So again, this analogy in verse
20 is an explanation of verse 19. In the salvation of sinners,
the church of God, in the ministry of the gospel, there is a sure
and unmovable foundation, and the house is built upon that
foundation. Other foundation can no man lay
than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ our Lord. And this is
the seal, the proof, the confirmation, the authentication that makes
our salvation perfect, complete, and unshakable, that God knows
them that are His. It's not our knowledge of Him
that our salvation depends on, or that is the meritorious cause
of our salvation. It's God's knowledge of us, and
so that's what the foundation rests on. That's what seals it.
That's what makes it authentic. That's what makes it sure and
unmovable. whom he did foreknow. He also
did predestinate and call and justify and glorify. That's the
foundation and the seal of that foundation. I'm thankful that
in God's purpose of saving his elect and in the process of salvation,
he reveals himself to us. I'm thankful for that. We do
know him. To know him is eternal life. That's necessary to eternal
life because if you don't know the Lord, you have no life. If
you abide not in him, you're fit to be burned. But the seal of our security
is not our knowledge of him. It is his knowledge of us. And
the question of salvation, whether or not we shall be saved, does
not hinge upon a decision made by man in time, but one made
in eternity by God. That's the seal. He knows us. He's always known us. So he knew
us, he loved us, he chose us in Christ before we ever even
sinned, before we ever existed, long before we believed. And
so that's where we gotta start this morning. If we're gonna
talk about this house, we gotta talk about the foundation of
it. And the second part of this verse is also vital to life in
Christ. We live not by bread alone, but
by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And God says,
yes, you are saved by me freely. without a cause in you. You're
not saved because you depart from iniquity, but depart from
iniquity. Does that make sense? That's
about as simple as it gets, isn't it? Well, one good reason for that, why is it so important
that we depart? Doesn't God say sinners? Yeah.
But here's the thing, if you name the name of Christ, See
that in our text? That's why you've got to depart.
Those of you who name the name of Christ, you've got to depart
from iniquity now. You hear the name of Christ,
you believe on Christ. You hear the name, that is the
character, the person, who he is. You believe on his name. Doesn't the scripture put it
that way? Those that believe on his name. And then you bear
the name of Christ, as his representatives in this world, as his household
in this world. And so, bearing his name now,
we're his children, we're his family, and the seal that is
upon us is his seal. In my household, If my family,
if my wife or my children are unhappy and always complaining
and troubled and you can see that they're just miserable,
that reflects on me. That's my household. You see
how naming the name of Christ, he's the head. He's the head
of the house. If my household is unruly and
disruptive, and there's shame in my house,
that's shame on me. That's God's order. And it cannot
be in the household of Christ. His household, you see what it
says there? It's a great household. It's a great household. Look
at verse 20. But in a great house, there are
not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and
of earth and some to honor, and some to dishonor, a great, great
household. Listen to what David wrote in
Psalm 27, four. One thing have I desired of the
Lord, and that will I seek after. That narrows it down, doesn't
it? I have one desire and I have one request unto God, one thing
that I seek after from him, that I may dwell in the house of the
Lord. That's a great household. All the days of my life, what
happens in his household to behold the beauty of the Lord? It doesn't
get greater than that. That's what we're gonna spend
all eternity doing. And to inquire in his temple. You'll recall though, though
the Lord's household is great, And it's desirous to be a member
of that household. It's desirous above all else.
But you'll recall that in almost every church addressed, I believe
there was one church that the Lord didn't have anything bad
to say about. In his messages to the seven
churches in the book of Revelation, but almost every one of them, There are those who were evil.
There are those who promoted false doctrine. There were those
that were lukewarm. There were those that were dead.
There were those that were destructive in the church, and they needed
to be purged. God said this needs to be addressed.
This does not stand. This does not continue. But they
were there, weren't they? You might've thought that in
the household there in Luke 15, that the prodigal son was the
black sheep of the family. Wouldn't you? He's the one saying,
I want my inheritance now. I got places to be, people to
see. And sure enough, boy, when he
got what was coming to him, he painted the town red. But it was the son who stayed
home. and served his father outwardly, that was the self-righteous one,
the cruel one, the heartless one that had no love for father
or brother. So it's not about what you say
or what even you do. As a believer, the difference
between the two was love, not the way they behaved. It was
love, that was the difference. The prodigal loved his father.
It just took him a little while to realize it. Well, the Lord
opened his heart, didn't he? He came to himself, which means
the Lord showed him what was real. And he ran to his father and
his father ran to him. In God's household, the church,
they're hypocrites. There are people pretending to
be what they're not. They're fakes. Vessels unto dishonor. But remember this, what makes
them vessels? Why are they vessels at all if they don't know the
Lord? Well, the vessels of dishonor
are used of the Lord in a different way, but just
as surely as the honorable ones are. Different purposes now. Opposite purposes even. But all
used of the Lord. Why would God have vessels of
dishonor in his house? You ever thought about that?
This verse of scripture? Why are there vessels of dishonor
in there? Why did the Lord choose Judas as one of his 12 disciples? It's a vessel of dishonor, wouldn't
you say? Did the Lord have a purpose for him? He sure did. He said to him,
what thou doest, do quickly. It needed to be done, didn't
it? But woe unto the one by whom it was done. Our Lord said, was
there a purpose in God's household for Satan himself at the cross? The serpent bruising the heel
of the woman's seed. God's household is a great household. That means a lot of things, and
one of them is everybody serves his purpose in his household. Everything and everybody serves
his demands. But bless God, don't you want
to be a vessel of honor? A vessel of honor, and I'm not
sure the gold and silver necessarily correlates to the vessels of
honor. There's gold and silver, there's wood and earth. Can an earthen vessel be a vessel
of honor though? Paul said we have this treasure
in earthen vessels. It doesn't say there necessarily
that the earthen ones are the ones under dishonor. Certainly
the Apostle Paul and all who preach the gospel. We're not
vessels of gold and silver But what's the Lord doing with us?
All this treasure what a privilege what an honor to be stewards
of the grace of God And there's a distinction between those like
these two named in verse 17 of our text and Hymenaeus and Philetus. There's
a difference between those and those who are commendable in
the church, such as Stephanus, you remember in 1 Corinthians
chapter 16, who had addicted himself to the ministry. And
Paul told the Corinthian church, he said, you support him and
those, his family, and be fellow helpers with them and follow
their example. Mark is mentioned in 2 Timothy
4.11 as being profitable for the ministry. There's a difference
between these different vessels in the household of God. But
also we understand in our text that each and every one of us
is both of these. Each single vessel now is both
of these. We have that nature within us,
the old man, the flesh, which is unprofitable. It's under
dishonor. And we also have that new nature,
which is profitable. You remember, I always see this
as a stark example of that. When the Lord asked the disciples
to watch and pray, he said, you watch and pray, lest you enter
into temptation. Because the spirit truly is willing,
but the flesh is weak. You see, he didn't say, a lot
of people say, you know, well, talking about the flesh being
weak, that just means they were sleepy, you know, and they couldn't
stay awake. It's not what he said, is it?
He didn't say watch and pray lest you fall asleep. The flesh is weak in every way. The spirit truly is ready, but
the flesh, it's always weak. It's nothing but weak. The exhortation
unto us in verse 20 of our text is not only to watch for and
avoid that which is unprofitable around us, like these two men
and the vanity that they perpetrated, they're named specifically. But
we're not just exhorted to watch for the dishonorable vessels
around us. but we're exhorted to watch for
and avoid that which is unprofitable within us. That would be a reproach unto
our Lord and his great household. Do you see that in verse 21?
Not just speculating on that. If a man therefore purge himself
from these, you gotta watch out for Hymenaeus now. You gotta
watch out for him, steer clear of him. He's a snake. But you see that word himself
in verse 21? If a man therefore purge himself
from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified. That's how it happens, sanctified. There's all these arguments and
debates and books written on sanctification. Sanctification means to be set
apart as holy. There ain't no doubt about who
does that. It ain't you. The Lord Jesus sets us apart
just like he did those vessels in the temple, in the tabernacle.
He didn't use those for common use. sanctified and meet for the master's
use, and prepared unto every good work." You see that the
plain teaching here, not only don't allow these that are named
to be a problem, but don't be one yourself. Flee these things,
flee them, and flee that which is within your own self. Which
would dishonor the Lord in the service of God in his worship
in his church purge yourself from these dishonorable things
and Pursue that which is becoming that which is proper in a great
household like the Lord's That which is fitting in the household
of God Well, what's that verse 22? Flee also youthful lusts
follow righteousness, faith, love, peace with them that call
on the Lord out of a pure heart. Now we know from all of God's
Word that following after righteousness is not talking about the righteousness
of the law. We know from all of scripture
about that. A great example to just turn to to see what this
is talking about would be Philippians 3. Paul said, I don't want anything
to do with my righteousness which is according to the law. It's
dumb, it's not righteousness. People just call it that because
they don't know Christ. But the righteousness which is
by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ unto those and in those
that believe. So this righteousness here, we
don't want our own righteousness. We don't want the righteousness
which is of the law. We don't have any of that anyway.
It's nothing but unrighteousness that we call righteousness. There's
two kinds of sin. I'll remind you again. There's
two kinds of sin now that we commit, that we are aware of
in ourselves. There's that which we're ashamed
of, which you think about your past
and your regrets, things that just stand out in your mind as
horrible. And then there's the ones that you're proud of. There's
the ones you call righteousness. That's just as sinful as the
horrible stuff. If not worse, I could say on
the authority of the Lord, the way he dealt with the Pharisees,
if not worse, And so this follow after righteousness,
follow after righteousness. Flee youthful lusts. Now that's youthful, spiritually
speaking, which is typified in when we're young. We just want
what we want, don't we? Which is pretty much everything.
We want everything, we want it now, it's all mine. And I don't
care about anybody else. but follow after righteousness. Not the righteousness of the
law, but the righteousness that we
run after is Christ. Again, Philippians 3. I'm pursuing,
I press toward the mark for the high calling of God, which is
in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We pursue faith, it says here.
We pursue faith. How did the disciples do that?
Lord, increase our faith. They heard him pray. And he told
them to forgive as he had forgiven them. And they said, how many
times are we supposed to forgive somebody? Seven times? And he said, 70 times seven.
And they said, Lord, increase our faith. We're gonna have to
be better than we are now. In that regard, we're gonna have
to believe you. And this flesh, take this flesh. restrain our flesh, our selfishness,
our pride, and cause us to believe more and more on you. Only the
one that gives faith can give you more of it. Faith is the
gift of God, not of works, lest any man should bow. And to follow
after faith is not to desire an increase of you, it's a decrease
of you. He must increase and I must decrease. That's faith. And the more that's
true, the more faith you have, the more that's true in your
heart. It's a decrease. It's not improving you. It's causing Him to be more and
more in your sight. It's not more ability, but it's
more dependence. Increase in faith. It's not more
strength in yourself, possibly when I'm weak, that's when I'm
strong. We pursue love, the greatest
of all of the graces of God in this world. Look with me at 1 Corinthians
13. I want you to notice something
in this very familiar passage of scripture. Start with verse eight. Love
never faileth. But whether there are prophecies,
they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they
shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it
shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy
in part, but when that which is perfect is come, then that
which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake
as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. Remember
our text? Flee youthful lust. Don't think
like a child. Have simple faith like a child,
but don't think like a child in these things. When I became
a man, I put away childish things. Childish things. For now we see
through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part,
but then shall I know even as also I am known. See, that's
got to be talking about seeing him in glory. Some say that that's
talking about the scriptures, you know, to know, we know in
part now, but when the scriptures are complete, well, I still don't
see him face to face, do you? Now that we have the whole word
of God, that's certainly included. I'm sure that's included in this.
It's not wrong to say that, is it? That this is, that the Lord
reveals himself more and more, but then face to face, face to
face, And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three, but
the greatest of these is love. And look at the next three words.
That word follow means to run after, to run after with all you got. to run after in order to obtain,
to pursue with all diligence. The greatest is love, run after
love. Isn't that beautiful? Run after
love. That's what our text said, pursue.
Pursue love like that. Live in the love of Christ that
is like that. And he said, love one another
as I've loved you. Those aren't empty words, my
friends. I know what our nature is. Does that mean he shouldn't
have said that? He shouldn't have bothered telling
us to love one another as he loves, because after all, we
have a sinful nature. He said it. He did tell us that. Run after love. Run after his love, run after
the kind of love that he gives, pursue it, desire it, value it. The doctrine of God's love is
vital. Theologians may not call it that,
they don't say the doctrine of love, but you know what election
is? Jacob had a love. Salvation is God's elective love. Not man's decision. It's God's
eternal, immutable love. Not us persevering in our own
strength. It's God's regenerating love. He said, I passed by you when
you were in your blood, and the time was the time of love. And
I said unto you, live. Pursue peace. What a worthy pursuit. Ephesians 4.1, I therefore, the
prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith you are called. You see how this pertains to
our text? Walk worthy. You're in a great household.
Be a vessel and honor. It's not an honorable vessel. but a vessel under his honor.
It's his house. Walk worthy of the calling wherewith
you are called, naming the name of Christ. Then with all lowliness
and meekness, with long suffering for bearing one another in love,
endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of
what? Peace. Pursue, endeavor, strive,
run after it. If we cannot, by God's grace,
do that, then we can't have a church. Peace, unity, love. He's made peace for us with God
by the blood of his cross, and all who have peace with God There's got to be peace with
one another. We all in our households, I suspect,
have very good quality cooking vessels and serving vessels that
we use for honorable purposes. We all have a garbage can too. If you had guests over, and they
sat down around the table, and you put the garbage can on the
table, it's gonna be shameful. It's
gonna be shame on your house, isn't it? It's gonna be dishonor
on your house. Finally, verse 23, but foolish
and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender Strifes. Just the opposite of everything.
What's a strife? In this context, it's set in
opposition. It's used as an opposite of love
and faith, peace. Foolish and unlearned questions
avoid knowing that the result of that will be just the opposite
of what we've just been talking about. Follow after these things
and avoid, avoid, avoid these things. Foolish and unlearned
questions. In this discussion, of what is
honorable and dishonorable in the household of God. Think about the whole context
of all this. What are we talking about? The house of God and what
within that house is honorable to be pursued and what's not.
In that discussion, again, As before, in this same chapter,
again, the specific thing pointed out in the interest of that discussion
is strife over foolish and unlearned. And there are two different things.
Foolish. Foolish questions. Questions
in the scripture. I don't know how to express this. How many times have we come across
this in the scriptures lately? In all of our studies, we come
across this. The essential nature of hearing from God. What did
God say in this book? It's concerning his son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, and people get in here and they find things
to argue about that don't have anything to do with the subject
of this book. Foolish questions. Foolish questions. You know,
I've told you this before, the most foolish question I've ever
heard asked in my, And people will argue over this and feel
the need to explain this and to go into detail about this.
Is Christ a sinner? Whenever somebody says there's
no such thing as a stupid question, say, oh yes, there is. That's
the stupidest question. And if anything you say leads
somebody to have to ask that question, unsay it if you possibly
can. What a stupid question. Is Christ
a sinner? Do you reckon anybody on this
planet believes that? Even infidels who don't know
God? They would tell you that he wasn't a sinner. You see what I'm talking about?
You get in here and you just miss the forest for the trees. Every one of us would be caught
up in that without the grace of God. and unlearned questions. You
just don't know what you're talking about. You think about all the so-called
preachers in this world. How many of them have any idea
who God is? Unlearned questions. Everybody's
a Bible expert, aren't they? And everybody wants to use scripture
to make a point, don't they? They've got some pet peeve or
some soapbox that they're wanting to get on, and they'll use scripture
to do that. I had that happen to me just
a couple of days ago. Let's leave God out of it. When
it's about your pride, when it's about your ignorance and your
hatred and your vileness, let's leave God out of it, okay? But you see what I'm saying?
questions about the Word of God and using the Word of God when
you don't even know what you're talking about. Everybody's an expert though,
but those things, in other words, just missing the point, just
missing the point. Didn't we see that in this same
chapter? One of the words that we saw
in this very chapter, it meant to just miss the mark. There's just one way to hit,
and that's Christ. Everything else is a miss. Everything's a miss. Remember verses 15 through 17,
let's read those again. Study to show thyself approved
unto God a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed Not unlearned,
but a study a student of scripture Rightly dividing the word of
truth approved unto God not people not just saying what people want
to hear Rightly dividing the word of truth taking the word of truth and
comparing it with the word of truth to shed light on the word
of truth. There's nothing else involved
but the word of truth. The scriptures, the word of God,
we have no other authority on which to speak. But shun, verse
16, profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more
ungodliness. I've experienced this too. One
minute, you know, you're just trying to be a smart aleck about
some point of doctrine. Next minute, you're saying that
Christ's nature changes. He's not the immutable son of
God. It increases, you see. It progresses. When you get away
from the word of God, you're going down a dark path and it
don't get any lighter the further down that you go. Verse 17. And their word will eat as doth
gangrene, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus. Those who always
want to correct everybody and argue points of doctrine instead
of just rejoicing in the gospel preached. It is specifically
what is pointed out. in the discussion concerning
what's honorable and right and worthy in the household of God,
the great household of God. It's the one thing we're warned
against. How this ought to teach us, to
cleave to the word of God, to stick to the scriptures. We expound them verse by verse
by verse, line upon line, precept upon precept, May God give us grace to not
have much use for anything else. The word of void, void. I won't mention any names in
this message, but if you ask me, I'll give them to you. That's
what Paul did. Be glad to give them to you.
They should be named just like Paul did. How are you gonna shun
somebody that you don't know who they are? There is no place for strife
in the household of God. It brings shame upon his great
name. If you name the name of Christ,
there's no place for it. It'll increase into more and
more ungodliness. May God give us grace. to avoid
it in others, and to avoid it in ourselves. It takes His grace. Amen, let's
pray.