Well, good morning to everyone.
If you would open your Bibles with me to the book of First
Timothy. First Timothy chapter one. Hope everyone is doing well
and healthy and safe. From all the reports that I've
had, our folks that have tested positive are doing well. So we
hope to have a full recovery. And remember next Sunday, July
the, or July. I'm hoping July gets here, since
the pandemic's over. January. January the 10th, we'll
begin our in-person services again at 10 a.m., January the
10th. All right, 1 Timothy chapter
one, we're gonna begin our reading in verse 11. According to the glorious gospel
of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust, and I
thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that
he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. It was
before a blasphemer and a persecutor, and injurious, but I obtained
mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelief. And the grace of
our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is
in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. Albeit for this cause,
I obtained mercy that in me first, Jesus Christ might show forth
all long suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter
believe on him to life everlasting. Now unto the King eternal, immortal,
invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and
ever. Amen. This charge I commit unto
thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went
before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare,
holding faith and a good conscience, which some, having put away concerning
faith have made shipwreck, of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander,
whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme."
Thank God for his word. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent, is your matchless name. Father, how we thank you
for the blessed gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that you have
given to us to preach and to believe. Father, how I thank
you for the faith that you have given so many through the preaching
of your word, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I pray
that you would continue to bless your word as it's preached. Bless
us this morning as we look into your word. Father, bless your
word, cause it to go forth empower, to reach the hearts of your people,
to give faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, increase our faith, to
comfort and strengthen the hearts of your people by causing us
to look away from self and looking away from the things of this
life and increase our faith, comfort our hearts by causing
us to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, enable us
to see him, enable us to see him by faith through the preaching
of your word this morning. Let the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ be magnified and exalted and honored in everything that
is said and done here this morning. Father, we pray for those of
our number who are hurting and who are sick. Father, we pray
that your hand of mercy and healing and protection and comfort would
be upon them. Restore them that we might come
together and worship again as a congregation soon. And we pray
for our world, our country, Father, that you would, in your wisdom
and goodness to your people, that you might see fit to provide
a way out of this pandemic, that you would enable people to go
back to their lives and work and school and routine, and that
you above all, Father, might enable your people to meet together
again without these restrictions and worries. We know Thou art
able, and Father, we call upon Thee. Father, we pray for our
country at this time, that You would give our leaders wisdom
and that You would turn their heart to direct this country
for the good of the freedoms of this people, and especially,
Father, for the freedom of Your people in worshiping Thee. Cause
Your gospel to continue to be able to be sounded forth from
this from this place, from this country, and all places where
you've given a place where your people might meet together and
worship. Father, bless us. Bless us as we look into your
word, we pray. Show us the glory of Christ our
Savior. In his blessed name, we pray
and give thanks. Amen. Brady Floyd has been able
to come and be with us this morning in our very small congregation
meeting here in the building. sing for us. I thought that would
be a blessing to you. So Brady, you sing for us. What a fellowship, what a
joy divine, leaning on the everlasting What a blessedness, what a peace
is mine Leaning on the everlasting arms Leaning, leaning Safe and
secure from all alarms leaning leaning on the everlasting
arms oh how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way leaning on the
everlasting Oh, how bright the path grows from day to day. Leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, leaning, safe and secure
from all Leaning, leaning on the everlasting
arms What have I to dread? What have I to fear? Leaning on the everlasting arms I have blessed peace with my
Lord so near, leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, leaning, safe and secure
from all alarm. leaning, leaning, leaning on
the everlasting arms. That's great. Thank you, Brady. If you would
open your Bibles now again with me to the book of First Timothy.
I titled the message this morning, Our God and Our Charge. I have
three points. Number one is our God. Number
two is our charge. And number three is a solemn
warning. Now here in this passage that we've been looking at, the
Apostle Paul has been writing about his own experience of grace.
He's been telling us how God saved him. Verse 13 of chapter
one. He said, who was before a blasphemer
and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy because
I did it ignorantly and unbelief. and the grace of our Lord was
exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am
chief. Albeit for this cause I obtain
mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering
for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life
everlasting. Now this is what Paul is saying,
that only God in His mercy and His grace could save such a vile
sinner like me. And you know all of us will say
the same thing. If God is the one that saved us, all of us
will say the same thing. And you can just think about
Paul sitting here writing this letter. He's thinking about how
gracious that God has been to him. And it just makes Paul just
stop. It's just like he's got a little
interlude here in his letter. and he breaks out into praise
for God. And wouldn't it be a blessing
if God would do that for you and me this morning? As we hear
his gospel, it would just make us be so taken up with God our
Savior that we just burst out in praise to our God like the
Apostle did. That's why I prayed for us this
morning by looking at these three points. And first is this, here's
our God, the God of our salvation, verse 17. Now unto the King eternal,
immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory
forever and ever. Amen. Now here in this verse,
the apostle describes to us our God by describing to us the nature
and the character of God. And I'll tell you why that's
important to you and me. It's because the nature of God, the
character of God is what enables him to save sinners like you
and me. Now first, God is described as the king eternal. Now that
is God's essential character. He's king, sovereign, potentate
over all. Paul says God is the king eternal. That means that God always has
been, always will be sovereign over everything, over all. David said this in Psalm 62 verse
11. God has spoken once, twice have
I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. All power in every
situation over all things belongs to God. That's what God being
sovereign means. So you and I don't need to get
all bent out of shape about the goings on of this life. You know,
the politics of it. Which party is in power? What
is it that they're going to do? They're going to do what God's
determined before it can be done because God's the one who's in
power. God's the one who is on the throne. And God is the one turning the
heart of the king to do God's will at all times, because God
is the one who's sovereign. So we don't need to get too bent
out of shape, do we? God is in control of every event
in God's creation. But now listen, God's sovereignty
does not remove man's responsibility. We're to use the wisdom and the
good sense that God has given us in everything that we do.
Don't blame God for your laziness or your sinfulness. Say, well,
God, you know, God purposed for me to do it. Now, you remember
this now. God's sovereignty does not remove
man's responsibility. Remember this. No matter what
it is that we do or we don't do, you ought to use common sense.
You ought to use the brain that God's given you. But now listen,
whatever it is we do or we don't do, God's purpose is still going
to be accomplished. God is sovereign over all things. And more importantly, much more
importantly, we talk about God's sovereignty. We're talking about
God's sovereignty in salvation. God has an elect people. God
sovereignly chose to save those people. God's elect and only
the elect will be saved. Christ came to save the elect.
He died for God's elect and only God's elect. That truth runs
throughout all of scripture. God is sovereign. He's sovereign
in salvation. He's the King Eternal. But you
know, God is not a king like earthly kings. Earthly kings
use their power to stay away from people. Earthly kings are
separated. You just can't go see the Queen
of England, can you? You just can't stroll into the
Oval Office and see the President. The President uses the Secret
Service to keep people away from him. They use their power to
be separate. God our King, the King Eternal,
has unity with His people, not separation with them. God our
King was made flesh and dwelt among His people so that He could
save His people from their sins. God our King comes and dwells
in the hearts of His people. You didn't have to live over
2,000 years ago to have Jesus Christ dwell with you. God our
King comes and dwells in the hearts of His people. to give
them life and to keep those people. Now God is sovereign in salvation,
but you seek the Lord. Scripture says both things. God's
sovereign in salvation, but you seek the Lord. You beg God for
mercy. You beg God for forgiveness.
Right now where you sit in your living room, you beg God for
mercy. But if God saves you, it won't be because of anything
you did. It won't be because you begged for mercy. It won't
be because you asked for forgiveness. If God saves you, it'll be because
the Father chose you. Because God the Son and the Person
of our Lord Jesus Christ, He died for you. And because God
the Holy Spirit has given you faith and life, but you seek
the Lord. You still seek the Lord. You
make sure you put yourself under the sound of the Gospel. Because
what we're doing right now, the preaching of Christ, the preaching
of the Gospel, is the means that God has pleased to use to reveal
Christ to the hearts of His people and to give them spiritual life
and faith in Christ. God's sovereign. God's throne
is an eternal throne. Nothing will ever stop God's
sovereign purpose for His elect. I'll tell you what that means.
That means that you can trust God to save you and to keep you
saved. God's sovereignty is a soft pillow
on which God's people rest. Our salvation is sure, certain,
and secure because the King Eternal is the God who has saved us.
Second, God is described as immortal. This means more than that God
lives eternally. It means that all life comes
from God. It means that Christ is our life. It's not just that Jesus lives,
it means that Christ is our life. In Colossians 3 verse 4, the
apostles said, when Christ who is our life shall appear, then
shall we also appear with him in glory. Christ is our life. Now we know that Christ died
for his people. We know that. Scripture plainly
tells us that. The world tells us that. Christ's
death is an historical fact. Our calendar is based upon the
fact that Christ died. There's before Christ and Anno
Domini in the year of our Lord. After these years, after Christ
has come, the fact that Christ lived and died is an historical
fact. But the blessing and the assurance
for God's people is that Christ lives. Oh, Christ died and He
rose again. The resurrection of Christ means
that His death accomplished what He meant for it to accomplish.
The death of Christ put away all of the sin that was laid
upon Him. The fact that Christ lives eternally means that He
has fully and completely accomplished the salvation of His people from
all of their sin. Christ both died and rose again
to never die again because His one sacrifice is all it to save
God's people from all their sin. So the life that Christ gives
is eternal life. He is eternal, He is immortal,
and He is our life, the life of His people. So the life that
Christ gives His people is eternal life. It can never be lost because
Christ lives. The Savior is immortal. Nothing can take away His life.
So nothing can take away the life of God's people. because
the immortal Savior is our light, is our Savior. And thirdly, God
is described as invisible. Now God's invisible. God is spirit,
so he's invisible. He's invisible in his person.
God is invisible in his divine nature. God is invisible in his
divine purpose. God is spirit, so God cannot
be seen with the natural eye. But look back here at John chapter
one, the gospel of John, Chapter one, God is invisible. John one,
verse 18. No man has seen God at any time
because God's invisible. But look what John says next.
The only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the father,
he hath declared him. God's invisible, but by God's
grace, we see the Lord Jesus Christ. God is invisible, but
by faith, we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. God is invisible, but by God's
grace, all of his people see him and believe him. The man,
Jesus Christ, is the only manifestation of God we'll ever have. God's invisible, but you think
how gracious God is that he would reveal himself. his people and
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then God's purpose
is also invisible. We can't see God's purpose. We can't understand it. And if
God sat down and told us what his purpose is, we couldn't understand
it. It's too far above us. But by God's grace, we do see
this. We see God's purpose in the redemption of his people.
We see God's purpose of redemption when God reveals Christ to our
hearts. All of God's purpose in the redemption
of his people for God's glory is seen in one place, in one
person, in the Lord Jesus Christ. What a blessing that God would
reveal himself, that he would reveal his purpose to the likes
of sinners like you and me. That would always be invisible
to us if God was not pleased to reveal it to us, to reveal
himself to us. Then fourth, God is described
as the only wise God. You know God is the only God.
There's no other God. Any other thing that people want
to put in the place of God to worship is an idol. But not only
is God the only God, He's the only wise God. Every religion
that's the invention of man is foolishness. God is the only
wise God. No other idol can be described
as wise. No other idol that man has come
up with has found a way, a wise way, to be both just and merciful. An idol is always one or the
other, never both. No other idol can save sinners
in a way that honors God and still gives the sinner the grace
that we so desperately need. Only God is wise enough to save
sinners in a way that honors every attribute of God. Only
God is wise enough to save in a way that satisfies and magnifies
both God's justice and God's mercy. Only God is wise enough
to provide a salvation that honors God's holy wrath against sin
and God's love for sinners. How can you magnify love and
wrath at the same time? Only God's wise enough to provide
a salvation that does both. Only God is wise enough to provide
a salvation the safe sinners in the way that God is both just
and justifier of the ungodly. Now, the way that God is both
just in punishing sin and still merciful to the sinner is through
the sacrifice of Christ our substitute. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
made sin for his people, he actually made the sin of his people to
be his sin. He actually became guilty of
it. Our substitute became guilty
of the sin of his people. And then He put away that sin
by the sacrifice of Himself, by the sacrifice and shedding
of His perfect, precious, sinless blood. Christ made His people
to be not guilty by trading then His righteousness for their sin. So now God is merciful to the
sinner in justice, for Christ's sake. Because in justice, God
in full, complete justice punished the sin of His people in the
death of Christ, our substitute. Now, you see that, don't you?
You see how the sacrifice of Christ, our substitute, that
magnifies God's justice, doesn't it? God put his justice on display
for all of creation to see at Calvary, when God put his son
to death in justice. Now, God will indeed punish sin. God said he will by no means
clear the guilty. And nowhere do you see how true
that is than at Calvary, when God put his son, made his son
to be guilty and put him to death, magnifying God's justice. God's
justice is satisfied against the sin of his people in the
person, the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, our substitute.
But then you also see this, the sacrifice of Christ magnifies
God's mercy, doesn't it? The father slaughtered his son
so that he could be merciful to his people. Now what wisdom,
what love that is. How can we not, like the Apostle
Paul here in our text, just burst out into praise for our God. How he, his matchless name, provided
the way to save the sinner in absolute justice. How can we not trust the Lord
Jesus Christ to be our Savior? How can we ever trust in anything
else? How can we trust in even one
thing that we've done to add to that? How can we not trust
in Christ alone to be our Savior? There's no other Savior with
such wisdom that we can rely on to be our wisdom, to be the
wisdom of ignorant sinners like you and me. How can we not trust
Him? There's no other Savior with such wisdom that we can
depend upon to provide a perfect salvation. There's no other Savior
with such wisdom that will satisfy both the need of a holy God and
the need of the guilty sinner. How can we not trust Him? He's
the only wise God. And then fifth, Paul says that
all honor and all glory belong unto God. Now here is the way
that you can always tell if a man's preaching the truth Here's the
way that you can tell if a man is preaching the gospel of Christ.
It's by asking this question of his message. Who gets all
the glory from his message? Now, if he's preaching the truth,
if he's preaching the gospel of Christ, he has to give all
the glory and all the honor to God, doesn't he? Because all
honor and all glory belongs to God, and none of it belongs to
us. All honor and glory rightly belongs
to God. If a man's preaching the gospel,
That's where all the honor and glory will go. You see, God gets
all the glory in saving sinners because God did all the saving.
You know, God will save everyone if he can get all the glory in
saving them. That's exactly right. If someone is so guilty and so
vile, they can't do anything for themselves, God will save
that person because he'll get all the glory in saving them.
Now, I ask you, I want you to answer this question in your
heart. Does that describe you? Does it? Can you do anything
to help God save you? Can you do anything to make yourself
more savable than someone else? If so, then you can get part
of the glory in God saving you and God won't save you. He won't. God will not save you until you
see you have no hope in yourself. But if you are so guilty and
you're so vile, And God has to do all of the saving. If there's
no reason that you can see in yourself anywhere that God would
save you, then God will save you. Because God will get all
the glory in saving somebody like that. And if God has saved
you for his glory, then you know what? God will never let you
perish. Never. God will never allow anything
to happen that will take away his glory. If God has saved you
for his glory, then he allows you to perish. God washes glory.
Well, God's not gonna allow that to happen. See, the only hope
a sinner has of salvation is found in the character of God.
And that's who Paul describes here. That's our God. But then
here's the second thing. Here's our charge. Our charge,
the charge of God's people, is to preach the gospel. To preach
the gospel. to preach the glory of God and
the saving of sinners. Verse 18, our text, 1 Timothy
1. This charge I commit unto thee,
son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before
on thee, that thou mightest buy them. Let me start over, verse
18. This charge I commit unto thee,
son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before
on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare, holding faith,
and a good conscience. Now the charge that Paul talks
about here is what he mentioned back in verse three of this chapter.
He says, I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went
into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no
other doctrine. Now this is the charge to Timothy
and it's the charge to God's church today, to preach only
this doctrine. to preach only the doctrine of
Christ. To preach the gospel by telling
people who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what he has accomplished
for his people. Now, teach no other doctrine.
Because listen, there's no other doctrine to teach. There's no
other doctrine to teach other than Christ. There's no other
truth to teach other than the doctrine of Christ because Christ
is truth. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
truth of God. The Lord Jesus Christ reveals
the truth of how it is that God can save sinners. That's only
found in Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ also
reveals the truth of man. You see the truth of God in the
Lord Jesus Christ. You also see the truth of man
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Man is totally depraved. Man is totally incapable of doing
anything righteous. Man is so lost and dead in sin
that it is impossible for man to save himself. Now that has
to be true because God sent his son into the world. If God sent
his son into the world, made flesh, made of a woman, born
under the law, then we must not be able to save ourselves. If
there was any other way that a sinner could be saved other
than the death of Christ, other than the humiliation of God's
own son, Surely the Father would have done it, wouldn't He? The
fact that Christ came into this world to live and to die in order
to save His people from their sin has to mean this. We're incapable
of saving ourselves. We're totally dependent upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's what Christ came to
do. And He did not fail to save anyone that the Father gave Him
to save. If Christ failed to save His people, the people the
Father gave Him to save, If he failed to save the people he
said he came to save, then he'd be untrue. He'd be a liar. He
wouldn't be the truth of God anymore. But we know he is the
truth of God because God cannot fail to do anything that he purposes
to do. And thank God his purpose is
to save his people through the sacrifice of his Son. Now that's
the charge that God has given to his people. God charges us
to preach the gospel of Christ crucified. Now this charge is
a commandment. It's a commandment proclaiming
a message, a message from God. And you and I who believe we're
charged to preach this gospel. We're charged to preach Christ
and nothing else. We're charged to believe on Christ
and nothing else. Only Christ. That is our charge. Preach Christ only. Preach Christ our righteousness.
only as our only righteousness. David said, I'll make mention
of thy righteousness, even of thine only, because there ain't
another one. Preach Christ's sacrifice only. The only way
our sin is put away is by the sacrifice of Christ. Preach God's
love only. Oh, by God's grace, I do love
the Lord Jesus Christ, but salvation is not found in my love for him.
Salvation is found in God's love only. His love for sin. Preach
salvation by faith only. Preach God's Word only. God's Word means exactly what
it says. Preach that only. Don't add to
it now the inventions and thoughts of men. Preach God's Word only. And don't add anything to that.
Preach Christ only. Don't add anything that a sinner
must do in order to be saved. Because when you do that, if
you add to the Scripture, If you add something that a sinner
must do in order to be saved, you've done the worst thing you
could ever do for a sinner. You put something between the
sinner and Christ. Listen, isn't our sin enough
between us and God? Isn't our sin enough? Do you
want to add anything else? Our sin between us and God is
enough, isn't it? So just preach Christ. He's the one who's able to remove
our sin. and bring the sinner back to
God. Don't add anything to Christ. Don't add anything to salvation.
And don't take away anything from Christ. Don't in your message,
don't you try to make your message more appealing to men so that
more people will believe you. Don't take away the sovereignty
of Christ. Don't take away the offense of
the cross in order to get more people to believe you. Just preach
Christ as he is. That's the message that glorifies
God. That's the only message God will use to save sinners.
Our charge is to preach God as He is, and to believe God as
He is. Preach God as King, as the King
Eternal, so that sinners will bow before Him and beg Him for
mercy. Just like that leper came and
said, Lord, if you will, you can make me whole. He's bowing
before the King Eternal, wasn't he? That's what you and I need
to do. And we'll do it if somebody will dare preach Christ the King
Eternal to us. Let's preach God as immortal so that we'll depend
on Christ to be our life. Our life is not in what we do
or what we don't do. Let's preach God as immortal
so we don't start thinking the things of this life are really
our life. So we don't start depending on the things of this life to
be our life. Let's preach God as immortal so we depend on Christ
to be our life. Let's preach God as invisible. He's invisible. cannot see him
unless God's pleased to reveal himself to us. Let's preach him
that way so we depend on God. Let's preach God as the only
wise God so we depend upon Christ to be our wisdom. So we see there's
no other way for God to save us other than in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let's preach the gospel so that
all the honor and all the glory goes to God and none of it goes
to you and me so that we're forced to reverently in awe and wonder
and worship God. So that we say with a songwriter,
I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene. And I
wonder, oh, I wonder, how he could love me, a sinner condemned
unclean. That's worshiping him in awe and reverence. All the
honor and glory goes to him. Let's preach that message, who
God is, and let's stick to this message of Christ. There's too
many temptations for us to go off on another, on a tangent,
on another topic, a topic that may be true. There are true things
that I could say to you that would not be the preaching of
Christ. That would get your attention, get your eye, get your focus
off onto something else that's true, but it's not on Christ. Let's be sure we just stick to
this subject, Christ crucified. Because Paul calls this charge
a warfare. It's going to be a hard battle.
It's a hard battle for the souls of men that can only be won by
faith in Christ. This warfare is a warfare for
the glory of God. It's a warfare for the souls
of men and women, and it can only be won by holding faith
and a good conscience. Now what is a good conscience?
A good conscience is a clear conscience, a conscience that
is guiltless. That kind of conscience can only
come by faith in Christ, by trusting Christ and not our dead works. A good conscience is a conscience
that's been purged from our dead works. That's what the writer
of the Hebrews said. It's been purged from trusting in our works
and trusting Christ alone. See, this warfare can only be
won through faith in Christ, by the preaching of Christ. Then
let's stick to that message. Don't get pulled off on a tangent. Isn't it kind of shocking to
you when you read this description that Paul has given us of God?
This is such a glorious subject. The gospel of God our Savior.
Isn't it shocking to think that somebody could get pulled off
on a tangent? Any tangent other than the subject of Christ our
Savior is such a lesser subject, such a It's just not even worthy
of being thought about when it was compared to our God, isn't
it? What a shocking thing. But here's my third point. There's
a reason to take this charge seriously. Do you think you could
never get pulled off on a tangent like that? You've heard the gospel. You've heard the gospel of Christ.
You believe him. You love him. I know you do.
But do you think, I never have to worry. I can't get pulled
off on a tangent. You think the pastor, is being overly zealous
to preach the same message over and over and over again. Same
message, just a different text. You think the pastor is just,
he's a zealot, to insist on preaching only Christ over and over and
over again. You think the pastor is being
just a religious nut to insist on preaching the scriptures only?
You think you've got this down pat now and you can't be pulled
off on a tangent? You've been too well taught to
get pulled off on a tangent. You'll never look away from Christ.
You think that? Well, if you do, think again.
Look here at verse 19. Holding faith in a good conscience,
which some, having put away concerning faith, have made shipwrecked,
of whom is Hymenas and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan,
that they may learn not to blaspheme. Now these two men, Hymenas and
Alexander, They must have been well-known in the church at some
time. Timothy would have known exactly who Paul was talking
about here. And some people say these two men were in Ephesus
now, where Timothy is, and he might would see them. But people
in the church would all know these two men. They were well-known
in the church at some time. They must have, at one time,
been pillars in the church, been people that folks respected. But something's happened. Now
they've made shipwreck concerning faith in Christ alone. Something
got them off on a tangent. Maybe it was something true.
Maybe it was a false doctrine. I don't know. Maybe it was wrong.
I don't know. But something made them add something to salvation
through faith in Christ alone. And they made shipwreck of faith. And shipwreck is a good term.
It's a good term to use. Every believer desires this.
This is our desire to one day be safely brought into the harbor,
to be brought off the stormy seas of this life and be brought
safely into the calm harbor, to be brought into the presence
of Christ our Savior. That's your desire. If you believe
Christ, that's your desire. But I tell you, the only way
that's going to happen, to be brought safely from the stormy
seas of this life and brought safely into the harbor, It's
through faith in Christ. That's not by our works. It's
not by our sailing ability to get us through these stormy seas.
Dan and I have been on one cruise in our life, and it seemed to
us we were on pretty stormy seas. Everybody was walking around
the ship staggering and stuff. Chance, I hope this captain knows
what he's doing. Well, I do too. We're going to go through some
stormy seas like that, and they're going to stagger us. They're
going to stagger us. But the way we get through those stormy
seas is not our sailing ability, it's through faith in Christ.
It's not our sailing ability, it's Christ the captain of our
salvation. And the very moment we begin to trust in something
else, the very moment we begin to add something to Christ as
our salvation or our security, you know what we've done? We've
wrecked the ship. We've made shipwreck of faith. Now beware of this now, because
there are many rocks that cause shipwreck to faith. They're the
rocks of covetousness. Covetousness is wanting something
that God hadn't given us. Namely, wanting the glory and
credit for salvation. Anytime somebody adds some work
to this thing, they're trying to get some glory for themselves.
It could be covetousness, wanting glory among the congregation,
wanting the higher seat, wanting the seat of Moses, wanting more
recognition, you know, in the church. That's a rock of covetousness
called shipwrecked debate. They're the rocks of pride. You
know, thinking that I am more holy, I'm more righteous, I'm
more religious than somebody else because they do this and
I don't. And, you know, almost every time we pick out, you know,
some sort of action, some sin, some whatever, you know, somebody's
doing that I'm not doing, The only reason I'm not doing is
I don't want to do it in the first place. I just don't have
a particular desire to do that. And I pick that out to say, oh,
I'm more righteous than somebody else because they're doing that.
I'm not. The moment we do that, we've made shipwreck on the rock
of crime. And in this case, this case that
Paul here is talking about, Hymenus and Alexander, this is why this
is so bad. These must have been public men.
We read about them in other places of Scripture. We'll deal with
them as we come to them in our study of Timothy. These men made
shipwreck for themselves and for others who followed them,
who listened to what they said and followed them. And they made
shipwreck of faith. Theirs is somebody else's. And
the Apostle Paul had authority. You know, I don't have. He turned
these men over to Satan. He delivered them to Satan to
be punished. Now, who were these men? Were
they believers? When Paul delivered them to Satan,
would they be damned like they deserved because they made shipwreck
of faith? Were these two men believers? Who made a mistake? And who would be taught when
Paul delivered them to Satan, would be taught by these trials
that they might be turned back to faith in Christ only. Were
they believers or were they unbelievers? I don't know. Nobody does. I sure hope they were believers
and could be taught, weren't you? To think otherwise is more horror
than I want to dwell on. But here's the question for you
now. This charge is to you and me now. Preach our God only. Preach Christ only. What happened
with Alexander and Hymenas didn't end in that day. It still happens
today. People still make shipwreck of
faith today. So what should you and I do when it happens today?
Because it'll happen. I promise you it will. Well,
we don't have the apostolic authority like Paul did to deliver folks
over to Satan. But here's what scripture teaches
us to do when we've come across a situation like this. We're
to have nothing to do with these people when they make shipwreck
of the faith, when we're just to have no fellowship with them
for this purpose. so that we don't give the mistaken
impression to them or to other folks that we think what they've
done is right, that it's okay. It's not okay when someone makes
shipwreck of the faith. It's not okay when someone does
anything to get folks' eyes off of Christ onto whatever it is. And we don't do this because
we're better than them, we're more righteous than them, we're
more smart than them. We don't do this to punish and
to cause pain and suffering We do this so that someone will
see the error of their ways and quit it, and trust Christ alone,
and quit what they're doing, whatever it is, to get folks'
attention off of Christ. And look at 1 Corinthians. This is what the Word of God
plainly teaches. Now, this is another case in
which Paul delivered one over to Satan, that they might learn
And this was a believer. When this happened, this person
quit the thing that they were doing. They were so evil and
wicked and was restored back. Look here at 1 Corinthians 5
verse 5. To deliver such a one unto Satan
for the destruction of the flesh. That. Now here's why Paul did
that. Not just so he could be mean and so he could see them
suffer and feel better because, you know, they caused such damage
and they're suffering. No, that's not why Paul did this.
That. the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
See, that's the purpose for doing this. That's the purpose for
having nothing to do with someone, having no fellowship with someone
who's caused such damage to God's church and caused shipwreck of
the faith, is that they might be turned, that they might quit
that and be turned again to Christ alone. Now I know what several
people are thinking. So let me warn you about this.
Here's another rock to avoid that'll cause shipwreck to the
faith every time. It's the rock of compromise.
Compromising the gospel to get a bigger following will cause
shipwreck to the faith every time. Because if we compromise
the gospel, we're not preaching Christ only. And someone's faith
and hope and confidence will be in something other than Christ
alone. If we compromise the gospel, we'll cause shipwreck to the
faith. But also compromising the plain teaching of God's Word. God, in His Word, says, these
who've caused shipwreck to the faith, don't you have fellowship
with them. Don't you give them any impression that what they've
done is okay with you. If we compromise the plain teaching
of the Word of God in that way, we're doing it because I think
I'm more loving and I'm more wise than God in dealing with
these erring saints. And we're not to do it. They've made shipwreck to the
faith. God knows how to handle them better than I do. Just follow
what God's word teaches. And just remember these three
points. You know, in fighting this warfare, and during these
troubled seas of this life, and thinking about the gospel that
we preach, the God that we worship, keep these three points in mind. Number one, our God. Just keep
in mind our God who saved us by his grace. Our God whom we
serve. we won't get pulled off on a
tangent if our mind's focused there, our heart's focused there.
Secondly, remember, this is our charge. Our charge is to preach
and to believe Christ alone. Salvation by God's grace alone
through faith alone. And then our warning, don't get
complacent here now, this is our warning. Keep trusting Christ
and Christ alone so that we don't make shipwreck of faith. Ours
and somebody else's. That'd be a good thing to keep
in mind, those three points. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank You
for this, Your Word. How we thank You that You have
provided us this way to worship Thee. We can't safely meet together
right now, but we're thankful for this technology, this meaning
that You've given us to worship Thee. Father, I pray You bless
Your Word. Cause it to go forth in power,
that we might be completely taken up with the Lord Jesus Christ,
His glory, His grace, His people. Father, I pray that you would
quickly restore us all back to being able to come together and
worship together. For it's in the precious name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, it's for His glory, His sake, we pray
and give thanks. Amen. I pray the Lord will bless
you and keep you. We'll worship this way again,
Lord willing, on Wednesday night. The message will be posted electronically.
In one week from today, next Sunday, Lord willing, we'll meet
together at 10 o'clock and be able to worship together again
in person. Lord bless you.