If you would, go ahead and take your Bibles and turn with me to the NT book of 2 Timothy. The title of our message today is “A Few Good Men.” 

Before the United States Marine Corp was looking for a few good men, God was engaged in that activity. God sought and recruited men like Abraham and Moses in the OT… courageous men like David and Jonathan… devout men like Elijah and Hezekiah… and righteous men like Joseph and Daniel.

God has also sought and recruited a few good women as well. Women like Sarah and Deborah and Ruth and Esther…women who fear God and serve God through the battles and trials of life.

God is looking for a few good men, and God is looking for a few good women too, who will not acquiesce to the pressures of this world and will not abide the status quo. Men and women who will stand up for God in a wicked and perverse generation. And who will live for God and die for God even if family and friends insult them and ostracize them and treat them like fanatics. God is looking for men and women like this. Are you that kind of man? Are you that kind of woman? Are we that kind of church? 

Well Paul’s desire for Timothy is that he would be that kind of man. Paul’s desire for Timothy is that he would be the kind of courageous leader and courageous Christian that when called upon to do the right thing, he won’t hesitate. And 2 Timothy has been written and recorded as Scripture, so that we can study it and learn how to be the kinds of courageous Christians who, when called upon to do the right thing, won’t hesitate. God is looking for “A Few Good Men.”       

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You might say, “I want to be that kind of man, Tony. I want to be that kind of woman. I want to be used mightily by the Lord. I want to be a faithful soldier of Christ Jesus. How do I do that?”

Well I’ll give you four answers to that question. These are written in your notes and you can write them down as you go. The first answer is this “Be sanctified” because…

God is looking to enlist servants who are…

1) Sanctified (2:20–21)

Now if you remember from last week, Paul was laying out the difference between healthy teaching and unhealthy teaching in the church. Healthy teaching produced healthy soldiers for the battlefield, and unhealthy teaching is like gangrene. It spreads easily and brings death. 

And one of the identifying markers for healthy teaching is that it exhorts believers to forsake sin. It sanctifies a Christian and produces a healthy holiness. Paul says as much in verse 19.

“Let everyone who names the name of the  Lord  depart from iniquity.” 

In other words, Paul says, “Good teaching helps unbelievers depart from sin. And good Christians are going to grow increasingly sanctified as they walk with the Lord.” 

Now in verse 20, the first part of our passage today, Paul is going to piggyback on that idea of holiness and “departing from iniquity” by giving an analogy. He says,

“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.”

And that’s true. In a person’s house they have fine China that they entertain distinguished guests with, and then they have the doggie bowl! 

In my house we don’t have vessels of gold, but we have some nice dinnerware that we like to use on occasion. And my wife has some really nice pieces that her mama passed down to her from Croatia. But also at my house, we have a litter box. Also at my house we have wastebaskets. Some of these “vessels” are for honorable use and some for dishonorable.

In Paul’s day a wealthy person who owned a great house still had to remove waste. They may have had incredibly expensive dishes of gold and silver that they could have entertained the greatest of statesmen with. But they also didn’t have indoor plumbing. [Don’t make me spell it out for you]. A great house in Paul’s day also had to take out the trash with some kind of container.

“Where are you going with this analogy, Paul?” Well look at verse 21. Paul uses this little analogy to say this: 

“21 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. 

Here’s what Paul is saying. Inside the heart of every man, there is the capacity for great and honorable conduct. And there is the capacity for disgraceful, dishonorable conduct. And theologically speaking, every human being has dignity by being made in God’s image. We are image-bearers and that gives us dignity and honor. But we are also sin-stained creatures as a result of Genesis 3 and the fall. 

We, as human beings, are fallen and depraved. We have the capacity for great evil and for great good. We have the capacity for great wickedness. If you don’t know that about human nature… if you don’t know that about yourself… you are naïve. But we need not be cynical, because we also have the capacity for decent and honorable conduct.

And so if you want to be used greatly by the Lord, if you want to impact the world for Christ, and be a courageous, faithful servant of the Master, you’ve got to be cleansed. You’ve got to be sanctified! You’ve got to be set apart as holy.

Now let me say two things about that. 1) There is no such thing as sanctification apart from salvation. There is no such thing as cleansing apart from confessing Jesus as Lord of your life. In other words, your first step in becoming useful to the Lord as an honorable vessel is “get saved!” You’ve got to confess Jesus Christ as Lord of your life. You’ve got to repent of your sins and embrace Jesus Christ as your Savior.

The Bible says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the  Lord  will be saved” (Rom 10:13). 

If you haven’t done that, then you are of no use to the Lord as an “honorable vessel.” I know that’s a strong statement, but it’s true. You’ve got to be saved in order to be used by God. You’ve got to have the Holy Spirit living in your life, pulsing in your veins, and conforming you to the image of Christ.   

Now is that everything? “I’m saved now, Lord, so come use me.” Is that enough, just to be saved? Well Paul addresses that here. He knows Timothy is saved. He knows that Timothy is born again, and yet he instructs him that there is still more that is needed in order for him to be a vessel of honor before the Lord. In other words, he needs to increase in holiness in order to increase in usefulness. 

The issue here is degree of usefulness. “If you want to be used by God in powerful ways, Timothy, you’ve got to cleanse yourself from what is dishonorable. You’ve got to be ‘set apart as holy.’ You’ve got to be ‘sanctified,’ because God is looking to enlist sanctified servants for his service.”

Now let’s talk practically about this work of sanctification. What is sanctification? Well let me give you a definition here. This is from a book that I used several years ago in my small group. It’s a book written by theologian Wayne Grudem entitled Christian Beliefs: 20 Basics Every Christian Should Know. Grudem writes, “Sanctification is a progressive work of both God and man that makes Christians more and more free from sin and more and more like Christ in their actual lives.” So first of all, it’s a progressive work. It’s a progressive work of both God and man that makes Christians more like Christ. In other words, it’s a process. 

I know some people who say, “When I got sanctified.” Or “I was sanctified at age 13.” There are Christian denominations that actually believe that sanctification is a subsequent even to salvation. And the use language like that. 

And when people say that, I respond, “Whoa, whoa, wait a second! When you got sanctified? That’s not an instantaneous moment in time like when you got saved. I’m still being sanctified. God’s not done with me yet in that regard.” And that’s because it’s a process. And we’re still in process. We’re in process… we are continually being sanctified and made more and more like Jesus until we go home to glory. 

So it’s a process. It’s a progressive work of both God and man. That’s clear in that definition from Grudem. Paul even intimates this dual-activity in verse 21, when he says, “if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable.” But then he uses a divine passive saying that that person is “set apart as holy.” Who sets that person apart as holy? God does! So it’s a progressive work of both God and man.

Some people think that they can just kick back and relax and God will do all the work of sanctification. But that doesn’t square with Scripture. The Bible says, “Be holy for I am holy” (1 Pet 1:16). The Bible says, “Strive for… holiness, without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:14). Paul doesn’t want Timothy to just sit around whistling Dixie until the sanctification cows come home. This is something he needs to strive for. This is something he needs to pursue faithfully.

But we need to remember it’s a work of both God and man. And that’s an important caveat as it relates to our own sanctification so that we don’t get prideful and overconfident in ourselves. This is a work of grace. This is a work that we couldn’t accomplish on our own. We need the Lord’s help with this. “Sanctification is a progressive work of both God and man that makes Christians more and more free from sin and more and more like Christ in their actual lives.” And God is looking to enlist sanctified servants for his service.

Listen, let me get straight with you! Let me just tell you how it is. If you’re a rage-monster… If you’re a pathological liar or a serial adulterer… If you are addicted to porn… you are compromising your opportunity to be “a vessel for honorable use… useful to the master of the house.” And you’ll never achieve what you could possibly achieve for Christ in this world, because you are hogtied by your own addiction to sin.

If you are a busybody… if you are a drunkard… if you can’t control your tongue… if you are a hateful wife or a hateful husband or a resentful parent… you will not be enlisted for honorable use in Christ’s service. You won’t. 

If you are perpetually slothful… If you are perpetually gossiping… if you are perpetually flirting with men who aren’t your husband or perpetually ogling women who aren’t your wife, you will never reach the potential impact that you could have for Christ.   

You might say, “That sounds so harsh, Tony.” No. This is about character. Character is important to the Lord. And he saved you and gave you his grace. And part of that grace involves not allowing you to stay the way that you are. You’re going to grow as a Christian.

And this doesn’t mean that those who were formerly addicted to porn or formerly had an explosive anger problem or formerly had a sin issue can’t be used mightily by God. You can! I mean, Paul was a murderer and a persecutor of the church. And he was used mightily by the Lord. But God had to do a work in him. God had to humble and sanctify him for honorable use. 

And now Paul is saying to Timothy, “God wants to do the same thing in you, Timothy.” God is looking to enlist “holy and God-honoring” servants for his service. He wants men and women of character. Are we going to be those kinds of people, church?  

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Write this down as #2. God is looking to enlist servants who are sanctified. Also…  

God is looking to enlist servants who are…

2) Sober-minded (2:22)

Paul writes in verse 22.

22 So flee youthful passions 

I could preach a sermon on just that statement right there. “So, Timothy, in order to be used for honorable purposes and to be a useful vessel to the Master of the house… Flee! Youthful! Passions!”

Now there are a number of “passions” that are common to youth that grow less common as a person gets older. We don’t know how old Timothy is at this time, but he’s probably in that “tweener” stage between young and old. Maybe he’s in his early to mid-30s or something like that. And probably Timothy struggled with the kinds of youthful passions that a lot of young men struggled with, namely lust. 

But the context of this passage seems to indicate something other than lust. Because Paul goes on to instruct Timothy, in the verses that follow, on how to deal with contentious and troublesome people in the church.

So when a young pastor is dealing with contentious people in the church, what “youthful passions” usually materialize? Well let me answer that for you, because I know something about being a young pastor. I was a senior pastor at age 29. And even before that I served as a youth pastor at a church in Longview, Texas. 

Young pastors and young men can often struggle with the following “youthful passions.” Anger. Impatience. Pride. Contentiousness. Combativeness. Typically with young leaders, their greatest strengths—passion, intensity, fervor—can easily become their greatest weaknesses, namely impatience, restlessness, agitation, irritability. That’s why it’s good for a young pastor to work alongside some sober-minded older men and elders. Because gray hair on an elder board is a crown of glory.

So Paul says to young Timothy, “flee youthful passions.” And Paul knew a thing or two about “youthful passions.” As a young man, he was all full of spit and vinegar when he was persecuting the church. Now as an older man at the end of his life, he’s counseling his young protégé, Timothy. And he says, “flee from these things!” “Flee youthful passions!”

“And don’t just run away from something, Timothy. Run towards something else!” Look again at verse 22. Paul has two imperatives in this verse.

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

Righteousness! Faith! Love! Peace! Those are Christlike characteristics. Paul says to pursue those things “along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” In other words, “You don’t have to do this alone. Go find some guys that you have to keep up with in their pursuit of Christ and run alongside them!” “You’re not a lone ranger, pastor Timothy. Christianity is not a solo sport. It’s a team sport. Find some teammates.”

That doesn’t mean that you can’t have non-Christian friends. You should have non-Christian friends so that you can evangelize them. But your trusted confidants… your tightest circle of friends… your compadres in this life should be those who call on the name of the Lord from a pure heart.

Question, church! Do you have people like that in your life? Let me just speak to the young people in this room. Do you have trusted friends, maybe some older friends, men and women who can help you flee from youthful passions in your life? 

You know one of the things that I notice today among a lot of young people is that they are all hot and bothered about the wrong things. They are all full of spit and vinegar. They are all full of angst. And their youthful passions are often directed towards the wrong things… They are all protesting in the streets or at the universities for the wrong causes. 

But here, let me just say this to you, young people. God is looking for sober-minded servants for his service. God is looking for men and women, even young men and women, who are passionate about the right things: the gospel, the scriptures, worship, missions, evangelism, discipleship, etc. 

God is looking for people who are passionate about righteousness and faith and love and peace. Get passionate about the right things! Flee youthful passions and pursue good passions wholeheartedly. 

And while you’re at it, go find some other people who call on the name of the Lord from a pure heart, and pursue those things with them. That’s what sober-minded, God-honoring men and women do. And God is looking for people like that.  

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Write this down as well. Thirdly,

God is looking to enlist servants who are…

3) Focused (2:23–24a)

Paul says in verse 23.

23 Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. 

Forgive me for this. I don’t want to turn into one of those Facebook-bashing fundamentalist pastors. Social media is not intrinsically evil. It’s morally neutral, like a lot of things. It can be used for good and it can be used for evil. My only request of the people in this room is that before you post something controversial, or respond to something controversial online, just read 2 Timothy 2:23. And ask yourself, “Am I involving myself in foolish, ignorant controversies?”

Now let’s not be naïve. Foolish and ignorant controversies didn’t begin with social media. Paul and Timothy were dealing with them two-thousand years ago! So that’s not the only place where these things manifest. And we all can fall prey to this. 

And the struggle that we all have is that there are some things that are worth fighting for. There are some things that we’ve got to take a stand on! And we can’t budge an inch on. But there are other matters of lesser importance that Paul says, “have nothing to do with [them].” 

Now, one of the trickiest things in the Christian life is discerning which controversies are essential and worthy of our time and energy defending. And which ones aren’t. And not only do we need to discern that. We also need to discern when we should speak about those essential controversies and when we shouldn’t. That’s difficult too. We don’t want to be casting pearls before swine. 

And this issue here is ultimately an issue of stewardship. You only have one life. You only have a little bit of time here on planet earth to worship Christ, make disciples, and impact eternity. And you don’t want to waste time and energy getting bogged down in unproductive arguments. You’ve got to be discerning. You’ve got to stay focused on those things that matter most. 

One of Satan’s best tactics … and I see this all the time … one of his best tactics with Christians is getting them to obsess and wrangle over non-essentials. Or to get them to chase every foolish controversy out there, hither and yon. And before you know it, you’re running yourself ragged chasing things that don’t matter, instead of being a useful vessel in the Lord’s service.

Listen, it’s not your responsibility to chase down every controversy. It’s not your responsibility to comment on every error out there. Paul says…

23 Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. 

And look at verse 24. 

24 And the Lord’s  servant must not be quarrelsome 

In other words, stay focused. Stay focused on those things that are most productive, most meaningful, and most consequential. 

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Now I spent a fair amount of time last week talking about how to avoid meaningless quarrels and whatnot. I don’t plan to spend too much time here revisiting that. But I do want to say this. The opposite of excessive quarrelsomeness isn’t a snooty and condescending haughtiness. 

When Paul tells Timothy to avoid irreverent babble and foolish controversies, he doesn’t follow that by saying “Now what you want to do, Timothy, is put your opponents in their place. I want you to treat Hymenaeus and Philetus like idiots.” Paul doesn’t say that. In fact what follows is pretty fascinating. What he says is essentially, “Don’t get bogged down in their foolishness. But also don’t be embittered by their foolishness. Handle your enemies with godliness and gentleness. And patiently endure whatever evil comes your way.” That’s surprising.

And there’s a word for that in the English language. A word that summarizes the last few verses of this passage. It’s a great word. It’s one of the best words that I can think of to describe a leader in God’s service. It’s the word—longsuffering.  

Write that down under #4.

God is looking to enlist servants who are…

4) Longsuffering (2:24b–26)

Paul writes, 

23 Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. 

24 And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but [the Lord’s servant must be] kind to everyone, 

“To everyone, Paul? You sure? Even those who speak evil against me… Even to those who mock me and insult me and lambast me publicly…” Yes. What did Jesus say? “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt 5:44).

Notice also the word that Paul used for Timothy. He said the “Lord’s servant.” He didn’t say the Lord’s pastor. Or the Lord’s elder. Or “the Holy Reverend Doctor, Pastor Timothy!” No, he said “servant.” “Timothy, you are a δουλος Ιησου Χριστου. You are a servant of Christ Jesus.” That language, that designation, sets the tone for what Paul is saying here. 

Here, let me let you in on something. You know what I’ve found? Oftentimes the real test of a person’s character, the real test of a person’s fortitude and capacity as a leader, isn’t when everyone loves them. It’s actually when people attack them. And when people sling mud at them. Can they endure that without slinging mud back? Are they big enough as a person… are they reliant enough upon Jesus to be “kind” even in the midst of an attack? That’s a real test of leadership right there.

I watched this documentary once about Tom Brady, quarterback for the New England Patriots. He was drafted in the sixth round, which was incredibly humiliating to him and his family because he was told he would probably be drafted earlier. And according to this documentary, there were six quarterbacks that were drafted ahead of him. And those quarterbacks didn’t amount to much of anything. And yet Tom Brady went on to win all these Superbowls. 

And one of the coaches who was commenting on this documentary said, “You just never know who’s going to be successful in this league and who won’t be. Some guys, when they first get hit in the mouth by a 300-pound defensive lineman, they just fold. It’s too much for them. Other guys get hit, and they jump right back up and get out there for more. They don’t get shaken up by adversity. In fact they kind of thrive on adversity.” And Tom Brady was one of those guys. He has the physical toughness and the mental toughness to take hits and suffer pain, and still be successful.

And when I saw that documentary, it made me think of eldering in a church. Because as an elder (and this is true in any form of leadership) you will often get hit right in the mouth. People will try to lay you out. And you got to get up and keep going. You got to have the mental toughness to press on in the midst of that. 

And for an elder, it’s even harder than for a football player, because you got to get up and you got to get back in the game and you’ve got to be humble about it. You’ve got to be … here’s the word … “longsuffering.” You’ve got to be able to suffer long for Christ and for his kingdom as a servant.

Look at verse 24 again. “The Lord’s servant,” Paul writes, “must be kind to everyone,”

able to teach [that’s the same word that is used of an elder in 1 Tim 3:2; elders need to be able to teach], patiently enduring evil, 

Not reactionary. Not hot-headed or short-tempered. But patiently enduring evil and…  

25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. 

Literally the Greek says, “educating those who oppose him with gentleness” or “with humility.” That’s one of the fruits of the spirit, right there, “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” This is not something we produce in our flesh. This is a Holy Spirit thing. This is a spiritually cultivated thing.

The church father Basil wrote this about seventeen hundred years ago: “The superior should not administer a rebuke to wrongdoers when his own passions are aroused. By admonishing a brother with anger and indignation, he does not free him from his faults but involves himself in the error.… Nor should he become vehemently angry even when he himself is treated with contempt.”

You might say, “But why, Tony? Why do leaders have to be gentle? Why can’t we just put people in their place and give them a Holy Spirit smack-down?” Well the first answer to that is obvious. We’re not the Holy Spirit! So we need to leave the smack-downs to him. 

And secondly, here’s the reason that Paul gives. Look at the middle of verse 25. 

God may perhaps grant them repentance 

Repentance from their false teaching… repentance from their divisiveness… repentance from their petty squabbling and quarrelling... 

God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 

That is a beautiful thing when people become aware of their own error. That is a precious thing when people repent of their actions and are restored to fellowship in the church. 

Now it’s a rare thing! In my experience as a pastor, this rarely happens. Repentance is not a common thing in our world. But when it does happen, it’s beautiful. And we should always hold out hope for that. 

Coincidently that’s always the hope even in issues involving church discipline. In Matthew 18, the hope of church discipline is not retribution, it’s restoration. And elders and leaders have to always offer up that hope, so that our actions don’t become punitive and retaliatory. Our goal is restoration. 

God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 

26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. 

You know I can’t help but think that maybe Paul had the likes of Hymenaeus and Philetus in mind when he wrote verse 26. Remember those guys? They had swerved from the truth and were teaching crazy stuff in the church. Paul’s like, “Maybe they’ll come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured to do his will.”

Maybe Paul’s thinking of those other guys, Phygelus and Hermogenes. Remember them from chapter 1? They abandoned Paul in his darkest moment. Paul’s like, “Maybe they’ll come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” 

Maybe Paul’s thinking of those fierce wolves who he told the Ephesian elders, would come in after him, “not sparing the flock” (Acts 20:29)? Maybe Hymenaeus and Philetus were two of those wolves? What does Paul want for them? “Maybe they’ll come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” 

Can you imagine what that would have looked like if that actually happened? I mean, Hymenaeus and Philetus, those guys are immortalized in Scripture as false teachers who were the opponents of Paul. They might as well be Judas Iscariot or Benedict Arnold. 

But what if, what if, Timothy through prayer and patience and gently correcting his opponents, was able to lead them to repentance? And what if they came to their senses after being captured by Satan to do his will? I have no idea if that happened or not. It probably didn’t. But that was Paul’s heart. That was his desire. That was the best-case scenario for him. 

You know, I’ll be honest with you. My biggest temptation at times as a leader is writing people off. “They’ll never get it! They’ll never understand! It’s pointless to try. It’s pointless to pray!” I can be cynical sometimes. And yet this verse, right here, doesn’t allow me to be that way! 

The Bible is saying to me here, “You can’t give up hope, Tony.” That doesn’t mean you waste countless hours arguing with people trying to convince them. We’ve already seen Paul tell Timothy, “Don’t do that.” 

But at the same time, you can’t write people off. You can’t underestimate what God might do to lead a person to repentance. God didn’t write me off in my worst moments. And I can’t do that with others either.

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So, four things church. Four things God is looking for in a few good men. 1) Sanctified. God is looking to enlist sanctified servants for his service. Godly men and women. Holy men and women. Men and women who turn from sin and consecrate themselves for honorable use in the kingdom of God. 2) Sober-minded. Men who flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace. 3) Focused. God is looking to enlist focused and levelheaded servants for his service. Not quarrelsome. Not hot-tempered. Not war-mongering and chasing down every argument that they can get themselves into. But wise men and shrewd men who know how to steward their time and energy. And finally 4) Longsuffering. Men and women who patiently endure evil.  

God is looking for a few good men, church. Are we going to be those kinds of men and women? I pray that we would be. Let’s bow in a word of prayer.