Alright, 1 Timothy chapter 1,
subject again, making shipwreck of the faith. Paul writes here,
let's look at verse 18, 19, and 20. Writing to Timothy, giving
him a charge, how to oversee the things of God and the churches
in that area. And he says to him, this charge
I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which
went before on thee, that thou by them might war a good warfare. holding faith and a good conscience,
which some, having put away concerning faith, have made shipwrecked,
of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan,
that they may learn not to blaspheme. In verse 19 again, holding faith,
a good conscience, which some having put away, concerning faith,
have made shipwrecked. I think we could say, or ministers
could say, that there are actually two parts of the ministry. There is a very pleasant part
of being a minister of the Word of God. And the very pleasant
part is the preaching of the gospel. the study of the Word
of God, rightly dividing this from that, looking over doctrine,
letting the Word of God speak unto us, preaching and preparing
notes and sermons about our great Redeemer and the great salvation
that is in Him, preaching the unipersonality of our blessed
Lord and the divine Trinity and the nature of Him, and the victory
over sin that our Lord has gained by His death in the cross. But
then there's another side. that is not so pleasant, and
that is standing up against those heresies and those heretics that
might come into the world, against the enemies of the cross and
those that would pervert, and sometimes when friends and those
you love drift, as it were, off and are being involved or being
influenced by something that is not true, or when grievous
wolves enter in among us, not sparing the flock, as Paul warned
in Acts chapter 20. And then there comes those false
teachers that might come among us, who being very covetous and
would, with faint words therefore, draw away men and disciples after
themselves. And there always will be those
who will preach another gospel and another Jesus, and another
way of salvation. So Paul here, as he admonishes
and instructs Timothy in this first chapter, it is very instructive,
as we might take a very quick look at it. Verse 1, verse 2,
contain Paul's greeting to one of his favorite associates, and
that would be Timothy, or Timotheus. He calls him his son in the faith,
and he wishes him grace and peace and mercy from the hand of God. Then in the third verse, chapter
one, he reminds Timothy why he had besought and urged and desired
and entreated him to remain there at Ephesus. That was that he
might guard the truth and stand for the defense of the gospel. And verse 4, not to give themselves
to myths or to tales, not to be drawn off or away from the
blessed gospel, or even to be bogged down in endless genealogy,
as the Jews love to do, which raise question and make controversy,
but give no answer. Then in verse 5, he sums up true
religion, love, charity, pure heart, a good conscience, unfeigned
faith, and sincere faith. In the sixth verb, but some had
turned aside from these. They had, as it were, missed
the aim and were missing the mark. They had wandered off course. They had fallen into vain jangling. Empty, useless talk and rhetoric. In verse 7, they desired or they
wanted or they wished or thought themselves to be teachers of
the law. And they preached up the law,
and yet, as Paul noted, they did not know what they were talking
about, and therefore were not able to handle the law in an
evangelical sense that it ought to have been done. Paul said,
the law is good if it is used lawfully, adding that it is not
made for a righteous person. but for the law is laid down
for those that are lawless and that are rebellious and that
are disobedient. Therefore, used in a good way,
it is a spiritual one, but there is nothing worse or more detrimental
to religion or to one's relation unto God and unto Christ than
they that do what are mentioned here in this passage of the scripture
with the law. And then look at verse 12 through
verse 17. The thought of his call to the
gospel ministry. When Paul thought about that,
that God had separated him from his mother's womb, and made him
to have a call unto salvation and unto grace. When he had been
such an enemy of God and of Christ and of the gospel, it caused
Paul to rise up here and give sort of a doxology in verse 12
through verse 17. to praise God for His mercy. If we look in fact at the 17th
verse of this chapter, now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible,
the only wise God, be glory and honor now and forever. Amen. And that brings us in under
our text in verse 18 and following, after that digression and doxology
concerning himself in verse 12 through verse 17. Paul returns
now to the charge that he is giving unto Timothy concerning
the work of the ministry and the oversight of the churches
that are there in that area. Now, he had committed unto Timothy
to hold fast in the truth. And to do this, Paul had established
his own authority as an apostle, an apostle of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And also, to invest Timothy with
authority to act against the false teacher, he said, this
charge I commit unto you, my son Timothy. And then the question
is, by Paul saying discharged, does he refer to what he had
already said in verses 3 through 11, or does he have reference
looking ahead to what he is about to say to war a good warfare,
to be a good soldier and steady of Christ, to hold the faith
and that in a pure conscience? Now, what is a charge in the
sense of the word? What is the essence here of the
charge? When we begin this investigation,
it will soon, I think, become apparent that there is more than
one word that will come before us used in the New Testament
that is translated into our English as the word charge. For example,
It is not that word that we meet with in 1 Corinthians 9 and verse
18, where Paul said, I desire that I might make the gospel
without charge, that I might, costless, that is, that I might
charge nothing, that without expense unto you, freely, I might
preach the gospel. Nor is it the word in Romans
chapter 8 and verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? For this is the mean to criminalize
in the sense of the word and to accuse and to charge with
a crime. Nor is it the word in Acts 8
and verse 27 of the eunuch who is said to have charge of the
treasury of Candace, Queen of Ethiopia. If we see these several
words here that are translated into our English, by the word
charge. But the one that Paul uses to
Timothy has the meaning of a command, as if to lay down a mandate. It is a command. I command thee,
O Timothy, to do this. It is given by a superior to
a subordinate to transmit a message. Paul lays this charge upon young
Timothy was to give him a charge in the third verse, as we see,
to others not to preach strange things and not to go off course
from what Paul had established him in as a minister of the gospel. But the most interesting thing
that Paul said in the middle of the 18th verse, that the charge
had a purpose. It was in accordance to the prophecy
which went before on thee. Now the mystery, I think here,
at least to me, is deepened by the fact that we're not told
when or where this actually did occur, nor what the nature or
the substance of the prophecies were. And you notice that Paul
uses the plural word prophecies rather than a single. This may
well have been when Timothy was set apart under the gospel ministry. It may well have been at that
time in his life. This is seen in Acts 16, verses
1 through 3, when he was, I guess, ordained, as we might call it. consecrated to the work of the
ministry by the laying on of hands of Paul and of others. For example, in 1 Timothy 4 and
verse 14, the exhortation is, neglect not the gift that is
in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on
of the hands of the Presbytery. So it probably has reference
under that. 2 Timothy chapter 1, And verse
6, he said, Wherefore I put you in remembrance, that you stir
up the gift of God which is in you by the putting on of my hands,
unquote. As Paul, an apostle, duly called
and commissioned by Christ himself, lay hands upon young Timothy
to enter into the ministry. Now, before we move along, consider,
if you might, a couple of related passages dealing with the practice
of the early churches, and particularly and especially, I think, in the
apostolic era of time. In Acts 13 and verse 3, when
the Holy Spirit made it evident to the congregation that Paul
and Barnabas were to be separated and set aside unto a special
ministry of the gospel of our blessed Lord. And then in verse
3, they fasted, they prayed, they laid hands on Barnabas and
Paul, and they sent them forth that they might go and preach
the gospel. One more, in 1 Timothy chapter
5 and verse 22. Lay hands suddenly on no man. Now we look at that in the context,
lay hands on no man quickly, referring, I think, as Calvin
said rightly, unto ordination. That is, don't quickly ordain
one under the ministry who is not set and settled, one who
is a novice. One who is not advanced in the
school of Christ. 1st Timothy 3, 6. An overseer
was not to be a novice. And I think the word is neophyte. He was not to be a neophyte. Not one newly converted. Not
one recently planted. as we might say, not a novice,
means one who has not recently come to the faith and is therefore
a beginner in the things of Christ. But Paul says something else
in reference to these prophecies which went before on Timothy,
and that is that by them, or in them, you might war a good
warfare, whether under their influence, whether according
to their precept, as the guiding principle of all that you do
in the ministry and as a minister. And in the 19th verse, Paul deals
with what Lange's commentary calls, quote, the interstate
and disposition of the heart, unquote, holding forth a good
Now there are two necessary prerequisites here to a solid exercise of the
Christian life and especially the Christian ministry by one
so said. Methinks men such as Calvin and
Gill, Matthew, Henry and others are right in saying here that
faith F-A-I-T-H refers not to that personal grace of faith,
at least not in this instance, but to the body of Christian
doctrine or of Christian truth. The doctrine of faith, or as
Gill called it, that Paul joins together here in this particular
place. 1 Timothy 1.5, 3.9, I think you
see that again. The Christian life and the Christian
ministry is exercised out of these common graces. And it consists
in two things. Number one, what is called the
crescenda, meaning the things that are most assuredly and definitely
believed among us. Those things that are our creed
and our doctrine, the doctrine of Christ, evangelical truth
with regard unto Christ, the mystery, the way of salvation,
according to the eternal purpose and the good pleasure of God's
will. Thomas Goodwin put it, the revelation
of God's free grace in Christ and all that he has done and
all that he has made unto us, unquote. That is our main foundation
and preaching subject. And then number two, the Christian
agenda, meaning what is to be done, what is to be practiced
by those that are followers of Christ. There are those things
that are being believed. There are those things that are
to be done. Now, the faith is the necessary
body of truth, Christian truth and doctrine, upon which the
Christian is to base all matters and all issues of life. We may liken it unto an anchor
of the soul, that he that is anchored under these things.
Patrick Fairbrain wrote a commentary on the pastoral epistle and said,
quote, a good conscience is faith's necessary handmaid, unquote. Brother Quain, but I think that's
a good statement. A good conscience is faith necessary,
handmade. He does not live in a good conscience
in conjunction with Christian truth. He cannot serve God in
sincerity and in truth as he ought to, if his soul is tossed
about here and there, troubled, full of doubts and such like,
he cannot serve God as he ought to and acceptably. And here we make the transition
unto our subject of the day. It's found in the middle of verse
19 and the word which now has our attention and the which refers
to some which some which some and paul will name some and does
in this passage of the scripture so what are the examples of warning
again the antecedent of the word which refers to a preceding clause
and the antecedent here is Faith and a good conscience, which
Paul exhorts Timothy to be sure to hold on to as a possession
rich and a treasure. And why? Well, remember when
we were studying the conscience, we've done that. over the course
of the year we studied the conscience that it is very necessary to
have a good conscience if one is to serve God acceptably. One not weak, one not seared
over, but one purged and cleansed with the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. So let's see that the which which
some have thrust away refers to a good conscience. Some have
thrust away a good conscience, first being the nearest antecedent
to a good conscience, then in the last part of the verse, with
some having put away concerning faith. Now we have cited words
from Fairbain that a good conscience is fate, necessary, handmade. But also true what Calvin wrote,
quote, that a bad conscience is the mother of most heresies,
unquote. How true that seems to be as
well. By the way, the same word is
used in Acts 13 verse 46 where Paul tells the Jews concerning
the Word of God you put it away from you having cast it away
and you put it from you is the same word that we have here in
first Timothy 1 and and verse 19, having put away from you
a good conscience. They put away the word, he put
away a good conscience. And as Gill noted, the Christian
faith, that is the Christian doctrine, is contrary to an evil
conscience, so that none can spiritually hold, spiritually
diligently to gospel truth where the conscience is evil, or has
not been purged, or settled, or brought to peace by the blood,
the word, the grace, and the work of God. Now, Paul uses a
metaphor here, as we are well aware, one that conjures up a
very vivid picture in our mind's eye, and that is of a shipwreck,
of one tossed about in the storm of the sea, or broken apart,
or dashed to pieces, and therefore finally coming to an end and
resting at the bottom of the sea. So, of a literal shipwreck,
this is used in the scripture, remember, in act. But secondly,
the word is used metaphorically, as here in our text, as a figure
of speech and the idea of a little shipwreck, literal ship wreckage,
therefore, paints a picture in our mind's eye of some great
damage and danger that the ship has come into, whose crews, whose
passenger, whose cargo, are at risk and therefore the results
in the end would be severe irrecoverable losses to the goods and under
the ship. Now no doubt the greatest shipwreck
of all in the scripture may be that one well of Jonah but that
one of Paul in the 28th chapter of the book of Acts, I believe. But Paul's metaphor concerns
spiritual shipwreck, not a literal one on the ocean. And the cause
of it, not a storm ravaged out of nature, but not a wreck at
sea either, nor the loss of a load of cotton or lumber or whatever
the ship might be caring. Rather, Paul's metaphor concerned
some that became apostates, which he likens or calls shipwrecked. And the cause of it, they put
away a good conscience concerning the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we saw the same word in Acts
13 and verse 46, where some put away the word of God. And it cannot be said that they
once embraced the word of the gospel, savingly or convertingly,
in that passage of the scripture. For in the 45th verse of Acts
chapter 13, They were filled with envy. They spoke against
those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. And in that put away the word,
and they did not receive it." And I agree with Gil that they're
putting from them a good conscience does not necessarily imply that
they once had one. not that once their conscience
was purged or cleansed by the blood of the great sacrifice
of our Lord, but only what one called a good conscience in an
eternal show only. And then, under circumstances
and time, the masks came off and they were revealed for what
they were. Now, of course, some make use
of this as another proof text that genuine believers and true
Christians may fall out of grace and be lost again. First of all,
it would have to be proved that these were true believers to
begin with, where it is admitted that professors can and they
do fall away from a profession of the faith and from a profession
of the gospel. But the question is, were they
ever a true believer in the beginning? Because to fall from an empty
profession is quite different than to fall out of grace and
out of salvation. When such people do not value
the faith and the Word of God as it revolves around the Lord
Jesus Christ, does not influence their life and sanctify them
and bring them to submission under our blessed Lord, then
their faith becomes little more than vain speculation when they
undervalue the divine truth and worth of the Word of God and
the Gospel of Christ. When they do that, then the next
step often is to hold it in contempt and to look upon it with contempt. And their views of divine truth
then dim and waver. from what it might formerly have
been. And they shake off the convictions
of the conscience and become what Fairbain called, quote,
an anchorless vessel drifting among the rocks of skepticism,
unquote. drifting among the rocks of skepticism. And in verse 20 of the passage
that we read, Paul named two such as he had described, Hymenaeus
on the one hand and Alexander on the other. They were two of
the some that are mentioned in verse 19. And look what Paul
says of them. My, how strong. I have delivered
them unto Satan, so that they may learn not to blaspheme. Now look at that. What does Paul
mean? I've delivered them unto Satan. Number one, Does he refer to
open church discipline, which is scriptural and was practiced
in the early churches, and it can be summed up under two reasons
or two headings, and that is immoral behavior or heresy. Or secondly, does Paul refer
here to an apostolical prerogative, no longer active, of course,
because they're not apostles, whereby an apostle could visit
judgment upon an enemy of the righteousness of God, like Peter
did in Acts chapter six, you remember that? Paul did in Acts
chapter 13, as he brought the deputy down under ruin to Elemus
the sorcerer who perverted the right way as Paul charged him
and therefore judgment came upon him. It would seem that the apostles
were endowed with a double set of gifts in their apostolic credentials. A, they could work miracles in
the, they could heal the sick, they could cast out devil, but
also B, they could visit judgment upon the enemies of righteousness
and bring them unto a bad end. not for their cure, but that
they might put the fear of God in the hearts of the people who
trust in the Lord, see these examples, and that it might be
strength unto them. Now, in closing, I'd like to
read two or three scriptures. If I might turn to 2 Timothy
2, and here, let us read verse 17 and verse 18. And their word
will eat as does a canker of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus. In the same book, 2 Timothy 4,
and this time verse 10, For Demas hath forsaken me. Having loved this present world,
is departed unto Thessalonia, Christians to Galatia, Titus
unto Dalmatia. And finally 2 Timothy 4 and verse
14 and 15. Alexander the coppersmith did
me much evil the lord reward him according to his work of
whom be thou where also for he hath greatly withstood our words
so paul and his enemies paul and his authority Paul and his
apostleship, delegating under Timothy that he might preach
the gospel, preserve the truth, oppose heretics and evil users
of the law and such like. This is part of the ministry
and the calling.