This is the reading of God's Word, 2 Timothy chapter 2, picking up in verse 20. Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. So flee youthful passions, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart." So the Word of God puts out some incredible challenges sometimes. And one such part today is the words from the author of the Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 12, verse 14. It says, Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Holiness. That is one of those incredible challenges from the Lord. And He doesn't mix words. Holiness is not some optional upgrade that some people have and some people don't worry about. The holiness without which no one will see the Lord. The Lord makes so clear how important holiness is. And if you were to look at the Christian life from sort of a divine perspective, what has happened is that when we trusted in Christ, what God was actually doing in us, as He unites us to Christ, He is actually making us holy. So the work of the Gospel, that Good News, actually makes us holy, set apart to God, cleansed for God, made pure for God. And yet as the scriptures go on, they'll say, yes, you are holy, and now grow in holiness, live in holiness. So there's a holiness already accomplished, and there's a holiness that we are still pursuing. We are still fighting for. And so the Lord in another place, 1 Peter 1, verses 15 and 16, but as he, who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. The requirement is so clear, and yet the requirement is so demanding. The requirement in some ways is so challenging as to be scary. I would definitely be willing to say that holiness is one of those things that is among the most difficult for us to both get our minds around and actually pursue. We find it difficult just by itself. The idea of growing in that holiness, pursuing that holiness. We find it difficult because frankly we are weak And sin still besets us. So when God calls us to be holy as He is holy, we think, that's like telling me to fly. It sounds that hard. And so our own weakness, our own condition, makes pursuing holiness difficult. Not to mention, this world is never helping. If you can count on one thing the world is doing, it is not helping you be holy. And it can do that in the most gentle ways, or it can do that in violent ways. But the influence of the world is also then what we are dealing with. God says, be holy, and the world is rolling out a thousand tricks and distractions to lure us a different way. So I find that as the Lord tells me I must be holy, that I look at myself and think, man, I'm weak. Man, I am still beset with sin, and man, this world is so hard. We find holiness difficult just on its own. And then there's the struggle with motivation. The motivation to be holy. So if I tell you, you need to be holy. You as a Christian, if you are a Christian today, will have a certain sense of yes, that's true, yes, that's right. But then if you were to really search your heart for the motivation you have to pursue being holy, often we don't have much in the tank. It's hard enough if we're fully motivated, but if you look at our hearts, so often what we've got is, oh, I feel guilty. That's why I need to pursue holiness, because I feel guilty for the lack of holiness in my life. Maybe your motivation sounds like this, I know I'm supposed to be holy just because I ought to. Pure obligation from the Lord, that's really all I've got. I am obligated to be holy. And with these kinds of things in the tank, you have this incredibly difficult task with that kind of motivation, and it feels like drudgery. to pursue holiness. I'm not surprised if any number of your hearts, when I say, we need to be holy, you kind of have this reaction like, ooh, okay. Because that's often what we're dealing with. Challenging task, and very little motivation. I'm a big believer that the Bible is often telling us about motivation. It's telling us not just what, we're called to do, it's telling us why. And as it tells us why we are to do what we are to do, it's also helping us with how we're ever going to do it. If you can start there at that heart, at that heart position, that heart attitude, if you can find the motivation that God actually has revealed he wants us to have, you will find that then you have a new ability to pursue a hard task. I think holiness is always going to be hard. but we can at least have the motivation God wants for us as we pursue holiness. The Apostle Paul today, as we continue in this letter, he's going to show us another dimension of holiness. I say another because I'm not sure many of us are realizing that holiness applies to what he is going to apply it to. To just give you a little glimpse, he is going to say that holiness relates to what we believe. Holiness relates to whether we are humoring false teaching and indulging it, growing it, letting it spread in our hearts. So holiness is not just a topic that you apply to, you know, the heart of lust and dealing with immorality and these different areas that we talk about holiness. We find the apostle applying holiness to what we believe. That right there might be a surprise to you, but what I want you to see today is that there's also a surprising new motivation, at least for some of us. Even as He spurs us on to holiness, He is going to give us hope for what holiness leads to. And it's here that we begin again in the text. As we pick up in verses 20 and 21, We're going to see how God shows us the hope of holiness. Just right there, I would wager that any number of you have not put those words together before. The hope of holiness. But I want to show you where that is in the passage today. Paul is going to continue the subject. And I need you to hold on to that so you can hold on to where we're going. He has been talking about false teachers. He's been talking about the problems they are causing, the problems in what they're teaching and how that's undermining people's faith. He's been talking about the danger of false teachers and how we need to flee from false teachers. Hold on to that so that you've got the context. Paul continues talking about false teaching, even as he makes this illustration of a great house. Now, as you study your Bible, it's really important that you don't mix up illustrations. An illustration in one letter that Paul wrote is not necessarily the same illustration he's making in another letter. And the reason I say that is because sometimes people can mix up this illustration with other illustrations Paul has made. So, in 1 Corinthians 12, he'll make an illustration that all Christians are a part of a body. And actually there are parts that are doing things that are less esteemed, even less honorable. But they actually are part of the bodies serving the Lord and they even deserve an honor for doing these things that are sort of less pronounced, less obvious. And what I want you to know is that that teaching needs to stay in 1 Corinthians 12. It's a good teaching. And I believe in it wholeheartedly. You've heard me talk about 1 Corinthians 12 before. Yes, there is a use for every part of the body, and there is honor to be given to those that are doing things behind the scenes and the things that don't get much of bragging rights. But he's talking about similar things, like things that are honorable. But he's making a different point between that 1 Corinthians 12 passage and here. When you're studying your Bible, you always want to ask, what does the author mean here? Sometimes you get information from other passages, but you don't want to just steamroll the passage in front of you, saying, oh, it means the same thing as that other one. Here, we're trying to say, what does Paul mean specifically right here? So he says there's this really nice house, there's this great house, and it's filled with different vessels. And he says, there's these gold and silver ones. And you can picture this. This is the nice stuff. This is like the china, so to speak. This is the stuff that you put out for public occasions, for meals, for noble, honorable purposes. Then he says, there's the wood and the clay vessels. Wood and clay, much more ordinary, much cheaper. And this is the kind of thing that you would use for day-to-day things. ordinary purposes, and he seems to be making a point that you might be talking about, you know, the trash can, and we'll just say the toilet. The things that hold trash and excrement, that's the kind of dishonorable use that he seems to be pointing at. And Paul's point here is not, hey, let's honor the person who takes out the trash. That's true. If you take out the trash here, thank you. That's true, but that's not his point. Paul's point in this illustration is we want to be honorable vessels. We want to be the gold and silver vessels. We want to be the ones God is using for honorable, noble purposes. You hold onto that, and then you can see what Paul actually means here, so we don't get confused by another passage. And we know that this is what he's doing because he's going to connect this illustration, gold, silver, honorable purposes, wood, clay, dishonorable purposes, he's gonna connect that to the false teaching. Because the false teaching is really the difference of what's honorable and what's not. And so he says, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, and literally in the Greek it's just, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, That word cleansing, it's a word that often referred to making things pure, making things holy for like worship purposes. This is the kind of thing you might have done for the instruments they used in the temple so long ago. And his point is, okay, what are we supposed to be cleansing ourselves of? This is why you hold on to context. We are supposed to be cleansing ourselves of the false teaching We're supposed to be cleansing ourselves of these things they've taught, that the resurrection has already happened. We're supposed to be cleansing ourselves of their methods. Remember, he's telling Timothy, don't act like them. We're supposed to be cleansing ourselves of the influence of these false teachers. That is his point in the context. And so you see now, he's applying holiness, this language of cleansing, of purity for the worship of God, he's applying holiness to the danger of the false teaching. So if you're going to flesh out the illustration just a little bit more, what is that trash or what is that excrement? It's the false teaching that is upsetting the faith of some at that church back in Ephesus. And it's a call to holiness he's making. Holiness actually compels them to rid themselves of that teaching in their lives. This is the cleansing Paul is talking about. This is the call to holiness, a holiness that even applies to what we believe, to the teachings that we have taken into our hearts and our lives. Now here's the hope. So there's a hope here. What is it? I want you to just see who God uses and what he can do with them. see who God uses and what he can do with them. As it moves later into the verse, in verse 21, he's making a point that God can transform anyone. So you're breaking out of the illustration a little bit, because gold never turns into clay, and vice versa. But he is saying, if you cleanse yourself, if you pursue this holiness, you can be transformed. which is actually a lovely thing. Now as we begin to apply it, you are not stuck being the dishonorable trash can. That is the thrust of the illustration. You are not stuck being the toilet. God transforms people. As he makes them holy and as they pursue holiness, he transforms people. This is the first hope. When people first trust in Christ, the Lord reaches in, He grabs a sinner, grabs them out of the swamp of their sin, pulls them out and says, I can wash you clean. And by the blood of Christ, He does. He washes them clean, and that person never thought they could have any role in God's hands, in God's plans. now has a new hope altogether. This is the hope of salvation, this is the hope of those who in Ephesus had fallen for the false teaching. Remember the pastoral side of this letter. There are some whose faith has been undermined by this false teaching, by what it's done to them. The apostle can now say, hey, you fell for it and it's hurt you, but good news, you can be cleansed of this, you can be brought back from this, you are not lost just because you fell into this false teaching for a time. This is even the hope for the false teachers. And you're just going to have to hold on to that for a week or two because that's where Paul's going to go. But he is even going to say there is still hope even for those who are peddling this heresy. Praise God for the hope he gives us in holiness. And the hope, then, is not just who He can use, it's what He is going to do with them. What will this cleansing result in? The Apostle says, if we cleanse ourselves, we become honorable vessels in God's hands. If we cleanse ourselves, we are set apart. We are not stained, we are not defiled by that false teaching as if we can never escape it. The Lord makes us useful. useful in His plans, useful in His Kingdom. If we are cleansed, we are made ready for every good work. So the hope of holiness is that God can reach in, grab anyone, transform them from what they were into a useful servant in His Kingdom, an honorable vessel in His hands. The hope of holiness is that God can transform and make use of anyone. Praise God for the hope of holiness. Which then leads us into what's going to be a number of thoughts, but I can just start today. That leads us into God calling us to the pursuit of holiness. God shows us the hope of holiness and now God calls us to the pursuit of holiness. With this illustration underneath Apostle now is going to say, flee youthful passions. Tell us Timothy to flee youthful passions. New American Standard Bible, we use the word lusts. The NIV, we use the phrase evil desires. And this is a moment when you want to be clear on what he means. What are the youthful passions, whatever phrase you want to use. What are they that we are supposed to flee from, that Timothy is being told to flee from? And I think it's natural to just put this into other categories, other things that Paul has talked about. It's so natural that your youthful passions can think that Paul is talking about sexual immorality and lust. He teaches about that plenty, and he tells people to flee from those things as well. Pointing context is one of these things that the commentators look at and they say, why is he saying that here? Why are we talking about false teachers, talking about a false resurrection and how it's hurting people? And in this great house, why would we now be talking about Muslim sexual morality? Because we don't actually get information that seems to say that's what they were doing. That's what they were teaching. It leads us to say, is there another way that youthful passions could be applied in this case, because the word doesn't require, in the Greek, doesn't require that we're talking about sexual immorality or lust like we tend to talk about. Better would be to think that there are youthful tendencies that relate to this battle with the false teachers. So youthful tendencies like always getting into quarrels, right? That's what he's already been talking about. The older I get, the less I want to argue. That's just something that you've tasted it enough and you're like, this is unpleasant, actually getting into arguments all the time. The older I get, the less I want to argue. That was a mark of my more youthful tendencies that I wanted to argue. That seems to be directly related to what Paul is teaching. Youthful tendencies, like getting into foolish discussions. Yeah, that's kind of a youthful tendency. Or you could also say youthful tendency to always want something new. Like here is the established teaching of the Apostle Paul, but you know what? We've got a new idea. All of these things seem to be true to the phrase, youthful passions, while also being true to the context. It seems that Timothy is being told, like he's going to be told multiple times, to flee the things that would suck him into these quarrels, these new topics, these false discussions. Instead, what is he supposed to do? This is a very biblical pattern. God very rarely will say, just stop. Usually He's gonna say, stop this and start that. Put off, put on. What should Timothy do instead? He should pursue, he should strive for, he should seek after, now we hear several phrases, righteousness. He should strive for righteousness. That is living uprightly. This is actually the opposite word. When he talked about departing from iniquity a few verses ago, this is the opposite word. Depart from iniquity, pursue righteousness. He should pursue faith and love. If you read the Apostle Paul, more than once he's going to say, like, supreme virtues in the Christian life, faith and love. You'll see it over and over again. They are absolutely central to the Christian life. And what he means by that, faith, trusting in our God, that vertical dimension, which then goes so closely with love. Love those two great commandments. We love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and we love our neighbor as ourself. Faith and love, strive for that. If you were trying to think of a good goal for your Christian walk, and you came up with, I'm going to strive to grow in faith and love. That's a home run. That is a home run. Absolutely. That is a great, great goal to be pursuing. And that is what he's talking about. And he talks about it over and over again. And he says, pursue peace. Pursue peace. This is actually going to be more of the theme virtue, because he's going to say several things in future sermons, Lord willing, that are going to unpack this theme of peace. But just put it like this. These false teachers are known for going and basically starting quarrels, arguments, fights. He says, don't be like them. Flee from those tendencies. Instead, pursue peace. They want to start a fight. Timothy, you show up and you bring peace with you. And fight for peace. Strive for peace. Make that your passionate goal, that you are going to bring peace. Paul, in some sense, sort of broadens the scope, and he says, this is what you can do with all those who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ from a pure heart. This, then, is like the call of Christians just in general. The Bible is so often meant to be read for the person it was originally sent to, and then for just all Christians down the line. Paul's making it really clear here that that's the case. The people of God are meant to live a life like this. They're meant to pursue standards like this. All those who confess the name of the Lord Jesus Christ with holy hearts, cleansed hearts, they are going to pursue these things as well. So these things then are not left to just the exceptional few who are holy, the exceptional few who are peacemakers. These things are the standards for the people of God. These are what we are all pursuing. And that's really what we're going to take home with us today. that God calls us to pursue holiness, but pursue it with hope. Pursue holiness, but pursue it with hope. We return to that truth that pursuing holiness is actually a requirement for Christians. Hold on to that. That's not optional. That's not upgrading. That is just a basic part of our life. I am pursuing the holy life God has called me to. That is just a normal part of the Christian life. And today he is applying that category of holiness to false teaching. Again we have the word of God calling us to separate we consider just a couple of the major schools of really bad so-called Christian teaching out there? Maybe today we consider it in a different light. Maybe today we don't consider organized religion so much as we consider just worldly influence. As we look at this passage, spirit working on our hearts, a natural question would be, Lord, what do I need to be cleansed of? What do I need to be cleansed of? What influences do I need to cleanse my heart of? And I'll put out one that just made a lot of sense for my own heart, and I think it's gonna make a lot of sense for your hearts. It's really just trying to ask ourselves if we have absorbed the goals of the world. So if you were able to just write down the goals of your life, Do you think they would look just like the world's? Like, would someone in the world have written the very same list? So I look at myself sometimes and I think, what am I pursuing? And every now and again it's just like, I don't know, to be comfortable and to enjoy some things? Comfort and pleasure, how about that for exactly what the world would have written? I mean, so often if you look at what you're doing with your life, you're just thinking, man, that's exactly like what my worldly neighbor does. And it's not because those desires aren't evil. So for example, I think God blesses us with things like comforts. I think he blesses us with things to enjoy. But that can't possibly be the whole Christian life, right? You would expect that there's a little part of our list that looks like our neighbor's list, and then it branches out in totally different directions. As I think about goals that I really want to think were mine, it would be something like this. I didn't spend all my time just seeing how comfortable I could be. I was trying to make sure that my loved ones heard the gospel. I was trying to make sure that my gifts were being used in Christ's church. I was trying to make sure I didn't just live for the pleasure and the comfort and the money, but I did actually believe my Lord when He said that there are rewards in heaven that will so far surpass any pleasure that exists in this world, that when we get there, we will think it is such an incredibly gracious trade that the Lord has made. Those are the goals I'd like to sail in for. The gospel was spread that I would draw near to Him I would love him more than I would love my neighbor more. But every now and again, do you ever look at yourself and just think, this is just like the world. Count that then just one influence on our hearts. A worldly influence that says, these are the goals you live for. Don't worry about that kingdom of God stuff. Don't worry about seeking his righteousness. Just be comfortable, make enough money to make sure you're comfortable and you can enjoy the things you want to enjoy and maybe you can share a little bit with your kids when you die. And we say, that's not a Christian life. That's not the whole Christian life, not even close. We actually say God has called us to more. We seek to cleanse the influence of the world that has said, this is all you need to live for, just this world. We say, no, it's not. No, it's not. The Lord is calling us to separate ourselves from false teaching. You can ask for His help to search your heart for where that exists in your life, but He calls us to cleanse ourselves from this false teaching, in part because of what we've already preached. In part because it's dangerous and it damages us and other people. But today he's making this point. He's saying that false teaching is also preventing you from being what our Lord wants you to be. What does He want for you? He actually doesn't want for you to be the trash can holding the excrement of the world. He actually wants to make you that gold and silver, beautiful vessel, honorable in His hands, ready for every good work. That's what our Lord wants us to be. And we have this new motivation then as we pursue holiness. It's that heart that says, oh Lord, I want you to use me. I want you to use me. And I want to get rid of anything that's holding me back. Absolutely the false teaching. Cleanse me of the false teaching so that I would be that honorable vessel in your hands ready for every good work. That's what He calls us to. And so with that heart, we pursue holiness. with the God-given hope that he does actually reach into the lives of sinners and he transforms them. He transforms them. He makes them who they never thought they could be. He makes them holy. He makes them useful. He does indeed equip them by his word and his spirit for every good work. And the good news I can offer to you today is to say you are not ruled out. You are not ruled out. There is nothing in the scripture that would ever rule you out. That is a worldly lie and that's a doubt that sometimes we allow to creep into our hearts. Other people are useful. Other people can be made holy. Ah, not me. I'm just hoping I'll just barely get over the finish line. No, you are not ruled out. You are not ruled out. God has every plan for you. to be made holy. And we come back to the foundation of the gospel and you need to hear perhaps that you are in fact holy. You are in fact the saints of the Lord. The blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed you and made you holy. This is who you are and now the Lord calls you to grow in that holiness that He has accomplished in you. And He will do this work by the power of His Holy Spirit. You know what the Holy Spirit is really good at? making us holy. The Holy Spirit dwells in you, and God plans to transform you. Our God transforms His people and gives them honorable work to do in His kingdom. So with that hope set before us, we pursue the heart and the life Pursue faith, pursue love, and especially pursue peace. What a striking testimony we can have in these days when everyone wants to get in a fight, when we bring peace with us. You've got about 10 days of people looking to get in fights. You can bring peace. You can make peace. At the very least, you cannot get sucked into the fight and just make it worse. What a testimony we can have in a world that just wants to fight, when we bring the peace of Jesus Christ and we resist the senseless fighting that the world is always trying to suck us into. This is what we do together. This is what's normal for the people of God. That we pursue peace, faith, love, righteousness, holiness. This is the community where these things are normal. So, brothers and sisters, we close with this. Pursue holiness. And pursue it with a certain hope that God, by His Holy Spirit, will transform you. And He will make you useful in His kingdom. He will make you ready for every good work.