Sunday Sermon: Vessels for Honorable Use (2 Timothy 2:20-26)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe. Second Timothy chapter 2 beginning in verse 20,

I'll read through verse 26. I'm in the English Standard Version. Hear the word of the

Lord. Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable.

Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace along with those who call on the

Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish ignorant controversies.

You know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.

God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will.

You may be seated as we pray. Heavenly Father, as we come into this section today,

I pray that you would stir in our hearts a desire to be vessels for honorable use, that we would also see in this passage a call for peace.

The world is hostile. The world is railing against us. The world hates godliness.

And just the very desire to want to live godly lives in Christ Jesus, the world will hate us for, as Paul has also shared with Timothy.

And so may we commit ourselves unto you. May we know that you have determined our every way.

And everything that happens in the world is not shocking you off your throne, but that you are sovereign and remain in control, and even the evil things that happen in the world are ultimately being used for your glory.

So may we entrust our ways to you. May we purge ourselves of all uncleannesses, cleanse us, purify us by your spirit that we may be made for honorable use unto you and to your glory.

It is in Jesus' name that we pray, and all God's people said, amen. All this week

I kept coming back to the story of Achan. If you've been attending our Sunday school class, then you know that Brother Allen has been taking us through a series on coveting.

And it's in Joshua chapter 7 that we read of Joshua and Israel's great victory over Jericho, and how

God is sending the Israelites into the rest of Canaan to conquer the place. He is giving the land to the

Israelites that he had promised to the descendants of Abraham, God being faithful to fulfill all that he had said.

But here Joshua takes his men and they go up against the city of Ai. And here in this particular case, they think, well,

God is going to give us anything. He has said that he is going to give us everything. So let's not even take a large band of men, we can even take a few thousand and we'll be able to take these guys easily.

Now when the Israelites went up against Jericho, they had received a very specific instruction from God that they were to devote everything to destruction.

They were not to look and see something and want to take it for themselves, for it all belonged to God and to his treasury or it was to be destroyed.

So don't take anything for yourself, nothing is plunder for you, it all belonged to God.

And yet there was a man named Achan who saw and he coveted and he took for himself, wasn't even very much.

But he thought, yeah, why not, why not a little bit for me? And so when

Joshua and his men went up against Ai, though this was going to be an easy opponent compared to Jericho, a few of them were killed and sent them running away, frightened and defeated.

Joshua comes before God and falls down before the Ark of the Covenant and says,

God, you have brought us out of Egypt and you have brought us into this place to defeat us. And God tells him, stand up.

What are you whining and crying about? Why have you fallen on your face?

Israel has sinned. They have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them. They have taken some of the devoted things they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings.

Therefore the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies because they have been devoted to destruction.

I will be with you no more unless you destroy the devoted things from among you that God had told them to destroy in the first place.

Get up, consecrate the people and say, consecrate yourselves for tomorrow.

For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, there are devoted things in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take the devoted things from among you.

So God is going to give them this test and the people of Israel gather together and they are taken from Israel and they are taken tribe by tribe until it comes down to one man and his family and that man's name was

Achan. Now he had all of this opportunity up to this point to go, it's me guys, it's me.

I'm sorry. It was me. I have weakness in my flesh. I took some of the things that were devoted to destruction and now

I have brought this disaster upon Israel. But he did not do that. He let the lot fall tribe by tribe, family by family until the lot finally fell on him.

Now what sovereignty, what providence of God that he would cast the lots and it would show exactly who it was who had taken the devoted things.

And once Achan had been revealed, it was said to Achan, tell me what you have done and do not hide it from me.

And Achan answered Joshua, truly I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel and this is what

I did. When I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar and 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then

I coveted them and I took them and see they are hidden in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath.

Now that is about as specific a confession I have ever heard. There are people who have come to me who are weeping over their sin and they haven't even been that specific about their sin as Achan was here.

But was he truly repentant? That was the nature of the lesson that we had last week as Alan put that question forward.

Did Achan really repent? He confessed because he really had no other choice.

I mean, once you're watching, you have millions of Israelites and you're watching the lot fall one by one until it settles on your family, you're going, well, there's nowhere

I can hide. God has completely exposed me here. So he confesses as to what he has actually done.

But was his heart really repentant in the matter? We never see that in his confession.

We see the specificity of what he did, but we do not see an admission that I am wrong and I need the forgiveness of God.

Instead, all of his family and all of his possessions are gathered and those things are devoted to destruction along with Achan.

And Joshua says to him before Achan is killed, why did you bring trouble on us?

The Lord brings trouble on you today. And from what we read later on in Joshua 2220, 1

Chronicles 2 .7, 2 Chronicles 7 .10, this account is brought up again and again to reveal that this man did evil in the sight of God.

He was not truly repentant. And the consequence that came upon him was judgment.

What we read about today here in 2 Timothy 2 is an instruction to purge yourself of those things that are dishonorable so that you would be a vessel for honorable use in the service of God.

And may God grant repentance to those who have done dishonorably.

We have read previously just last week about false teachers. We even had a couple of those false teachers named.

Couple of those men were Hymenaeus and Philetus who have taught falsely in the church and it wouldn't put out because of the lies that they have been spreading that are causing even parts of the body to wither away and fall off.

And so Paul gives this instruction to Timothy to be a vessel for honorable use.

We have this broken up into three parts for us today. First of all, that Timothy would be in honorable service to the

Lord. That's in verses 20 to 21. And then Paul talks about honorable pursuits in verse 22.

And finally, honorable character, verses 23 to 26, all in submission to the

Lord. So as we as we embark upon this today, as we digest this text, may we desire to want to be vessels for honorable use and what things must be put away from us that we may be holy in the presence of God.

Second Timothy chapter 2 verse 20 once again. Now in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable.

Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

Now, Paul is still contrasting true teachers and false teachers here. And he continues with this particular analogy of vessels for honorable use and vessels for dishonorable.

Some theologians have said that this great house is the whole world in which we find both honorable and dishonorable people.

Romans 9 .21 says, has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and one vessel for dishonorable?

So we see that same sort of analogy used by Paul in another letter. However, in this context, it's most likely that this great house represents the visible church.

And I want to give you two reasons as to why I believe that to be the case.

Number one, Paul told Timothy in his previous letter, so thinking back to 1

Timothy, that the church is the household of God. That's 1 Timothy 3 .15.

And we've seen themes continue over from 1 Timothy into 2 Timothy. Some of the instructions that Paul gave to 1

Timothy, he gave to Timothy in that first letter, he fleshed out. And then we see it very briefly in 2

Timothy. Well, he's just bringing that to Timothy's remembrance so that he would know, I've heard this before.

I've been taught this before. These are the instructions that I am to live by in service to the king.

So likewise, in that first letter, we had heard that the church is the household of God. It is a pillar and a buttress of the truth.

We as the church, God has chosen the church, has set apart the church for the purpose of presenting the gospel, of proclaiming the truth.

That's what it means to be a pillar of the truth. And for also defending the truth against those who would try to malign it.

That's what it means to be a buttress of the truth. And so we understand the church is the household of God.

That's the first reason why this great house here in 2 Timothy 2 would be the visible church.

The second reason is because, in context here, Paul had just warned about false teachers.

They are dishonorable men and they are in the church.

There are people, as Jesus warned in Matthew 7, who will come to us in sheep's clothing.

They will look like us. They will speak our language. They will use terms that we will think of them.

They must be Christians. But Jesus says inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

Their desire is not to care for or tend to the flock or grow the flock. In fact, their desire would be to consume it.

And it may not be, as we considered last week, it may not be their deliberate intention.

They may think that what they are doing is right, not being aware that they are actually tools of Satan for his use.

Notice that at the very end of the passage today, they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will.

As I had mentioned to you last week, with false teachers, sometimes we're looking for the guys that are wearing the black hats.

We're looking for some clear sign that this guy is, he's a bad guy. He's the villain of this story and he is not to be trusted.

But scripture tells us that they will come looking like us and speaking like us. And the intentions of their heart may even be for our good and not for our destruction.

But they are unaware that they have been ensnared by Satan to do his will. And so we have these instructions here that will even take us to that.

We understand how we deal with those situations so that God may perhaps grant them repentance.

But here we have those indications here that this great house is the church that's being talked about.

Because first of all, the reference to the church being the household of God. And secondly, because this is in the context of the false teachers that Paul had just warned about.

Now, vessels of gold and silver for honorable use. As Paul gives that picture, these are richly ornamented vessels.

And you know how this works. Ladies, you especially. You've got fine china, right? Or you've got particular vessels in your house that are that are good and clean and shiny and they're decorative and the kids should not go anywhere near them, right?

So these are vessels for honorable use. You would never throw those away. You don't want those vessels to be broken.

You might even consider those things heirlooms. They've been passed down to you from other family members. Or you mean to pass them down to your family members.

But these made of the same substance have a variety of uses.

Just as Christians all have different gifts of service in the church.

We are all made out of the same substance, but we are appointed unto different tasks.

Gifts of the spirit, for example, that are mentioned in Romans 12, five through six, we are all part of the same body, but different parts used for different functions.

And so the same is true as we see this analogy regarding vessels for use in the house of God.

Now, those are vessels for honorable use. What about vessels of wood and clay?

These are vessels for dishonorable use. These are vessels that do not last and they hold materials that are meant to be thrown away.

But when we use utensils and vessels and things like that in our house that we don't mean to keep, we pull out the paper plates and the paper bowls and the plastic forks and spoons.

These are not reusable. You're going to use them once and then you're going to throw them away. But even more crudely here with this illustration of vessels of clay and wood, and to even call these vessels, vessels for dishonorable use.

What does Paul mean here? He's referring to potty pots. These are port -a -johns.

These are vessels that you will put your refuse in, so to speak, and then you will get rid of that.

You won't leave it in your house. It will be broken. It will be buried. It will be put away.

I remember reading one time about some archaeologists who had come upon a

Tell. A Tell, by the way, is a city in ruins, but it is a city built upon a city.

And so archaeologists will excavate one Tell, and then once they feel like they've gleaned all the information that they can possibly understand from this one city, then they'll destroy it and go down to the next layer.

That's just the way that cities were built upon cities. In fact, Jericho, as we just mentioned, was one such place.

So when Jericho was finally excavated, they had to find it underneath another city. And so these are

Tells, as they are called, that the archaeologists will excavate. Well, at one particular Tell, there was this young group of archaeologists that found just this whole collection of broken pots.

And they were super excited about it. Look at all of this pottery that this people had taken and had gathered into this one place.

And the older archaeologists were laughing about it. They were like, well, we'll let them play with that for a little while. Come to find that they had found all of the refuse pots, all of the potty pots, and where they had been dumped and thrown away in this particular spot.

So these are vessels for dishonorable use. This is what Paul is referring to here.

And they will be destroyed. And so will happen to those false teachers.

Timothy can only go so far when it comes to dealing with false teachers.

He can put them out of the church. Or if the congregation would be on the side of those false teachers, maybe

Timothy would find himself in a situation where there's not much that he can do about it at all. And so going to a place and to a people that are willing to hear the truth rather than continue with those that have committed themselves to their destruction because they have become vessels of dishonorable use.

And so here in the household of God, in a great house, vessels of gold and silver, wood and clay, these are vessels for honorable use.

But there are also vessels for dishonorable use. It's going to happen. An illustration that Jesus used is the illustration of the wheat and the tares.

You will have in a field the wheat, which is exactly what the farmer planted, and that's what he's going to harvest.

But there are also in that field tares, weeds that have grown up, and they will be harvested together.

The weeds will be burned and the wheat will go into the storage bin.

So it is the same sort of thing here with the illustration of honorable and dishonorable vessels.

And so Paul says in verse 21, therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use.

Now there are two possible meanings here. Paul could be saying that false teachers have the opportunity to repent and be cleansed.

So even men such as Hymenaeus and Philetus might be able to be made into vessels of honor.

Previously, regarding the dealing with false teachers, Paul had said that he had put a couple of men out of the church so that they would learn not to blaspheme.

So the indication there is that these men are not completely condemned. I've handed them over to God for their ultimate judgment.

That's not what Paul says there, but rather that there is that possibility that they could repent and come into a right knowledge of the truth.

So maybe that's what Paul means here when he says that if that someone may cleanse himself from what is dishonorable, these false teachers may repent.

In just a moment, Paul says that God may grant them repentance so that they may come to their senses.

That's in verse 25. Or second possibility, Paul could be saying that a man must purge himself of these dishonorable men and the wicked opinions that they teach.

False teachers must be removed from the church. The man who does this is therefore set apart as holy, honored by God, and made useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

Now I might even present a third possibility here, which we'll get to in just a moment, where Paul says in verse 22, so flee youthful passions.

There could also be an individualistic aspect to this, of purging yourself of those things that are dishonorable, turning away from sin, and desiring holiness in your life.

We'll see that coming up here in a moment. But with regard to the church, purging the church of those things that are dishonorable, this morning

I saw two pictures of a United Church of Christ in a major city, and I'm not sure which major city this was.

The United Church of Christ, in case you are not aware, is a socially liberal mainline denomination.

The two pictures showed the outside of the church, which was gorgeous, a beautiful historic building right in the middle of that city, where people would pass by it every day, and anyone in that city who passed by it would know by its appearance that's a church.

The outside was beautiful, and might even be the envy of all of us here who are praying for a larger space for us to gather.

But inside, there was room for several hundred people, including a balcony, but that's not how many people there were.

There were more people in this room right now than there were people in that church.

It looked to be an attendance of only about 20 people in this great, big, huge, cavernous, mostly empty room.

And right there up on the edge of the balcony, in the second picture that showed the inside, hanging over the few people that were gathered there, was a pride flag.

That is not a church that is set apart as holy. That church is a potty pot.

It is a place of refuse. It is filled with the wickedness of the world.

And when the church looks like the world, what good is it?

Jesus said, if the salt loses its saltiness, how will the saltiness be restored?

It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet,

Matthew 5, 13. That's exactly the same illustration that Paul is using here. Those vessels of dishonor will be thrown out and broken and trampled under people's feet.

And so, Paul says, be a vessel for honorable use, calling

Timothy to honorable service. That's number one. Second part of this, he calls

Timothy to honorable pursuits. And now, let's look down to verse 22. So, Paul says this, therefore, flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the

Lord from a pure heart. Now, most English translations will separate flee and pursue.

We have quite a few words there between flee and pursue. But in the Greek, those two words, flee and pursue, are side by side.

So, more accurately, it would be read like this, youthful passions flee, pursue righteousness.

It doesn't make as much sense in English, but that would be the way that it reads in Greek. So, putting flee and pursue right next to one another.

To flee from what is wrong means you pursue what is right.

So, these are two sides of the same coin. Just like when Jesus began his earthly ministry by saying, repent and believe.

Those really aren't two different things. They're two sides of the same coin. If you're repenting of sin, you are believing in God.

If you are repenting of disbelief, you are putting your trust in Jesus. You turn from one thing to something else.

And so, that's what Paul is saying here. You flee from what is wrong. You pursue what is right.

When you turn tails down, you turn heads up. So, turn away from sin means to turn to righteousness.

Now, youthful passions are sometimes understood to mean sensuality or sexual immorality.

And I've heard preachers preach on this passage and say exactly that. In fact, I've misused the passage before to say that flee youthful passions means to flee from sexual immorality.

In Romans 1 .26, Paul warned about sexual degrading passions. He groups passion with sexual sin in Colossians 3 .5,

and he warns the Thessalonians not to fall into lustful passion, the passion of the Gentiles, 1

Thessalonians 4 .5. But here, youthful passions are not in the context of sexual desire.

Rather, Paul has previously told Timothy, remember those things that he told Timothy to avoid last week, right?

He told Timothy to avoid quarreling, which bookends these instructions.

So, you have in verse 14, you have it said, remind them of these things and charge them before God not to quarrel about words.

Now, look down at verses 23 to 24. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies.

You know that they breed quarrels. So, you see those instructions bookend this motivating imperative to be a vessel for honorable use.

So, therefore, youthful passions should be understood to mean immature tendencies, to fight and quarrel.

Timothy is instructed not only to flee the sin, but even the very desire for that sin.

Everything in your flesh that would motivate you to fight and quarrel and get into irrelevant little arguments, that tendency, that immature tendency that we have to fight about everything, that immature tendency that my son has to fight with me because I gave him water instead of sunny delight.

This is the mark of immaturity. And so, Paul is saying, grow up and pursue those things that make for righteousness, faith, love, and peace.

Look at those elements again. Pursuing righteousness, this means to desire to do what

God says is right. Now, we already have righteousness if we are followers of Jesus.

His righteousness has been imputed to us. And so that we wear his righteousness in the very presence of God.

But we must also be after those things that please God and delight him, pursuing righteousness.

Now, faith, as it's said here, as followers of Jesus, we already have faith. But faith as it's used here is belief, specifically to put one's hope and trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life with God.

Hebrews 11 .1 says, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

And here, Paul uses it so that we see trust in him more and more. You already trust in God, grow in that.

Grow in your faith, in your belief in him, and knowing that what he has promised and what he has said is true.

Continue to be assured of these things, relying upon those things. And he was to do this without doubting.

It's a very common thing among evangelical preachers today to say that faith and doubting are synonymous.

I listened to a sermon a few years ago from Stephen Furtick, one of the most popular and successful preachers in the country.

And he did this sermon, the sermon that I watched him say is that, some of you are tempted to say that doubt is the opposite of faith.

But I would say that the opposite of faith is certainty. What? Jesus told his disciples, you believe in God, believe also in me.

Don't be certain about it, though. Is that what Jesus said? That certainty is the opposite of faith?

No, on the contrary. In James chapter one, it says that if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives generously to all without reproach, but let him ask of God without doubting, because the one who doubts is unstable and tossed about by every wind of change.

So it's a common thing among evangelical preachers, unfortunately, to say that faith and doubt are synonymous.

But as Paul is instructing Timothy here to pursue faith, it's to grow in the assurance, the certainty of God and his word and what he has said, that we may love it and teach it without doubting.

Are you convinced by a speaker who doubts what he says? And so Timothy must be bold in what he preaches.

Growing in faith, and Paul goes on to say, in love and in peace.

To doubt is to be double -minded. To lack love is to lack charity.

To lack peace is to lack the very nature of God in the way in which he came to us with the gospel.

Remember back to the decree of the angels when they spoke to shepherds on that night that Jesus was born, they said glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace upon whom

God is pleased. The gospel was proclaimed a gospel of peace.

And so we must likewise be peacemakers, going back to the Beatitudes and the

Sermon on the Mount. When we come preaching the gospel that makes peace between God and man.

If we say that you can have peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ and yet we are not peaceable in the way that we deliver that message, are we really all that convincing about the peace of God?

And so Paul encourages Timothy in faith, love, and peace. And he is to pursue these things, look at the next part, along with those who call on the

Lord with a pure heart. So the charge to pursue faith, love, and peace is to be done with other

Christ followers. Now, in the direct context, this is probably in reference to those other men at the very beginning of chapter two that Paul says

Timothy is supposed to be training up in the knowledge of God and his word. So pursue this along with them, along with others who call on the

Lord from a pure heart. So for Timothy, that would first be the faithful men with whom he has shared this gospel teaching, but then also the whole church that he is shepherding.

Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might.

And the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. How can we fulfill this requirement alone?

We must do it with all who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

In short, Christians must go to church. Together we call on the

Lord. Have we not done that together this morning? Through prayer and singing and other forms of petition and praise, every disciple of Jesus is to be pure of heart.

Meaning that we are after the things that delight God. Not after the things of the world, but after heavenly things.

As Paul says in Colossians 3, if we cherish sin in our hearts, or if we strive with one another, then our prayers are hindered.

That's Psalm 6618, if I had cherished iniquity in my heart, you would not have heard my prayer.

We help one another to flee temptation and abstain from evil and pursue those things that in God's eyes are righteous and honorable.

Jesus said, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And we help one another in that.

There are over 100 one another's in the Bible, love one another, etc.

How can you do the one another's by yourself? You know the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.

Do you know what you need to have the fruit of the spirit? Number one, you need the spirit, right?

It's the fruit of the spirit. Number two, you need others to practice the fruit of the spirit with.

You cannot exercise that fruit simply on your own. Love is the very first one.

How do you just love if there are not other people around you to love? And so we've read here how

Paul has instructed Timothy to be honorable in service and to be honorable in his pursuits.

Third of all, he instructs Timothy to have honorable character. This is verses 23 to 26, look at this with me.

So first of all, in verse 23, have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies.

You know that they breed quarrels. We've heard that in 1 Timothy. We hear that in 2 Timothy. This is not the first time he said that in this letter, and we're not even halfway through it.

Once again, this is guidance to avoid quarreling, which results from entertaining irreverent babble, which we saw back in verse 16, and foolish, ignorant controversies.

The rotten fruit of theological error is conflict. To the

Galatians, Paul said that if you don't obey God's commands, you bite and devour one another. Watch out that you are not consumed by one another,

Galatians 5 .15. And you know how that letter started, right? Why are you turning away to a different gospel as if there were another one?

They had sacrificed sound doctrinal teaching, and the rotten fruit that came from that was conflict within their midst.

Through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord said, do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.

But the Lord of hosts, him, you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

We heard that passage read last week out of Isaiah 8, 12 to 13. Be wary of letting the world's...be

wary, I'm sorry, not weary, be wary of letting the world's philosophies and controversies into the church.

Study right doctrine, which accords with growing one another in faith, and in love, and in peace.

Now, in the next part, in verse 24, Paul tells Timothy, the

Lord's servant, excuse me, must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil.

Now, this is a brief reminder of the qualifications of an overseer that Paul gave in 1

Timothy 3, 1 through 7. What sort of qualifications must a pastor meet in order to be a pastor of a church?

This is that same kind of list Paul just gives it in a much shorter sentence. Remember that Timothy is a pastor over the church in Ephesus, and he is here called the

Lord's servant, training other pastors and teachers. The one skill that a pastor must have is teaching.

That's 1 Timothy 3, 2. So, we see it here said as well that he must be able to teach.

Not every Christian has this skill, but a pastor must have it. Paul said a pastor must not be quarrelsome.

He must be thought of well by outsiders. That's 1 Timothy 3, verses 3 and 7.

Now, there is certainly application here for all Christians, but the immediate context is first to Timothy and the men that he is training.

Now, in verse 25, as one who patiently endures evil,

Timothy is also to correct his opponents with gentleness.

And again, this is the character of a godly shepherd thought of well by outsiders, 1

Timothy 3, 7. I love watching videos on YouTube with Ray Comfort and with Jeff Durbin.

They are fantastic evangelists. And if you've ever watched videos from those men, you have seen people contest against them, swear at them, curse at them, throw stuff at them.

And yet, how do those men respond? Gentle every time. It is convicting to me to watch them in the way that they respond to their opponents because I don't feel like I have that kind of calmness when somebody opposes me in such a way.

But that is the way that people are to respond. And you'll find videos, both in Comfort and in Durbin's collection, of people that will come up to them and say,

I'm not a believer, but it is amazing to me to watch the way that you interact with people who hate you.

There was a famous magician once who did a YouTube video and he talked about how a man came up to him after one of his performances and gave him a little

Bible and there were passages underlined and outlined in that Bible. This man is an atheist.

And he said, I don't believe what's in this Bible. He still had the Bible. He said, but I admire the man who came to me and cared for my soul so much that he took the time to outline passages in this

Bible and give it to me. And that man was Ray Comfort. It was

Ray Comfort who approached that magician and gave him that little Bible. The gentleness by which these things are approached by preachers will be a testimony to godless and worldly people.

And so, a pastor must engage with those who are not only in the church, but even those who oppose the true faith.

And some of those persons might even be in the church, like Hymenaeus and Philetus. But though opponents may act with hostility, a pastor is to respond with kindness.

Shouting down an opponent or arguing to beat the other guy will not win them to the faith. Timothy is to convey the truth with humility, knowing that, next part of that verse,

God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth. The call to repent, to turn away from sin or unbelief, is a command that those who fear the

Lord will follow. At the Areopagus in Acts chapter 17,

Paul said, the times of ignorance God has overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to do what?

To repent. That is a message that must go out to everyone in the world. As I explained to you previously, a quote from Charles Spurge in which he said, hey, if I knew all of the people that God had already elected for salvation,

I'd just go lift up the back of their shirts, I'd find that yellow X. Okay, you are elect, so I'm just going to share the gospel with you.

But we don't have that privilege. We don't know who God has chosen as his elect. And so, our responsibility and our duty is to share the gospel with all.

And it is God who grants them repentance. Jesus said, repent and believe the gospel.

And those who have repented and believed the gospel are God's elect. Ultimately, a heart that is willing to repent and believes the gospel has been granted by God to repent and believe the gospel.

In Acts 5 .31, God gave repentance to Israel. And then in Acts 11 .18,

God granted repentance that leads to life, that's the exact quote, to the

Gentiles. So we must be faithful to share the gospel, to teach what is true, and pray that God may grant those who are lost to repent, leading to a knowledge of the truth.

As we have heard this morning read from Romans chapter 9, God will have mercy on whom he will have mercy.

And he will have compassion on whom he will have compassion. As I've heard

Votie Bauckham say, I'm just in communications. My daddy is the one who seals the deal.

If we trust God and we know that he will do the work to bring sinners to salvation, then we understand this instruction, to do so without quarreling, to patiently endure evil, and to correct opponents with gentleness.

A person to whom it has been granted to repent and believe the gospel will, verse 24, come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will.

I'm sorry, that's verse 26. The default condition of every person is that they are under the influence of Satan, doing the will of the devil.

Paul says that before we come to Jesus, we are dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.

Following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is at work in the sons of disobedience.

And that's Ephesians 2, 1 and 2. We are born children of Satan.

The word of Christ in John 8, 44. We are born again children of God.

The word of Christ in John 1, 12 to 13. Escaping the snare of the devil is another way of saying that we have come to salvation.

All of this is to encourage Timothy to trust the sovereign power of God in the work that he is called to do in ministry.

If false teachers come into the church, that is not the fault of the pastor. But it might be if he doesn't do anything about it.

Timothy's responsibility was to these five things. Number one, defend the truth.

Two, do so with kindness. Three, continue to teach.

Four, patiently endure evil. And five, correct with gentleness.

And God has promised that he will deal with those devoted to what is dishonorable, and he will reward those who are devoted to what is honorable.

And so, applications. We've heard here about honorable service, honorable pursuits, honorable character.

What do we do in applying this to our own lives? Well, number one, I could just very simply say, serve honorably.

Number two, pursue honor. And then number three, have honorable character. Very title of each one of these points.

But let me give you these applications in this way. Number one, be a vessel for honorable use.

So, as we heard Paul say, purge yourself of those things that are dishonorable so that you will be a vessel for honorable use in the household of God.

What sins? What temptations? What hindrances? What things are in your life that you must put away?

Achan thought, I can just have a little bit of this stuff for myself. What harm am I doing to anybody?

And there were men who died because of his sin. And my friends, no one sins on an island.

Your sin does affect other people. If you are married with children, it's affecting your family, whether you want to admit it or not.

If you sin and you think nobody knows about it, it's actually affecting the church, whether you want to admit it or not.

And so we must purge ourselves of those things that are dishonorable. That's number one.

Number two, flee youthful passions. Now, I can say flee youthful passions, and that applies to everybody, whether you're old or young.

Because as I said earlier, flee youthful passions, as Synonymous was saying, grow up, mature, grow in the knowledge of God and of his word.

Desire to be more Christ -like today than you were yesterday. And as we've heard over and over again from 2

Timothy, this is not relying upon your own strength or power. Turn to Christ. The spirit of God that fills you will give you the strength to grow in the things that God tells you to grow in.

The very thing that God requires is the very thing that he gives. He requires you to mature.

He will give you that maturity. James 1, 5 again, if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously without reproach.

Flee youthful passions. Let me read to you here this prayer from Valley of Vision. I praise thee continually for permission to approach thy throne of grace and to spread my wants and desires before thee.

I am not worthy of thy blessings and mercies, for I am far gone from original righteousness.

My depraved nature reveals itself in disobedience and rebellion. My early days discovered me discontent, pride, envy, and vengeful.

Remember not the sins of my youth, nor the multiplied transgressions of later years.

My failure to improve time and talents, my abuse of mercies and means, my wasted

Sabbaths, my perverted seasons of grace, my long neglect of thy great salvation, my disregard of the friend of sinners.

While I confess my guilt, help me to feel it deeply with self -abhorrence and self -despair, yet to remember there is hope in thee, and to see the lamb that takes away every sin.

I shared a portion of that prayer on social media, and there was a man named Kevin from Cincinnati who commented on it, and he said,

I achieved legendary status with the amount of sin I accomplished in my youth. Now, he didn't go on to say if he had repented from that, so it made me wonder, was that an

Aiken confession? Yeah, I did it, but I'm not truly sorrowful over what

I did, or desiring to repent of what I did. Flee youthful passions means to us that we must pursue righteousness, and let it be so for every

Christian. So first of all, be a vessel for honorable use. Number two, flee youthful passions.

And finally, number three, patiently endure evil.

Patiently enduring evil doesn't mean tolerating evil. It is to understand that we live in a wicked age, and we're seeing in the world all around us evidence of the fall.

And the words of Romans 8 are true. God has subjected all things to futility because of man's sin and rebellion against God.

But we know God is sovereign. He reigns over this.

Nothing is happening outside of his control. Do you believe that?

Then mourn and grieve over the state of the culture. It is right for us to do that. But we don't mourn without hope.

And we continue to entrust ourselves to the sovereign ruler of the universe who has promised he will judge these things in his time.

And we likewise pursue justice where we can pursue justice and bring right to those who are oppressed and have been dealt with unjustly.

If we have opportunity to do so, let us do so. But we remain in submission, patiently enduring these things, knowing that God is ultimately bringing this to some great fulfillment.

And it will be for his glory, and it will be incredible on that day that we stand at the precipice of eternity looking back on this world and seeing,

I see where God's hand was in this. And we will worship him because of it.

And so may we desire to be vessels for honorable use while we remain in this life.

There are those who have gone before us into eternity, some of whom you have mourned over this weekend.

Praise God, they don't have to deal with any of this anymore. But may

God give us the strength to be vessels of honor in his presence in this world.

["All My Love Comes From the

Lord"] ["All

My Love Comes From the

Lord"] ["All

My Love Comes From the

Lord"] This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web, and we thank you for selecting ours.

But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family. Find a good, Gospel -teaching,

Christ -centered church to worship with this weekend, and join us again Monday for more Bible study when we understand the text.