Good evening. To tell you it is a joy. One of the reasons why I like sitting up front is to hear everybody else singing behind me. And it is a joy to hear, to sing with you, but to hear God's people sing. I encourage you to think about that, even the things that Pastor Farley was saying this morning, our fellowship with one another. A lot of you this week will be with people who do not sing those same things, and I hope those things that we sing together encourage you, even as you tomorrow, or if you have tomorrow off because it's Columbus Day, the next day you head back to work with these same truths in our hearts and that fellowship that we have with one another would continue until we can meet again. It has been a privilege to get to know Pastor Farley a little bit. We've talked over the phone several times. When he got in Thursday, we went out for lunch together. And sometimes I wonder how waiters feel when you stay there forever and ever and ever. But we did stay there for quite a while. And I know his heart for you. I could sense his heart for you even there. And then today to see all of you and your heart for him as well. And that is a wonderful gift from the Lord. I'd also like to say that same heart of affection that you feel for him, we ought to all feel for one another. And one of the ways we get to show that this week, if you haven't signed up for a small group, please do that tonight, because that is one way that we have that we can maybe do something a little bit out of the norm. So it kind of forces us maybe to show a little bit more of this fellowship that we were talking about with one another together. So please, if you have not signed up yet, sign up. If you know somebody who hasn't signed up yet, give them a call and tell them to, not because you're better than they are, but because you know you need it and they need it as well. So let's encourage one another with those things, even this week. If you want to take your Bible and turn with me to 1 Timothy, and we continue to make our way through this book, we'll look at just three verses tonight at the end of chapter number one. This morning, Pastor Farley pointed us to a passage in Philippians, where again the Apostle Paul is writing, and in that passage, Paul's looking back at what God had done in Philippi, his thankfulness for that. But as a believer and as an apostle, Paul's responsibility was not just to look back, but to look forward as well. And here in Timothy, Paul is really doing that very thing. He is looking forward to the future of the church. This is one of those passages when Pastor Farley was preaching this morning, and we were talking about the wonders of fellowship. I was thinking how wonderful that was, and in the back of my mind I was thinking, and I get to preach on the passage that we hand somebody over to Satan. So, talk about opposite extremes a little bit, but they're both necessary, and they are both part of the fellowship that we have with one another. And this is something that while we take that hope, that encouragement that we have with one another, we also need this passage of scripture together as well this evening. So let's read these verses together. For the flippings of my mind and flippings. Now, 1 Timothy 1, we'll start in verse number 18. We'll read down to verse number 20. Paul writes, this charge, I entrust to you, Timothy, my child. in accordance with the prophecies made previously about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith with a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made a shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme." Let's go to the Lord and pray together. Father, we do come to you tonight, and we thank you for your word. We thank you that you fed us by your word this morning, and we pray tonight that you would feed us and nourish us with your word. We thank you that it is enough for us, and it is sufficient for us, and it will meet our every need, and we pray that you would meet our needs, even this evening, as we consider the truths from these verses together. We thank you for our fellowship that we have because of your word. And we pray that these verses would increase our fellowship. In Jesus name, amen. Start by asking a question. So Paul wrote to Timothy. We've talked in the past about how Timothy is a pastor at a church in Ephesus. So how did the church get from Ephesus to Windsor Locks? You ever think about that? Ephesus to Oklahoma. How did that happen? Now you may say, well, by the sovereign grace of God, and you are exactly right. That is not a bad answer, but sometimes I think when we give that answer, we kind of gloss over how the sovereign grace of God works in his people. If it were not for God's sovereign grace at work in his people these past 2,000 years, then there would be no church here. And I say that thinking particularly of God's people that he has worked through. The reality is that the church has gone from Ephesus, even here to Windsor Locks, because God's work has for these many years now been doing work in the heart of people. If we're not careful, we can come to the conclusion that because everything is by God's sovereign grace, that we can almost downplay our individual responsibility to carry out God's plans for us. In fact, it has been said, I had a seminary professor who used to say, we need to make sure that God's sovereign grace is a motivation for our obedience, not an excuse for slackness. And as Paul is writing to Timothy here, one of the things that he knows is that Paul knows that the church is going to face obstacles in the future. We're gonna look at an obstacle that was faced for them in the past. And Paul, as he's writing to Timothy, he wants Timothy to know that it's gonna take hard work on your part, Timothy, to see to it that after I'm gone and you are here, that this church survives. We would think tonight of all the obstacles that would come to the church. Often think of the obstacles that would come from without persecution, and those have come in many different forms throughout church history. But if that weren't enough, there's a whole other set of obstacles that Satan has brought. And that is from within many times, there are obstacles that come to try to stop the growth of God's church. But here in this passive scripture, Paul knows that God is going to continue his work of his church. You often think of Paul, and it's kind of a triumphal picture that we have of him. But if you read through some of his letters, particularly 2 Corinthians, as I read through that letter, I see a very vulnerable man many times. He knows what it's like to have people from even within the church begin to attack him, and he has to defend himself. Reality is that we aren't just vulnerable from without, we are also vulnerable from within. But what was the thing that really drove Paul to continue in that ministry? I want you to think back to Paul, even to his conversion. Who did he hear from there on the road to Emmaus? He heard from Christ. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? You know, later on that Paul himself, after his conversion, was taught by Christ. I want you to think even tonight of some words of Christ that ought to be an encouragement to every one of God's people. As Jesus was talking to his disciples in Matthew 16, what did he tell them? Peter makes this great proclamation that you, yes Lord, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And in part of that answer, the Lord says, I will do what? Build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Jesus made the promise that the church would advance. And Paul knows that, and he trusts in that. But the heart that Paul has as he is writing this is really that because he knows that truth, he wants Timothy and by extension, every pastor, this is a pastoral epistle, and by extension, every Christian needs to carry on the work of Christ until he returns. That's our responsibility as God's people. We don't know how the spirit will work in the future. We don't know when the spirit will come, we don't know how it moves, but we do know that it will work. And in these verses tonight, Paul is really kind of wrapping up what he began in this chapter, wanting to lay a foundation for Timothy for the future. And I want us tonight to look at this passive scripture and think about, yes, we're trusting in God's sovereign grace that he will continue to build his church, But that also requires, if we're trusting that, that we will trust it to the point that we will be willing to obey that truth as well. What does it mean for us to carry on his work until he returns? Paul is going to pass off the scene. What does he want Timothy to continue to do that he has done so that the church could continue? I want us to look at really three things in this passive scripture where Paul really shows his heart, his desire that Christians would carry on God's work, Christ's work until the Lord's return. First part of verse 18 there, see Paul's heart that the gospel would be passed on to the next generation. Look at what he calls Timothy there in verse number 18. This charge, I entrust to you, Timothy, my child. Now we know that Paul, that Timothy is not Paul's son biologically. So why is he using this word, my child? Paul does view Timothy as his son, but as his son, Paul's not passing on to Timothy some kind of earthly inheritance that you and I might get from our parents. What's the inheritance that he is passing on to him? What is the thing that he is doing? What does he have to pass on to Timothy as the next heir to the family line? That's the first part of 18. This charge I entrust to you. So maybe we don't often think about it in this sense, but when our family members, when they reach the end of their life and they have their inheritance that they're giving, there is an element of trust that is with that. In fact, maybe you even know some families where maybe the person who has the thing to give away, the inheritance, they may maybe skip over a person because they don't know if they can trust them to use it rightly. Well, Paul knows that with Timothy, he has something that he can entrust to him. He can give to him. And it is this charge, this is the thing that he wants to give to him. That causes us to ask the question, what is this charge? This idea of the command, this thing that Paul has to give to Timothy that he is to carry on in Paul's stead. Well, we go back to the beginning of the chapter and we see that idea Paul has already laid out. Look at verse number three. I urged you, he says, when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine in order to devote themselves to myths or endless genealogies which promote speculation rather than the stewardship that is from God by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. So what is the charge that Paul is entrusting to Timothy? It is the charge that he would hold onto and protect the gospel. See that going on in verses number 8 to verse number 11, you really have Paul there, not only is Timothy supposed to protect the gospel, by opposing false teachers, you see that there at the first part of verse number 3, you charge certain persons not to teach any doctrine. You silence them. But he also has the responsibility to teach rightly. Verse number 8, we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. So Paul is passing on to Timothy this next generation, the gospel of Jesus Christ. I mentioned last week that my favorite one of Luther's 95 theses is the one where he says the most holy and precious treasure of the true church is the holy gospel of Jesus Christ. That is what we have. And that is what God's people for generation after generation after generation have been passing on to one another. But as we pass it on, we need to recognize why we are doing that. And Paul wants to even encourage Timothy with this, that as he passes on that gospel to the next generation, we read there in verse number five, that the aim of the charge is what? Love. Love that issues from a pure heart. good conscience, and a sincere faith. See, the charge that Timothy has been given is to be carried out, yes, to protect the gospel, yes, to teach the gospel, but it is also meant, as we do that, that we are to love God's people. Verse number 18, look there again where Paul says, I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you. See, so what Paul is doing here is he's not just giving him a charge based on what I say to you, Timothy, you are my child, I've given you this charge. But when it talks about in accordance with the prophecies made previously about you, those prophecies are something that he actually references a little bit later in the book. Look at chapter four, verse number 14. It says, do not neglect the gift of prophecy, the gift that you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. to see something that Timothy has this responsibility, not just because Paul has given it to him, although he has, but the idea of prophecy here isn't necessarily, as we read there in chapter number four, that those elders made some prediction of the future of what Timothy would do. But the word prophecy in scripture can mean several things. It can mean a prediction of the future. But in a more general sense, it just means to say the truth, to tell the truth about something. Think about the prophets in the Old Testament, and a lot of them, they didn't necessarily, most of their ministry, a lot of their ministry wasn't based on what was going to happen in the future. It's what was happening right then and what they needed to do then. So as we look at this word prophecy here, it's not as though we should look at it as a declaration of what Timothy would be in the future. But it is these elders laying their hands on Timothy and proclaiming, Timothy, we are charging you with this work of passing on the gospel to the next generation as well. It teaches us something that as God's people, and really as pastors, there's two things. Yes, we have the responsibility that's been entrusted from Paul to Timothy to the next person to the next person. But there's also part of that that is the responsibility of each individual that is a member of a local church. Do you recognize that this evening? That you, as an individual, have the responsibility to recognize within each assemblies the ones who you would say, this person is the one who's going to lead us in handing on, passing on the truth to the next generation. This one or these ones are going to be the ones that encourage us with the words of God, that teach us the words of God rightly, that point us towards loving one another. So you may ask, how did we get from Ephesus to Windsor Locks? Well, yes, by the command of God, but by the obedience of God's people, generation after generation after generation. If I could put it this way, even as our church, as we search for who would be the next pastor here at Calvary Baptist Church in Windsor Locks, When we get to the point where we have someone to be our next pastor, his charge will be the exact same one that Timothy got. The charge that we will give to him, that next pastor, will be the same charge that the elders at Ephesus gave to Timothy. That is how the church has continued all these years, by the obedience of God's people to his commands. by our desire, yes, to oppose false teachers and to stop them, but beyond that, to do that out of love for one another. So as God's people this evening, if the church is going to continue to persevere, and it will, it requires that we pass on the gospel to the next generation. I wonder this evening when you think of what this church has to pass on to future generations, what do you think of? Do you think of this building? Do you think of maybe some of the neat programs that we have? I don't want to say neat, but effective and good programs that we have. Or do we think about how can we as God's people make sure that we pass the gospel on? Put it this way, we live in a time frame where we don't know the way our society is developing or deteriorating so rapidly. What happens if we lose everything that's around us? There's no more pulpit up here. There's no more pews. The building is taken, turned into something else. Do we have anything to pass on? The answer is yes. and think down to the generations of Christians of churches that never had the amenities that we have around us. Yet we are still here. Why? Because they were passing on the gospel to the next generation. That is how we carry out Christ's work. That is how we follow Christ and his command that he is going to build his church. We desire to pass on the gospel to the next generation. but not just pass that gospel on, but Paul uses some very interesting words in the next, in the end of verse number 18, into verse number 19, we are only to pass on the gospel to the next generation, but we are to hold onto the gospel to the end. Look at there at the end of verse number 18, he says, by them, you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. What is Paul saying there? Paul's telling Timothy, and the Lord is telling us, that to pass on the gospel to the next generation, it requires something. It requires effort on our part. We were several years ago hearing a message by a man named Kevin DeYoung, and the title of his message was Gospel-Fueled Effort. I think we need to recognize that this evening. that in order for the gospel to be passed on to the next generation, look at the words that Paul uses for Timothy here. And these words describe an effort on our part, something where we would want to put time and energy and expend ourselves, really exhaust ourselves in this task. He says that by them, he's talking about those prophecies and that charge that has been given to you, Timothy, you may wage the good warfare. Literally, the idea is that you may war, make war with a good warfare. To put it, make war with a good campaign. The idea here is that as Paul is talking to Timothy, that it is much more than just simply proclaiming the promises of God, but there needs to be this desire to hold on to them and to fight for them. Well, this evening, do you consider yourself a militant person? Now, if you answer yes, the next question is, are you militant for the right things? Are you willing to fight for the right things? And Paul is telling Timothy here that he needs to wage a good warfare. That's where we get to the right things, that word good, a good warfare. Make sure that you are fighting for the right things. I think I may have mentioned in the past that I enjoy reading war history, particularly World War II. Sorry, Lamar, but a little bit of Civil War II, so don't hold that against me too much. But one of the things that strikes you as you're reading through these things is that maybe as you step back and you look how everything turned out, it can almost look like it was an easy thing to do. But the more you read memoirs of individuals, the more you read the agony that generals went through and the decision that were being made, the more you do that, you realize how much energy and effort and work went in to those battles. The things that most people don't even know is that when it came to the American forces storming the beaches at Normandy, there was two years of preparation that went into that. Eisenhower in his memoir even made a comment something to this effect, that he had put so much energy and effort into just preparing for this battle, he wasn't sure if he had the strength to see it through. It's that kind of expending of energy that Paul is calling Timothy to do. I tell us something this evening, that if you feel worn out, with fighting for the gospel. If you feel worn out waging the good warfare, then that is not a sign this evening that you are somehow unfaithful and that God's spirit isn't at work in you. Paul tells Timothy the exact opposite. This is evidence that you are fulfilling the call that you have been given. Not only that, but he says that you should be doing this, but he says there in verse number 19, holding faith with a good conscience. So we ought to fight for the gospel, but not only fight for it, but we ought to hold tightly to it. The idea there is to take grasp of it, to make sure that you would not let go of this. song that I enjoy singing very much and we sing with our children from time to time. I think, I don't know if we sing it here, it's called He Will Hold Me Fast. It's a wonderful song about that truth that God will hold us. When we fear our faith will fail, Christ will hold me fast. And that is a wonderful truth. But there's another side to that truth as well. that God expects us, yes, he will hold us fast, but there's also this verse here that says we need to hold onto him fast as well. For as a church, we'll sing a song like he will hold me fast, but we might also sing a song, I am resolved no longer to linger, charmed by the world's delights. Why do we sing both of those two things? Because we recognize that there are two things that we must do at the same time. Trust the promises of God. And because we trust them, we hold onto them. He says, holding faith with a good conscience. Interesting there, holding faith, not with, but and a good conscience. The idea of conscience there is just a basic definition would be a knowledge of right and wrong. So we are to hold on to faith with a good conscience that knows the truths of God's Word. Unlike these false teachers, that aren't doing this. You can even see Paul, look at verse number five, Paul kind of is contrasting himself with these false teachers. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. There Paul's giving the implication that these false teachers don't have those things. Reality is we cling to the truth of the gospel. and that with a good conscience, with a heart that is sprinkled clean by the word of God, we follow on after the Lord. And we cling to God's words in the midst of those most difficult of battles. We cling to God's words. We hold on to the gospel until the end. We often talk about the perseverance of the saints The perseverance of the saints also helps us understand another thing, the perseverance of the church itself. How did the church get from Ephesus to Windsor Locks? Yes, by it being passed on from generation to generation in the gospel going around the world, but also by God's people holding on to that gospel, even to death. Maybe that death was one that they did not pick for themselves. It may have been martyrdom. Could have just been a normal death, we could call it, from old age. But all of these individuals held on to that gospel to the end. And Paul is calling Timothy to do that exact same thing. As believers, we carry on his work until he returns. We do that by passing on the gospel to the next generation. But if we're gonna do that, it means we have to hold onto the gospel until the end. But then finally, this is that part that I referenced at the beginning, we also need to judge by the gospel when certain individuals fall away. See, this end of verse number 19 into verse number 20 is a topic that, frankly, I wouldn't pick to speak on. But one of the joys and one of the needs for expository preaching, preaching through God's word, is that it makes a preacher maybe hit a topic that isn't his favorite one to hit. And I don't know of any preacher that this is their favorite topic to hit, but it is a necessary one. that for the church to survive, and one of the reasons that it has survived, is that the church has been willing and should be willing to judge by the gospel when others fall away. What Paul says here, he's thinking of the joy of Timothy and entrusting this gospel to Timothy, but he can't do that without thinking about something else. At the end of verse number 19, by rejecting this, some have made a shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. The other things that God expects and wants his people to do in order to carry on his work is that as a church, we have been given a certain authority from God. As fast as scripture, we see that Paul has handed over these two individuals to Satan. This isn't the only time that Paul references something like this. First Corinthians chapter number five, there's another man there who is living in open sin. And there in that chapter, he tells the believers the exact same thing. That idea there of handed over to Satan, that is the idea of kind of handing over the authority, the protection of that person, handing over your responsibility and giving it to somebody else. And Paul is saying that when somebody doesn't do what he has just been talking about, holding on to the gospel to the end, Paul tells Timothy, need to recognize what I have done and even be willing to do the same thing. That when they fall away, recognize that and stop treating that individual like a believer. That's something that God's people need to be willing to do. We've been talking to Someone before the service tonight, they were just mentioning where they grew up and how everybody where they grew up says, well, I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian. And when you live in a scenario like that, where there is not this thing that Paul is talking about, handing over individuals who aren't holding on to the faith and persevering in that fight for the faith, you know what you end up having? You have mass confusion. of who the church is, what the church is. You have all sorts of people who are willing to make claims of being a Christian, when the reality is they aren't. And there's just this mass confusion everywhere. Paul tells Timothy, you need to be willing to judge people by the gospel. Notice what he says there in verse number 19, by rejecting this, some have made a shipwreck of their faith. Now, even as we talk about this, there's something that we need to point out, that even when a church would, this is, we could talk about exercising church discipline. It's not a hard and fast thing that we are now saying, that the person is saying, that person is going, if he died right now, he would be in hell. Look at what Paul says. It's worded quite specifically, I think. Some have made a shipwreck of their faith. So he's recognizing that there was something there at one point, and what has happened? It's, well, smashed into the rocks. It's wrecked. Maybe somebody has tried to go rescue them, but it has failed. But that person, from all outward appearances, has made a wreck out of their faith, and it's destroyed. Notice what it says there in verse number 20, these two individuals, that they learn not to blaspheme. What does it mean to blaspheme? To blaspheme the name of the Lord? A very base way of looking at it is to make a statement and it's empty and hollow. There's nothing behind the statement. To blaspheme God is to make a statement about God that would try to empty God of His power and His majesty of everything of whom He is. Here in this passage of scripture, Paul is saying, that is what these two individuals have done. I'm not quite sure who they are, but they, from what we can tell, they seem to have maybe been some of these teachers at the beginning of chapter number three. They seem to have been leaders at some level in the church, and they have made a shipwreck of their faith. And Paul says that I have handed them over to Satan. They are no longer under my authority, the authority of the church, but they are under now the authority, the power of someone. Think about what that means. Think about the weightiness of that statement. But that is an awesome responsibility that Paul has. that even in the charge that he's giving him to hold on to the gospel, he needs to continue to do that as well. Reformers often talked about the marks of a true church. Those marks of a true church were the right preaching of the gospel, So just because the word is present in a building or in a group of people doesn't mean it's a true church. Because that group, if you've talked about this before, you've probably been to a funeral where they read God's word there. And you think to yourself, why is this place dead? There's the word of God. Well, it's not the right preaching of the word of God. Paul's addressed that with Timothy. Another mark would be the right administration of the, the reformers called them the sacraments, the ordinances. It's another mark of a true church. And the final mark is one that frankly falls in hard times. It is the right exercising of church discipline, of taking the authority that we have from God, the keys to the kingdom as it were, in judging by the gospel. Being willing to look at someone and say, if you are not willing to hold on to that faith, well, the ultimate knowledge of whether that is a sincere faith or not is not ours. We do have the responsibility to say, it's a shipwreck right now. If you're not willing to turn, we need to do something about this. We can no longer protect you. You realize that's one of the things that God expects us to do for one another? To protect one another. That's one of the reasons why I'm here. Ought to be one of the reasons why you are here. That when somebody would see something, maybe in our lives, maybe an attitude that's beginning to show itself in our lives, that other believers would come alongside us and say, I know you're a believer. I know you're trusting Christ. And I want to encourage you to hold on to your faith, to fight the good warfare, even in what I can see is a difficult blind spot in your life. But Paul says in this passive scripture that it got to the point with these individuals that he could no longer do that for them. They had rejected all of the calls that he had given to them. and he was no longer going to treat them as someone who is under God's special care, because from his perspective, he was looking at me and saying, those were just empty words that you said. I realize that is one of the ways that God has kept his church pure all these years. We can all look and see aspects of church history where you look and you say, what a mess. And if we're honest with ourselves, we should be, it's just of a mess today as it was 500, 800, 2000 years ago. But by the grace of God, his true people will seek to do the things that we have mentioned this evening. Even as we continue on in the book of 1 Timothy, and Paul is now going to move out just from the broad context of the gospel to some particular applications of how it works itself out in the church. I wonder, do we pray earnestly for our church family that we would carry on his work till the end? Is it our desire that in everything that we do, that it is the gospel that will be passed on to the next generation? Does that happen? What Pastor Farley was saying. When we're talking about the next generation, we're not just talking about the children, talking about young believers in Christ. And this morning, I was thinking about some of the folks who left this morning, who even in the short time I've gotten to know them, they are our younger believers in Christ. I'd look around the room tonight and I would see a lot of more mature believers. What are you doing to make sure that that next generation that has been saved, has known Christ, probably in some of your cases, 50 years fewer than you have? What are you doing to make sure that gospel that you love and treasure is passed on to them? That is not just Timothy's charge, but that is the charge of all of God's people. Tomorrow, as you go to your job, as you leave this place and you go back to an unsaved family this evening, are you holding on to the gospel? Are you fighting the good fight? Are you recognizing that because it is hard and difficult is not a show of unspirituality or of unhealthy spiritual walk, but of a healthy one? Are we praying for our brothers and sisters who find themselves in a more difficult warfare now than maybe you and I are? Are we clinging to those truths? And while I know of nothing that would cause us to need to do what Paul says in verses 19 and 20, are we willing tonight to do that? Again, not saying anything about who we are, but wanting to protect God's word, to protect his gospel, to protect his church. And it is by these three things that God is, that Christ is building his church. We need to ask God for the grace that he would carry on his work, even in us, until he takes us home to be with himself, or he returns for us. Let's go to the Lord and pray.