First Timothy 1.18, this charge
I commend unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which
went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare. Paul is charging Timothy with
a solemn task. He's entrusting him with a mission
to perform, and that is what is referred to in verses three
and four. Look back there with me. in chapter
1, verse 3 and 4. As I besought thee to abide still
at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some
that they teach no other doctrine. Neither give heed to fables and
endless genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying
which is in faith. So do. So he charged Timothy
to charge others. And now he's saying, this charge
I commit to thee. And it's, of course, meant to
be charged to Timothy himself and for him to charge others.
So it's a solemn thing. Did you ever notice that when
people Ask about a church, and I see
this a lot on the internet, people asking about where's a church,
and they ask about certain things. It's never what do they preach.
It's everything else. Do they have a choir? Do they
have a program for the young people? Do they have a couples
ministry? Do they have more than, you know,
like an early service and a late service, you know? Some preachers
have to preach twice on Sunday morning because some people don't
get up early enough. I'm not doing that. But it's never, it's never, I'm
interested, I'm looking for a church, what do you, tell me what the
message is at your church so I can give it consideration.
It's never that. The elder preacher here, the
Apostle Paul, was getting some years on him here when he wrote
this letter to Timothy. And Timothy was a young man,
relatively young. Paul no more than gets the introduction
to his letter to Timothy out of the way, then he solemnly
charges him that nobody in the place where Timothy served, in
the church at Ephesus, preach any other doctrine. And he doesn't
get specific about it, because why would you? The word other
says it all, doesn't it? Don't let anybody preach this,
this, this. No, it doesn't matter what this
is or that is. If it's other than Christ and
what He did for sinners and why He did it, it's not allowed. It's not to
be allowed. Remember what Paul wrote to the
church in Galatia. If you want to turn over there,
Galatians 1.6. Let's look at it together. Galatians 1.6. Galatians 1.6, I marvel that
you are so soon removed from him. You see the key words here? From Him that called you into
the grace of Christ unto another gospel which is not another.
Is he contradicting himself? It's another one, but it's not
another one. No. It's not the gospel, so it's other, but it's
not an alternate gospel because there's no such thing. It's not
a gospel. It's not good news to tell sinners
that God's done all He can do and now it's up to you. That's
not good news for you. Unto another gospel, which is
not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert
the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from
heaven preach any other gospel. He doesn't have to talk about
all the different false doctrines and all that. It's other than. any other gospel unto you than
that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. It's
not a game. As we said before, so say I now
again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that
you have received, let him be accursed. And a lot of times
we stop there, but let's not. Let's read verse 10. For now
do I persuade men or God. That's the difference. All other have to do with getting
men to do something. Persuading men, you need to do
this for God. You need to walk an aisle. You
need to live the Christian life. You need to say the sinner's
prayer. You need to. For if I yet pleased men, I should
not be the servant of Christ. Paul said, I marvel. It's just,
it's astonishing to me. And he's not saying that because
he himself doesn't understand what's going on or that he himself
couldn't do the same thing. We know that we can. Have you
ever just marveled? Just marveled, just astonished
at somebody that you thought knew the Gospel. That sounded
pretty good, you know, that they believed the doctrine that we
believe. at least in their head, but that they could be so easily
swayed by the most idiotic teachings. Have you ever marveled at that?
I have. Not so long ago. It is kind of astonishing, but
again, and we've seen it happen, but we don't marvel because we
believe that it could never happen to us. That's not why. We marvel
at how fickle and foolish is our nature. How could you leave that which
is most precious and babble about the most foolish things that
make no difference whatsoever? So we're exhorted. The Lord said
in Matthew 24 four, it says, Jesus answered and said unto
them, take heed that no man deceive you. Because that's not why we
marvel, because we're just like, how can anybody do that? Well,
we know how somebody could do that. So we pray that the Lord would
keep us and hold us steadfast in the faith. We will persevere
if we are preserved by God. The gospel of Christ is exclusive. That's what that word other signifies
here. It's exclusive. The doctrine
we preach is Christ. It's committed to us by Christ,
and it concerns Christ alone. Notice there in Galatians 1 where
we just read that Paul addresses the matter of either pleasing
men or God, because you're not going to please both. If you
say what's pleasing unto God, men are not going to be happy
about it, generally speaking. That which pleases God is foolishness
to men, and that which pleases men is abomination unto God. Men want to hear that they have
a free will. That goes back to the pride that
we talked about this morning. They don't want their will infringed
upon. Men want to hear that everything's
up to them. And they're not going to hear
that if you preach the gospel to them. They're not going to
hear that from God. In the gospel, Christ is all. His will. He is the only free
will in the universe. In the gospel, Christ does as
He pleases with you, not the other way around. The gospel is not about you accepting
Christ. It's about God accepting you
in Christ. The gospel is not about you making
a decision. The gospel is God, in great mercy,
by the preaching of Christ and what He did for sinners, shutting
you up to Christ. I always think, when I think
of being just shut up to Christ, I think of that woman with the
issue of blood. She wasn't just not getting any
help, she was getting worse. With everything and everybody
she tried, the more money she spent, the worse she got. Until
she had spent all that she had. And she was shut up. She had one hope. But you know what? What's interesting,
religion talks about, isn't it time to give God a try? That's not what she said, even
when she had tried everything else and spent everything she
had and grew only worse, she didn't say, well, I might as
well give him a try. She didn't say that. She said, if I can
just touch the hem of his garment. Think about that for a second.
That's the kind of faith that the Lord was talking about when
he says, thy faith hath saved thee. That's faith that comes
from God. She had tried and failed, tried
and got nothing but bad news, tried and got worse. But she
wasn't just trying something else. She said, if I can just
touch him, I'll be made whole. When he shuts us up to his son,
that we will do as she did, we'll fall at His feet. And we'll fall in love with Him, insomuch that we'll bow to Him
and believe on Him and trust Him. I'll be made whole. It pleased God by the means of
preaching the Gospel of His dear Son to save those that believe
on Him. And so Timothy is charged. And
he is charged to charge others. And everyone, everywhere, whoever
speaks for God is charged to know nothing save Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. According to the prophecies.
According to the prophecies. That's what they preached. It
was the Old Testament then. According to the prophecies.
When we're faithful to preach God's gospel, we're just really
saying what God said. That's all we're doing. If it's
not according to this book, the word of this prophecy, it's because
there's no light in us. We're not saying what some council
of sinners somewhere said. That's what the world's religion
bases their authority on the father said this or that and
they met at the Council of whatever and Determined this I don't care
what they determined that at any council anywhere of me It's not what the writers of
theological treatises have said It's just simple, isn't it? It's
what God said. It's what God said. Why would
you read a book about a book? Have you ever thought about that?
Have you ever done that? Have you ever read a book about
a book? I don't think I ever have. I've read a lot of books.
But if you want to say that it's a book about the Bible, but think
about this for a second. Any other book in the world You
wouldn't read a book about that book. Why would you read someone's
description of a great book and not just read the book? Why would you be interested in
what somebody else writes to tell you what you should think
about a book? Maybe just read it for yourself. and come to your own conclusions. Maybe by the grace of God, you'll
come to the right ones. That it's all Christ and only
Christ. Read the book and think for yourself.
No other book is like that. We don't read books about books.
And no, I'm not completely discounting the idea of writing or reading
doctrinal books, but think about what it is when you're reading
it. Think about what it is. Put it
in the right perspective. We don't believe doctrine, we
believe God. God. If God gives us some doctrine,
we believe it. But it's Him we believe. Not
specific facts or anything like that. What God said is our doctrine. When this book talks about doctrine,
what do you think it's talking about? When theologians and other
false religious people talk about doctrine, they're talking about
their so-called confession of faith. This is our doctrine.
When this says the doctrine of Christ, what do you think it's
talking about? This is our confession of faith.
And that's what Paul is saying here, according to the prophecies. We believe God. We don't have
an elaborate music program. We don't have activities for
the young people. The only activity we have here
is worship in the Lord, in the preaching of the gospel. We have
the word of God, which is more than our necessary food. What
else do we need? Religions in the entertainment
business and they're not very good at it They're not very good
at it. Let's go to the theater or a
concert if we want to be entertained. They're better at it By the prophecies by the Word
of God sharper than any two-edged sword we fight the spiritual
warfare And this warfare, this is an analogy that Paul uses
here. He says at the end of that, that
thou by them mightest war a good warfare. The scriptures are our sword. They're the sword
of the spirit, the sword that's sharper than any other sword.
It's an analogy. Not again, I have to say this,
even though I've said it a thousand times before. It's not the epic
struggle between good and evil. There's no such thing. God don't
struggle. He don't struggle. That's not
what the warfare is. God's in an epic struggle against
the devil and we've got to help him out. That's the most foolish
thing I've ever heard. It's used to describe the fight
that we're in to subdue our flesh, to determine, to know nothing,
say nothing, ever give place to anything but Christ and his
gospel. It's a fight that we wage on
this earth, and for the most part, it's a warfare against
ourselves. Don't you find that to be true? I don't know that I have that
much trouble from Satan. I've got a lot of trouble from
myself. A whole lot. 2 Timothy 2.3, Thou therefore
endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Endure hardness. We do have some of that, don't
we? We have difficult things that we have to overcome. And
typically, it's our own sin. Our own nature. Our own foolishness. our own selfishness, our own
pride. But no man that woreth entangleth
himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath
chosen him to be a soldier. What a blessed privilege it is
to be chosen by Christ to fight this fight. And then it says, holding faith,
You see that in the text? Holding faith. Verse 19. I just want us to look at some
scripture with regard to that. 1 Corinthians 15.58. Turn over
there with me, please. Holding faith. This is the exhortation. 2 Timothy 2.3, I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians
15.58. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be ye steadfast. That's what he's talking about
here. Holding faith. Standing your ground. Stand.
And having done all to stand. Unmovable. always abounding in
the work of the Lord. For as much as you know that
your labor is not in vain in the Lord, He's not going to let us fail.
We know how it comes out, don't we? And it's a win. It's not
in vain. That doesn't make me want to
lay back and watch the fight. It makes me want to jump in there,
doesn't it? We can't lose. What a blessing to be in on that.
Look at Colossians 1.21 with regard to this. Holding faith. Colossians 1.21, And you that
were at one time alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through
death. to present you holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in his sight, if you continue in the faith,
grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel which you've heard, and which was preached to every
creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, have made a
minister." Now, he's either saying there that you Being reconciled unto God in
the body of Christ's flesh through death So that you're holy and
unblameable and unapprovable is a reward for you continuing
in the faith grounded and settled Which would be contrary to everything
in the Word of God or he's saying this is how we'll know Whether when he in the body of
his flesh through death and presents His saints holy and unblameable
and reprovable in His sight. If you're one of those, are you
one of those? If you continue in the faith,
you are. Because He that hath begun a good work in you, He
shall perform it. It's not depending on you. It's
His work for you, and it's His work in you. It is God that worketh
in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. He gets
all the glory in it. And His people are glad of that.
Holding faith in a good conscience. And remember now, we talked about
this earlier in this chapter, but a good conscience is a quiet
one. You know, my philosophy as a
good neighbor is one I don't know. That's just my experience. But
a good conscience is one that you don't even know is there,
a quiet one. But how is that possible if you're
sinning every second of every day? The conscience, all it does is
accuse. When it's good, it's when it's
not accusing you of anything. It's not making you feel guilty
about things. But in Christ Jesus, there's
nothing to accuse us of. That's exactly what Paul was
saying in Romans 8.33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? There's no charge hanging over
our heads. It is God that justifies. If
God justifies me, what are you going to do about it? Who's going
to disannul that? Who's going to be contrary to
that? God is the one that I've offended.
When David did the horrible thing that he did, to Uriah and Bathsheba,
He said, against thee and thee only have I sinned. I may do
you wrong, but I can't sin against you because you're not God. All
sin is against God. And if He's justified me, how
in the world could He do that? It's Christ that died. It's Christ. It's the only begotten Son that
shed His blood for me. Who is He that condemneth? What
can my conscience say against me? What can you say? What can
anybody say? What can Satan say? He's the
accuser of the brethren. He's got nothing. He's got nothing. Because it is Christ that died,
yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession. He's our lawyer. He pleads our
case. Some have made shipwreck it says
Concerning the faith There in verse 19 Which some having put away concerning
faith have made shipwreck This of course is a solemn warning
To every believer He's not warning unbelievers here. He's warning
believers. This letter is to Timothy. And everybody like him. And if we think that this can't
be us, we need to think again. We're warned for a reason. Paul's
not just talking about random people in the world who do not
believe on Christ. What sense would it make to name
any of them? He's going to mention some names
here, in verse 20, of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander. If he's
just talking about random people that don't believe on Christ,
what would be the point of naming them? There's a multitude of
them. Pointing out specific ones wouldn't mean anything. But he's
pointing out specific individuals who have made shipwreck of the
faith. These are men that were in the
church. These were men that were well respected. These were men
that you wouldn't have expected to make shipwreck. That's why
they're named here. They were thought to be faithful
believers of the gospel and of Christ. Paul names them here
to remind us that there have been folks with names that we've
known that have made shipwreck concerning the faith. And shipwreck is a very instructive
analogy here. Look at verse six again in chapter
one. From which some, having swerved,
have turned aside into vain jangling. They've turned aside from the
essential, vital gospel of Christ to just empty talk. Empty noise. Shipwreck happens when either
you're on a deadly course to begin with or it happens when you're turned
aside from a sound course. This is that swerving here. Perhaps
you alter your course because of something that tempts you.
A view of something that's outside of your current trajectory, your
established course. Maybe a storm blows you off course. And if you're the captain, it's
inevitable. Somebody, something, for some
reason or another, you're never gonna be able to stay on course. When Christ is the captain, there's
no turning aside, there's no straying, there's no turning
to the right hand or to the left because Christ is also the destination. When a great storm comes that
threatens the ship, if Christ is the captain, not only does
he know from experience and in his infinite wisdom, but as a
man, he was tempted in all points like as we are tested yet without
sin. So he knows from experience how
to navigate the waves and the winds. But not only that, He's
not only able to cope with the problem, He's able to eliminate
the very problem. Peace, be still. Now there's no storm to navigate.
That's our Savior. He can not only comfort you in
the consequences of your sin, but He says, peace, be still,
and there's no storm at all. All of our problems now are because of our sin. And he comforts us and gives
us peace in that. But the precious peace that he
gives is in the knowledge that because of what he accomplished
for us on Calvary, we don't have any sin. We still are in the body of this
death and we suffer consequences of our sin every day. You can't
blame it on somebody else's sin. It's mine. I'm the problem. We don't have any sin because
he's done away with the storm itself because he's the captain
of our salvation. We can say with Paul, when he
said, when it's all said and done,
Paul said, I have fought a good fight. Finished my course How
does that happen Christ is the captain? The captain of our salvation
I've kept the faith I've been steadfast in the faith holding
fast holding the faith holding Henceforth there is laid up for
me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge
and shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto
all them also that love his appearing." The wording is instructive, isn't
it? It's not those that have measured up. It's those that love him because
he first loved them. Paul names these men for another
reason. He names them as examples to
warn us of ourselves being swerved aside from Christ to cause us
to examine ourselves, whether we be in the faith. Not examine ourselves to see
if we've done enough good to outweigh our bad. Examine yourself
whether you believe on Christ. Do I believe on the Son of God?
That's what he asked the blind man. Do you believe on the Son
of God? That's the question. But this is not only to cause
us to examine ourselves as examples of what could be us, but for
the grace of God. But they're also an example of
what we are warned of, what we're warned against. We're warned
of becoming that, but we're warned they are examples of what We
are warned of. The way men make spiritual shipwreck
often is by listening to those who have shipwrecked themselves. Take heed how you hear. Anyone who preaches other than
Christ is to be avoided. To be warned against by name. By name. People can say that's
rude and insensitive all they want to. But I believe I've given
you this illustration before. If my children are going to play
in the backyard, and I've seen a snake. I see a snake back there.
I'm not just going to say to them, children, be careful now.
There are snakes in this world. I'm going to say, stop. Wait. Don't go back there. There's
a snake right there. There it is. That's what Paul's
doing here. Here's their names. Here's who
they are. Avoid them. So you see the two lessons here
in naming these men. And our prayer is that God give
us wisdom and warning and grace to stay away from snakes. And may he have mercy upon us
insomuch that we never are one. We need him every moment, don't
we? Everywhere we look in this book The result of preaching Christ
Is us coming to Christ? Seeing that he we got to have
him we got to have him all the time May he in grace keep us keep
us in himself Amen