Be Faithful in Troubling Times

1 Timothy 4:1-5

Danger Ahead!

Warning Signs on the Highway

Not to make us turn around and go home, but to be aware of what’s to come.

As God lays out the plan for His Church - he warns them of troubling times to come.

Not to discourage or drive the church away, but to help us prepare and remain faithful.

A Warning About False Teachers

Deceitful, Demonic, and Hypocritical

Deceitful spirits

πλάνος - where we get the word planet - if you follow the stars for navigation, they are fixed, but the planet were wandering in the sky, moving, leading astray.

“I have a message from God…” Saying something other than what the Holy Spirit has clearly spoken in God’s word.

2 Jn 7 Many deceivers have gone out into the world, who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.

Philip Ryken, “Every false doctrine tries to find some truth to hide behind. The distortions of Roman Catholicism hide behind the truth of the value of good works. The lies of Mormonism hide behind the truth of family values.”

Demonic Teaching

What does Paul mean by demonic?

The Bible does not tell us where demons come from, simply that they are real, evil, malevolent spiritual powers.

In the OT, the foreign gods were seen as manifestations of demons who corrupted man’s worship of the one true God.

In the Gospels, the demons are unclean spirits, who serve Satan, and are in direct opposition with the work of Christ, inflicting violence, mental illness and physical sickness upon people. But they are defeated and powerless before Christ.

In Paul’s letters

1 Cor 10 - The pagan cults were worshiping false gods, who were not really gods, but demons.

The demonic doctrines: Any teaching that corrupts worship: turning the focus of our faith and worship from God to ourselves; anything that we would trust in other than Christ is the anti-christ, demonic, and leads only deception, despair, and ultimately death.

Hypocritical Liars

Hypocritical - They say one thing, then do another. False teachers are good actors - they put on a good show.

Satan is disguised as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14).

False teachers “whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.” Mt 23:27

“Their consciences are seared.” They’ve played with fire so long, they no longer feel the heat. They are no longer troubled by the presence of sin in their lives, and have no qualms about leading others into sin.

Their Message: Outward Holiness - Behavior Modification

Asceticism

Asceticism: The world as bad, and spiritual persons need to overcome the world by rejecting all the pleasures of the world, seeking godliness by severe, legalistic, self-denial.

Forbidding Marriage - Why?

From the very beginning of humanity - before the fall - God gave marriage as a blessing, the joining of one man and one woman for companionship, support, and physical intimacy. If you want to deprive mankind of pleasure, forbid marriage.

Abstain from food - why?

Again in Genesis God gave the world for our pleasure, to feed and sustain. If you want to take away joy, health, and fellowship, take away food.

The Problem with Outward Holiness

Taking what God says is good and saying it is evil.

The world is bad and holiness comes by avoiding it. If that’s the case, then the best way to be holy is to take lots of naps, do absolutely nothing.

Adding to what God gives to make us holy

“You’ve got Jesus. Great! Now what you really need is blank.” Every false religion is built upon the premise that you can please God by doing, or avoiding, x, y, and z. It is a religion of “Do.”

It appears godly while denying its power

Col 2:20-23 having the appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

The dietary restrictions could never make you holy, it’s what comes out of the heart that does that (Matt 15:18)

Unless you change the heart, no amount of outward behavior can make you holy.

This is the hope of the gospel, that we are a new creation, that God has removed the heart of stone, and given us a heart for him, through the mercy shown in Jesus Christ.

The Effect of False Teaching Upon the Church

Apostasy -

Apostasy: being deceived, they fall away from the faith

Does not mean that believers who have saving faith can lose it. Every sinner who receives the gift of saving faith is kept fast by the Holy Spirit until the day of the Lord. He will not lose one whom the Father has given (John 6:39).

What it does mean is that some who once claimed to be a Christian have now renounced the gospel.

Having listened to Christ, they now give themselves to others. No longer living according by faith, but walking in the way of the world around them, no longer listening to the voice of the shepherd, but listening to the spirit of the age, the power of the air, lured by wolves in sheep’s clothing.

This Should Not Come as a Surprise

“The Spirit specifically says…”

All scripture is inspired by the Spirit of God

“Says” when God speaks - it is always relevant and timely

Jesus prophesied of a great falling away

Matthew 24:10 ESV

And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.

1 John 2:18–19 ESV

Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. 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 it might become plain that they all are not of us.

A Call to Faithfulness and Holiness

The correction to false teachers and false teaching

Look to the root and fruit

Does their teaching lift up and defend the Word as True, it it deeply rooted in the word of God?

Ac 17:11, the Bereans “received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”

Does it bear the fruit of righteousness? Look to the fruit of their teaching.

1 Jn 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

The Key to Faithfulness

Resting in the Word of God -

Notice all of Paul’s answers to the false teaching -

God has made food to be received with thanksgiving. (Gen 1:29 - plant; Gen 9:3 - animal)

Everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected (Acts 10:15).

Thankfulness in all things - Eph 5:20

I will receive marriage,

I will receive singleness - as a gift from God and honor Him in fidelity and purity

I will take the food He’s given and give Him thanks in return

I will take the life He’s given and seek to honor God in all that I do

The Key to True Holiness

Sanctified - holy - set apart from God. Found not in outward ritual - but in a heart that genuinely seeks Christ

Through the Word of God and Prayer

Word - knowing and trusting in the promises of God, resting in the grace given in Christ.

Prayer - how we give thanks to God in Christ.

The false teachers say “Do,” Jesus says, “Done."