240-DELIVERED UNTO SATANFebruary 26, 1962
Pastor Henry F. Kulp
I Timothy 1: 15 - 20 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. 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; Holding faith, and a good conscience; 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.
Paul has told us that he is the protose, he is the file leader, he is the head of the regiment, of those who would believe on Jesus Christ and be saved, because had been given to him a special office.
1/ Then notice in Verse 17 he refers to Jesus Christ as King, eternal, immortal. Now, he doesn’t mean the Father—I am sure of that. The key, of course, is the word, immortal. It means one who has immortality. A human being who is now immortal and shall not die. It means this human being has a human body that is not subject to death, and Christ is the only one that fits that category. Well, you say, how about me—I am a believer, I trust Jesus Christ, do I not have immortality in my body?—Not as yet. If you die before Jesus Christ appears in the Heavens, death will claim your body.
2/ It is true that immortality is promised to you. We shall be raised to immortality when Jesus Christ appears in the Heavens, and then death will never touch our body again. But Christ is the only one at this present time in this whole universe who has a physical immortal human body that is a body that death cannot touch.
3/ Paul’s body is still in the grave—rotting in the grave. Moody’s body is rotting in the grave. Luther’s body is still rotting I n the grave. But Jesus Christ alone died, and His body has been raised from the dead.
4/ I Timothy 6: 15, 16 Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; ho only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.
In this verse, and the other one in I Timothy 1: 17 are the only two places where the Apostle Paul mentions Jesus Christ as, or calls Jesus Christ, King. Paul presents Jesus Christ as the head of the Body. Now, Jesus Christ is the King of the Jews.
Matthew 2: 2 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.
Zachariah 14: 9 And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one.
It says the Lord shall be King over all the earth. That is at the second coming of Jesus Christ when He will be King over all the Jews, and King over all the world. But to us, He is head of the body.
5/ But now notice in I Timothy 6: 16 it tells us who only have immortality, and of course we don’t have that at this time. Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.
I Corinthians 15: 51 - 54 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
Here it is talking about the rapture of the church, when we shall be caught up to be with the Lord, and it says, the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we, the living shall be changed, for the corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality we have yet to put it on, but Christ has it right now.
6/ But of course, this does not talk about the inward man for the inward man has eternal life, already. We know that the Bible says those who are saved, it is absent from the body, and present with the Lord. We won’t ie. We continue to live on and on. Mortality, here is used of the physical body. Now, it is true, the Bible never speaks of an immortal soul, but that does not mean the soul is mortal, for you will notice, Matthew 10: 28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Our Lord says, fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul.
So it is clear that a soul cannot be killed when the body is killed. So that must mean we have an immortal soul. But the Bible reserves the word, immortal for the physical body.
7/ Then notice, in Verse 18 that Paul talks about the charges committed to his son, Timothy, and he says that he might war a good warfare—in other words, in carrying out this charge that he has mentioned before, will not be easy—it will be hard. Carrying out this charge is going to cause him great stress and strain. He is going to have many enemies, he is going to have much opposition, but for this charge he is going to war a good warfare. You will notice it is not a good warfare, but the definite article, the, is there—it is the good warfare that we all expierience this warfare—we are all thrust into war. the Christian is not an easy life, it is not a life of walking among beds of roses
8/ You will notice Paul gave Timothy some other instruction about this warfare.
II Timothy 2: 4 Now, he says, No man that wareth, entangleth himself. That word, entangleth, means to braid in, to weave. So he doesn’t interweave or braid in to himself the affairs of this life or his livelihood. In other words, you cannot live for this life and please God and war a good warfare.
9/ This warfare is in the mind.
II Corinthians 10: 3 - 5 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
Here is where the warfare takes place in the mind. Our imagination is our enemy. Thoughts are enemies, and we have to have our imaginations and thoughts captive and brought into the obedience of Christ, that we might war a good warfare, and that is exactly what Paul is telling Timothy. If he wants to carry out this charge and do it the way God wants him to do it, his mind must be upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Then you will notice, Verse 19, 20 Paul points out two there in the church at Ephesus who needed to be corrected, they had been teaching fables and myths and rumors and endless genealogies—the two men were Hymenaeus
( Hy me nee’ us) and Alexander. Then notice, Paul says, I have delivered unto Satan. The moment we read that, our mind goes back immediately to the matter of demons and casting out of demons, giving people over to Satan. What does it mean when Paul says, I have delivered these two men over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme?
10/ You will notice, first if all that Paul had a special office. Paul is the protose—he has just finished telling us that. He is the one who is the first, the file leader, and with this position came privileges—real powers. He was caught up into Heaven. God revealed to him wonderful and marvelous truths that had never been revealed to anyone else.
Romans 11: 13 For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
He says I speak to you Gentiles in as much as I am the—not an apostle among apostles, but the word, the, is there the definite article, of the Gentiles. I magnify my office. He had a special office. Peter was given the keys of the Kingdom. Paul was given this job as the protose for the church, which is the body of Christ.
11/ Then, I wonder if you recognize in the book of Acts and in the Pauline Epistles that Paul refers to himself by using the first-personal pronoun “ I” over 1,000 times. Was he egotistical conceited, presumptious, or deluded? No, he was none of those things. He, as the protose had a special position and he says,I magnify my office. With this in mind, we go back to I Timothy 1: 20 Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.
He said I delivered these two men unto Satan—not that the congregation has—not that Timothy could do this, but Paul does it because he has special power. Remember, this was not a matter that the congregation got together—this is not ecclesiastical discipline, it was not ex-communication by the assembly, not at all, this was not discipline in the assembly it was power invested in Paul. Paul could do this thing,He could turn these two men over to Satan.
12/ Many folks have had trouble with I Corinthians 5: 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.
They have had trouble because they have failed to see Paul’s position.
Paul tells us in I Corinthians 5: 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.
Ye are puffed up, because there had a man in their midst who was committing fornication with his step-mother, a terrible sin, and this congregation had not mourned that he that had done this deed had not been taken away—not that they were to take him away, but that they would not uphold him. For he says, I—notice the personal pronoun, I, as absent in the body, but present in the spirit, have judged. He said, I have done the judging here, Paul said, I have investigated the facts, and this man is to be delivered unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the Lord Jesus Christ. All this was done through Paul’s investigation under Paul’s authority—he had the right to do this.
13/ But please remember, we don’t have this right to do this today, Paul’s not present, the Protose is not here, the Apostle to the Gentiles is not here. He had a special authority, he had special powers that we do not have today. I defy anyone to try to take this authority on himself this day and age.
14/ Let us get another example of what we are talking about.
Acts 13: 9 - 12 Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him. And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand. Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.
Notice with this evil wicked Jew, it was Saul who became Paul who set his eyes on him and said that he was a child of the devil, an enemy of righteousness, that he was perverting the right ways of the Lord, and he said, thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. Would you attempt to do this? Do you think you would have the right to go to someone who was trying to stop the preaching of the Gospel and bring blindness upon them? I think we know better then that. This was a special power that was given to Paul as the Protose, as the file leader, as the one who has this special office, the one who was the apostle to the Gentiles.
15/ Paul has never anywhere in the Scriptures given us instructions that we are to give people over to Satan. He has never told us that we have this authority, that we have the right to say, this person is sinning and doing a grievous thing and therefore they should be given over to Satan, or they should be blind, not seeing the sun. This is authority that was committed to Paul and Paul alone as the Apostle to the Gentiles in which he magnified his special office, and as protose, the file leader, the leader of the regiment.
16/ You will notice the difference between this and casting out demons. There are many folks who are out on this kick today of casting demons out of people. You remember that commission was given by Jesus Christ to His own.
Matthew 10: 6 - 9 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses,
Then in Mark 16: 15 - 8 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
There is no doubt that Jesus Christ gave His own the authority to do these things, to have the ability to do these things, to cast out demons. But nowhere does Paul tell the church, the body of Christ that they are to cast out demons. Not in any way, shape or form. You can’t twist any command of Paul’s to teach this doctrine that is so popular today. We don’t go around casting out demons in our day and age.
15/ Ephesians 2: 1, 2 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Here as Paul talks about the salvation of the soul, he sats that in days gone by, we walked according to the Prince and the power of the air, who worketh among the children of disobedience. In others words, everyone who is unsaved is evidently demon possessed. He is possessed by the demon that dwells within him, because to work in him he has to be in him. But what happens to us?
Verse 5, 6 Even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us, made us live together in Christ, hath raised us up together and made us sit together in Christ Jesus.
In other words, salvation got rid of the power of Satan, his demons working in the lives, the bodies of those who are unsaved and are now saved individuals. You notice, Paul doesn’t say, we cast out demons—not at all. The thing to do is to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who are unsaved. It is the liberating power, and believers are not indwelt by a demons or demons—certainly when we become part of the body of Christ, we are not demon possessed.
18/ Then notice, I Timothy 2: 1, 2 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
I am sure we have failed this, have we not? We can easily criticize our president, and I believe there are times when he deserves criticism, but do we pray for him every day? Not only is the word, prayer here—but we are to intercede. These men who are in authority, hold much authority. They are going to have a lot to answer for, and these men in authority can cause us suffering or they can cause us joy. They can cause us that we live a more peaceable life, or they can do wrong and bring disaster upon us so certainly it is well that we pray for these men in high places.
19/ Then notice we are to give thanks. We ought to be thankful for what we have. We ought to be thankful that we live in this land that we do. If we lose our freedom it is because we haven’t been thankful for our freedom that has been given to us.
02/26/1962/ 240 - DELIEVERED UNTO SATAN / 05/07/2021
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