Capacity is the ability to hold something honorable; John 15:16

Title: Capacity is the ability to hold something honorable; John 15:16.

 

2 Tim 2:20 Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor.

 

2 Tim 2:21 Therefore, if a man cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified [set apart from C1 and C2], useful to the Master [producing fruit], prepared for every good work.

 

Cleansing comes from rebound and the recovery of doctrine. “things” - wickedness, entanglement in the details of life, going astray from the truth.

 

2 Tim 2:22 Now flee from youthful lusts, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

 

2 Tim 2:23 But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels.

 

2 Tim 2:24 And the Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged,

 

2 Tim 2:25 with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,

 

 “if perhaps God may grant them repentance” - refers to the uncertainty of Paul who wishes [optative mood] that they would change their minds.

 

This is not a typical conditional clause. The word “if” is not actually there but mepote which means “so that perhaps” or “if perhaps”.

 

What is made certain by God the HS here is that change of mind comes from understanding the truth and it is God who makes the truth understandable based on positive volition. Can we say that everyone we correct changes their minds about Christ and about His truth? Then we can’t say with certainty that they will change their minds or won’t change their minds; all we can say is that if they are going to change that God, the giver of truth, the giver of communicators of truth, ears to hear it, brains to process it and the HS to understand it is the one upon whom repentance depends. But this in no way implies that God forces some to repent and not others.

 

Did He ask Israel to change her mind? Did He tell her the truth that destruction was coming? Yet they did not heed the warning and were destroyed. Did Jesus want Judas to change His mind? Did He not say in the upper room, at the supper one of them was going to betray Him with Judas right there, making it clear to Judas that He knew all about it, and knowing all about it He still offered the morsel of honor anyway? What more can God do?

 

2 Tim 2:26 and they may come to their senses [return to soberness] and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.

 

This is the difference between an honorable soul and a dishonorable soul.

 

2 Cor 4:7

 But we have this treasure [imputed righteousness, God the HS, and doctrine] in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves;

 

Prov 25:4

Take away the dross [impurities] from the silver,

And there comes out a vessel for the smith;

 

A vessel made of silver was obviously for honorable use.

 

1 Thess 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;

 

1 Thess 4: 4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,

 

1 Thess 4:5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;

 

1 Thess 4:6 and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you.

 

1 Thess 4:7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.

 

1 Thess 4:8 Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

 

 The HS is your true teacher and mentor, teaching you the truth and giving you the power to apply that truth and thus avoiding the power of the OSN.

 

1 Peter 3:7

You husbands likewise, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman; and grant her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

 

She is weaker in the sense that she is a responder. The husband has the responsibility of filling her weaker vessel with the same authority and love that Christ has for the Church.

 

Shattered vessels are used to describe personal judgments from God, PSA 31:12.

 

David was under intensive discipline:

 

Ps 31:12

I am forgotten as a dead man, out of mind,

I am like a broken vessel.

 

JER 22:28

"Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered jar?

Or is he an undesirable vessel?

Why have he and his descendants been hurled out

And cast into a land that they had not known?

 

His father Jehoiakim was given written prophecy from Jeremiah and he burned it. His son Coniah was raised a reversionist like his father and Jeremiah prophesied that they all would fall under Nebuchadnezzar.

 

A shattered vessel cannot hold anything. The reversionist has no capacity to hold the truth and therefore no capacity to hold the blessings from God.

 

The reversionist has been given every opportunity to learn doctrine, to learn more doctrine, to learn more doctrine than they could dream of having, but in rejecting it over and over the intensive discipline results in a shattering in which there is no capacity to hold the truth. Only rebound and recovery under enforced humility will call on the potter to repair the vessel.

 

HOS 8:8 Israel [northern kingdom] is swallowed up;

They are now among the nations

Like a vessel in which no one delights.

 

HOS 8:9 For they have gone up to Assyria,

Like a wild donkey all alone;

Ephraim [northern kingdom] has hired lovers [adultery with false gods].

 

ROM 9:19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?"

 

These are the two anticipated questions of the desperate unbeliever and not a legitimate questions.

 

ROM 9:20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to [or contradicts] God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it?

 

God has molded your circumstances but He is not responsible for the state of your soul. Man is a free agent and has self-determination. The answer to this rhetorical question is an obvious no, I cannot contradict God, nor can I challenge Him on the state of my circumstances.

 

ROM 9:21 Or does not the potter have a right [authority] over the clay, to make from the same lump [all of us are born in sin, in spiritual death] one vessel for honorable use, and another for common use?

 

There are three categories of blessing:

1.Primary blessings: 40 things received at salvation. [these cannot be lost or improved upon. The FHS is regained through confession]

 

2. Secondary blessings: Escrow blessings given in time coincident with capacity.

 

Be careful in your “hunt” for escrow blessings. You know you have capacity for them when you are content without them. And, you may have capacity, but the Sovereign will of God may delay their conveyance for a more perfect time that establishes His glory to the maximum.

 

HEB 10:35-36

Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

 

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