Mr. D's Notes on I Timothy
Rev. Stanley L. Derickson Ph.D.
Copyright 2000

CHAPTER 9

Many years ago, in the years of yore, a young man and his bride flew to the beautiful land of Hawaii where they were to live for a time while the man worked for a small television repair shop in a little community called Waiane on the west side of Oahu.

There in that garden spot of the world they took up residence in the home of the woman's brother - wife and four children. One evening talk turned to spiritual things and the young man’s interest was stirred. Shortly after the two couples started attending a small Baptist church in a neighboring town. The pastor of the church was just leaving for the summer to return to the mainland on furlough.

To take the pastors place there was a young Junior from Dallas Theological Seminary. He and his new wife had come for the summer to minister to the little church.

Through the summer the young man listened with great interest to the young pastor - he not only listened to the message but wondered of the messenger. He wondered if he might one day be a messenger as well.

The summer passed very quickly and the young seminarian and his wife left Hawaii to return to Dallas to finish his final year of training.

The young man that had wondered about being a messenger was indeed called to prepare for the ministry. Off to Bible college went he and his wife and young daughter.

In his second year of college there was a new president installed at his college. The new president had taught at Dallas Seminary. The young man decided to see if the president had known this seminarian that had so impacted his life.

The president certainly did know the young seminarian but was very quiet and saddened to report to the young man that the seminarian had completely rejected the teaching he had received at the Seminary and had enrolled in the most liberal seminary in the country.

The president did not go into great detail, but related that the seminarian had turned his back on the truth of the Word and was rejecting all sound doctrine. There had been several of the professors at Dallas that had worked with the man to see if they could help him understand, but he rejected all comers.

The young man ran across other Dallas people from time to time over the years and he would ask of the seminarian and all reports were very sad as to the outcome of that life that had started so eagerly to serve God, but that had turned to serve man's philosophy.

The passage before us is one of great encouragement, while also it is one of great discouragement. It relates to a good minister, while it also relates to bad ministers.

I. DISCIPLINE

18. This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;

I think one of the obvious items of interest here is the great encouragement this statement must have been for Timothy. Paul must have held Timothy in high regard and he must have wanted him to succeed!

Ray Stedman mentions of such a time in his life: "I will never forget an incident in my own ministry when I was a young man. I was still a student at Dallas Seminary, but was
spending my summers in Pasadena. I worked one summer as a youth minister in a church there, when Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, the President and founder of Dallas Seminary, a great man of God, a great man of faith, came into town. He was gracious enough to spend an afternoon with my wife and me.

"I took Dr. Chafer to the church where I was working and showed him around the very impressive, beautiful building. The congregation at this time did not have a pastor, though they were seeking one, so Dr. Chafer said to me, "Do you think you might end up here in this church?" I said, "I don't know. Who knows what God will do? I don't have any particular plans for that." "I don't know either," he said, "but it would be a good place for you because I believe God is going to give you a great ministry."" (From a message on I Timothy by Ray Stedman)

There were times in my college days that I would have really appreciated some encouragement from someone like that. The struggles were great and there seemed to be absolutely no encouragement for us from outside.

The prophecies that are mentioned are not the Old Testament type prophecy that we might think of. The Old Testament prophet was not only one that could reveal future things which God had revealed to them, but they also held an office similar to the priest, though their responsibilities and ministries were much different - they were both officially spokesmen between God and man.

This Old Testament prophet is not what we have in the New Testament. The New Testament prophet was not an official office but one of the gifts of the Spirit, which was used for giving of revelation to the early church.

If you will recall in the book of Acts there were some prophets mentioned. These were similar to the Old Testament prophet in that there was a portion of revelation related to them, however they weren't the Official prophet or office of the Old times.

Let us take a look at these for a few moments. Acts 21.10-11 "And as we tarried [there] many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus. 11 And when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver [him] into the hands of the Gentiles."

Acts 21.8 mentions Philip and his four daughters that were involved in prophecy.

I Cor. 14.29ff mentions the proper actions of the prophet in the assembly. This was when there was still revelation being given by the Spirit to the early church.

These terms all imply the revelation via the Holy Spirit for the growing church.

There is also a thought of prophecy today that is the type of prophecy that is based on facts and observation and knowledge of human nature. It isn't a foretelling, but a reasoned out educated estimate of what the future might hold.

By looking at a man and knowing the man you can predict to a point what he is capable of and then by looking at his surroundings and direction you might also give some idea as to what he might be able to accomplish in life. Any prophecy in our time should, in my opinion, be understood in this light.

I would assume that the prophecies which Paul mentions here were of the New Testament kind. I would also assume that they may have been given at the time when Timothy was set apart to the ministry. This is mentioned in II Tim. 1.6 "Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands." Also I Tim. 4.14 "Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery."

There seems to be a special gifting and foretelling in Timothy's case.

MacArthur contrasts the call of Timothy, through prophecy, to the call of ministers today via the inner working of the Spirit. I think it is of interest.

"Paul's command to Timothy was not his own, but was confirmed by God through the ministry of some prophets.

"Pastors and elders are no longer called to the ministry in such a dramatic fashion. As we will see in 3:1, the call to ministry rises from inside through desire, rather than outside from revelation. That desire is then to be confirmed by the church. The church, by observing a man's life and service, can confirm whether he gives evidence of being called by God to the ministry." THE MACARTHUR NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARY I TIMOTHY; John MacArthur; Moody Press; Chicago; 1995; P 43

Not only did Paul realize Timothy's call, but he also understood Timothy's situation. Paul saw and knew that Timothy was in a war! He was encouraging him in this warfare.

We too are in warfare, though we seldom see it or acknowledge it in the United States today. The Devil is really not pushing believers here for we are already sidetracked, and of no immediate threat to his work.

We are in a war to control our lives.
We are in a war to control the forces of evil.
We are in a war to bring the church back to what it ought to be.

Anytime we confess sin we are gaining control of our lives for the lord.
Anytime we speak of the word and proclaim it we are taking a little control for the Lord.

This war is spiritual: II Cor. 10:4, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;"

This war is invisible: Eph. 6:12, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

The spiritual warfare is very real and is in every facet of our life. I used to teach a spiritual warfare class that was keyed to missionaries. It was a semester long and I had plenty of material to cover the 32, 50-minute classes.

You will find also that this is a very neglected field of Christian authors. When I was setting up the class on warfare, I found that there were no books available on the subject from conservative authors. Recently I have seen a couple on the market, but I don't know who or what the authors are like.

It also seems that within these prophecies were some comments that would show that God was going to see to it that Timothy would be victorious in his warfare for the Lord.

It would be of interest to know how he faired in the warfare that followed at Ephesus and the rest of his life - we know that it was good!

Warfare is not an uncommon idea in Paul's writings. He uses the concept in Eph. 6:10-17; I Cor. 9:7 II Cor. 10:4. He even speaks of our armor - he seriously sees the work of the minister and of believers to be warfare.

We move now from encouragement and victory to discouragement and defeat in the lives of others.

II DISCIPLINE LACKING

19 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:

Might we say that if we do not have faith and a good conscience that we are leaving ourselves open for shipwreck?

When I was in the Navy the crew of our ship was confronted with shipwreck. We went through the eye of typhoon Nancy. We were battered by 65-foot seas and winds well more than one hundred miles an hour. There was tremendous damage to the ship. Landing craft were torn from their mounts - 3/4 inch steel cables were snapped like string. A huge winch secured by one-inch bolts was ripped from its mounting and was sliding around the deck causing its own damage. Antennas that were sealed at the factory and mounted on the top of the masts were full of salt water when we finally went in for repairs.

Most of us feared that the ship would capsize and sink. I was hanging onto a radar repeater with my legs spread as wide as I could and I still lost my footing on a couple of the worst rolls. There were several times in the night that if we had tipped one more degree, we would have capsized. The thought of shipwreck was very definite and was not very pleasant. Many of us really doubted that we were going to make it through the night.

A few months after the typhoon we sailed into a harbor in Formosa and as we entered the harbor we saw two Merchant ships that had been forced onto the coast by the storm. Neither was in any shape to ever sail again.

Usually when a ship is wrecked they are never used again.

Those of us in the Northwest in 1999 know well of shipwrecks and their usefulness. The New Karrisa was one big pain in the neck and totally worthless the moment she ran aground. This was a large cargo ship that arrived off the coast of Oregon in a storm. The crew anchored off the coast, but something happened and she ran aground. They invested millions in getting the hulk removed from the coast.

This thought of worthlessness is often true of believers that become sidetracked, though not necessarily! There is always a possibility of restoration.

Faith and a good conscience. The faith I think that we can understand, but do we really understand the importance of a "good conscience?”

What are some of the problems of an unclear conscience?

a. Guilt feelings.
b. Inferiority complex or at least feelings of.
c. Unworthy feeling.
d. Depression which often leads to unclear thinking.

If the above are in place or even a few of them, just how comfortable is a person when the Word is discussed or preached? Normally people are uncomfortable plus. The usual result of these comes in lack of attendance to the things of the Lord, be they devotional life, walk, services or whatever.

Holding faith! It is to be an integrated part of our life. Faith may be "the faith" or “belief” since the context is false teaching etc. however the primary thought to me would be faith in living and more specifically faith for salvation.

HOLDING FAITH AND A GOOD CONSCIENCE is the key to this passage. Timothy was one that was accomplishing this in a proper manner but on the other hand Hymenaeus and Alexander were not.

Here we are nearly into the year 2000 and we are still talking about these two men that Paul named as having been shipwrecked in the faith. What a claim to fame!

It seems to me that these putting aside faith, may well be the false teachers Paul has been talking about all the way through the letter. They have put away faith as a means of salvation and taken the law as a means to salvation. This is the only reason that I can think of that putting away faith would be classified in verse twenty as "blaspheme."

III. LACKING DISCIPLINE DISCIPLINED

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

Hymenaeus is seen in II Tim 2:17-18 also: "And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some."

Notice that faith is again mentioned. The doubt caused by this man caused a lack of faith. His false teaching affected others and so it is in life. That is why we avoid, get rid of, eliminate false doctrine from our lives.

The seminarian that I introduced you to in the opening had read a book that had shaken his faith in the Word. That shake resulted in a total breakdown of his faith, thus his dive into the liberal education.

Isn't this where the person with an unclear conscience ends up quite often? Such a person has no faith in the Word or in the believers around them. They often seek the vain jangling of the false teachers.

Alexander is a common name so we don't know who he is or what his problem was. Many believe he is the same one mentioned in II Tim. 4.14 "Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works: 15 Of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words. " I assume his error was the same as Hymenaeus.

You notice that Paul took these men into his office and dealt very delicately with them so as not to hurt their feelings. He requested that they sugar coat their teaching so that they could continue to teach, but not offend the more conservative folks in the church.

NO! He turned them over to the Devil.

Let's look at I Cor. 5:1-7 for a moment to see a similar incident in Paul's life.

1. It is reported commonly [that there is] fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.
2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
3 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,
4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

We know from II Cor. that this man was brought back into the fellowship of the church. He was restored through the church discipline process that the Word of God holds forth.

This seems to speak of apostolic authority, but I firmly believe that church discipline would be a direct application of what Paul did.

It is sad that in our day more churches do not practice church discipline.

While in Wyoming my manager at work was having problems in his marriage - his wife was "having trouble finding herself" as so many young women do. She wanted a divorce. He came to me wanting advice. I told him that I would go to the church board - a very conservative church - and ask them to intervene. He followed that advice and came back a week later to tell me that they would do nothing.

I was blown away that a sound church would not follow Biblical principles - blatantly say no we won't do this - I asked why and he informed me that both his family and her family were all members of the church and the board did not want to take sides and upset the woman's family.

The woman went on and got a divorce and the church board put forth a letter to the congregation stating that there was nothing wrong with the couple breaking up, but that they would no longer be able to work with the youth - now if there is nothing wrong, why wouldn't they be allowed to work with the youth.

This is typical of churches and their dealing with problems and with choosing to not use Biblical principles in the affairs of the church (pun intended).

It is of import, that blaspheme is one of the items for which church discipline is necessary. Morals as in the context of I Corinthians is another and division as well. Basically any outward sin which is detracting from the testimony of the Lord should be considered for discipline.

"That they may learn not to blaspheme" is the clear indication that the turning over to Satan was not a forever item, nor a for life item. It was for educational purposes. You didn't know the Devil was a teacher did you? Not one I'd care to sit under!

Paul was desirous of seeing these two men come back to their proper place in the fellowship.

There is one item of business that we haven't covered as yet. What was the charge that Paul committed to Timothy? At first I thought it was the holding faith and good conscience, but then I thought more specifically it might be holding to faith as the only means of salvation - this would result in a good conscience. Lenski suggests that Paul is repeating his charge to Timothy to remove false teachers. This might be more consistent with the thought of waring a good warfare. I suspect Lenski is correct.

As we end chapter one of I Timothy I would like to draw some application.

1. Timothy was told to get the false doctrine and false teachers out of the church.

How dare we do any less in our own day?

We aren't talking about the little disagreements of interpretation on minor passages. These are not uncommon and should be something that we allow one another to have.

We knew a dear old lady that had some quirks in her thinking. One day at the dinner table she and her grandson's were having a discussion about whether the wine of the miracle where Christ made wine from water was fermented wine or just juice. She was very emphatic that she didn't think that it was fermented - that it was only grape juice. The grandsons were trying to gently tell her that it was most likely fermented wine.

She all of a sudden turned to me, the poor innocent bystander that had not been in the conversation, and said, "Stan, do you think the Lord turned that water into fermented wine?" Before I had opportunity to answer she must have sensed my coming answer and said, "Well! Your Lord might but MINE wouldn't!" That was the end of the discussion.

I know good men on both sides and all get along well together. They realize this isn't a serious problem. If it is, we are going to really have to talk to the believers in Irian Jaya that use soda crackers and orange juice for the Lord's table. They can't get grape juice.

However, if you have someone that begins to teach against the normal sound doctrines, you had better deal with them very quickly.

2. Timothy was told to be a good soldier. We are all soldiers of one sort or another.

Some of us are AWOL or absent with out leave.
Some of us are POW's or prisoners of war. Tied up in the Devil's camp.
Some of us are on permanent furlough.
Some of us are just to chicken to show our swords to the enemy.

We sing about being soldiers of the cross and that we should be marching onward, but are we really that type of soldiers?

3. One and two above are directly related!

A correctly doctrined soldier is usually a good soldier, however at times they are so doctrined that they forget to soldier at times.

4. We as believers should be as Paul, in that we are believers and servants of the Lord only by His grace and mercy which He decided to shed upon us at His own good pleasure, and not our superior qualities and talents.

I saw a suggestion in some Gospel Light Sunday school material years ago that suggested the student think of a person that they had known that was very influential in their life and describe them briefly. The point - do you see the following items in their lives?

"pure heart"
"good conscience"
"sincere faith"
"knowledge of sin"
"servant heart"

These are traits we ought to be seeking to instill in our own lives.

Ray Stedman rightly said: "The question this leaves us with is: "What are we doing?" We are called by Christ, called to live a Christian life in a godless world. This is not something to take lightly, something to do on weekends, a low-calorie dessert to add to life to make it more agreeable. We are soldiers in a battle, a fierce war against sin, called by Christ himself to "wage a good warfare, to hold fast to the faith, to hold to a good conscience." God's image in the eyes of others is at stake. We are to live redemptively in the midst of a fallen world."

Consider your life up to this point in time - is it really a war zone or are you on permanent R & R (Rest and Relaxation leave)?