Sunday, May 26, 2024 AM

Well, great greetings,

Saints, you beloved of the Lord. It's good to be with you this morning, and thank you kindly for the invitation to stand in for Pastor Michael as he's away at the moment.

I'd like for you, if you would, to take your Bibles and turn to the second book of Timothy and the second chapter, and we'll read that entire chapter just to get the larger context of what we're dealing with this morning, and then we'll hone in a bit on that passage from 19 to 22.

So I'll be reading the entire second chapter of 2 Timothy together with you.

Follow along as I read it. You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.

And also, if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.

The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. Consider what I say, and may the

Lord give you understanding in all things. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead, according to my gospel, for which

I suffered trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains. But the word of God is not chained.

Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

This is a faithful saying, for if we died with him, we shall also live with him.

If we endure, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us.

If we are faithless, he remains faithful, he cannot deny himself. Remind them of these things, charging them before the

Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness, and their message will spread like cancer.

Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past, and they overthrow the faith of some.

Nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands. Having this seal, the

Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor.

Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the master, prepared for every good work.

Flee also youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the

Lord out of a pure heart. But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife.

And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient in humility, correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.

Let's take this that God has said before him as we pray and ask his grace to apprehend it and apply it.

Our precious Father, we come in the name of your most blessed Son.

Our trust is in him alone. We trust not in ourselves or our own deeds. They are but filthy rags.

And yet the works of Christ have fulfilled your righteousness altogether and speak for us things better than able.

Lord, we praise you that you have received us by his merit. You have taken us to be your own.

You will keep us to the very end and you will sanctify us and make us useful in your hand.

This is our hope. This is the thing for which we yearn. It is a thing that we pursue with the greatest effort.

And so, Lord, resolve our hearts with greater determination as we look at this text that calls us to these things.

We pray that you will enliven our hearts, that you will draw us to yourself in such a way that we are motivated and moved and taken up with the things of Christ to be the most sweet in our view.

Nothing better to be sought. Nothing better to be found. Let this occupy our minds, our hearts, our souls, and our desires.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen. I wonder about usefulness.

I don't know how much you might think about being useful in the Master's hand, but as the years roll on for me,

I think about it more and more. There was a time in which I was more frequently engaged in ministerial activity, and at the time, usefulness was not a primary thing on my mind.

It should have been. It truly should have been. But being so occupied,

I didn't consider it that well. So here we have a letter to a faithful man of God who is involved in full -time ministry.

He's quite busy in it, and he's called to consider usefulness both for himself and to convey that need and that important matter to those whom he will train.

But how about you? How often do you contemplate your own usefulness in Christ's hand?

We should ask ourselves if the usefulness that's spoken here to a pastor only applies to pastors, or does it apply to us just as much?

And I think it's important to remember that pastors and elders are exemplars of the faith.

They are intended by God to be set before us as faithful, mature examples of what we are to be.

So they're not in some other category. They're not something other than what we are called to be.

They are a fine example of that. And so we are to rise up to the same thoughts and considerations of usefulness that they engage themselves with.

So the context here is to Timothy as a public minister, but it's also a context that includes us, whether we are in public ministry or not.

So then, you and I should both be concerned about the level of usefulness that Christ would receive from us, whether we hold any kind of ministerial office or not.

After all, we're talking about the one who loved us and gave himself for us, who yielded up his blood to redeem us from our sins.

And what level of loving service, then, is our heart prepared to bring him? That's the question.

But maybe, however, you're not one who needs to be encouraged to think about your usefulness because you think about it all the time, and it haunts you.

It haunts you because you feel as though you're not as useful as you ought to be, not as useful maybe as you once were, not as useful as you should be.

And so there's these constant considerations about, why can

I not find the usefulness that I believe God would have me have?

Maybe you spend much thought and prayer on the matter, expressing to Christ your burden to be faithful and to be useful in all things, and yet you feel hindered.

Maybe you feel your station in life is not conducive to real usefulness. Maybe you feel too isolated to do any real good, or your gifts have no real opportunity to be used, or your preparations have not found the place of expression that you expected.

Whether it's your role or your career or lack thereof, your place in the church, your age, your health, or some other reason, you're not quite sure how to make sense of usefulness for Christ where you are presently.

So let's consider from our text then three points that will help us with this. First is, who are you?

The second is, why are you here? And the third is, what are you doing? So first of all, who are you?

If we want to understand how we can be useful for the Master, given our present circumstances, we need to start by understanding who we are in His house.

We read in verse 20 and 21 these words again, But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor.

Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the

Master, prepared for every good work. So here Paul analogizes the

Kingdom of God to the Master's house. He seems to have the church in mind because he speaks of a great house over which the

Master presides, and it is the place of His family and His servants, and that is particularly noteworthy because it is the place where His table is.

It's the place of His fellowship, where He meets and communes with those

He loves. So it seems to have in mind the church, but the quandary is, there are both good and evil people in this house.

It's a place that not only includes wheat, but also includes tares, and the only way you can tell the two apart is when the fruit comes.

Tares and wheat look exactly the same while they're growing, and you can only distinguish them by their fruit.

And so in this house there are some who are there to sit upon the table and serve the

Master's meal, and there's others who do not belong on the table at all.

They're not fit for the table whatsoever. There are some that are silver and gold, and there are some that are wood and clay.

What is it that makes the difference between them? How did some come to be gold and silver while others are left in their own desires of wood and clay?

Is it not because the Master of the house chose and transformed and elevated them to this station while others he left to their own devices?

To be fit for the table, one must be cleansed and sanctified, but something even more impossible must be done.

They must be transformed from their dishonorable state, likened to wood and clay, and remade into something honorable, represented by gold and silver.

While those who are gold and silver must actively continue to cleanse themselves from their previous state, they can in no wise change their own state, which was previously wood and make it gold, or which was previously clay and make it silver.

So notice that Paul's arguments describing how these individuals came to be serving upon God's table below.

We read in verse 10, Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Who will be able to obtain salvation and be taken to his table? He states it, the elect will.

Those God has chosen to serve there, those whose heads will be lifted up from the dung heap, they'll be cleansed and transformed into the creations that are fit for God's dwelling.

So Paul says this foundation he speaks of in verse 9 has inscriptions.

He says, Nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands. Having this seal, the

Lord knows those who are his and let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

So the solid foundation that stands is God's election. This is the foundation that cannot be shaken.

He is chosen and his choice will stand. But there are inscriptions upon this foundation.

The Lord knows those who are his. Here's a vital point as we consider what usefulness consists of at his table.

It has to do with who we are. We are his. That's what makes us fit for the table.

We are his. He's taken us to himself. He's qualified us for himself.

He's cleansed us for himself. He has sanctified us for himself. We are his.

That's who we are. We belong to him. We've been purchased at a great price to be his people, not with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.

We are no longer our own. Actually, we never were our own, but we spoke that idea to ourselves that we were self -owned.

We were masters of our own fate. That was never true, but now we belong personally and relationally to Christ.

I am my beloved's and he is mine. We no longer serve ourselves because our supreme love is no longer settled upon our own glory, but on his.

We no longer regard this world as the most valuable thing, but his smile.

Nothing is more precious to us than pleasing him. We no longer please ourselves, but the one who loved us and purchased us with his own blood.

For even Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.

But there's even more here. Not only are we his, but the verse also says he knows us.

The Lord knows those who are his. When we read of what the

Lord knows, we too often think of his mental awareness, and many times that thought does violence to the context, actually.

Often God's knowledge in scripture is not speaking primarily of his mental awareness, although his omniscience certainly does guarantee he mentally is aware of all things eternally.

But however, often his intention is to communicate something else by the word know or knowledge.

A good example is in Amos chapter three, the first two verses, it says, here is the word of the

Lord. Here is the word that the Lord has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which

I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, you only have I known and of all the families of the earth.

Therefore, I will punish you for your iniquities. So here's an example, a multitude of which exist all through the scriptures, and you should look for them.

But it clearly is saying he's not talking about mental awareness. He knows all the families of the earth, not just Israel mentally, he's aware of them.

But there's something here communicated by the word knowledge, very similar to what is stated in Genesis when

Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived. It has to do with loving the one that is known.

The Lord knows those who are his. He loves those who are his.

The Lord is saying here, not that he's unaware of other families, but it is a

Hebrews 12 moment in which the Lord is describing how he chastens every son he loves.

He's speaking of his loving favor and uses the word known to communicate that favor.

There's only Israel whom he called and guided to Canaan and to whom he revealed his written word and sent prophets to make them know his mind and his heart.

Only Israel did he know and love like this. And that's what he's saying here in 2

Timothy. The inscription on the solid foundation of God's election is, the

Lord loves those who are his and he knows them with covenant favor.

This is who we are. We are God's specially loved, accepted, and kept people whom he calls to serve at his table.

The emphasis here is relational. God has transformed us by his mighty power and qualified us to adorn his table.

He has cleansed us from our filth and iniquities. We are no longer fit only to be a chamber pot, but the very cup of his blessing.

He pours into us the wine of salvation and lifts us up in his very hand to toast the glory of his praise.

How different we are now from what we were. When we were vessels of dishonor, we only served the glory of our own praise.

We lived for ourselves and sought our own pleasure in everything. But now, whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, we seek to do it to the glory of God, denying ourselves, crucifying our own glory every day that Christ might be seen to live in us.

This is who we are. Why are we here? If we are clear about who we are and where we were, we can then be clear about why we are here.

Verse 21 of our text says, Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the master, prepared for every good work.

Why are we here? We're here for every good work. We're here for every good work.

Now that may be a bit daunting, every good work, but by that is meant not every good work that's possible, but every good work that God's providence assigns to us.

That's why we're here, to do every good work that God's providence assigns to us.

It is the idea of being a cup in his hand. We are seeking to dwell in his hand so that we are prepared for whatever he desires to use us for, rather than being off at the other end of the table, doing our own thing like we used to do.

And that's what is meant by cleansing ourselves from those other things, cleansing ourselves from our own things, from our own ideas, from our own pursuits, and letting our pursuits be wrapped up in doing the will of him who has called us.

That's who Jesus was. My will is to do the will of him who sent me, isn't it? He didn't have a separate will of his own, and is there room for us to have our own?

Is this not our calling? Is this not who we are? Is this not why we're here? To do the will of him who called us.

That means we must dwell in his hand, else we will not be prepared. We'll be off with other things in mind, other occupations filling our time and our mind and our energies and our hearts.

We must be in his hand. So this is what cleansing ourselves from dishonor is all about.

Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the master, prepared for every good work.

Flee also youthful lust, but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the

Lord out of a pure heart. How often do we take this admonition to mean, you must make yourself stop sinning.

You must, by your own willpower, mixed with a little scripture reading and prayer, draw yourself away from that thing that is in the moment attracting you.

Is that how we take this admonition? That if we do, that mentality is sure to fail.

It won't produce godly results. Notice the approach that Paul is calling us to is different than that.

He's calling us to be who we are. Be the cleansed golden cup that loves to live in the master's hand.

Be the vessel that loves to be with him, near him, thinking upon him, knowing him, and doing his bidding.

This is the meaning of the word sanctified in the text. It means being set apart to a singular holy use.

Set aside from the things previous, the wood and the clay and one's own pursuits, set aside from that to one holy purpose.

To be in the master's hand. To please him in all things. Now how is this different than the willpower approach?

Rather than relying on our own strength to put down something we intensely want in the moment, it advocates keeping ourselves close to Christ and occupied with personal relationship with him, reading the

Bible in order to know him rather than to gain knowledge or check a box, praying in order to fellowship with him and to lay our praises at his feet because we want to be with him and pleasing to him rather than just trying to leverage prayer to make ourselves perform well or get the things we want.

This approach takes both parts of the verses together. Flee also youthful lusts, but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the

Lord out of a pure heart. God's ordained approach doesn't flee youthful lusts in some way that is separated from pursuing righteousness, faith, love, and peace with the saints, which we could summarize those as meaning pursuing the person of Christ with the saints in order that we might know him and please him and abide in him.

One cannot do the first part of the verse successfully without doing the second part. You can't flee from sin and lust without consciously and purposely pursuing

Christ. In fact, pursuing Christ is the only valid way we can truly turn from sin.

Otherwise, we're resorting to our own strength to make ourselves not do what we're wanting to do in the moment, and we're not that strong.

Only Christ is. So we must go to him and dwell in his presence to escape our lusts.

By disciplining ourselves to set the Lord ever before our face, he becomes the one we desire, and that holy desire will then displace or crowd out of our lives the evil desires that we would naturally have.

We generally do what we want to do. Biblical sanctification requires that we abide close enough to Christ so that he is consistently producing holy desires in us.

If we want to obey him, we will. It's the want to that's the key, and that comes from his presence.

In this way, instead of being sanctified by our own flesh and its strength, we are sanctified by grace through communion with Christ and by the power of the

Spirit rather than trying to be sanctified by our own strength. John 15, verses 3 through 5.

You are already clean by the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit.

But without me, you can do nothing. Doesn't it seem that abiding in Christ automatically produces fruit?

Because it's his work, that's what he does, and he does it well. Abiding in him means you will be fruitful.

There's no other possibility. And if we're not fruitful, the reason is we're not abiding in him well.

So that brings us to the last point. What are you doing? What is it that occupies our thoughts, our time, and our pursuits?

Usefulness to the Master is found in doing good works in direct relational communion with Christ. This means not just doing our works for him, but doing our works with him.

And that may seem like a small distinction, but it's huge.

It's actually huge. Not doing our works only for him, but doing our works with him.

Consider Saul of Tarsus. He was, for God's sake, dragging saints into the court, condemning them and killing them.

He was doing that for God, but he certainly wasn't doing it in fellowship with God.

And that's why when we go about doing our works, it's not enough just to do them for him.

We must do them with him. He must be the source of the power, the source of the refinement, the source of the right thinking, the source of the right doing.

It must all flow from him. We don't have that within ourselves. We must get it from him. So abiding in Christ is the only way to doing proper good works.

And that is what it means to be useful. Not just doing our works for him, but doing our works with him.

Doing works in loving relationship with Christ delivers us from works of righteousness that become filthy rags.

This is because the motive behind the work is everything. How do we know we are doing our good works?

How do we know we're not doing our good works for our own honor? You know, that's a deceitful thing to discern, especially when you have a heart like Jeremiah describes ours that's desperately wicked.

You know, if we're at a little distance from Christ and our discernment is off, and it will be, how do we know the good works we think we're doing, we're not consuming upon our own loss and doing for our own glory.

But abiding in Christ's presence will deliver us from that. If we are abiding in his hand, as it were, setting our minds on things above where Christ is, letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly with all wisdom, working through our works with him in prayer, and looking to do them in concert with the saints, we can take joy in rendering them to him as an acceptable sacrifice.

Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.

Not of works, lest anyone should boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. What does it mean to be useful to the master?

It means knowing him by grace through faith, coming first.

There's no usefulness to the master that doesn't first know him. And that knowledge of God must come by grace through faith.

Salvation can only come by humbling ourselves before Christ and forsaking our own lordship that we might have him.

The acrostic, forsaking all, I take him, is the right perspective on what saving faith is, forsaking all,

I take him. Having been saved by the virtue of his sufferings and obedience on our behalf, presents us with a new life of abiding in him, being ready for every good work which he providentially sets before us.

His providence means there will be tailoring of the works he has for us.

He's fitting the works he's prepared for us. You notice the whole idea of being saved is that he prepared works, good works for us before time began.

And that's part of the reason he saved us, is to walk in them. They're prepared, they're purposed, they're tailored, they're ready for us.

And to perform them, all we have to do is abide with him. So these works will be tailored for us.

They will coalesce with the gifting that he's given us. He will send teachers to teach, teaching opportunities he will give to teachers, serving opportunities to servants, giving opportunities to givers, compassion opportunities to the merciful, and witnessing opportunities to evangelists.

And since our gifting is never limited to just one thing, he will send opportunity that crosses over our strengths to stretch and develop us that we may learn not to lean on our own understanding.

These works that he prepares for us will not be subverted by our station in life.

Remember, I was talking about that at the beginning. Sometimes we feel that where we are in life prevents us from being useful as we ought to be, as we want to be.

God's providence assures us that he won't let that happen, and that's a great comfort.

Though our station in life changes, though our strength fails, though our influence wanes, there's still much that he has for us to do.

And he will make it fit us in that station so that we are able to do it.

So, do you feel that your station in life is limiting your opportunity for your best works?

Then begin to look at your station, your opportunities, and your best works differently. If he has created you for good works, it means they have to be there somewhere.

They may look different than they used to, but they must necessarily be providentially present.

Providence means God is actively orchestrating circumstances to accomplish his purposes in your life and in the world.

So draw near to Christ. Ask him for eyes to see what opportunities he's ordaining for you, and then expect to find them.

But you might ask, what if I can't do anything? What if I'm so weak, so infirmed, so confined to just a chair or a bed?

What if that's where I am? Where's these opportunities for good works? Even there, you can still draw near to Christ.

You can still worship at his footstool. You can still lift up the cup of blessing that you are, with the wine of salvation poured into you, and toast his glory with all your strength, bring your praises before him, exalt him.

Pray and seek the advancement and the good of his endeavors in the world.

You know, Charles Spurgeon credited a great deal of his success, in fact, he may have put it in terms that he credited all his success, to those who were in the basement of his tabernacle praying for him while he preached.

Prayer is an exceedingly good work. And if you can't do anything else, you can pray.

These works are acceptable and pleasing to our God. Let's pray.

Precious Father, we desire to give you the glory and the honor that is worthy of your name.

We desire to give ourselves to you in a way that is fully pleasing to you.

We desire, Lord, to seek your smile above all other advancement in this world.

Give us grace to discipline ourselves so that our daily pursuit is to be with you.

Our daily pursuit is to hear your voice from your word. To seek to conduct ourselves and think and live and speak with others in such a way that you would smile upon it, that you would be pleased.

For this is our calling, to be your table vessels. Give us grace to discharge this exceedingly great calling well.