Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Do you change your mind a lot?
[00:00:04] There are times when we change our mind about something and it can be for our good.
[00:00:13] And there are other times when we change our mind about something and it can be harmful to our souls and friends. The reality is this, unless you and I are going to live in solitary confinement or we're going to get out of Dodge, live off the grid somewhere and separate from all human interaction, media and modern technology, chances are you're going to face beliefs that other people hold that are different than your own.
[00:00:43] And those differing beliefs could lead you and I to change our minds.
[00:00:50] Beliefs that may differ on a whole host of things like religion, theology, doctrine, what church you'll join, how you'll vote, how involved you are in politics, your views on immigration policy, your views on war, how you spend and save money, your views on sex, dating practices, marriage roles, parenting styles, hospitality and home decor, friendship choices, school and education choices all the way down to two siblings arguing over who is mom and dad's favorite child.
[00:01:25] But when we face these differing beliefs, whether they are theological or spiritual in nature, or they are moral and ethical in nature, or that it's merely preference, each interaction with an opposing view than our own raises a good question in all of us.
[00:01:46] Should we change our mind and align with theirs?
[00:01:52] Or should we dig our heels in the sand and maintain our present belief?
[00:01:59] Should we hold onto a belief that people as smart as us or smarter than us reject?
[00:02:08] And at what point are you and I being stubborn and closed minded by holding on to our belief?
[00:02:16] This kind of self examination is necessary for every follower of Jesus Christ, especially for those who lead followers of Jesus Christ leaders like pastors to that point. About 20 years ago, a man asked the church historian, theologian Ian Murray the following question. What three pieces of advice would you give a young preacher just embarking on teaching God's word?
[00:02:40] Ian Murray's answer was, number one, guard your inner life.
[00:02:45] Number two, love people, but keep a healthy distrust of human nature.
[00:02:51] And number three, make faith in God's promises the daily duty of your life.
[00:02:58] I think that's good advice for me, that's good advice for the elders of this church, and that's good advice for every follower of Jesus in this room.
[00:03:06] Friends, the decisions we made yesterday, the decisions we're gonna make today, and the decisions, Lord willing, will make tomorrow. Friends, they all matter.
[00:03:15] They matter because they are either being beneficial and good for us or our decisions are becoming harmful and destructive for our souls.
[00:03:27] And for Paul and Timothy, this is precisely the hot button issue that they encountered in their ministry.
[00:03:35] Which brings us to our sermon text this morning. If you have a copy of God's Word, please open your Bibles to the New Testament letter of first Timothy. First Timothy Chapter one. If you're using one of the pew Bibles provided, you can find that on page 1,177. First Timothy chapter one.
[00:03:55] This morning we pick back up where we left off last time in our study of first Timothy. In previous weeks, we've begun to learn what the Apostle Paul was conveying to his protege in ministry that must be done in his ministry post.
[00:04:08] As the Apostle Paul was headed towards ministry task elsewhere, Timothy had to stay behind and stay put put right there in the church. In Ephesus last week, Paul reiterates to Timothy the power of God's grace and mercy in the chief of sinners, the worst of them all, as which Paul identified as himself. And he does that to bolster Timothy's confidence, both in the Gospel he'll preach to all kinds of sinners, but also as a wonderful way to remind Timothy, your strength to endure in the Christian life will not come from you, but will come from the one who called you to himself.
[00:04:47] And after Paul explains his own salvation, testimony and calling into ministry was a living illustration of God's mercy, He ends with a beautiful doxology.
[00:04:59] Doxologist means a word of praise back to God.
[00:05:03] He said in verse 17 to the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.
[00:05:10] Amen. Paul then moves from doxology to continued discipleship of Timothy.
[00:05:18] And he begins to exhort Timothy once again of something he must take heed to to fulfill his calling.
[00:05:27] Look with me now at first Timothy 1. Starting in verse 18.
[00:05:30] I'll be reading to verse 20. Please follow with me this charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare holding faith and a good conscience.
[00:05:52] By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
[00:06:05] This is God's word in our text. This morning, Paul is completing the second bookend of the initial bookend he began back in verse three.
[00:06:16] In other words, Paul is going to connect the dots for Timothy. Hey, Timothy, you thought I moved on to something different? No, no, no, no. I had a little bit of a, a break in between the initial charge I gave you. But I need to connect the Dot, there's something I need to show you that if this charge is not heeded, really devastating things could happen in your church and even happen to you. Timothy here is like a tier one operator where he has to fulfill what God has called him to do. And so what is he called to do? Well, he is called to stand firm.
[00:06:47] He is called to heed a charge for the sake of the church's growth, the church's spiritual health and the church's unity. But even more than that, the glory of God was at stake in and through the church. He was serving.
[00:07:00] And Paul was standing in Timothy's corner like a coach in a boxing match, coaching him from the turnbuckle. Don't give up, duck. Throw the left hook. Stay in the fight.
[00:07:13] You see, Timothy had to do what every church faces sooner or later.
[00:07:19] Not everyone in the church is a Christian.
[00:07:23] There are goats roaming around with the sheep.
[00:07:29] There are wolves wearing sheep costumes out to do one thing, to devour the sheep.
[00:07:39] Friends, there were people in Ephesus like there are today people in the church who had ulterior motives for why they were there.
[00:07:48] And at this point in the ministry the problem makers were certain persons that were proud, self deceived, smart in their own eyes. They wanted to be in leadership, they wanted a voice at the table, they wanted to be heard by others. But their rotten fruit became very self evident of their hollow spirituality because their hearts were impure, their consciences were soiled in sin and their so called false faith was questionable at best. Their spurious teachings only produced speculations among the church members rather than edification that comes from sound doctrine instead of clarity. There was confusion in the church.
[00:08:31] Instead of making disciples, they were putting doubts into the minds of the disciples.
[00:08:37] Church no longer felt safe for the sheep amongst a flock.
[00:08:44] The very place that sheep should find refuge slowly became a den of thieves for hirelings and false prophets.
[00:08:52] Brothers and sisters, the sad testimony is I would have to say that today in the United States of America, I would even still, even say amongst the Bible belt, this testimony is true. It even among us.
[00:09:06] How many churches are filled with unregenerate goats being led by wolves and genuine sheep are starving. Pray that God would have mercy, that we would not look like that.
[00:09:20] So here at the end of chapter one, Paul rounds the last lap of this particular issue and he doubles down on his initial charge and tells Timothy, you have no excuse and there is no guessing what you must do, son.
[00:09:33] Friends, if life is full of choices like Timothy did, we need to know which ones will be for our good and our church's good and our families good. And we need to know what choices are really bad for us and our churches and our families, even our own nation.
[00:09:51] And so if you're taking notes, as Paul drills down on this double clicking of a charge, what are vital things that we should take heed to, as Timothy had to in his own life?
[00:10:06] If you're taking notes, here's my main idea of the sermon.
[00:10:11] If you stay anchored to Jesus, you won't shipwreck your faith.
[00:10:19] If you stay anchored to Jesus, you won't shipwreck your faith.
[00:10:27] An outline that will help expand on this in these three verses, answering the question, how do we stay anchored to Jesus?
[00:10:37] If anchored to Jesus is what prevents us from shipwrecking our faith, how do we stay anchored to him?
[00:10:44] Point number one. We stay anchored to Jesus. Number one. By remembering what Jesus has done in your life.
[00:10:50] By remembering what Jesus has done in your life. That's the first anchor promise.
[00:10:58] Point number two. How do we stay anchored to Jesus?
[00:11:01] Point number two, by guarding your inner life from moral compromise.
[00:11:05] By guarding your inner life from moral compromise.
[00:11:11] Let's look at that first point together. Stay anchored to Jesus by remembering what Jesus has done for you, your life.
[00:11:18] In verse 18, Paul begins by reminding Timothy of his charge once again, as we saw back in verses 3 to 11. What was this charge to do? He was to silence his opponents, those who were spreading lies, making up stories and packaging them as truth, majoring on fruitless arguments that did no one good spiritually. What Paul called myths and endless genealogies.
[00:11:42] And then positively, Timothy was to teach sound doctrine, rightly handle the word of truth.
[00:11:49] He was to be clear and careful with the word of God and be clear as he gets it across to the people. He was to rightly teach the law of God and show its relevance in God's design. To humble the sinner so that we might receive the grace of God in the one and only One who fulfilled the law for us, Jesus Christ.
[00:12:11] In verse 18, Paul says, this charge, this urgent obligation, this direct command, was a stewardship uniquely placed in Timothy's lap.
[00:12:22] Not Timothy's mother, not Timothy's grandmother, not Timothy's assistant, not Timothy's best friend.
[00:12:33] This was a custom made charge delivered in the mail from God through Paul to Timothy and friends. Just as a side note here, every single person in this room, if you haven't already, you will. You are given unique responsibilities, tasks and charges from God according to His Word in the providence. He's placed you in that no one else is called to fulfill but you.
[00:13:00] So blame shifting can it.
[00:13:02] Looking for someone to save the day again? Stop it.
[00:13:06] Count the costs. Look at Christ. And whatever he's called you to do, look to him and whatever charge that is. I think all of us this morning can think of at least one thing Paul is saying to Timothy.
[00:13:20] This is for you.
[00:13:23] Paul doesn't look at Timothy like some faceless and nameless minion in a factory somewhere that he doesn't care about.
[00:13:34] In fact, he loved Timothy.
[00:13:36] In verse 18 you see for the second time he calls Timothy my child.
[00:13:43] Back in verse 2 he called him my true child. In the faith, as we've already established in this series, Paul's relationship to Timothy was that of a loving and invested father who poured tirelessly into his son.
[00:13:55] And for Paul, Timothy was like a son to him. A son he was proud of, a son he was thankful for, a son he wanted to teach him everything he knew, like every good dad wants to do their sons and daughters.
[00:14:07] Friends, you've got to have some sanctified imagination here.
[00:14:11] They had spent nearly 10 to 12 years together, over a whole decade, traveling together, ministering together, crying together, laughing together, eating together, praying together, persevering together, suffering together. Friends, they saw each other at their best and they saw each other at their worst.
[00:14:36] And they loved each other more than a friend that sticks closer than a brother.
[00:14:46] Friends, if you ever get to experience a sticky friendship like that in this life, do not take it for granted.
[00:14:52] That's a gift from God. To have a man or a woman, a peer, a pastor, a mentor, a spouse, anyone that loves you, seeing all the good, bad and the ugly in that type with you, that's a gift from God. Don't take that for granted.
[00:15:07] Through the passing of time, this kingdom investment of a heart to heart relationship that was centered around the Lord Jesus. Friends, it was true brotherly love that was beautifully priceless. For Timothy, Paul had become a Christian mentor, a spiritual father figure and a class a pastoral role model. And for Paul, Timothy had become a Christian mentee, a spiritual son figure and an excellent example of training the next man to do the Lord's work in the next generation.
[00:15:40] But in verse 18, Paul does something unique here to motivate Timothy not to quit.
[00:15:46] He's given him all the reasons he needs to act. Here's the problem, here's the problem makers, here's what you need to do. He's giving him those instructions. But Timothy, just like us, needs motivation because how many of us know the right thing to do, but we don't feel like doing it.
[00:16:05] So what's going to motivate Timothy?
[00:16:08] It's scary, it's uncomfortable, it's stressful. He's not going to be well received and liked. He may even lose some members of the church if he's faithful to this charge.
[00:16:23] Instead of telling Timothy, hey, just do this, son, because I said so, Paul tells Timothy, do this because you were made to do this.
[00:16:37] Do this, Timothy, because God has shaped you for this hour.
[00:16:44] Timothy, you must do this because others in your life have been used of God to speak into your life, to confirm you were made for such a time as this.
[00:16:59] Look at what he says. This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, is in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you.
[00:17:08] When Paul says, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, what exactly is he referring to?
[00:17:14] Most likely Paul's referring to Timothy's ordination in the ministry, what we might call his installation service, his public commissioning to the Gospel ministry.
[00:17:25] And we actually see another hint of this later in the letter. So hold your place in First Timothy 1. Turn over to chapter 4, 1 Timothy 4.
[00:17:40] Look with me in 1 Timothy 4, 1315. 1 Timothy 4, 1315. Paul says this, Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.
[00:17:56] Do not neglect the gift you have which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.
[00:18:02] Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. All right, turn back to chapter one.
[00:18:10] So apparently these prophetic words were confirmations and testimonies that the Holy Spirit delivered to Timothy through pastoral leadership, set apart qualified men to shepherd the flock. God was using these men to vet him, to watch him, to instruct him, but also to say, God's hands on your life, Timothy.
[00:18:40] You don't get a plan B. You were made for this.
[00:18:45] You're God's man at this hour.
[00:18:49] Apparently, in months past, maybe even years past, they had affirmed Timothy publicly as a spiritual leader, a pastor, or some form of a person that you would recognize as a shepherd in a flock.
[00:19:03] They had done so by the laying on of hands. And so Paul is alluding to Timothy. Remember the day, remember the hours, remember the long weeks and months when you were vetted at the elders table. You joined us in the prayer meetings, you participated in the intern discussions, you dove down into Bible study, you went with me in the ministry trips and, and I gave you preaching and teaching opportunities, and I gave you countless opportunities and counseling sessions. And remember, Timothy, how many people spoke into your life saying, timothy, God made you to do this. God saved you to do this. Now remember this and use it as fuel to press onward.
[00:19:49] In my study over there, I have quite a few pictures on the wall and on my shelf.
[00:19:58] If you walk long enough, you'll start to see a pattern in some of the pictures.
[00:20:03] And there are pictures that I think is an application to verse 18 in my life.
[00:20:09] I have a picture as you walk in my office to the right, above the Puritan books.
[00:20:15] I have a picture of Julie and I sitting together before a church with my pastor, Brooks Kahle, standing behind me.
[00:20:23] Pastor Brooks, in November of 2012, was leading a church and a board of deacons and pastors and giving me a charge about becoming a pastor. I was 27 years old and my first pastorate there at Quaco Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia. There's a picture that captures a night where people affirmed me and saw in me.
[00:20:48] You were made to do this.
[00:20:51] I have another picture. As you go to the left, above the more denser systematic theology books, it's a picture. It's a small painting of Capitol Hill Baptist church in Washington, D.C. which reminds me of that morning in September when I was 30 years old, when about 25 elders laid hands. Not all of me at one time. That'd be a dog pile. But it was on one guy after another guy. All. All there in the pulpit.
[00:21:16] Why do I have a picture there? Because it's a reminder.
[00:21:20] God's hand has prepared you and affirmed you to do this.
[00:21:26] And then I have another picture that's the sweetest of them all.
[00:21:30] There's a picture of me standing in a different pulpit, but on this stage.
[00:21:35] And there are five men in coat and ties behind me with their hands upon my shoulder. And. And that day was September 20, 2020, which is six years to the day. Happy birthday. Chaffee Crossing Baptist Church.
[00:21:49] These men laid their hands on me with a congregation of 90 people calling me to be your next pastor.
[00:21:58] Now, friends, these pictures don't have audio to them, but I walk by them virtually every week and they speak to me because I will tell you, transparency is loving. There are times I want to quit being a pastor.
[00:22:14] I don't want to preach another sermon. I don't want to enter another counseling session. I don't want to deal with more criticism. I don't want to deal with more slander. I don't want to deal with one more decision, one more headache, one more marriage problem, one More divorce, One more death. I don't want to be called upon. I don't want to be asked upon. I don't even want to ask.
[00:22:31] To ask me to pray for them. There are times I am so weak. I am so unqualified. I feel like I just want to get out of Dodge, you know what keeps me going? Remember, Remember, remember, you didn't get where you're at by accident. Blake Boylston. It was divine providence, brothers and sisters. Do you have anyone in your life like Paul was to Timothy to tell you to keep going?
[00:22:57] To encourage you to get in your corner and say, you were made for this? Sister, you were made for this. Brother, you. You were made for this. You've been shaped for this. God has called you to.
[00:23:10] Could be a job. It could be raising children. It could be serving in the church or a new ministry assignment elsewhere. It could be a talent. God gave you a skill. God gave you a trade you're good at.
[00:23:21] Friends, it could be a whole host of things, but it's very obvious to others.
[00:23:26] God has gifted and enabled you to be a blessing to others. And here's the word of the Lord today.
[00:23:33] Use it.
[00:23:35] Use it.
[00:23:37] Don't run the other direction, friends. We all need someone in our life who's in our corner, whose wind in our sails, who says, get back in the ring. Don't you quit fighting. Don't you quit on that family. Don't you quit on those children. Don't you quit on the church. Keep at it.
[00:23:56] Friends. Who is that for you?
[00:23:59] Here's even a better question.
[00:24:02] Are you that for someone else?
[00:24:06] We need others cheering us on, and we too need to be used to the Lord to cheer others on.
[00:24:13] I thank God for my wife.
[00:24:16] Julie is my greatest cheerleader.
[00:24:19] I thank God for my elders.
[00:24:22] They are a wonderful group of men to shepherd with.
[00:24:26] I thank God for the members of this congregation.
[00:24:30] Time would be remiss. I couldn't go through all the examples how you. Your prayers, your words of encouragement, your words of gratitude.
[00:24:40] They've kept me going. Thank you.
[00:24:44] Beloved, when life gets hard, and, boy, it will, you need to remember whose you are and what God has called you to do. Here's a word of wisdom. Don't forget in the worst of times when you. What God has told you in the best of times.
[00:24:56] Can I get an amen on that? Come on, we're in the Baptist churches. Come on. Don't forget in the worst of times.
[00:25:02] Don't just throw away. Don't have mental amnesia over all the good things. God's done in your life and in mine. If you need to journal it, fine. You need to take daily videos of yourself. It might be weird, might be strange, but if that works for you, you do you okay? I have still shot pictures. I have friends I talk to. I look back at things.
[00:25:21] But don't forget in the worst of times what God has made clear to you in the best of times. Friends, if you belong to Christ, your life is hidden with him. There's no more need to gain approval from him. You already have God's approval because Christ worked for you.
[00:25:35] Now we serve, we labor, we toil, we risk, we sacrifice. Because the payment's already made. It's been made in full. Now we're free to serve the Lord.
[00:25:45] Not to earn salvation, but but to respond with humble, joyful gratitude because we have salvation.
[00:25:55] Friends, also heed Timothy's own example. You need to heed wise counsel from others who speak into your life.
[00:26:04] Don't be a self made man or a self made woman. You're just a few decisions from being a self deceived person.
[00:26:11] Timothy needed perspective from seasoned, wise, godly men and he needed that from Paul. He needed a whole entourage. He needed a healthy church. Friends, how much more do we now for Timothy?
[00:26:29] Why did Paul feel the need to say, Timothy, don't forget what Jesus has done for you. Don't forget all the confirmation he made to you through the prophecies of these men of God. Don't forget that. Why did he feel that's the need to motivate him to do this charge?
[00:26:50] Well friends, it's because Timothy was put on the front lines of warfare.
[00:26:58] Look what he says next in the text.
[00:27:00] He says that by them, through these prophetic confirmations, you may wage the good warfare.
[00:27:09] Wage the good warfare. Your translation might even say fight the good fight.
[00:27:17] The word literally means to serve in a military campaign.
[00:27:22] It means be a soldier, go into battle and then it's also implied, lead others into battle with you.
[00:27:34] Now that's interesting language, isn't it?
[00:27:37] I thought Timothy was a Sunday school teacher.
[00:27:40] I thought he was a missionary pastor, mentor kind of guy.
[00:27:45] You know, he's got soft hands, he reads books that are leather bound in his office and drinks pour over coffees and lights candles and eats dark chocolate.
[00:27:55] I just explained to you basically me warfare.
[00:28:02] What?
[00:28:03] I thought pastors were ivory tower. Stay away from the messiness of life. Pontificating about isms and ologies that only 3% of your church cares about. I thought that's what pastors are supposed to do.
[00:28:16] Yes, some of them do. And you don't need to join their church because they're no good for you.
[00:28:22] Shepherds smell like sheep, and shepherds get bit by sheep and shepherds get attacked by wolves.
[00:28:31] A real shepherd, a real pastor, doesn't just pontificate about theology, but he gets in the trenches. And when you get really close to people, you're going to engage in real active warfare.
[00:28:46] Now, what's all this chatter about? Paul?
[00:28:49] Come on, Paul, what are you talking about? Is this the Navy Seals? Is this Delta Force? Why is Timothy called a soldier?
[00:28:57] Friends. Paul is now introducing language that is revealed all throughout the New Testament that there is more going on in the world than what's going on in Iran.
[00:29:07] There is more going on in the world than what's going on in Somalia. There is more going on in the world than what's going on with drug lords in Mexico.
[00:29:17] There is more going on in the world than barbed wire, biceps and bombshells. There's. There is more going on than what the naked eye can see.
[00:29:29] He's speaking about the unseen realm, the unseen world.
[00:29:36] He calls it the invisible battle of spiritual forces and evil in the heavenly places.
[00:29:44] I listened to an interview of a former Satanist who became a born again Christian.
[00:29:55] He said this.
[00:29:57] There are spirits and demons everywhere and they are watching you.
[00:30:05] This is not just some kind of YouTube clickbait.
[00:30:09] This is the Holy Spirit inspired New Testament.
[00:30:12] What did Paul say in Ephesians 6?
[00:30:15] Finally, be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
[00:30:22] For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all to stand firm. What is the armor? Verse 14. Stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints and also for me that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly and as I ought to speak.
[00:31:21] I recently read one author make an interesting observation.
[00:31:25] He said, if you read the New Testament, not every letter in every book, but every writer of the New Testament mentions in some shape or form Satan.
[00:31:40] In fact, 29 times Satan is mentioned in the gospel, 25 of the 29 is mentioned by Jesus himself.
[00:31:54] That's why it's impossible not to see what kind of warfare Christians are really in if we pay close attention not to the news, but the word of God.
[00:32:07] Friends, if you want to think more about spiritual warfare from a biblical perspective, you might want to jot some of these texts down.
[00:32:16] 2nd Corinthians 10. This is what Paul said to the Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians 10 3, 5 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against this knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
[00:32:37] Paul would later say to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6, verse 12 Fight the good fight of the faith.
[00:32:43] Again in 2nd Timothy 2, verse 4, no soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. Appealing to Timothy as a soldier of Christ again at the end of Paul's life, what were some of his last words? We often quote them around funerals and people who finished well. 2nd Timothy 4, verse 7 I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith and friends, the spiritual battle we're in. Listen is not just what is outside of us.
[00:33:17] There's also a warfare going on inside of us.
[00:33:24] Our sinful anti Jesus unredeemed humanness, the sinful old you and me that has died.
[00:33:39] But sometimes remnants and residual effects of that rebellion creeps back up again.
[00:33:46] James 4, verse 1.
[00:33:49] What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
[00:33:57] 1st Peter 2:11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul.
[00:34:07] Friends, whether we have served in the armed forces or not, if you are a Christian, you are enlisted in warfare.
[00:34:13] There's a warfare outside of us, and there is a warfare going on inside of us, and it is 24,7. Warfare never has a vacation. If you take a vacation from the battle, you are surrendering in the battle.
[00:34:29] Notice, though Paul doesn't say when you become a Christian, your battles end.
[00:34:34] You just switch teams and notice it's the good warfare.
[00:34:43] In other words, there is warfare and fights and arguments that actually the Lord doesn't want us to fight.
[00:34:50] That's a part of the deception in spiritual warfare is unbelievers and carnal, immature Christians and people who don't have the right perspective on Jesus. And what we're supposed to be doing here can get you and I distracted in fighting wars we should have never fought.
[00:35:09] Friends, maybe you're here this morning and you're wondering, how will I know if I'm being opposed or attacked or. Or in the midst of spiritual warfare? How will I know?
[00:35:24] There are many things I could share, but I'll give you seven if you want to know at any given time, I would tend to say if more than two or three of these things are going on at the same time you are engaged, you are in live combat of spiritual warfare. Number one, false teaching.
[00:35:45] False teaching.
[00:35:47] False teaching that undermines the gospel. Distrust the inerrancy of God's word, and it contradicts core Christian doctrine. First Timothy 4, 1 2. Now, the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared. False teaching is. Is demonic.
[00:36:13] Number two, False information.
[00:36:18] False information.
[00:36:20] We're not talking about people who had the best of intentions and shared something or passed on something or got on the telephone train and accidentally messed up the facts. I'm not talking about that.
[00:36:32] We're talking about spreading information as truth that is a lie and getting you to believe it.
[00:36:46] Think of television for a moment.
[00:36:48] Think of the average commercial that you and I have been exposed to.
[00:36:52] Think of the sewer that is coming into our heads under most things that we would call normal, natural and neutral.
[00:37:02] There is no commercial. There is no television show, there is no movie that is neutral for our souls. Do you know that the fact that you and I believe it's neutral is a part of the deception?
[00:37:16] Why is it that people get themselves in money trouble?
[00:37:19] Because we want to keep up with the Joneses. Every Christmas we got to outdo the next family. Every birthday we got to outdo that uncle and that aunt, and we spend money we don't have. We swipe, we click, and we're in Debt and we're in chains, hook, line and sinker. And guess what happened?
[00:37:36] We bought a lie.
[00:37:38] Where does the deception come in?
[00:37:41] It's our eyes, it's our ears, and it's the lust of our hearts. Social media, department stores, all of it movies, they're all giving us a message to appeal to something, but it's false information.
[00:37:56] Thirdly, false converts.
[00:37:58] False converts, false conversions, both out in the world and in the Church. Satan plants weeds amongst the wheat, goats among the sheep, wolves in sheep's clothing. He's crafty in making people think who are goats, think they are sheep. He deceives them by getting them to think they're saved by their own good works. A prayer. They prayed. They the family they came from, instead of grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone.
[00:38:31] Number four, jealousy and selfish ambition.
[00:38:37] Jealousy and selfish ambition.
[00:38:40] According to James Chapter three, jealousy and selfish ambition can spring up even among Christians.
[00:38:47] You know how Satan wants to divide churches. If he can't get them with doctrine, he'll get them with impure desire.
[00:38:57] James says when there is infighting among Christians, fighting and bickering, backstabbing each other with. Instead of defending the truth together, instead of taking on the enemy together, they're fighting against each other.
[00:39:10] That's demonic.
[00:39:13] That's demonic.
[00:39:15] Some division is necessary. Jesus says he came not to bring peace, but a sword. Amen and Hallelujah. But when there is sin involved, and it's in the bride and body of Christ, you best believe the demonic is active.
[00:39:31] Number five, division in marriage.
[00:39:35] At this point, I'll say sinful division.
[00:39:38] A lack of forgiveness towards your spouse, marital apathy, marital neglect between husbands and wives. Think about where the first sin was attacked. It was in the garden of a married couple.
[00:39:52] What happened in the garden?
[00:39:55] Eve listened to the voice of the serpent, ignoring the voice of God. Adam did not lead or shepherd his wife. And guess what happened? The helper put became the head. The head didn't even help. And they both followed Satan into sin and neither one of them listened to God. How many marriage struggles and problems do we experience in the church is because Satan has slithered his way in to so many households to reverse the order and the goodness of men and women in a complimentary fashion.
[00:40:27] It's not even just in gender roles and marriage responsibilities, but even in a married couple's sex life.
[00:40:34] When a husband and wife are sinfully selfish in the marriage bed, First Corinthians 7:3:5 says Satan will find a way to tempt them.
[00:40:44] First Corinthians 7:5. Read it sometime.
[00:40:47] Number six. Bitterness.
[00:40:49] Bitterness, unrepentant, sinful anger that festers in our hearts.
[00:40:55] Alan's going to be preaching next week, Lord willing, from Ephesians 4. It'll say this. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil. Interesting. He's, he's, he's connecting their bitterness with the devil coming in.
[00:41:14] I heard someone recently say unforgiveness is like drinking rat poison and waiting for the rat to die.
[00:41:22] Satan loves keeping people in a constant state.
[00:41:26] Bitterness, number seven. Last one.
[00:41:32] You are an act of warfare. If you or the person you are dialoguing with, or maybe both, are full of self righteous pride.
[00:41:40] Self righteous pride. One of the qualifications of a man to be an elder is he must not be a novice, green behind the ears, or spiritually immature. He must not be a recent convert. Why? First Timothy 3, 6. So that he would not become puffed up with conceit and fallen to the condemnation of the devil. Anytime you see someone full of themself and full of pride unrepentantly, you best believe the devil's loving it. Because the devil's always been full of himself and he loves causing people to fall who are likewise friends. These are just seven tactics, seven signs that you and I are engaged in spiritual warfare.
[00:42:18] We've all been warned, but the battle is worth it.
[00:42:24] Paul told Timothy you were to wage the good warfare, the warfare on the outside and the warfare on the inside.
[00:42:32] But here is the very important question is how should Timothy, how should we wage the good warfare? Which leads to point number two. Stay anchored to Jesus by guarding your inner life from moral compromise. Stay anchored to Jesus by guarding your inner life from moral compromise.
[00:42:56] Look at verse 19.
[00:42:58] He explains how to do this, how to wage the warfare. He says, holding faith in a good conscience.
[00:43:06] The word holding means holding fast to keep, let go.
[00:43:13] It's the idea of you giving someone your keys to your house and your car or your wallet and your Social Security number and all the most valuable things you have. And what do we tell people? Maybe if you're a father or mother, telling your children, guard this with your life.
[00:43:33] Guard it like your life depends on it.
[00:43:38] That's what he's saying.
[00:43:40] Hold, guard, protect. What? Faith and a good conscience.
[00:43:48] Now what is faith and a good conscience? Let's start off with what is faith?
[00:43:53] There is objective Christian doctrine, the Gospel, the word of God, that is the Christian faith. And then there is a subjective in experiential Faith in the objective Christian faith. Okay, it's really both. And faith is the God ordained instrument through which we cling.
[00:44:14] Trust in and believe in Jesus Christ, his person and his work. Let me give you a word picture.
[00:44:24] When Peter said, hey, Jesus tell me to walk on the water.
[00:44:28] And he tried and he started walking.
[00:44:31] But what happened when he put his eyes on the storm and not on Jesus?
[00:44:35] The Bible says he began to sink. He only had three words come out of his mouth. Lord, save me. That's faith.
[00:44:44] Lord, I got nothing.
[00:44:46] It's you or nothing. It's do or die. It's you and you alone that can save me. He's the narrow door. He's the narrow gate. He's. He's the narrow way. If it's Christ and Christ alone, you're holding fast to him, that's faith.
[00:45:03] Scriptures also tell us that our faith needs to grow.
[00:45:08] Faith is not to be inactive.
[00:45:11] Faith in some ways is like God giving you in your body muscles. But those muscles need to be worked out. We, we were to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
[00:45:22] That means God tells us to obey him because it flexes and strengthens our muscles to trust him during fiery trials which purify the dross from our sinfulness and our carnality and our self reliance so that our faith is more pure.
[00:45:40] Mark Jones says God keeps us in Christ while we look to him.
[00:45:47] God keeps us in Christ while we look to him. So that's faith.
[00:45:52] What's a good conscience?
[00:45:55] What's a good conscience?
[00:45:57] Our conscience is our consciousness of what you and I believe is right and wrong at any given moment.
[00:46:06] It's our consciousness of what you and I believe is right or wrong at any given moment. And here's the thing that can change.
[00:46:13] It can change over time.
[00:46:16] Now, on the one hand, our conscience is not the voice of God.
[00:46:20] And therefore our conscience, our internal moral compass, can sometimes be wrong. It can either be overactive, we're overly sensitive conscience, or it can be seared and callous. We don't even feel right and wrong anymore. But for most people, we're somewhere in between.
[00:46:38] Our conscience is not fallible. I'm sorry, Our conscience is fallible, not infallible. Only God's word is infallible.
[00:46:46] However, our conscience is God's alarm system telling us, don't do that.
[00:46:52] That's not good. That was wrong. That was bad.
[00:46:55] It's like touching the stove. Ow. Ooh.
[00:46:59] Never want to do that again.
[00:47:00] That's our conscience.
[00:47:03] It's waking us up. It's an alarm that God has placed in in all humanity. And when our conscience is consistent with God's word, we can be more confident rather than less confident.
[00:47:16] We're pleasing God in our decisions.
[00:47:19] So then what is a good conscience?
[00:47:21] Not just a conscience, but a good one.
[00:47:24] It's a conscience that is walking in the will of God according to the word of God.
[00:47:30] In other words, you're discipling your conscience on what God approves and disapproves. Because our conscience is not infallible. God's word is. We need to constantly educate our conscience.
[00:47:42] Now, Paul is not just bringing this out of thin air.
[00:47:45] Remember back in verse five, he said this was the goal of teaching sound doctrine. It's love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
[00:47:57] Friends, he is basically telling Timothy, if you don't want to go be another man disqualified in the ministry, if you don't want to lead your church to become another sellout, that the devil gets to parade and harass, that he's captured under his arms again, it's going to start with you young man, and your inner life.
[00:48:21] What's going on when no one else is watching.
[00:48:27] And that's precisely what happened.
[00:48:30] Paul says there were some in the Ephesian Church that rejected it means to shove out of the way. They repudiated and they repelled from themselves a good conscience and they made shipwreck of their faith.
[00:48:44] Paul had been literally shipwrecked multiple times. He uses that imagery in the Ephesians as a port city to bring to bear. Listen, this is like the Titanic crashing into the iceberg and. And everyone suffers and is dying.
[00:49:00] What is Paul saying here?
[00:49:02] Listen up ccbc.
[00:49:08] Paul is saying it is not your or my education that keeps us in the faith.
[00:49:14] It is not the family we come from. It's not our zealous personality or our gifts.
[00:49:21] Paul says it's fundamentally on how we're protecting and heeding our conscience.
[00:49:29] Friends, people walk away from the faith all the time. They make a shipwreck of their professed Christianity and even their ministry and everyone suffers from it. How did they fall away? It was one moral compromise at a time.
[00:49:47] I'm not given theory.
[00:49:49] I know these men.
[00:49:53] They've got M divs. They've preached in pulpits, they've written hymns and songs and are disqualified and have renounced the faith and have left their marriage and family. What would have caused someone who was Orthodox, who was confessional, who was Baptist, who was a regenerate, at least on the outside it appeared to be for a time to do that.
[00:50:16] They didn't hold fast to the faith with a good conscience, Friends, we may hide our lives from others, but God sees everything.
[00:50:32] And if we ignore God's promptings and convictions and don't do that, we could hit the mute button on God's kindness in the conscience and we don't hear from him anymore.
[00:50:49] John Stott said, if we disregard the voice of conscience, allowing sin to remain unconfessed and unforsaken, our faith will not long survive.
[00:51:02] Friends, every day I try to leave home and never forget two things. My keys, my wallet.
[00:51:10] When I come to church on Sundays, I make sure to have my Bible and my sermon notes. And on the Lord's Supper Sundays, my jacket.
[00:51:20] The elders have to remind me, don't leave home without it.
[00:51:24] You know what Paul's telling Timothy. Don't you wake up one day in your life. Don't you enter the church doors. Don't you preach one sermon unless you are holding fast a faith in Jesus Christ and guarding and protecting your conscience to stay good, like your life is dependent on it, because it is.
[00:51:45] And Timothy, there are people in your own church who rejected this and made shipwreck of their whole life.
[00:51:56] So that then really begs a good question, doesn't it?
[00:52:00] How do you maintain a good conscience?
[00:52:06] I'll give you a few thoughts.
[00:52:08] Number one, calibrate your conscience according to scripture.
[00:52:14] Calibrate your conscience according to scripture.
[00:52:18] All of us. The longer you drive a car, it needs maintenance, right? Check the tires, check the oil, check the tread life on your tires. Check your air filters. Go to someone who knows what they're talking about.
[00:52:29] Brake pads, whatever you want to talk about. Or maybe it's the scale in your home.
[00:52:35] Maybe it's one of those scales that are always £5 off.
[00:52:39] You wish it was £5 off the less, but you go to someone else's house and it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's different than my one in my house. What do you need to do with your scale? It needs to be recalibrated.
[00:52:52] Something's off.
[00:52:54] Friends, there's not a day that goes by that our conscience does not need to be recalibrated. Sunday is the great recalibration day, but Monday through Saturday, we should all be recalibrating our conscience according to the infallible. Thus saith the Lord.
[00:53:09] William Plummer said, the Bible is for all times because its author knew what was in man.
[00:53:16] Number two, maintaining a good conscience. Number two, resolve ahead of time.
[00:53:21] To do the right thing.
[00:53:23] Resolve ahead of time to do the right thing. Here it is just really simple for you.
[00:53:30] Don't plan to sin, plan to obey.
[00:53:35] Don't plan to sin, plan to obey. Don't premeditate on how you're trying not to get caught or seen with anything in your life.
[00:53:47] Live a fishbowl life. It's super freeing.
[00:53:50] You're not hiding anything.
[00:53:55] Paul says in Acts 24:16. So I always take pains to have a clear conscience towards both God and man.
[00:54:03] Mark Jones says, faith looks to God for deliverance not just in temptations, but also before they arrive.
[00:54:09] Anyone wishing great strength in temptation must be in much prayer before temptation comes.
[00:54:15] What did Jesus tell us to pray? Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Lead us therefore into repentance ahead of time.
[00:54:27] What does that look like?
[00:54:30] Don't go somewhere where you know you'll fall.
[00:54:34] Don't be on your phone or computers at night if you know you're going to fall.
[00:54:38] Don't isolate yourself when you're utterly angry and bitter towards someone. Get help quick.
[00:54:44] Confess quick. My pastor used to tell me, growing up, stay clean from sin. Stay close to Jesus. Confess sin quickly. Don't let it sit there.
[00:54:56] Number three.
[00:54:58] Don't go with the crowd if the crowd contradicts Jesus.
[00:55:03] Don't go with the crowd if the crowd contradicts Jesus. Students, kids, everybody.
[00:55:11] One of the temptations that the evil one and this fallen world do to especially young people.
[00:55:17] Well, everybody else is doing it.
[00:55:20] I want to fit in.
[00:55:22] They all have boyfriends. They all have girlfriends. It's not that big of a deal.
[00:55:27] No one's going to get hurt.
[00:55:29] Everyone sows some wild oats at some point in their life.
[00:55:33] I just want to have fun.
[00:55:37] We're going back to spiritual warfare again, aren't we? What does that sound like?
[00:55:40] False information. What's false information? It's a lie.
[00:55:45] Friends. It is much better to have no friends and have a friend in Jesus than have many friends and be separated from Jesus forever.
[00:55:54] Number four. When you're struggling, get help sooner than later.
[00:56:00] When you're struggling, get help sooner than later. Don't try to solve all your problems by yourself.
[00:56:07] If you're struggling with some sin, tell someone.
[00:56:11] Tell someone that loves you and trusts you and is going to remind you of the gospel. Get it to the light quick.
[00:56:18] Sin grows in the dark, but it shrivels in the light.
[00:56:22] Number five.
[00:56:24] Fear God and you will have a clear conscience.
[00:56:30] Fear God and you will have a clear conscience.
[00:56:34] What do I mean by that? If you go back to the beatitudes we talked about earlier, one of the last ones always blows me away. When Jesus says, blessed are you. When others persecute, you say all kind of evil things about you on account of my name. He says, give a heel click for Jesus, jump for joy, for your reward is great in heaven. How can someone jump for joy when they're being dogpiled and trashed?
[00:56:58] Because my conscience is clear. You keep hurling that accusation to me, but it just bounces off like a bouncy ball.
[00:57:05] Well that's interesting Comments. That doesn't bother me because it's not true.
[00:57:12] Friends, I can't tell you the power of a clear conscience will get you through the worst of times more than you realize.
[00:57:18] It's not infallible. But when you're not hiding in sin, you're getting help when you need it. You're fearing the Lord, you're calibrating your conscience. You're not trying to fake it to make it, but you're walking in the light. The best you know how God gives you the gift of a clear and good and joy filled conscience. Where your head is up, your eyes and other people's eyeballs. Not self righteous pride, but freedom.
[00:57:41] That's why every Lord's day we need to remind each other. Sin lied to me again, didn't it? Yeah. Yep. Did it lie to you? Yep. Let's remind her that we're freed in Christ.
[00:57:53] Friends, when temptation comes, the real battle begins. Right here.
[00:57:58] Right here. That's the war out here, but in here, faith and a good conscience.
[00:58:05] Now what do we see others in the church in Ephesus doing that? Paul wanted Timothy not to imitate.
[00:58:15] Friends, he reminds Timothy that not everyone who professes faith possesses faith. Look at verse 20, verse 20 he says, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
[00:58:34] Paul now name drops two particular men into the heinous category of those who've made a shipwreck of their faith. Their names are Hymenaeus and Alexander. Who are these guys? Well, it possibly is the same guy. In second Timothy 2:17 he was a false teacher. He was teaching people that the resurrection of the Lord had passed.
[00:58:55] In other words, basically Jesus had already come back. The resurrection of the living and the dead had already happened. So basically had an extreme wart understanding of eschatology. And it says they were upsetting the faith of some.
[00:59:09] In other words, his teaching was unorthodox. It was contradictory to the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed and things that Christians have confessed for 2,000 years.
[00:59:19] It's what we call today heresy.
[00:59:22] Someone who is not just off a little, but they're off big time. If you believe in heretical things unrepentantly, you go to hell.
[00:59:33] Secondly, we know that he was influential.
[00:59:36] He was influential. He had this guy named Alexander with him. We're not entirely sure which Alexander he was, but these were likely former elders, former pastors.
[00:59:45] The fact that Paul even uses their name. Timothy knew them, Paul knew them. The Ephesian Church knew them. They were well known, they were influential, they had a platform, they had a following, and they were dangerous.
[01:00:01] Paul told the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, but from among yourselves. Elders will arise, men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. Friends, I have seen this kind of spiritual warfare among men. And I have seen this kind of spiritual warfare among women.
[01:00:34] Women can be conniving and manipulative and draw women who are either untaught or gullible or distrusting of authority and follow them.
[01:00:50] There are men that also have an agenda full of pride, love, power, full of jealousy and self, and have had droves. Follow them.
[01:01:01] Oh, pray that that would never be true of me or you.
[01:01:04] Pray that God would show us that hypocrisy before it grows.
[01:01:08] Friends, these men could have been discipled by Paul.
[01:01:12] They could have been in the elder room. They could have been in a gospel preaching church like ours.
[01:01:17] And what is this teaching us? It teaches that not everyone who professes faith possesses faith.
[01:01:26] Friends, hypocrisy runs deep.
[01:01:29] Have you ever heard the saying, there's a God shaped hole in all of us?
[01:01:33] I'm not entirely sure if that's true, but if it is true, it's a really big hole.
[01:01:38] And it's a really big hole that only Jesus can fill.
[01:01:42] That's the only cure for our hypocrisy. That's the only cure for a fake faith in a soiled conscience. That that's the only cure for a wandering people like us to be secure in the love of God. And it's Jesus Christ.
[01:01:57] Jesus told, tells us in his word, enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide that leads to destruction. And many go that way, but enter through the narrow gate and follow me on the narrow way. And few who find it, but they find life in him.
[01:02:11] Why on the last day will many people say, lord, Lord, did we not do X, Y and Z? And he will say, depart from me not. I used to know you and I forgot you, but I never knew you.
[01:02:21] It's not because we didn't do more good things with our life. It's because there are many people who are putting their faith in their good deeds or themselves and not Jesus Christ.
[01:02:33] Friends, the difference between Timothy and Paul and Hymenaeus and Alexander is where was their faith in to begin with?
[01:02:44] You see, Jesus Christ left heaven and he came to this earth and he jumped off a ship and he plumbed the depths of suffering and death for us.
[01:03:00] He suffered the punishments for sin that he did not deserve, so that us who have experienced shipwreck because of our own sin can be saved and anchored to him and have life.
[01:03:17] Friends, the grave couldn't hold him.
[01:03:19] And if Jesus went down to the bottom of the ocean, he goes to save all the corpse like us and bring us back to the ship again.
[01:03:26] Jesus Christ, the captain of our salvation, says, I will wrap my arms around you, tie myself to you, and you will be anchored to to me, the sure and steadfast anchor of your soul. And if your faith this morning is in the finished work of Jesus Christ in His resurrection from the dead, in his promised return, in his righteousness imputed to you, all your sins are forgiven and you will not make shipwreck of your faith. Praise be to God.
[01:03:56] Being anchored to Jesus, you can go through any storm and you won't shipwreck your faith. Why? Because he is the Lord of the conscience. He gave you the faith to believe and the work he begins in us he promises to complete. Praise be to God.
[01:04:13] Friends, the captain of our salvation loves his sheep.
[01:04:19] And he loved Paul and Timothy and the Ephesian Church.
[01:04:25] These men were dangerous and influential and they were having a following. And so Paul and as a good pastor, names, drops them, warns them, don't listen to them, don't follow them, stay the course.
[01:04:39] Notice he also says some really interesting words here. I have handed them over to Satan.
[01:04:44] They may learn not to blaspheme what's going on here.
[01:04:49] There are, in a sense, two realms, two dominions.
[01:04:57] You can just track with me for a minute.
[01:04:59] The whole world is God's. It's all of God's. Satan is not equally powerful as God. He's God's devil. Okay, but the people of God who are filled with the spirit of God are called the dwelling place of God, the church.
[01:05:16] We've been saved and snatched out of the fallen world system that is ruled by the lowercase G God, Satan himself.
[01:05:25] When he says I've delivered them over to Satan, he is speaking about what the New Testament teaches on loving, corrective, restorative, church discipline.
[01:05:37] They were members, they were outstanding leaders.
[01:05:41] But their teaching and their good conscience revealed they were not truly among them. They weren't a sheep, they were a wolf.
[01:05:51] And he says this handing over to Satan is the removal from the care and protection, the fellowship and the accountability of regenerate church membership in the handing over it was to be corrective and restorative so they would learn not to blaspheme.
[01:06:13] What does blaspheme mean? It's what Paul did.
[01:06:16] He was a blasphemer. He smeared the name of Christ, taught false teaching and led people to do the same. This was to in hopes restore them, to remove them from fellowship, remove them from the Lord's table so they might be awakened before it's too late.
[01:06:34] Brothers and sisters, our local church strives to be faithful to Jesus in practicing disciple making which involves formative discipline and corrective discipline. We are all being disciplined. Right now we just call it discipled.
[01:06:52] That's the same thing.
[01:06:54] All disciples are being disciplined and the discipline of Christ are all disciples.
[01:07:00] Friend. Sometimes it's a gentle word of a correction, other times it's a sharp rebuke. Jesus tells us in Matthew 18 as we go through the steps of correction and calling to repentance. If someone does not repent, we tell the church in First Corinthians 5. Paul told the Corinthians to deliver this immoral man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit may be saved.
[01:07:24] Church discipline, rightly understood, is an expression of love to purify the church. But also call those who are in sin and in error to repentance and and to know the love of God.
[01:07:38] Friends. Verse 20 is both a warning and a hope to us.
[01:07:43] Here's the warning. Don't pretend to be someone you're not.
[01:07:49] Don't try to fake it to make it. There are no con artist Christians.
[01:07:54] You either believe and love and trust in Jesus or you don't.
[01:08:00] There's also a word of hope.
[01:08:03] How loving God is to actually tell us if our conscience is off.
[01:08:10] How loving God is to send us Pauls to encourage us in the turnbuckle. How kind it is for God to send us Timothy's to teach us and do hard things to protect the church. How kind, how gracious, how loved Jesus is who would leave heaven for us to anchor us to him to bring us back up to heaven with him.
[01:08:34] Friends, this passage is hard and even disorienting. It might be for some of us it is an act of love.
[01:08:42] I don't know what happened to Hymenaeus and Alexander.
[01:08:46] If Hymenaeus is the same cat in second Timothy it probably didn't end well for him.
[01:08:52] Brothers and sisters, when life gets hard and boy will it, remember what Jesus has done in your life.
[01:09:05] When temptation comes and it's coming, guard your inner life from moral compromise.
[01:09:15] When ministry is messy remember that not everyone who professes faith possesses faith.
[01:09:26] And if Jesus is your savior, take heart, you won't shipwreck your faith.
[01:09:35] And when the race is complete our lips shall repeat yet not I but through Christ in me.
[01:09:45] Let's pray.
