- Making Shipwreck of Their Faith

5. Careless Believers Making Shipwreck of Their Faith

How often we read of the Holy Spirit being grieved by the regenerate elect who are settled in their errors and are so slow to be converted to the truth of the gospel and godly living. Look at the multitudes of believers who are still unconverted from the falsehood and the lies of free-willism as against the truth of total depravity, conditional instead of unconditional election, universal instead of particular atonement, resistible instead of irresistible grace, ineffectual calling unto eternal life, and possibility of falling from grace instead of God’s perseverance in preserving His people in the state of grace. Are these people who still hold to falsehood converted to the truth? Have they believed Christ rightly? If not, are they converted? If not, are they children of God? If yes, are they not still in desperate need of further conversion like the Galatian believers? Haven’t we met true believers who embrace the Arminian’s version of Jesus – such as believing is in order to have life? Many ‘reformed’ folks would just write these muddled-headed but sincere and pious believers off as the NON-elect or false professors. Others wouldn’t. I believe they may be among the children of God who have NOT been soundly converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ as presented in the Bible. They are not converted in the biblical sense, even though they may be among God’s regenerate elect, but are not soundly converted to the gospel; they are still ignorant of the gospel of pure grace.

2Cor 11:1-4 “Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly—and indeed you do bear with me. For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!” If there were irresistible and efficacious grace in conversion, then Apostle Paul’s fear would be unfounded. If there were irresistible and efficacious grace in conversion, then there would be no possibility of being turned away to a false gospel, there would be no possibility of becoming unconverted!

1Tim 2:18-19 “This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck.” Some children of God have made shipwreck of their faith. Only true believers can make shipwreck of their faith. Others have no faith to make a shipwreck of! Our effectual call to salvation is entirely by the irresistible and efficacious grace of God and is therefore immutable. But all sorts of things can cause us to make a shipwreck of our faith in Christ. Therefore it is necessary to wage the good warfare to maintain faith and good conscience to avoid making shipwreck of our faith. If there were such thing as irresistible grace in conversion, then warning of making shipwreck of faith in Jesus Christ would be meaningless. The warning about making shipwreck of faith is necessary because there is no irresistible or efficacious grace in conversion or faith in Christ. The reformed people are quick to say that these warnings are addressed at professors only and not true believers. But false believers and non-elect don’t make shipwreck of their faith. They are never in the faith to begin with, much less making shipwreck to non-existent faith.

2Tim 2:15-18 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some.” Here Apostle Paul is warning pastor Timothy of the great need to rightly divide the word of truth, to protect himself and his flock from straying away from the truth and have their faith overthrown. Faith in Jesus Christ or conversion to the truth of Christ can be overthrown by all sorts of errors because pastors fail to rightly divide the word of truth and protect the flock. Their message may spread like cancer, causing God’s children to stray from the truth, causing their faith to be overthrown. Only those in the truth can stray from the truth. Only those who have the gift of faith from God can have their faith overthrown.

2Pet 3:14-16 “Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.” There are many believers – unstable and untaught – who twist, wrongly divide the Scriptures to their own destruction. These believers have been saved eternally from eternal destruction through the effectual call unto eternal life. But by their carelessness and negligence, they remain unstable and untaught. As a consequence, they are tossed about like little children (Eph 4:14) and they suffer temporal destruction. They suffer great loss of peace, hope, assurance and clear conscience. Instead of having peace and comfort in their heart because of the truth of God, they experience the destruction of confusion; instead of having a good and clean conscience because of the truth of God, they experience the destruction of a defiled and troubled conscience; instead of assurance and good hope, they experience doubt and fear. A man who believes that his justification is secured by means of his own faith would hardly have peace and comfort in his heart. His faith is fickle. He often becomes faithless (2Tim 2:13). How often he ceases to abide in Christ. There are so many doubts and uncertainties as noted before. Other examples are Galatians (5:4) and the Corinthians (I Cor 15:2,19).

But thanks be to God. The salvation of His people can never be overthrown, not even by their own foolishness and fickle mindedness and all their remaining indwelling sins! The foolish Galatians did not lose their salvation though their faith was overthrown. But they certainly lost a great deal of comfort and hope when they were led to forsake the truth and believe the lie. There is no irresistible grace in conversion. There is in effectual calling to eternal life.