It's impeccable, it's impregnable.
The Bible says the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
But the local church is far from perfect.
And obviously there's a lot of different local churches and
both of those the, the church as a whole and the local church are
described by the Lord in in Matthew's Gospel.
And like I said, we've talked about that.
He mentions the, the universal church in Matthew chapter 16.
And when I say universal, I say that in its pure form.
I'm not talking about in an ecumenical gathering of the
World Council of Churches or, or something like that.
Those are that's wickedness. But where he mentioned it as
being founded upon the rock and being invincible, that is the
church that I'm talking about, just all the churches as a
whole. Matthew chapter 16 and verse 18.
And I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I
will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. He mentions the local church and
the functions of the local church in Matthew chapter 18.
And remember just last week or the week before, I preached you
a message about where two or three are gathered.
And that's Matthew chapter 18. And you have the context text of
that passage leading up to that. And he's talking about the the
reception of the believers, his little children.
He's talking about the restoration of of backsliders as
sheep having gone astray. And he's talking about the
reconciliation of the brethren. But that that chapter portrays
the local church as being in need of corrective ministry,
right? The the local church is not
going to be perfect and we always have things that need to
be addressed, things that need to be taken care of and of of
course, some members need to be restored.
Some members need to be expelled.
The Bible makes that pretty clear there in Matthew chapter
18 and other places. But both the the universal
church and the local church were future things when the Lord
spoke. The church was not in existence
yet when Christ was talking about it, but he discussed those
subjects quite adequately with adequately with, you know, these
two initial references. By the way, each of Paul's
epistles were written to local churches and every one of them
was was directed at problems that they were having within
that local church. Now, what Paul did with most of
those things was, Hey, here's a lot of good things that you're
doing. These are the things that I
appreciate. These are the things that you're
doing well and you need to just keep, you know, keep keep doing
those things in and make sure they stay strong.
But here's a few. Things that you need to to to
get taken care of. God did that in Revelation
chapter 2 and chapter 3. Here's the seven churches, and
here's the things that I really appreciate about it.
But be careful because here's some things that you need to
fix, right? So that the, the, the gates of
hell shall not prevail against God's church as a whole.
But there are times when the local church needs to be purged
and needs to be cleansed. And that's what we have in
Second Timothy chapter 2 and verse #20 But in a great house
there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of
wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor.
If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel
unto honor sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and
prepared unto every good work. Flee also youthful lusts, but
follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that
call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that
they do gender strife. So here in Second Timothy
chapter 2 verse #20 Paul sees the local church as a, as a
great, great house. And it contains just a variety
of utensils. And in the local church
fellowship, you're going to attract the unsaved as well as
the same. Now, mostly it's going to be the
same, but you're going to people that come in from the outside
that don't know Jesus Christ as their savior.
It's the way that is. And honestly, it's a good thing
when you attract people from the outside that come in that are
looking for the answers. And our job is to give it to
them. But in a, in a great house,
you're going to have those who are saved and those who are
unsaved. You're going to have some who
who grew up in church and have learned how to speak the
language of the church, and they're going to act like
they're saved, but they have, no, they're not anymore saved
than somebody that's living out in the world and doing whatever
they want to. They have the knowledge in their
heads, but they have nothing in their hearts.
They've been baptized, they've been received into membership,
they've been entrusted in areas of service, but they have never
been saved at all. And others might profess
conversion, maybe in response to some pressure that was put on
them when they were a child or when they were in a special
meeting or something like that. But they've never showed
evidence of a new life in Christ.
I met a guy a couple years back who said that his testimony was
that he got saved when he was 5. Years old.
But he only did it, and he said he remembered this very plainly,
only did it because he was trying to make his dad happy.
He knew that his dad would be happy if he got saved.
So he went forward and he accepted Christ as a Savior.
But almost immediately after that, he began to have doubts.
And he graduated from high school with doubts about whether
or not he was saved. And then he graduated from
college with doubts about whether or not he was saved.
And he had gone to a Bible college, he graduated and he
went into a youth ministry, became a youth pastor.
And even while he was a youth pastor, he had doubts of whether
or not he was even saved. And finally he got to the point
where he said, I can't handle this anymore.
I'm going to get this settled. And as a youth pastor, he came
down the aisle on a Sunday morning and he accepted Christ
as his Savior. You know one way or another that
the person that comes into the church and even finds a way into
the pulpit sometimes or into the office of a Deacon sometimes,
Some might not even be saved. And the Bible makes that pretty
clear. In a church, you're going to
have all kinds of different vessels right in their hearts.
Whether it doesn't matter if you've been in church for 30
years, it doesn't matter if you've become a Deacon, it
doesn't matter if you're on staff in a church somewhere, it
doesn't know. Those things don't matter.
What matters is whether or not you know Jesus Christ as your
Savior because if you don't, you're still a stranger to
Christ. Doesn't matter what position you
find yourself in. There's the thinking is worldly.
The responses are the responses of a natural man, not a
spiritual man and their and their and their service is
blemish turn. Keep your finger there in second
Timothy chapter 2. We're coming back to it, but but
turn over to Matthew Chapter 7 because here's what happens.
There's there's a lot of people who end up in churches and they
might be educated and they might be polished and they might be
capable members of a community, but in the church, they're
counted by God as vessels of dishonor because they do not
know the Lord. And I, and I'm not trying to get
you to doubt your salvation, but what you need to understand is
that you need to make sure that you know Jesus Christ as your
Savior. It doesn't matter what your
background is, it doesn't matter if you've grown up in church.
Every person has to make that decision for themselves.
Matthew Chapter 7 ought to be a very, very sobering passage for
us in verse #21 Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord
shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven, but he that do it the
will of my Father which is in heaven.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils,
and in thy name done many wonderful works?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you depart
from me, ye that work iniquity. Who's the ones that are up there
saying, I'm prophesying this in the name of Jesus Christ?
Who's the ones that are up there casting out devils in the name
of Jesus Christ? Is that your your bum on the
street? Is that the person that never
goes to church? No, it's the people who are who
are leading the churches. It's the people who are there in
the front doing ministry. And if and if those people, the
ones who are saying, Lord, Lord, I'm prophesying in your name and
I'm casting out devils in your name and doing all of these
things are not even saved. Then imagine how many people in
churches across the country today are sitting in church
thinking that because they've been there a long time.
Or thinking that because they've spoken in tongues or thinking
that because at some point they got baptized along the way, that
they're on their way to heaven. And they're going to stand
before God someday. And they're going to say, look
at all the wonderful things that I've done for you.
I was I was in church my whole life.
I was in usher. I taught Sunday school.
I did this, I did that and he's going to say I never knew you
depart from me. Ye that work iniquity because
it's not about what you do for Christ.
It's about your relationship to him.
Once you have that relationship with him, then you ought to do
for Christ. But until then nothing matters.
And so some vessels in the house are are costly and some vessels
are common. And the same is true of the
church. Some members are pure gold.
They give the highest possible kind of service and their
character and their faithfulness are of great worth.
Other believers, the Bible says, in fact, if you want to go back
over to second Timothy chapter 2, you can see the, the
different comparisons that he's making.
In a great house. There are not only vessels of
gold, but then he says vessels of silver.
They're made of, of genuine metal, but it may, it doesn't
come up to the excellence of gold.
And then he says, and some of wood and of earth.
The earth that he's talking about would be the unregenerate
people there in a church, whether it's somebody who's
already joined the church or somebody who's been coming to
the church for a while, it's an unregenerate member.
They're just made of common clay.
They're earthen vessels. Earthen.
Vessels or vessels of. Clay kind of give the idea that
that it's service that is given by just an unregenerate person,
but they also mentions wood vessels of wood.
And that that's the suggestion there that it's a man made
workmanship, human nature, human effort or doing things in our
own strength. I I think the.
Easiest way to explain that would be to say that it's a
carnal Christian. It's somebody that does know
Jesus Christ as their Savior, but they're not living to please
the Lord. They only show up every so
often. They only, they're only going to
do so much. Don't ask them to do anything
else. It's just, it's just somebody
who is, who is a Christian. But just not living for the
Lord. And the work they accomplished,
the, the work that's accomplished by spiritual
believers is the, is the highest order, the gold, the silver,
right? The work that's accomplished by
many times well meaning but unregenerate church members.
I mean, I don't I don't think you'd be in a church for 30
years as an unregenerate unregenerate member if you
didn't have if you weren't well meaning if you didn't want to
try to do something that you thought was pleasing the Lord.
But on the other hand that there's very little to be
commended about that. The Bible says just like a a
clay pot can crack and break and and just like a wooden container
can can chip and become damaged. That's that's the service that's
done by an unsaved person. Those flaws are going to show
eventually. And I, and I'll think about
this, you know, fairly often, only God knows people's hearts
and only God knows who's saved and who's not saved.
But I believe that one of the reasons why so many churches
seem so ungodly in the way that they dress and act, in the way
that they are jumping around and dancing around on the stage and
they think, they think that they're doing this in the name
of Christ. And that's exactly.
What you have there in Matthew Chapter 7, I think there's a lot
of churches. Many of them are your big non
denominational churches, but it doesn't matter if it's big or
not. It can be a small church that's
doing the same thing, but but a lot of your churches fit into
that category where they, they, this is church.
And I mean, you, you hear about this all the time.
We, we just do church different, right?
We're just, we're just trying to be attractive to everybody.
We don't want people to come in and feel like they're at church.
We just, we try to be everything to everybody so that people will
come in, right? That's, that's the mindset.
And you look at some of these churches and they have thousands
of people going there on Sundays and you think, how is God
blessing that church? How is God blessing them?
They have thousands of people every Sunday.
How does God give them those blessings?
Well, the truth is, it's not really God's blessings.
Right. I mean, if you want to talk
about that being a measure of success, then some of the
biggest churches happen on Sunday afternoons in the NFL,
right? Because they'll pack out a
stadium of 50 sixty 7080 thousand people that are
screaming and hollering and all focused on everything that's
going on. And that doesn't that doesn't
equal success in the eyes of God.
Just because you have numbers right, just because you're
getting people in. But I think what's?
Happening is many of those churches are being led by people
who are not even saved. Many will say to me in that day,
not just a few, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have
we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils,
and in thy name done many wonderful works.
There's going to be a lot of people that are standing before
God saying that someday. That's why the Bible says the
road is narrow and few. There be that finding the road
that's the right Rd. leading to heaven, The road that's leading
to hell and destruction, the Bible said is wide.
And there's a lot of people on that road.
And of course you can look at the world and see that there's
so many people that don't know Jesus Christ as their savior.
But I think it's a lot of people that are in these churches that
think they're on the narrow way and they're on the wide Rd.
following everybody else to that hell and destruction.
But we look at those churches and we wonder is God blessing
them? And it it God's not blessing
them. They're vessels of of wood at
the very at the very best. And mostly they're just earthen
clay vessels. What does the Bible say about a
house that's built on sand instead of on the rock?
Hey, look, the guy that built this house on the sand and the
guy that built this house in the rock, both looked the same for a
while, right? It, it didn't, he didn't get
halfway through and the, and the, everything collapsed.
No, he built this house on the sand and he was living in the
house and then the storms came and then the winds blew and then
the house collapsed, right? Something that is not built on
the rock, something that is not built on the solid foundation of
Jesus Christ is going to come crashing down.
And why is it that in all of these big neo non denominational
churches that are just just there as a giant Country Club 1
after another, you see these pastors disgraced, kicked out of
the ministry and the church just dwindles down to nothing, right?
Because it's not built on the solid foundation, It's not built
on the rock, it's not built on Jesus Christ and it's not going
to last. It can't last.
Jesus Christ is the foundation, and if it's not built on Him and
upon His Word, it cannot and will not stand.
The Bible is filled with examples of of earthen and
wooden vessels, Hymenaeus, Alexander, Philetus, lots of
different people, but it's also. Filled prime examples of gold
and silver vessels. And I've if I asked you to give
me a couple examples, I'm sure you could.
Paul, Timothy. Titus, Joseph, Daniel, David.
So Many. Others that that that would fit
into that category. And by way of introduction, I
want to say that you better make sure that you're one of his.
In 10,000 years from now, it will not matter what you did for
a job. 10,000 years from now, it's not going to matter where
you lived 10,000 years from now. The only thing that's going to
matter is where you live then. And it's either going to be
heaven or it's going to be hell. But for those who are saved, it
also matters how you live. God is looking for vessels of
honor and so this morning I want to look at 3 characteristics of
a sanctified vessel. How does God want us to live as
participants and members of his local church?
I want to take a few minutes to talk about that.
Preach to you about that this morning.
A sanctified vessel and. I hope you'll pray.
Along with me, as I pray here at the beginning of the message
that that you'll help ask God to help you evaluate where you are.
Are you a vessel that's just a wooden vessel?
Are you a silver vessel or are you a gold vessel?
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for
the opportunity we have to be here this morning.
I pray that you'd help us to to be a late awake and alert and to
to hear the message that you have for us this morning.
God, may you help it to be conviction to us where we need
to be convicted. May may it be a help to us where
we are already strong in some areas.
Maybe. God, I pray that it would be a
help to all of us and that we'd have the power of the Holy
Spirit evident in the service here this morning.
Thank you again for all that you do for us in Jesus name, Amen.
The first thing I want you to see is that a sanctified vessel
will be purged. A sanctified vessel will be
purged, the Bible says in verse #21 If a man therefore purge
himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor sanctified,
and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every goods,
every good work. God wants a clean vessel.
Oh, how can God demand that out
of me? He knows that I'm not perfect.
He knows that I don't have everything all together.
He knows that I'm a flawed human being.
Well, look, do you demand a clean vessel when you go to a
restaurant? Oh, you know that the dishwasher
is not perfect. You know that he's not going to
get everything right. You would demand a clean vessel
though. Purge himself from these.
God says that means a separation from the vessels of dishonor.
Timothy was to separate himself from the vessels of dishonor,
and Paul had already told him to shun men.
If you go back, go back up, just a couple verses in that chapter,
2 verse #17 and their word will eat as doth a canker, of whom is
Hymenaeus and Philetus. He called them out by name and
said, these guys are poisoned, stay away from them.
They'll eat you up like a like a cancer.
And Paul had already told him to shun men like Hymenaeus and
Philetus and all of those who are just vain, profane and vain
babblings, He says. And it's my job as the pastor to
make sure that the false doctrine is not circulating
throughout the church and that and, and it's not leading people
astray, but it's also the responsibility of the people to
make sure that they are avoiding false doctrine.
By the way, my job as the pastor is to to know what kind of
doctrines are circulating, right?
And and, and and look, I think it's good that people are.
Having conversations, doctrinal conversations, right?
It's better than everybody sitting there talking about
sports and everything else, right?
But my job as the pastor is to be the gatekeeper, right?
What if, What if I just allowed anything and everything into the
church and this guy came in with this idea and I said, well, he
must have got it from somewhere. I guess that's fine.
And this guy came in with that idea and well, he must have got
that from somewhere. That's fine.
No, my job is to, is to head off the doctrinal error, right?
And the same thing is true when it comes to the standards of the
church, right? We, we have a certain standard
that we expect especially the workers to, to hold themselves
to, right? What if I just let everybody do
anything they wanted to in the church?
It would be chaos because everybody has different ideas
about what they think the right thing is to do, right?
And this is not, by the way, if you're sitting there and
thinking, man, it would sure be nice to be the pastor and get up
and get to tell everybody what to do every.
This is not an enviable, enviable position, All right?
This is, this is this is a position that God put me in.
It's not an enviable position. I don't like telling people what
to do and what not to do. I don't like it at all.
I hate it in fact, because I'm the bad guy and there's people
that don't like me and there's people that get mad at me and
there's people that don't like what I say and don't like what I
do. And then then you do one thing
to make this person happy and then you make another person
mad. You can't win.
So my job is not to follow you
and what you want. I don't get up here on Sunday
and say, what would you like me to preach on today?
What would you like me to do when it comes to this area?
I mean, you, you tell me and then I'll just, I'll just, we'll
just try to see if we can get. Everybody to get on board with
it. Right.
That's not, it's, it doesn't work that way.
My job is to make sure that everything is purged out of the
church that's going to harm the body, right?
The same way that you do it when it comes to any kind of medicine
that you would take, right? Because that's what has to
happen for it to stay healthy. And I have to be the bad guy.
And I will be the bad guy because I'm not following you,
I'm following Christ. And everything that I do, I try
to do with a biblical basis and a biblical backing and a
biblical foundation. It's not just my idea.
And this is how I want it to be done.
So this is how we're going to do it.
Everything that I do has a biblical basis for it.
And that's my job. And even though it's a difficult
job, and even though it's a, it's something that I don't
always like, I'm going to do it because I'm not going to answer
to you someday. I'm going to answer to God
someday and I want to be able to say I did everything that I
could to try to lead them from where they were to where they
needed to be. That's my job as your pastor and
I hope you'll be willing to put yourself under that authority to
help me help you get to where God wants you to be.
That's what the whole premise of Hebrews chapter 13 is.
Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves
for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that
they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is
unprofitable for you. It's unprofitable for you when
when you rebel against the authority that God has put in
your life, you're not hurting the pastor, you're hurting
yourself. I can it can roll off of me,
right? I can handle it.
I'm a I'm a big boy. I can handle it.
It's hurting you and it's hurting your family and it's
hurting your ability to to really be used by God.
And so my job as the pastor is to make sure that this church as
a vessel is a vessel that God can use.
But a church is not just a thing.
A church is made-up of people and you are the church.
And so as an individual in this church, your responsibility is
to be a clean vessel before. God.
The word purge is only mentioned two times in the New Testament
here and in first Corinthians chapter 5 and forsake a time
I'll read it to you. The Bible says this at verse #7
purge out there for the old leaven that you may be a new
lump as you are unleavened for even Christ our Passover as
sacrifice for us. Now that obviously goes all the
way back to the Old Testament talks about the fact that on the
Passover when they when they celebrated the Passover, they
were supposed to have every every bit of leaven out of their
house. Leaven is a picture of sin, and
so because leaven is a picture of sin, they were supposed to
purge their entire House of leaven.
You know what happens if you keep a little bit of leaven and
you put it in your bread? Nobody's going to know it
because it's all mixed together in one big lump.
But when does it come out? When you stick it in the oven.
And everybody's going to know. Why is your loaf so high
compared to mine? You must have put leaven in your
bread, right? And look, it's the same thing.
There's a house that's built on sand and a house that's built on
the rock, and they both look the same until the storm's gone.
And the same is true. You as a Christian can sit in
church and look perfectly fine and everybody looks at you and
says, wow, he must be a pretty good Christian.
He's here all the time. He's faithful to do this and
he's involved in that. And he's a person that that that
you can always count on. He must be a good Christian.
And then one day. The bread rises and it's pretty
obvious that you didn't have the leaven out of your life.
All right. It's, it's sad to me.
It's very sad. I mentioned to the men on Friday
morning, there's a, there's a guy that I've, that I've known
for many years and I don't know him.
Like he knows who I am. I know who he is.
He's a pastor out in Oklahoma, pastor for 35 years.
And it came out just, I don't know, maybe a week or two ago
that he's had an affair with at least three women in this
church, possibly more. Here's a guy that gets up and
preaches every week. He teaches in a Bible college
that's not far from where his his church is.
He produces a magazine, a Baptist magazine once a month.
Here's a guy that had a life that was full of Levin.
And to the outside world, it looks perfectly the same.
But it's a, it's a vessel that's not been purged.
And eventually, guess what happens?
It comes out. You might get away with it for a
while, people might not. Notice it for a while, but it's
going to come out. Purge out there for the old life
in the Bible says see a cup with a little bit of dirt on it is no
longer clean. The cup can be 99% clean.
But what happens when you go to a restaurant and they bring you
a glass and it's got a little piece of corn stuck right in the
top edge? You say, I'll just pick that off
and throw it out. The rest of the cup is clean.
You say that or do you say? I didn't pay for that and so I'd
like you to take that back and give me a new cup, right?
That's what you say. Because a 99% clean cup is not a
clean cup, right? You want 100% clean cup and so
does God, right? If a cup that is completely
dirty touches another cup, it's going to get dirty too.
But only by disassociating ourselves from wickedness and
from sin can we be cleaned vessels can we be purged,
vessels that are fit for God's use.
Second Timothy chapter 2 right there in verse #9 the end of
that 19. Sorry, the end of that verses.
And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from
iniquity. You claim to be a Christian.
You call yourself a Christian. You're naming the name of
Christ. Depart from iniquity.
That means get it all out, purge it out of your life.
If you're a Christian, then ought That ought to be the
characterization of your life. Are you going to make a mistake
here and there? Sure.
Are you going to sin every now and then?
Absolutely. Because none of us are perfect.
But as Christians, our goal should be to be as close to
Christ and become more like Christ, not less.
Our goal should not be to see how much of the the world we can
bring into our life and how much of the of the world's mindset
and the world's philosophy and the world's pleasures and all of
those things that I can bring into my life and still
technically call myself a Christian.
You'd have no idea who this is. I saw a post from somebody the
other day that I'm associated with.
Doesn't even live anywhere closer around here so don't try
to think about. I wonder who he's talking about.
You'll have no idea who it is but this guy put a post and he
said this is he said something. Along the lines of, oh, I really
enjoyed hanging out at such and such bar until one O clock in
the morning and then we went over to such and such other
place and that was really cool. And then we went to church on
Sunday morning and then we went to such and such on Sunday
afternoon. And my, my first thought was,
what did you get out of church? Number one, you're probably
drunk when you got there, but #2 how can you just act like all of
those things are the same? They're not.
You didn't just go to the bar and go to this bar and then go
to church and then go to some other bar, right?
That's, that's not what a Christian does.
Just because you go to church doesn't make you a Christian.
If you are a Christian and you truly are a Christian, then you
should be staying away from those things and getting more
and more like Christ, not less and less just because you can.
By the way, that includes movies that are produced by the world.
You know, I don't know if you remember this a couple years
ago. I don't, I don't even remember
exactly when it came out, but that new movie, that new Top Gun
movie that came out, everybody was talking about it and a
pastor and, and he had, he had done a lot of questionable
things already, but he was, his dad is very, very well known in
the independent fundamental Baptist circles and he became a
pastor. I don't know if he started a
church or took a church or what he did, but he pretty pretty
early on he started going in the in the wrong direction.
And but but still because of who his dad was and because he was a
pretty. Popular guy himself.
He's preaching all over the place and for all different
kinds of people. He put a post on Facebook about
oh. We went down and watched that
new Top Gun movie, best movie I've seen in many, many years.
And I was like, OK, well maybe I'll go see what this is about.
So I went and looked it up. That thing was filled.
I didn't watch it. I looked it up.
Before I watched it because I, I, I, I do that with every movie
that I watch. And if it's got something in it
that I know is not going to please Lord.
Cursing. Swearing.
Any of those things, I don't watch it right.
Does it limit what you can watch?
Absolutely it does. This thing was filled with
cursing, taking the Lord's name in vain, immorality.
And not just that, he decided to watch it in the privacy of his
own home and enjoy that movie. And, and, and he told the whole
world that he watched it. And he told his entire church
that it's OK to go watch movies that are filled with this
garbage in it. That is not a clean vessel.
That is not a vessel that is purged and fit for the masters
use. Our desire should be toward more
holiness, not less. Turn over to Psalm 51.
I think one of the reasons why most Christians are not living
lives of victory over sin is because we're trying to win the
victory ourselves. We try to self cleanse.
Well, if I, if I admit that this is a problem, then what are
people going to say about me? So you know what, from now on,
I'm determined I'm not going to do this anymore.
I'm not going to do that anymore.
Whatever it happens to be, before long we're right back
into it again. And then I don't know why I just
can't get victory over this thing because you're trying to
do it in your own strength. What we need is the heart of
David when sin broke him before God.
Psalm 51 and verse #7 David said, Purge me with hyssop and I
shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow. He was talking to God.
That's a strong purging. That's a strong cleansing.
But it was necessary for David to get his heart right with God.
There's a big difference between repentance and remorse.
Remorse is concerned with the consequences.
Repentance is your concern with your relationship with God.
I am broken over my sin because it hindered my relationship.
Most people are broken over sin because it hindered their their
their image, because it hindered their reputation.
That's remorse. I'm sorry for what I did because
it affected me. Repentance doesn't care what it
makes you look like, it just wants to have a relationship
with God. That's right.
And if we're to be purged vessels, God wants us to be
clean vessels, but he also wants us, wants us to be consecrated
vessels. A Christian should be, as the
Bible said, vessels unto honor sanctified, and meet for the
Master's use. Much of the work that goes on in
local churches in the name of service is worldly, and it's
carnal because it's being performed by unsaved church
members or by by Christians who are carnal at the very least.
In spite of that fact, God always has His gold and silver
vessels in the church. That word, translated honor in
verse #21 and Second Timothy chapter 2, is a testimony to the
value of God's gold and silver vessels in the church.
That word literally means value. Go vessels unto honor.
It's it's esteemed or it's precious.
And he says these are vessels that have value.
These are vessels that are esteemed.
They're vessels that are precious.
And that word. Sanctified, he says Sanctified
and Meat for the masters use. It gives the idea that they've
been set. Apart for God, if we're meat for
his use or fit for his use, and that means we're useful and
we're profitable for Him. Are you a consecrated vessel?
Have you set your life apart for the masters use?
Are you a vessel unto honor? Or would you have to say that
you are a vessel unto dishonor? Because there's only two
options, vessel unto honor or a vessel unto dishonor.
God's desire for you to be as is to be a Christian, that is, that
is consecrated for His use. He wants to use you, He wants to
use you, but He wants to use you as a clean vessel.
Not as one that's dirty, one that set apart for His use.
Not one that does everything that the world does and wants to
do and everything else and then comes in on Sunday and tries to
be clean. No, God wants a vessel that is
set apart for Him. I know I've read this before, so
some of you may have heard it, but I think it fits well here.
In that place between wakefulness and dreams, I found
myself in the room. There were no distinguishing
features except for the one wall covered with small index card
files. They were like the ones in
libraries that list titles by author or subject in
alphabetical order. This is before computers, by the
way, but these files, which stretch from floor to ceiling
and seemingly endless in either direction, had very different
headings. As I drew near the wall of
files, the first to catch my attention was one that read
Girls I have Liked. I opened it, began flipping
through the cards. I quickly shut it, shocked to
realize that I recognized the names written on each one.
And then, without being told, I knew exactly where I was.
This lifeless room with its small files was a crude catalog
system for my life. Here were written the actions of
my every moment, big and small in detail my memory couldn't
match. A sense of wonder and curiosity
coupled with horror stirred within me as I began randomly
opening files and exploring their content.
Some brought joy and sweet memories, others a sense of
shame and regret so intense that I would look over to my shoulder
to see if anyone was watching. A file named Friends was next to
one marked Friends I have Betrayed.
The titles ranged from the mundane to the outright weird.
Books I have read, lies I have told, comfort I have given,
jokes I have laughed at. Some were almost hilarious in
their exactness. Things I yelled at my brothers,
others I couldn't laugh at. Things I have done in my anger,
things I have muttered under my breath and never cease to be
surprised by the contents. Often there were many more cards
than I expected, sometimes fewer than I hoped.
I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the life I had lived.
Could it be possible that I had the time in my years to each of
these thousands or even millions of cards?
But each card confirmed this. Truth.
Each was written in my own handwriting, each sign with my
signature. When I pulled out the file
marked TV Shows I have Watched, I realized the files grew to
contain their contents. The cards were packed tightly,
and yet after two or three yards I hadn't found the end of the
file. I shut it, shamed not so much by
the quality of shows, but more by the vast time I knew that
file represented. When I came to a file marked
Lustful Thoughts, I felt a chill run through my body, pulled the
file out only an inch, not willing to test its size, and
drew out a card. I shuddered at its detailed
content. I felt sick to think that such a
moment had been recorded. An almost animal rage broke on
me. One thought dominated my mind.
No one must ever see these cards.
No one must ever see this room I have to destroy.
Them In insane frenzy, I yanked the file out.
Its size didn't matter now. I had to empty it and burn the
cards. But as I took it one end and
began pounding it on the floor, I could not dislodge a single
card. I became desperate and pulled
out a card, only to find it as strong as steel when I tried to
tear it. Defeated and utterly helpless, I
returned the file to its slot. Leaning my forehead against the
wall, I let out a long self pitying sigh.
And then I saw it. The title bore people I have
shared the gospel with. The handle was brighter than
those around it, newer, almost unused.
I pulled on its handle in a small box not more than 3 inches
long, fell into my hands. I could count the cards it
contained on one hand. And then the tears came.
I began to weep sobs so deep that they hurt.
They started in my stomach and shook through me.
I fell on my knees and cried. I cried out of shame from the
overwhelming shame of it all. The rows of files shelves
swirled in my tear filled eyes. No one must ever, ever know of
this room. I must lock it up and hide the
key. But then, as I pushed away the
tears, I saw him. No, please, not Him.
Not here, anyone but Jesus. And I watched helpfully, as
helplessly, as he began to open the files and read the cards.
I couldn't bear to watch his response, and in the moments I
could bring myself to look at his face, I saw a sorrow deeper
than my own. He seemed to intuitively go to
the worst boxes. Why did he have to read
everyone? Finally, he turned and looked at
me from across the room. He looked at me with pity in his
eyes, but this wasn't a pity that angered me.
I dropped my head, covered my face with my hands, and began to
cry again. He walked over and put his arm
around me. He could have said so many
things, but he didn't say a word.
He just cried with me. Then he got up and walked back
to the wall of files starting at one end of the room.
He took out a file and 1 by 1 began to sign his name over mine
on each card. No, I shouted, rushing to him.
All I could find to say was no, no, as I pulled the card from
him. His name shouldn't be on these
cards, but there it was, written in red, so rich, so dark, so
alive. The name of Jesus covered mine.
It was written with his blood. He gently took the card back.
He smiled a sad smile and began to sign the cards.
I don't think I'll ever understand how he did it so
quickly. But the next incident seemed.
I heard him close the last file and walked back to my side.
He placed his hand on my shoulder and said it is
finished. I stood up and he led me out of
the room. There was no lock on its door.
There were still cards to be written.
I want to tell you something this morning.
Jesus Christ blood covers your sins, but He didn't save you, so
you could go right back to the world and live your life how you
want to live your life. He wrote His name over all of
those cards for you so that you could go and live for Him.
And that's what a sanctified vessel will do.
A sanctified vessel will be purged very quickly.
I want to give you the second point #2A sanctified vessel will
be prepared. Verse #21 The Bible says, if a
man therefore purged himself from these, he shall be a vessel
unto honor sanctified and meet for the masters use and prepared
unto every good work. We've talked about this a quite
a bit, and so I don't want to spend a lot of time on this this
morning, but we should be prepared through study.
Second Timothy chapter 2 right there in verse #15 says Study to
show thyself approved unto God, a Workman that needeth not to be
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
The truth is that we don't know what situation we're going to
end up in from day-to-day, what temptation we may face from
day-to-day, or what God might call us to do.
We need to. Study the Word of God and
memorize the word of God so that we can be prepared.
We have to be able to rightly divide the word of truth.
There's no honor and ignorance. Just because you don't know what
the Bible says doesn't mean that you that you are innocent.
Of the charges that might be laid against you when you don't
follow what God's word said, right?
You think about a police officer that pulls you over for going 90
and a 45 and he comes up to the door and he says, do you know
why I pulled you over? No, I have no idea.
You were going 90 and a 45-O. I didn't know the speed limit
was 45 here. Is he going to say, oh, very
valid excuse. Well, the speed limit's 45.
You just try to drive safely. No.
What's he going to say? That's your fault.
You should have looked for the speed limit sign.
It's 45 and you were going 90. Get in these handcuffs and get
in the back of my car, right? Ignorance is not an excuse.
Just because you don't study God's Word and you don't know
what God's Word says does not mean that you have a reason not
to obey it. And that's what we mean by
prepared through study, prepared through storms as well, though.
Second Timothy, chapter one verse #8 Be not thou therefore
ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner,
but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel
according to the power of God. Verse 12.
For the which 'cause I also suffer these things,
nevertheless I'm not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've
committed unto him against that day.
So prepared through study, prepared through storms, but
also prepared through striving. He says there in verse #22 of
Second Timothy chapter 2. Flee also youthful lusts.
We often equate that verse with kids youthful lust.
Flee youthful lust. Hey you kids, you flee the
youthful lust. But a lot of commentators
estimate. That that that Timothy could
have been somewhere between 30 and 40 years old at that time.
It was just a young man compared to Paul, but the youthful lust
that he was talking about is the thing that starts in our youth
and sticks with us throughout our entire life.
See, a lust is just an unlawful desire.
Sure, it can be sensual, and that's a lot of times what we
associate lust with, but it can also be a lust for power, a lust
for position, a lust for prestige.
The list could go on and on. A lust for money or whatever it
happens to be. Paul says that we need to flee.
From those things, it's not an easy thing to do, but that's why
we have to strive to stay right with God.
But then he says follow righteousness, faith, charity,
peace. If you're going to run from
something, you should be running to something else, right?
If a lion was chasing you, you wouldn't run out and just go
into the open desert. You would try to find the
closest car or the closest house or something that you could run
to, right? So if you're fleeing one thing,
you should be following after something else, trying to get
somewhere else. And he says, follow after
righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them, that call on
the Lord out of a pure heart. Let me give you #3 turn over to
James chapter 1. If you will see, a sanctified
vessel will be purged, A sanctified vessel will be
prepared, and lastly, A sanctified vessel will be
purified. James chapter 1, verse #27 I
want you to see first of all, that you'll be purified on the
outside, pure religion, and undefiled before God and the
Father. Is this?
To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and.
To keep himself unspotted from the world.
Unspotted from the world is an indication of the outside.
We don't follow the world's fashion in dress, in music, in
the lifestyle, in anything. And that means we seek out those
who are living for the Lord, he says with them that call upon
the Lord out of the pure heart, right?
But it's also, it also means that we're going to be purified
on the inside. The outside is important, what
we might call the outward conformity, but the only but
that only matters when the inside is pure, right?
There's a lot of people who have figured out how to how to how to
conform on the outside. You look like a Christian.
You do the things that a Christian does, but that doesn't
count for anything if the inside is not pure.
Titus chapter 1 and verse #15 Unto the pure, all things are
pure, but into them that are defiled and unbelieving is
nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him,
being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good
work reprobate. There are so many Christians who
live their entire lives with an outside conformity and never
know what it's like to be completely pure on the inside.
Maybe, maybe you're one of those Christians, especially if you've
grown up in church. You know exactly how to talk,
you know exactly how to dress, you know exactly how to carry
your Bible, you know exactly how to show up for church and all of
those other things. That's an outward conformity.
And, and again, you ought to look like a Christian if you
claim to be 1. But it doesn't matter if the
inside is not pure. And I, I, I, there's so many
Christians who spend the majority of their life, if not
all of their life, and never know what it's like to be
completely right with God, to be completely clean before him, to
be completely pure. You ever had that time in your
life where you just knew that you were right with God?
Most Christians always have something that they're
struggling with. God's not pleased with outward
conformity if there's no inward conformity.
I used to share drinks with my kids.
Never thought anything of it with, well, I say kids kid
because it was Jackson. And somewhere around the time
when he was two or three years old, we were sitting at a
restaurant and I bought a drink and I just held it over to him
to get a drink out of the same cup.
And for whatever reason, that restaurant had clear straws and
what I saw go back down. The straw was the last time that
I ever shared a drink with my kids.
I slid it over to him. That was his cup, and I never
shared another drink with them. I've never thought about it
before. Because the cup wasn't clear,
right? Most of the straws are not
clear. So everything on the outside
looks good. It's not muddy.
Not like he spit all over it or licked it and had all kinds of
junk on it, right? Everything looked good on the
outside. But when I saw that go down that
clear straw, I knew what the inside looked like and I was
never going. I was.
That made me think like how many chunks have I swallowed before
this? Right.
And I was. Never going to do that again.
And the same is true of Christians.
You know, they may look look good on the outside and they may
have a lot of people fooled, but the what really matters is the
inside. And God can see all of that.
Not only is the straw clear, the cup is clear.
God can see everything. He knows what your heart looks
like. He knows when you have something
in your life that you won't let him have.
He knows when you're living in rebellion.
He knows when you have a problem with anger.
He knows all of those things. He knows all of it and you're
not hiding it from him. Now, how do you think God feels
when you say, hey, use this cup and he knows everything that's
inside, right? I wouldn't do it with my son.
And that's just a little bit of physical food in there, right?
Because I know what's inside. Why do we expect that God's
going to take a filthy, dirty cup?
And because we demand God, use me, God, I want to be used by
you. Use me.
That he will say, OK, well, it's a dirty cup, but, but I guess
I'll use it. He's not going to say that
because he expects us to be pure.
By the way, those who look a little rough on the outside,
those that a lot of Christians would look at and wonder what's
wrong with them when their inside is conformed to the image
of Christ, the outside is not far behind.
When you have somebody who's outside is not conformed to
Christ, then it gives you a very good indication of what the
inside looks like, right? Because a Christian who is pure
and purged and fit for the Master's use is going to conform
on the outside as well. You're going to look like a
Christian. You're going to talk like a
Christian. You're going to act like a
Christian. Are you conformed to the image
of Christ inwardly? The outside will match if the
inside is conformed to be set apart for Christ to be useful to
Him, to be become prepared for every good work.
The blessings that come from being a vessel unto honor in
Christ's great house are wonderful and they're available
to everybody. You just have the choice and
what type of vessel you're going to be.
You might be sitting here as an unregenerate person, an earthen
vessel, maybe somewhere along the line claim to have accepted
Christ, but don't really know if you did or not, don't have any
evidence of your life on the outside.
That shows that you are a regenerate person.
And you may be sitting there with doubts, even if it's been
20-30, forty years of doubts. It's a earthen vessel that's
going to it's, it's going to crack and break and it's not
going to be worth anything. Maybe you're a wooden vessel,
maybe you're a silver vessel. We all should be trying to be
gold vessels. God gives us a great invitation
in these two verses in His church.
There's only two sorts of vessels, vessels unto honor and
vessels unto dishonor. Vessels that are honorable,
vessels that are dishonorable. And right at this moment you're
either one of the two. So which one are you?
Are you a vessel unto honor, or are you a vessel unto dishonor?
Let's all bow our head and close our eyes if we can see.
We need to be vessels for Christ's honorable purposes by
His help. And it's only by His help we
need to thoroughly cleanse ourselves from the things that
are dishonorable. We need to allow the Holy Spirit
of God to search out anything in US and remove the sin and remove
the impurity. And we need to devote ourselves
to Christ in in Word, in deed and thought, in action, in our
associations, in our attitudes, in everything, and become
vessels for His honorable use. Let's be vessels that are
purged. Let's be vessels that are
prepared. Let's be vessels that are
purified so that He can use us how He sees fit.
Don't you want to be a vessel that God can use?
Father, we thank you for this passage.
Thank you for the reminder that it is to us that we need to make
sure actively, actively make sure that we are cleansing
ourselves and asking for cleansing from You so that we
can be vessels that are fit for the masters use.
Can only imagine what could happen in a church this size
with all of the vessels being fit for the masters use.
I think we'd be shocked to find out what we could accomplish for
you. So may you help us all to
evaluate where we are. May you help us to make sure
that we are right before you and where we need to change, that
you help us to change. Thank you again for all you do
for us in Jesus name, Amen. If you would stand at your seats
with your heads bowed and your eyes closed, we're gonna have a
time of invitation.