1 Timothy 1:18-20

As I said, we'll be in 1 Timothy chapter 1.

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

We'll be finishing out this chapter.

We'll be looking at verses 18, 19, and 20.

Beginning in 18.

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.

By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymeneus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

So we've been working through this passage, and we're kind of narrowing down this just last three verses in chapter one.

And it begs the question, and I'm going to beg the question to us how do we, as a church, protect the gospel?

What are some methods for protecting the gospel?

Now, some churches do this different ways.

Some churches they seek to protect the gospel by having a kind of a high, really high view of clergy and the pastors, and whatever they say is right and good, and it's their job just to lead us, and we're just to follow them.

And that's how they protect the gospel, by having a few kind of stoic people who have authority and can tell everyone else what's right and what's wrong.

Other churches seek to protect the gospel by just staying busy in all their outreach ministries and programs and activities.

And they're trying to commend the gospel to people around them.

And if they just stay focused on that, then that's how they will preserve the gospel.

Some churches seek to preserve the gospel, to protect it, by lots of rules and regulations.

They make rules that people must follow or maintain to be in good standing or good status.

They use the law to try and protect the gospel.

Now I'm sure that with all these churches and many other ways that churches can seek to protect and maintain the gospel, there's some good things there.

It's good to have pastors and elders who think well and who teach well and seek to lead well.

It's good to seek to love our community and to serve those around us like Jesus did.

It's a good thing to say, hey, God's word gives us a standard for living, and we're going to follow that standard.

But I think that these means of protecting the gospel fall short.

I think there is a better way to protect the gospel.

Last week, we were earlier in the chapter, I began the sermon with the question: how would you summarize the message of the Bible?

If you had just a few moments, how would you summarize the message of the Bible?

And we talked about how Paul enters that in verse 15 when he says, Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.

That's the summary of the Bible.

That Jesus came to save sinners.

The question I have for you today is how do we protect the good news?

How do we protect the gospel?

That Christ came to save sinners.

Throughout chapter 1, Paul is building and making an argument to Timothy, the person he's discipled, who's now pastoring in the church in Ephesus.

And he says to Timothy, to encourage him, stay fast.

I charge you with these things.

Verse 3 of chapter 1, as I urge you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus, that you may charge certain peoples not to teach any different doctrine.

So this language of a charge, Timothy's giving, Paul's giving Timothy a charge in verse 3.

And then verse 5, the aim of our charge is love.

Love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience.

This charge, again to Timothy.

And then here in the end of the chapter 18, this charge I entrust to you, Timothy.

Paul reminds Timothy to preach Jesus Christ and how he came to save sinners.

It's not the law that brings salvation.

It's not genealogies or myths or speculations that regenerate the soul.

The good news is that Christ, through his perfect life and sacrificial death, where he atoned fully from our sins, for our sins, paid the price that we might be made right with God.

And so he's giving Timothy this charge again and again.

Remember these things and do these things.

Then Timothy is called to hold fast to these things.

To hold fast to what he's been given.

And then, as we see in verse 19 and 20, to then deliver over those who are not following God's ways.

So these are the two points I want to make this morning.

Hold fast and deliver over, or hand over.

Those, as Christians, this might sound kind of counterintuitive, but I think this is Paul's argument here.

We have to pick the good fight.

We have to pick a fight worth making.

Paul used lots of ink to write to Timothy, and he's writing, and here he is all the way through chapter one, he's making the same point again and again because this is so important.

The issue in the church in Ephesus is they're wanting to follow rules for their salvation rather than believing in the finished work of Christ.

So going back to the question I asked when I started, how do we protect the good news that Christ came to save sinners?

Well, one by holding fast.

You protect it by holding fast.

This is the charge that Timothy is receiving.

Hold fast.

One to the prophecies that you were that were spoken about you.

This is kind of a weird context or a weird part of the text.

We're going along, and Paul's encouraging Timothy, and he's going through chapter one, urging him to resist false teachers.

And then Paul tells Timothy his own salvation story, which Timothy would have known very well.

But he's reminding them the power of the gospel to save.

And then he's giving this final charge to Timothy.

I entrust to you, Timothy, my child.

In accordance with the prophecies previously made about you.

Now, what are these prophecies?

Because it's by these prophecies, partially, that Timothy is to hold fast.

It's interesting as we kind of work through Acts, as we work through, like what is, what could Paul be meaning?

Through Acts, we get a glimpse of different times when the apostles were installing elders at local churches.

They're praying over them.

They're kind of ordaining them, if you will.

They're installing them as these elders.

They're praying for them.

They're affirming them in their calling to this specific local congregation.

And they're encouraging them, reminding them of the significance of their calling.

See, Paul's encouragement to Timothy is remember what you're doing and why you're here.

Timothy didn't just kind of wander into the church in Ephesus.

He didn't say, you know what, I think I desire to be the pastor at the church in Ephesus.

Rather, there were brothers who were affirming this in him, laying their hands on him as a pattern we see in Acts, affirming him and encouraging him.

And then potentially some of the apostles with their apostolic authority are giving prophecy to Timothy, encouraging him.

And Paul's saying, remember that.

So often in the face of a difficulty in life, we have adversaries around us, things against us.

We do forget the work that we're supposed to be doing.

We talked about this when we were in the book of Nehemiah last fall, how Nehemiah and his wisdom from God gave everyone a chunk of the wall to work on.

He didn't say, Listen, we have a huge wall to build and we've got to figure this out.

He just said, Listen, what's right in front of you?

Be faithful to that work before you.

And so Paul seeking to remind Timothy, remember what's before you.

Remember how you got here.

Remember the encouragement that we gave to you.

And stay fast.

Keep going, Timothy.

So these prophecies that were spoken, and now Paul's reminding him, remember what God has called you to.

I think this is just a side note, and I'm going to make a comment on this.

I think the language of calling is so confusing in our Christian culture and unhelpful.

Because it's so subjective.

Well, God called me here, and God called me there.

Well, how do you know God called you?

Right?

How do you know?

We know that we have God's revealed word, and we know that every believer has God's indwelling spirit, but you're not infallible.

How do you know that's God calling you?

Or that's just your own human emotion, or that's a dream that just kind of happened.

No, hear me.

I think God does, He calls us to things, He puts us in specific places to do things, specific things.

But I think that how we discern that is not up to us fully.

Partially it is.

I heard this really helpful kind of idea when someone was talking about calling, and it was Pastor Greg Gilbert was saying, like, there's several things that have to come together for this to actually be a calling.

Like, one, you have to desire it.

Right?

Desire, that's in you.

You desire this thing.

But two, it has to be affirmed by godly people around you in authority.

They need to affirm that.

Yeah, we affirm your desire, and we affirm that you're to do this work.

So that's kind of the peers around you.

And then there has to be an opportunity for you to then do the thing.

If there's not an opportunity, you might have a desire and you might have capacity, but I don't think there's calling there.

Calling happens when you've stepped into the position, that opportunity that God has then created for you to use your giftings.

It would seem for Timothy, he had desire, although it might be waning at this point.

It was affirmed by the brothers, the elders around him.

And then he was in this opportunity in Ephesus.

And how is he to do these things?

Well, he's to wage the good warfare.

It's to go to war over these issues.

Some commentators say Timothy was young.

He was younger when he was doing this ministry in his late 20s or early 30s.

He was timid, and so Paul's writing to encourage him.

And he's saying, listen, these are the things you have to contend for.

You can't roll over on these things, Timothy.

You can't just kind of let people have their way with this.

You have to wage the good warfare to contend and to fight, to exhort for the sake of staying the course.

Now, Timothy's calling wasn't like to be uh just kind of take a cruise, um, just relax and enjoy.

It's an easy calling.

This is a calling into warfare.

A calling to come and contend and to fight, to fight against his own flesh, to fight against the enemy, to stand up for the gospel and the things of truth.

It's to wage the good warfare.

The Christian life, it is war.

If you don't understand this, that the Christian life is war, then you're either perpetually frustrated, because you're like, when am I ever just going to be victorious?

When am I ever just going to overcome and life's gonna be easy?

So you're perpetually frustrated, or you're asleep to the things of God.

We are at war as Christians.

And it comes out in our own flesh.

We're at war against our flesh.

And we're at war against Satan who rules this world.

We are at war.

And the sooner we realize this, the better.

This war is against, again, Satan and our flesh and the sin around us.

If we don't wage the war, if we don't step in, if we try to just stay on the sidelines, you know what's going to happen?

We're going to lose our faith.

You think, well, I'm a Christian because I do certain things where I desire the things of God and I'm kind of content, but I don't want to really get into like warfare things.

I don't want to get into deep, hard trenches where it's costly, it's sacrificial, and I have to rely on the Lord for things.

Brother, sister, this is what it means to follow Christ is to step into the war, to wage the good warfare, to stand up for truth, to deny ourselves, to follow Christ.

This is what it means to be a follower of Christ.

We wage war.

So maybe not shrink back from that.

Maybe not have an attitude of, well, we don't need to squabble over like issues of doctrine and those things.

We just need to love the Lord.

How do you know how to love the Lord if it isn't for the Word of God?

We contend for the Word of God.

So we must wage the war.

We must hold to the gospel.

We must hold faith.

You think, how do we defend?

How do we hold fast?

How do we protect the gospel?

Well, we have to believe it.

I know it sounds kind of maybe redundant or counterintuitive, but it's like this is the way that we hold fast as we do believe.

The danger that pastors face, that Timothy was facing, that Paul's addressing, the temptations that pastors face and churches face.

Is that we can be distracted, allured by other things, other means or methods.

We can stop believing in the gospel.

I don't mean like we're denying it, like we're saying, yeah, I just don't believe in those things anymore.

I'm saying we're not living it out.

Sure, we're saying we believe the gospel, but are we following the things of the Lord?

Are we looking to it for our salvation?

Maybe we feel like we did at one point, but are we now more reliant on kind of, I got a good track record with the Lord, or I'm doing the right things rather than trusting and resting in what Christ has done for us?

Are we believing it for salvation, our own salvation?

And then are we believing it for our own sanctification, our own maturing as Christians?

Do we keep looking to the person and work of Christ to mature us?

See, this happens when we we we believe in Christ and the gospel to save us.

In other words, saved, we're like, okay, that's great.

Now I've got to really kind of change and really get this thing going.

Like I've got the ticket, I've got salvation, I got a ticket in.

Now that I'm in, I've got to really work and figure this thing out.

That's not how it works.

Listen to me.

If you're struggling with sin in your life, the answer isn't, I just need to go to church more.

I just need to do this more.

If I was just reading the Bible more, if I was just praying more, if I was around godly Christians more, those things are good and important.

But those things cannot free you from your sin.

Do you understand that?

Commanded to do those things.

We're commanded to gather, we're commanded to pray, to read, to do those things.

Wonderful things.

You should be doing those things.

You're commanded to do those things.

Those things will not save you and they will not free you from sin.

It's the power and work of Jesus Christ that frees you from sin.

And so if you're like me, you're thinking, okay, but how does that like work?

Like, I get I'm supposed to believe, but how does it work?

But keep believing, keep going and believing in Him.

So here are some questions.

Think about this.

Ask yourself, what do you turn to to cope when life gets difficult?

You're tired, you're angry, you're disappointed, you're bored, you don't feel meaningful.

What are you turning to?

Because that's going to reveal to you, that's revealing as you're thinking about that, I believe the gospel for salvation, but I still believe that it's satisfying and that it's going to sanctify me.

You keep looking to Christ.

Now, how do we do that?

We do that through being in the Word, being in prayer, gathering with the church, being really Christians.

Like, you need all those things.

But those things are here to keep us focused on Christ and what He has done for us.

Maybe this sounds simple or silly, or you're like, I just need more, I have a handlebar on this.

I need some more steps I can take.

But I just want to encourage you and caution you.

If you're looking for a four-step program or a five-step program to be saved, or maybe not to be saved, but to really grow in your faith, then you're looking to something other than Christ to do that work for you.

You're looking for to something other than Christ.

So how do you look at Christ?

All those things we said, being in the Word, being together, fellowship with the saints, those things are needed, commanded.

This is why God has commanded us to do these things.

But the element isn't those things, is what God does through those things.

Does that make sense?

You're tracking with me on that?

It's not that we're doing these things that are changing us, it's that we're doing these things.

God's using those through what Christ has done and reminding us of Christ and helping us to fix our eyes on Christ and His perfection and his atonement for us, that then changes us.

It's easy to stop trusting in the gospel.

We must hold the faith.

If we could get better programs or outreach things going, if we had better slogans or better communication, if we could just fill in the blank, we'd be really like moving for God.

And all those things are good things.

Those aren't bad things.

Think about the issue in the church in Ephesus.

What's going on is these brothers are saying, here's the law.

God gave us the law.

It's good.

Let's stick to the law that we might be saved.

You see how subtle it is.

They're just like, God gave us the word, the law, the Ten Commandments.

Let's stick to that, then we might be saved.

But the whole law was given so that we realize that we can't be saved by the law.

It reveals our sin, as Romans 7 tells us, but it reveals that we need a Savior, and that Savior is Christ.

So Paul is working to Timothy, remind them these things.

All these things are good, but they cannot save.

Only Christ can save.

We must hold fast to the gospel.

We must hold to a good conscience.

What a wonderful blessing the conscience is.

It tells us where we're heading.

Our conscience, it's like a regulator.

When working correctly, that is.

It tells us when things are out of tolerance or out of balance.

Our conscience guides us well as long as it's informed by the things of God, governed by Him and submitted to Him.

So we know this, and the passage just affirms.

It's a wonderful gift of the conscience.

But the thing is, it's not ultimate.

It's not supreme.

When in good working order, it's a wonderful blessing.

It's great.

But it's not designed to operate solely or by itself.

See, God has made us to submit to Him.

He's made us to submit to the local church.

And as Titus tells us, He's created us to consider others more important than ourselves.

So we're not to walk around thinking, man, I can't, my conscience, I don't have one.

I just got to do whatever people tell me to do.

That's not what he's saying.

Because he's telling us, you have to hold to a good conscience.

Is your conscience violated?

Is there sin?

Is there something going on?

You need to address that or deal with that.

But at the same time, it's not supreme.

Our conscience, your conscience, does not have the final authority in your life.

How do we know that?

Well, we have brothers in chapter one, the first part, who they're following their conscience, which would seem it is seared or hardened.

And they think they can be saved by following genealogies and myths and the law.

And Paul's telling them, he's going to tell us later about two brothers who did the same thing.

And what did Paul do?

He handed them over to Satan.

Now they were following their conscience.

Was it good?

Was it supreme?

Absolutely not.

So there's this blessing in the conscience as long as it's rightly calibrated and rightly submitted.

If our conscience is rightly calibrated and rightly submitted to God, it's a wonderful blessing.

But when we begin to think, we're on our own.

This is my conscience.

I have to come to this conclusion myself.

We separated from the community of the local church.

We begin to make decisions without regard to other godly, loving, God-loving people around us.

We should begin to be concerned.

So there's this quote from John Calvin.

It says, a bad conscience is the mother of all heresies.

A bad conscience is the mother of all heresies.

Which makes sense.

If you're teaching heresy or you're espousing heresy, then you've already seared your conscience.

Your conscience has already been seared and kind of put behind you.

It's not in working order.

It doesn't point north.

It's not even working.

But that's what has to happen before you become a false teacher.

Because this is the situation Timothy's in.

This is the situation that lots of churches are in.

And I would say this is the situation that even you and I must be aware of, and as I said last week, cautious of.

We all have the potential for being false teachers.

We all have that potential.

We all struggle with that.

One, because we're not God and we don't know absolute truth.

But two, we're broken, we're sinful.

We're still trying to submit and follow up to the things of God.

So we must be wise and discerning.

Before we ever get to false teaching, where we're way off the rails, we're espousing heresy and blasphemy.

Before we get to those things, we have just, we're neglecting our conscience.

We're not obeying God's word.

It's saying, don't do this.

It's sin.

Like, whoa, a little bit of it will be okay.

Like, I can indulge a little bit, and I might get like a little bit burnt, but I'm not gonna get fried, right?

Like I might get like a little searing of the skin, but I'll be fine.

A little bit, a little bit of burning, a little bit of neglecting, ignoring the conscience, which the Holy Spirit works in us to bring conviction.

You ignore it, you let it go, you deny it, you kind of push it behind you.

You're hardening your heart.

You're hardening your heart to the things of God.

You're callousing your heart over.

And what you're doing is idolatry.

Because what you're doing is saying, I'm worshiping myself.

I'm putting what I want over and above what God says I should want.

And I'm gonna act in a way that is different than God says how I should act.

Now we talk about this a lot.

If God has created us, and he did, he knows what's best for us.

If he created us, he knows what's best for us.

So obeying God always, always brings life.

So when you sear or you ignore or you deny your conscience, what do you think is going to happen?

More life?

No.

Death.

Death comes.

Death first starts coming to your desires of the Lord.

You cannot indulge in sin in one moment and then expect to just love the things of God the next.

Why is it that I don't have a deeper affection for God's word?

Why is it that I'm not more excited about the things of God?

It could be, it could be that you're indulging in sin.

And it's killing your desire for the things of God.

So we have this conscience that we're to hold to because it keeps us from going off the rails.

It keeps us and helps us to hold fast and to protect the gospel.

We hold this conscience.

And then, if we don't, we begin to deny the things of God.

Again, we begin to deny what he has said, what he's taught us.

And if we're not careful, as Paul says in verse 19, we by rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith.

By rejecting the waging of good warfare, by rejecting the good conscience, by rejecting holding fast to the gospel, by rejecting these things, some have made shipwreck of their faith.

So why do you wage the warfare?

Why do you keep a good conscience?

Why do we do these things?

Believe in the gospel.

Well, one reason is so we don't make shipwreck of your faith.

There's a dozen other reasons we hold to these things.

So that we might commend Christ?

So that we're not causing other people to stumble, so that we could encourage our family and we could model faithfulness.

All these things are good and right answers.

But what Paul says, he's not denying any of these things.

He's just pointing to something very specific.

And he's saying by rejecting these things, some have made shipwreck of their faith.

One scholar was saying the New Testament's description of shipwreck is that the rocks on which the faith shatters are not intellectual problems with Christianity.

People will shipwreck their faith because of intellectual problems with Christianity, nor the problem with reason.

Not the problem with a historosity, the historicity of the faith.

In every single case, when the New Testament is talking about shipwrecking the faith, it's a problem with the heart's preference to sin.

This is an issue.

It's not that they're like having these intellectual difficulties or some things don't line up historically that they can't quite work out.

It's that people are enjoying their sin.

They're preferring their sin over God.

And then eventually, over time, shipwreck.

It's done.

It's gone.

It's over.

So this should just be a great warning to us.

Are we indulging in sin?

Are we coveting certain sins?

Are we kind of keeping them and kind of holding them precious to us?

That when things are hard, we go to this.

When things are difficult, we go to this thing, looking for maybe not hope, but just for some relief.

I just want to feel numb, or I want to feel better, or I just want to be distracted.

We're going to these things.

We have a progression here.

It begins by just indulging a little bit of sin.

You're not waging the warfare against the flesh, you're not waging the warfare against contending for the gospel.

You're not holding fast to the faith.

You're not holding to a good conscience.

Over time, you begin to be numb and callous.

There's a shipwreck of your faith.

So with that, then there's this handing over.

So we have this kind of holding fast, and then there's this delivering over, this handing over, as verse 20 says.

There's this shipwrecking.

They've shipwrecked their faith, among whom are Hymenius and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

What a confusing verse in the Bible.

Like, is Paul just, he's handing people over to Satan, that they're learning something?

Is Satan teaching them these things?

Like, what does verse 20 mean?

It seems so unloving at first that Paul to say, you know, they made shipwrecks in their faith, so I handed them over to Satan.

It's important that as we work through this, we stick closely to Paul's logic and his language here and what he's written throughout, what it's also written throughout the New Testament.

And I want to just take a step back and I want to clarify something if you don't know this.

There are two kingdoms in this world: spiritual kingdoms that supersede any kind of earthly kingdom or border or nation.

There's the kingdom of Christ.

Those who are saved are brought into the kingdom of Christ.

The kingdom of Christ is made visible, it's made tangible when the local church gathers together.

But is it when the local church is gathered together that the kingdom is made visible?

When the church shows up, the kingdom shows up.

That is why there's no substitute for the local church.

There just is not a substitute for it.

In the kingdom of Christ, there's life, there's joy, there's hope, there's peace, there's love, there's the forgiveness of sins and salvation.

All these things provided for through the life and person of Jesus Christ to us.

As one commentator was talking about these two kingdoms, he said, and then there's the kingdom of Satan.

A life lived, this is his quote, a life lived outside the local church is lived in the realm of Satan.

This other kingdom.

And everyone who is not in the kingdom of Christ is in the kingdom of Satan.

There isn't a middle ground, there's not a Switzerland in this situation, just kind of sticking out, just waiting.

You're either in one kingdom or you're in the other.

That's just the way it is.

And so Paul is addressing these two kingdom realities when he's talking about this verse.

We know in the kingdom of Satan there is death, there's sorrow, there's darkness, there's hopelessness.

There is a never-ending, never satisfying appetite for self-gratification.

It's torture.

It's wicked.

So when he says, Paul, I handed them over to Satan, this means they were put out from the kingdom of Christ.

They were excommunicated from the local church.

Now, where do we get that from?

In 1 Corinthians chapter 5, there's a situation going on with the church in Corinth, where a guy is laying sleeping with his father's wife.

1 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

And the church is letting this go on, and Paul writes to the church in Corinth and says, Church, put this brother out.

It says, You are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

That's 1 Corinthians 5 5.

This idea of delivering him over to Satan, to put him out of the local church, to excommunicate him.

Why doesn't Paul just say that?

You know, we have the language in Matthew 18 about churches going through the process of church discipline in the very end is to put someone out of the church.

It doesn't mean kind of open the doors and kick him out of the building.

It's saying we're no longer affirming you as a Christian.

We're no longer treating you as a brother or sister in Christ.

We're going to evangelize you, we're going to share the good news of the gospel with you, but we will not continue to affirm your faith when we see no evidence of faith, and rather we see an evidence of a hard heart.

So Paul in 1 Corinthians 5, it's the same thing he's doing here in 1 Timothy 1.

He's delivering these two brothers over that they might learn something.

Which again is kind of an odd idea.

How do you learn not to blaspheme while living in Satan's domain?

How do you, as the 1 Corinthians 5 passage, why would they deliver him over for the destruction of his flesh?

But so that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord.

So there's something happening here.

Paul isn't saying, well, these brothers made a shipwreck of their faith, deliver them to Satan and write them off.

That's not what he's saying.

He's saying, listen, they are living in such a way, they've denied the good conscience, they've denied the faith, they're not waging the warfare to such a degree that we're now pushing them, we're saying you're no longer a part of the church.

We can't affirm that you're a Christian anymore.

What happens then?

Well, they're in the realm of Satan.

They're in this realm.

Is there joy?

No.

Is there hope?

No.

Is there encouragement?

No.

Is there the forgiveness of sins?

No.

And what Paul has in mind in both these passages, I think what the Holy Spirit is teaching the church, is that there should be a compelling element that when someone has been then excommunicated out of the church, there's something so compelling about God's people that they can repent and believe.

That they can once again enjoy the mercies of Christ.

See, the church should be a place of big gospel.

The Lord can do these things.

Think about Paul, he went through his own story.

His own testimony is just blaring, it's screaming out.

Listen, you can be a blasphemer and Christ can save you.

You can be a wicked person persecuting the church and Christ can save you.

He can do these things.

So why are they being handed over to Satan?

So that they might repent.

So that they might once again hear the good news of the gospel, repent from their sin and follow after Christ.

But the reality for us is that that requires a church that's going to be loving and gracious.

A church that holds fast to what they believe and does the hard thing of saying, we can't affirm.

You're living in such a way.

Your heart is hardened towards the things of God.

We can't affirm those things.

And if that person repents, that we show them grace and love.

That we show them the loving kindness of Christ and what he has done for us.

And this is the beautiful thing.

This is the same pattern we see in Matthew 16 and 18.

And I did sermons on these about membership a few months ago.

We see it just practically working itself out here in this text here.

Church, hold fast to the standard.

Hold fast to the good faith.

If someone's not doing that, do not continue to affirm their faith.

You tell them that.

You say, we can't affirm it.

You're not a part of this local church because you don't believe what this church believes.

You don't believe in the things of Christ.

You might be saying you do, but your life is saying you don't.

And when that person, if they repent and say, I made a mistake, then we are happy to welcome them in and show the mercy and grace of Christ to them.

So this isn't a hard, harsh, like either you're in or you're out.

This kind of be in the club, be out of the club.

It is, this is about eternity.

And we're not going to affirm or not or be fake in our affirmation.

We're going to be serious.

We want you to know you're a Christian.

This is what it means to be a Christian.

You're living that way.

And if you're not, we lovingly, because we care about you and we love you and we love the gospel, we love God, we want to be clear about that.

You're not living as a Christian should live.

Repent and follow Jesus.

Again, we're not harsh in the sense that we're not like shunning you.

We're not saying, like, you know, we don't want to see you anymore, you're you're destined for hell, just kind of write you off.

That's not at all what Paul's saying.

That's not at all what Jesus was saying in those passages in Matthew 16 and 18.

But what we are saying is we should not keep affirming people who are living contrary to the scriptures.

We can't do it.

Why can't we do it?

Because we're just affirming that they're Christians and they're not.

And what's that gonna do to us?

Well, it's gonna harden our own conscience.

If they can be indulging in their sin and we say, well, you know, I wouldn't do that.

The Bible says not to do that, but who am I to judge?

We're searing our own conscience.

So Paul is reminded this charge that he's given is also our charge.

It's our charge to follow the faithful teaching of God's word.

It's our charge to remember our aim, as verse 5 says.

The aim of our charge is love.

The issues from what?

A pure faith.

A pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

Very similar charge to 18.

I entrust to you, Timothy.

You may wage the good warfare, hold the faith and a good conscience.

We are given this charge, church, to do these things because it is through these things that we have life in Christ.

It's through these things we enjoy the gospel, we enjoy communion with God, the forgiveness of our sins, eternity, the hope of future eternity with God forever.

So these aren't things that we are to play with or to remember the charge.

So I encourage you to examine your own heart.

If you're a Christian, where are you at with your conscience?

Just in the last four or five days.

Have you been denying it?

Have you been kind of disobeying what the conscience is saying to do?

Have you been seeking to hold fast to the faith?

If you're not a Christian, do you realize what it means to be in the realm of Satan?

Hopelessness, joyless, empty?

You're not made for that realm.

You weren't created for that realm.

You're created to worship God.

So, church, let us hear Paul's admonition, really the Holy Spirit's admonition to Timothy and to us.

We are to hold fast to what God, to the truths of God, and what he's done for us.

Not looking to works, not looking to seek to affirm our own salvation by kind of our own checklist, but trusting in him and trusting in what he has done.

That we might then be worshipers.

That what verse 17 says would just pour out of us, that we might be faithful to him.

Verse 17 to the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.

Amen.

That that would be the song that we sing.

Church, let's pray.