The Shipwreck of Your Faith! 1 Timothy 1:19 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck

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1 The Shipwreck of Your Faith! 1 Timothy 1:19 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck INTRODUCTION In Bible times the most dreaded catastrophe imaginable was the shipwreck. It was comparable to train wrecks and airplane crashes in our day. Some of the greatest disasters in history have been shipwrecks. The Titanic is one of the great wrecks in history. The Bible also describes great wrecks on the waters. I Kings 22:48 and 2 Chron. 20:37 tell of a great fleet of merchant ships that were lost at sea. In our text, Paul compares the catastrophe of a wasted Christian life to a shipwreck. The word translated in the King James Bible comes from two Greek words naus, meaning a large vessel or ship, and ago, meaning to take, to bring to a point, to impel, to depart. The combined word is nauageo, to suffer shipwreck. A shipwreck indicates huge devastation, much despair, anguish, and misery. Likewise a loss of faith and an honorable testimony leads to the same. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 11:25 that he was shipwrecked three times. One of those times was in Acts 27, as the Apostle Luke gives an account of a shipwreck in the hurricane-like winds off the island of Melita. This shipwreck was in the providence of God, but mistakes and misjudgments by the sailors caused the disaster. I know a man who was a pastor and teacher who fell into sin and lost it all. He has bounced around as a salesman of cars and insurance and says that just to visit a Bible-preaching church sends him into prolonged depression. His Christian testimony is wrecked on the rocks of his sin.

2 His usefulness is gone; his joy is dried up; his song is silenced. What a great catastrophe is the wrecking of a Christian's life! How does this "shipwreck of the faith" take place? Surely if we realize the pitfalls of such an experience we can avoid it at all costs. The conditions that could cause shipwreck fit nicely as typology for a spiritual shipwreck. Let us examine some of these potential causes. I. SHIPWRECK CAN BE CAUSED BY STEERING A ship can be lost by bad guidance. Ships today are guided electronically, but in ancient times the captain guided his ship by the stars. Mistakes were common, especially by inexperienced sailors. In the Christian realm, Paul reminds us to be careful of who we allow to guide our lives. He says in 2 Timothy 2:16-18: But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. 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. We all know of examples of good Christian people having their faith overthrown by others with false doctrines. The word translated overthrown in the verse is anatrepo and it means to subvert or to undercut. They seem to be "helping" the young Christian by introducing him to "deeper truths." But often, those doctrines encourage sinful behavior or Pharisee-type behavior. Romans 16:17 says, "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them." We must all beware of the cultists and errorists who can trip up the unsuspecting or unlearned Christian.

3 Paul tells Timothy to "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." II. SHIPWRECK CAN BE CAUSED BY STORMS. Storms are the cause of most shipwrecks. In ancient times, weather forecasting was primitive. The sailors many times had no idea when they were about to run into threatening weather. The storms were out of the realm of their control, but they had to fight their way through them. Also, we Christians never know when we are about to enter a spiritual storm, but we, too, must fight our way through them. As in the example of Paul's shipwreck in Acts 27, the Christian can trust that the angel of God will protect them in the storm and through the storm. We can have faith in the providence and sovereignty of God that He has a plan in any suffering we might endure. It's easy to say we trust God when the south winds blow softly. But when the great winds of Euroclydon blow, we will need all of the faith and hope God will grant us, so we can say like Paul, Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me." III. SHIPWRECK CAN BE CAUSED BY SABOTAGE Another way a ship can be destroyed is by sabotage from within. Crewmembers disagree with the captain's leadership or fear for their lives for numerous reasons. They rebel against the captain, take over the ship and restrain or even kill the captain. Christians too, can be sabotaged in their spiritual lives.

4 At salvation, we are given the Holy Spirit as a Guide according to John 14: And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. But along with the spiritual nature we have a sinful nature, according to Romans 7: For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? No passenger would ever board a ship if he suspected that ship to be sabotaged. No person enters into a relationship with Christ with the intention to fail or cause shipwreck to his faith. But we have an enemy within ourselves, that wars against us, our own flesh. When we succumb to the desires of the flesh, we cause harm to our spiritual side, we thwart God's purpose for our lives. Galatians 5:16-17 says, "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." It is truly a sad story when a Christian falls because he allowed his flesh to destroy his testimony. It is surely destruction from the inside. IV. SHIPWRECK CAN BE CAUSED BY SUPPLY A last reason for shipwreck can be a lack of supply of essentials. A good captain assures that he meets the needs of the crew.

5 He supplies them with food, water, medicine, and may other needs. When weather or mishap prolongs the voyage, the crew is in danger of running out of supply. Philippians 4:19 tells the Christian, "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." We suffer no lack from the hand of our God. But we can, by our own choices, not take advantage of God's available supply. We gain spiritual sustenance from prayer, Bible study, and worship at our church, witnessing to others, doing good deeds for those in need. If we shut ourselves away from our spiritual supply, we run the risk of shipwrecking our faith. These so-called "little things" can be very important to our spiritual health. So there we see four reasons why a ship may be destroyed at sea. We constantly are reminded that "God forgives" and he certainly does. In the altar call, we encourage people to "make things right with the Lord," and certainly they should. But we should also remember that some Christians can go "over the line" in their sin. They can irrevocably lose their testimony because of prolonged or blatant sin. These are they who make shipwreck of their faith. Conclusion On Friday, January 13, 2012, the Cruise liner Costa Concordia ran aground of the coast of Italy. It had some 4,200 people on board when the captain decided to veer off course and get close to an island. When he did they hit a rock that ripped a hole in the hull some 150 feet long. This week they pulled 8 more bodies from the ship bringing the total fatalities to 25 with 7 more bodies still missing.

6 The sad thing is that no lives had to be lost at all. From early reports the captain continued to eat his dinner after the tragedy and then abandoned ship before all the passengers were off. The crew told passengers to go to their rooms and everything was ok it was just an electrical problem. They didn t even report the accident to the coast guard until almost 45 minutes after the accident. A Christians there are times we have a shipwreck in our lives but we don t want anyone to know it. We continue to go about our lives as though nothing is wrong. Meanwhile we are taking on water and before very long we are going underwater. Two very well know to us shipwrecks The Titanic and the Concordia Lives could have been saved if they would have followed Right Procedures But in both instances they thought they were unsinkable. We need to cry out for help from our savior and let him rescue us.