hall mark which denotes the purity of the Lord’s golden vessels? Well he has only one stamp for everything. When he laid the foundation, what was the seal he put upon it? “The Lord knoweth them that are his, and let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from all iniquity.” That was God’s seal, the impress of the great King upon the foundation-stone. Do we find it here? Yes, we do. “If a man, therefore, purge himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honor.” You see that the man who is the golden or silver vessel departs from all iniquity, and that is the token of his genuine character. The man who is truly the Lord’s seeks to be cleansed not only from the open sin of the world, but from the common sin of professing Christians; he labors to be purged from that which the wooden vessel and the earthen vessel would delight in; he wants to be pure within and without, he desires perfection, he labors daily to conquer every sin, and strives with all his might to serve his Lord. He is not content to have a fair appearance, as wood and earth may have, he wishes to be solid, substantial metal, purged and purified to the utmost possible degree, and fit for the highest purposes. Now, this seeking after purity is the hall mark of the King’s vessels of gold and silver. Notice, however, that they are purged, for the Lord will not use filthy vessels be they what they may. He will only use those that are clean, and he would have his true people purged, as I have said before, not only from gross sin, but from doctrinal error, and from association with the perverse-minded. We are to be purged from Hymeneus and Philetus, and from the vain babblings of which the apostle has been speaking in the previous part of the chapter. I fear that Christian men do a great deal of mischief by their complicity with those who are teaching what is downright falsehood. If we are to serve the Lord in the matter of advancing his truth, we must be true to truth ourselves; but if we join hand in hand with others, and so form a confederacy when the very pillars of the temple are being pulled down by rude hands, it may be we shall be partakers of other men’s sins. We must be clean-handed in this matter. And then notice that these gold and silver vessels are reserved as well as purged. They are made meet for the Master’s use. Nobody is to drink out of them but the King himself. This is the blessedness of the child of God when he comes to be what he should be, that he can sing as we did just now,— “I am thine, and thine alone,
This I gladly, fully own;
And, in all my works and ways,
Only now would seek thy praise.” Brethren, I count it an honor to be useful to the meanest child of God, but I confess that the honor lies mainly in the fact that I am thereby serving the Master himself. Oh, to be used by God! This is to answer the end of our being. If you can feel that God has used you, then may you42rejoice indeed. There are some Christians whom the Lord cannot much use because, first of all, they are not cleansed from selfishness; they have an eye to their own honor or aggrandizement. The Lord will not be in complicity with selfish aims. Some men are self-confident. There is too much of the “I” about them, and the Master will not use them. He will have our weakness, but not our strength, and if we are great somebodies he will pass us by and take some little nobody and make use of him. The Lord cannot use some men, because they are too apt to be proud; if he were to give them a little success it would be dangerous to their Christian existence; their poor brain would begin to swim, and they would think the Lord could hardly do without them; indeed, when they meet with a little encouragement, they swell into such wonderful people that they expect everybody to fall down and worship them. God will not use them, neither will he set upon his table vessels which are in any way defiled. There must be purity, and a man may work his heart out in the ministry or the Sunday-school, but if he is practising some secret sin he cannot prosper; it is not possible that God should honor him. There may be a measure of apparent success for a time, and divine sovereignty may use the truth itself despite the man, but the man himself will not be useful to the Master. Littleness of grace and contentedness with that spiritual poverty also puts many a man aside. We must be full if God is to pour out of us to the thirsty; we must be full of his light if we are to illuminate the darkness of others. We cannot reveal to the world what the Lord has not revealed to us. Oh, for a holy character and holy communion with God; then we shall be golden vessels fit for the Master’s use, and so, according to the text, we shall be ready for every good work, ready for the work when it comes, and ready at the work when it has come, because completely consecrated to God and subject to his hand. In this readiness for whatever comes we shall be honored. Men may despise us, as they will, but what matters it if God honors us? This height of grace may cost us a sharp experience, but must not gold be tried with fire? As thieves are most anxious to steal, not the pots and wooden vessels, but the gold and the silver, so we may expect to be exposed to greater temptations and greater persecutions than others. More grace involves more trials, but then we shall have the delight of glorifying God more. Oh, to be vessels unto honor!