August 3, 2014
The Lord Jesus asserts His right over every vessel which He chooses to use, for He is the Master of the house, His church. In this message, Alistair Begg unpacks Paul’s metaphor of the honorable and dishonorable vessels in 2 Timothy 2 to inspire us to faithful service. To be the Lord’s vessel is a privilege for which we prepare by pursuing holiness and fleeing sin. We seek to live in the righteousness provided for us by Christ, for the privilege of our usefulness is tied to this pursuit.
Sermon Transcript: Print
Well, having read something of the background, we turn now to 2 Timothy, to the verses that are ours for study this morning. And those verses are 2 Timothy 2:20–22. Page 996, if that is of help to you. Two Timothy 2:20:
“Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
“So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”
Father, help us now, as we look together to the Bible, that we might not simply receive further instruction with a few helpful pointers but rather that we might be changed by you, that our lives may be shaped by your grace and goodness. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Well, as I’ve been studying this week in this particular passage—which is not unfamiliar to me, nor will it be to you—I have had in mind an incident that took place sometime ago that some of our existing elders may even recall. It was when we were still in the high school. We had no building of our own, and our offices were on 91, along there opposite the Shell station. And so, our elders’ meetings took place in those offices, and the men would gather and assemble there. And one evening as I arrived, one of the men had got there a little early and had availed himself of coffee, which was absolutely fine. That was part of the plan. But he actually was using my mug. And I’m a little strange about that, and so I said to him, I said, “That’s my mug.” He was a Southern man, has gone back to the South—a dear man—he and his wife. And he was notorious at the elders’ meetings for a line that he used infrequently. He used to say, “I’m gon’ say my piece, and then I’m gon’ hush.” So on this occasion he said his piece in response to my pointing out that he had invaded my territory, at least as it came to utensils.
And we came back at the subsequent elders’ meeting to discover that there were mugs placed at everybody’s place in the elders’ meeting, including my own. These mugs were not exactly the most beautiful-looking things. They had actually been commissioned by him and made by somebody else, in pottery. They were blue, and on each of the mugs, in red, it said, “This is not Alistair’s mug.” And so he said his piece, and he felt it was important to point out to me in his own inimitable style that really, I had no rights over any mug at all as it happened. And actually, he’d made a mug for me, and mine said, “This is Alistair’s mug.”
And it was in my mind because although I had really no proprietary rights over any of the utensils, that is not true of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has the proprietary right over every vessel that he picks up and chooses to use.
And it is that picture to which we come this morning. Paul has been providing pictures all the way through—striking pictures at the beginning of a soldier, an athlete, and a farmer. And then I’m grateful to John Stott for pointing out that he continues to use pictures. I’d never really noticed this until I considered what he had to say. He said there’s not only the pictures as outlined in the opening verses but also the picture of the worker—“Study to show yourself a worker to be approved,”[1] which we considered last time. And then there is the picture of the servant of the Lord, which we will consider next time. And then this morning, there is this further picture of a vessel or of a utensil.[2]
It’s not an unfamiliar picture. Paul makes use of it himself. In fact, it is used to describe Paul himself when he’s converted. In Acts chapter 9, in the account of Paul’s encounter with the risen Jesus on the Damascus Road, when Ananias is dispatched to minister to Saul of Tarsus and he recoils from the prospect, God assures Ananias by telling him, “You can go safely to Saul of Tarsus,” although he’s been a terrorist and an opponent of the gospel, “because he is,” says God, “my chosen vessel”—skeuos, the same word—“my chosen vessel to bear my name before the gentiles.”[3] And, of course, Paul picks that up and uses it in 2 Corinthians, where he talks about the treasure of the gospel being placed in the lives of mere earthen vessels so that the power might be seen to belong to God.[4]
So, the picture is not hard to get. Some of you, as you look at the phrase “Now in a great house,” are immediately thinking of Downton Abbey, and that is not a bad notion of the magnitude and wonder and splendor of that material which was there “for honorable use” and for the distinction that was present with “wood and clay” that would have been, if you like, downstairs.
So, the picture is a clear one, but we don’t want to miss it. I take it that the “great house” is the church of God. Right? What is this great house? What is the house? “Unless the Lord builds the house…”[5] What house? Eventually, the house of God. “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’”[6] And when Peter writes in 1 Peter 2, he writes of how, being placed in Christ, who is “the living stone,” we then, as spiritual stones, are “being built up” into “a spiritual house.”[7] And so, if the “great house” is the church of God, then it follows that the master of the house is none other than the Lord Jesus himself.
If in 19 (verse 19, that is) Paul has made mention of the architecture, the structure of the house—particularly the “firm foundation” on which it stands—now he changes his picture from the structure to the contents of the house, and he is, I think, continuing the thought that he has already been sharing with Timothy concerning the distinction between good workers and bad workers; between the kind of worker that he wants Timothy to be, who is approved; the kind of workers that he shouldn’t be, like Hymenaeus and Philetus, who are obviously unapproved, those with whom God finds disapproval.
So the picture is there in verse 20: In a great house there are some vessels that are used in a very honorable way, and there are others that are dishonorable. He then goes on from the picture in verse 20 to what we will refer to as the privilege in verse 21. (I have three p’s this morning. I’m quite fond of peas; my wife can tell you that. But these p’s are just to help me hang my thoughts.)
First of all, the picture in 20, and the privilege in verse 21: “Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use.” And so the privilege is to “be a vessel for honorable use.” There’s nothing particularly hard in that either.
In Britain, on an annual basis—at least on an annual basis—there is published in the press for public acclamation what is referred to as the Honours List. This Honours List is published by the Office of Her Majesty the Queen, and she determines on an annual basis who will be on the Honours List. Some receive the MBE (Member of the British Empire), and some receive the OBE (the Order of the British Empire). And so, if you’ve ever come across somebody after whose name you find the initials OBE, that is because they had been in the privileged position of receiving this commendation from Her Majesty herself.
Now, I went onto the list in 2014 just to see who was there, and I was delighted to find that there were a couple of Alistairs: Professor Alastair Adair, who received his award for his services to higher education in Northern Ireland; and Alistair Dodds, for his services to local government in Inverness-shire. But no, you’re right. No, I wasn’t there. I went down just in case; you know, it could have missed me. I could have slipped in, you know. There’s not a chance in the world—not this year, and not any year. I’m not going to make it on the Queen’s Honours List.
But as much as that would be nice, I, along with you, if you are in Christ, make it on to the King’s Honours List. He publishes an honorable list. And some of the most unlikely people, from a earthly perspective, are on that list.
For example, as Jesus gets towards the end of his life, as he is in the shadow, if you like, of the cross, he is back in Bethany, one of his favorite places to be with his friends and loved ones, and he’s in the house of Simon the leper. Mark records this in Mark chapter 14. And suddenly, in the context of the evening meal, a lady appears, bringing with her an alabaster flask of ointment, which was exceptionally costly, which she then broke and poured over the head of Jesus. Well, this led to a great kerfuffle in the room and some people actually complaining bitterly about why this lady would do what she did. Jesus actually pointed out to them that she was being added to the honors list: “Truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”[8]
Well, what did she do? Jesus says, “She actually prepared me for my burial.”[9] She took that which was exceptionally costly, the kind of thing that would have been a family heirloom, the kind of perfume—or ointment or perfumed ointment—that would have been retained either for her dowry upon marriage to make herself exceptionally attractive to her husband or that would have been retained to be used in the preparation of her own burial, so that others would have come and taken that material and used it to anoint her. So in a sense, what she does is she consecrates herself, she sacrifices her future, to the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus says, “And everywhere you go in the entire world, this will be told about this lady.” She’s entered into the privilege of honorable service.
We really make a mistake when we start to think in terms of honorable service as a very public thing, a very profiled thing, a very named-oriented thing. No. The God who sees in secret is the God who will reward us openly.[10] He will not forget your endeavors. He will not forget the secret things of your own prayer life or of your own engagement with those who are under your care and so on. God has his own honors list, and he is in the business of setting people up into honorable service: menial tasks, unseen engagements, whatever it might be. This is the great privilege. In fact, there is no greater privilege.
That’s what he’s saying to Timothy. And by derivation, he’s saying it to all Christian ministers and Christian workers throughout all ages. What a privilege!
And what is involved? Well, you will notice what the text says: it is to be, “a vessel for honorable use,” number one, “set apart as holy.” “Set apart as holy.” It’s not just used for everything and anything.
Life has gone on for me. It’s such a long time since I was a boy, and I was recalling, again, as I studied this week, how when I got a new bicycle—I think I was ten—and I went back to the neighborhood where I had previously lived. I rode it all the way back. And it rained on my bicycle, and I was deeply concerned about the rain on the bike. And I went to the home of a boy called Kenneth Gee, whose name I had forgotten until this morning. And it’s funny how you can’t remember your wife’s name, and then you remember Kenneth Gee that you haven’t seen for fifty-two years. But anyway. And I went to his house, and his mother wasn’t in, and he saw me and saw my bicycle and said, “Oh, bring it in.” So we brought it in through the hallway, and then we took it into the special room—the room where, you know, you didn’t just go in on a routine basis. And in the special room was the special showcase, and in the special showcase was all the special china and the utensils for when the special things happen. And so we took my bicycle in there, and we propped it up against the showcase—which did not go over well when his mother came back. And she made it very clear to me that this was no place to be parking your bicycle, because this little room had been set apart for special use.
If you are in Christ, God sets you apart from all that you once were to all that you are now in Christ in order that you might be all that he desires for you to be. “Set apart as holy.” That’s why Paul, when he makes application of all of the doctrinal foundation that he provides in Romans, eventually says, “Therefore I beseech you, brothers and sisters, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, consecrated, set apart, holy to God.”[11]
“Set apart as holy.” Secondly, “useful to the master.” That’s my title for this morning’s service: “Useful to the Master.” What a wonderful privilege it is just to be useful to God. I wonder, do you feel yourself to be useful or useless? Don’t let the devil tell you you’re useless. You’re not useless. God has set you apart in order that he might use you—use you in a way that is unique to yourself, in relationship to the gifts that he’s given you, to the place that he has assigned you, and so on. Don’t worry about what someone else is doing or where they’re going or what their profile might be. God sets you apart to honorable service.
“Useful” and “ready for every good work.” “Ready for every good work.” In other words, a utility player. Not the kind of individual who says, “Well, the only place that I could possibly play on this team is this. If you don’t understand my giftedness and my impact and so on, then I just won’t be able to play for you.” No, this is the person who says, “Look, I want to play on this team so badly that if you will give me any jersey with any number on it and put me on any place on the field, I will play on this team!” That’s the honorable service. Set apart not to profile ourselves but to set apart to the wonderful privilege of being placed on his team. “I play on his team.”
“Well,” you say, “but haven’t you missed a phrase here at the beginning of verse 21?” Yes, I have. I’m glad you noticed, because I missed it purposefully so that I could come back to it.
“Therefore”—which is the link with verse 20, the picture—“therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable…” In other words, Paul says your usefulness is directly related to your cleanliness. This privilege or this promise is conditioned upon our cleansing ourselves: “if anyone cleanses himself…” In other words, in the process of becoming like Jesus, we don’t sit back and simply wait for God to do things in a vacuum. We are engaged in saying no to what is wrong and saying yes to what is right; in engaging in the fellowship of God’s people rather than in being isolated from God’s people; in engaging God in prayer, saying yes to seeking God in prayer, rather than saying, “No, I’ll just go on my own.” And so that cleansing process is a vital process.
Recently, I was eating with a family, and as we were passing the food around the table, I offered something to the wife, and she said, “Oh, no, I can’t have that.” And I said, “Why not?” And she said, “Well, I’m on a thirty-day cleanse.” So I didn’t pursue that any further. I thought, “Well, whatever that is, I’m glad that it’s you and not me.” But I thought about it afterwards. It’s a jolly good idea, isn’t it? I mean, physically to make sure that everything is in tiptop shape and in good working order, and anything that we might be able to do to enhance that process is a wise thing. If it’s true physically, it’s dead true spiritually.
I’m not on a thirty-day cleanse. I’m on a lifelong cleanse. Every day I find myself praying my prayer from childhood when I was five or six years old. Do you pray this prayer?
Cleanse me from my sin, Lord.
Put your power within, Lord.
Take me as I am, Lord.
And make me all your own.
[And] keep me every day, Lord,
Underneath your sway, Lord.
[And] make my heart your palace,
And your royal throne.[12]
Every day we need to be cleansed from our sins. “If anyone cleanses himself…”
Now, think about it in relationship to what he’s been saying here. He’s been talking about the fact that in Ephesus, as he predicted, there would arise people who diverted from the truth, whose minds became infected with that which was poisonous in relationship to the truth of the gospel. So I take it as pretty obvious that he has in mind the cleansing of our minds from false teaching, the cleansing of our hearts from false attractions, and the cleansing of my will from false agendas.
And think about it: it all starts in our minds. It all begins between our ears. The vessel that is used by God, says Paul, is to be untainted by the moral and doctrinal dishonor that had invaded Ephesus. He’d urged them, as we saw in our reading, to make sure that they were alert to this, and now he says to Timothy, “Timothy, if you are going to be a worker that does not need to be ashamed, who rightly divides the word of truth, remember this, and encourage others to see this picture of honorable service that is therefore the great privilege in being made useful to the Master.”
That then brings us to our third word, which is the word pursuit. Pursuit. The picture in 20, the privilege in 21, the pursuit to which he calls his readers in verse 22.
Now, I recognize there is another verb there. We’ll come to that in just a moment. But here’s the way Paul is providing us with this material. Essentially, he’s anticipating the question: What practical steps need to be taken if one is going to be useful to the Master? That’s really what he’s answering. “What practical steps need to be taken if I’m going to be a vessel for honorable use—if I’m going to, like Paul, finish the race that is marked out for me?”[13]
Somebody was telling me in between services there was a hundred-mile track run in Cleveland yesterday, was it? Or something like that. Or trail run? A trail run. For a hundred miles they were running! The people who were good runners apparently finished as it got dark. The rest of them are still running right now as we speak. And I’m tempted to think of my finishing the race or running the race in terms of a few bursts of enthusiasm followed by chronic inertia, but rather, the picture from the trail race here in Cleveland is probably the better picture. How are we going to run the hundred miles without just throwing ourselves down in disappointment or in despair? How is it going to be done? Well, he tells us right here: it’s going to involve running from, it’s going to involve running after, and it’s going to involve running with.
First of all, you will notice the word “flee.” “So flee youthful passions.” Well, it’s a great verb, “flee,” isn’t it? I’m not sure that it’s much in common parlance. I don’t really hear young people saying, “Flee from the approaching motor car!” But it would be a good verb. It’s a fine verb. And it’s not hard to understand: “Flee youthful passions.”
How youthful was Timothy? We don’t actually know. He could have been as old as forty. Well, that’s encouraging, then; sixty really is the new forty, and so we can all relax a little bit. What are these “youthful passions”? Well, who knows? But I would think the inordinate desire for pleasure over God’s glory and grace—particularly, perhaps, in the realm of the physical appetites that would involve indulgence, either materially or sexually. Inordinate pleasure; an inordinate desire for power; the desire to be number one always and in every circumstance; and the desire for possessions, so that we can make sure that we have it all.
And so Paul says, “I want you to flee from that kind of stuff. Run away.” Doesn’t sound very spiritual, does it? “What am I supposed to do?” “Make a run for it!” In other words, when we come up against sin, you’re not supposed to sit around and discuss it. It’s not an occasion for dialogue. It’s not even a time for prayer. Don’t misunderstand me. But if I had a dollar for every person that’s told me, “Well, I’m just praying about whether I should do this or not,” and in the Bible it says you shouldn’t do it, I don’t know why you’re having a prayer time. God says, “There’s no need to pray about this. I already told you, it’s out! We don’t have to have a discussion on it.” And particularly in the realm of the dangers that attach to pastoral ministry and its demise.
In the years that I have been here in the United States, the collapses in pastoral ministry—people in my own position—have collapsed along two lines: The two lines that Paul warns about in Corinthians where he uses the exact same verb: flee. What does he ask them to flee from? Number one, “Flee from sexual immorality.”[14] You don’t have a discussion about it. Make a run for it. And “Flee from idolatry.”[15] And idolatry and immorality, when we read Romans 1, are interwoven with each other.[16] Once we refuse to give God the glory and priority that is due his name, then we will give it to something else. When we give it to something else, then we’re in great danger. So we take a leaf from the book of Joseph:
And as she [Potiphar’s wife] spoke to Joseph day after day, he would[n’t] listen to her, to lie beside her or [even] to be with her.
But one day …, she caught him by his garment …. But he left his garment in her hand and fled.[17]
“Fled”!
Did you hear the stuff about the Ebola virus and Emory Hospital in Atlanta very graciously taking in the two sufferers, and all the concern that surrounds that? And an understandable concern. It would be a dreadful thing if it was to be unleashed in the community not just of Atlanta but beyond. Well, the same is true, and yet to a far worse degree, concerning the contaminating influence of sin.
What Paul is saying is you need to get as far away from it as possible and as quickly as possible. As far away as possible and as quickly as you can. And that affects everything, loved ones. You’ve got to work it out for yourself. I can’t spoon-feed it to you. You’ve got to determine what you’re able to handle in relationship to your reading and in relationship to your viewing and in relationship to the company that you keep and in relationship to all the things that seek to bombard your mind on a daily basis—what you’re able to handle under God, in obedience to the Word of God, and by the enabling of the Holy Spirit. Do you want to be a vessel for honor? Do you want to be useful to God? Then flee!
You say, “That’s very negative.” That’s why he balances it out. Because he says not only run from but run towards. Run towards what? Run towards righteousness. “I thought the righteousness was provided for us.” Of course, it is. Romans 3: “But now a righteousness from God has come to us by grace through faith.”[18] And then some people say, “Well, if the righteousness comes to us by grace through faith, if we’re accepted on account of an alien righteousness, shouldn’t we then just be able to go out and sin as much as we want?” And Paul tackles that. He says “No, God forbid!”[19] That would be absolutely ridiculous. That would prove that you never understood the provision of his righteousness.
No, the righteousness that is safely provided to the child of God is then pursued by that child of God: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.”[20] At bottom line it means to do the right thing. First question, every question, every day, all the time: “What is the right thing to do?” Not “What is the expedient thing to do?” No! “What is the right thing to do?” The honorable vessel pursues the right thing: righteousness, faith, taking God at his word, love. “If we love one another,” says John, “God abides in us … his love is perfected in us.”[21] And peace: not being unsettled and swerving from the truth as a result of the godless and irreverent babble, not becoming argumentative and quarrelsome—which we will come to in verse 24. No, this is what we’re pursuing.
And notice, finally, that this pursuit does not take place on our own. Does not take place on our own. One of the great lies of the devil is that, you know, we can just get by on our own. No. No, this is a great house that God is putting together. It’s his church. He brings us into the relationship of his people, and he does so because he loves us and cares for us and because we need each other. And that’s why those who name the name of the Lord—verse 19—“depart from iniquity” and those who name the name of the Lord are those who call upon the Lord—who call upon him in prayer, who call upon him for help, who call out to him in praise, who are prepared to say, “Search me, O God, and know my heart!” and “Try me and know my [anxious] thoughts!”[22]
Now, you and I both know, because we’ve taught this to our children, that there are people in whose company it’s easy to be good, and there are people in whose company it’s easy to be bad. And depends what you want to do. If you want to be bad, you know, who do you want to hang with? You know, if you just want to eat big, big sticky buns every morning, then you know where to go. Go to the sticky-bun crowd. You don’t want to hang around with those juicers, for goodness’ sake! “Oh, no, I’m just having a juice.” “Whoa! No! ’Scuse me!” But if you do want to do that, you don’t want to get with the sticky-bun brigade. Because then you’ll… You know? So there’s people in whose company it’s easy to be good and in whose company it’s easy to be bad. There are those who take us on to honorable service, and there are those who spoil our service. “Bad company corrupts good morals.”[23] And so the same is true: God brings us into his family; he bids us gather around his Table. That’s tonight at Communion.
So why do we go to Communion? Well, number one, because it’s a means of grace. It’s the provision of God for us. It’s a consistent reminder to us of the wonder of his love and his grace—that he saves sinners. And all of us need to be reminded of that far more than we do. And also, it’s a reminder to us when we look around that we’re actually in a company of saved sinners. We’re all in the same boat. We’re all actually a mess. We were all alienated from God, and we’ve been reconciled by his love and grace in Jesus. And so, when we come around the Table with one another, we say, “Isn’t it amazing that God would set his love upon us, give us the privilege of usefulness?”
But notice this: the privilege of usefulness is tied to the pursuit of godliness. The privilege of usefulness is tied to the pursuit of godliness.
Some of you are surgeons here this morning. You don’t use dirty instruments. At least I hope you don’t. Of course you don’t! You’re not going to go, “Hey give me the…” “Well, I can’t find the such and such,” says the nurse. “Well, just give me one of the old ones that was lying around.” No, it’s not going to happen. And God doesn’t just look down and say, “Just give me any old rubbish. I’ll use them.” No, he says, “I’m looking for clean instruments. So clean yourself up,” he says. “You want to be used by me?”
Let me finish with one of my other songs from boyhood. It goes like this:
Only to be what he wants me to be,
Every moment of every day;
Yielded completely to Jesus alone,
Every step of [the pilgrim] way.
[And] just to be clay in the Potter’s hands,
Ready to do what his [will] commands,
Only to be what he wants me to be,
Every moment of every day.[24]
And if we will say that individually and if we will embrace it congregationally, then the picture will be our experience in privilege as we continue to pursue, to press on towards the goal to which we’ve been called heavenward in Christ Jesus,[25] so that the generations that come behind us will have occasion to be thankful that we didn’t quit in the middle of the race.
Well, Father, thank you that we can consider your Word and think about it more. And you know our hearts today. It would be impossible for us to pretend before you. And so we want to pray that you will be so at work within us as to show us ourselves and to show us our Savior, to help us to flee that which is detrimental to our usefulness and to pursue righteousness and faith and love and peace, and to do so with those who call upon the Lord from a heart that has been made pure by your grace. To this end we seek you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
[1] 2 Timothy 2:15 (paraphrased).
[2] John R. W. Stott, The Message of 2 Timothy: Guard the Gospel, The Bibles Speaks Today (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1973), 65.
[3] Acts 9:15 (paraphrased).
[4] See 2 Corinthians 4:7.
[5] Psalm 127:1 (ESV).
[6] Psalm 122:1 (ESV).
[7] 1 Peter 2:4–5 (ESV).
[8] Mark 14:9 (ESV).
[9] See Mark 14:8.
[10] See Matthew 6:4.
[11] Romans 12:1 (paraphrased).
[12] R. Hudson Pope, “Cleanse Me.” Language modernized.
[13] See Hebrews 12:1.
[14] 1 Corinthians 6:18 (ESV).
[15] 1 Corinthians 10:14 (ESV).
[16] See Romans 1:24–25.
[17] Genesis 39:10–12 (ESV).
[18] Romans 3:22, 24 (paraphrased).
[19] Romans 6:1–2 (paraphrased).
[20] Matthew 6:33 (ESV).
[21] 1 John 4:12 (ESV).
[22] Psalm 139:23 (ESV).
[23] 1 Corinthians 15:33 (paraphrased).
[24] Norman J. Clayton, “Every Moment of the Day” (1938).
[25] See Philippians 3:14.
Copyright © 2025, Alistair Begg. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations for sermons preached on or after November 6, 2011 are taken from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
For sermons preached before November 6, 2011, unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® (NIV®), copyright © 1973 1978 1984 by Biblica, Inc.TM Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.