“Living For Christ In A Confused and
Confusing World”
A Study of Paul’s Letters to Timothy
Sermon #3
“Avoiding A Spiritual Shipwreck”
1 Timothy 1:18-20
The closing section of
the first chapter of the letter to Timothy concerns those who “suffer
shipwreck.” I will venture to say that most of the ships that you can name
this evening are notable because they sank. Most of us have heard of the RMS Titanic which
sank in 1912 with 1,523 of her passengers. If you watch the Discovery Channel or the
History Channel you may be able to name those which sank because of calamity like Titanic
and the Edmond Fitzgerald; or Treasure ships like the Conception & Atocha; or victims
of war like the Maine & Lusitania. The
shipwreck Paul is referring to however, is not a physical shipwreck but a spiritual one.
Paul’s son in the
faith, Timothy, was called to be a faithful soldier of Jesus Christ and to fight the good
fight of faith. In this section of the letter Paul reminds him of what it means to be a soldier of Christ.
The normal Christian
life is not short struggle after which we are pensioned out into a life of ease. We are
always going to meet difficulties and enemies. The moment you become a Christian, you
entered a lifelong battle. In Ephesians
6:12 Paul reminds us that we are engaged in a very real spiritual battle, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against
spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” This spiritual conflict is on the highest
level conflict between God and Satan. It is also fought on the angelic level between Satan’s
demons and God’s holy angels (Jude 1:9). And on the human level every day when we get
up we need to remind ourselves we are at war, whether we like or not, whether we
acknowledge it or not.
In fact we are
fighting a war on several fronts; attacks of the enemy
(temptations and snares), the hostility and animosity of the World (John 15:18) and internal struggles
with our own flesh. Paul is giving
instruction to Timothy that he is in the middle of a great battle in Ephesus and he must
never forget it!
“This
charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made
concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, (19) having faith and a good
conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, (20)
of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to
blaspheme.”
It is a calamity for any Christian or any
congregation to assume that they can take doctrine for granted. We are all under a
constant barrage from the media, the intellectuals of our day and from false theologians
to abandon the great truths of the Gospel.
In verse nineteen Paul speaks of
those who “having rejected, concerning the faith have
suffered shipwreck.” Paul says they have shipwrecked their faith by rejection
of
Truth. The word
translated “rejected” (apotheo)
means “to push something or someone away” and implies a violent or deliberate rejection. The reason that the
two men named in this passage suffered ship-wreck was because they “rejected”
or “put away” the faith. This move away from the truth is never made in an
instant. No one wakes up one morning and says, “I think I will throw away testimony today. I
think I will get out of the will of God.” As
with great ships tragedy can come when ships are allowed to drift or when they are
overloaded or when they lose momentum and start to flounder. Other things like torn sails
or the loss of the rudder can also contribute to the demise of an otherwise great ship.
Everyone is this room could think of a
person or persons who once walked with the Lord and have now made shipwreck of their
spiritual walk. It happens!! Several years ago, we saw the highly publicized falls of Jim
Baker and Jimmy Swaggart. But spiritual shipwrecks are happening every day. What we need
to realize is that this is not something that can only happen to someone else, it can
happen to you and me.
Verse nineteen actually explains why we
have all witnessed people we regarded as outstanding Christian leaders who suddenly
fallen. It was because they did not hold the truth they had taught in their conscience;
that is they did not obey the truths they had taught! In verse
twenty, two men are cited as examples, “Hymenaeus and
Alexander,” both of whom are evidently well known to the church at Ephesus. We
however, do not know very much about these individuals other than what we find in the
second letter to Timothy. Of Hymenaeus we read in 2 Timothy 2:17-18, “And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus
are of this sort, (18) who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection
is already past; and they over-throw the faith of some.” In the case of Hymenaeus it would appear that he rejected the true teaching of
the faith and embraced false doctrine.
In the second letter to Timothy Paul speaks
of Alexander the Coppersmith, who he says has done him great harm. In 2 Tim 4:14-15 he writes, “Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the Lord repay him
according to his works. (15) You also must beware of him, for he has greatly resisted our
words.” For Alexander, it seems that he developed a critical spirit and began to work against
the things of the Lord.
In this letter Paul gives Timothy Five Steps to Avoid Spiritual Shipwreck.
First, Follow the Word - “this
charge I commit to you” (v. 18a)
The word translated “charge”
is a military term (paragelian) referring to a superior issuing commands to a subordinate. The first step
in walking with God as we should lies in our willingness to obey his revealed will as it
is written in the Word of God. James states
our duty clearly in James 1:22-25, “But be doers of
the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (23) For if anyone is a hearer of
the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; (24) for
he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. (25) But
he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful
hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”
Second, Fulfill Your Potential - “according to the prophecies previously made concerning you.”
(v. 18b)
Later in the letter in 4:14 Paul states, “Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by
prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.” The elders of the church had gathered
around Timothy and laid hands on him, and at that time certain prophetic statements were
made concerning his ministry. What was
said we do not know evidently we not suppose to know, this was a personal word to Timothy.
Now Paul reminds Timothy of those prophetic words so that he would not lose heart. The
duty of Timothy, as well as our own, is to fulfill our God-given potential.
Third, Fight A Good Spiritual Battle - “that by them you may wage a good (fight) warfare.” (v.18c)
This fight of faith is
called by Paul the “good fight.” It is a good
fight not because it is pleasant because it is worthy.
We have a good cause. We have the greatest general. We even have the best armor, but it is
up to use to use it.
Fighting the good
fight is all about be prepared, in Ephesians 6:10-18 Paul warns,
Fourth, Defend the Faith - “having
(holding) the faith” (v.
19a)
Timothy is called to defend the revealed
truth of God against those who deny it
or distort it.
· His faith affected His life.
Paul’s main
concern is that Timothy’s faith might cease to control
his life. Timothy’s faith, like our own, had begun when he had given intellectual
assent to the truth of the Gospel and he had accepted Christ’s control over his life.
Once saved, every true Christian should find that their faith, affects their decisions
making, their priorities and preferences, even their sense of humor.
· His faith gave Him Peace.
Philippians 4:7 “and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus.”
· His faith motivated His Work.
For Timothy his faith
was not something
Keeping the faith
means holding fast to the revealed truth of God’s word. Timothy is further instructed
to
Guard the Word (6:20)
Nourish himself with the Word (4:6)
Preach the Word (4:13, 2 Tim 4:2)
Fifth, Be Faithful. “having…
a good conscience” (v. 19b)
Ray Stedman has some very instructive
things to say about the conscience. He writes, “I find a
great deal of misunder-standing, even among Christians, on what the conscience is. Many
feel that the conscience is given to us to teach us the difference between right and
wrong. But nothing could be further from the truth. No, the conscience is given to us,
rather, to resist any deviation from the truth, from the right and the wrong that we know.
If you think it is given to us to indicate what is wrong or what is right, you will begin
to rely upon your feelings to determine right and wrong. That is where many go astray --
many young Christians, especially. They think their conscience is their feelings; and if
they feel something is right then they do it…..
The conscience is given to us so
that when we know what is right and what is wrong, it insists that we do the right and
avoid the wrong. But it is the Word
of God that teaches us what is right and what is wrong. …. Revelation, the Word of
God, is what tells us what is right and what is wrong. Conscience is given to us to help
us know when we are beginning to fail, or fall away from that right path.
In other words, a good
conscience is s synonym for an obedient heart which wants to do what God says is right.”
[Ray Stedman. Wage the Good Warfare.
1 Tim 1:18-20. - www.pbc.org/library]
Paul is urging Timothy to be conscientious
at all times, no matter what his flesh may tempt him to do, no matter
what his friends say, no matter the
power of the enemy, hold on to a good
conscience.
Our final
consideration will be where in the final portion of verse twenty Paul says, “whom I “delivered
to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.”
What does this phrase “delivered to
Satan” mean? The Believer’s Bible Commentary has as good a explanation as
I have read on the subject. It says, “Some
scholars see these words as a simple reference to the act of excommunication. They
understand them to mean that Paul had put these two men out of the local church and this
action was designed to bring them to repentance and to a restoration of fellowship with
the Lord and His people. The difficulty with this view is that excommunication was a
function of the local church and not an apostle. In 1 Corinthians 5 Paul did not
excommunicate the incestuous man but counseled the Corinthians to do so.
The other major interpretation of this passage is that “delivering to Satan” was a power grant to the Apostles which is no longer in evidence today because there are no apostles. According to this view, the apostles had the authority to turn a sinning person over to Satan for infliction of physical suffering or even in extreme cases of death as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11). The discipline here was obviously for corrective purposes – “that they may learn not to blaspheme.” It was not a question of damnation but of chastisement.” [William McDonald. Believer’s Bible Commentary. Old and New Testament. (1 Tim 1:20) (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995)]