1 Timothy 4
Notes
Transcript
1 Timothy 4
1 Timothy 4
Good morning church! Open your Bibles with me to 1 Timothy 4 and we will discover together what the Lord has for us. Verse 1 begins, 1 Tim 4:1-4
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,
2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,
3 forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving;
Let’s pray..
Those of you that have been with us throughout this study, know that the Apostle Paul loved the people of Ephesus, but he couldn’t be with them at this time in his ministry. So he had Timothy remain with them, with the idea being if I can’t be there with you myself, I wouldn’t want it to be anyone else than Timothy because he will love you and serve you well. Paul then sent this letter to Timothy and to the churches in the region of Ephesus, saying I hope I can come join you soon, but if not I’m writing this so you will know how you should conduct yourself in the house of God.
This is what church should look like. Here is how you should treat each other, here is how the men should act, here is how the women should conduct themselves, this is what a deacons and elders need to be qualified. It is important that you get these things right because God’s church is the pillar and ground of the truth.
Verse one begins 1 Tim 4:1
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,
Now, that word now, is a transitional word, that can be translated now, it can also be translated but. Like the church is truth, the mystery of godliness is, last verse in chapter 3, 1 Tim 3:16
16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.
Jesus came in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, Jesus lived a completely sinless life, was seen by angels, preached to both Jews and gentiles, believed on, and received up in glory or rose from the dead to show that His sacrifice was acceptable to God as the rightful price to be paid for sin.
Simply said, God is a holy God, you and I cannot and never will be holy on our own. Because God is holy, and righteous, even though He is love, He cannot tolerate, simply excuse sin. A price must be paid for that sin, and that price is death, or eternal separation from God. So, He sent His only Son who paid that price for all of us, and we will talk about that a little more later in our chapter. His sacrifice was acceptable for all sin, but to be saved, to be forgiven, we must believe on Him and His finished work on the cross for our salvation and not rely on any other thing.
Now if that makes no sense to you, I want you to consider what is written to the Corinthians. 1 Cor 2:13-14
13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
So if you don’t get it, if it sounds like foolishness to you Paul says, you can’t get it thinking in the flesh, or simply trying to process it in your head, it is spiritually understood. SO ask God to help you get it and He will show you.
So Paul begins 1 Tim 4:1
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,
In the end times some will depart from the faith. That faith is the one that is described at the end of chapter 3, Jesus came, lived a perfect, sinless life, died on the cross, and rose from the dead. People are departing from that by adding to and taking away from it. Another way people are departing from it is leaving their faith. Now depending upon the faith tradition or denomination that you grew up in you might believe, or may have been taught that that can’t happen. If you are truly of the faith, you can’t depart from the faith. Again, all we ever want to do here is examine, what does the Bible say, what does it mean? In other words what did it mean to say in the context that it was written, and then what does it mean to us, in our context today.
So regardless of what we believe, or may have been taught, the Bible says, well the Spirit of God expressly or clearly, directly, or exactly says…that in latter times some will depart from the faith…the word here depart is the word from which we get our word apostate, meaning to leave to abandon, meaning you were somewhere and then you left that place or abandoned it for another.
In fact it is what Jesus said about this Church in the book of revelation…He noticed a bunch of good things about them. They were a busy church, hard working, patient, but check this out, Rev 2:4
4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
Left or abandoned your first love, we see it there, and you might be going through the whole once saved always saved arguement in your head right now, if you leave the faith you were never really saved. There is that verse that John wrote that says, 1 John 2:19
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.
OK, so how could this happen? Like Paul is writing to Timothy? Is it really possible for a person to turn away from the Lord. You were with God, but then you turn away, walk away from God. Rather than give you an example of well I knew this guy once. Or I had a friend that used to be a pastor. The Bible gives us the story of a King named Amaziah.
You can turn with me if you want, or we will put it up on the screens, 2 Chronicles, Old Testament book, you can find it right after 1 Chronicles 25:27
27 After the time that Amaziah turned away from following the Lord, they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish; but they sent after him to Lachish and killed him there.
Wait, what did that say? Amaziah turned away from following the Lord…but did he follow him for real? Lets look a little deeper. Look at the beginning of the chapter with me. Amaziah became king when he was 25 years old, verse two 2 Chron 25:2
2 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a loyal heart.
That is key number one on how it was possible for him to walk away or to turn away from following the Lord. We have spent the past few Wednesday evening in our study of Isaiah looking at how Israel followed after idols, not following God with a loyal heart. Jesus told us that a man can’t serve two masters, it just doesn’t work, you’ll either love the one and hate the other or despise one and you’ll be devoted to the other. So Amaziah did the right things, but his heart was divided, lets check it out a little more.
Amaziah’s father was king before him. But servants of the king murdered him, and that is how Amaziah then became king. So, Amaziah, as an act of justice had these servants executed, but he did not do what all the other kings of this day and age would do. See most kings would not just have killed those that were guilty, but they would have then killed not just that man, but also his family and all of his children, because they could later seek revenge. Amaziah didn’t do that because he read his bible, or was familiar at least with the law of God.
4 However he did not execute their children, but did as it is written in the Law in the Book of Moses, where the Lord commanded, saying, “The fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall the children be put to death for their fathers; but a person shall die for his own sin.”
If we read on, the land of Judah was under threat from Edom and was preparing to go to war. King Amaziah looked at the match up and determined that they needed help, so he hires a bunch of guys from the north, Israel was divided at this time. But it made sense to come together against a foreign enemy. 2 Chron 25:6-8
6 He also hired one hundred thousand mighty men of valor from Israel for one hundred talents of silver.
7 But a man of God came to him, saying, “O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the Lord is not with Israel—not with any of the children of Ephraim.
8 But if you go, be gone! Be strong in battle! Even so, God shall make you fall before the enemy; for God has power to help and to overthrow.”
9 Then Amaziah said to the man of God, “But what shall we do about the hundred talents which I have given to the troops of Israel?” And the man of God answered, “The Lord is able to give you much more than this.”
10 So Amaziah discharged the troops that had come to him from Ephraim, to go back home. Therefore their anger was greatly aroused against Judah, and they returned home in great anger.
So Amaziah was willing to follow God even when it cost him something to do so…, so how do we get to the point where he turned away from following the Lord? Well, he goes into battle without the hired guns, and he still defeats the Edomites, but then. He sees their gods, the idols that they had and he collects these things and he takes them into his home and he sets them up. And he begins to bow down before them.
How does this apply to us. What are we setting up in our homes? Are we setting up God to be in our home and have that be a place of worship to Him, or do we do that here, and allow other idols to rise up in our houses? 2 Chron 25:15
15 Therefore the anger of the Lord was aroused against Amaziah, and He sent him a prophet who said to him, “Why have you sought the gods of the people, which could not rescue their own people from your hand?”
These stupid idols couldn’t save the people that followed them from you, why in the would would you seek them? Why would you turn away from following the Lord?
So we see that one of the ways we can depart from the faith is by turning away from the Lord and turning to other things.
Jesus speaks of another way. He talks about falling away. Is that different than turning away? Lets look at an example of that. The gospel of Mark, New Testament, Matthew, Mark, John…Mark chapter 4, and here Jesus gives us a parable. A parable literally means to cast alongside something else. So Jesus would take a story, and cast it alongside a spiritual truth, to illustrate a point. Sometimes the parables that he gave 2,000 years ago are difficult for us to understand because we are not fishermen on the sea of Galilee or shepherds tending our herds in the field.
But this one, was about casting seed on different types of soil and the results of that, but if we look at verse 16 in Mark 4:16
16 These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness;
17 and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble.
or fall. They have no root in themselves, no roots, no growth, no maturity - we have to grow…otherwise when things get hard, we won’t make it. If we don’t want to fall. What are the things that help us to grow? The Word of God, fellowship, prayer, and Christian service, serving others not serving ourselves. In God’s economy you can’t serve others without being blessed yourself, that is just the way that it works. It also helps take our focus off of ourselves which in the greek is wicked healthy.
So in latter latter times some will depart, that can be done by turning away, by stumbling or falling away, and we read of another thing that can happen in the book of Hebrews it talks about drifting away…Heb 2:1
1 Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.
I know that most of you guys are from Maine. Born and raised here, and some of you take pride in never having been south of Augusta. But, did you know that in some parts of the world, even some areas in the U.S., the ocean gets warm enough to swim in? Ok, you guys that have spent time swimming in the ocean before, floating around, riding the waves, what happens? You set up your blanket, your beach chairs, your cooler. Go out and play in the ocean for a half hour and then you walk out, what happens? You don’t know where your stuff is because you drifted with the current! Anyone ever experience that? If you don’t find a spot on shore and anchor yourself to it, you drift.
Hunters, when you’re driving deer, kidding, when you’re hunting through the thick stuff, you have to use a compass or find a high point or even the full moon, I mean the sun to anchor yourself to or we drift. This is what Jesus was talking about with this church, again He recognized that they showed Devotion to many things, but then left their first love, they drifted away from it. They were a busy church, with lots of activity, and it is so easy to let all that religion all that ritual, to replace relationship which is all that God has ever wanted with you.
So those are all ways that we can depart from the faith, and a final way, that which Paul is talking about here is being led away, there are people out there that what to led you away from your relationship with Jesus.
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,
Source - doctrine of demons, source is the devil, but being translated or passed on through men. vs 2. 1 Tim 4:2-4
2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,
3 forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving;
5 for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
If you are a Christian you can’t be made more righteous by being single, abstaining from certain foods, or doing anything. There are not examples in the bible where someone is made more righteous because of things they did, your righteousness before God is a gift based upon what Jesus did. IF you place your belief in Jesus Christ righteousness, a right standing before God is an act of His grace and mercy. Mercy meaning we don’t get what we deserve and grace meaning that we do get what we don’t deserve and could never on our own earn.
The Word of God and Prayer...
6 If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed.
7 But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness.
8 For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.
9 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance.
Primary role of pastor instruction and prayer. We are to work toward these things. Lets see this is the very end of April. Those of you that made a New Years resolution to join a gym. May have given up. Those of you that made a resolution to join a gym and actually go to the gym are probably seeing some results. Discipline plus time equals results. Paul is saying we should exercise toward godliness... The Word of God, fellowship, prayer, and Christian service, serving others.
10 For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.
That is an interesting statement at the end here…who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe. Now this does not mean that all men will be saved, or everyone goes to heaven when they die, that is a false gospel or the heresy known theologically as Universalism, it is a lie. The bible can say that He is the Savior of all men, because there is only one Savior, only one way to Heaven. Jesus said, John 14:6
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
So He is the way of salvation, provided to every man, if they believe and place their faith and trust in Him alone, the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe, because to them He provides more than the opportunity, He gives them salvation and forgives every sin they ever did. SO Paul says, 1 Tim 4:11
11 These things command and teach.
12 Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
Now sometimes we read this and think of Timothy as a young kid. We have to remember historically, that Timothy had been with Paul now, on and off for about 15 years. So if Paul first met him when he was say 15 years old, he would probably be 30ish here. Don’t forget though, in this culture, you weren’t really recognized as an elder until you were 50, so he was a youth spiritually.
Some of you have gotten saved this year or in the past 5 years and may discount yourselves or allow others to do so because you are young in the faith. Maybe your friends that see you now that are unbelievers look at you and say, yeah man, I know who you really are, this will pass, you don’t know nothing. Paul says, don’t let anyone despise your youth, but hey, if they won’t listen to you…be an example, yes in word, the things that you say, but also how you conduct yourself, live your faith, be the most loving person they know (that is hard to argue with, people don’t generally reject you and your message when it is truly one of love. And do so in spirit, in faith, and in purity ( no hidden manipulation or motive).
13 Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
That all applies to the Word of God. 1 Tim 4:14-15
14 Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.
15 Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.
Don’t empty your mind, fill it with these things. 1 Tim 4:16
16 Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.
Take heed to yourself - make sure you are right before God, before you go preaching to others. Remember Paul’s instructions he gives concerning communion.
31 For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.
I think the end of this goes back to the things that we need to be doing to promote growth...The Word of God, fellowship, prayer, and Christian service, serving others not serving ourselves. I heard pastor Chuck tell a story once, I’m sure someone probably just made it up, but it does make a point. The story is about a weary man wandering, lost in a blizzard. Exhausted, he is trying to push on when he stumbles, and falls down into the snow.
As he is laying there, ready to give up he comes to the realization that what he tripped over was another man. After getting re orientated and brushing the snow off of the man, he reached down and discovered that he still had a pulse, is was weak, but he was alive. The man rose to his feet, and hoisted the man up on his shoulder and began to continue his march through the snow. Walking only 15 yards farther than where he had fallen and was determined to give up he walked up on a cabin where they both were then saved.
See there is a cycle here. In order for people to hear us, especially today it has to be real in our own lives… we have to live in such a way like mentioned in verse 12 that we are an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
Lets pray.