Shipwreck
(I Timothy 1:18-20)
1 Things are getting bad in our world.
2. A shipwrecked mariner spent years on a deserted island, completely alone. Then one morning he sees a ship offshore and a smaller vessel pulling out towards him.
When the boat grounded on the beach, the officer in charge handed the marooned sailor a bundle of newspapers and told him: “The captain said to read through these and let us know if you still want to be rescued.”
3. Today’s text deals with the dangers of a spiritual shipwreck. Paul chose this imagery because he himself had been physically shipwrecked three times:
• 2 Corinthians 11:25, “Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea…”
4. After these 3, Paul experienced a fourth shipwreck on his way to Rome (Acts 27)!
5. Being spiritually shipwrecked: to desert the faith, at least to a degree. It means to no longer report to the Lord for duty and perhaps to deny some essential truths.
Main Idea: We must maintain the right course and not assume the ship will steer itself!
I. How Can We AVOID Shipwreck (18-19a)?
A. We must consider Biblical doctrine as a precious TRUST.
1. Note the command is of verses 3-4
2. Entrust is a banking term … like savings, retirement (doctrine is the cash)
3. At his ordination, Timothy received a prophecy as to how God would use him (1 Tim. 4:14-16); this memory to motivate him to wage the
I Timothy 4:14-16, “Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”
4. We were talking about the 10 commandments the other week in SS. Most people on the street can recite a couple of them, but none of the ones that relate to God. It is as though God doesn’t matter; only being kind seems to.
5. God and sound theology are not a means to an end. God is the end.
B. We must support the troops and engage the TRUTH of God’s Word.
1. We ourselves are engaged in a battle, in God’s navy!
2. We fight for the souls of men, women, and children.
3. Our weapons are not physical, but spiritual. In the realm of thoughts, concepts, worldview.
4. We must quarantine false teachings from our churches, and support ministries with beliefs like ours, not just any beliefs.
5. We must continue to love family and friends who disagree, who believe differently, have different world views, and are not in tune with the true God.
6. God does not want us to be gullible and naïve, like the Corinthians:
2 Corinthians 11:3-4, “But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.”
C. We must keep both FAITH and CONSCIENCE vibrant.
1. Faith includes both the content of what we believe and the conviction that our beliefs are true; important to seek answers to our doubts…
2. A violated conscience is usually the cause for a weakened faith.
3. People feel guilty, so, rather than change their behavior, they change their values and beliefs…
We must maintain the right course and not assume the ship will steer itself!
II. Paul Provides Two Examples of SHIPWRECKED Faith (19b-20).
A. In the case of Hymenaeus and Alexander, they PUSHED OFF carelessly (19b).
1. Probably elders in the church or at least very influential; leaders can go bad
2. The word “rejecting” means to push off or push away
3. If you are in a boat, you aren’t wise to push off during a storm, for example
4. They pushed off the faith because they lost faith (trust) & a good conscience
B. They CRASHED their boat (20a).
1. Hymenaeus said the resurrection had passed (2 Tim. 2:17-18)
2. In Alexander’s case, we are not sure [opinions vary]
• Probably not Alexander the Coppersmith mentioned in 2 Timothy 4:4
• Probably not Alexander the Jew mentioned in Acts 19:33
C. Sometimes people SURVIVE shipwrecks, sometimes not.
1. So it is with spiritual casualties; some return while others do not. We will see here that Paul had not given up on these two.
2. Some people prove themselves false believers, tares, through shipwreck
3. Others come back: a believer lost everything, got into witchcraft, and hated Christians; in time, God got ahold of him and he came back to the fold.
4. Some of you may have a history of being in error (or lapse) & coming back…
5. Some HPC board members (elder, deacon, deaconess) have been among the casualties; one former deaconess is now Muslim. A former elder now embraces New Age teaching. Last I heard, a former deacon is agnostic.
6. Comments from a boy who grew up in church (not ours), “Most Christians are the best sinners on Saturday and pure angel on Sunday because apparently as long as you ask for forgiveness it’s all good.” [Most? Really?]
You must maintain the right course; do not assume the ship will steer itself!
III. The PLIGHT of the Shipwrecked (20b)
A. Delivered to SATAN
1. Excommunication, not allowed to fellowship with the church (I Cor. 5:5)
2. God’s special protection of believers removed
3. Most who fall away excommunicate themselves...
B. Schooled the hard way, through DISCIPLINE
1. Proverbs 26:3, “A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools.”
2. Jonah may have been an example of shipwreck, discipline, and return
3. This is the ideal, but sometimes discipline can merely remove a cancer
C. Disciplined until they stop MOCKING
• King Solomon fell away from the Lord, based on Ecclesiastes, he came back
D. Discipline may end in premature DEATH (see Acts 5:1-11).
• King Saul fell away and may have been finally disciplined by death
E. For those not REALLY saved (I John 2:19), their spiritual condition is WORSE than if they had never made a profession (see 2 Peter 2:20-21).
You must maintain the right course; do not assume the ship will steer itself!
