So, the title of the sermon this evening is, The Vessels Are Holy.
The Vessels Are Holy.
Of course, I get that there in Ezra chapter 8, and you're going to want to bookmark something
in Ezra 8 before we get started here, because we'll be back and forth a little bit.
But it says there in Ezra 8, chapter 8 verse, well, let's just jump down to verse 26.
He said, I even weighed under their hands 650 talents of silver, and silver vessels
and a hundred talents, and of gold and a hundred talents, also twenty basins of gold
of a thousand drams, and of two vessels of fine copper precious as gold.
So here Ezra is just giving these priests all of this just very valuable substance,
and he says unto them in verse 28, I said unto them, Ye are holy unto the Lord, the
vessels are holy also.
And that's where I get the title, The Vessels Are Holy.
And what I want to preach about in particular tonight is the idea that taking responsibility
for your sanctification.
It is the personal responsibility of every Christian to make sure that they are walking
with the Lord, that they are living a holy life, a pure life, a clean life.
That is your responsibility as a believer.
Now I will say, of course, we all understand that when we are saved, we are sanctified,
we are set apart unto the Lord our God through salvation.
But the sanctification I'm talking about tonight is the process by which a Christian
then goes on to live a life for the Lord.
And in that process, they become, hopefully, they are living a holier and godlier life
as they go along.
So right out of the gate, let's just talk about that word sanctified.
To be holy is to be set apart or sanctified.
That's what it means to be holy, to be set apart unto something or to be sanctified.
These are words that are often used interchangeably.
And if you want, go over to, again, keep something in Ezra 8, but go over to 1 John chapter 5.
1 John chapter 5, I'm just going to read to you some verses tonight to help you understand
what this word holy and sanctified means.
It says in Psalm 4, but know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself.
The Lord will hear when I call unto him.
So that which is set apart unto the Lord is that which is sanctified.
And what is it that God sets apart unto himself?
That which is godly.
God sets apart him that is godly for himself.
He sanctifies them because they are holy.
It says in Exodus 13, and thou shalt set apart unto the Lord all that openeth the matrix,
and every firstling that cometh of a beast, which thou hast, all the males shall be the
Lord.
So that's the commandment there concerning the sacrifices.
And those sacrifices were considered holy unto the Lord.
They were to be given to him.
They were sanctified, they were holy, they were set apart, it says there.
The Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter 14, you are the children of the Lord your God.
You shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God.
And the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself above all nations that
are upon the earth.
So he's saying there, look, you're different than the other nations.
You are above all the nations that are upon the earth.
You're different, you're sanctified, you're set apart.
You're holy people unto the Lord.
He hath chosen thee to be peculiar, to be different, to be set apart, to be sanctified,
to be holy.
Exodus chapter 3, and he said, of course, this is the Lord appearing to Moses in the
burning bush, and he said to him, draw not nigh thither, put off thy shoes from off thy
feet for the place where on thou standest is holy ground.
It was sanctified ground.
It was not like all the other ground because the presence of the Lord was there.
And he said, if you're going to come near unto me, you're going to take your shoes off
your feet because I am holy and therefore be ye holy, is what the Bible teaches us.
So we see throughout scripture that when God sets something apart, when God makes something
peculiar, God sanctifies it.
That's what it means to be sanctified, to be set apart unto something.
You're there in 1 John, look at 1 John chapter 5 verse 7, it says there, for there are three
that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three
are one.
So let me, what is it about the Holy Ghost that makes him holy?
Is it because he's the only ghost?
No, it's because he is God, he is holy, there's nobody else like him, he is peculiar, he is
set apart.
He's not the only ghost, he's not the only spirit that is in the world, right, but he
is the Holy Ghost because he is God, he is sanctified, he is set apart.
You see how that works there.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 7, 1 Corinthians chapter 7.
We're going to look at a few passages here in 1 Corinthians chapter 7.
So right out of the gate we just got to understand what does it mean to be holy?
What does it mean to be sanctified?
The title of the sermon is taking responsibility for your sanctification.
The vessels are holy.
1 Corinthians chapter 7, look at verse 13, he said, the woman which hath a husband that
believeth not, if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him.
For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified
by the husband.
Else were your children unclean, but now they are holy.
And I'm just turning us to that passage to show us that the words sanctified and holy
are used interchangeably.
I'm not really going to try and take that passage apart, but just showing us there,
he's saying, look, the husband that is unbelieving is sanctified by the believing wife.
The unbelieving wife is sanctified by the believing husband, otherwise your children
are unclean, but now they are holy.
They also are sanctified.
I believe he just used the word holy there instead of sanctified for the sake of not
sounding too redundant.
They are sanctified, they are holy.
These words mean the same thing.
Being sanctified is being made holy.
That's what it means tonight.
I want to lay that groundwork because again, what I'm trying to get across tonight is
the fact that every single one of us has to take personal responsibility for our own sanctification.
Go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, the Bible says in 1 Timothy 4,
For every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving,
for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
It's sanctified.
It's set apart.
It's made holy.
It's acceptable.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 9, Knowing not the unrighteous shall not inherit the
kingdom of God, be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate,
nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor
revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
And of such were some of you, but ye are washed.
What is he saying here?
You used to be these things, some of you, but now you're washed.
You're set apart.
You've been cleaned, but you are sanctified.
You are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
So we see here that to be sanctified, it means to be set apart.
It means to be holy.
And it's our responsibility tonight, every single one of us, to take that responsibility
upon ourselves.
Yes, we're sanctified when we're saved unto salvation.
But as far as what kind of a life we're going to live, if we're going to walk in holiness
and godliness, or we're going to walk in the lusts of the flesh, that is up to us.
That's not something that's just going to happen automatically.
You're not just going to wake up one morning and all of a sudden be this godly individual
without purposing in it to do so in your heart.
Now we're going to look at Ezra chapter 8 here.
I'm going to make applications.
You see here in Ezra chapter 8 that both the vessels and the priests were what?
They were holy.
They were sanctified.
They were set apart.
You see, you look there in verse 24, he said, Then I separated twelve of the chief priests,
Shearabiah, Hashabiah, and ten of the brethren with them.
Okay, jump down to 28.
And I said unto them, Ye are holy unto the Lord, the vessels also are holy.
Now whose priests today?
What are we today?
We are priests today.
We do not have a Levitical priesthood.
But the Bible is very clear that just as in Ezra's day, the priests were what?
They were sanctified.
They were set apart.
They were holy.
And I'm here to tell you this night that we, today, in the New Testament, we are priests.
And we're being told the same thing, look, we need to be set apart.
We need to be holy.
We need to be sanctified.
Go over to Revelation.
Keep something in Ezra chapter 8 all night tonight, but go over to Revelation chapter
5.
Revelation chapter 5.
I'll read to you from Revelation 1.
It says, John, to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace be unto you, and peace
from him which is, and which was, and which is to come.
And from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful
witness and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth,
unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins, and his own blood, and hath made
us kings and priests unto God and his Father.
Jesus Christ, through his blood, when you got saved, you were made a king and a priest
unto our God.
And I'm here to tell you that tonight, as a king, as a priest, you are to be set apart.
You are to be sanctified.
You are to be holy in your living.
Look at Revelation chapter 5.
Look at verse 9.
And they sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals
thereof, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred
and tongue, and people and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and
we shall reign on the earth.
Look, God has set us apart into a very special place.
God has given us a very special position in the kingdom of heaven as kings and priests,
as those that are going to rule and reign with Christ.
And that's why today it is our personal responsibility to take, it is our job, rather, to take personal
responsibility for our sanctification, to live a separated life as Christians.
If you would, go back to, or go to Romans chapter 9, Romans chapter 9.
The Bible says in Revelation 20, blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.
He's blessed and he's holy.
He's sanctified.
He's set apart from the other resurrection, the second one, right?
One such, the second death, hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ
and shall reign with him a thousand years.
We've been sanctified, we've been set apart, we've been made holy, and it's something that's
very special.
And that came at a great price.
We just read it all that we were sanctified, we were set apart, we've been redeemed to
God by thy blood.
It's the blood of Christ that has bought us, that has redeemed us.
New Testament believers say they are priests.
But not only that, New Testament believers today, they're also in Ezra 8.
They are the vessels.
Men in general are likened unto vessels in the Bible.
If you're going to Romans chapter 9, I'll read to you from 2 Corinthians 4.
It says, For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our
hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels.
He's talking about our body.
Our body is that earthen vessel that we have that treasure in, that light that has shined
in our hearts, the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
That's a treasure that we have in what?
In an earthen vessel, that the excellency of power may be of God, not of us.
Look at Romans chapter 9.
Tonight, we are priests unto our God, we're sanctified, we're set apart, but we are also
the vessels of God.
Look at Romans chapter 9.
He said in verse 17, For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for the same purpose have
I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth.
Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
Thou wilt say unto me, Why doth he yet find fault?
For who hath resisted his will?
Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?
Shall the thing form, saying to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Hath not the powder power over the clay, the same lump, to make one vessel unto honor,
and another unto dishonor?
So again, he's likening men, like Pharaoh, unto a vessel.
Look at verse 22.
What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much
longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might make known
the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy?
We are those vessels of mercy, which he hath before prepared unto glory.
So again, we are not only priests tonight, sanctified and set apart on that, but we are
also sanctified and set apart as vessels of God.
Now here's the thing about being a vessel.
Go over to 2 Timothy chapter 2.
Not all vessels are kept holy.
God can sanctify a vessel, God's Holy Spirit, somebody can get saved, God can move into
that person and seal them unto day of redemption by the power of his Spirit, through faith
in Christ, and they are sanctified, they are set apart unto him, they are a vessel of mercy.
But that doesn't mean that vessel is going to stay clean the whole time.
That doesn't mean that while we're walking this earth, we can't start pouring things
into this vessel that ought not to be there.
We can defile the vessel of God on this earth.
Look at 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 15, study to shew thyself to prove unto God a workman
that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, but shun profane and vain
babblings for they will increase unto more ungodliness, and the word will eat as doth
a canker of who is Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred, saying
the resurrection is already past, and overfloweth the faith of some.
Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them
that are his.
And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
We need to depart from iniquity if we name the name of Christ.
We should be trying to get these things out.
Look at verse 20, but in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver,
but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor.
Like I say, in a great house there are all kinds of different vessels.
There are some that are used for some very good purposes, for very special purposes.
We think about maybe some vessels we might have around the house.
We got our great grandmother's china in the cabinet, and we take it out maybe once a year,
maybe never, maybe just to dust it.
But it's special, it's a vessel of honor.
Now I'm not going to try to think of too many examples, but I'm sure there are some
vessels around the house that are vessels of dishonor.
I remember when I was growing up we had the compost bucket.
Who knows what that is, right?
We kept a compost pile back for making gardening soil.
And what you threw in the compost bucket was a bunch of refuse.
You threw the broken eggshells, you threw the banana peels, the orange peels, just whatever
stuff that's just going to break down and rot and decay.
That old ice cream bucket that we used for all that scrap to go in the compost pile,
that was not a vessel of honor.
We were not going to empty that out, wash it out, and set it next to grandma's gravy
bowl or whatever, boat I guess they call it, right?
Say, what a lovely piece of china, but what's that plastic Tupperware, well that's our compost
bucket.
It was my grandfather's, and it was his grandfather's before him, and it's been passed down generation
to generation, and we take it down and we use it for compost.
It's a vessel of dishonor.
If it fell and got a hole in it, we didn't try to repair it, we threw it out and got
another one.
I think about all the other vessels of dishonor in my mom's house.
She was one that, anything that was plastic and had a lid on it immediately got saved.
She had the two, a row of cupboards in the bottom that was just, I don't know if anybody's
mother or else's mother was like this, but it was just anything you could pull out to
just store food in.
She had all kinds of Tupperware.
She might have said, those are vessels of honor, but when we give her grief about it,
say mom, those are vessels of dishonor, you don't need all this stuff, right?
But look, he's saying here, look, in houses there's vessels of honor and there's vessels
of dishonor.
The question is tonight, which one are you?
What are you putting in your vessel?
Are you that vessel that's taken down and treated very nicely, and we put all nice things
at it and we have a nice meal and we eat off of it and we feel safe eating off of it
because it's clean, because it's sanctified, right?
Or are you that compost bucket?
You know, if I came, you come over to my house and I just, you know, just rinsed out the
compost bucket real quick and put some slop in it and said, here you go, let's eat.
You're going to belly up to that?
Probably not.
But God looks down on his people sometimes and that's what he sees.
He sees this vessel that he sanctified, that he set apart, and we're just pouring in all
kinds of trash.
You know, whether it's, you know, through our mouth or through our eyes or through our
mind or through our whatever, through our ears, through the music, the smut, the drugs,
the alcohol, whatever it might be.
What kind of vessel are we tonight?
And I'm here to tell you again that your sanctification is your personal responsibility.
He said, if a man, in verse 21, purged there for himself of these, he shall be a vessel
unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master's use and prepared unto every good work.
Say, well, I want God to use me.
I want God to use me to do a good work.
Well, are you prepared?
Are you sanctified?
Have you purged yourself from these things?
Because God's not going to use a dirty vessel to do a holy work.
He says, he says, well, what kind of things should I purge?
Well, everything we just kind of read, that ties in there, right?
Shun the profane and vain babblings, for one.
But he also says there in verse 22, flee also youthful lusts.
You want to purge yourself?
Flee youthful lusts and follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace.
The righteousness, the faith, the charity, the peace, that's like you taking that dirty
vessel and just, you know, you go over to the sink and you run the hot water.
That's your faith.
Then you get the dawn dish soap out, right?
There you put some charity in there.
Get the, get the, get the peace, you know, the rubber gloves on, get some peace.
And then you're in there scrubbing, you know, you need to be, that's what you have to do
if you want to be a vessel unto honor, a vessel that is prepared unto every good work, a vessel
that is sanctified and meet for the master's use.
You say, well, you know, I'm a pretty clean vessel.
I've only got a little bit of sin in my life.
Well, why don't I pour you a nice cool glass of water and then I'll go in the bathroom
over here and I'll take a little eyedropper and I'll just suck a little toilet water out
of it.
And then I'll walk and I'll walk over and hand you your little nice cool refreshing
cup of water, clean and pure, and I'll put one little drop, just one little drop.
That's all.
And it's, it's, it's been flushed.
I'm not talking about the raw nasty stuff.
I'm saying a flush toilet and just put one little, just a, just a little, just a little
drop, just a smidge, just a little, you know, and say, here you go.
Would you drink that?
Say, no way, man, you throw it in my face.
Don't do that.
That'd be mean.
But then we're going to say, well, God's going to use me.
God's going to use me because you know, I only have a little sin and look, I know none
of us is perfect and I know we're all going to have some sin in our life, but we have
to always be in this process of what?
Purging it, of getting it out.
When God says, Hey, when God puts his finger on something and says, I want this out of
your life, get it out.
When God convicts us and says, this ought not to be in your life, get this out of your
vessel.
And you know what?
Sometimes we start out later in life and we find out, we start to look inside and the
vessel's pretty dirty.
The thoughts, the things we say, the things we do.
And sometimes we have to spend some time in there really scrubbing and working to clean
that vessel up.
You know, and if we're in the process of doing that, you know, God's going to use us, God's
going to help us.
But you know, if we get, we just feel like we got ourselves so cleaned up and we got
everything right.
But we just have this one little corner, you know, like some of those, you ever wash dishes
by hand?
We always begged my mom for a dishwasher.
She said, I got three.
Right.
But you ever know when you wash dishes by hand, this is probably a foreign concept to
some, right?
You have to actually scrub.
Sometimes you'd have that one dish, it's just like you had to like take the washcloth and
really put your finger in there and just get in there.
You know, we can't have these crusty little moldy spots in our vessel that we're not going
to do anything about and just say, well, God's okay with that.
I mean, after all, look at how clean the rest of it is.
Well, look how clean the rest of the water is.
It's just one little drop of toilet water.
What's your problem?
Drink up.
We need to purge these things from our life to be a vessel fit under the master's use.
We need to purge the sin.
We need to purge, you know, from the false teachers, the hymenaeus, the philenises of
the world.
He said in verse 19, let everyone that nameeth the name of Christ depart from iniquity, flee
also youthful lusts.
I'll tell you, verse 22 was an instrumental verse in my early Christian life.
When I first got saved, I really hadn't, you know, locked some things down as, you know,
I was King James.
I got that figured out real quick, but I really wasn't sure about what type of church to go
to.
And I was kind of, you know, in a different tough spot in life.
And I kind of was go and I ended up going to this, this Christian youth group.
That's kind of where I started out.
It was, but it was a very ecumenical, I mean, I thought later people, I mean, they had people
from the Assemblies of God, they had people from the community church, they had Baptist
there.
It was just like this really big ecumenical youth prayer group that met every week at
somebody's house.
And I remember, you just, it's the Holy Spirit slowly started to teach me like, you know,
you can't just have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, there's, you know, that
you have to draw a hard line when it comes to doctrine.
And verse 22 was one he really used in my heart to flee youthful lust and to follow
righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
And I said, you know what, I need, I want to be a vessel that God can use.
I need to get away from this false doctrine.
I need to get away from the Hymenaises, the Philetuses, whose word to eat like a canker.
And I need to get in a IFB church, independent where somebody's and you say, was it the name
on the door that makes them right?
No, it's the book that they preach.
And how they preach it.
That's why I purged myself from them and flew, you know, flew, I, I, I fleed from youthful
lust and followed righteousness and faith and charity and peace with them that call
on the Lord out of pure heart.
So you see tonight, you know, there, we're likened unto priests, but we're also likened
unto vessels.
And it's the priests, you know, you and I, who are responsible to keep the vessels, our,
you know, also ourselves as they journeyed from Babylon to Jerusalem.
Okay.
So if you remember Ezra, go back there, you know, he's giving the priests, right, which
is also a picture of us in a way, but he gave them these vessels and he said, take these
vessels and go to Jerusalem and bring them into the house of God.
And that's kind of like what we're doing today.
You know, we're these priests and we have these vessels.
We're priests unto God, that's coming.
We're going to be priests.
We're already made priests.
We're made kings, but God has given us these vessels and we have to journey from Babylon
to Jerusalem.
Okay.
Do you see where I'm going here with this?
And he says in Ezra chapter eight, look at verse 28, and I said unto them, ye are holy
unto the Lord and the vessels also are holy or holy also and the silver and the gold or
free will offering of the Lord, the God of our fathers, watch ye and keep them.
So he says, look, you need to watch these vessels.
You need to not lose track of them.
You need to keep them.
And that's what we need to do today as Christians, as God's priests who have been given these
vessels that are our bodies, we need to watch them.
Look when they're old, this vessel is getting dirty.
Time to clean it up.
Oh, look, there's someone trying to pour this in my vessel.
That's not going to happen.
I'm going to flee from that.
We need to keep it clean.
We need to keep them, okay?
Just as the priests were to watch and keep the vessels, so we as priests are to watch
and keep our vessels.
Bible says in first Thessalonians, I'll just read to you.
It says, furthermore, we beseech your brother and exhort you by the Lord Jesus Christ, that
as you have received of us, how you ought to walk to please God.
You know there's a way out of walk to please God.
There's a way out of walk to please God.
So how do you know you please God?
Well, because, because I'm saved.
Look, I'm glad you're saved.
That's not enough to please God.
You ought to walk to please God.
There's a way you have to live your life to be pleasing to God.
You have to watch the vessel.
You got to keep it clean.
So that you would abound more and more if you know the commandments which were given
you by the Lord Jesus.
Look, there's commandments that are given us that we have to obey, that we have to walk
in if we want to please God.
For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication.
That's one big one.
That's the one way to really make your vessel dirty in a hurry, is fornication.
I mean you can permanently mar that vessel.
You go out and get contracts, some STD, and even if you didn't, you say, well I got away
with it.
You know, we did it safely, if there is such a thing.
You still, you've still marred your vessel before God.
God still says you're unclean.
So that's one example.
You should abstain from fornication.
That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor.
You know, we ought to walk to please God, and how do you do that?
By keeping the vessel, by watching it, by possessing it in sanctification and honor.
By not just treating it like some carnal playground for us to just do whatever we want with it.
To put whatever we want into it.
To look at whatever we want.
To listen to whatever we want.
You know, sometimes I think we just need to stop sometimes and say, is what I'm about
to do, or say, or look at, or listen to, or even sometimes eat.
Is this even please, would this please God?
And sometimes I think if we would do that, we would probably say nope.
This God would rather me not do this.
And the more conscientious we are about that, and the more we walk with that type of thinking,
you know what's going to happen?
The cleaner, and cleaner, and cleaner your life is going to become, and what's going
to happen as that happens is the more God is going to use you.
The more you're set apart unto God, the more you sanctify your vessel, the more God is
going to use you.
The more God's going to look down and say, look, this person keeps setting himself apart.
He's more and more meat for the master's use.
He goes on here and he says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 5, he says, that every one
of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the lust
of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God, that no man go beyond and defraud
his brother in any matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have
forewarned you and testified.
I mean, Paul is just, you know, this is some hard preaching.
He's getting after them about the fornication and everything else and defrauding their brethren.
And he's saying, look, we have forewarned you.
There's other preaching that Paul did that we don't even know about.
He's saying, look, we've forewarned you.
You know what commandments we taught you by the Lord Jesus Christ, for God hath not called
us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
That is the Christian life, is to live a life of holiness.
And if you despise that call, if you hear preaching like this and say, I disagree, I
don't like what you're saying.
What do you mean I can't commit fornication?
What do you mean I can't just do whatever I want?
What do you mean I can't, if it feels good, do it?
That's what the world will tell you.
That's what the Gentiles which know not God will tell you and live a dirty life.
And if we despise that, knowing you're despising, you're not despising me.
I'm just the messenger.
When people get mad at the preacher all the time, I can't believe he'd say that.
What do you mean I ought to dress a certain way or keep, you know, I should live my life
like this or my role is that and my role is this.
I can't do this.
I can't do that.
You fuddy duddies, you just want to ruin all my fun.
You can go and get mad at the preacher all you want, but you despise God is what he's
saying here.
It says in verse eight, he therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God.
That's who you're mad at tonight.
I'm just an easy target because I'm slow and big.
I'm the easy target because I'm here.
You can see me.
You can get to me and you know what?
I'm a lot much less intimidating target than God is.
So it's easy to just throw it at the preacher and just say, well, that preacher down there
at that church with their Bible talking about how they, we shouldn't do this and I can go
to the casino if I want.
It's all right if I get drunk, sleep around and do whatever.
Who does he think he is?
I think I'm nobody who is sufficient for these things, but our sufficiency is of Christ.
It's not me.
You know your problems with the one who wrote this book right here?
Because that's all I'm preaching.
He that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God who hath given unto us his Holy Spirit.
The one, the Christian who would despise this and they're out there, oh, they're out
there today.
We're not under the law, man.
We're under grace.
You've got to get free, bro, right?
That whole thing.
There's no, therefore no condemnation to them, which are in Christ Jesus.
And then they forget the rest of the verse, right?
Who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit, meaning if you walk after the flesh,
there is condemnation.
God will judge his children.
And they're out there, they despise this type of preaching.
They don't want to be told they can't do anything.
They want to just say, hey, I can sin and it's okay.
God's fine.
It's all under the blood.
But you know what?
Who you're despising?
You're despising God who has given you that Holy Spirit, who has sanctified you and set
you apart.
It'd be like if I came to you or somebody, anybody came to you and gave you this beautiful
vase or whatever, gave you some beautiful vessel.
Maybe just a nice set of ceramic plate.
I don't know what these, a plate, a bowl, a nice decorative bowl, right?
I mean, people probably have their favorite bowls, right?
Now, let me just say, when I got married, the one thing that we went, this is just a
side story because it's coming to mind and we all like stories, right?
When we went to Bed, Bath and Beyond to register for all of our gifts, the one thing, I think
it was the one thing, right, was plastic bowls and said, I want a set of plastic bowls, right?
Not exactly the most ornate thing, but what if someone got you for your bridal shower
or your wedding gift, this beautiful ceramic bowl, and then you later had that person over
and they look over and you're feeding your dog out of it.
You're just putting alpo in it and feeding Fido.
And they go, what are you doing?
Man, that thing cost me like 80 bucks or whatever.
Some beautiful dish that they give you as a gift, you're like, oh, thanks.
And you just take it over and use it for a litter box or something or whatever.
You defile it.
You don't use it for the intended purpose.
Well, you're just like that guy.
It would be just like this person here who's been given the Holy Spirit and then despises
the one that gave him that Holy Spirit and just treats the vessel however he wants.
Because we're sanctified.
We're set apart by the Holy Spirit and we're sealed in the name of redemption.
God wants us to be a vessel meat for the master's use.
And here's the thing, you're redeemed.
You're not your own.
You are bought with the price as the precious blood of a lamb, as the blood of Christ, the
Bible says.
God redeemed you.
You're not your own.
That's his vessel that you're walking around in now.
That's his.
He bought it.
It's his vessel.
And how are you going to treat it?
Are you going to take that dish and just feed the dog with it or are you going to set it
apart?
You're going to make special use out of it.
And people get mad and they get upset about this type of preaching and say, well, I'm
just not going to change.
He doesn't know what he's talking about.
Well, just be careful you're not despising God.
Ezra was just a preacher, right?
Ezra was just a preacher.
He was saying to the priest, hey, here's the vessels.
Make sure you watch him and keep him.
He's just a preacher.
And people despise the preacher for what he preaches, but in reality, they despise God
and his word.
What did Paul say in Galatians?
Am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
And what I'm getting at tonight is that your sanctification is your responsibility, not
mine.
I'm just getting up and preaching it.
I'm just telling you that God condemns fornication, that God condemns adultery, that God condemns
drunkenness, that God doesn't want us looking at smut, that God doesn't want us talking
filthy, that God doesn't want us just filling this vessel with garbage.
He wants us to watch and keep the vessel as we take it from this world to the next, as
we go from Babylon to Jerusalem.
I'm just the preacher.
I'm just Ezra tonight.
So you can get mad at me, but I'm just giving you the instructions.
Am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
That's what Paul said.
Take responsibility for your sanctification because it's yours, it's not mine.
I'm just delivering the message.
Because one day you will give an account for what you did in this life.
One day we will all give an account for how we used this vessel for God.
And we can get mad and we can storm out of here, maybe now or maybe later, maybe somewhere
down the road the preacher gets on something or has to come to you and point something
out and say, hey, I'm just telling you, this is what the Bible says, this is what you're
doing, you might want to consider this.
And we can get stiff necked and cold hearted and hard hearted and just go off in a huff
and just say, well, I'm just going to do whatever I want.
But you know what?
At the end of your life, you're still going to give an account to God.
You might not have to come to church and give an account to me anymore or to the church,
but at the end of your life, you're still going to have an account to God.
Those priests could have just taken those vessels from Ezra and just gotten a few paces
and just threw them off the side and just went their own way.
Well, you know, those things were heavy.
I didn't want to lug them around.
I mean, copper, silver, gold, those are heavy metals.
I don't want to lug that stuff around.
We'll just get to Jerusalem and we'll figure it out then.
And they get there and the high priest is there going, where's the vessels?
What'd you do with them?
What do you mean you just tossed them aside?
Well, you know, I just felt like doing whatever I want.
Fail.
Epic fail.
He's not going to be happy.
Look at Ezra chapter eight, verse twenty nine.
He said, Watch ye and keep them until ye weigh them before the chief of the priests and the
Levites and the chief of the fathers of Israel at Jerusalem, at Jerusalem, in the chambers
of the Lord.
See, the priests that were bearing that vessel to Jerusalem would report to the chief priest.
And who's the chief priest in our life?
Jesus Christ.
The Bible says, Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider
the apostle and high priest of our profession, Jesus Christ.
Just like those priests back then had a high priest over them, we as God's priests today
also have a high priest over us.
And we're going to give an account to him for what we did with those vessels.
How did they make it to the other side?
Did you watch and keep them?
Or did, oh, here's your vessel, high priest, but I drug it through the mud the entire way
there.
I didn't bother to keep it in a nice sack.
I didn't keep it safe out of the dirt.
I didn't take it out and wash it.
I just treated it however I wanted.
But here you go.
It's here.
Oh, gee, thanks for this marred, beat-up, worthless vessel that you drug through the mud.
You know, we're going to give an account one day for how we treated this vessel to the
high priest.
In the Ezra's day, the chief priests were waiting at Jerusalem.
That's where they were.
He said there, Watch ye and keep them until you weigh them before the chief of the priests
and the Levites and the chief of the fathers at Jerusalem.
And where are we going today?
We're not going to a physical Jerusalem, but we're going to leave this world Babylon.
We're on our way out.
We're just passing through here.
And one day we're going to go to where the chief priest is, and where is he today?
He's in the new Jerusalem.
Seeing in that you have a great high priest that has passed into the heavens, Jesus the
Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
When they reached Jerusalem, they would weigh the vessels.
Go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
When they reached Jerusalem, they would do what?
They would weigh the vessels before the chief priest.
They would give an account and say, Did you bring everything Ezra gave you?
Yep.
All right, put it on a scale.
Let's see.
It's all here.
You've got to keep some of it for yourself to do what you wanted to do with it.
Spend it how you want to spend it, all this precious metal that he gave you.
And when we reach Jerusalem in the heavens, the new Jerusalem, and we stand before our
high priest, you know what?
We're going to put some things on the scale too.
He's going to weigh things out.
He's going to put our life in the balances and see what we did with our vessels that
he gave us in this life.
It says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, look at verse 9, for we are laborers together with
God.
Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.
According to the grace of God, which is given unto me, as a wise master buildeth, I have
laid the foundation, and not that buildeth thereon.
But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
Look, Paul the preacher, he's just saying, look, I just laid the foundation.
I'm just telling you, this is how it is.
Just like Ezra, hey, you got to take these vessels and go there.
And that's all I'm doing tonight.
I'm just telling you, you're a vessel, that you're a priest that's responsible for your
vessel, that your sanctification is your responsibility, and you're going to give an account to God
for what you did in this life, not me.
God's not going to take me aside, as long as I did my job as a preacher, he's not going
to take me aside and say, well, what about so-and-so?
That's your problem.
Sorry, Lord, that's, you know, he's not going to pull me aside and grill me over how you
lived your life.
Your sanctification is your responsibility.
He said, let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
And I can get up here and tell you things till I'm blue in the face about what you need
to do to live for God.
And it's up to you to do it or not.
But you know what?
You're the one that's going to suffer the consequences, not me, because we're all going
to stand before God and give an account.
You know, and I'm going to give an account, you know, be that therefore many masters,
knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.
You know, if I fail to get up and tell you what needs to be said, I'm going to give an
account for that.
You know, I'm not exempt from this.
He says here in verse 11, for other foundation can no man lay that is laid, which is Christ
Jesus.
Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay, stubble,
every man's work shall be made manifest.
Now I don't think the wood, hay, stubble there is talking about sin.
The wood, hay, stubble is just the stuff that we all have to do in life that's really of
no eternal value.
I mean there's things we do in this life that have no eternal value, but they're things
we have to do.
You know, we have to change the oil on the car.
That's the work that we did, or should do.
You know, we all got to go take the water jugs, right, and fill them up and down to
the water store, unless you're one of these people that are drinking from the tap, you
know, which I think you can get away with in Tucson because I don't think there's any
floor right here.
Don't quote me on that.
I could be wrong, but look, we all have things that we just got to do in this life.
That's the wood, hay, stubble, and look, I'm great.
I'm glad that we're taking care of the wood, hay, and stubble, but are you taking care
of the gold, silver, and precious stones as well?
Are you going to have anything when you stand before God, would you report to the high priest
with your vessel in the New Jerusalem, and he says, give an account, let's see what you
got, is it just all going to be wood, hay, and stubble?
And then you're going to see brother so-and-so, sister so-and-so just go by with just a big
cart full of gold and silver and precious stones, and say, well, that's not fair.
Well, you could have had some if you wanted some.
It's all there for the taking.
You could lay up treasures in heaven if you wanted to.
He said, look, every man's work shall be made manifest, verse 13, for the day shall declare
it because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what
sort it is.
If any man's work abide which he hath built there upon, he shall receive a reward.
Look, the foundation's been laid for all of us.
We all have the same foundation.
It's up to you how you want to build on it.
What do you want to spend your life doing?
What do you want to do with the vessels God has given you?
What do you want to do with that vessel?
Just entertainment, just mindless entertainment, just worthless passing of the time, just maybe
just doing wood, just doing hay, just doing stubble?
Or do you want to get some gold?
You want to get some silver?
Do you want to get some precious stones, some souls out there?
That's what I want.
If any man's work be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so
bad by fire.
Look, is that what you want your Christian life to culminate as?
I squeaked by.
Well, I'm in heaven.
Look, I know the Bible says he would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of his God, but
you don't have to settle for doorkeeper.
You can be over ten cities.
You can shine as the sun.
And he ends with this in verse 16, in light of everything that we just read about how
it's up to us to build upon the foundation, how our works are going to be tried.
Then he ends in verse 16, know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit
of God dwelleth in you?
What's he bringing all back to that vessel again?
Look, you're a vessel unto God.
You're the temple.
He says in verse 17, if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for
the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
Look, you're that priest, you're that vessel.
You're the temple of God tonight.
And we can't just have this attitude of, well, I can just do whatever I want with this vessel.
I can treat God's temple, which temple I am, however I want, because the Bible says God
will destroy that person.
God's not just going to let us treat it however we want.
We could suffer lots, and then it can get to the point where a Christian just gets so
backslidden and so out of the will of God that God just takes him home.
I heard it put this way.
God brings some of his children home and crowns them.
Other children, he crowns them and takes them home.
Which crown do you want?
I want the crown that he gives in heaven.
So we, the people, and the preacher, like Ezra and the priests, are laborers together.
Look, we're all in this together, and you can despise me, but are you really despising
me?
I'm just Ezra tonight, and you're the priests, and I understand we're all priests.
But that's the role I'm playing tonight, Ezra, and I'm just telling you, look, you have a
temple.
You have a vessel that God has given in your hands, and you need to take this vessel of
yours and go to Jerusalem and report to the high priest.
That's my job.
And I have the same commission.
I've been given the same thing.
I have a vessel that I have to take there.
We're laborers together.
So take heed how you build upon the foundation of Jesus Christ.
And how do you do that?
You take heed by not defining the temple, the vessels of God, which temples you are.
And how do you do that?
By taking responsibility for your sanctification.
Let's go ahead and pray.