HOW NOT TO SUFFER SHIPWRECK

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on December 1, 2024 under 2024 |

Bethany Bible Church Sermon Message from December 1, 2024 from 1 Timothy 1:18-20

Theme: We must keep a good conscience in our commitment to the faith, lest we suffer shipwreck in our walk with Jesus.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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God our Creator has given us a wonderful gift. It’s a gift that each one of us was given at birth. It grows along with us, and that remains with us throughout our lives. We may not think about it very often, but we definitely benefit from it when we let it work in us as we should. Life in this world would be very difficult—if not impossible—without it.

But there’s a responsibility attached to this wonderful gift. We must be careful with it, lest we misuse it, or mistreat it, or so misdirecting it that we end up warping it. We can even ignore it and disregard it so much that we no longer experience its God-given purpose in our lives. And when that happens, we can end up suffering terrible loss.

In this morning’s passage, the apostle Paul wrote to Pastor Timothy about the importance of this gift—and of the need to be careful to let it do the work in us that God intends for it to do. That gift is called ‘a conscience’. And in 1 Timothy 1:18-20, Paul wrote to Timothy and said;

This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme (1 Timothy 1:18-20).

This is a very serious passage. In these words, the Holy Spirit—through His servant Paul—teaches us how important this valuable gift from God called ‘the conscience’ is to us as followers of Jesus … and how terrible a disaster we could suffer if we ignore it!

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Now; have you ever given thought to this thing in us called a conscience? It’s a rather mysterious thing; but we’re all very aware of its presence in us. Have you ever tried to define it?

Think of its name. The English word ‘conscience’ comes from the Latin word conscientia; and that word comes from the joining of the Latin prefix con—which means “with”—to the Latin word for “knowing”. So conscientia means “with-knowing”. The Greek word that the apostle Paul used in this morning’s passage functions in much the same way. It comes from putting the Greek preposition sun—which means “with”—before the Greek word oida; so that suneidēsis means “with-knowledge”. This refers to a kind of knowledge that God has wired into our very being that enables us to know right from wrong ‘with’ or ‘in accordance to’ His moral law. It’s an inherent knowledge that compels us to do what is right and to avoid what is wrong. So; it truly is a “with-knowledge” … an inward knowledge that works within us in cooperation with the principles of God’s law.

Some people think of the conscience as something imaginary. But the Bible treats it as an authentic feature of our being—a real, internal, built-in moral knowledge placed in us by God our Creator. And what’s more, the Bible tells us much about it. For example, the apostle Paul mentioned it in Romans 2:14-15. He was writing about how even pagan people—people who had never heard the Ten Commandments spelled out for them in the Bible—nevertheless have an inherent knowledge of what those commandments teach. He wrote;

… for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel (Romans 2:13-16).

As an aspect of having made us in His own image, God has graciously placed in every human being this ‘built-in’ sense of His holy law—a “with-knowledge”—that functions within them even if they’ve never read His law as it’s written in the Scriptures. It’s the knowledge that they should not commit murder, or violate marriage, or steal, or lie, or desire what belongs to someone else. It’s even a knowledge that God is there and that He deserves to be worshiped. It’s not enough of a knowledge to save people in the way that only faith in Jesus can. But it is enough of a knowledge to compel them to do what is right, and to convict them when they do what is wrong, and to adjudicate either for or against them on the day of judgment. What a powerful and necessary thing this ‘conscience’ is!

Now; for the man or woman who indeed does have the law of God in the form of the Scriptures—and who has placed his or her faith in Jesus—this built-in knowledge called ‘the conscience’ is given the additional benefit of being properly informed and guided by the Scriptures. It’s a ‘with-knowledge’ that has greater clarity than it otherwise would. But the Bible warns us that the conscience can be harmed and rendered ineffective—even in the case of those who profess to believe—by neglect or misuse. In 1 Timothy 4:1-2, the apostle Paul wrote;

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron … (1 Timothy 4:1-2).

This touches on the very reason why Paul wrote this particular letter to Timothy. Paul was warning him that some false teachers had been making their way into the church and were teaching dangerous errors to God’s people. Even people who had once professed a faith in Jesus can be pulled away from the faith and into sinful practices and sinful beliefs—ignoring or even suppressing the voice of the conscience that God has put in them, and actually as it were ‘cauterizing’ their conscience as with a hot iron so that it doesn’t indicate right and wrong to them any longer.

It’s very dangerous to the soul when that happens. In Titus 1:15-16, the apostle Paul wrote;

To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work (Titus 1:15-16).

Once someone begins to silence or suppress the voice of conscience within themselves, they begin a downward slide into sinful beliefs and sinful practices. Even if they profess to believe in God, they still end up denying Him through their behavior. Tragically, many even end up denying God altogether.

I make a personal observation here; but I believe it’s one that you yourself might recognize in your own experience. I have seen professing Christians who—at one time—were very vocal in their devotion to the Lord. They faithfully attended church, they faithfully read their Bible, and they even faithfully served in the Lord’s work. But after a while, you didn’t see them in church anymore. And when you happen to meet them again and ask about their spiritual life, you hear them saying things they had never said before; things like, “I’m not so sure about the Bible anymore. After all, there are lots of other religions that have their ‘sacred books’. And Science seems to have proven that so many things in the Bible are wrong. So, how do we know we can trust it anyway?” Or you might hear them saying, “I’m not sure anymore that Jesus is the ‘only’ way. After all, lots of different people in this world have their way too. Many people who live differently than Christians are good and decent people. So, aren’t Christians being a little arrogant in saying that their way is the ‘only’ way?”

And when I hear that kind of talk from a one-time professing Christian, what I begin to suspect—and what, in fact, I have often found to be the case—is that they had begun to let something into their lives that they knew they shouldn’t let in. They began to develop a relationship with someone that they knew they should have, or they began to watch things on the Internet or view things that they knew they shouldn’t be seeing, or they began to partake of practices that they knew God had said ‘no’ to in His word. Their knowledge of what God requires of them—the knowledge reinforced in them by the voice of conscience—began to be in irreconcilable conflict with what they were doing in practice; and they just couldn’t live with that conflict anymore. And so, instead of paying attention to the voice of the conscience that God put in them, they chose to ignore it. Pretty soon, they begin to drown it out by turning instead to other philosophies or teachers who affirmed and celebrated what their conscience was telling them was wrong. They had ‘faith’ at one time, but they didn’t keep both ‘faith’ and ‘a good conscience’ together. And in time, they ended up making a wreck of their faith … and very often, also a wreck of the whole course of their lives.

Now; the good news is that the Bible teaches us that a broken and seared conscience can be restored by repenting of our sin, by returning to the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness, and by placing ourselves—once again—under His grace and under His lordship. I love what it tells us in Hebrews 10:19-22;

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (Hebrews 10:19-22).

But these words from the apostle Paul highlight the terrible danger of holding on to the faith of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ while failing to—at the same time—keep a good conscience before God.  It’s hard to stress enough the importance of what we’re being told in this morning’s passage.  It teaches us that we absolutely must keep and protect a good conscience along with our commitment to the faith, lest we end up suffering shipwreck in our walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Now; 1 Timothy 1:18-20 develops this for us in three basic steps. In verse 18, we see the command to protect the gospel. But in verse 19, we also see the warning to—at the same time—keep a good conscience. And in verse 20, we see the danger of what happens when we fail to do both together.

So; let’s first consider …

1. THE COMMAND TO PROTECT THE GOSPEL.

We find this in verse 18; where Paul tells Timothy, “This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare …” What is ‘this charge’ or ‘this command’ that Paul committed to Timothy?  It’s the very one that he gave to him at the beginning of this letter. In 1 Timothy 1:3-4, he told Timothy;

As I urged you when I went into Macedonia—remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith (1 Timothy 1:3-4).

In fact, that ‘charge’ or ‘command’ is an underlying theme that we find throughout this letter. Paul wanted Timothy to make sure that no other gospel was taught to the church family—and that no other message was given prominence by the church to the world—than the message that a man or woman is completely saved by faith alone in the sacrifice that Jesus has made for us on the cross. As this morning’s passage shows us, one of the reasons that this command was important to keep was because giving heed to ‘false gospels’ and ‘false doctrines’ would—by necessity—require a professing Christian to ignore the voice of the conscience that God had placed in them.

Now; the command that Paul gave to Timothy would have been a controversial command to keep. The people who lived in the ‘tolerant’ and ‘progressive’ culture of ancient Ephesus wouldn’t have liked being told by their pastor not to listen to or teach any other gospel than the gospel of Jesus Christ. It would have taken a good deal of courage for a man like Timothy to keep this charge. It takes courage to keep it today too. So I think it’s very interesting that, when Paul gave this command to Timothy, he said, “ This charge I commit to you, son Timothy …”

Paul often spoke of Timothy in that way. He began his letter by calling him “a true son in the faith”.  I think that it must have been a very encouraging thing for Timothy to know that Paul—his mentor and example—loved him and was committed to him in that way.  It probably indicated that Paul was the one who had first led Timothy to the Lord back during his second missionary journey.  And that name also probably helped to give Timothy strength and courage when he needed it. In fact, in 2 Timothy 2:1, Paul wrote, “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”

But there was another way that Paul encouraged Timothy; and that was by reminding him of the remarkable authority that had been given to him when he was appointed to the task of being a pastor. Paul said that he gave this charge to Timothy “according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare …” Back when Timothy was officially called into the ministry, God had apparently given some of the church leaders several prophetic affirmations concerning his ministry—indicating to him that he had been particularly called and appointed by God to this work.  Later in this letter, in 1 Timothy 4:14, Paul told him;

Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership (1 Timothy 4:14).

Paul said a similar thing in 2 Timothy 1:6-7; when he told him;

Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:6-7).

That ‘gift’ was a call to ministry in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ—a call to serve the Lord’s precious church; and it was accompanied by authenticating prophecies from God concerning that ministry. We don’t know what those prophecies were; but apparently Paul did … and apparently so also did Timothy.  And Paul’s reminder to Timothy of them helped to strengthen Timothy’s resolve to fight diligently to protect the message of the gospel that had been entrusted to his care.

By the way, dear brothers and sisters in Christ; even though you and I may not have the same kind of calling that Timothy had been given—and even though we may not have been admonished by prophecies given by God specifically to us—we nevertheless have been given the same command that Timothy was given. We are duty-bound before God to protect the integrity of the precious message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As it says in Jude 3—in words that were directed to every one of us as believers;

Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints … (Jude 3).

It’s our duty—just as it was Timothy’s duty—to “contend earnestly” for that once-for-all-time faith; and to “wage the good warfare” for the defense and protection of the gospel.  May God help us to courageously do so in our day!

But here’s where we gain a very important lesson from this passage.  It’s not enough, you see, for us to simply keep and preserve the message of the gospel as a merely doctrinal thing.  We also must be careful to live in continual obedience to it before God. In verse 19, Paul gave this important charge to Timothy to wage the good warfare for the gospel, “having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck …” So, here we find …

2. THE WARNING TO ALSO KEEP A GOOD CONSCIENCE.

Now; that’s quite a description of what might happen to us; isn’t it?—a shipwreck? The apostle Paul knew a thing or two about those. In 1 Corinthians 11:25, he said that he had been in three of them. In Acts 28, we’re given a very vivid description of one of those shipwrecks. It tells of how Paul—a very seasoned traveler—had advised the captain and crew of the large commercial ship that he was on that it was a dangerous time to travel; but they nevertheless ignored him and went forward. In the end, everyone on the ship was saved—all 276 passengers; but the ship itself was smashed against the rocks, dashed to pieces by the waves, and became a complete loss.

A ‘shipwreck’ was being used by Paul as a figure of speech for suffering irreparable damage and disastrous loss on account of a careless and foolish decision.  And that’s what happens when we choose to ignore the conscience that God has placed in us.  Any time we start to go in the wrong direction morally, and we feel the gentle call of the Holy Spirit speaking to us through the voice of conscience—telling us, ‘Child of Mine; you know that this thing that you’re doing is wrong.  You know that this belief you’re holding on to is an error. You know that the attitude you’re harboring is a sinful one. You know what My Scriptures teach. You know what My commandments are. Let go of the sinful thing, and follow My way for you”—and anytime that we choose to ignore that voice or suppress it because we don’t want to hear it, it’s as if we’re trying to sail our ship while ignoring the rudder.¹ You’ll eventually hit the rocks and will suffer loss.

When Paul said, “faith and good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck”, the thing he had in mind when he spoke of that ‘which some had rejected’ was a good conscience. Some who had faith had—literally—thrust a good conscience away from themselves … and as a result, they hit the rocks and ‘concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck’.  So; it’s not enough, you see, to simply hold on to the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ as merely an intellectual matter of the mind or as a commitment to a statement of doctrine.  We absolutely must put it to work in daily living and—as Paul phrases it—have “faith and a good conscience”.  We must not try to separate them. The believing and the living must go together.

And that leads us finally to …

3. THE DANGER OF LOSS IF WE FAIL TO DO BOTH.

In verse 20, Paul wrote of some who, having rejected a good conscience, suffered shipwreck; “of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.” Paul had some vivid examples in mind when he wrote this warning to Timothy.

Who are these two men? Alexander was a very common name in those days; so we can’t be too sure about his identity. There are other men named ‘Alexander’ who were very troublesome to Paul’s ministry, and who were even a potential threat to Timothy. But we can’t be completely sure that the ‘Alexander’ that Paul spoke of in verse 20 was any of those other men. But whoever this particular ‘Alexander’ was, he was apparently a partner in the shipwreck of his faith with another man named Hymenaeus.  They both were examples of men who ignored the call of conscience, who ‘blasphemed’ against the Lord, and who ended up suffering terrible shipwreck in their faith as a result.

We can be more certain of who the other man Hymenaeus was. Later on in 2 Timothy 2:17-18; where Paul told Timothy about some within the church who were engaging in the kind of divisive controversies and ‘profane and idle babblings’ that were spreading ungodliness among the believers;

Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some (2 Timothy 2:17-18).

These two men—of whom Hymenaeus was one—were spreading false doctrine in the church about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And do you notice how Paul said that they had “strayed concerning the truth”? That meant that they—at one time—had professed a faith in the truth of the gospel.  But they had failed to listen to the voice of conscience, and had turned away from the truth of the gospel as it was taught in Scripture; apparently teaching that the promised resurrection of the saints in Christ was a ‘figurative’ and ‘symbolic’ event of the past only … and thus ‘speaking against’ the truth and harming the faith of others.

That’s what kind of man Hymenaeus was—and also another man named Alexander along with him. They had gone so far as to ‘blaspheme’ the Lord in their wanderings. And notice carefully the level of shipwreck they ended up suffering. Paul said that he had to turn them both over to Satan—to hand them back, as it were, over to the one from whose clutches they had at one time been delivered by Christ. Paul, no doubt, followed the instructions of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 18. Our Lord said;

“Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ and if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector” (Matthew 18:15-18).

Does that mean that Paul turned Hymenaeus and Alexander over to be forever lost and cast into hell? No. Paul didn’t have the power to save anyone or cast anyone into hell. In another passage in which Paul had to deal with a serious matter of sin within the church, he urged the Corinthian believers;

deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 5:5).

Satan is an evil, wicked, fearsome fallen creature.  But he’s still only a creature who is subject to the sovereign will of God; and he is often used as a tool and an instrument in the hand of God for the discipline of God’s people.  It may be that Paul handed Hymenaus and Alexander over to Satan—for the destruction of their flesh—so that they may learn not to blaspheme the gospel of the Lord Jesus, repent of their sin, and be saved on the day of judgment.

But the point is that these two men—who had failed to keep both “faith and a good conscience”—who ignored and suppressed the voice of conscience—had suffered such ‘shipwreck’ concerning the faith that they had to be handed over to Satan and taught a lesson.

Theirs is a cautionary tale for the rest of us.

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Dear brother or sister in Christ; is there some area of your life right now where you’re hearing the voice of the conscience that God has put in you? Is there an attitude that you’re holding on to that you know is wrong? Is there a relationship that you’re in that you know is out of bounds? Are you reading or watching or seeing material that you know is sinful? Is there a belief that you’ve begun to hold on to that is in violation of the Scriptures; or a biblical belief that you are deliberately resisting and rejecting? Is the conscience that God has placed in you—that ‘with-knowing’ principle that works in accordance with His commandments—speaking to you about it?

Don’t ignore it! To ignore it is to ignore the rudder of the ship.  Keep a good and clear conscience before God as if the very welfare of your spiritual well-being depended upon it.  Because as Paul’s words to Timothy teach us, we must keep a good conscience in our commitment to the faith, so that we will not suffer shipwreck in our walk with Jesus.

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1I’m greatly indebted to William Hendriksen, (Exposition of The Pastoral Epistles, NTC [Grand Rapids: Baker Book House], 1957) for this analogy. He wrote, “A Christian must be both a good soldier and a good sailor. Now a good sailor does not thrust away or discard the rudder of the ship. The good conscience—one that obeys the dictates of the Word as applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit—is the rudder, guiding the believer’s vessel into the safe harbor of everlasting rest. But ‘certain individuals’ (the Ephesian heretics …) have discarded that rudder. The inevitable result was that with reference to their faith—the truth which they had confessed with their lips; the name of Christ which they had named … they suffered shipwreck. If even literal shipwreck is agonizing, as Paul had experienced … how much more to be feared is religious shipwreck!” (p. 86).

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