We have been trying to find a
time, convenient, to have our conference. We had one scheduled
with the preachers in the middle of October. Come to find out
Chris Cunningham was gonna have a meeting at the same time. So we moved it to the middle
of November, find out Paul Mahan's having a meeting at the same
time, so he couldn't come. Guess what date we settled on? Thanksgiving weekend. So get
your turkey over and done with Thursday. Cause that's when we're
gonna have it. Everybody can be here then and
ain't nobody else got a meeting schedule. So we've had a time
figuring out when to have this meeting. And I had to call all
the preachers today and explain to them, and explain to them.
Thanksgiving weekend, Thanksgiving weekend. Now I want to talk tonight
and I want to start dealing with that verse 20. You know, he talked
about people who concerning the truth, you know, that they're
profane vain babblings like Hymenes and Philetus. But he says, even
though they overthrow the faith of some, God's foundation stands
sure. The Lord knows every one of his
elect, all his people. He knows every single one of
them. Has the seal on it. And then he goes on to say, everyone
that names the name of Christ. As a lot of people in the scriptures
named the name of Christ. Judas did. Demas did. And they all forsook the Lord
Jesus Christ. And a lot of other people did.
But here he talks about And then he goes on here to say, in verse
20, and I believe he's talking about here the church as a building. A church as a building. And that's
what I want to talk about there. And a great house are not only
vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and earth, and
some to honor and some to dishonor. Now in a great house, in a great house, now it grieves
believers. It grieves every believer. to
see those who have professed and made a profession of faith
in Christ and put on some idea of being pious and have a zeal
and even preached and taught the word, fall away from grace,
fall away from the gospel, fall away from the fellowship of the
saints. But what he's talking about here,
the apostle, is not to be amazed over somebody doing that. But
think it strange, you know, our Lord Himself said that, you know,
they got up one day and went out and looked at their wheat.
And they said, while they slept, an enemy came along and sowed
tares into wheat. And He said, you want us to go
out here and pull up these tares? And He says, no, no, leave the
tares alone. Because if you pull up the tares,
you may pull up some wheat. And so, you know, we have these
things all the time. There's always dead branches,
old trees, and hypocrites are always present in the church.
I know you probably remember me telling you this, but years
and years ago, the fellows that was building our house, it was
up on a ladder one day, and I was starting a meeting out there
at that little old block building out in Vandiver. And I told them,
I said, you know, fellas, y'all need to come out and hear me
preach. Come out to the services. And
one of them hollered back down and said, ah, that's too many
hypocrites. I said, two more won't make a bit of difference. And you know, they both came.
They both came. I said, two more won't make a
bit of difference. And they came. So you know. So what is our hypocrites? Have any of us ever played the
hypocrite? But just because these things are in the church, but
God still has a foundation. He knows them that are his. And
if you're going to name the name of Christ, you're going to leave
off your sin. You're going to leave off your
iniquity. You're going to leave off your rebelliousness. You're going
to leave those things off. And then he says in a great house,
Like in the church, in a great house, there's things in a great
house, there's vessels of gold and vessels of silver. Now God,
he calls our faith more precious than the gold. And he says we're
like refined silver. And so, and then you got these
vessels of gold and silver in a house. And then you got also
of wood and of earth. common, everyday things, made
out of clay, made out of different things, and you know, some of
honor, some of dishonor, and that's what he's talking about.
That's gold and silver, they're worth something. And that's the
way it is in God's church. There's people that are vessels
of beauty. They got God's glory and God's
grace shines through through them. And they're glorious people,
blessed people, precious people. And then there's those that are
wood and clay. And they don't contribute much
to the furniture to the Lord's house. But I'll tell you what,
but there's also some that don't reflect the grace of God and
the grace of Christ and bring shame and reproach upon him and
upon the church. And there's that everywhere you
go. I remember, I've known several people over
the years that's forsaken the gospel. There was a preacher
that went to Brother Henry's for years. And Henry supported them, sent
them out, and one day they got in a truck, left with some money,
and never showed up again at 13th Street. Never showed back
up again. Nobody knew where they went,
what they did. And there's another preacher that graduated from
a good school and went to Henry's for years and ended up going
to England, and he flat denied the gospel of redemption for
his over with. We're Pentecostal. And I've known
preachers and I've known people, preachers that I've known, I've
known, that started off, you know, preaching the grace of
God and ended up preaching holiness. We ended up preaching that if
you got to have a holy life, you got to have some law, you
got to have something besides just Christ. And I know one preacher
in particular that he says, you cannot preach the love of God. He said, I believe all of Calvinism
but the love, that God only loved his elect. He says, we can't
preach the love of God unless you preach it sufficient for
every man on the face of the earth. And he said, you can't
preach the love of God without preaching it for everybody. Christ
never preached it for everybody. The apostles never even preached
love in the book of Acts. Love, the love of God was not
mentioned in the book of Acts. So I'll tell you, that's what
he's talking about here. There's people that they show
the beauty of grace and glory, and then there's other people,
when it's all said and done, they bring shame and reproach
upon the gospel and on his church. And then look what he says, some
to honor, some to dishonor. You remember when the Lord Jesus
said in Or Paul said in Romans 9, he said, God makes vessels. He said, a potter hath power
over the clay to make vessels, some unto honor, some unto dishonor. And he said, in the great house
there's some dishonor and some honorable. And that's the way
it's always been and always will be among the Lord's people. It's
always been that way. And God, he makes, if you're
a vessel of honor, God made you that way. If you're a vessel
that honors God, honors Christ, honors the gospel, honors the word, God made you
that way. If you're a vessel of dishonor
and you settle the gospel, and you end up being a vessel of
dishonor, oh, what a shame, what, oh, how despicable it must be. Then look what he said in verse
21. If a man therefore purge himself
from these, from what? Wood, dishonor, and all the things
of dishonor, purge himself from these. If a man stays away, and
that's what he's talking about here, if a man stays away from
the company and the heresies and the errors and the influence
of those dishonorable vessels, Dishonorable vessels. Hymenus
and Philetus was dishonorable vessels. Judas was a dishonorable
vessel. And you know the only difference
between Judah and Peter? Christ said that Judas had been
never for him to be born. But when Peter was fixed to deny
the Lord, the Lord said, I prayed for you. The only reason you
ain't gonna fall away is because I prayed for you. And that's
the only thing that makes a difference is God in his blessed mercy and
grace makes a difference in any man in this world. And he said,
if a man stays away from these dishonorable vessels, and look
what he says, then he shall be a vessel of honor. Stay away
from people that's inheriting. Stay away from people that argue
and debate and have a controversy going on all the time. Oh, he'll
be an honorable vessel. Ain't that what he said? An honorable
vessel. A vessel of honor unto who? His master. For his master. Who's his master? Christ. The
one that rules over him. The one that he's responsible
to. Said he'll be a fit, be able
to be for the master's use. Gotta use him. Separate your
evil communications, corrupt good manners. And I tell you
what, And he said, and he'll be prepared unto ever good work.
And I tell you, that man who follows the Lord Jesus Christ,
if he's filled with the spirit of grace, spirit of truth, and
of love, Christ says he'd be useful. He's useful for the master's
use, for witnessing, for teaching, helping others in the household
of faith. But boy, you get around folks
that just You know, they just want to talk about everything
under the sun. There was a, oh my goodness,
run across a fellow like that here just a few days ago. All he wanted to talk about was
Antichrist, guns, getting ready for all kinds of things happening.
Carried a gun everywhere he went, had his car full of guns, and
all y'all hear him talk about is Antichrist, and read a verse
of scripture, said this is the state of America's in right now,
and read a whole bunch of verses. And I still don't know what in
the world it was about. But to him it had some meaning.
Nobody else had any meaning to. And that's what he said, evil
communications corrupt good manners. You know what, and when you start
talking about the Antichrist and how people are being treated
in all these other countries, I said, and you know, and by
God's grace, I said, you know, John says this, the Antichrists
were already in the world. Antichrist is a spirit, and everybody's
waiting for a man of Antichrist. He said, when that man of wickedness
appeared. Now you tell me, every man's
an Antichrist till God saves him by his grace. Ain't that
right? Nobody's for Christ till God
saves them. And they're waiting for some
great big man to show up. Now I'll tell you, they're gonna
be waiting a long time. And I'll tell you if you know,
this is something, association and fellowship with unregenerated
people who murmur and are indifferent and they're troublemakers. They
have a very, very corrupting influence. Look what he said
over here in Romans chapter one, excuse me, Romans 16. Look over
here in Romans 16 with me. In verse 17. This is something that we really,
really need to pay attention to. He said in verse 17, Now brethren, now I beseech you
brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary
to the doctrine which you've learned. People come in, offending
people, trying to make divisions, contrary to the doctrine which
you have learned, and avoid them. For they that are such serve
not our Lord Jesus Christ. They're not meet for the master's
use. but they serve their own belly, they serve their own flesh,
they serve their own pride, and by good words and fair speeches
deceive the hearts of the simple. And that's what Paul said, if
a man purge himself from these dishonorable people, purge himself
from all these, stay away from them, stay away from them. And
then the Lord, you'll be a meek for the masters used to preach,
to teach, to witness, and to be a blessing to people. And
then look what he said here in verse 22. He's talking to Timothy
now, and that's what he's talking about. Flee also youthful lusts,
and follow after righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them
that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Now he said, flee
youthful lust. He had mentioned this before.
And when he's talking about all young men and all young believers,
it's true that Timothy and all young people need to and must
avoid the lust of uncleanness and lasciviousness and worldliness. And when you're young, I've told
people I had more zeal than I had sense. And that's a fact. I had
a lot more zeal than I had any sense. And so he says, you know,
you avoid these things. But when you're dealing with
the subject, stay in the subject, in the context that it's in.
Paul's meaning is, he's speaking when he talks about flea also,
youthful lust. And this is the problem. He's
talking about preachers now. He's talking about people. He
says, you know, that preachers, young preachers especially, are
apt to, you know, in these youthful lusts, they entice a preacher,
young ministers and leaders in the church, entice them to vain
glory, vain, vain, vain glory. They like to be popular, they
like applause. They like seeking to have the
preeminence. You know, John says, Demas hath
forsaken us, loving to have the preeminence. He runs everybody
off of him because he's got to have the preeminence. And now
becoming involved in disputes and arguments and debates and
divisions. And I'll tell you, those are
the things you gotta watch out for. You gotta watch out for
them. And then become involved in disputes and debates and divisions. I remember when I was a young
preacher, and you know, Young preachers, you know, that problem
is presented, you know what you're going to do? I'll tell you what
I always did. I tackled it head on whether
I knew what I was doing or not. Just, you know, and whenever
contention and division of parts, you know, young men are quickly,
quickly, they grow heated. I mean they get You know, I bowled
over a couple of times, and if a fellow bowls over, you know
who's gonna get scalded? The people they bowl over on.
I've done plenty of that in my young days, and you all know
it too. Oh my goodness, I have, oh my. And I tell you, you know,
that's why I said youthful lust, because young
men are easily, easily irritated. And they just blunder, blunder,
blunder around through war of experience. And they give into
wrath, you know, rashness and impatience and all of these things. That's what he says, so you flee
these youthful lusts. And one of the worst things you
can do for a young preacher, I'm telling you, I know this
from experience, is you brag on a fellow that's had one or
two services and they seem to have some gifts, the worst thing
you can do is brag on them too much. Too much. And I mean, you know, if they
blessed you, say, yes, you is a blessing. I'm thankful for
what you had to say. But I'm gonna give you an illustration.
There was a young man, he was preaching, and he was a very
gifted preacher. And somebody told him, he said,
you're like a young Don Fortner. His head got so big and he started
being mean and tough and rough from the pulpit. And it wasn't
no time he was out of the ministry. He's not in the ministry at all
now. And you know, and then all these people with a flat earth,
they're out of the ministry. and should be out of the ministry.
That's what I mean, they get in these things and they don't
think things through, they don't see the end of something. And
I tell you, it takes years, I mean years. And I've said this time
and again, a man, a young man don't suspect nothing until he
gets 35 years old. I tell you. You know, a man don't
even suspect nothing. You know, it's not all men, but
general men don't have a clue what's going on till they're
35 years old. All they wanna do is just, is act like, you
know, this is all my territory and I dare anybody to get in
it. Well, so flee useful lust. And then look what he said here
in verse 23. He says, but foolish and unlearned
questions avoid knowing that they gender strife. You know,
foolish and ignorant controversies over matters that do not edify
the church And if you can't clearly, clearly resolve them by the Word
of God, stay away from them. If that's not the Word of God
to settle any dispute or any controversy, then stay away from
it. Just don't get into it. And if it's not to edify, you
know, let me show you a couple things about edification. Look
in Romans 14.10. You know, edify means to build up. It means to
establish. It means to build up. And if
we can't build up, Romans 14, 19, you know, and
that's what Paul says, you know, said, God gave me the ministry
of edification. And he said, everything may be
lawful for me. Everything may be lawful for
me. Anything I want to do may be
lawful for me. But he said, if it's not edifying,
then it's not worth, it's no good to me. And edifying means
to build up, to strengthen and encourage. And look what Paul
said here in Romans 4, 19. Let us therefore follow after
the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may
edify one another. Build up one another, encourage
one another, build up one another in the faith. And I tell you
what, people have speculations and arguments over secret mysteries,
or this mystery, that mystery, and they want to know, you know,
they've got ideas on the revelation and all of those things, and
trifles, trifles, things that ain't not even been mentioned,
and unprofitable traditions. And he said, all they do is just
make men to strive. It makes men to strive over things.
And I tell you, you get into, I've seen fellas get into some
pretty good disputes. I just get up and walk away.
I'm not going to dispute with anybody unless it's, there's
a scriptural answer to something that you're dealing with. And
that's why you say, you know, I don't know how many times people
say, I don't care what the Bible said. I know what I believe.
I don't care what the Bible says. I get tired of you saying the
Bible says. I've got my own opinion. I've
got my own feelings. Well, you'll kill one of these
days, what the Bible says. But then look what he also said
here in verse 24. And the servant, and the servant
of the Lord, and that's what we are, service of the Lord,
must not strive. Oh, don't be a striver, don't
be an argumentative person, don't be a contentious person, but
be gentle unto all, apt to teach, and be patient. You know, he
ought not contend about words to no profit, but what he ought
to contend for, what he ought to contend for, and be gentle
for, and must strive for, is for the gospel, for the faith
of the gospel. To be qualsome, to be contentious
over words and customs and doctrines, to show how smart he is, show
how much mastery he has over things, and how pious he is,
and that in and of itself defeats his very purpose. And that's
why he says, you know, he said, he must strive, be gentle unto
all. You know, as a dear, dear, dear, dear friend
of mine here recently, a fellow in his congregation, and been
with him for years, been with him for years. He got all heated
up about something, and he got in this preacher's face, this
pastor's face, and disrespected him. He said, I've never been
disrespected no more in my life than by this person. And then
come to find out, just here recently, that person changed doctrines
while he's in the church. He changed doctrines. Well, this
dear preacher, I said, I said, that's got to bother you. I said,
I bet you, I said, it'd be hard not to get right in his face
and say, what in the world's happened to you? Get in his face. And he said, that's exactly what
I was going to do. That's exactly what I was going
to do. I was going to get off. I was going to get in his face
and I was going to tell him, you got, you, you, you went off
the rails. But he said, on my way to talk
to him, God brought this verse of scriptures to his heart. Huh? Be gentle unto all men. Must
not strive. And he was fixin' to go have
a strive. And the Lord stopped him. And he says, you know, my
way. He said, the Lord stopped me.
He said, be gentle unto all men. Be gentle. And he said, I stopped
right there. And now all I do is pray for
him and God'll have to do the work. God'll have to do the work. And then look what he says in
verse 25. In meekness, meekness means pliable, pliable in the
sense that you're not gonna get bent out of shape. Meekness means
pliable, a softness, an easiness. Instructing those that oppose
themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance, to
the acknowledging of the truth. Let the preacher learn to correct
people with courtesy, gentleness, especially those who oppose the
Word of God. Because when they oppose the
Word of God, and they oppose the preacher, when they oppose
the gospel, they're really opposing themselves. They're opposing
themselves because you can't stand up against God, you can't
stand against Israel. And that's what he says. They
are actually opposed themselves. And if they oppose the truth,
they're opposing themselves. And I tell you, he does that
to his own ruin. He does that to his own unhappiness.
And we got to be firm in the gospel, got to be firm in the
gospel, in the truth, but yet very, very tender in the spirit.
Oh my, oppose themselves. They oppose themselves. I mean,
a man that just Refuses to hear and believe, but be tender in
spirit, that what he says, oppose himself. Perhaps God will purge
venture. God may, may grant them repentance. May grant them repentance. They're
opponents to the hope of the gospel. But maybe God will grant
them repentance. Get an understanding of the word.
Don't build a wall between you and an opponent that's prevented
them from repenting. and coming back. Don't embarrass
them, don't humiliate them. I'll tell you a story. Norm Wells
told me this while he was there. We was talking about this. I
was a man that had been with Brother Norm for years. Well,
he was going to get married. And he says, you know, he said,
I'll have to leave the church because the woman I'm marrying
Said she'd went to service with him and she didn't like the gospel.
She said she won't come where I'm going. She's just not gonna
go. Said we're gonna go to where
she goes. And then when he said that, he said, but Norm, said
we'd like you to marry us. Said I'm leaving the church.
I'm marrying a woman who ain't gonna come to the church. Ain't
got nothing to do with this. And he said, but we both want
you to marry us. Norm said, he said, well, okay. And then he walked away and he
said, what in the world have I done? He said, here's this
fella. Now you're talking about opposing
himself, that's what they've done. And he thought it over
and talked it over and he said, yeah, yeah, I'll marry you. I'll
marry you. So he married him. Well, through
that marriage, because he didn't build a wall, he started wanting
to go back and said, there's no way in the world I'm going
to marry you. You have to get somebody else. But he thought that thing through
and considered it. And then that man and his wife
stayed away, but his wife's sister come to the service after that
wedding. She's been there ever since. Three months later, that
man called her and said, man, my wife would like to come back
and come over to the service. Do you care? He said, oh no,
and they've been there ever since. So see, he could have built a
wall right there. If that'd been me, I'd have said, listen, you
better get somebody else. If you're leaving me, get somebody
else. But he thought it through. And
that wall, there was no wall there. And he got two new people
and got that felon that left back. That's exactly what that
means. Be gentle unto all men that oppose
themselves. And God, peradventure, may be,
will grant them repentance. And you know what? Not only repentance,
but they'll say, that's the truth. That is the truth. A young preacher wouldn't do
that. You gotta have a few, the Lord got a few years under his
belt. And then look what he says in
verse 26. And that they may recover themselves. You know that oppose themselves
also means to wake them out, to wake them to the acknowledging
repentance, that they gotta wake them up. And that they may recover
themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive
by him and his will. You know, our desire, our objective, And all of us are ministers to
some way. Everybody, you know, wives minister
to husbands, husbands to wives, wives to their children, their
grandchildren, fathers and grandpas to their grandchildren. And we
all, we got a ministry, all of us do, witnessing and doing those
things. But our desire and objective
in whatever God gives us to do, Administering is that the truth
is that men might come to themselves That God may cause men like the
prodigal like the prodigal He took everything that his father
gave him and he went and wasted it. I mean wasted it He got he
got took all this money took and that's the way we were we
God gave us our life gave us our strength gave us our everything
we have and everything we took until God said we took and wasted
it and And he got off, and he just wasted everything, and he
got down to his old clothes was raggedy, and he said, what, where
am I going to do? I'm going to starve to death.
So he said, well, the fellow told him, I got a job over here
for you. What do you want me to do? I want you to come over
here and feed my hogs. So where he went, he went and
started feeding that fellow's hogs. Well, he got so hungry,
while he was feeding the hogs, he didn't know how to feed. While
he was feeding the hogs. And then while he was doing that,
the scripture says, he come to himself and he said, in my father's
house, my servants, his servants have bread to eat and to spare. He said, I know what I'm going
to do. He said, I'm going to rise and I'm going to go back
to the house. I'm going to go home. And when his father was
watching for him, looking for him, and he saw him, he went
out and kissed him and fell on his neck. And you know what the
first word out of his mouth was? Father, I've sinned against heaven
and I've sinned against you. Make me as one of your hard servants.
And the father said, oh no, no, no. This my son was lost. He's now found. This my son was
dead. Now he's alive. Bring forth the
best robe. And that's what we're talking
about. Oh my, that's our desired objective, that men may come
to themselves like the prodigal, may awake out of the sleep of
death, and the scriptures tell us to be stirred to the right
mind, like that Galilean maniwack was. And I tell you, people get
intoxicated with air and taken captive by Satan, by his will,
And you know the only person that can make them free, the
Son of God. The Son makes you free, you're
free indeed. And only the Son and the truth
can make a man free. And I tell you, that's what he
said. We pray for people who won't even pray for themselves.
Our children won't pray for themselves, but we pray for them. Our grandchildren
won't pray for themselves, but we pray for them. Our neighbors won't pray for
themselves, but we pray for them. Is that not right? And when people
come to the services that we know is not converted, but God
keeps sending them in, and they keep coming, oh, we pray for
them. Oh, God can set a man free. And
if He ever sets you free, you know what you'll be? You'll be
free forever. You know, I'd like to be that
preacher Timothy Paul's talking to, and maybe about the time
we get too soon old and too late wise. And that's my problem,
too soon old and too late wise. And oh, God help me to be a more
gentle, more kind, more generous, more easy, more patient preacher. more loving, more kind. And I
don't have to flee youthful lust anymore because I'm too old. Well, all right, let's pray. Our Father, Lord our Lord and
our God, Father, thank you for your word. I know with those
that are here And we have, all of us, have so much to learn.
That's why we go through the scriptures, verse by verse, for
us to learn, be reminded of things, and be taught of the Lord, taught
of the Holy Spirit. God bless these dear saints,
those that are listening tonight. God bless them, Lord encourage
them, uphold them, meet the needs of their homes, meet the needs
of their families. And Lord, every one of us have
people we love and pray for, but let us pray for one another.
And if anybody has a burden that, Lord, we don't know about, a
trial that we don't know about, you know, you know them. Your
foundation stands sure. You know them that are yours.
And Lord, you always, always uphold your people. God bless
them, God strengthen them, God encourage them, for Christ's
sake. Amen. Amen. Well, good night and God
bless you. See you Sunday, Lord willing.