In 1 Timothy 1, we'll be looking at verses 18-20 this morning, and we're finishing in this first chapter in 1 Timothy. And in verses 18-20, Timothy is charged to fight the good fight, or to war the good warfare, but I like fight the good fight better. It's more catchy and to the point, isn't it? And really what Paul is doing here at the end of this first chapter, he's reiterating the charge that he's made at the beginning of the chapter. He made this charge in verse 3, and I don't think he's following any rabbit trails, I think it's all purposeful, but now here at the end of the chapter he comes back and he makes this charge again to Timothy to fight the good fight. And we will find out here in these last three verses that Paul is doing this, he's reiterating this charge to emphasize its importance to Timothy, to give him confidence and encouragement then to go ahead and obey and fulfill the charge, He gives some more specificity, some more specifics about the charge that Timothy is, the trials and the problems that Timothy is dealing with. And really then this last of this first chapter, this reiterating of Timothy's charge to fight the good fight, sets the stage for the remainder of the letter. because Paul is going to continue then as the mentor to the pastor, to be giving him appeals and instructions and exhortations about what he has to do as the overseer of the church in Ephesus, a church that has some problems that are very serious. With that being said, let me read verses 18-20 in 1 Timothy 1. 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, or fight the good fight, having faith and a good conscience, which some have 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." This is the word of the Lord. May God, by the power of His Spirit, use it for His glory and for our edification this morning. Now I referenced at the very start that Paul is reiterating the charge he makes at verse 3. So suffer with me as I read verses 3 and 4 to remind you of the very first charge, the first time he makes this charge. Paul said in verse 3, I urged you when I went into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus, that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine. or give heed to fables and endless genealogies which cause disputes, rather than furthering the administration of God, which is by faith." In other words, rather than being a wise steward and administrator of the Church of God. Timothy is the overseer and the pastor of the Church. He is to be overseeing the conduct and the working of the Church of God. And so we saw that Paul was giving to Timothy the charge to stay in Ephesus, as Paul went on to Macedonia, stay there in a church that was having problems being the shepherd and the steward of the church, teaching true doctrine, rebuking and correcting the false teaching and the false teachers. And then in verse 5, I won't keep reading, but in verse 5, then Paul gave the purpose to this command, the purpose to this charge. And really, that verse 5 has a wonderful phrase. The purpose is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from a sincere faith. The order of those words is not by accident. The purpose of preaching the gospel, the purpose of teaching the right doctrine is that love might come from a pure heart. The pure heart occurs when a sinner is regenerated, and he's given a new heart. And from that new heart, then, a good conscience comes. a conscience that then convicts of sin and the rightful condemnation that the sinner has before God, and that from that, from the pure heart and the good conscience, then sincere faith is formed by God, where he turns from his sin and repents and turns to Christ Jesus in sincere faith." That's the purpose of the charge. That's the purpose of the command. That's the positive side. But then he goes on to say in the next verse the negative side. Here's the other thing you're going to have to deal with, Timothy, that there's some who have strayed from this, have strayed from love, from a pure heart, from a sincere faith, from a good conscience. And they've turned aside, and they've decided they want to be, quote, law teachers, unquote. They were those who decided that they would pridefully pursue teaching the law in the wrong way. They didn't know what they were teaching, but they sure were prideful and convinced about it. And so, really, verses 3 through 7 give the first charge, the first command. And then to connect the dots, Verses 8-11, then since Paul mentioned the law now in verses 8-11, he teaches the lawful use of the law, the right use of the law in the church of God. And he goes on to explain the moral law, which is summarized by the Ten Commandments, is indeed to be used, and it really is the basis for sound doctrine according to the gospel, the gospel that has been entrusted to Paul. And then in verses 12-17, since Paul had talked about the law of God, which is according to the Gospel, he then gives the Gospel, in verses 12-17. And he uses himself, his own example, as the one who, in him, in his life, you can see the truth of the Gospel, and the power of the Gospel, to save the chief of all sinners. And not only to save him, but then to appoint him, and entrust him with the Gospel of God as the Apostle of Christ Jesus. And by showing the Gospel in this way, it's going to be a great encouragement to Timothy. showing the power and the truth of the gospel. So now we're back to verse 18. That wasn't so long. It didn't take so long to connect the dots. We're back to verse 18, and Paul comes back now to make this charge again to Timothy. After he's already made the charge and he fills in some of the details, he comes back and says, I urge you, I charge you, I commit you that you need to fight the good fight. And so Timothy is to be staying in Ephesus to fight the good fight, to proclaim and to defend the truth of God with confidence in the face of opposition. And so this final, or this reiteration of this charge in verses 18 through 20, to understand the flow of things and maybe the main points, I want us to look at these three verses individually, and we'll see confidence, conscience, and correction. confidence, conscience, and correction. In verse 18, Paul is going to attempt to encourage Timothy to have confidence to fulfill this charge that he's been given. In verse 19, Paul is going to then show the importance of the conscience for the pastor, and really for all Christians, and the warning for those who depart from it, a good conscience. And then in verse 20, Paul is going to show the correction that is often necessary. as one is fighting the good fight within the church of God. So let's look at those as we go through these three verses. Verse 18 is where Paul said, This charge I commit to you, or I entrust to you, O son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them, by those prophecies, you may fight the good fight, wage the good warfare. I think Paul is using this first verse, as he often does, as a very, very fine leader, a compassionate, encouraging leader. He's trying to give Timothy confidence for this fight. And before he even gets to verse 18, if you remember what I tried to go quickly through in verses 3-11, or I should say 3-17, I think what Paul is trying to do is say, and by the way, Paul is using military terms throughout here, I should be using military terms as well. Paul is trying to give Timothy confidence in the weapons that he's going to use. In verses 12-17 especially, remember, Paul gave a vivid example of himself, how he was the illustration, he was the prototype of the power and the truth of the gospel. He was a blasphemer, a persecutor, a violent man, but yet he was conquered by the power of Christ and the gospel of Christ. The gospel of grace through Christ Jesus killed the old man and raised a new man, producing faith and love. And Paul was not only saved, but now equipped and entrusted with the gospel to be the apostle of God. And so when Paul uses these terms in verses 12-17, it had to be a great confidence booster to Timothy, because now he could see the power and the truth of the weapons that he would be using. Timothy's weapons are the truth of God, and his word, and the gospel of Christ. And this gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation for those who believe, first for the Jew, and then for the Gentile. And God, through his gospel, is able to win the battle. And God is able to equip Timothy, just as he did Paul, that he might then be able to fulfill his charge that God has given Timothy, just as he did for Paul. And so I think Paul is giving Timothy great confidence through his weapons that Timothy is going to use, even before he gets to verse 18. But then we get to verse 18, and we see the confidence also comes from his commanding officer. Paul says, This charge I commit to you, O son Timothy. Or, This charge I entrust to you, O son Timothy. Paul has already explained in the previous verses how he became an apostle of God by the command of Christ. And then he was counted worthy, not because there's anything good of himself, but he was counted worthy to be entrusted with the gospel of Christ. And now Paul, as a father to a son, as well as a general to an officer, is saying, I entrust this gospel that has been entrusted to me, I entrust this gospel to you, dear son Timothy. Now go, run with it. The word for commit means entrust, and it often has the implication of two sides, both entrusting something to someone so they might safeguard it, but also that they might transmit it to others. And you saw that with Paul. It was entrusted to him that he might safeguard it as an apostle, but that he might transmit it to others as well. And we see the same thing with Timothy. In 1 Timothy 6, you might turn there, at the very end of 1 Timothy, In 1 Timothy 6, verse 20, near the end of the letter, we'll get there eventually, Paul says something very similar to what he's saying in verse 1. And in verse 20 in chapter 6, he says, Oh Timothy, guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babbling, that sounds like chapter 1, and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge, By professing it, some have strayed concerning the faith." It should remind you of what we've seen in chapter 1. But here in verse 20 of chapter 6, Paul is specifically saying, Guard what I committed to you! Guard what is entrusted to you! Referring back to what he said in chapter 1. Guard it! But if you would turn another page, perhaps over in your Bible, in 2 Timothy chapter 2, we'll see where Paul is also talking about entrusting with the idea of transmitting it to others. multiplying it, like I have done with you, O Timothy. And in 2 Timothy 2, starting in verse 1, Paul here is saying to Timothy, a little bit later in his second letter to Timothy, My son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You, therefore, must endure hardship as a good soldier, a good soldier of Jesus Christ. So Paul is telling Timothy, I entrust this to you to safeguard, to protect and defend this Gospel and the doctrines of God in Christ Jesus, but also I entrust it to you in the sense of, you must then commit this to other men. Part of the role of the church and the role of pastors is to see other men within the church be raised up who have the desire and the ability to teach the Word of God, and so the Word of God and the Gospel of Christ furthers itself in that way. Can you see how this would be an encouragement and a confidence builder for Timothy? Timothy is being told by Paul, this is the most important thing I have, and I'm trusting it to you, O son Timothy. Keep it safe, and do the same thing. So now you see the confidence of Timothy being built because of the weapons, because of his commanding officer. But then the third thing, in verse 18, Paul says, According to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them, by those prophecies, you may fight the good fight, wage the good warfare. We don't know a lot of details about what these prophecies are, but we assume that what is being spoken of here is that at Timothy's ordination service, when he was set aside in the hands of the elders of the local church, who were laid upon him, at that ordination service, setting him aside for the work of the gospel, as a minister of the gospel, at that point, And again, keep in mind, the canon of Scripture was not complete. And you can look in Acts chapter 13 to see something like this as well, when Paul was set aside during his first missionary journey. And at the time of this setting aside, the Holy Spirit spoke and set them apart. And there were prophets who came there to Antioch. and they must have spoke as well. And perhaps it's the same thing as that. There were those that actually were prophesying, speaking then of Timothy's role that he was going to have, his strengths, his sufferings, and it seems at that point that he was gifted by the Spirit of God as well for the job. And we don't have prophets now. We have the Word of God. We don't need that. We have a more sure Word of God. But at that time, these prophecies shouldn't bother you. And you can get a glimpse of this if you look at 1 Timothy 4. Verse 14, where Paul says, 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. So you have this idea then of the ordination service, where the elders of the church have commended that this is indeed one who has been set aside to the gospel ministry. At that time, there is giftedness by the Spirit, and there is prophecy. And if you look at 2 Timothy 1, verse 6, Paul speaks of this more than once, and here's another place in 2 Timothy 1.6 where Paul tells Timothy, Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. So we have to be careful. We don't know a lot of details, but we assume that this is what Paul is talking about. And why would this be building confidence in Timothy? Well, do you ever have things in your life that are like monuments that are set, Ebenezers that are set, that you can look back and remember God was faithful there, and remind of who you are in Christ, or what God has done. So in those times of trouble, those times of timidity, you look back and you say, OK, I can draw strength from that. It might be your baptism. Baptism doesn't save you, but it is meant to be one of those things, and Lord willing, we may have a baptism in the coming days. where we can look back and see our baptism. That was our profession, our public profession of faith in Christ Jesus, where we said, I have died, I've been buried, I've been raised again in Christ Jesus, I'm going to live for Him by His power. In those dark days, we can look back at a thing like that and say, thank you, I can gain confidence from that. I think that's one of these cases where Paul is saying, and he says, by those prophecies that you may wage the good warfare, you may fight the good fight. Timothy, look back. Be reminded. You can have confidence because of your weapons. You can have confidence because of your commanding officer who is entrusting you with the gospel. But you can have confidence because of your commission to go into battle. Because at that commission to go into battle, you are commended by the church, and you are confirmed by the Holy Spirit of God Himself, that this is indeed what you are to do. And so Paul was trying to increase the confidence in Timothy as he reiterates this charge to fight the good fight, O Timothy. That's verse 18. Now in verse 19, after saying that by them you may wage the good warfare, you may fight the good fight, he now says, having faith and a good conscience. He's now turning to tell Timothy how to carry out the orders that he's been given by his commissioning officer and by his commission. How do you carry out these orders of fighting the good fight? He says, having faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected, concerning the faith and have suffered shipwreck. But the point to Timothy is having faith and a good conscience. Those are the the ways that you carry out the orders. These are more tools than carrying out the orders in this good fight. And having faith might be more literally understood as holding on to faith, keeping faith, clinging to the faith. It's the idea of believing and trusting in God and His Word. And some would go so far as to say that Paul is talking about the faith in this case. I'm not sure. That's the case, but some of that is there. Paul is saying, holding on to the faith. He's saying, in fighting the good fight against false teachers and false teaching, which is being supported by the demonic powers and spirits. We talked about that on Wednesday night. In fighting the good fight against errors and errorists, you must cling to the truth of the gospel by faith. Hold on to it. And then, by living and teaching in accordance with this truth, you must remain firm and steadfast in the midst of opposition, and by doing that, Timothy, you will obey the voice of conscience." That's how the faith and the conscience fit together. Now, you might be wondering, if you're not looking like you're wondering, please, why did I make conscience be the main point of this verse? Well, in the Greek, it may be harder to see in our English translation, but in the Greek, the emphasis is on the conscience. When Paul is saying, have faith in a good conscience, which some have rejected, the some have rejected is actually only tied to conscience, not both. There may be a sense of them both being there, but technically, Paul is saying, having faith in a good conscience, that conscience which some have rejected, and thereby they have run into shipwreck in their faith, because they've rejected the good conscience. So conscience is really being emphasized. It's being described as a thing that, when rejected, leads to shipwreck of the faith. Does that seem odd to you? Really? I would think it was faith first, and then my conscience would go, and then I'd have shipwreck. Not. My conscience is abused. I reject, and really the wording here is thrust away, push away. It's not a passive thing. It's meaning these people who are shipwrecked have purposely rejected a good conscience. In this case, it's rejecting that good conscience is then leading to shipwreck of the faith. Paul is both warning Timothy and encouraging Timothy to have a good conscience. In Paul's description here, the conscience is the rudder to the believer. It's the rudder to the ship. It's the one that gives you guidance and direction. And if you're ejected, if you're cast aside, you run into the rocks, you become the Titanic, and you sink, and you're shipwrecked. The good conscience, the conscience that obeys the dictates of the Word of God, is applied to the heart by the Spirit of God. It's the rudder, it's the guiding of the believer's ship into safe harbor. And if you reject it, you crash. And the Ephesian heretics have rejected that rudder. They rejected the good conscience. And as a result, their lives have crashed against the rocks, They've denied and blasphemed the faith of Christ Jesus. I would love to have an entire sermon on our conscience. I think it's a neglected point in the Christian life. I don't hear it talked about much. I was secretly rejoicing when you mentioned the conscience this morning in Proverbs. The conscience is man's moral intuition. Our conscience is our moral self passing judgment on right and wrong. How do we know what is right and wrong? Maybe in today's language, maybe it's not a runner, it's a GPS system. Your conscience is your GPS system and you don't want to hear it say, recalculating, recalculating. Conscience in its root is con-science, co-knowledge. It's the idea of man's knowledge matching up with God's knowledge. And the conscience then is the response of a man's moral consciousness to God's divine truth that has been revealed concerning him, his activities, his attitudes. In Romans 1 and 2 we see that every man is given a conscience from creation. In our catechism class we talk about how many we know there's a God. We know by creation and by conscience. Everyone knows there's a God and they know there's some sense of wrong and right. It's there. The Law of God is written on the heart of every man, woman and child, in some respect, that they have some conviction of what is wrong or right. It's there from the beginning. They know there is a God, and they know there is some sense of right and wrong. And the conscience can be made sensitive by feeding it on God's truth, and then by obeying it, or that conscience can be seared. It can be numbed. It's like taking the GPS system and throwing it out the window and then trying to find your place in your car. It can be seared by not feeding it properly, by feeding it the wrong things, or feeding it just not the right things, and by not obeying it. You can sear your conscience by just determining you're not going to obey. Be very, very careful, even as a Christian, if you practice disobeying your conscience. But you also need to nourish it by the Word to make sure it's informed. And so how does this work that the conscience is the rudder that crashes the whole faith and makes you shipwrecked? Well, aren't we, and brother and sister as Christians even, aren't we very good at justifying our own sins? Don't we go to great lengths to justify our sins rather to confess them and to admit them and to deal with them properly, even more so than on Christian? As we try everything we can to justify our sins, what we do is then we make up excuses for our sins. And thus false teaching arrives. Many a false teaching arrives because men are trying to justify the sins that they don't want to give up. And therefore you have the connection between the conscience and a shipwreck. A conscience and false teaching and a shipwreck. And in fact Calvinist said, a bad conscience is the mother of all heresies. A bad conscience is the mother of all heresies. And so what Paul is doing here, he is warning us, and warning Timothy, that there is that willful, purposeful casting off of the rudder, and the one who does that will crash into the rocks, shipwrecked, spiritually and physically, I believe. If you look at 1 Timothy 4, verses 1 and 2, Paul actually speaks of the conscience more often than you would think. especially even in the pastoral epistles. In 1 Timothy 4, verses 1 and 2, when we look ahead of these things, doesn't it just wet your appetite? Well, I can't wait until we get there. It does me. In the first two verses of 1 Timothy 4, Paul says, Now the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times, the latter times started Christ's resurrection, the coming of the Spirit. In the latter times, some will depart from the faith, same topic we're looking at, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron. And there you see the connection again between the conscience and shipwreck of the faith. For the Christian, especially the minister or the teacher of God's Word, but really for every Christian, a good conscience is essential. you must proactively strive to develop a good conscience by the Word of God and by obedience. Have you ever tried to witness or to be a leader in some respect with the Gospel of God, whether it be a teacher or a leader within the church? Or in any case, when you're trying to teach someone else, have you ever tried to do that while at the same time hiding sin and hypocrisy? There's perhaps no better way to take the foundation out from underneath anyone who's trying to be a witness for Christ, especially in a leadership position, if there's hidden sin and hypocrisy in their life, the evil one, and even one's own flesh will attack that tirelessly. What are you doing? Look at you! We must have a good conscience, and especially in the sense that the good conscience leads them to the righteous life. that we need to have to represent Christ and the gospel of Christ before our lost and dying world. So Paul builds Timothy's confidence in verse 18 and before, and now he emphasizes to Timothy the need for a good conscience and the warning for those who reject it as he prepares Timothy for the war, the fighting of the good fight. So then in verse 20, we see then not just the confidence that is needed for the fight, not just the conscience that is needed for the fight, but the correction that may be necessary for the fight that Timothy is involved in. Paul says that some have rejected this conscience and therefore they have become shipwrecked in the faith, of whom, some specific examples of this, of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. That sounds pretty harsh, doesn't it, young people? To be delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. Here in this verse, Paul gives specific examples of those who have suffered shipwreck. He shows the need for correction in the Church of Christ, so that God and the teaching of God and the Church of God may not be blasphemed, but also that those who need to be corrected may someday return. That is the goal. And you might remember all the way back into verse 6 when Paul had said that there are those who have strayed. Strayed from what? We just said a pure heart, from a good conscience, from sincere faith. You have conscience and faith. He said those who have strayed from that who want to be teachers of law. So he's almost reiterating that same point down here, isn't he? Talking about faith and conscience. There are some who have rejected that. Hymenaeus and Alexander are two specific examples. And do we know anything about Hymenaeus and Alexander? We think so. We're more sure about Hymenaeus than we are Alexander. Hymenaeus, if you turn to 2 Timothy 2, verses 15-18. In 2 Timothy 2, verses 15-18, we see a man named Hymenaeus. And Hymenaeus is not a normal name. It would not be a well-used name. So when you see this word here, you think, and it's twice within Paul's writings to Timothy, you have a pretty good bet that this is who we're talking about. And here we see in verses 15-18 in 2 Timothy 2, you have the same idea of false teachings, straying away from the truth of God, that leads to the overthrow of the faith of some. Specifically in verse 15-18, we see Paul telling Timothy to be diligent, to present yourself approved to God. A worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. By the way, I'm amazed. I don't know if I'm amazed, but we should be encouraged that over and over and over again, when Paul is exhorting Timothy and others to fight the good fight, the first and foremost weapon is to preach the word, to teach the word of God, the truth of God's word in his gospel. Paul doesn't say, make another program. Do something new in your worship. Try to do something that the world might like. Paul says, preach the word, rightly divide the word of God, hold forth the word of God. And we need to trust the power of the word of God and the power of the gospel of God to do its work, and to put our efforts into that. But then in verse 16 he says, but shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. and their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection has already passed. And they overthrow the faith of some." Sadly, some of us know some folks who have actually come to the heretical conclusion that there is no resurrection, that it's already passed. The Scripture makes it very clear. That's a heresy. Its vile heresy and correction needs to come from it, and it can lead to the overthrow of the faith of some. We think this is the same Hymenaeus that Paul is talking about in chapter 1. For Alexander, Alexander was a very common name, and you see Alexander, and Alexander, mentioned more than once in the book of Acts and other places in the New Testament. Though we think Hymenaeus is most probably what we see in 2 Timothy 2, it's possible, we're not as sure, but it's possible that in 2 Timothy 4 is where we see the one who is Alexander mentioned here. But again, the disclaimer is that Alexander is a very prominent name. In 2 Timothy 4, verse 14, Paul tells Timothy, "...Alexander the coppersmith did much to harm me. May the Lord repay him according to his work, you also must be aware of him, for he has greatly resisted our words." And since he's named by name, he's someone who's resisted the teaching of the Gospel, the teaching of the Word of God. This could very well be the Alexander we're speaking of in chapter 1. But what we do know is this, the context of 1 Timothy chapter 1 Whoever Hymenaeus and Alexander are, they must have been the ringleaders of the shipwrecked at Ephesus. Because of the context, they must have been leaders of the shipwreck at Ephesus, the shipwreck of the faith. They were most likely members of the church and even leaders within the church, teachers within the church who had become self-righteous, prideful, quote, law teachers, unquote, who did not know what they had taught, but they are extremely prideful in it. and they had seared their consciences, and they would not repent, and their lives and their teachings blasphemed God and the Word of God. And so what was the next necessary reaction to this? Well, it was correction. In fighting the good fight, there has to be correction and discipline within the church. And in fact, through the ages, From the Reformation on, when you list how can some church be a biblical church, one of the key things is there has to be church discipline within the church, lest it's not a true church of God. And here there has to be correction of men who blaspheme God and blaspheme the teaching of the gospel of God, and they're leading people astray. And Paul says, whom I delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. Now, that word delivered really is of the same order as what Paul says in Romans chapter one, three times when Paul talks about those sinful men who have disobeyed their conscience, disobeyed what they know about God from creation, and they wanted to go on to their own sins anyway and worship the idol and not the God who creates all things. And Paul says, then God delivered them over to their sins. This is the same type of word here when it says delivering them to Satan, giving them over to, handing them over to Satan. It's the idea of giving them over to the realm in which they've already chosen. In Romans chapter one, sinful man has already chosen sin over God. And so God says as part of his wrath, sometimes God's wrath is you insist on your sin. I'll just give you over to it and I'll take away my hand of protection from it. that you will suffer the consequences of your sin. Here it's the same thing. These false teachers, they have rejected a good conscience, they have shipwrecked the faith, and the idea of church discipline is you hand them over to Satan. They will not repent. You give them over to Satan into the realm outside of the church where there will be no more protection, and Satan can have his work then more fully be poured out on the unrepentant sinner. We see the same thing in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. where you have a man who's in sexual, vile, sexual immorality, and he's handed over to Satan. In that case, the man repents, and he returns. It is the idea, though, of being put out into the realm controlled by Satan, so God can use the works of Satan to chastise and discipline and make the man see the vileness of his sin and his pride, and he can return back to Christ and the Church of God itself. It's interesting in redemption. We see in Colossians chapter one that the one who is rescued from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of the Son of God is a Christian. You're rescued from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of the Son of God's love here with the unrepentant sinner. He is. It is done in reverse, where he's he's put outside of the church into the realm of Satan, uncovered and unprotected. But the idea, though, is that this man or this woman would then repent. We still pray for them, but he's put outside of the protection of the church, outside of the fellowship of the church, that then his conscience would then be renewed. He'd be given the gift of repentance and turned from his sin and turned back to Christ in the church, convicted of his blasphemy against the name of God, the doctrine of God and the word of God. And in that context, Paul himself would be the greatest encouragement to someone, isn't it? Paul himself, who was the worst case scenario. He was a blasphemer. He was a persecutor. He had no conscience in respect to the things of God. And he suffered multiple shipwrecks, did he not? Physical shipwrecks. Yet God gave him mercy and grace in Christ Jesus and delivered him into the kingdom of the Son of his love and out of the kingdom of darkness. And so there's hope. for the one who's kicked out of the church in need of correction. And so we see, Paul is giving Timothy confidence. He's emphasizing his conscience and the need for correction in fighting the good fight that Timothy is called to do and that we are all called to do. I want to close with three applications. This is where you stand up and stretch. It's okay. We're in a home stretch. The first one will be a little bit longer, the next two will be very short. The first application is this. We are in a fight. We are called to be soldiers of Christ to fight the good fight. Do we really realize that? In our posh American lifestyles? Having such a superfluous amount of blessing that we're so ungrateful for? Do we understand that we are in the midst of a fight? And we are called, we are commanded by God to fight the good fight of spiritual warfare for Christ Jesus. Do we realize that? One of the most frustrating things in the world is when you see, I think even now we're close to election time, right? And we see the state of our country. We see the state of just rotten policies and even worse morality in our country. And we look around and nobody seems to care. People were more upset about the replacement officials in the NFL than they were about American citizens being murdered abroad in an embassy. There's a fight going on. I get upset because does anybody know what's going on here? Are we also just happy in our own content little world? But even worse, in the spiritual battles, do we as brothers and sisters in Christ, do we know that you're in a fight? The best way to lose a fight is to not know you're in one. And the evil one is very, very happy for you to be content and not realize you're in a battle, in a spiritual warfare. We must be diligent with our opponents being Satan who prowls like a roaring lion, looking to devour us. The world who is waiting for the chance to entice us into sin, to take away any kind of witness we have. And that internal battle we have over sin, the remaining flesh in our lives, to keep our conscience clear, we must be diligent and proactive daily to fight the good fight, brother and sister. And we need to be confident soldiers in this fight. I think Timothy gets a bad rap. When you think of Timothy, you think, oh, it's getting hard here. I better take some wine for my stomach. But Timothy gets a bad rap. Perhaps Timothy dealt with, as we look at Paul's writings, he dealt with a spirit of fear and maybe a tendency to be timid. But you understand this is the same Timothy who Paul referred to in Philippians chapter one as the one he has no one else like him in the service for Christ. Paul is Timothy's one who cares for others. He seeks not his own, but the things of Christ. He has proven character. This is the same Timothy who is always called on to do the hardest of jobs. He was called to go into Corinth. You want to go into Corinth and do battle there? He was called to go into Ephesus and do battle here. You want to do that? Timothy may have been, Timothy may have battled that, but he, he stuck with it. He was confident in the equipping that he had with, with God, by the spirit of God, the word of God and the gospel of Christ and even the people of God that he would then do whatever he's called to do. And he did it well. And that should give us great encouragement. Those of us that go, I don't know if I can do this. You can do whatever God has called you to do by the equipping that he has for you. Timothy can, you can as well. And one last point of this first point, we're in a good fight. You need to know it. You need to be confident in it because who God is and what he's given to you. But understand, it's the good fight, which implies there's a bad fight. Not all fights are good. And especially in the church of God, we need to understand this in the church and outside of the church. We must not spend our time, as Paul has been saying in chapter one and throughout his letters to Timothy, do not be wrapped up in disputes and controversies and arguments and quarrels, not the wrong fight. We must keep the good fight central, the eternal things of Christ that are called to do central and fight about those things within the church, if necessary, but outside of the church, especially. It's the good fight that we're to pursue. Let's put our petty differences and quarrels aside within the church, especially. The next two are quite, quite quick. We're in a good fight. Number two, though, is we are called not only to be soldiers, we are called to be sailors. We are soldiers in the good fight, but we are called to be sailors as well. Sailors who must nourish and train our rudders, our GPS systems, our consciences. We must not cast that aside, lest we blaspheme Christ, his gospel, his church. Our lives must match up with our message. We're called to glorify God with our lives and words, and therefore we must feed our consciences on the Word of God, inform our consciences by the Word of God, and with our fellowship with the people of God, and be quick to obey our consciences and not cast aside. My last point is this. Do you see the importance of the local church? Maybe you're tired of me saying this. I will preach this as long as you let me stand in this pulpit. Do you see the importance of the local church? If the one who is cast outside of the church is considered delivered to Satan, unprotected, uncovered for the wiles of Satan to discipline and to come down upon him. Do you see then the importance of the protection and the necessity of the Christian in a local church, the great advantage and protection in the local church? The Christian submitting to the pastoral authority of the local church, submitting to one another in the local church. There is great, great danger for the Lone Ranger who has no need for the church. And I warn you, you can be a Lone Ranger Christian even being a member of a church and frequently attending the meetings of a local church. That's still not the same thing as being a part of working in submitting to and knowing the protection of the local church. We need to lock our arms in the local church and fight confidently together, not alone, with all the gifts and abilities that God gives us within the local church body. We need to keep each other's consciences clean and good that we might fight the good fight together. And we need to keep her, the church, pure even to the point of loving correction and discipline of her members as we fight the good fight together. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, What a rich passage of scripture. I pray, Lord, that we would hear what you have to say to us through your word by the power of your spirit. But, Lord, you have given us to fight. You've called us. You've charged us to fight the good fight, just as Timothy has. But you've given us all the resources that we might be confident to do battle. We've been promised to be overcomers through Christ Jesus. I pray, Lord, we would not just be on the side watching. or even just being oblivious, but we would join in the good fight, the fight of faith, the fight for the Gospel, the spiritual warfare whose spoils last for eternity. And Lord, I pray that you would help us as well to strive to have a clean conscience, a good conscience before God and men, that we would work together to do so as a body of Christ. And Lord, that we would be careful That if correction needs to be had, if discipline needs to be made within the church, that we would do it wisely. We do it lovingly. We do it biblically. And Lord, if that were ever to happen, I pray, Lord, it would be done well. Well, meaning that whoever might have to be disciplined and corrected would return to the faith, return to the church, return to Christ. Keep your church pure and enable us individually and together to fight the good fight of the gospel. In Jesus name we pray.