God’s Approved Workers

0:39Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like ingrene. Among them are Hymanius and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal.

1:13The Lord knows those who are His, and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable use. 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. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies.

1:57You know that these breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. This is God's word. You may be seated. Would you consider yourself a coffee addict?

2:32I think many of us would. But when you drink a lot of coffee, it becomes an expensive habit. Too expensive for some, in fact. In December 2017, a 48-year-old resident of Buffalo, New York, posed as a police detective and went into a Starbucks, flashed a fake badge and a BB gun, and demanded. A coffee discount. They refused, and so he walked across the street to the other coffee shop and tried the same charade. They also refused and called the real police officers. This man was arrested and now faces prison time for attempting to get discounted coffee. Not free coffee, discounted coffee.

3:32It was clear to the baristas that this guy wasn't a real cop. He was not an approved worker by the city to serve as a law enforcement officer. That was obvious to them. The question for us today, as we look at 2 Timothy chapter 2, is how do we know who God's approved workers are? How do we know who God has approved? Well, Paul is going to remind Timothy that there are many teachers out there arguing over words, teaching falsehoods, leading people into error. They don't have God's approval.

4:09But for Timothy and for you and I, that's what we're after. We want God's approval. We're not after man's approval, and so we want that more than anything, and we want to serve other people. As God's approved workers, we want to make sure that we are loving and serving those who are around us. And so what we're going to learn today as we study 2 Timothy 2, verses 14. Through 26, is that approved workers serve others by rightly handling the word of truth. So let's look here at verse 14 together.

4:41Paul begins by saying, Remind them of these things. Now, we talked last week about a lot of the importance that surrounds reminders and being reminded. We're all so forgetful as human beings, and that's why Paul is commanding Timothy to remind them, the church, of these things, namely that trustworthy saying that he ended the last section with. If we die, we live with Christ. If we endure, we reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny us. If we're faithless, he remains faithful. We need to be reminded of that trustworthy saying because we're such forgetful people. And along with reminding the church of that truth, what is Timothy supposed to do? Look at what he says next: charge them before God not to quarrel about words.

5:32Well, if you go down to verse 16, you see that Timothy also must avoid irreverent babble. So don't quarrel or fight about words and avoid irreverent babble. Now, why are those things so important? Well, Paul's going to give four reasons in this section of Scripture. In verse 14, he says that quarreling about words does no good, it only ruins the hearers. So that's your first reason. We don't fight about words because it does no good. It only ruins the hearers. You're aware that if you turn on the television today, you are going to see people quarreling about words.

6:14We're attracted to conflict. And so the cable news networks have figured this out. So what they do is they get people representing two sides of an issue not to debate the merits of a particular idea, but to fight with one another on national television. And we sit there and we watch it. Now we have to ask ourselves, what good is this doing? Is anybody walking away better informed? Was anybody's mind changed? I think, if anything, our minds are changed, but they're not changed necessarily by the debate going on on the screen. Our minds are changed and our hearts are changed by watching people debate with one another in that way.

6:59We're being discipled by the cable news networks in how to speak to one another. And it's not good. We're learning how to fight about words, which only ruins the hearers. Now look what Paul writes in Ephesians 4, verse 29 on the screen. He says, Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

7:37So quarreling about words does no good. It only ruins the hearers. That's the first reason that we have to avoid it. The second reason that Paul gives is in verse 16. He says that irreverent babel just leads people more and more into ungodliness. It just leads us deeper into ungodliness. And it does this in two ways. First, what it does is it teaches us to treat secondary matters as though they're matters of primary importance. That's what irreverent babel does. It teaches us that secondary matters are the most important thing. And that's exactly what happened to the Pharisees.

8:20They were concerned about secondary matters. Jesus said that they were tithing out of their spice racks. Can you imagine? They were so enraptured with this idea that they needed to be giving God the tenth that they even took their spices. They poured out 10% of all of them and they gave those things to the Lord. Meanwhile, Jesus says, they are neglecting justice and mercy and faithfulness, the most important things. They're treating those secondary matters like they're matters of primary importance. And that's because they're caught up in irreverent babble.

8:54But secondly, irreverent babble teaches us that winning arguments is more important. Than winning people. And that's a big problem. Remember that Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 that we can have all knowledge, we can know all mysteries, but if we don't have love, then we're nothing. And it's not as though Paul is saying that error is a virtue. It's not as though he's saying the truth doesn't matter. Of course, the truth does matter, but friends, too often we're right in the wrong way.

9:32The Pharisees were right about a lot of things, but they were right in the wrong way. And so quarreling about words and irreverent babble, it ruins the hearers and it leads us into more and more ungodliness. Look at the third reason we need to avoid this. In verse 17, Paul says, irreverent babble spreads like gangrene. Now, it's interesting because in Paul's letters, he always talks about faithful doctrine as sound or healthy teaching. So faithful doctrine is healthy. It's good for the body, but false doctrine is the opposite of that. It's like a disease.

10:15Now, if you're not familiar with gangrene, and I hope you're not, it's when the tissue of the body dies due to either a bacterial infection or because that part of the body isn't getting enough blood flow. It often affects the feet, the hands. The extremities of the body. Now, ordinarily, I would encourage you to be like the Bereans, to examine these things, to see if they are so. But I made the mistake of Googling this. It was not something I would recommend you look at unless you are studying to be a doctor. The general rule is that we should be wary of anything that grows too quickly.

10:59We should be wary of anything that grows too quickly. Healthy growth is a good thing, but when something is growing too quickly, that growth is out of control, and there's a reason that something is growing that fast. Cancer spreads very rapidly. That's not good growth. So when biblical doctrine is encountered, we understand the truth of it. But oftentimes, what we see is that there's somebody writing a book or a blog post or something else, and it just takes off. And we think to ourselves, how is this taking off so quickly? Because biblical doctrine, while true, isn't popular. We're right to be wary of any Christian book that's rising to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. Not saying that every Christian book that's on the New York Times bestseller list is unfaithful doctrine. There's plenty of good books on there. But we have to at least be wary of that. Biblical doctrine, while true, is not popular. It doesn't spread fast. So Paul says, irreverent babble spreads like gangrene, so be careful, watch out for it. And then finally, in verse 18, he says that irreverent babble upsets the faith of fellow Christians.

12:20We should avoid it because it upsets the faith of fellow Christians. So in Timothy's day, teachers like Hymeneus and Philetus were teaching that the resurrection had already happened. Well, what does he mean when he says that? Well, they seem to have been teaching that the bodily resurrection was not going to happen. The only resurrection that we were going to experience as Christians was spiritual. It was in our hearts. And this is a heresy that's been around since right after Jesus rose from the dead, is that he didn't actually physically, bodily rise from the dead. He just rose in the disciples' hearts. And so they're saying the resurrection already happened. It's just a spiritual resurrection, not a bodily one. Well, why would that upset people's faith? Well, primarily because it's the exact opposite of what Jesus and Paul had been teaching. It's the exact opposite. Jesus did physically, bodily rise from the dead. That is the crux of the Christian gospel. If Jesus didn't rise from the dead in bodily form, he did not defeat sin and its consequence, death. So we still have a big problem. If Jesus did not physically, bodily rise from the dead. So, when these guys started going around and saying that the resurrection is only spiritual, obviously that would upset their faith.

13:43I think a lot of us have had the experience of believing something to be true and then having somebody come up to us and say, Well, you know, that thing that you've believed this whole time, that's actually wrong. It's like anybody that's ever gotten on WebMD. You're like, My throat is sore. You have Ebola. Oh, I didn't think it was that intense. I've seen this happen many times, not the WebMD thing. But Christians who are growing in their faith, and then along comes a book or a blog post or a teaching series of some kind, and then all of a sudden, they're questioning central doctrines of Christianity. Their faith has been upset.

14:30But thankfully, as Solomon affirms, there's nothing new under the sun. There's nothing new. So, when you hear of any teaching that's spreading like gangrene or like the flu this year, we have to ask ourselves, what's going on here? The best thing that we could do is gather around with some other mature Christians and say, What does God's Word say about this? Is this what God's Word actually teaches? So instead of quarreling about words, instead of getting into conversations filled with irreverent babble, what should we be doing as Christians? Look at verse 15.

15:14Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. Well, in Greek, the word that's translated rightly handling, or maybe some of your texts say rightly dividing, it means something like cut a straight path. This word only occurs once in the New Testament and just twice in what is called the Septuagint. That's the Greek translation of the Old Testament. So I want to put those verses on the screen for you so you can see them. The first one's Proverbs 3, verse 6, a familiar verse, In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Look at Proverbs 11, verse 5.

16:06The righteousness of the blameless keeps his way straight, but the wicked falls by his own wickedness. So here you have these other two instances of this Greek word that's translated rightly handling or rightly dividing. It means something like cut a straight path. And so the error of Hymenaeus and Philetus, what we see here in verse 18. Is that they swerved from the truth. In other words, they didn't cut a straight path from what God said to what God meant. They swerved from the truth. Now, imagine if you had written a letter to someone and they read it and they distorted your meaning and then they started telling everybody else that that's what you meant. I mean, we've probably all been misinterpreted at one time or another. You know how frustrating that can be. You're thinking, that's not what I meant when I said that. Well, that's what these men were doing to the Word of God. That's why they should have been ashamed. That's why they didn't have God's approval. It's because they didn't cut a straight path from what God said to what God meant. Instead, they swerved from the truth.

17:25Now, in Hebrews chapter 4, we're reminded that the Word of God is a double-edged sword. A double-edged sword. That's a really good thing. That's a great tool in the right hands. But in the wrong hands, if we don't handle the Word of God correctly, it's a very dangerous weapon. Again, it's February, so Black History Month, thinking about those who justified slavery by pointing to Bible verses, or those who justified treating African Americans as second-class citizens. These are. These are people who did not rightly handle the word of truth. They swerved from it. And so we see how dangerous it can be when we don't take God's word for what it says and what it means. We have to rightly handle it. We have to cut a straight path with it. So Paul closes this section in verse 19 by saying that even if some people have had their faith upset or overturned, we see that God's firm foundation stands.

18:32Now, that reference to God's firm foundation seems to be to the church, the building that God is erecting on the foundation of the apostolic preaching of the gospel. He seems to be talking about the church here. And he's saying that foundation stands. Nothing can overcome it. Not the false teachers and their teaching, not even the gates of hell, nothing can overcome it. And the foundation bears a seal or a mark that shows that it's genuine. What is the mark of the church? Well, it's twofold. First, the Lord knows those who are His.

19:11This is the invisible mark. It's the mark that we can't see. We don't know, in one sense, who are God's people. Only God knows who God's people are. Jesus says that He is the good shepherd, that He knows His own sheep, and that no one can snatch them out of His hand. That's great news. That means every person who trusts in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is secure eternally. The Lord knows those who are His. That's the invisible mark, the invisible seal. But what about the visible seal or the visible mark? The next phrase, look what he writes: Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.

20:00So there's a sense in which we can't know for sure who God's people are. The Lord knows those who are his, but there is a sense in which we can know who belong to the Lord and who don't. Because the people who belong to the Lord do what? They depart from iniquity. They repent of sin. Look at what John writes in 1 John chapter 3. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

20:37Now notice, John doesn't say, no one who abides in him ever sins. That would be contradicting his own teaching in the first chapter of that letter. A Christian is not one who does not sin. A Christian is a repentant sinner. That's what a Christian is. It's a person who refuses to. Go on to keep on sinning in the same way over and over again. So that's important because we live in a time where the most grievous sin that anyone can commit is to judge someone else. That is the most grievous sin.

21:20And I'm reminded that that is the truth because I'm a member of Planet Fitness. So plastered on the wall, every time I go to work out, it says, this is the judgment-free zone. No judging. They judge anyone who judges. And I'm just going to tell you this right now. I try to abide by that. But my judgment is that if people keep doing squats like that, their knees are going to explode. It's just not a good situation.

21:57The most grievous sin today is to judge anyone else. But here we have, once again, in the Word of God, we can judge. We can know who belong to the Lord because everyone who names the name of the Lord is to depart from iniquity. So one key indicator, not the only one, but one key indicator that you actually belong to the Lord is that you depart from sin. So what is your attitude? What is your stance towards sin in your life? Are you turning from it? Are you running from it? Are you departing from it? From it? Or are you making space for it in your life? Are you coddling it to make sure that you can return to it when you want to?

22:39So our response is important not only because it's evidence that we belong to God, but also because God delights to use pure vessels. Look at verse 20. Paul says, Now, in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use and 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.

23:22Paul's illustration here takes us to a great house. So think of Downton Abbey, if you were a fan of that series. And in this great house, you have two sets of dishes or vessels. You have one that would be for honorable use, that is for the family, and you have another that would be used for dishonorable use, the servants who live downstairs. And in the New Testament, God's people are often referred to as vessels of mercy. Paul calls us that in Romans chapter 9, or vessels or jars of clay. We see that in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. So unlike dishes who have no say over whether they're used for honorable use or for dishonorable use, we as human beings created in God's image actually do have a say in whether we are used for honorable use or for dishonorable use. We have a say, and Paul is saying that our purity is the determining factor in how we're used, whether we're used for honorable or dishonorable purposes. So his point is that if you want to be used for honorable purposes, we have to cleanse ourselves from what is dishonorable. Now we're going to get to what makes us dishonorable in verses 22 through 24, but what he does first is he outlines the reasons that we should want to be used for honorable uses. Look what he says. First, he says these vessels are set apart as holy.

24:57That's what holy means. It means to be set apart, to be set apart for a special purpose, to be consecrated or dedicated. Now, every one of us has holy things. We don't maybe think of them in that term, but that's what they are. They're set apart for special purposes. You have outfits that you only wear for certain special occasions. You've got food or drink set aside for certain special occasions. If you were married before like 2010, you have China.

25:30Which I don't know why people don't want that anymore. It's expensive. It's breakable. It takes up lots of storage space. You use it roughly once a year. Why did this fall out of favor? Might need a couch to sleep on tonight if anyone would put me up for the evening. These vessels, Paul is saying, these holy things are for the master's use for special occasions. And what he's saying is, we want to be set aside as well for those special purposes. We want to be set apart as holy. But in order to do that, we have to cleanse ourselves. We have to ensure that we're turning away from sin. We're departing from iniquity. The second thing that he says here is that these vessels are useful to the master of the house.

26:26Now, some would read that and say, well, hasn't God used unclean vessels before? Didn't he use Nebuchadnezzar? Didn't he use Cyrus? Didn't he use all these people in Scripture that we could point to and say, didn't he use these unclean vessels for his glory? Well, yes, he did, but those are clearly in Scripture the exception and not the rule. And what is an exception except to prove the rule? That God delights to use clean vessels. And God delights to use clean vessels. Vessels because clean vessels through their lives are telling the truth about God's holy character.

27:08When God's message is coming through a man or a woman or even a child of holy character, the message isn't muted. The message can be clearly heard, clearly perceived. We're useful to the master of the house. And if we love God, we want to be useful. We want to be used by Him to achieve His purposes. We don't want to be left on the shelf, so to speak. And so Paul says this, and then third and finally, Paul says that these vessels are ready for every good work.

27:40Well, if you go back earlier in chapter 2, you remember that Paul was saying that Christians are supposed to be like good soldiers. And good soldiers don't get entangled in civilian pursuits. But a lot of us are entangled in civilian pursuits. And the reality is that if our lives are tangled up with civilian pursuits, like our hobbies or trying to acquire more and better things, then the reality is we're not ready for every good work because we don't have the time or the money to be ready.

28:16I mean, think if we're called by God to disciple a new Christian, or if God calls you to partner with one of our missionaries financially, but you're entangled in civilian pursuits, then You may not have the time or the money to do those things. You're not ready for every good work. So, Paul says we need to be ready. We don't need to be entangled in civilian pursuits. And that's what it is to be a vessel that is for honorable use. It's to cleanse ourselves from what is dishonorable. And now, Paul is going to define what that looks like. So, look with me now at verse 22.

28:58So, flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. So, how do we cleanse ourselves from what is dishonorable? Well, it all starts with this phrase: flee youthful passions. Now, there's no doubt that Paul has things like lust in mind, and he has written elsewhere that we are to flee from sexual immorality, we're to run away from it. But I think in the context here, Paul seems to have in mind the passions of youth, the kind of hot-headedness and quick-temperedness that leads to quarreling about words, that leads to irreverent babble, that leads to having a divisive spirit. All of those things could be filed under quick-tempered, and those tend to be the sins of young people.

30:01And so Paul is saying, flee from those youthful passions. Now, of course, there are certain conflicts that arise over matters of first importance. So we shouldn't think that Paul is saying, I don't ever want you to get into a conflict about anything. Paul didn't back down from conflict when it was over the gospel. He was quick to engage with his opponents when it came down to the central truths of Christianity. But over matters of secondary importance, he just wasn't going to waste time and energy on those things. He says, flee youthful passions.

30:37But as you know, it's never enough to just run away from something. We have to run towards something else. And so he tells us here that we should pursue or run toward righteousness, faith, love, and peace. And look what he says. We're to do that along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. That's such an important phrase. Do it along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. We're not called to do these things alone. If you're a runner, you know that you don't run farther or faster by yourself. You run farther and faster along with others. Others push you to go further and faster than you could by yourself. And in the same way, we need the church to push us, to help us to run out. Or pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace.

31:36We're to pursue those things, but look what he says next: have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. Well, I wonder what Paul is referring to. What foolish and ignorant controversies existed in the first century? One of the passages where he talks about this at great length is found in Colossians chapter 2. Look on the screen. He says, Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival, or a new moon, or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

32:41If you remember way back to the start of the fall when we began 1 Timothy, in chapter 1, he talks about these guys that are fighting over who descended from whom. They're fighting over genealogies. And here in Colossians chapter 2, it's these fights about whether or not your life was simple enough. Fights about asceticism, fights about worshiping angels, people going on in detail about these visions that they've had and whose vision was the most glorious. They're fighting about all these things and they're not holding fast to the head, Christ.

33:19And if we're not holding fast to the head, if we're cut off from the head, the body is going to die. It's critical that we keep the first things the first things, the main things, the main things. And that's what we're seeking to do here in our church: to keep the gospel, that which is of primary importance, to keep the vision set on making disciples of all nations and not allowing our church to devolve into controversies and arguments over secondary matters, over things that are just not important, or as important, at least, as the gospel itself.

33:59Instead, what should we be? Look at verse 24. The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. Now, how about that list? Doesn't that sound impossible? We're supposed to be kind to everyone? I mean, some people don't deserve to be treated kindly. We're supposed to be able to teach. Some people seem unwilling to learn. We're supposed to be those who patiently endure evil. But that's very hard because we live in a day of outrage where every perceived inconvenience has to be compensated for immediately.

34:58And he says that we are to correct our opponents with gentleness. But we don't have opponents anymore in the 21st century. We only have enemies. Think about that. If you were thinking about athletics and you had a person on your team who referred to a person on another team not as an opponent, but as an enemy, what would you think? You would think there's something wrong with that person. Why did it become so personal? It's an opponent, it's not an enemy. But that's how we've been conditioned to think in the 21st century: anybody who disagrees with us, anybody who opposes us, is not an opponent, but an enemy.

35:46But, friends, it's critical that we remember that these people who oppose the gospel are not our enemies. They're God's enemies. That's what he says again and again in the word. In Philippians chapter 3, he calls. Calls them enemies of the cross of Christ. They're not our enemies. They're enemies of God. And why are they enemies of God? Look at verse 26. It's because they've been trapped or ensnared by Satan after being captured by him to do his will.

36:22The whole reason that these men and women are God's enemies is because they've been ensnared by Satan. They've been trapped, and now they're doing his will. And we can't despise them because you and I were once in the exact same position. We were once enemies of God ourselves. Look at what Paul writes in Romans chapter 5. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. Listen to this. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled. Shall we be saved by his life? More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

37:45You see, the difference between Christians and non-Christians is not that Christians are good people and non-Christians are not. Look at verse 25. It's because God has granted us repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth. And that's why we pray it for them. That's why we pray that through our words and our example, God would grant repentance to the opponents of the gospel. We can't take credit for God's mercy and grace in our lives. But what's incredible is that God can and does use us. He uses our kindness and our teaching, the way that we patiently endure evil, and the way that we gently correct our opponents to bring others to repentance. And look at what James says in James chapter 5. My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

38:52That right there is a vessel that's being put to honorable use. There is no greater honor as a Christian than to bring someone back to repentance through your preaching and your example. That's the highest honor of all. And that's our hope and prayer for these opponents of the gospel. Is it through our preaching, through our example, that God would grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth? But friends, it's never been easy to be a Christian, and it's no different in our generation. We face our own challenges. Our society has become increasingly polarized, where people view each other as enemies, not as opponents. And the internet has been a wonderful thing because it's given access to information and it's allowed people to connect with one another and to share ideas, but it's also made possible every single person publicly sharing what they think about everything. That's both wonderful and terrifying.

40:02And so if you're not yet a Christian and you're here today, it may be the case that you have looked around in our society, you've seen what's going on on social media and on television, and you're just tired of all of the violence, all of the noise, all of the yelling at one another, all of the controversy. And you're wondering, is there a firm foundation anymore? How can you even know what's true? I want you to know that we, as a church, imperfectly, are attempting to stand on the firm foundation of the gospel. And that we're being built up precisely because we're standing on that firm foundation of the gospel. Not because we're great people, not because we're better than you by any means, but because we're attempting to keep our feet set on the firm foundation of the gospel. And our desire is to build our lives collectively and individually on Jesus and his work.

41:10And so we would want nothing more than for you to repent, to depart from iniquity, and to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior so that you can put your feet on that same firm foundation that we have. So that the truth will set you free and you can begin to make sense of everything that's going on in this world around you that has so disturbed you and puzzled you for years. And if you're already a Christian, you know that we have been called to be in the world and not of the world. But it's critical that we acknowledge that we have been influenced. We could even say we've been discipled by the world in some very important ways.

41:58But we want to be vessels for honoring. Use, not vessels for dishonorable use. And so, in order to be set apart as holy, in order to be ready for every good work, useful to the master of the house, we have to hear and speak the truth. We've got to cleanse ourselves from sin, and we have to gently correct our opponents. Those are things that are not going to win us the approval of man, but that's okay because that's not what we're going for. We're going for God's approval. And approved workers serve others by rightly handling the word of truth. Let's pray.

42:49God, we talked about at the outset of the service today where Peter says that there are some things in Paul's writings that are hard to understand. And we are quick to agree with Peter. We read this text today and we find in it things that are hard to understand. And so, we come before you and we ask you for wisdom because you tell us in your word that if we lack it, you'll give it to us.

43:25We want to be wise people who live wisely, who are seeking your approval. And not the approval of man. There's no wisdom in seeking the approval of man. Not only is it fickle, we can have it one minute and then lose it the next, but there's a lot of times where the approval of man and your approval are not the same thing because people don't always approve of the things that you say are good and holy and right and pure.

43:55And so we pray this morning. Give us courage. Give us courage to speak the truth in love. Help us to see clearly the damaging effects of sin in our lives so that we would turn from it. Not really because it's just what we're supposed to do, but because we see how it leads to death. And Father, we pray that you would help us to stand out from the culture around us by gently correcting our opponents, by rightly handling the word of truth and calling people to believe what it says rather than what they think or what they wish were true.

44:48God, we thank you for your word and we thank you for the church as you say here that we're to pursue these things along with those who call on you from a pure heart. Help us to spur one another on to do these things, to not just be hearers of the Word, but to be doers of the Word. It's in Christ's name that we pray all of these things. Amen.