SPIRITUAL
SHIPWRECK
1
Timothy 1:18-20
Introduction: On
April 10, 1912 the R.M.S. Titanic left her berth at the harbor in Southampton,
England. This was the maiden voyage for the 882 foot long ocean liner that had
been billed as unsinkable. She carried with her 2,228 passengers and crew. Most
of the passengers had paid thousands of dollars to sail on that great luxury
liner. Four days into the voyage, on April 14, 1912 severe ice warnings were
received for the area through which the Titanic was sailing. These warnings
were ignored and the Titanic maintained her course for New York harbor. At
11:40 PM the Titanic struck an iceberg on the starboard side of her bow. She
began to take on water at an alarming rate and within three hours the Titanic
and 1,523 of her passengers were at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Only 705
of the original 2,228 persons survived that great shipwreck. Since 1912, people
have tried to figure out what happened to bring about the demise of a ship call
unsinkable. Most people would agree that the tragedy was a mixture of many
things including negligence, apathy, greed, pride and incompetence. In other
words, the tragedy could have been avoided if only had all the proper steps
been taken by the captain and crew of the Titanic. But, since those steps were
not taken, a tragic loss of life occurred on the cold night in the North
Atlantic.
The
facts behind the great shipwrecks of history makes for a fascinating study, but
did you know that not all shipwrecks happen at sea? It's true! Most shipwrecks occur
on dry ground. In 1 Timothy 1:18-20 Paul
compares the catastrophe of a wasted Christian life to a shipwreck. The word translated in the King James Bible
comes from two Greek words naus, meaning a large vessel or ship, and ago,
meaning to take, to bring to a point, to impel, to depart. The combined word is nauageo, to suffer
shipwreck. A shipwreck indicates huge
devastation, much despair, anguish, and misery.
Likewise a loss of faith and an honorable testimony leads to the same. Let
us few minutes to factors that cause spiritual shipwreck in our walk with the
Lord.
I. Rejection of Faith: In
verse nineteen Paul speaks of believers who have suffered spiritual shipwreck
due to rejection of the faith they learned. The word translated “rejected”
(apotheo) means “to push something or someone away” and implies a violent or
deliberate rejection. The reason that these two men named in this passage
suffered ship-wreck was because they “rejected” or “put away” the faith. Moving
away from faith will not happen instantly rather it’s a slow process as
allowing the ship to drift from the right direction knowingly or in other words
it’s like losing momentum and start to flounder or the loss of the rudder which
can contribute to the shipwreck. Hymenaeus and Alexander in this text had a right
faith in the beginning but later they thrust it away they had good conscience through believing, but made shipwreck of it.
In verse 15 Paul talks about one of the basic faiths of
Christianity and he sums the message of the whole Gospel. One of the basic
faiths of Christianity is that Jesus
Christ came into the world the Son of God took upon Him our nature, was
made flesh, and dwelt among us, John
1:14. He came into the world, not
to call the righteous but sinners to repentance, Matt 9:13. His errand into
the world was to seek and find, and so save, those that were lost, Luke
19:10. Today’s theologians suffer
spiritual shipwreck because they elevated uncritical contextualization and
ecumenism (religious pluralism) and cornered the basic faiths of Christianity. The
so called preachers and the evangelists of contemporary Christianity suffer spiritual
shipwreck because they compromised their faith for sake of name and fame and many
have compromised their faith for the sake of money. We reject the faith that
had leaded us to salvation for self-indulgence and for the worldly pleasures
and comforts.
II. Rejection of truth: Hymenaeus
and Alexander made shipwreck because they deliberately
rejected their good consciences in order to defend their ungodly lives. What
was their sin we do not know but their ungodly lives involved
"blaspheming". Hymenaeus involved blasphemy by rejecting the
truth of resurrection. Alexander the coppersmith performed his blasphemous act first,
by doing harm to the Apostles second he resisted the Words of the Apostles and
third he developed a kind of critical spirit to work against the things of the
Lord 2 Tim 4:14-15. Blasphemy is defined as, the defiant, willful, purposeful
breaking of God's commands. Thus Paul is stating that their false teaching
isn't due to being deceived but a willful choice to defy the truth they
believed and accepted wholeheartedly.
Today
in contemporary Christianity the liberal theologians, ecumenicals, religious
pluralists and various cultists knew that Jesus is the only way but they
deliberately reject the truth and say Jesus is one of the ways and willfully
defy the truth what they knew from their heart. They knew Bible is the Word of
God but in order to defy the truth they vainly argue Bible contains the Word of
God. The cultists knew there is eternal hell but they willfully deny it in
order defy the truth. Jehovah’s witnesses knew Jesus is divine and eternal Son
of God but they deny it in order to blaspheme the truth. The cultists and the
so called liberal and ecumenical theologian deny the truth just to blaspheme it
but the undeniable fact is “Truth shall overcome and it will stand forever” no
one can destroy it.
III. Rejection of right Path: Verse
nineteen actually gives another reason for the shipwreck in the life of the
called out people. Hymenaeus and his companion Philetus faced shipwreck because
they have left the path of truth 2Timothy 2:18 (NLT).
They rejected the right path by teaching that the resurrection had already
taken place. Perhaps they equated salvation with resurrection and taught
believers must not expect a physical resurrection. Their denial of physical
resurrection is a serious thing (1 Cor
15:12), for it involves the resurrection
of Christ and the completion of God's plan of salvation for His people. The
Resurrection is the foundational truth of the Gospel. They even took every
possible effort to persuade Timothy the young Christian to believe in their
false doctrine. Therefore Paul admonished Timothy to cling to his faith in
Christ (1 Timothy 1:19) he further admonished him to avoid worthless, foolish
talk which would lead to more godless behavior 2 Timothy 2:16 (NLT).
The false teachers not only reject the right path they make others
to follow them or in other words they will take every possible to over throw
the faith of other believers. The word “overthrown” in 2
Timothy 2:18 translated as “anatrepo”
means to subvert or to undercut. Today
in Christendom the cultists and false teachers are subverting the faith of
innocent believers in the name of heavenly visions and in the name of extra
Biblical revelations calming that is specially revealed to them. Second, they
also subvert the faith of unlearned believers by their false prophecies which
are completely irrelevant to the Inspired Word of God.
We all must beware of these cultists and errorists who can trip up the
unsuspecting or unlearned Christian.
Paul encouraged Timothy to "Study the Word of God and to show
himself approved unto God. The only Biblical way to avoid spiritual shipwreck, to
holdfast the right path and to escape from the teachings of the cultists and
false teachers is to study and to apply the Word of God in all the areas of our
day to day life 2 Timothy 2:15.
Conclusion: In
the history of Christianity many prominent leaders who lead thousands and
millions to Christ and preachers who especially claim to either have met with
Jesus personally or seen Him in an open vision or been often visited by angels
had spiritual shipwreck. Because they rejected their faith, truth they learned
and left the right path designed by God in which they ought to walk. Innumerable
records of shipwreck can be found in the History of Christianity down through
the centuries. And in this contemporary Christianity, we too, find believers and
great leaders, preachers and pastors suffering spiritual shipwreck due to above
mentioned reasons. May the Lord enable
one all the readers of this message to avoid spiritual shipwreck by avoiding
the mistakes of the one who suffered spiritual shipwreck in their journey with
the Lord on this planet.
