Usable
2 Timothy 2:19-26
Audrey Mieir wrote in her song, "To Be Used of God": "I've a yearning in my heart that cannot be denied, It's a longing that has never yet been satisfied. I want the world to know the One who loves them so. Like a flame it's burning deep inside. To be used of God, to sing, to speak, to pray; to be used of God to show someone the way. I long so much to feel the touch of His consuming fire; to be used of God is my desire." Is that your desire today? Paul speaking to Timothy about the issue of Christians who were caught up in false teaching and Christians caught up in worldliness, instructs us as believers as to how we can be used of God.
I. God Knows Those Who Are His
A. Within virtually every local congregation there exists a mixture of professed believers and true believers. In Matthew 13Christ referred to this mixture as a mixture of wheat and tares. There are those who will become members of a local congregation who have a show of religion, a form of godliness, an appearance of grace, but are devoid of the saving grace of God. They at first look like wheat, like true believers, but their true character and spiritual condition will be revealed at the end of the ages when they stand in judgment before the Great White Throne.
B. 2 Timothy 2:19a " Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: "The Lord knows those who are His."
C. Salvation does not begin with man; it begins with God. He planned it and He executed it. “He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world”."
D. God knows us better than we know ourselves.
E. Psalm 139:1-4 " You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether."
F. Writing over 100 years ago, the great London preacher Charles Spurgeon used a powerful word to describe God’s knowledge of our hearts. He said that everything in the heart is “transparent” to God. Nothing is hidden, everything is clearly seen. - His Eye is On The Sparrow: The Doctrine of God's Omniscience, KeepBelieving.com
G. God knows us because He created us. The story is told of a young man a number of years ago who bought himself an old, old Model A Ford. The Model A's were almost the first Fords that Henry Ford ever made. The young man was driving one night on an Indiana toll road, and right in the middle of what seemed to be nowhere, the car broke down and that old Ford wouldn't run. He was trying to fix it and he was all greasy, was in the motor and the thing just wouldn't start. This kid was getting really uptight.
Suddenly, a Lincoln Continental limousine came by, parked right in front of him, and a gentleman dressed up in tails and black tie -- obviously coming from or going to a party -- stepped out. The man walked up to the young fellow who was enmeshed in the motor and said, "What happened to your car?" The teenager was upset and he said, "Well, can't you see? I can't get the thing started!" The old gentleman, with his nails all made up and looking first class, said, "You want me to help you? Maybe I can help you start the car." The kid looked at him, saw him looking so classy, and thought, "What does he know about mechanics?" He said, "No thanks, I'll fix it myself." The old man just stood there watching him and after awhile the fellow couldn't start it and the old gentleman said, "Let me give it a shot, maybe I can get it started." The young man, in frustration, said, "Alright! If you can do it, do it." The gentleman said, "Okay. You get inside the car, turn the key and wait a second." He put his hands inside the motor, touched a cable or two, and -- because it was the old, crank motor -- went and turned the crank twice and the thing started up! The young fellow jumped out of the Ford, went to the gentleman and said, "Who are you? How did you get this thing going?" The old gentleman said, "I'm Henry Ford, boy. I invented this car and the moment I saw you in the motor, I knew exactly what was wrong." You know, in the same way, God is our Henry Ford. He made me, He made you and God knows exactly what's wrong with us. If today you are seated there and you feel things are not clicking in your life, you feel like the cables aren't plugged in together, you feel the motor of your life isn't working and you say to yourself, "My God what's happened to me? Why is it all falling apart?" You need to come God through Jesus Christ. He made you. He created you. He put the cables together in your soul. He knows how to put you back together again. The Bible teaches that God says in the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you and before you were born I separated you." In other words, Jesus Christ is relevant for you right now where you are. He knows what your problems are, He knows what cables aren't in touch and He knows exactly what you need to do if you are really going to start working again like you should.
H. John 10:14 "I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own
II. God Expects Those Who Are His to Live Right
A. 2 Timothy 2:19b "Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity."
B. Naming the name of the Lord is professing to have received Christ as Lord and Savior.
C. Profession of Christ as Lord shows itself to be a genuine possession of Him as one's life by a changed life.
D. If you belong to God's family you ought to act like you belong to God's family.
E. Depart from iniquity - Abstain from wickedness
F. We are to depart from, stand off from, forsake, withdraw from separate ourselves from anything and everything that is not right, that is sin and that is displeasing to God.
G. We are to avoid sin, and we are also to avoid anything that looks like sin.
H. 1 Thessalonians 5:22 "Avoid all appearance of evil" (NKJV "Abstain from every form of evil.")
I. Someone has said, "If you don't want fleas don't lay with the dogs. If you don't want to smell like a pig, don't play in the pigpen."
J. You'll not have to resist the committing of sin face to face if you'll avoid sin's territory. It's easier to avoid temptation, than it is to resist it. - copied
K. Ephesians 5:8 " For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light."
III. God Uses Clean Vessels
A. 2 Timothy 2:20-21 "But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work."
B. In every house there are a variety of vessels made out of a variety of materials to be used in a variety of ways but each designed for its specific purpose.
C. Romans 12:4-6a "For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them..."
D. D. L. Moody said that... God doesn't seek for golden vessels, and does not ask for silver ones, but He must have clean ones.
E. Purity of doctrine and life is the one indispensable condition for serving the living Christ. - Life Source, Lifeway Christian Resources
F. Uncleanness in the life of a child of God impairs his or her life -seals their mouth and hinders their usefulness. How can one tell a person in slavery to sin, how to get victory over that particular sin if he himself is a slave to the same sin? - copied
G. "God can use only clean or holy vessels...God cannot bestow His glory upon anything evil or tainted. The Christian life demands unswerving obedience and allegiance to Christ. It places responsibility upon each believer to maintain a pure, unpolluted life." - Holman Bible Commentary
H. Psalm 4:3 "But know that the Lord has set apart for Himself him who is godly"
IV. Cleansing is Your Responsibility
A. 2 Timothy 2:21 " Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work."
B. Dave Guzik writes that when Paul uses the phrase "if anyone cleanses himself" that Paul is talking about a cleansing that isn’t just something God does for us as we sit passively; this is a self-cleansing for service that goes beyond a general cleansing for sin.
1. There is a main aspect of cleansing which comes to us as we trust in Jesus and His work on our behalf; this work of cleansing is really God’s work in us, and not our work. This is the sense of 1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
2. But there is another aspect of cleansing which God looks for us to do with the participation of our own will and effort; not that it is our work apart from God, but it is a work that awaits our will and effort: If anyone cleanse himself. This aspect of cleansing is mostly connected with usefulness for service, and closeness to God. - copied
C. This is seen in the things which we purge (KJV) the things in our life that defile us. The word translate purge or cleanse is from a Greek word where we get the word catharsis. It means to completely rid oneself of something unclean. English “catharsis”) means to clean out thoroughly, to completely purge and rid of something unclean. This word strongly emphasizes the completeness of cleansing called for. This is not just a little dusting off but a purging from that which is not right -sin.
D. While not exhaustive Paul lists in some of the things that we should purge out if we are to be used by God:
1. Avoid petty controversy - verse 14
2. Avoid irreverent babble - verse 16
3. Flee lust - verse 22
4. Avoid (Shut your mind) to foolish and unprofitable arguing - verse 23
5. Don't quarrel or be contentious - verse 24
You can come to church and hear the truth of the Word of God, but if you do not apply it to yourself it does you no good. You cannot blame God because he did not give you all the good things he promises to those who come to him, if you have not come to him. Even as a Christian you cannot expect to have active in your life the tremendous provisions that God promises; you cannot expect to be used of God in beautiful and wonderful ways unless you are willing to purify yourself and use the instruments he has provided. - Stedman
