Well, good morning to everyone. Good to see you all here this morning. It's good to be that lovely time of year. I was talking to somebody yesterday, and he said, you know, I just love the fall, but I hate what comes next, so that's looming over us to get ready for winter. It is coming.

For those of you that are guests, I'd just like to say we're working through the pastoral epistles—first and second Timothy—and then, Lord willing, will go into Titus. We're in the middle of second Timothy now. These are epistles that are written to young pastors. Paul had sent Timothy to Ephesus and Titus to Crete to straighten things out, to set things in order in the church and to fix what was lacking. 

So what we see in the context of these passages is how we should conduct ourselves in the house of God, as Paul says. He's talking to these young men about what should be going on, what should be the focus, what should be the purpose of the local gathering of believers. We emphasize that a lot, and perhaps the clearest theme of these pastoral epistles we are studying is the threat of false doctrine and the need of careful study and teaching of good doctrine to avoid being taken captive and rendered useless. 

We looked last time at the message "Cutting the Pieces Straight" and "Showing Yourself Approved to Be a Workman That Needs Not Be Ashamed." But cutting the pieces straight—rightly dividing the word of truth—so that we fit all the pieces together and it makes a beautiful mosaic of truth. It's a common theme in the entire Bible, this warning against false teaching and an exhortation to truth scripture preaching, particularly in the New Testament epistles. Paul writes these letters to Timothy and Titus, as he said in the first epistle, so that we might know how we should conduct ourselves in the house of God. 

The context is continually the house of God, the church, and the instruction is specifically to the pastor of the church, with obvious implications for all who believe. Last week we saw that Paul ended his exhortation in verses 14 to 19 with this statement. He said, “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.” The phrase "the solid foundation of God" I think refers to the church, refers to the truth, the Word of God once for all delivered to the saints. Paul assures us that in the midst of all kinds of troubles, trials, false teaching, evil men—even in the church, such as Timothy was dealing with in Ephesus—the Lord knows those who are His. 

This statement sets up the illustration that we find in our text today, beginning at verse 20. And it’s important that we understand Paul's analogy, his intent, because how we interpret this really has a great impact on our understanding of who God is, what the church is, and how we understand our individual relationship with God and the church body as to its purpose. 

Paul's going to use an illustration that he seems to favor, one he finds useful—that of a large household, which represents the church. In this household, there are many utensils, tools that are employed in the operation of the house. The word used here for vessels is a very general term. It can refer to plates and cups and bowls and eating utensils, as well as decor, wastebaskets, chamber pots—anything and everything you might find in a household. 

This is a very practical illustration and easily understood. He uses it in 2nd Corinthians and Romans 9 as well. I want to just look at Romans 9 for a parallel use of the term and illustration. If you turn to Romans 9 at verse 20 with me, please. Paul writes, “But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to Him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Does not the potter have power over the clay from the same lump to make one vessel?” This is the same word, “make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor.” What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He had prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom He called, not of the Jews only but also of the Gentiles?

Well, Paul is discussing some weighty things here in Romans 9, and my purpose isn't to get into that text, but to show that Paul uses the same term, the similar illustration here to contrast believers with unbelievers—those prepared for destruction versus those prepared for glory; those of honor versus dishonor. 

In our text, Paul describes the visible church as a large house, and in this house are many vessels—many utensils, tools for use in daily living. Some, he says, are vessels of silver and gold—vessels of honor—and others are vessels of clay and wood—vessels of dishonor. 

I think the key phrase to watch as we work our way through this text is in verse 21—really all of verse 21. Paul says, “Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, and look at this, useful for the master, prepared for every good work.” The phrase “the latter” must refer to the vessels of dishonor. So the question becomes, who does this term refer to? Are vessels of dishonor Christians, or are they mere professors in the church? I believe the context and flow will make this clear, as well as the words of our text this morning. 

So let's dig in together and see what God says in these words before us this morning: 2nd Timothy 2:20. Follow along. “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, but 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, and 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.”

I think we see words in that text that indicate the vessels of dishonor are mere professors in the church. We'll look at that more. I've given you five points on your outline to kind of outline the text. First, we'll see the church; second, a catharsis; third, clean living; fourth, correct; and fifth, captive.

Well, first, as we've been discussing, we see in our text the church. Now, if the firm foundation of verse 19 refers to the church, it is the true church—the invisible foundational truth and doctrine from the Word of God. But there's also the visible church, and that's what Paul has in mind in this picture of a large house. In the visible church, such as in Ephesus in the time of Timothy, there were many vessels. Some were believers; some were mere professors. There was Timothy, a true believer with a God-given heart and desire to preach the truth—to glorify God, to carry out his ministry—and there were many more like him in that body. But there were also Hymenaeus and Philetus that we studied last time. They were in that church; they were men of influence, perhaps pastors or teachers in that church, and they were false teachers, Paul says, who were spreading false doctrine.

In this great house, there were vessels for honor, silver and gold, and there were vessels of dishonor—those who were not true believers but were involved in distraction from and distortion of truth and sound doctrine. This is borne out, I believe, by Paul's main exhortation here: cleanse yourself from these vessels of dishonor. Get away from them. Avoid them. Do not fellowship with them. Remove yourself from them, and if they will not repent, get them out of the church. Paul had already done that once, casting one of the men out. 

Now, my friends, this is a large house illustration, and it's true for every visible church. In some, there are more vessels of honor and other more vessels of dishonor, but the weed and the tares exist, as our Lord told us, in the visible body, and false teachers will rise up from within and come from without to lead away the disciples after themselves. 

Turn over to Acts 20. Let's look at Paul's warning. You remember he was in Ephesus for three years, teaching day and night, instructing them, grounding them in the truth. He met with the elders from Ephesus from when he was traveling from Miletus, it tells us, and I want you to look at the warning that he gives them. Acts 20:17. “From Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them, ‘You know, from the first day that I came to Asia in what manner I always lived among you, serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews. How I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly from house to house, testifying to Jews and also to Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And see, now I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me, nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy in the ministry, which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.’” 

I’m just going to stop for a second. I don't know if you saw an interview with John MacArthur the other day, but they’re threatening to put him in jail now in California if he doesn’t quit meeting at his church. So he was interviewed on one of the news shows, and Bobby and I watched it, and it's interesting to me; he always testifies of the gospel when he has those opportunities, as Paul talks about here—to testify to the gospel of grace. 

But also they asked him, “What do you think about going to jail?” and he said, “Well, I've never really had time for a jail ministry, but I've always wanted one.” That's a perspective to have, isn't it? Wherever we are, whether we're bound in chains or the freedom we have, and sometimes I think the freedom we have is more of a curse because what have we done with it? But we're here to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Look what Paul says in verse 25: “And indeed, now I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, will see my face no more. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.” This is what we keep seeing in Timothy—that Paul tells them to do: preach the word, declare the whole counsel of God. 

Verse 28: “Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.” So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

Paul says, “I know this—that after I leave, false teachers, savage wolves will come in; they'll rise up from within, they’ll come in from without to lead away the disciples, to lead away people into error, to take them captive by hollow and deceptive philosophies, as he wrote to the Colossians. Therefore watch. It's a surety that false teachers will exist in the church for the express purpose of drawing men away, and it's the job of the elders, the pastors, and each individual believer to watch, to be diligent, and to separate themselves from those who speak perverse things. 

This warning is everywhere in our New Testament. Listen to Peter’s word in 2nd Peter 2: “another promise.” He said that there were false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words. Jesus warned us; Peter warned us; Jude and Paul in almost every epistle he wrote.

So this is the picture that Paul gives in our text here as well as he instructs Timothy. The context is false teaching—false teachers like Hymenaeus and Philetus—useless wranglings about words, those who set themselves in opposition to the truth. Verse 25 says, “Foolish and ignorant disputes.” Verse 23, “Profane and idle babblings.” Foolish disputes. These vessels of dishonor are unbelievers in the church. But let me be quick to recognize that true believers can be taken captive as well, and that's the point of so many of these warnings, even to Timothy himself. 

And we do not know the wheat from the tares. True believers can fall into false teaching and then promote it as well, causing division, strife, uselessness in the church. So the recognition here is not necessarily believers and unbelievers—that's not really our business to sort out, right? Let them grow together; God will sort that out. But of false teaching, this is something we can discern. We can know by knowing the truth of the Word of God. 

Useless and stupid questions is what it literally says, and striving about words, and those who set themselves in opposition to the truth. These people, whatever their spiritual state, we must separate ourselves from, correct them and remove them if they will not come to repentance. This is the visible church, and the call for Timothy and for us is a catharsis. 

Verse 21: “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.” The phrase “from the latter” refers back to the vessels of dishonor in verse 20, and the exhortation here is for Timothy to cleanse himself—a thorough and complete catharsis or cleansing—to separate oneself completely from those who stand against truth or spread cancerous doctrine and lies. 

Now, we're talking about in the church, remember 1 Corinthians 5, Paul said, “When I wrote to you to separate yourselves from such men, I didn't mean the unbelievers—or else you'd have to take yourself out of the world.” We're not to separate ourselves from them; we're here to witness to them. But in the church, a brother—one who's named a brother—Paul says, “If he's spreading lies, if he's teaching untruth, separate yourself.” 

Let me tell you, my brothers and sisters, this is a difficult but vital application for the leaders of the church. This, like church discipline, is not something that many churches are willing to do these days. The practical application is that we will not let any man teach something false, spread errant doctrine, expose our people to that which is against the truths of the Word of God—whether that be from within our church or a guest coming into our church. 

We're very careful about this, and you'll notice that we do not have a lot of conferences and guest speakers or recommend books for you to read. We've enjoyed over the years wonderful men like Dr. Whitcomb and Dan Hayden, many others—many showers, I remember. But we are very careful to be sure that what they are teaching is a cutting of the pieces straight concerning the Word of God before we’ll let them into this pulpit. 

I've watched other churches take a very unbiblical philosophy on this, inviting in a diversity of opinions and teachers on different subjects, exposing their people to all kinds of errant doctrine, and the result is confusion. The result is a rendering useless, a taking captive by those who are wrangling over words, profane and useless babblings, and outright false teachings that set themselves against the truth. And those churches are destroyed. Truth no longer reigns, and the people are tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine because they joined themselves to vessels of dishonor and willingly promoted and fellowshiped with those men and let them have a platform in their church. 

Paul says, “Thoroughly cleanse yourself from them,” and he names them: “Separate yourself so that you might be a useful vessel of honor.” Notice the words here in verse 21—so important—“if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, set apart, and useful for the master, prepared for every good work.” This is the great desire of my heart, and I know it is yours as well—set apart. We have been sanctified, and this past event has continuing implications, results in our lives—ongoing. 

The great desire of the heart of the true believer, placed there by God, is to be useful to the master, to be prepared for every good work, to be able to seize the opportunities that come to testify of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is really the key phrase in our text this morning in my mind: useful versus useless. 

And I'm afraid this can apply not only to the unbelievers in the body, but also to every believer. In Philemon, we read of Onesimus—a wonderful story, a runaway slave. Onesimus ran away from Philemon, his master. Paul meets him in Rome, leads him to Christ, and he sends him back to Philemon with a letter. He says, “Therefore, though I might be very bold in Christ to command you what is fitting, yet for love's sake, I rather appeal to you, being such a one as Paul, the aged, and now also a prisoner of Christ. I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains.” 

Listen to what Paul said: “who once was useless to you, but now is useful to you and to me.” He was once useless, but now he's useful for the cause of Christ. And I believe we could all give this testimony, couldn't we? I was once useless to the cause of Christ, but by His grace and mercy, because of faithful witnesses, God saved me, changed me, and by His grace and power makes me useful to His cause. 

And so we see that Timothy is to instruct him and us as to how we can be useful to the Master and be prepared for every good work. And the first instruction is to cleanse himself, separate himself from those who are all hung up on useless, frivolous, or false teachings who set themselves against the truth. Don't fellowship with them; don't listen to them; get yourself away from these things and these people. 

Well, next we see that Timothy is to pursue clean living, personal holiness. Verse 22: "Flee also youthful lusts, but 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. We see a negative and positive instruction here. First, the negative: flee. Flee youthful lusts. Now, Timothy was in his late thirties at this time. I don't think Paul's intent here was necessarily concerning physical youthful lusts, such as we might think, but it's applicable for sure for everyone. I think the point here is more the spiritual youth or immaturity that can cause a man of God to pursue his own exaltation, money, power, fame—the types of things that can consume one in authority and lead him down a road to destruction or disqualification. 

Timothy is to flee that which is harmful or destructive. And conversely, he is to pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Fellowship with those believers who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. The word pursue speaks of striving, a concerted all-out effort to attain. He is to run after righteousness—faithfulness, loyalty to his master. And this speaks of personal holiness and an aversion to and avoidance of the sin that so often accompanies false teachers. 

Love is agape—self-sacrificial love demonstrated at the cross, a desire to give oneself to others for the furtherance of the gospel and the kingdom. Peace—as we see in the following words, a pastor is not to be quarrelsome or a brawler. He is to stand unwavering for the truth and be totally uncompromising, but with a spirit of gentleness and love that wants the best for everyone—the salvation of lost souls and the building up of believers, the glory of God being his goal, able to teach, patient. 

These qualifications are specific to the pastor, as we saw in chapter 3 of the first epistle, but they apply to every believer because the pastor is to pursue these things to be an example—"Follow me as I follow Christ," Paul said. The pastor must be willing to do very hard things—to rebuke, to correct, to exhort, to stand for the truth no matter what—to pursue personal holiness and be prepared for every good work. But he must do all of this with the right spirit, the right motive, and that is love for all men, a biblical Christ-like love, where he’s willing to stand toe-to-toe and call out false teachers and warn the brethren, confront sin, teach the truth no matter what, but also be anxious to bear others' burdens, cry with the hurting, rejoice with the joyful, and always and continually point men to Jesus with the spirit of gentleness and a motive of love. 

This is a high calling for Timothy, but so practical for the success of his ministry in Ephesus. We've seen the church, we've seen catharsis, clean living, and now we see, correct those who are captive—verse 24: "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." 

Remember that all of this is happening in the context of the large house—the church—in this case, for Timothy in Ephesus. So Paul’s calling on Timothy to correct teachers, pastors in his own church—men who were older and likely had much stronger personalities than Timothy had. It was not an easy task to accomplish, to go head-to-head with these men who were anxious to argue and wrangle over words, philosophies, and systems of men. But they were teaching false doctrines. They were drawing away the disciples after themselves, leading them into captivity.

They had to be confronted; they had to be corrected; and if there was no repentance, they had to be removed. The wording in verse 25 says that they set themselves in opposition to the truth. They were clearly opposing the simplicity of Christ, of sound doctrine, and Timothy must correct this. 

Look over to chapter 3 with me—2 Timothy 3:13—further instruction here. Paul says, “But evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” What's the remedy for that? What's the remedy for Timothy in this situation? “But you must continue in the things that you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word. Be ready in season, out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables; but you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” 

Paul is focused on the word. He is focused on preaching the truth, on proclaiming the word for rebuke, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. But there would be those who would not put up with sound doctrine, who would not listen, but persist in battle over words, promoting philosophies and the wisdom of men. They must be corrected, but notice the motive: “in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they might know the truth, that they might come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.” 

We see in these verses that those who follow false doctrine are taken captive by the devil to do his will. False doctrine is demonic, and it leads people into captivity. We saw this back in 1 Timothy chapter 4 when he said, “The Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith,” the faith is the faith there—the body of truth, the Bible—“giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.” 

Paul calls false teaching doctrines of demons from deceiving spirits. 1 Corinthians 10 makes this clear. Paul says that behind every false teaching is demonic influence, that those who sacrifice to their gods—idols—sacrifice to demons. We must keep false teaching out of the church and stand for the truth, but again, the motive is repentance. The motive is salvation—that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. 

Some churches think that they should have a diversity of opinions. Most seminaries have unbelievers who are professors teaching false doctrine so that the school might expose the students to other views. My brothers and sisters, flee from these things. Separate yourself from them. Do not entertain doctrines of demons. What we need is the truth. 

In 2 John 1:9, John says, “Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house or greet him, for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.” 

Paul's appeal to Timothy is to focus on the truth, to give heed to the doctrine and to himself, to his own personal holiness, to preach the Word, and that through this, the truth might set men free, for faith comes by hearing a message about Jesus. We do not need to entertain the ideas of this world. We do not need to spend endless time wrangling over words, exposing and exploring the philosophies and wisdom of men, trying to find some nugget of truth. What we need is Jesus Christ. What we need is to preach the Word so that we might know the God of His Word. 

I've been thinking a lot over the past several months about the struggles of our world, about the struggles that I've had, that I know many Christians are experiencing through this time of fear, of sickness, of riots and unrest, violence—even persecution in our own country. It's a very uncertain time, and yet it's a refining time, a focusing time. 

I was just talking to a young couple from northern Minnesota yesterday, and they were telling me how the churches up there are still not meeting. And they were telling me how they have set up a system of house churches around Duluth and Superior and all the way up the North Shore. And the young man made this interesting observation: he said that those who are starting these house churches and those who are faithfully attending are very passionate, focused people. And he’s talking about the great fellowship and encouragement that they have there. 

But he says it's only about half the number of those who used to attend the local church. It's an interesting time. It's a refining time in the church. It's a refining time for each of us as individual believers—a time of trouble and uncertainty that pushes the believer to an utter dependence on Christ, an acknowledgment of our complete and total need for Jesus. 

And this brings us back to the simplicity of Christ, as Pastor talked about this morning—of abiding in Him, of reckoning what He says to be true, of trusting and yielding to His power and life in us. We're singing "Trust and Obey" before, and I remember when Sarah was little in her car seat. I've told you the story before—we were driving up 51, and I was singing that song, "Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus," and she says, “Dad, there’s another way.” I said, “What’s that?” She said, “We can believe Him and do what He says.” So I guess that's another way—the simplicity of Christ, abiding. 

And it brings us opportunities to witness, to be thankful, to praise Him and give Him glory, and come to a point of peace—of rest in Him, the end of ourselves. And this results in fruit, my friends. It's all about the fruit. And that's why correction is so important—why preaching the truth is what matters, saying what God says so that those who have been taken captive might be delivered, might be released from bondage to sin and death and hell. 

Truth matters. It matters for believers. It matters for the salvation of the lost. It's what matters for the glory of God. And that's why the focus of these epistles to these pastors is preaching the Word, preaching the truth, preaching Jesus, and refuting and correcting error. This is the value of the church because the church is the pillar and the ground of the truth. If they don't find it here, my friends, they won't find it anywhere in this world. 

Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank You for this time together, for Your Word, Your truth. We thank You for everyone who could be here and those watching on the streaming, Lord. We just thank You for the opportunity and privilege to preach Your Word, to preach the truth, to focus our minds, to be encouraged, to be instructed, to be rebuked if necessary. 

Father, help us to trust You, to obey You. That's basically what Paul told Timothy—pursue righteousness, obey, trust, believe. These are the commands of the new covenant: to believe Jesus, to love one another. And that's the desire of our heart, Lord. Thank You that You're our Father. Thank You for Your grace, Your faithfulness to us. Thank You that You always do what’s best for us. In Jesus' name.