LESSON TWO

A VESSEL OF GOD

Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:7-9, 15-17; Rom. 9:21, 23; 2 Cor. 4:7; John 1:11-12; Col. 2:6

OUTLINE

1. With a spirit as the receptacle to receive God:
   1. The human spirit being very close to God the Spirit.
   2. The human spirit being able to contact God and to be one with Him—John 4:24; Rom. 8:16.
2. With a mind to understand God—Luke 24:45; Rom. 12:2.
3. With an emotion to love God—Matt. 22:37.
4. With a will to choose God:
   1. Two trees, indicating two wills, two sources, and two possibilities for man to choose.
   2. Being charged to eat the right tree, indicating that God created for man a free will and that God wanted man to exercise his free will to choose Him.
5. God's prohibiting man from eating the tree of knowledge indicating that God wanted man to receive Him as life by enjoying Him—John 1:11-12; Col. 2:6.
6. Man needing to be God's vessel to contain Him—Eph. 3:17a.

Focus: The focus of this message should be man being God's container.

In this message we want to see that the man created by God is a vessel of God.

I. WITH A SPIRIT AS THE RECEPTACLE
TO RECEIVE GOD

God's intention in making man is to have a vessel that can contain Him and express Him. In this message we want to stress this one crucial point—the man created by God is a vessel. Among many Christians this concept is absent. Many Christians think that man should be used by God as an instrument. The highest thought they have is that man should be God's servant. But the thought of man being a vessel of God is not with them, because there is not such a thought in our human mentality.

In God's thought man is just a container, not a means or an instrument. Unless man can be a vessel, a container to contain God and to be filled up with God, man can never be used by God to fulfill His purpose. Balaam, the Gentile prophet, was someone used by God, but in a very, very negative way. This is because he was a prophet but he did not become a vessel to contain God. He was not a container of God.

In Romans 9:21 and 23 Paul told us that God's creation of man was just to produce, to create, man as a vessel to fulfill God's purpose. God created man as a vessel to contain Him just as a potter makes a vessel of clay to contain something. Second Corinthians 4:7 also conveys this thought. The apostle Paul considered himself as an earthen vessel to contain a treasure, and the treasure is just Christ, the very God. Thus, in Romans 9 and 2 Corinthians 4 we can see a clear revelation that man was created by God to be His vessel to contain Him.

As a container to contain God, man needs a receptacle to receive God, and this is the unique difference between God's creation of man and His creation of other things. God did not give any other created thing a spirit except man. According to Genesis 2:7, God created man with the dust to form a body. Then He breathed the breath of life into man's nostrils, and man became a living soul. Genesis 2:7 shows us a picture of man as a vessel made by God.

There is the need of a receptacle within man to receive and contain God. Today's radio has an outward box and an inward receiver to receive the invisible radio waves. Genesis 2:7 shows us that man has an outward body made with dust, and an inward receptacle, an inward receiver, produced by God's breath of life. This inward receiver is the spirit of man.