Message 4
THE BATTLES CHOSEN
B. The Faith Protected
“Command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer.” (1:3)
“Fight the good fight, holding on to faith”(18,19).
Paul uses strong words. He doesn’t tell Timothy to suggest that false teachers stop, he is to command them. He doesn’t tell him to go to Ephesus to rest his soul and seek peace of mind, but to “Wage the good warfare.” This makes me believe Paul was a Baptist. Baptist churches practice “The Four F’s”: food, fun, fellowship, and a good fight. We give a poor witness to the world as we fight about all the wrong things- usually centering in, who runs the church. But not all fighting is bad. Sometimes we need to fight for those things God holds dear and deems important. One is truth, what the NT calls “the faith.” (1:18, Jude 3)
THE FAITH DELIVERED
(Acts 20:29; 1 Tim 1:3,18, 19; 2:17; Jude 3; 2 Pet.3:15)
The NT speaks of a “Christian Faith”, a body of truth that had been delivered in the First Century, to the Church. Before Paul died he said he had “kept the faith.” (2 Tim. 4:7). Jude 3 says, “Earnestly contend for the faith which was once for all entrusted to the Saints.” There is a body of truth that defines true Christianity.
When Paul told Timothy to “hold on to faith”, he was not talking about his personal faith or trust, but the “Christian Faith” as a system of revealed truth about God and His dealings with man. When Paul wrote this letter, the NT was not yet completed, but the fundamental truths had been preached up and down the land by the Lord’s Apostles like Paul, Peter, Matthew, James and John and others given apostolic authority like Junias (Rom. 16:7)
. Finally, as God led men to create the NT, the faith was written down in letters to churches. Peter already called some of Paul’s letters, “Scripture” (2 Peter 3:15).
THE FAITH DEFINED
The “faith” is not the Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian or Pentecostal faith. A friend of mine said he had the answer for all the denominations- everyone should join a great big Baptist church.
We know we are all wrong somewhere- we just don’t know where.
With this in mind, as a Conservative Protestant I am with those who believe the faith would certainly include the following:
(1) The authority of Scripture.
(2) The deity, humanity, virgin birth, perfect life, sacrificial death, physical resurrection, ascension, rule, and literal return of Christ.
(3) The Three-in-one nature of God.
(4) The need of all people for salvation.
(5) Salvation through repentance and faith based on the sacrifice of Jesus.
(6) The coming judgment of all mankind.
(7) Resurrection, heaven and hell.
(8) The Priesthood of every believer to interpret the Bible and approach God for himself through Christ.
Note: This shows the simplicity of our faith. Certain truths, like the Trinity, are hard to understand, but the facts presented are easy to know. Jesus is God. Jesus died to pay for my sins. Jesus will forgive me and change me and let me go to heaven if I will believer he rose from the dead and lives to answer my prayer for salvation.
He wants all of us to be willing to turn from a life dominated by evil desires to a live dominated by Him and His will. He wants me to trust that He loved me enough to die on the cross for me.
I agree with Billy Graham when he says most people don’t reject Christ for intellectual reasons, but for moral reasons, they don’t want Jesus interfering with their lifestyle. They want to be free to “do their own thing”. These are not deep mysteries we have to go to college to understand. They are historical facts we are called on to believe. We can say, “Everything I need to know I learned in Sunday School”
THE FAITH DISTORTED
“Some have rejected these and shipwrecked their faith. Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme. (1:18-20).
1. The People Behind This Error.
The Christian Church is like a river, the further it goes, the more trash and garbage it picks up. The pure NT has been polluted by people who refuse to change their beliefs to fit the Bible and change the Bible to fit their beliefs.
1) There are those who are mistaken.
I counseled a lady who was brought up in the Church of God and thought smoking would send her to hell. She lived in constant fear because she could not quit smoking. I told her smoking would not send her to hell, it would only make her smell like she had been there. She left as guilt ridden and afraid as the day I met her. We find it very difficult to shake the false beliefs we have heard since childhood. These false beliefs come into the Church.
2) There are those who are malicious.
There are also agents of Satan, put in the church to destroy it, false prophets who Jesus (Matt. 7) and Paul (Acts 20) called wolves in sheep’s clothing. Note: If you were the devil, where would you put your servants, to do the most harm, in the bars or in the pulpits, and classrooms and deacon groups?
2. The Particulars of This Error
As I said in the introduction Gnostics solved the problem of good and evil by saying God has no contact with this physical world. Thus they could not believe God would become a human being and they could not believe in Jesus who was fully man and fully God.
3. The Pity Behind This Error
Most of us wrestle with the problem of why God made this world so evil, or allowed it? But while we can sympathize with their questions, we have to condemn them because they changed the Bible and tore the heart out of the Christian faith. God’s Word must be our guide.
Note: The presence of evil and suffering in a world made by a good and loving God has always bothered me. Some truths that help me are:
(1) Sin and suffering are temporary in God’s grand scheme You don’t find them in the first two chapters of the Bible and you don’t find them in the last two chapters of the Bible.
(2) Jesus Christ suffered too. God becoming human in Jesus tells us He was willing to face evil and suffering with us, and ultimately deliver us from it. By denying this, the Gnostics denied the one truth that makes this evil, sorrow filled world bearable- God with us.
4. The Price of this Error
“Timothy- fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.” (1:18-20)
1) Faith is Ship wrecked.
This does not mean the loss of salvation. First John says of these same Gnostic teachers that they went out from us because they really did not belong to us (I Jn. 2:19).
2) Blasphemy is Committed.
In Scripture this points to sin which is serious beyond words, because it is a willful direct attack on God.
3) Conscience is Ignored.
They go against their conscience (v19) when they change the Scriptures to fit their beliefs. They know it is wrong. They have chosen the road of defiance.
5. The Punisher of this Error .
!) The Person Who Punishes
To be handed over to Satan could mean excommunication from the church. Jews excommunicated people from their synagogues and Jesus, in Matthew 18, and Paul, in 1 Corinthians 4, tells the Church to have nothing to do with unrepentant members.
Because people in early America put members out for silly reasons like smoking or working on Sunday, church discipline, where people are removed from church rolls is almost non-existent. We have swung to the other extreme.
A church member can commit any sin known to man and still usher and sing in the choir. When anyone objects, even “good” church members label them as “judges” and accuse them of not loving. Thus church membership in America means absolutely nothing when it comes to a person’s morals and ethics.
This could mean physical pain inflicted. Ananias and his wife fell dead after lying in church (Acts 5). Paul received a painful “thorn” in the flesh “a messenger of Satan” because of his pride (2 Cor. 12). An immoral man in Corinth caused Paul to tell them he should be “handed over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” (13:5) Some at Corinth had either become sick or died, because of their horrible lifestyles (1 Cor.11:30).
2) The Loving Purpose .in Punishment
Paul said the reason for turning people over to Satan was to teach them not to blaspheme. God’s purpose in all discipline is not retaliation but restoration.
Illustration: A famous Pastor, in another denomination, was caught in adultery. He confessed it before his church and gave up his office as Pastor. He and his wife went to counseling. He put himself under the direction of the elders in his church. The man and his wife today are together, traveling and teaching the dangers, the joys and the ways of strengthening marriages.
A Pastor in my denomination was caught in the same sin. He brought his youth director with him to a church because he was having an affair with his wife. The new church found out and he resigned, married his girl friend and started pastoring almost immediately in another state.
I still see his sermons published in national preaching magazines. What a disgrace to the church and to the name of Christ. When we don’t take our commitment to Christ seriously, how can we expect the world to take it seriously? The horrible thing about letting people go with no action is that we, the church, do not minister to them. When Jesus drove the money changers out of the church, every blow was done in love, to make them repent.
