First Timothy lesson 8 beg question 6
1 Timothy · Mike Doyle · Jul 21, 2024
1 Timothy, No. 23
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261935562637

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We are in lesson eight of 1 Timothy. And we had, which is 1 Timothy chapter one, verses 18, 19, and 20. And we had gotten down to, we were working on verse 19, question six, right? Okay, the question is, well, I'll read the verse. Keeping the faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. So maybe I should read, I think I'll read 18 and then 19 together. This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight of faith, keeping the faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. And last week we talked about the faith.

So this question six is, what does a good conscience have to do with the fight of faith? Which really leads to a whole bunch of different questions. How would you describe, from a Christian standpoint, what is a good conscience? Conscience is a mechanism that does what?

Right and wrong. Right and wrong. I've heard it said that it either excuses your behavior or improves it internally. So is that all right, Miles? We all have a conscience. It's innate. It's innate. So maybe to set up some discussion, you think Adam had a conscience before he fell? I don't think he did. There was no need for it. He didn't need it. He wasn't doing the good and bad fight. He was innocent, so he didn't need a conscience.

All human beings have a conscience, and then this verse describes a conscience as a good conscience, which is necessary to fight the good fight of faith. So let's talk about how that works. Is your conscience how you feel about verses? Trick question. I'll read a couple things.

The truth must be held with a good conscience. What does that mean? The truth must be held with a good conscience so that the soul is kept in communion with God. An interesting statement, how often The heresies into which believers fall have their secret root in some indulged or unjudged bin, which defiles the conscience, robs the soul of communion with God, and leaves it prey to the influences of Satan."

So I read that, and this study we're doing on Wednesday night, lots of discussion about Pauline dispensationalism versus Reformed theology. There is a sense, I think, that you know the Word of God, or you're learning the Word of God, you're growing in it, and your conscience agrees with it.

So you kind of know there's a confirmation there. If you're, like Paul likes to say, a double-minded person, your conscience may convict you because on Sundays you are involved in the word of God, but on Monday you're back in the world and firmly planted. Your conscience isn't going to sit still about that. You're going to have issues about conviction.

Can you say that, as a Christian, your conscience is the person of the Spirit, or is it some mechanism that you have built into you? I think it's a mechanism, and I think it's going to be good or bad. Could you read the beginning of what you started, the first sentence of what you read? Can you read that again?

Oh, the truth must be held with a good conscience so that the soul is kept in communion with God. Yeah, you know, I guess I hadn't thought about that, but how they're combined now, you know, between faith and conscience, you know, the conscience is I don't know how to say it, supported or backed up or whatever by faith.

And the reliance is you have to have faith in what God said. And your conscience then agrees with what God said. I hadn't thought about the link between that, between faith and conscience, but conscience without faith or belief in what God said. is without a moral compass or a direction. So the faith has to come first in the knowledge of things, and that then supports the conscience. Otherwise, the conscience doesn't have a moral rudder or a moral direction. Well, I think what conscience focuses on is one's conduct. where faith focuses on God's truth. And so God's truth, the point here is that God's truth and your conscience need to line up.

You can't have a doctrinal or propose good doctrine and your life doesn't match it to some degree. Now, it doesn't mean you're perfect all the time. But your conscience should, your conscience is designed, I think, by God to make you aware of your conduct. Does it wind up with your doctrine or not? No. Would you say that your conscience is the Word of God? Becomes the Word of God?

Well, I would say that the answer to that is yes, if you're talking about a good conscience. Yeah, yeah, I think so. But I mean, we've all known Christians who had, you know, professed a lot of faith in something, but their lifestyle didn't match it. You know? Zodiatis has the definition for this one about the conscience. The conscience is the testimony of the spirit in a man's heart concerning his obligation to God.

Interesting. Right, that's his definition for the application in 1st Timothy 1, 5, and 19. Kind of interesting. Yeah, interesting. Man's heart concerning his obligation to God. That's pretty good. Yeah. I read what Weiss says. He says, a co-knowledge with oneself, the witness Well, no, I think this might be strong.

The witness born to one's conduct by conscience, that faculty by which we apprehend the will of God is that which is designed to govern our lives. There may be a conscience not strong enough to distinguish clearly between lawful and unlawful. I don't like lawful and unlawful, but I do think that Let me say this right.

The goal of Bible study, I think, is to get to know the Lord Jesus personally and intimately. It's not just to cram your head full of facts. to become real proficient at one idea of the scripture that you really have a handle on so you can be noted for teaching it. The word of God is designed to reveal Christ to you personally. And I think that's where the conscious comes in.

It's not an issue of lawful and unlawful. It's an issue of whether what I'm doing is of Christ or maybe it's not so much of Christ. That's where I think the link between faith and conscience. How do you know what's right or wrong? You have to believe. And you can read God's Word, and it'll lay out that this is probably not what you're thinking, but you still aren't comfortable with it. Or maybe put it another way, you still think you have license to do this thing over here that doesn't necessarily line up with with what the Word of God says.

I think that's when the conscience convicts you. Because the conscience with faith in God's Word, then you're convicted. It's like people who have fallen away. We have talked about some. They know they're not, I mean, they're doing things contrary to Scripture. They just can't have peace. I mean, they overrule it by flesh and that. But I think the conscience with knowing God's Word is, you know, convicting them.

In a moral sense, in a good sense, you're following God's word. The conscience will agree with your faith in the word and strengthen you and convince you. I was just looking at the overall word for conscience in Zodiac. writing definition conscience be one's own witness one's own conscience comes coming forward as a witness it denotes an abiding consciousness whose nature it is to bear inner witness to one's own conduct in a moral sense it's self-awareness alright somebody read first peter 219 whoever comes to it first go for it first peter 219 Okay, so Conscience towards God is a Consciousness maybe towards God or or a behavior controlled by the apprehension of God's presence That the person realizes that griefs are to be born in accordance with God's will.

That's a huge step, I think, in a believer's life when they finally realize, well, trials and sufferings are normal for the Christian, and I'm to bear them, and God brings them my way for my growth. So, no fair complaining. I have another verse I found.

Hebrews 5.14 says, solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to distinguish between good and evil. I'm wondering if that, that senses, is kind of the same as conscience.

I'll flip over to Hebrews 9.9. What does it say? Which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly, both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience. See, it's interesting.

Hebrews 9.9 says that the ceremonial sacrifices are not gonna help your conscience. So that's what leads me back to the idea that my intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ, which is what the Spirit is trying to accomplish, is the thing that causes my conscience to settle down. Now, one last point. If you're like me, you read God's word and it lays out for you, especially in the second half of Paul's epistles, conduct that is appropriate for the doctrine, the positional truth I've just learned, right? And I'll pick a really easy one.

Ephesians 5 says, husbands love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, okay? Now, if you have any sense at all as a man, you know that there's no way that's gonna happen. I mean, I love her, but has Christ loved the church? Did I give myself, would I give myself for her?

Here's the point. As the Spirit of God works God's word into you and this growing intimacy with Christ, you find yourself living in that reality. I would give my life. As a matter of fact, I'd give my life for anybody if they were to be saved. Paul talks about in Romans 9 that he would be accursed if the nation of Israel could be saved. He's not kidding about that. He means it. Why does he mean it? Because he knows the Lord Jesus, and Christ gave himself for all men.

That's the standard. Well, you have the same life, so you have the same standard. Now, you may not walk that walk at the beginning, but as you go along, that's going to be the way it is. You're going to find, as the example, love your wife as Christ loved the church, and your conscience is clear about that. You're not faking it. and not being what I call country club polite.

Well, there's that impulse of the knowledge of man. I think Chester McCauley uses a dog. Dog steals a steak from the butcher. He'll take it, but he'll never take it back. No, he'll eat it and not have any conscience about it. See, but we have that impulse. We have this mechanism. Oh, I shouldn't have done that. Yeah. Well, maybe I'll take it back. Nah, I'm going to keep it. But at some point, I mean, the idea is to get you to the point where you don't steal it in the first place, you know.

So that's why I think that the work of the Spirit of God in the soul and the heart of a believer is designed, it's like any kind of relationship you're in, there are certain things you learn about the other person that you don't want to do. I mean, Courtney likes to say, well, you're offended because you decided to be offended. Yeah, I could say something to him and make him, he decided to be offended because I was so nasty to him. He couldn't be any other way.

But the point is, is that there is a mechanism, which I think a growing believer is controlled by the Holy Spirit that helps him understand not from a feeling standpoint, but from a conviction standpoint, that this is what I'm doing is okay, or what I'm doing isn't okay. Is this being a little more specific in that it says, holding the faith, so it's not personal faith? The doctrine in good conscience. So what does that say? that the Word of God that you have learned, which as far as you know is the faith, the doctrine, you buy into it with a good conscience.

Now, I must say to you, a Reformed person couldn't say that, you know, because their conscience won't witness to them that trying to live up to some kind of law system in order to be pleasing with God, your conscience is always going to tell you, you're not quite there yet, buster. That's not really good enough. That's why that Hebrews 9 verse was important, because God says, look, your sacrifices and your this and your that don't impress me, you know. That okay? All right.

If you put together a couple of ideas here, a couple of passages that have to do with conscience, there's Romans 2.15 that talks about the conscience in the unbeliever, the conscience constantly bearing witness to them, accusing or defending. And I think that we could say that the conscience in the unbeliever operates on the basis of law, accusing or defending on a legal basis.

And then we're talking about the cleansed conscience or the purified conscience. Hebrews 9, 14, how much more will the blood of Christ cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And so this cleansed conscience has to do with being moved from the operating system of law into a brand new realm in which we operate under grace. And I think that the conviction of the conscience, perhaps, in the believer should be, as is continually renewed by the washing of water through the Word, is a conviction related to Christ's holiness, Christ's nature, his character. Who is he, rather than law. That's a good point. And as you were talking, I was thinking, well, how difficult is it for the Spirit of God to change your conscience regards to legalism.

That's the hardest thing, because the conscience has been naturally in, out, and right from birth, right from conception, our nature is that our conscience convicts us regarding good and evil, and the knowledge of good and evil. And we react to that by trying to, actually we were reading that J.E. Conant, every member of evangelism, and he has this, he talks about the difference between the conviction of conscience and the conviction of the Holy Spirit. And he says conviction of conscience gives us a vision of sin committed, speaks to us in terms of morality, and seeks to produce good works in us. the conscience of the old man is seeking to produce good works pleasing to God. And that's why Hebrews 9, 14 says, you know, you're being cleansed from that conscience from dead works, you know? Yeah. But conscience has a lot to do with society too. Well, it depends. And their laws, norms. Well, yeah. Okay. So here you are, this maturing Christian. And the speed limit's 25 miles an hour. Do you get upset by going 27? I better slow down. Or 37? How about 37? I just drive as fast as the Atlantans are driving around me. Yeah. That's purely for safety. How about 37? Yeah.

At first, you don't. But I think as you grow, even those little kind of things, it's like, you know, I probably ought to do what it says. My wife would attest that I don't obey him very often. I don't obey in our neighborhood. Sorry. Sorry, Miles. 25 in our neighborhood is just way too slow. But, you know, the other thing is, and I'm thinking this too, is that I think we've expanded out beyond what This section, we've got to frame it in what Paul's talking about here.

1 Timothy 1 is really about God's Word and the truth of God's Word, the importance of God's Word. That's all that we've learned about. Don't listen to the people, don't even give an ear to them. So I think this is, fight the good fight and keeping the faith, this is all about God's word and what Paul has told him is true. Your faith in that word and a good conscience says, believe this. Because if we look at the next verse, I hate to get ahead, among these are Hymenist and Alexander who have handed over to Satan, so they'll not be taught the blaspheme.

This is all about God's word. This is fight the good fight of trust in God's word, faith, trust in God's word, and have a good conscience about it, that it's true. We've expanded on conscience to a broad sense, but I think what he's talking about here is that this is regarding God's Word.

You know, it's interesting about that. There are times when somebody like me becomes an elder, and I'm so unqualified to be an elder, and I end up in a doctrinal dispute with somebody. I have to put through the filter of testing everything I believe and do my homework and find out, am I really solid on that, and is my conscience solid on that? And I'm not just saying, well, you can't teach this anymore because it's not biblically sound, not just because I don't like it.

So one of the things you rely on, I think, God's Word is a confirmation of God's Word by your conscience. I'm okay with this, because it fits into God's Word. Well, that's the conviction convincing that the Holy Spirit is. But again, it's with regards to God's Word. I think that's what Paul's admonition to Timothy now, is fight the good fight. Stick to God's Word. Stick to what I told you. Stick to these things I have taught you. And with a good conscience that it's true. It's not false. It's not, you know... It is the truth. It is the truth. With a good conscience, it's good. And, you know, have faith in this.

And that's what we're talking about now. You know, to address Mike's point, the world has got a whole other system. And the whole focus of that system is, did God really say? So I've got, you know, 35 years of my life or however many years of my life outside of Christ, and I've got all of this software built into me with all the data that gives me license to be an idiot sometimes.

And I don't even think twice about it, but then as I start growing, there has to be a discernment about that, and that's this fierce job. He begins to show you. You know, this is of the world, and you can say back to him, yeah, and the world's too strong for me. Yeah, it is, but I've done something about that.

Trust me. You know? Well, that's the maturity. Yeah. As you mature in the world, then the faith and the conscience come together. Yeah. And that's part of the Spirit's conviction of our conscience is what is true now in relation to Christ. Yeah. Yeah.

Go ahead. I was just gonna say, I think Courtney's right on. I mean, in terms of, you know, it suffered shipwreck in regard to not their faith, but in regard to the faith is the definite article there. That's what it's about. It's about the doctrine. We've got a couple of minutes. Yeah, let's deal with Hymenaeus and Alexander. You don't have to go there.

If you go to 1 Corinthians 5, chapter 5, verse 3 and 5, Paul says to Corinthians, "...for I on my part, though absent in the body, but present in the Spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present." in the name of the Lord Jesus when you are assembled and I, with you in spirit, with the power of the Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." So, it's interesting that, I remember when we were studying this, One of the questions that came up is, who has the authority to do this? Well, Paul certainly did, because he was an apostle. And you notice that he doesn't tell any elder, you guys do it, and I'll back you up.

He doesn't say that. I'm saying it. He does the same thing here. I'm saying it. He says, among our Hymenaeus and Alexander whom I have handed, and handed his perfect tents over to Satan so they might be taught not to blaspheme." It's interesting that the modus operandi here is really pretty simple. He puts them outside the door. He gives them to Satan and says, good luck, fellas.

You want to be a blasphemer? You want to be a whatever? You've got to leave this environment, which is where we're teaching God's Word, and move into the world. And what does the world teach them? In this case, not the blasphemy. In the case of the person in 1 Corinthians 5, What was he, so that his destruction of his flesh, that was the purpose, you know? It's actually a very hopeful verse, I think, because if you wanna live in the flesh, go for it. Go for it, you know?

Yeah, you enjoy that excusing and accusing. Well, you get about four seconds of enjoyment, and then you're in the grind. You know, the thing I think of with me is, you know, it's kind of when we finished the study on Romans in the last, in 16, all it is is greetings and, you know, accolades for people and all this. And I thought, you know, when I went through that, when we were teaching it, I thought, This is kind of interesting.

From that time forth, all these names you were given as a great person, or like these two, are forever known as throwing you in Satan's bin. What a horrible position to be in, forever from that day forth known that you were given over to Satan. And Paul does it for your benefit. Yeah. And I think it's for an example, again. If you want to do it, go for it. And you're going to be like these poor stiffs who got thrown out into the world.

I was telling Eric, kind of laughing, and Nick knows about this. His friend Brian had chickens in our neighborhood, but he had a rooster. And a rooster was just irritating. So, just what you said, okay, buddy, you let him out and you're on your own with all the coyotes, foxes, and all that. Didn't last long.

I think there's a pile of feathers out there the next morning or so, but, you know, okay, buddy, don't shut up. You're on your own. You're on your own. Good luck. Okay. I mean, as in Alexander, you're on your own, you know, and good luck. But that's where love works, you know. It's for, as I think Mike said, it's for an example. If you want to do this, if Paul were here, he'd throw you in and say, go for it.

See how far you get. Sure. That's right. The rooster made it 20 feet and got a cookie. You know, whatever. I think it's an example. If you want to do this, you'll suffer the consequences. Sure. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting, right, in the context of the first chapter here, you know, this command or this, you know, to silence the false teachers is from love, you know. And, um, but I, you know, and, and some people, but like you said, Mike, I mean, it's, it was for their, for their best at this be done to them.

And with a view to the, the corporate body, the whole, the whole body, um, you know, you've got to, uh, you know, sometimes, uh, cut out and, you know, that ingrown toenail for the sake of the whole body, you know, And it goes back to the very first part of 1st Timothy, where don't even give them an ear.

I mean, don't even listen to them. Don't let them start. Don't let them do anything. This is the same thing. We're not even going to let them in the house. We're going to send them outside. If they're going to blaspheme, we don't even give them an ear to listen, to argue, or do anything. They're blaspheming.

They're not responsive. You're out. I've been listening. Go ahead. They're thrown to the cross. Yeah, they are. Yeah. I've been listening to Brian White's teaching summer school in Titus. And Brian's got such a great heart, he couldn't throw anybody out of any place. But he's getting to the point where out the door, they're going to go. We're over. So I'll finish up next week, and I think We'll have J.D. pick it up in the next lesson. Let's pray.

Father, how we're thankful for... You're so thorough in your program to grow us up in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus. Our desire is to be like him and conform to his image, and that's more than just knowledge objectively. It is a conscience that's clear about what we believe and who we believe in. We're thankful for that. We pray in your son's name. Amen.