SPIRITUAL SHIPWRECK

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.