Book of 1 Timothy - Ch. 1, vv. 19-20

I want to try to finish up the section we're in today. So 1st Timothy, if you want to turn to 1st Timothy, and we've been kind of up, well, we've spent the last two

Sundays pretty closely examining verse 18 and the first part of verse 19.

So last week, verse 19 of 1st

Timothy chapter one opens up with Paul telling Timothy, hold faith and a good conscience.

And that is, of course, right after verse 18, him reminding him of his calling that was actually made known to the world through prophecies by genuine prophets of God.

And because of that, he needs to live up to it. He needs to war a good warfare. He needs to fight the good fight, the noble fight that he has been placed here to do.

And so Paul says all of that in verse 18. And then in verse 19, it says, holding faith, a good conscience.

So last week, we spoke a great deal about conscience and what it means to hold a good conscience in parallel with the faith.

To have faith in God, of course, is an incredibly important thing. It is foundational.

We are justified by our faith in him. But it's one thing to say,

I believe in God. I believe he exists. I believe he sent his son. I believe his son is God, that he died for my sins.

That is all, again, foundational. But what about in your continued living for the rest of your life as a

Christian? That is where the conscience comes into play. And to hold a good conscience, to hold a blameless conscience is something that even the apostle

Paul himself made great emphasis upon throughout his writings about his own life, his own conscience, and of course, the conscience of others.

So what is it to have a blameless conscience? Again, that's what we talked about in detail last week. And it is to essentially inform it through the reading of the word, through the sanctification process.

As we go as believers, as we read the word of God, our conscience becomes informed by what is pleasing in the sight of God, what his instructions actually are, so that we can obey them.

And as we mentioned last week, the conscience isn't what defines sin. That's the word of God that does that.

But the conscience, once it is made known of what sin is, it tells us that, it reminds us what it is.

It reminds us, hey, that's off limits. That is something that God told us not to do.

And so that was the opening phrase of verse 19. Again, we looked at it in detail last week, holding faith in a good conscience.

And then today, we are gonna find out what it looks like when that is neglected.

What are the results when Paul's instruction there at the beginning of verse 19, what does it look like when it's neglected?

And we will find out looking at the rest of verse 19. So take a look at that with me.

So he says, holding faith in a good conscience, talking to Timothy, and then he says, which some, having put away concerning faith, have made shipwreck, of whom is

Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

Okay, so with the backdrop of everything we've talked about up to this point,

Paul's very clear distinction between false teachers and what the true saving gospel is, using himself as the prime example of what

God's mercy looks like upon the life of a sinner. Now going into this final,

I say final, final of chapter one, this final charge toward the young elder Timothy at the very end of chapter one, reminding him of his calling, his duty, his responsibility toward his people, his

God, his church, his calling, all based upon the prophecies that have been made in his, about Timothy himself and him entering the ministry.

He now creates contrast, bringing us another angle to motivate

Timothy. So one of the reasons why, and this is just a little bit of a refresher, because I think I talked about this like two weeks ago, but as we now look at these two characters here, let's remember one of the reasons why

Paul was telling Timothy about the prophecies that were made about him, telling him to war good warfare, telling him to hold a good conscience, to hold the faith and all of these types of things was to give him motivation to do a good work in the ministry, to once more live up to his calling and to conduct himself, his behavior, his teaching, everything consistent with God's word.

So it was all about positive motivation. Here, Paul now brings a couple of guys that Timothy is well acquainted with into the picture to give a negative motivation, motivation from the negative side of things.

So we have two characters here, and they were two guys that were apparently pretty close to Timothy at some point, because if they hadn't been,

I don't know if it had packed as much of a punch for Timothy that Paul is using them because Paul is using these guys here as a pretty potent example of how ugly apostasy is.

Apostasy, what is that? That is a person that has been immersed in, let's just call it a

Christian atmosphere. They've been in church. They have made a profession of faith.

They have proclaimed to those around them that they believe in Jesus and that they are a disciple of Jesus.

They have taken part in the ordinances, the Lord's Supper, they've been baptized. They're in a

Christian community, all of these things. And then one day they decide that they've had enough of it and they, quote unquote, leave the faith.

Of course, the book of Hebrews talks about this at length. The apostle Paul gives us a number of examples of those that have apostasized even from his own circle.

In fact, one of those characters we will talk about at length when we get to 2 Timothy, way down the road.

And so apostasy is a very real thing. It is a falling away from the faith. It is denying

Christ after having proclaimed his name. And that is, if you believe in the doctrine of eternal security, which we do here, which we affirm, we know that a genuine person, a genuine

Christian that has been regenerated by the Spirit and that has been resting between the palms of the

Father and the Son and that is a sheep of the Good Shepherd and all of these things, of whom

I will lose none, that Jesus talks about in John chapter 10. We know that a person in that particular position cannot fall away from the faith in the sense that they have lost their salvation.

So what does that imply when we talk about apostasy, when we talk about those that have fallen from grace, as it were, fallen from the faith?

It implies that it was a false profession of faith. And this shouldn't surprise us at all because all of church history is filled with people that have made false professions of faith.

It's what the Reformers, and it's a term we still use today, but the Reformers referred to it as nominal

Christianity. In other words, it is Christianity in name only. It's Christianity for the societal benefits, perhaps, for the social benefits, for conforming to the cultural norms of the day, whatever it may be, but that's all it is.

It is a nominal Christianity. It's not the real thing. There hasn't been a genuine dying to self and submitting to the

Lordship of Christ, all that good stuff, okay? So what Paul is now doing, with that as our context here, is he is showing

Timothy, reminding him how ugly apostasy is. Everything I just described, he's reminding

Timothy of how ugly that really is. Now, what's interesting about it is that Hymenaeus, this guy here in verse 20, it says,

Hymenaeus and Alexander, this two guys, Hymenaeus pops up again in 2 Timothy, the next epistle to Timothy that we'll look at later, as one of the false teachers of Ephesus.

And so, obviously, these guys remained in close proximity to Timothy, even after having been delivered unto

Satan, as he tells us here in verse 20. So while Paul does that, he delivers them over to Satan, these two men are gonna stay in a close -knit community that Timothy is a part of, as false teachers, of whom

Timothy will have to, at some point, rebuke and things like that. Pop -Pop, did you have a question? Well, it's just interesting there, because you think you've been delivered unto

Satan, that's the end. That's right. But in this case, he's saying that they may learn not to blaspheme.

Exactly. Indicates that it's not a permanent. Well, we're gonna get there.

Don't get ahead of me, Pop -Pop. Hold your horses. For the moment, for the moment, just think about the aspect, the initial aspect of it.

Why is it that they're being delivered unto Satan? It's because they apostatized. So the apostasy is an action they took, and it's not what

Paul did yet, but we'll get there, because that's a great point and a significant point. That final phrase of verse 20 is super important.

Okay, so they've been delivered unto Satan. Now, Paul exhorts

Timothy in verse 19, so we haven't quite gotten there yet, but the main thing

I wanted to mention a second ago is that we do see Himenaeus pop up again later in Timothy's life.

So it wasn't like this delivery unto Satan, which we'll break down more in a sec, it wasn't like that meant they were just gone.

No, they stuck around, and they remained a thorn in Timothy's side, so to speak, but just put a pin in that, because that's gonna be important as we go through this.

So now, back to verse 19 for a second. Paul is exhorting Timothy in verse 19 to hold the faith and a good conscience.

Why? He's already given one motivation on the positive side because he has been prophesied about because of his calling and all that stuff.

We've talked about it a bunch at this point. I'm repeating myself on purpose because I want y 'all to remember what Paul is doing here.

He is motivating Timothy to good work. He is motivating Timothy to actually fulfill that which he has been called to do.

So in verse 19, hold faith and good conscience, and you do this, and now he gets into the negative motivation, because a world of hurt is at the doorstep if you don't do that.

If you don't hold the faith and a good conscience, a world of hurt is right around the corner for you, and here's a couple of examples, and then he starts talking about these guys.

That's what he's doing here. And then, after Paul gives that warning, he makes examples out of these friends of Timothy's, presumably placed in a similar position as he was, because if you think about it, you would think, and again, this is implied, and this is an assumption, but one of the reasons why

Paul would be using these guys as the specific examples he's using is perhaps because there was a one -for -one example, kind of an apples -to -apples example here, between Timothy and these men and where they were placed in the church.

So keep in mind, the only reason why what Paul is saying makes any sense, that they have made shipwreck of the faith, is because they had previously had the faith.

At least, they proclaimed it. They proclaimed it. They were put in positions, I believe, in teaching positions, just like Timothy is, and then they made shipwreck of the faith, and so Paul is saying,

Timothy, do not let what happened to these two over here happen to you. Again, that's an implication.

It's not explicitly spelled out. Although, when you get to 2 Timothy and you find out that Himenaeus is a false teacher, that seems to support the idea that he began as a teacher and he continued as one, but a false one later on.

And so, again, we kind of presume that these two men were put in similar positions as Timothy was, and if that's true, this would have made it a very sobering reminder, a very sobering experience for Timothy as Paul is bringing them forth forward, maybe even letting him know about what

Paul did to them in his delivery to Satan for the first time. We don't know. Maybe he already had previous knowledge of their apostasy and basically the church discipline that needed to take place afterward, or maybe he's learning about it now.

I'm not so sure about that. Either way, regardless, this would have been extremely sobering for Timothy because he is in a very similar position as they were.

What's the difference? One of them was faithful, and one of them is being called to remain faithful, and the other two gave it all up because they were blaspheming, or I should say as they were blaspheming

God Himself. So, there you go. You have

Paul making now a negative motivation, very sobering thing for Timothy, and in fact, because of the shipwreck of the faith in the lives of these two men, what does

Paul say next? And this is starting to touch on what Pop -Pop was bringing forth a second ago. Because of the shipwreck of the faith in the lives of these two men,

Paul goes on to say, of whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

Now, there's a number of fascinating implications behind this verse here in verse 20, and Pop -Pop already touched on a couple of them, but we'll break this down a little bit.

To begin with, we don't exactly know what this delivering entailed.

The Greek term is really interesting because what it essentially means is that you are opening up the lives of, let's just use these two guys as the example.

You're opening up the lives of these two gentlemen to be vulnerable. You are exposing them.

You are kind of un -anchoring them from the faith and even from the protection of the

Christian community in which they were. And this is, you know, again, this is a biblical example of what church discipline looks like.

They're part of a Christian community, maybe even the same church, the same local church that Timothy was helping minister to at this time, and yet they blaspheme

God. They deny the faith. They do all these things. So what happens? Matthew 18 happens.

And they are, all of these things are brought to bear on their lives and they are now cut loose.

They are now made vulnerable to the wiles of the world, the flesh, the devil, in a uniquely exposed way, in a uniquely exposed way.

So this is what the Greek term implies when it's referring to this delivery to Satan.

Now, no doubt, like I mentioned, they were essentially let go and they are now entering back into this domain of Satan's influence.

At some point in 2 Timothy, Paul talks about the fact that prior to salvation and in the context of Christians trying to disciple or maybe witness to rather evangelize those that are not yet saved, you have to remember that they are at the whims of the will of the devil himself.

They are being pulled around by the will of the devil. And again, that's a very sobering thought for us too.

And so right here, Paul is saying they have denied the faith, they're blaspheming God. So I am putting them by my apostolic authority back into that domain, back into the domain of Satan with his unimpeded influence on their lives.

Now, some older theologians, if you read their commentaries on this particular section, a lot of them believe that they were delivered in such a way as to receive torment by Satan in a physical sense, much like what

Job would have experienced and perhaps even what Saul experienced with the,

I forget the way it words it at this point, but he was, is it discomfited?

I can't remember. But when the demon comes and bothers Saul greatly and it requires

David to come and to soothe his soul and all that kind of stuff. So a lot of older commentators believe that that's what would have happened to these two gentlemen after Paul delivers them to Satan, that they would have received kind of an acute spiritual warfare in the sense that they were tormented by him in a physical sense.

And of course, what is the purpose of this happening? Regardless of how you interpret what happened in their lives later, whether it was physical torment or more of a, leaving the safety net of their church community and are now just kind of being pulled around by the negative influences of the devil and his minions and things like that.

Regardless of how you interpret it, it's really the same exact sense either way. What was the purpose?

Why would Paul do something this drastic? Why would he deliver these two, perhaps even young men over to Satan?

The first reason, we'll get to the second reason in a second, which is what Pop -Pop was asking about.

But the first reason was to prevent them from further engaging in their sin specifically in the context of the church.

So they're not going to be blaspheming God under the watch care of the church at Ephesus anymore.

Let's just assume they're in that same church community that Timothy was. If it wasn't literally the same local church, it would have been the same region.

And so they would have had some influence there. What Paul is doing here is he is not going to allow them to engage in their sin anymore, their very public sin, in the context of the church.

Once more, this is one of the biggest purposes of church discipline. You have someone, pastors don't talk about this a lot because it's a very uncomfortable subject.

And I would venture to guess that many of them don't want to ever breach that particular topic or executing that which

Jesus calls us to do in an appropriate context. But essentially what you're doing is let's say you're the shepherd, you're the pastor, you're the overseer.

And you have someone in your congregation that is engaging in public sin.

All of us are sinners. All of us require confession, perhaps on a daily basis. All of us require repentance throughout our lives.

But I'm talking about habitual sin that is happening on a public scale or something maybe that was happening in private but came to light, because we don't know people's hearts like Christ does.

And that comes to light. And it now mars the testimony of that church.

What do you do about it? Well, Jesus gives us the specific examples. You go to them in person, you talk to them, and you call them to repent of those sins.

And maybe they will. And if they do, that's by God's grace. And then fellowship is restored, they confess it.

Maybe they get discipled, they go through counseling, all this stuff. But let's say they continue on that path.

You take a brother. Maybe you take two more brothers, a couple of witnesses. And the final stage of that is that they have refused to stop their public sin in any way, shape, or form.

And therefore, the church as a whole recognizes that this is the case and they bring about church discipline, which essentially, practically speaking, what it means is that they would no longer get to partake in the

Lord's Supper. You don't get to tell someone they can't sit in the pew and hear the gospel preached. So they would still be welcome to sit in the pew and listen to the sermon and listen to God's word preached.

But with regard to the very intimate, covenantal relationship between that church body, which kind of reaches its peak when they partake of the

Lord's Supper together and things like that, they're barred from that. Why? Because they are living in unrepentant, unconfessed sin that is bringing a negative testimony upon that church family, which

God himself and the apostles absolutely repudiate. What would they do? They would deliver people like that to Satan.

And so this, again, is all of that coming into a very practical context for the apostle

Paul. He is preventing these guys from further engaging in their sin in the context of that particular

Christian community. Now, I want you guys to note how important that aspect of it is for Paul.

And this is where pastors across the country, across the world need to toughen up in this area when it is called for, because the apostle

Paul and the rest of the apostles as well, obviously, and then Jesus who gave us the teachings on church discipline, took it extremely seriously.

Paul's job here, it wasn't hard -hearted. He wasn't simply delivering these guys over to Satan because they made him mad, because they were his personal enemies or because he simply was just not having it anymore and I've had enough of you guys,

I deliver you over to Satan. It wasn't because he was hard -hearted toward these particular guys for personal reasons or anything like that.

And remember, one of the reasons why we can know that is because in the preceding verses, just a few verses up, what did

Paul just finish doing for five or six verses? Talking about himself as the chief of sinners in the present tense.

He gave us a succinct but pretty explicit look into his past life of sin prior to salvation, but even the fact that even the way he's living now, even now, it is by God's grace and God's grace alone that he can stand as a minister of the gospel.

So this isn't Paul just lightly being trigger happy with these denunciations as an apostle.

He wasn't hard -hearted. This was about something more. This wasn't just about being a sinner.

This was about habitual blasphemy that they were bringing and living out in total denial of the faith itself.

So this is important to Paul. Why is that? What is he doing? Well, what he's doing by his apostolic authority, as I mentioned before, was to prevent further sin and to Pop Pop's point earlier, to perhaps even reclaim these sinners to the faith, perhaps to restore them to fellowship, to bring them back as repentant sinners that are now, let's just say, rededicating their lives to the

Lord, because at this point, they have committed apostasy effectively. So what it would require for them to come back would be for them to have a genuine submission to Christ as Savior and to Lord, them recognizing that they were phonies beforehand, perhaps for personal gain, and then now they realize, no, we are on a fast track to paying for our sins ourselves, and we don't want that, and so we submit to Christ as Savior.

That is what Paul was wanting to happen as a result of him turning them over to Satan.

Now, one print, oh, Pop Pop, go ahead. Just quick question. Sure. It seems a little bit of a stretch to say that they had a phony conversion, when it could be that they were converted, they just sinned.

Well, we have hindsight to help us out here, and we know that they were phonies.

Paul did not know that at the time he was writing this verse yet, but by the time you get to 2 Timothy, where it becomes very plain that these gentlemen did not, that the delivery to Satan did not end up saving them and keeping them from blaspheming.

So these were genuine apostates. They weren't just sinners, maybe in need of a little church discipline to really convict them of their sins so that they could yearn to be restored to fellowship, which happens sometimes, by the way.

So they weren't saved at all. Right, and again, we have hindsight to help us out here, but I want you guys to remember this.

At the time that Paul is writing verse 20 of his first epistle to Timothy, they weren't saved in that moment, but as far as he was concerned, they very well could become saved.

That's very important for us to keep in mind in the immediate context we're dealing with, because we're not studying 2 Timothy yet.

So just remember that. But Pop -Pop, you're right. If we didn't have all the information, well, here's what we could say.

We could say that their previous profession of faith was phony because they are now apostatizing. They are now being false teachers.

They're now teaching something that's opposite of the gospel. They've made shipwreck of the faith. That right there is the key phrase.

That's apostasy. So we could say, even if we were in the moment Paul was living in, we could say they were phonies, so let's go after them.

Let's evangelize them. Let's share the gospel with them and bring them into the fold legitimately. So there's that aspect of it.

Now, there is one important principle that we learn from this episode, and what that is is that people who willingly engage in behavior and in contradictions that are inherently antichrist, they may very well be delivered to the one that they are emulating, to the one that they are imitating, the one that they are actually following the teachings of, whether that's by ignorance or not.

And of course, who is that? That's Satan himself. And so these gentlemen, whether you want to argue that they were in ignorance blaspheming

God and teaching another gospel and living in an antichrist manner, or, and by the way, that, well, nevermind.

It really doesn't matter. They could be saved, whether it was in ignorance or not, honestly. But regardless of whether it was in ignorance or whether it was very premeditated and they knew exactly what they were doing, regardless of that, that kind of behavior, those kinds of contradictions will, or I should say can lead to this delivery into Satan that Paul has now conducted as an apostle overseeing this particular situation.

So that's one principle that we learned with these two gentlemen, and it's very important for us to remember that because it hasn't necessarily changed.

We don't have apostles today to make that kind of authoritative proclamation, but it doesn't mean that God can't deliver them unto

Satan. Even if, again, even if you don't have the apostle Paul to verbally express what just happened, it's still very much at play.

But another utterly fascinating thing that we learn here, now we really get back to Pop -Pop's original question.

We've been building up to it. But one thing that we learn about this that is utterly fascinating is that God, it's fascinating, but it also makes total sense.

God is never constrained by the powers of evil. And not only is he not constrained by the powers of evil in any way, shape, or form, but there are times when he can actually,

I say can, there are times when he will actually use them as an instrument if he so chooses.

Now, once more, hindsight is 20 -20, so we know kind of what happens. We know these were legitimate apostates that, at least up until the point of Paul's final epistle, had not repented of their sin.

But, again, put yourself in Paul's shoes for a second. He's penning this verse for the first time.

He doesn't know the future, even though he is an apostle. But Paul did understand the principle that God has the right to use whatever means he chooses to bring a person into the fold, to bring a person to the point of repentance, to genuine faith, and to these things.

Paul knew that principle. And so that's why you see the way that he phrases this verse in this particular way.

These men were delivered to Satan by Paul. And, again, this is a position that would certainly seem to lead, like, from our point of view, you hear something like that and you would think, well, that would just simply lead to even more ungodliness, to even more blasphemy, to be delivered unto

Satan, to be put back into his domain under his unimpeded influence without the protection of the

Christian community you find yourself in. Wouldn't that just lead to further ungodliness and all these terrible things?

And that could be what happens, but it's not necessarily what happens because what's the final phrase of the verse?

That they may learn not to blaspheme. That they may learn not to blaspheme. In other words, while Satan believes that he gets to just have a field day with these two guys, and he may very well have had a field day with these two guys,

Paul understands, as he pens these words, that God can use that acute spiritual pressure to mold a person into a servant of God rather than a slave to sin just like it happened in his life.

Because remember the Apostle Paul. Remember the insolent man. Remember the blasphemer he was.

Remember the persecutor he was. The man that is the self -proclaimed chief of sinners, present tense.

He understands that God can shape a person using the pressure of the evil realm to turn them into the person he wants as his eventual servant rather than as a slave to sin.

And so that was Paul's prayer for these men. He took it upon himself to do what needed to be done, even though it's always uncomfortable, and he invoked church discipline on these two guys, but in a particularly authoritative way because he was an apostle, and that was in his delivery to Satan.

But to what ends was his prayer? To what ends was his hope? That they may learn not to blaspheme anymore.

Now, I want you guys, in the brief time we have left, to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter five with me because I want to show you guys one other passage where this type of language is used, and it's the only other place that's used.

Just to kind of give you a kind of a parallel passage, but very different context.

And I find this one to be perhaps even more interesting than the one we're reading now because the one we're reading now, again, it's the apostle

Paul himself, and it's like, yes, he certainly has the prerogative to do something like this.

In Galatians chapter one, we've talked, you guys remember our study in Titus when we were talking about young men and their speech, and we were talking about this idea that there are times when a very harsh polemic may be necessary.

Like a young Christian man controlling his speech doesn't mean that he just needs to be nice to everyone all the time.

That's not what it means. It means it needs to be self -controlled. And there are times when the prophets, times when the apostles, and of course,

Jesus himself, Matthew 23 being one of the preeminent examples, used extremely harsh, biting polemics against their enemies, against the enemies of God, to be more precise.

And in one such case, the apostle Paul, in Galatians chapter one, calls the false teachers that were bewitching the church at Galatia, he calls them anathema, which is a way of, in the old

Greek world, cursing somebody to hell, dooming somebody to hell. He cursed them, and he did it twice in just the opening verses of Galatians.

So he was not afraid to use harsh denunciations when it was called for.

And so it makes sense that he does this in 1 Timothy 1 .20 for a couple of guys that were deserving of it, even though his hope and prayer was that they would come back.

In the moment, he was not going to just beat around the bush with the open, blatant sin that they were exhibiting.

So it makes sense that he does it. But look at 1 Corinthians chapter five, and look at some of his instruction here to the church of Corinth, who of course, are dealing with a lot of problems, not the least of which was a man that was publicly fornicating with his own mother and making a public display of it and talk about marring the testimony of a local church.

Paul is now dealing with this. You get to chapter five of 1 Corinthians and start in verse three.

He says, for I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already as though I were present concerning him that hath so done this deed, talking about that gentleman

I just referenced, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together in my spirit with the power of our

Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the

Lord Jesus Christ. Now, think about what he just said in that final verse there. That the flesh, for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the

Lord Jesus Christ. So once more, what are the ends that Paul is hoping for, that he genuinely wants to happen in this delivery unto

Satan? That they may eventually repent and come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ so that their spirit may be saved, their flesh may be done for.

There are sins that can be conducted in our bodies that have lasting ramifications, lasting consequences for the rest of the life of that person, even if they become saved later.

They may have destroyed their body in a way. I mean, there are some very sad examples I could give, but well, there are people that have been saved after going through the encouraged bodily mutilation of our current cultural scruples, scruples that, you know, if you say you're born in the wrong body, we'll fix it by cutting everything off.

And some of those people, of course, eventually, through much help in the communities they are in, which they should receive, you know, go through what is referred to as detransition.

So they try to go back to the biological frame that they were created in purposefully. And some of them, of course, are now believers.

And it's a devastating reality for so many reasons. It's very, very heavy. And their eternal souls have been saved, their spirits have been saved, and they will live in the eternal bliss of God's rest.

And they can even experience that in many ways now, but they have to live for the rest of this life in a body that has been destroyed and it will never be normal again.

And so this can happen. The body can go through a destruction. And I'm not saying that's a one -for -one example of what

Paul's talking about here. I just want to give the example or use an example, a potent one that we are dealing with today.

That the body, the flesh can be destroyed in this life, but that doesn't mean that the spirit has to be.

And so what Paul is saying here is he is now giving the church authority. He is giving this local church authority to deliver this one over to Satan.

Now, you could say, yes, but it flows from Paul's apostolic authority, and I would agree with that.

But it is interesting here that it is the church that is doing this with Paul being away rather than Paul himself, like he did with Hymenaeus and Alexander.

And to what end? To deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh. In other words, let him do his sin, but outside of your watch care, outside of the overseeing of the elders at this church, let him do it out there and let him do it in the domain of Satan, and his very flesh may be destroyed, but perhaps his spirit will be saved on the day of the

Lord Jesus Christ. And so the example we have in 1

Timothy, the example here even, these aren't isolated examples of Satan being used as a tool.

As a tool. We know the story of Job. It's really interesting because Satan can be used as a tool in a positive sense, and I know that sounds bizarre, and he can be used as a tool in a negative sense, which, of course, makes a little bit more sense.

In other words, as a tool of judgment. But we know the story of Job. We know that God allowed

Satan, and I use the term allowed intentionally in this case because if you look at the opening verses of Job 1, you have that fascinating dialogue in the heavens.

And so kind of in this temporal sense, God is saying, sure, go for it. And what happens?

Well, long story short, Job is forged into an even more righteous man than he was at the beginning.

And so there's an example of a righteous man being delivered unto Satan. In other words, being exposed to the wiles of the devil by God so that he could be used in even greater ways.

We know that Jesus himself was led by the spirit to be tempted by whom? The devil. He was made exposed to the temptations of the devil so that he could fulfill very specific victorious scenes that were prophesied about before his ministry began.

We know of Paul's thorn in the flesh. And he makes it very clear that it was very much a demonic influence that brought that particular ailment about.

He was dealing with a demon that he asked God to take away multiple times. And God said, my grace is sufficient for thee.

That was his answer. And so there are times when the devil can be used as a tool in ways like this.

When Jesus told Peter, get thee hence, Satan, what was that all about? We're talking about one of the greatest apostles ever, the one that preached on the day of Pentecost, Peter himself.

And there was a time when apparently he was under the influence of Satan in such a way that Jesus rebuked

Satan directly looking at Peter in the eye. And so there are times when this happens. But we also know that there are many examples where Satan was wielded as a weapon of judgment.

And this one, of course, makes more intuitive sense to us. We have Saul, I referenced him earlier, where the demonic spirit would bother him, would keep him awake, sleepless nights, all these things, and he needed his soul to be refreshed.

By David, we know of Judas, who was referred to as the son of perdition, who Satan filled at the last supper.

We know that he was delivered to Satan in a sense of, in a form of judgment.

You have Ananias and Sapphira, which is a really interesting one because they were believers, according to Acts.

And yet they lied to the Holy Spirit and were struck dead on the spot. And then, of course, you have many others as well.

So you have examples both of Satan being used as a tool of purification.

And I know that sounds bizarre, but again, just think about the examples I gave. God was purifying

Job. God was purifying the apostle Paul. Of course, Jesus didn't need purification, but the scene of the temptation with the devil was one of the triumphant moments of his ministry by design.

And so there are times when the devil has been used as a tool to sanctify God's people.

And then there are innumerable examples of him being used as a tool of judgment. Of course,

Paul is making an example of these guys here. Yeah, go ahead, Jared. Sure.

Say that one more time. Right. Sure. That's exactly what we were talking about, and maybe right before you walked in.

But the connotation of the word for delivered there is to expose them to Satan, to make them vulnerable to Satan's use, essentially.

Now, that could mean a couple of things. That could be in the form of torment, or it could be in the form of them being led around by him as a puppet master.

They may not even realize it, but that's what's happening. Right. No, you're exactly right.

When you are in that position, you are now a slave to one of the most brutal slave masters that could exist,

Satan himself. If there was another one more brutal, perhaps you could argue that it's your own sin, but you can make arguments there.

To your point, the only way you can be freed from something like that is by the grace of God alone. And that's why it's so important in 2

Timothy, when Paul is telling Timothy, meekly instruct those that oppose themselves that pared venture by, you know, perhaps

God will bring them to a point of repentance. And I'm paraphrasing big at this point, but outside of the snare of the devil that is shaking them about at his own will, at his own will, not their own.

And so, yes, to your point, absolutely. It's an absolute position of despair outside of the grace of God.

So we'll be consistent with what he says in Romans, I wanna say six, whenever the individuals are presenting themselves as instruments of unrighteousness.

Let sin reign in your mortal body. Because of that, you have put yourself in a position to where you're causing others around you to also have to endure it.

You apply church discipline as Jesus himself instructs. The goal is for repentance, but get them out of here.

Doesn't he say the same thing also with the church of Thessalonica? You're 100%, yes. So getting them out of here is not saying you can't hear the gospel.

Right. Getting them out of here is saying, this fellowship then, because it's gonna cause more problems for purification, pretty much.

Right. And that's what, yeah, no, you're 100 % agree with all of that. And that earlier I touched on, just because a person goes through perhaps the final stage of church discipline and they are forbade from partaking in the

Lord's Supper with a particular church community because they don't get to be in that intimate, like I said earlier, covenantal relationship with that church family because they have public sin that has remained unconfessed, unrepented, they just don't care.

Just because that's the reality, it doesn't mean you can stop them from maybe sliding in. I mean, you could. The elders have the prerogative to decide what is safest for their congregation.

So if it's a dangerous person, of course, they don't get to come in. But if, I don't know, in some examples, if they slide in to sit on the pulpit and hear the gospel preached, well, you want that, you want them to continue to hear the gospel.

At that point, it's an evangelistic journey with these people.

And so, yeah, at that point, that's exactly what they need. And that could be used, of course, as the instrument of grace to bring them out of where they're at.

With that, one of the things that I have to say is that, why? With that church discipline, I've heard also, it's like, no, don't fellowship with them.

It's not just the Lord's Supper. Coming to the body is one thing, or to the building is one thing, but y 'all are supposed to be out there bringing them into your homes anyway.

It's like, no. They need to deal with the glory of their decisions because just by being amongst you, they're protected.

I urge you not to participate and allow them to participate with anything so that they can fully have to deal with what comes from being apart.

Yes, it can get there. It can get there. Paul tells us to mark in a void at a particular juncture.

Now, there are other, you know, it can be a journey sometimes. You can be dealing with a person that the

Lord has opened up certain doors to disciple. And well, as one example, you know, in Titus, when he says, after the first and second admonition, reject.

So it doesn't mean, okay, you got a person that's engaged in maybe even terrible sin. By the way, the fornicator, he shows up in 2

Corinthians as a repentant man. So a person could be engaging in egregious sin, and yet, and so you do what

Jesus tells us to do. And depending on how that plays out, they may not reach a point of mark in a void wholesale.

The elders may still very much be trying to discipline, or excuse me, disciple that person. Maybe even some of the mature deacons and members of the church will disciple the person.

That doesn't mean have them over for dinner and have a great, great time, but it doesn't mean to mark in a void immediately every time, but it can get there.

You're right, Paul does teach us that in other places. Mimi, did you have a quick thought? Did I see you raise your hand?

Oh, okay, sorry. I thought I saw you raise your hand in my peripheral. I have thoughts. Mimi, do you have thoughts?

Go ahead. Okay, well, let me finish this really quick, and then we'll be done with this chapter.

And I've got about 60 seconds left. I think I can finish it. So what is Paul doing?

He's making an example of these guys, Himenaeus and Alexander, in order that Timothy holds fast to his faith, that Timothy remains faithful and a faithful minister, that he has and retains a good conscience.

And by implication, just as he instructed Titus in our previous study, that he holds fast to the faithful word, that he holds fast to the faithful word all the time.

And if he does not do that, if he does not do this, if Timothy from the human viewpoint in time does not heed the instructions of Paul here, he himself may become a blasphemer.

Blasphemy may be around the corner and could create an avalanche of sin that may or may not stop.

And as I said, hindsight's 20 -20 for us, so we know that the avalanche didn't stop for at least

Himenaeus, and we'll get to that in our next study. But Paul did not want this for Timothy. He cared greatly about Timothy and wanted him to hold fast to the faith and a good conscience, just like Paul strived for every single day.

And I'll end with this thought. Think about Paul's argument here in the way that the things and devices he's using to motivate

Timothy and to keep himself from becoming a blasphemer. Is it not a great emphasis on the responsibility of Timothy?

So this is a great responsibility passage, even with the backdrop of Timothy fulfilling prophecy.

This is one of the most wild things about Scripture that I absolutely love, and no person in this dimension can claim that they can get up and do the math on a whiteboard, so to speak, and explain exactly how this works.

But what we do know is that it works, and that it's a truth. But you can have, in one hand, prophetic utterances from God Himself coming through the voice of the prophets at the time of the apostle

Paul, saying Timothy will enter the ministry, Timothy will be a righteous minister.

You have that on one hand. And on the other hand, you have Paul using that and the apostasy of these two men as motivating factors for Timothy to actually do work in a good and righteous way.

You have the sovereignty of God, the responsibility of man. This is the compatible nature of God's sovereignty and man's will once again on display.

So let me end with two passages just to demonstrate this further. In Matthew 18, seven, it says,

Jesus is talking and He says, woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come.

But woe to that man by whom the offenses cometh. And so what does

He say? He says, it must needs be that offenses come. That's prophecy. That's the decree of God.

That's the will of God. It is something that will come to pass. And what's the next phrase? But woe to that man by whom the offenses come.

That's the sinner. That's the man that is doing something directly against God's word,

His people, His name, perhaps trying to hurt God's people, that sort of thing. Woe to that man, offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom offenses cometh.

And then in Luke 22, you have a very specific example of that.

In Luke 22, 22, Jesus again talking says, truly the Son of Man goeth as it was determined.

You can't get more written in stone than that. As it was determined by whom? By God Himself.

You can't change His will. You can't change His decrees. You can't change His plan,

His redemptive narrative that He wrote and that He gets to decide what, let's just say, sub -narratives take place to tie the whole story together, the whole tapestry together, so that at the end of time we can look back and see the whole glorious story.

He gets to write it. He says, truly the Son of Man goeth as it was determined. And then what does

He say? But woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed. And that is

Judas, the son of perdition, by his own volition, by his own will, deciding and choosing to betray

Jesus for a meager 30 pieces of silver. Woe to that man. On Wednesday night, we were talking about the fact that from the foundation of the earth, the

Son, excuse me, the Lamb was slain. I reversed the order there. The Lamb was slain from the foundation of the earth.

And again, it's written in stone, and that's an understatement. And yet,

Judas was very much a responsible, moral, culpable agent in making his decision to betray the

Messiah. And that's what Jesus was just saying. The Son of Man goeth as it was determined, but woe unto the man by whom he is betrayed.

So now, import that reality into the passage we just read in 1 Timothy. Paul is telling

Timothy, you have been prophesied about to be a great man, a great minister in the name of Christ, in this ministry, succeeding even me as the first Bishop of Ephesus.

So don't blow it. I mean, that's what he's saying. He's saying, this has been written about of you.

This has been prophesied about in your name. So now, go out there and war a good warfare.

War a noble warfare. Hold fast the faith, that's in the active tense. Hold a good conscience, lest you become shipwrecked by these two bozos over here.

It is solidly about responsibility, but all based upon the backdrop of prophecy.

Isn't that amazing? So here's just one more example of that, right there in 1 Timothy. And that concludes our first chapter of Timothy.

So because by, with certainty, I won't be here next week, because I just know it.

It's a pretty good stopping place. So does anyone have any final thoughts really quick before we pray?

All right, I might need to go ahead and pray. It's five after. Let me dismiss this really quick. Heavenly Father, thank you for this wonderful day, for bringing us together, allowing us to finish this particular section of your word and for the edification that it brings.

Thank you so much for just the refreshment, that being able to gather as a church family in this particular house to talk about your word.

Thank you for that. And for giving us this opportunity week after week after week, we ask that we never take it for granted.

Please bless our following services. And we ask all these things in your name, amen. Okay, now that Sunday school is over, let's take bets on when this baby's gonna be born.

My bet, I bet, my bet was three days ago. So yeah, exactly.