Good morning, everyone. This morning, we're going to continue on where we left off last week in 2 Timothy, but before we start, let's go to the word of prayer. Father, we're grateful once again to be here this morning. Father, I know that I pray that every Sunday morning, but Father, we truly are. We recognize how great a gift it is that we are gathered in this place because of all that that represents. We are gathered here because we have been called by Christ. We are gathered here because his blood has washed us from sin. Father, we are gathered here because though we were not a people, you have made us a people in Christ. Father, we are gathered here because we anticipate a day on which Christ returns. Father, we're gathered here because you have granted us all your riches of kindness in Christ. Father, we're here because you have granted us an eternal inheritance in Christ. We're even here praying because in Christ you have given us a place before your throne. Father, those are great and glorious things. Father, things we did not and could not deserve, and yet you gave them freely and even sacrificially gave them to us. And so, Father, we want to come with hearts of worship and with hearts of thanksgiving as we approach this morning. And Father, we want to know more of what Christ has done for us. So Father, that's why we come to your word this morning. It's because we do want to know more. We want to see more of Christ. So Father, as your word is read and your word is preached this morning, I pray that you would exalt Christ through the reading and preaching of your word. Help everyone that's here to see Christ truly and to rejoice in who Christ is. Father, we know that we need your spirit for that to happen, and so we pray that your spirit would be in our midst here this morning according to your promise. Father, I pray that you would fill me with your spirit as well, that my words would be truly your oracles, the oracles of God. Father, that they would be true and glorious of Christ, and that they would benefit those who are here listening. In Christ we will pray. Amen. So I left off last week in 2 Timothy 2.19. I said that we were only going to get through about half, if even half of what that verse was going to teach us. And so we need to come back to 2 Timothy 2.19. And so that's where I'm going to start this morning. We're going to come back to 2 Timothy 2.19. Go from verse 19 through the end of the chapter through 26 But before we jump in want to go back and remember where we've been so far in 2nd Timothy and so at the beginning of 2nd Timothy I set out an outline and a summary statement for the entire book So this is what I believe the 2nd Timothy is about 2nd Timothy tells us that serving the gospel will be hard But it's always worth it serving the gospel will be hard But it's always worth it So keep pressing into Christ. And then we split the book roughly up into two halves. We looked through the book and we saw that there's a series of exhortations. In fact, there's like six chief exhortations through the book, and they're split into two sets of threes. And so we get the first half of the book, the first three exhortations are charges, and they're all about being strong in the gospel. Paul looks at Timothy and says, you are weak and you feel run down and you're ready to give up. But here, you can't, you need to take the gospel and make it your strength. And so as we went through that, we saw that first half, we saw that the first charge was to fan into flame the gift of God that is in you through the laying on of my hands. Second charge was, do not be ashamed of the testament of our Lord, nor of me as prisoner. And then we saw examples of what does it look like to be ashamed, or what does it look like to not be ashamed? Then we got what I considered the chief exhortation of that section, was building up to this. You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. So we thought through that, we thought about the encouragement that Paul gave to Timothy. But then last week, we started the second half of the book. And so we jumped into the second half, which I'm going to call being a servant of the gospel. Once you've been strengthened by the gospel, then go be a servant of the gospel. And we started the first charge in that section, which was to do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who has no need to be ashamed. We're still in that section. We haven't exhausted that yet. And so we're going to come back to that section. We looked through verses 14 through 19 last week, and I want to go through verses 19 through 26 this week. So if you have your Bible, go ahead and open it to 2 Timothy 2. I'm gonna read verses 19 through 26. You can follow along in your Bibles, or if you'd like, I have the text up here on the screen. So 2 Timothy 2, starting in verse 19. But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal. The Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. Now in a great house there are vessels not only 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 all who call on the Lord from a pure heart. have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. You know that they bring quarrels. And the Lord's sermon must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth. And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him, to do his will. So as we look at these few verses at the end of 2 Timothy 2, this is going to be my proposition or main point. Paul encourages Timothy to handle God's word faithfully. That's what we saw last week. We saw that he said, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. So Paul encourages Timothy to handle God's word faithfully, but to handle God's word faithfully requires both Fidelity to the text, which is primarily what we thought over last week, requires fidelity to the text, but also a life that reflects the text. And that's what we're going to get to in this second half. We're going to present ourselves to God as one approved. We need to be faithful to the text and let the text transform our lives. And I'll have four points this morning. First, we're going to think about a general principle. Paul's going to lay out a general principle that he lays out in many other places in Scripture as well. We're going to think about that general principle. And then he's going to take that principle and apply it to a specific situation. We're going to think about how he takes that principle and uses it in the situation Timothy finds himself right now. And then as we apply it to the specific situation, we're gonna get the idea that there is some conflict, but Paul says, Timothy, there's hope. And this is why you need to take this principle and apply it to your situation. And then we'll pause at the end and just do a few applications for ourselves. So we'll start with that first point, a general principle. Paul says that there are vessels for honorable use. So we'll be looking at 2 Timothy 2 verses 19 through 21. I just wanna start in verse 19. This is where we left off last week. We left off with, Paul was talking about how to handle God's word faithfully, and he says, Timothy, you've gotta work hard, do your best, be zealous to present yourself as one approved, one who's going to handle the word faithfully. But then he says there's several ways not to handle the word faithfully. You could get caught up in silly arguments, And that's one of the things he's talking about. He says, those things lead to no good. And he talked about Hymenaeus and Philetus who had wandered from the faith and had distracted some. But Paul gives Timothy this encouragement, even though there are those who are teaching that are not faithful to the text. Paul told Timothy, God's firm foundation stands. Don't be afraid that those false teachers are going to absolutely destroy the church, and it gives them two reasons. The Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. We saw that those were both quotes from numbers with the situation with Korah, when Korah was trying to distract the people from following after Moses, thinking that they should follow after him just as much. In the end, God defeated Korah, even though it created quite a bit of problem for Moses in the interim. But he takes out of this, quotes out of that, and says, Timothy, don't be worried. But it's not all he's going to say out of these verses. And so as we look at this, he's going to say, God's firm foundation stands. And this is how we know God's firm foundation stands. He says, the Lord knows those who are his. So he says something about God's preservation. God knows those who are his and they're never going to fall away. It's the same thing that Jesus spoke to his disciples and said, the father's put them in my hand and no one can snatch them out of my hand. God will preserve those who are his. They're not in any true danger because God's gonna protect them. But he said, this is the other way that we know. Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. We're going to see that those who are truly in Christ are going to run from iniquity. And so God's preservation is always paired with God's people's perseverance. Preservation and perseverance are two sides of the same coin. And Paul holds these out to Timothy as, these are your hope. This is what's gonna give you hope, even when there's false teachers around, is that God's gonna preserve his people, but God's people are also gonna be zealous to run from that which is evil. God's people are going to pursue God. Then he's gonna pause and he's gonna say, you know what, actually, that's really true. Timothy, I'm telling you, You need to be a workman who is approved, one who's gonna rightly handle the word of truth. And as I've done that, I've gotten to these quotes from the Old Testament, and then he's gonna pause again and say, you know what? Those who name the name of the Lord are going to depart from iniquity. So verses 20 and 21 are an illustration of what Paul just quoted out of the Old Testament. He says, those who name the name of the Lord will depart from iniquity. And so he gives this, illustration I guess is the best word for it, this word picture that's gonna help us understand that. So he says in verses 20 and 21, 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 as we look at this word picture, Paul says, there's two types of vessels we can think of. There's vessels that are in this category of gold and silver vessels. They're like fancy, nice vessels. And he says there's also this category of wooden clay vessels. Just so that we understand what he's talking about, the thing I think Paul is thinking about as he's writing this is, he says, you know what, these gold and silver vessels, they're gonna be like those decorative water pitchers you put on the table. says that's one category of vessel. We can all think of that like a nice crystal picture you might put in the center of the dining table. He said there are also toilets. There are some of gold and silver and some of wood and clay. And so he follows that up. He says some of them have an honorable use. They're gonna be set in the center of the dining room table. Others have a, what we might consider dishonorable use. You're not gonna take your toilet and put it in the center of the dining room table. And that's what Paul's saying. He's saying, look at this. Think this through. There's two types of vessels. Some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Then he's going to pause. So he's going to say something like this. Honorable and dishonorable don't mix. We don't go to the toilet and take toilet water and put it in the crystal vessel. We don't take the toilet and put it on the dining room table. Those things don't go together. We can't have honorable and dishonorable mix. And he's gonna use that as an illustration of what he just said. Christ's people have been made honorable by Christ. And so they must be running from that which is dishonorable. If they want to be honorable in Christ, they can't be mixing themselves with that which is dishonorable. If something becomes a toilet, you don't make it a picture to put on the dining room table. And so he says this, therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use. So he says, you know what? You need to look at yourself and say, no one here is perfectly honorable. We have been made honorable in Christ. But there's so many ways as we read, that's why we read Romans 7 and 8 this morning, we see that there's sin that still lies closely beside us, but he said this is the run, the pathway of the Christian life, is to recognize that that which is dishonorable needs to be put away. Or as poets say in Romans, say, put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, or to cleanse yourself from what is dishonorable. And it's an if-then statement. If you run from that which is dishonorable, then you will be a vessel for honorable use. The emphasis here is actually on the word use. These vessels were used. Some were for honorable use and some were for dishonorable use. He says, if you want to be used as a vessel for honorable use, then you must be cleansing yourself from that which is dishonorable. The two can't go together. So he's gonna take a general principle that applies to all Christians. Honorable and dishonorable can't mix. Those who are in Christ need to be running from that which is dishonorable. And he's going to say, particularly for those who are going to stand up and represent the gospel, Christ's servants must be honorable to be useful. Christ's servants must be honorable to be useful. So they must actively work to be cleansing themselves from that which is dishonorable. They must look at their lives and take stock of their lives and say, these are things I must be putting to death and I can't allow to flourish in my life. If I let them flourish in my life, then I'm going to be one who's been contaminated by dishonorability. And if that's true, then I cannot come and set myself on the kitchen table and act like I'm a vessel for honorable use. If I went and jumped in the toilet, we're not going to set me on the center of the kitchen counter. Now, Paul would say with everyone that there's not perfection. This is not a statement that those who serve Christ must be perfect, because we would find all sorts of verses, I think of some out of 1 John right away, that would say there's no one perfect. There's none who can say they're without sin. But that ought to be the general pattern of life, to say I'm not going to allow dishonorable things to mark, to take over my life, and when I identify them, I'm going to put them to death. So Timothy, or Paul tells Timothy, Timothy, that's you. If you want to be a vessel for honorable use, if you want to be a workman who has no need to be ashamed, make sure you're not only paying close attention to the teaching, make sure you're not only paying close attention to the doctrine, make sure you're not only rightly handling the word of God, but make sure you're cleansing yourself from what is dishonorable, because then you will be a vessel that is ready for honorable use. Then you will be set apart as holy, then he will be useful to the master of the house and ready for every good work." So that's the general principle that he sets out, and it's a principle we see across all of scripture. I just pull a couple of other verses up here. We've got 1st Timothy 3. In 1st Timothy 3, Paul sets out one of the places he sets out the requirements for elders. And as we go through this, we notice that a lot of them are character issues. In fact, able to teach is a very important requirement for being an elder, but it is definitely not the only one. So it says, the saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well with all dignity. keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace and to a snare of the devil. And so in the next chapter, Paul's gonna give an exhortation to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter four. He goes back and looks at what he's taught so far in the book, and he tells Timothy, come in and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in faith, in love, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things. Immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress. He looks at Timothy and says the same thing he says in 2 Timothy. Work hard and make sure you can teach well. Work hard to make sure you're rightly handling the word of truth, but then he follows up with this. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. It's going to be a dual watching. You can't just rightly handle the word of truth and ignore your life. You can't just have a great life and ignore the truth. You're gonna need to keep a close watch on both. If you persist in this, then you will save both yourself and your hearers. And so he comes and he sets out this word picture, the vessels for honorable and for dishonorable use. And he sets out this basic principle. And this is the principle, the general principle that I'm referring to in my title is that Christ's servant must reflect Christ's word, both in his teaching and in his life. Christ's servant must reflect Christ's word, both in his teaching and in his life. And so that's a general principle, principle that will apply to all Christians, a principle that will apply particularly to those set apart to lead in the church. But now Paul's gonna take that general principle and look at Timothy's situation and say, okay, Timothy, this is the general thing. You can't be polluting yourself with that which is dishonorable. Now let's look at your situation and see how you might be being polluted or how you might be being tempted to be polluted. So we're gonna move to our second point, He's gonna take this general principle and apply it to a specific situation. He's gonna look at Timothy and say, the Lord's Sermon must not be quarrelsome. So we'll be looking at verses 22 through 25. So he just finished this. He says, 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. So, that's a word of application. I've given you the principle, now let's think through what does this principle mean for you, Timothy. So, what do you need to do, Timothy? He says, this is what you need to do. You need to hear that principle and say, if I need to be a vessel for honorable use, I can't be participating in that which is dishonorable. And he's gonna say, what's gonna cause you to pursue that which is dishonorable is youthful passions. So what he means by that is something like your immaturity. your ability to be controlled by your base desires, to run after what you want and without thinking very much to just run after something. And a lot of people will focus on these youthful passions and they'll unpack lots of things out of youthful passions and that's not all bad. We could talk about youthful passions and how the immaturity of youth often allows you to be drawn away after what you think that your heart wants for a few moments. But Paul has a specific thing in mind when he's talking about those youthful passions. I think he'd say most youthful passions are not very helpful and you should flee from all of them. But I think in this situation he's thinking about one sort of youthful passion in particular. He says, youthful passions will cause you to be hot-headed and quick to argue. You're gonna love to argue. You're gonna love to be right. You're gonna relish the fight, especially for young men. We can see how for young men, that's probably a natural youthful passion. There's something in young men that loves to be right, that loves to argue. You see that in most young men. Paul looks at Tim and he says, you're a young man. This is probably true about you. In fact, Timothy, I've spent some time with you. You might be just a little bit hot-headed. You might be a little fast to the argument. You might be a little fast to dive in and want to be right when maybe you just didn't need to enter that situation at all. So that's the youthful passion that Paul's thinking about. He's going to contrast that. He says, so flee those youthful passions. Don't be driven by your feelings or by what you want right now. You need to take a step back. and show maturity, that you're able to control yourself and not be run by these youthful passions, and that contrary to that, instead of being run or governed by your youthful passions, is gonna be to pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace. He says, those things are opposite of the youthful passions. The youthful passions that are going to cause you, Timothy, to run into an argument and want to be right and relish the fight. Instead, if you focus on, you know, what I want to be representing is righteousness. What I want to be marked by is faith. What I want to be marked by is love and peace. Then that's going to be contrary to those youthful passions that are going to cause you to run after these arguments. And he says, all who call on the Lord with a pure heart are gonna represent those things. Those are the things that draw those who are truly belonging to Christ. So he's gonna say, flee youthful passions, then he's gonna tell them very directly, this is what I mean. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. You know that they breed mortals. So he looks at Timothy and says, one of the things that would be very dishonorable for you, Timothy, is to try to jump into all these petty arguments. There's gonna be people who have petty arguments about side things on the word of God, and they love to argue. And Timothy, if you jump in there and you love that argument, you participate in this foolish, ignorant controversy, some of those things we talked about last week. He says, those are just gonna breed quarrels, and you're gonna be marked as one who is quarrelsome, and nobody's gonna listen to you because you're just the guy who likes to argue about things. Says, Timothy, that would disqualify you. That would make you no longer a vassal for honorable use because you've been marked by that which is dishonorable. And so he says this. He says, think back to what I wrote you in the first book. I gave you this list of qualifications for an elder, and one of them was you must not be quarrelsome. So he says, Timothy, again, I'm going to tell you, the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome. Now, I wanna think about that a little bit, because what does it mean to be quarrelsome? Think about that in just a moment, come back to that. But that's the principle he wants to lay down, is the Lord's servant cannot be quarrelsome. Timothy, that can't be something you're marked by in your life. If you're marked by that, then you're gonna be a vessel that's been contaminated with that which is dishonorable and no longer useful to the master of the house. So he's going to say instead of this, instead of that hot-headedness that makes you run into an argument and want to be right and relish the fight, he's going to say this is the other attitude that would be the converse of that. You need to be kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, and correcting your opponents with gentleness. Now that right there helps us understand a little bit about what it means to be quarrelsome. It doesn't mean carefully teaching and even carefully refuting wrong positions from the word of God. We could take quarrelsome and say, this guy never argues. That would not be what Paul is talking about, because he says in his thing that the converse of this is being able to teach and correcting his opponents. It's not the ability to refute arguments or to show from the Word of God that something is wrong, and even sometimes to stand up and say that, and even sometimes to stand up and say that forcefully, but it's the attitude behind it. When you're able to teach, when you're correcting your opponents, you're also going to be kind. You're going to be patient. You're going to be gentle as you do so. That's going to be the mark of the attitude that does that. And we can say this because Paul will tell Titus that one of the marks of an elder is someone who can take the Word of God and show what's wrong. He's going to say he must hold firmly to the trustworthy Word as taught. so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine, and also to rebuke those who contradict. And so Paul can't mean by quarrelsome someone who isn't going to go and say, I'm sorry, this is wrong. An elder will have to do that. An elder will have to take the word of God and say some things are wrong outside of the word of God, not in line with what the word of God teaches. That's not quarrelsomeness, just the statement of saying this is wrong. And sometimes Paul would do that very, very, might I say, aggressively. If you want evidence of that, I just point you to Galatians. Paul wrote Galatians, it was not a, I'm gonna say this tongue-in-cheek because I'm actually going to flip side and say it is gentle, but it's not a gentle book. It's a pretty aggressive book, and we get to Galatians five, this is his summation of his opponents. I wish those who insulted you would emasculate themselves. Paul isn't being, pulling his punches. That's not what quarrelsome means either. And so what does quarrelsome mean? What does it mean the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome? We could either look at Paul and be like, Paul, you completely failed. That could be one answer. I don't like that answer. I don't think that's gonna be it. And so we have to take these and say, quarrelsome doesn't mean these things that Paul have recorded in sacred scripture. It has to be something else. And that's why, as I think about it, it's that desire. Paul's desire in Galatians was not merely to defeat his opponents. Paul didn't relish the fight. He didn't want to just show that he was right and get involved in a fight. Paul loved his people, the Galatians in this case, but whatever people he'd be ministering to at that time. And he got pulled sometimes into saying, no, these things are right and these things are wrong. Sometimes doing so very forcefully to make sure that it was clear what was right and what was wrong. But his heart was in love for the people he was serving, not because he loved the Galatians. love the fight or love the ability to go and argue about things. So Paul tells Timothy, make sure you're not jumping into foolish, ignorant controversies. Make sure that you are called to faithfully represent the Word of God. You're called to faithfully teach what Scripture says. But that doesn't mean that you have to jump in every time and be an arguer. So as I thought about this, I wanted to give an example because I think there's a gray line, not a gray line, there's a fine line here, and it'd be sometimes hard to tell what side some things are on. And so I wanted to think about what does this mean? I hate using myself as an example, especially as a positive example, so take this as maybe what I aspire to do and not be holding myself out as a positive example. But I think talking about Reformed theology would be a great example of How are we going to be able to teach? How are we going to be able to rebuke those who contradict sound doctrine, but also not run into foolish, ignorant controversies and be marked by love of the world? So if anyone's missed this, which would be extraordinarily surprising, I am a strong believer in Reformed theology, which means that God is sovereign over all things, especially the things of salvation. Our salvation belongs to him. So as I look at the Bible, I'm gonna teach that. As I look at the Bible, I'm gonna faithfully teach what the Bible says. So when it comes up in the Bible, I'm gonna be able to teach. I'm gonna say, this is right. And I'm gonna say, these are things that do not correspond with what is going on here. And so being quarrelsome doesn't mean I take a topic that is controversial and never address it. When it comes up in scripture, I'm gonna address it and I'm gonna try to address it faithfully. But at the same time, There's people who disagree with me. There might even be people in this room right now who disagree with me. I don't generally say, you know what, I wanna argue about it. My response to those who disagree with me is, you know what, these things are complicated and it's hard to understand the sovereignty of God because he's much greater than we are. These are what I see as being faithful to scripture, but as long as you aren't over here saying that I'm condemned for believing these things, I'm going to be okay with you believing some other things. If you ever want to come and talk to me about them, I'll have a great conversation with you, but I'm not going to sit here and argue. I'm not going to try to force you into conforming to what I believe is in Scripture, even though I do very strongly believe it's in Scripture. That would be getting involved in foolish arguments, being quarrelsome to say, you know what? I'm right. Put up your dukes. We're going to fight about this until you agree with me. That, I think, is the example of being quarrelsome. It's not not being able to teach or saying these things are wrong. At the same time, I've seen people go to Romans chapter nine, read through the text, preach on the text, and deny everything that is Romans chapter nine. I would stand up and say, no, you are wrong. It doesn't even mean being able to rebuke those who contradict, but saying, I'm not gonna get involved in fights about it. I'm not gonna be quarrelsome. I'm not gonna love the fight. I'm not gonna love trying to be right. That's what Paul's telling Timothy. Make sure you're not doing that because people, and he's gonna go back to, Philetus and Hymenaeus, who got involved in these things, who like these foolish controversies, who like to argue about little things. He says, when you do that, you lose sight of the gospel. When you lose that, you lose sight about what you're about, and you start to go sideways. Hymenaeus and Philetus, they ended up running away from the gospel, saying the resurrection has already happened. This is where that's gonna lead. You get involved in those foolish, ignorant controversies. So he says, Timothy, don't do that. The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome. Instead, he's gonna be kind to everyone. He's gonna be able to teach patiently, enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. Even when there's a disagreement about doctrine, even when there's a disagreement that maybe you do need to address, because sometimes elders are gonna need to address these things, your heart is going to be, I wanna be kind. My heart is to teach, not to defeat. My heart is gonna be patient, even when they're wrong to me, I'm gonna endure that and not return the wrong to them. And when I'm gonna have to correct my opponents, I'm gonna do it with gentleness, saying, you know what? You and me disagree on this. Here's why I believe that the word of God says this, but I'm not going to attack you. I'm not gonna be, you are my enemy and I'm going to view you as my opponent. You're someone who I love and I want to show in scripture what scripture says. And so that, I think, is the specific situation that Paul's talking to Timothy about. He says, flee youthful passions. Those things are gonna cause you to be hot-headed and love to run into arguments. The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome. Instead, kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil. So that's gonna bring us to our last point. Paul starts to anticipate Timothy saying, just a second, Paul. You've told me I need to be able to teach. You've told me I need to be faithful to God's word. You told me that I need to be able to rebuke those who contradict, but now you're telling me not to be quarrelsome. Because how does that all go together? And so Paul's gonna tag the end of this with the reason why quarrelsomeness is not gonna lead to gospel things. And he says, Timothy, this is what you need to remember. Even when you're called to uphold sound doctrine and to rebuke those who contradict, that there is always hope amidst conflict. He's gonna talk more about that desire. He said, it's a heart desire that's gonna be marking not quarrelsomeness. And that heart desire, he's gonna flesh out, he's gonna say, this is gonna be what's at the base of the heart desire that is not gonna be quarrelsomeness. The heart desire that's going to remember that there's not needing to be quarrelsome, to remember that God may grant them repentance. So we're going to look at verses 24 through 26. It says, the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may, perhaps, grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth. And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. So Paul has just said this. Timothy, in your specific situation, you need to remember this particularly about why you cannot be marked by dishonorable. You can't be quarrelsome. Then he's going to say, why? Why do you not have to be quarrelsome? Why can you be able to teach, rebuke those who contradict, but not be quarrelsome? It's because you know that there's always hope. God may perhaps grant them repentance. It's not a promise. Paul didn't promise Timothy that every time you're not quarrelsome, you're gonna win, you're here. He said, there's a possibility though. You do serve the God that is sovereign over all things. You serve the God who gave this gospel. And if you just faithfully represent this message and not make yourself the one who's gonna win, then you have a hope that God may perhaps grant them repentance. And that's gonna change your heart about the situation. Your heart about the situation isn't that, I'm gonna beat these people because they're wrong. I'm gonna defeat them. The heart that is not quarrelsome is gonna say, you know what? My hope is that in sharing what is true with them, God might grant them repentance. They might come and listen to me. They might hear what I say and say, you know what? I see that in scripture too. I understand what you're saying. God may grant them repentance. come to a knowledge of the truth. They might come to their senses. Paul looks at those who were teaching opposite of Timothy and said, they've lost their senses, as he would say about Hymenaeus and Philetus. They're going around and teaching that the resurrection has already happened, and they're upsetting the faith of some. They've lost their senses, but there's a chance. Don't quarrel. Don't be a fighter. Clearly state what's right, clearly state what's wrong, but don't be a fighter because you don't even know about even Hymenaeus and Philetus. They might come to their senses. God might grant them repentance. They might come to a knowledge of the truth and escape from the snare of the devil. Right now, they are being captured by him to do his will. But your hope is always going to be, God might grant them repentance. And if that's your hope for that situation, then your response to that situation is going to be different. It's not going to be pugilistic. It's not going to be somebody who's going to go in there and be like, I'm going to win. I'm going to fight until they're dead. It's going to be someone who goes, you know what? You're saying things that are false. And I gotta correct that, I can't let you keep doing that. But my heart in this is that you'd come and join me, not that I'd defeat you. And so he lists this out. God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth. And as you might remember up at the beginning, he said, so flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace. I think all four of those are really important, but love especially is something Paul's gonna pull out of that and say, God's servant must be marked by love. God's servant must be marked by love. And we could go and say, what does love look like? 1 Corinthians 13, 7, love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Paul looks at Timothy and says, even for your opponents, those who are teaching contrary to you, those who might even want to argue with you and fight with you, you need to have love for them, which means you're going to bear everything that they put on you. You're going to believe the best about them. You're going to hope that they're going to come in repentance and join you. And until then, you're going to endure everything because you love them. He says, that's gonna be the opposite of quarreling. And Jesus himself said, even your worst enemy you're gonna need to love. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. And so he closes this chapter with this. God may perhaps grant you repentance. Let that knowledge transform your heart and drive you away from arguing and fighting and towards the loving people. And so we might ask as we read this, do I wanna beat them or do I want their best? You're gonna have to go and faithfully teach the word of God and rebuke those who contradict, but as I do so, do I wanna defeat them or do I want them best? Am I hoping for their defeat or for their reconciliation? Paul says, if you're hoping for their defeat, if you're hoping to beat them, if you like the fight, you're gonna be marked by quarrelsomeness, and you're gonna lose your usefulness to the master. But if you want their best, if you're hoping for reconciliation, if you're marked by love, you do go out and faithfully say, this is what the word of God says, and this is opposite of what the word of God says, then that's gonna lead you away from quarrelsomeness, towards faithful teaching and faithful rebuking, but away from quarrelsomeness. Now importantly, he does just give hope. He says God may perhaps grant them repentance. He doesn't say it will always happen. As we enter into the next chapter, we're gonna get the flip side of this. We get this God may perhaps grant him repentance, but he also says this, understand this. In the last days, there will come times of difficulty. So we'll jump into that in a couple weeks when we come back to 2 Timothy and say, actually, this isn't going to happen all the time. In fact, as we go through history, more often than not, it's not going to happen. But that's always going to be your hope. And that's always going to be how you address the situation, knowing that God could grant repentance. And I'm going to hope for that until the end, and not view them as my enemy, but view them as someone I love, that I want to turn back towards the truth. So there's hope in the midst of conflict. So that brings us to the end of chapter two. I want to make just a few applications. I think this is very, very easy to apply. It's very straightforward. What does this mean for us? I've got three simple applications. The first one is going to be this. All Christians should pursue holiness, which means they need to be cleansing themselves from what is dishonorable. We go all over Scripture, to Romans 8, to Colossians, to Ephesians. It talks about putting to death that which is earthly in you. If by the Spirit you put to death that which is of the flesh, then you will live. That's the mark of all Christians. All Christians are going to need to read the vessel. There are some vessels for honorable use, and some for dishonorable, and say, I don't want to be a toilet. I don't want to be a toilet. I know that that was me, and too often it still is me, but in Christ I have the ability not to be, and I can turn around and cleanse myself from that because I'm in Christ. You're gonna say, you know what, I'm gonna put that to death. So all Christians should pursue cleanliness, cleanse themselves from what is dishonorable, but then leaders of the church, it's hard to say should be even more careful because I think all Christians should be almost infinitely careful about this, but if there's any way to strengthen that, then leaders of the church should be even more careful to pursue that. so he could come to places like Hebrews 12, 14, strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. He says that's a striving, a working hard, a running after. You have to run after holiness. It's not something you sit around and it happens to you. Cleanse yourself from what is dishonorable. Then you'll be a vessel for honorable use. Or just what Paul said to Timothy. He said to Timothy, as a leader in the church, keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Make sure you're able to do both of those at the same time. Because when you keep both of those in view, that's when if you persist in this, for by doing so you will save both yourself and your hearers. So that's our first application out of this passage, is to hear a renewed call to pursue holiness. Don't be a vessel for dishonorableness. In fact, think through the word picture and say, wow, that's gross. And that's what we're supposed to think. Wow, that's gross. I don't even want to be like that. Why would I want that? I need to cleanse myself from that and run from it. And instead run towards what Christ would have for me. Second application, our leaders of the church are required to confront and refute false doctrine. We see that all over the pages of the New Testament. Elders can't sit back and say, I'm not gonna be quarrelsome, therefore I'm never gonna say somebody's wrong. They're gonna have to do so. But they should not be quarrelsome. That is, they're not to enjoy the fire. Instead, they should love the sheep. I think that's the easiest way to think about quarrelsomeness. Quarrelsomeness is gonna be one who enjoys the fight, enjoys the argument, and therefore jumps in maybe when they don't need to. They like being right. They like to show that they're right. They like to show they have knowledge of the word of God. They're gonna beat their enemies. But the opposite of that is to love the sheep, to say, you know what? I want what's best for them. And so sometimes I am gonna be called to say, no, this is wrong, but I'm gonna do so in love for the sheep, and not in love for the fight. So leaders of the church are required to confront or refuse false doctrine, but should not be quarrelsome. They should not enjoy the fight. They should love the sheep. And then third application is anytime there's conflict, we should be quick to hope that there's repentance. We should be quick to hope that there's repentance and reconciliation. We shouldn't fall into the trap of hoping to beat our adversary, but instead saying, you know what, I'm gonna love even my enemy. and hope the best for them, and God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth. So those are three things I think we can walk away from this passage and say, these are things that as individuals of the church we can pursue. So last week, my kids' question was, what was the main responsibility of elders? It's to prepare themselves to be able to teach the word of God faithfully. But then I'm gonna add a second, an equal second main responsibility of elders. What is the second main responsibility of elders? It's to live, and to teach in such a way that their life points to the gospel as well. Again, not perfectly. There is no one who can say, I am without sin, but you should be able to look at their life and say, on the whole, they are directed after the things of Christ. They want that, and they're not meddling and polluting themselves from that, which is dishonorable. So, with that, I'll close in prayer. Father, we're grateful for this morning. We're grateful for your words. of encouragement that you had Paul give to Timothy. Father, as we read them, I pray that you give us a sober mind about them. Father, even to be able to look at our lives and say, what things in me are still dishonorable? What things am I pursuing and running after and meshed in that are contrary to Christ? Father, give us open eyes to see those things and a wholehearted desire to purify ourselves from those things. Father, we recognize that we have no power to do that on our own, but we also believe your promise in Christ that through your Spirit you do give us power. that we don't have to be enslaved to those things anymore. Father, I pray that you would be giving us that this week, even, to give us a renewed desire, a renewed will to run away from those things that are dishonoring to Christ, and a renewed desire to pursue those things which bring glory to Christ. Father, I pray that you would continue to work through your Spirit in us, make us a glory to Christ. In Christ's name we pray, amen.