Introduction

The average human brain weighs in at about three pounds.

Although it is less than 2% of your overall body mass, it uses up 20% of the total oxygen and blood in your body.

There is so much electrical activity going on in your brain that it is enough to power a small lightbulb.

When you learn or acquire new information, the actual structure of your brain changes to accommodate that information.  Memory cells in the brain are interconnected by microscopic fibers which enable stored facts, images, feelings and experiences to be associated with each other in order to produce new thought patterns.  New information actually physically changes the makeup of our brain.

The brain is made up of over 10 billion cells and by far the vast majority of those cells are used for memory. I can find this a little tough to believe when I can’t seem to remember where I left my keys.  However, scientists have determined that everything the brain registers, it retains.

Memory is hard-wired into the brains physiology.  The passing of time and the disuse of information in our brains may make it difficult for us to recall information in our brain but it is still all there, no matter how far it withdraws from front-of-mind consciousness.

What goes into the brain, stays in the brain.

• The good news is that when righteousness and truth enter the brain those ideas linger in hard-wired memory cells.
• But it’s a little frightening… because: when false teaching, immorality and secular thinking go into our brains, those ideas remain as well.

Paul may not have known much about brain physiology, but he understood the power of the human mind.  He knew that the only protection against pollution taking over our brains is to be constantly filling up those pockets of memory with God’s truth.  In Philippians 4:8 he gave us this advice: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”  Fill up your mind with righteousness – godliness – truth!

Our brain needs a filter.  If grime enters our brain, it can be difficult to get out.  It’s like my truck.  Pull out a filter. Sometimes there are harmful objects in the gas or the oil or the air and my truck needs a filter.  If even a small piece of dirt or grime enters into the motor, it can cause some serious damage to the inside of the engine.  The engine could lose power.  The cylinders could lose compression.  If enough particles entered the motor, it could stop running all together and cause permanent, irreparable, irreversible damage.

In the same way, an accumulation of seemingly insignificant moral and spiritual pollution entering into the mind of a believer can cause serious moral and spiritual damage to a believer’s mind.  It can rob him of spiritual power and make him less effective and less able to do the Lord’s work.  You and I need a brain filter.  We need to be careful about what thoughts, ideas and teachings we allow to enter our brains and get hard-wired into our thought processes.

The things we allow into our mind make a big difference in our lives.  The moral pollution, the secular thinking and the evil desires you and I have allowed to be hard-wired into our brains can have a serious impact on our beliefs, our values, our motives and our priorities in life.  The more willingly we allow the world’s ideas to enter our minds, the deeper impact they can have on every part of our being.

I put a filter on my truck to keep pollution out.  Today’s passage is an exhortation to put a filter on our mind to keep false teaching out.  2 Corinthians 10:5, Paul exhorts us to,“…destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ…”

We are currently in 2 Timothy chapter 2.  In 2 Timothy chapter 2, Paul is answering this question: what does a godly man look like?  To answer that question, he has given us a number of word pictures.  At the beginning of the chapter, he compared a godly man to an intentional teacher, a good soldier, a rule-following athlete and to a hard working farmer.  He explained that in order to be effective in any of those roles, a total and utter dedication to the work is required.

Last week, we unpacked another word picture.  Paul explained that a godly man is like an unashamed worker. He’s like a craftsman who skillfully cuts straight lines.  He rightly divides the Word of Truth.  Godly men (and women) are clear and accurate as they handle and apply the Word of God.

In verse 20, he now adds a new illustration.  Paul moves on to household images to describe the lifestyle of an effective servant of the Lord.  He explains that God’s servant is like a vessel.

God’s servant is like a vessel.

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.

The illustration is simple enough.  Houses are filled with all kinds of different containers or vessels.  There are pots and pans, silverware, dishes, trash cans and so on.  Some vessels are made to be put on display for your guests to see, others you don’t really want you guests to see.

When guests come over to our house, we serve them on dinner plates and not on trash can lids.

• Some vessels are intended for honorable use and in the large household of a wealthy man, those honorable vessels might have been made out a precious metal like gold or silver.
• Other vessels are used for more menial tasks or dishonorable use.  They aren’t intended to be put on display for guests to see.  They are more suited for taking out the trash.  Some vessels are broken and need to be discarded.

In the analogy, the great house is referring to the church. The two vessels are referring to people serving within the church and more specifically, it seems to be pinpointing the people who are teaching and handling the Word of God within the context of the church.  The Greek word for vessel is skeuos (skew-awe-s). The same Greek word is used in Acts 9 :15 when Paul refers to himself as an instrument or a a vessel  apart for Christ purposes.  It says, “But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.”

“Vessel” is referring to two types of teachers in the church: Teachers who are honorable and those who are dishonorable.

• Some teachers are honorable.They are diligently working to build the Kingdom of God.  They are ready for the Master to use them for His purposes.  They are faithful workmen who rightly handle the Word of truth.  They are faithfully living out what they believe both publicly and privately.  They could confidently say, “you follow my example as I follow Jesus.”  These people have no need to be ashamed and you and I should pay close attention to what these servant leaders have to say.
• Then there are leaders in the religious community who are dishonorable.  From the very beginning there have been false teachers who do not handle the Word well, but are more interested in irreverent babble than they are with Biblical truth.  They have something to be ashamed of.  They are messing up the Bible.  Disciples of Jesus are told to have nothing to do with them.

“But Pastor Mark,” you say, “…shouldn’t we study what they have to say so that we know how to defend our faith?” There is an old illustration about federal agents who identify counterfeit money.  MacArthur wrote it this way in his book Reckless Faith, “Federal agents don’t learn to spot counterfeit money by studying the counterfeits. They study genuine bills until they master the look of the real thing. Then when they see the bogus money they recognize it.”

I read an article where a man called up a Canadian agency and tested this statement and sure enough, the way they identify counterfeit money is by touching, smelling, handling and examining the real thing.

God’s Word does not say to fill up your mind with false teaching or what is counterfeit.  It says avoid false teaching. False teaching leads to ungodliness and can spread in your brain and in the religious community like gangrene.  Instead, the Bible says to fill up your mind with truth!

If we back up a few verses, we see an example of both types of vessels.  Look at 2 Timothy 2:15-19, “¹⁵ Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved,

Who we allow to influence our lives has a great deal to do with our beliefs, our values, our motives and our priorities in life.  If you are taking upon yourself the name of Jesus and calling yourself a disciple, then verse 19 says there must be an intentional effort to “depart from iniquity.”

There are teachers who are vessels of honor (like Paul and Timothy) and teachers who are vessels of dishonor (like Hymenaeus and Philetus).  As we are choosing how to fill up our minds, the contents of what we are filling ourselves up with make a big difference in how we think and how we act.

What we put into our mind matters

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. ²¹ Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable,^[d] he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

There is no greater purpose and no greater privilege that you and I can have than to be used by God for His divine purposes, right here on earth.  So…what characterizes a life that can be greatly used by the Lord?  In verse 21, Paul says there is one indispensable condition in order to be an honorable vessel:  He must cleanse “himself from what is dishonorable.”

So what is dishonorable?  The cleansing refers to both doctrinal error and moral error.  It refers to getting rid of poor doctrine, like that which was being taught by false teachers like Hymenaeus and Philetus (v17) and it’s referring to the intentional effort to “depart from iniquity.” (v19)

• If you want to be used powerfully by God for His purposes, there must be a cleansing in your life of both doctrinal and moral error.  You must be careful what you allow past your filter and then be diligent to root out the errors which affect your thinking.But this passage has special significance for the teacher of God’s Word and the leaders in a church….
• If a teacher in the church is to be used powerfully by God, he MUST have both good doctrine and an exemplary life.  If a teacher in the church is unfaithful in his personal study of the Word and is instead presenting his own opinions, then he must be disregarded.  You and I are to cleanse ourselves from the teaching of that dishonorable vessel.  If a teacher of the Word is consistently not living out his faith, then there is no purpose in following him down his sinful path.  He won’t be leading you to Jesus.  He’ll just be wasting our time.

Minds muddled with false teaching and poor doctrine don’t see morality clearly.  There is a direct connection between impure doctrine and impure living.  Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:3-5, “³ If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound^[a] words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, ⁴ he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. (Do you want to listen to a man who is conceited and understands nothing?!) He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, ⁵ and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.”

Following this kind of teacher or leader in the church can shipwreck your faith (and mine) and can cause you and I to be become dishonorable and disqualified for use in the Kingdom.  You are I have to be careful of what we fill our minds with!

An honorable vessel is a servant who is actively pursuing both pure doctrine and pure living.  Paul says in 1 Timothy 4:16, “¹⁶ Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

By way of contrast, in 2 Timothy 2:21, we see three clear descriptions of a clean vessel – the kind of leader and teacher and servant that God uses in the work of Kingdom Building and that you and I should pay attention to:

1. Clean vessels are “set apart.”Righteousness is a theological word that simply means to do what is right…They run away from unrighteousness and toward righteousness.  A clean vessel (a teacher, leader, servant God can use) is a pursuer of righteousness.
2. Clean vessels are useful to the Master. If I’m going to pour myself a cup of coffee, I’m not going to choose the cup with moldy, week-old coffee built up on the bottom.  I’m going to find a vessel that is clean and ready to be filled.  Likewise, people who are useful to the Kingdom are not those who are polluted with false teaching and worldly wisdom but those who are clean and ready to be filled up with spiritual things.
3. Clean vessels are ready for every good work.  They are willing and eager and available to carry out the Lord’s commands.

Honorable vessels are clean vessels

So… How do we clean the vessel?  In verse 22, Paul gives us some instruction about how to be clean and then gives a clear description of a pure heart, ready for God’s use.

²² So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Attributes of a Pure Heart

#1 Flees from Youthful passions

The command to flee is the Greek word Phugeo and it is the same root for the English word “fugitive.”  Paul’s word picture displays a righteous man running from sin like a criminal runs from the law.  A fugitive on the run does not slow down or stop.  He is continually fleeing.  Likewise, the faithful Christian does not let down his guard when it comes to running away from sin, but is continually fleeing from it. It’s a lifelong process.

Often the phrase “youthful passions,” (or your version might say “youthful lusts”) is interpreted only as sexual sin.  It does include sexual sin, but is not limited to it.  Young men are prone to many other youthful passions like self-assertion,selfish ambition, stubbornness and arrogance.   Many young men have a craving for wealth and power.  They can be prone to jealousy and anger when they don’t accomplish their goals – especially when somebody else does.

But twice in chapter 2, Paul warns Timothy not to quarrel over words:

• ¹⁶ But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness,
• ²³ Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels.

No one likes to argue like a young man does. Controversial topics are tempting bait for them.   Sometimes young men are out looking for a fight and are prone to quarrel over unnecessary issues.  They can stubbornly hold their ground on an issue that is really no big deal.   For example, an opinion about who is the best quarterback or what is the best kind of truck should not be defended with the same intensity as a man defends the truth of the gospel and the accuracy of God’s Word. Men who are willing to die on every hill are nearly impossible to work with.

If a young man in church leadership is stirring up unnecessary controversy, it can do a great deal of harm to the church.  That young leader can come across unkind and combative.  Their words can be a huge distraction in the discipleship process.  Paul calls Timothy to rise above unnecessary arguments.  Verse 24-25a says,

“²⁴ And the Lord’s servant^[e] must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil,²⁵ correcting his opponents with gentleness.”

In the Bible, it is widely considered that a young man is someone under the age of 40.  (We don’t know for sure, but…) Timothy was probably in his 30’s when Paul wrote him this letter.  Timothy had a lot to overcome as a young leader in the church:

• The threat of being arrested and possibly killed for the uncompromising message he proclaimed may have caused him to be timid.
• 1 Timothy 4:12 says, “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”  Paul probably needed to encourage Timothy with these words because the older men in the church may have resented his leadership.
• Losing the battle to youthful passions would not help him solve the leadership issues in the church nor would it help him solve the legitimate false doctrine issues they were facing.  Timothy needed to choose his battles very carefully and then correct “his opponents with gentleness.” So that, “God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth…”

There are going to be times when correcting someone or rebuking somebody is necessary.  The goal of that confrontation needs to be ever at the front our minds when we are faced with that kind of circumstance.  The goal is not to slap some sense into a naïve person, but to gently and firmly pull them to safety.  I heard one preacher say that we need to make sure our words are tender and seasoned with salt today because we may have to eat them tomorrow.

Attributes of a Pure Heart

#2 Pursues righteousness, faith, love and peace with urgency

When you run away from something, you can’t run to nowhere.  Timothy needed to know where to land.  If he is running away from youthful passions, what did he need to run towards?  Paul makes it very clear…  Four positive attributes of a pure heart are these: righteousness, faith, love and peace.  Paul is not suggesting that Timothy pursue these virtues.  He is commanding him to!

Pursue Righteousness

The Greek word translated as “pursue” means to run like you are trying with all your effort to win a race.  A believer who does not run from sin and toward righteousness will eventually be overtaken by sin.  In Romans 12:21, Paul says, “²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”  So how do we overcome evil with good?  The psalmist put it this way in Psalm 119:9, “How can a young man keep his way pure?     By guarding it according to your word.”  The only infallible guide to righteous living is God’s divine Word!  Are you spending time on a regular basis in God’s word?

Living a holy and righteous life is not about following a list of rituals or having some kind of mystical experience. Righteous lives are lived by simply pursuing and obeying the truth of Scripture and doing so faithfully.

Pursue Faith

Pursuing faith does not mean to have a lot of belief.  The Greek word “pistis” is better rendered as faithfulness.  Paul is saying faithful Christian leaders are faithful to God, faithful to His Word, faithful to His work and faithful to His people. He puts the needs of God’s people above his own.  Working in the best interest of someone else is the essence of love.

Pursue Love

The kind of love Paul is referring to is an agape love.  Agape love is a love of the mind and the will.  It’s not a love of emotion.  It is a conscious determination that focuses on the welfare of others.  It’s the kind of love that God himself has for us.  It is a love that works in the best interest of others even when they don’t deserve it.  When we work in the best interest of others, it brings about peace between men and peace between men and God.

Pursue Peace

As Timothy runs away from youthful passions and toward righteousness, faithfulness and love the nature outcome is peace.  In verse 26, Paul indicates to Timothy that men in Ephesus are not living at peace with God.  It says they have been captured by the devil to do his will.

Behind the scenes on a spiritual level, there is a battle being fought for the souls of men.  The devil’s activity is depicted like a hunter who captures his prey alive in a trap and then administers a tranquilizer.  The prey is ensnared and intoxicated by its captor.  Only the Lord can loosen the trap and wake them up.

Timothy is charged to teach with kindness and forbearance and gentleness.  In the process some will “come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil.”  These people will turn from Satan’s captivity and find peace with God.  That is good motivation for being a faithful teacher of the Word and a committed servant of the Lord.

Life Application

A vessel of honor is righteous in character and conduct.  The Lord’s servant avoids foolish controversies and is courteous and gentle in the way he or she acts towards others.  Each metaphor Paul uses in this chapter concentrates on a specific characteristic that makes up a complete picture of what a useful servant looks like:

• If we give ourselves to spiritual soldiering, running and farming, we can expect eternal results for our effort.
• If we cut the truth straight and we don’t’ swerve from it, we can expect to be approved by God and not ashamed.
• If we purify ourselves from what is dishonorable, we can be a vessel ready to serve in the Master’s house.
• If we are gentle and not quarrelsome, then God might use us to minister to our adversaries.  Those who are hostile towards God might be led to a knowledge of the truth and be delivered from Satan’s snares

We have an incredible opportunity to labor and suffer for the gospel and to see God work powerfully through us.  We can’t do it in our own strength, but in the strength that God alone supplies to those who are willing to be used.  Chapter 2 verse 1 says, “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”  We need the Lord’s help because the battle for the gospel will require tremendous strength and courage.

Spurgeon said, “But let a man once become really holy, even though he has but the slenderest possible ability, and he will be a fitter instrument in God’s hand than the man of gigantic accomplishments who is not obedient to the divine will or clean and pure in the sight of the Lord God Almighty.”

Teaching Outline

God’s servant is like a vessel – v. 20, Acts 9:15, 2 Timothy 2:15-19

What we put into our mind matters – v. 17, 19, 20-21, 1 Timothy 4:16, 6:3-5

Three clear descriptions of a clean vessel

• Clean vessels are “set apart.”
• Clean vessels are useful to the Master.
• Clean vessels are ready for every good work.

Honorable vessels are clean vessels – v.22

Attributes of a Pure Heart

#1 Flees from Youthful passions – v. 19, 22, 23, 24, 1 Timothy 4:12

#2 Pursues righteousness, faith, love and peace with urgency – v. 22, Romans 12:21, Psalm 119:9

Application

A vessel of honor is righteous in character and conduct.

We can’t do it in our own strength, but in the strength that God alone supplies to those who are willing to be used.