Avoid False Teaching

Introduction:

As we continue with our worship of the Lord this morning, I want to invite you to turn with me to 1 Timothy 4:1-16. Much like we did in chapter 2, I want to read the whole chapter together because it forms a complete unit of thought, but we are going to break it down over the next few weeks so that we get a good understanding of the smaller pieces.

This morning our focus will be on verses 1-5 and, Lord willing, next week we will look at verses 6-16. What we see happening here in this chapter is Paul telling Timothy about the false teaching that is going on inside the church, that is this week's passage, and how Timothy is to lead the church in the pursuit of truly godliness, that will be next week’s passage.

I encourage you, even after today, go home and read this chapter this coming week as we look at what it means to pursue godliness in this life.

With those things being said, lets read the Word of the Lord together this morning. There is nothing sweeter to the ear and heart than this Word.

Hear the word of the Lord... ‌4 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. 6 If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. 7 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; 8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. 9 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. 10 For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. 11 Command and teach these things. 12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. 15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. 1 Ti 4:1–16.

Let’s go to the Lord in prayer together as we seek to understand His word.

Let’s pray.

The need for Christians to pursue holiness and to defend the faith is not a new concept in our modern culture. Problems within the church are also not a new thing that we are just now having to face in the American church. These are battles that continue to go on and on, and will continue to go on, until Jesus Christ returns. The church must understand and realize that there is a real enemy in our world, with real workers, who are actively seeking to destroy as many people as possible.

This is what Jesus said about him. He said that Satan only comes to kill, steal, and destroy. Now, I am not downing playing the role of sin in the world or the responsibility of people who commit sins. People are responsible for their actions. However, we also have to see and understand how the Bible paints this picture for us. The Bible describes our state before Christ in this way...And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Eph 2:1–3).

This is how we all are outside of a personal relationship with Christ. We are dead in our sins. We are objects of God’s wrath. We ALL followed the prince of the power of the air… that is a devastating statement. Think about it. All of us, at one time in our lives, before a personal relationship with Christ were listening to Satan and his lies… choosing the ways of this world above the ways of God.

BUT what we seen last week in the Word when we looked at 1 Timothy 3:14-16, was God made a way for us to be made right with Him. We spoke about God’s great work in sending Christ to this earth.

As a reminder, we said this as the main point last week: The Gospel Is the Foundation of the Church. The gospel, the good news, of the Christian church is that even though we are sinners by birth and by choice, even though we have lived a life living in rebellion against God by going after the things of this world and Satan, God loved us so much that He sent His One And Only Son to Come and die on the cross for our sins. Jesus bore the wrath that we deserve upon himself on that cross. He was killed. He was buried. But He did not stay dead. Three days later He rose again defeating sin and death for US. He now sits on the throne in heaven waiting to return one day. This is the truth of the gospel message. And any one of us who is willing to repent of our sins and place our faith in Jesus will be forgiven by God, adopted into his family, and given eternal life. This happens when we stop going after the things of this world, and we turn and surrender to Christ. That is the Gospel. That is the foundation of the Christian church. Christ is KING. Christ is Lord. That is the message that the church gets to bring to a lost and dying world. And it is such a great and glorious message.

Body: ‌But what we find in our text this morning, and even what we see alive and active in our world today, is that the truth of the Gospel message is often distorted by humanity as they refuse to surrender to God’s plan of salvation. God’s way of salvation says, “Come to Me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” It is a call to come and surrender. What we find in the message of the world is basically this, “Come and try just a little bit harder. Work just a little bit more. Stop doing that. Start doing this. For if you would just do enough right and not do wrong, then you will be accepted.” I want to tell you, that is a lie from hell. Look at where the focus is.

In the way of the world, where is your focus? ME

In THE WAY of God, where is your focus? Christ.

See the difference?

And it is to this very thing that we see the apostle Paul warning Timothy about in our passage for this morning. He laid down the foundation of the church. Now, Paul is going to start attacking the false teaching that is plaguing this church.

Look at verse 1 with me. ‌Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons (1 Ti 4:1)

Do you see how this verse stands in complete contrast to what comes before it? Paul told Timothy what the church is to stand on, the truth of the Gospel message, and now here, he turns his attention to the false teaching that is going on inside of the church. And don’t think, as we walk through this, that this does not apply to us. It most certainly does. We may not face the same exact false teaching, but we do certainly face the same underlying principles that drive this false teaching.

Here is the truth of the matter, as Paul says in verse 1, As the Spirit Himself has expressly says, that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.... I want those words to sink into our ears this morning. Those words are really scary. They are scary not because I believe a person who actually believes in Jesus can ever walk away from the faith. That is not what Paul is talking about here, but it is scary to think that those of you who are in this room who associate with Christianity, who are on the fence with your relationship with Christ, you could depart from the truth of God’s word by going after the teachings of demons. That is scary.

And when Paul says that in later times, what is meant by that phrase is the last days. According to the Bible, the Last days began when Christ ascended into heaven and the Holy Spirit was poured out on the early church. This is what Peter says in Acts 2 when he is explaining what is going on with the disciples. He says, quoting Joel, “In the Last Days I will pour out my Spirit on ALL flesh...” That is what is going on here. This is a problem that we face because we are in that time frame for this to happen. We are in the last days. Think about it. Christ could come back at any moment. We are in the last days. Christ may terry. He may prolong His coming back. We don’t know. But what we do know is that during this time period there are going to be those who were once inside the church walking away from the faith community. This is going to happen because they are going to give themselves over to false teaching.

We see this happening currently in the church. We see people just walk away from the faith. We hear stories about those who are “deconstructing” the faith. Christianity is down from 51% of the Americans population in 2009 to 43% 2019. I know that doesn’t sound like a lot, but that is a huge percentage of people. What happened?

We can’t say for sure. We don’t have all of the answers to every person's situation. But here is what I do know, it is one thing to change a church… it is a whole completely other animal when you change your faith. And I think that we have to see that this text plays into that.

But not only this text, hold your place there and turn with me to 2 Timothy 4. We see this idea come up again.  I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry (2 Ti 4:1–5).

This is what we see happening. There is a time when people do not want to hear the truth, so what do they do? They find teachers who will tickle their ears. They find teachers who will go and tell them what they want to hear. To use the words that Paul says in our passage this morning, what happens is that people depart from the faith BY (that's the means by which the departure comes) devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and the teaching of demons. This stands in strong contrast to what we see in the early church. In the early church, we read in Acts 2, after Peter’s powerful sermon, and 3000 get saved. We read that they devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching…these people are devoting themselves to false teaching.

What is it exactly that they were devoted to? What was the message that had grabbed their hearts?

Look at verses 2-3 with me. 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth (1 Ti 4:2–3).

Here Paul gives us the means by which the teaching comes to those who are departing from the Christian community, and he tells us what they are teaching. Paul tells Timothy… “Through (that is the means by which this is taking place. This is how the teaching of deceitful spirits and the doctrine of demons is coming to them) the insincerity of liars…the NJKV says “speaking lies in hypocrisy”. The idea here is this message is coming from those who are hypocritical. They say one thing and live a completely and totally different life. They do not actually believe what they are saying… they are only saying it to get a large following.

And Paul goes on to say about them that their consciences are seared.... they are burned with a hot iron… is what this literally means.

I like how William Mounce explains this. Listen to his words... “The reference is to the ancient practice of branding criminals, runaway and disobedient slaves (Plutarch Pericl. 26), defeated soldiers (Lucian Syr. dea 59; Herodotus Hist. 2:113), people in certain religious cults, and people in other specific professions (J. Schneider, TDNT 3:643–45). This translation suggests that Paul’s opponents have had their consciences branded by Satan to mark his ownership, somewhat like the “666” of the antichrist (Rev 13:16; cf. R. H. Mounce, The Book of Revelation [Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1977] 261–62). There are several arguments for this interpretation. (a) The participle is passive, suggesting that Satan is the one who does the branding. This fits the context, which just mentioned his role in the heresy (v 1b). (b) It fits with the imagery of the section. Paul has just called the opponents hypocritical liars. For emphasis he points out that although they claim to be from God, they have the stamp of Satan on them, they are his agents.” (William D. Mounce, Pastoral Epistles, vol. 46 of Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2000), 237–238).

If this was not bad enough, when you think about what it means to have your conscience seared, you are talking about not having the ability to think, feel, or reason correctly. Your heart just grows cold to what is true, and you do not care. You are unable to feel the weight of your wrongs and you continue to live life going in the wrong direction....and you simply do not care. That is the type of people who are teaching this message. That is their character.

What are they teaching? That is where Paul turns in verse 3. who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth 1 Ti 4:3.

Their teaching has this strange kind of weird Jewish mysticism mixed with the beginning stages of Gnosticism. Now, if you have no clue on what that means, that is perfectly ok. Here are the basics of what they taught. Everything that your flesh desires is bad. Flesh bad… Spirit Good. That is what they thought. So, because that was the driving force of their teaching, in order to be made right with God and to live a holy and upright life, you had to deny ALL earthly desires and live above them. This led to the teaching that marriage was bad because in the context of marriage, the marital union, a natural desire was met. The same with food. There were certain foods that they were not to eat because in their minds… food was a necessary evil. Most scholars think, and I think it makes the most sense here, is that they were teaching a “going back” to the early stages of Gen… so this would have been a prohibition against eating meat… since before the fall Adam and Eve were instructed to eat from the land. Fruits and veggies good.... Everything else bad. That is the teaching. If someone gave into these types of things, then they were not living in a right relationship with God. In order to be truly Godly in this life, one had to flee these things and keep one's self at bay.

This is what we call legalism. This goes back to what we said in the beginning. Where is the focus in this kind of teaching? It is upon the person doing or not doing the actions in order to be made right with God.

Paul had dealt with a very similar problem in Colossians 2. Hold your place there and turn with me to Colossians 2:16-23 with me really quick. 16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. 20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an 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 ( Col 2:16–23).

Legalism, although it may appear to be wise, it actually does nothing with dealing with the heart issues that underlie our sin problem. We cannot do anything to deal with our sin problem in our own power. If we could, Jesus would not have had to come! It is that simple. But Jesus came so that we could be made new. He came so that we could have a right relationship with God through Christ. This is why Jesus came. And the teaching that Timothy is dealing with in the church is so anti-Gospel that it is putting the focus on human effort over surrendering their lives to Christ. It is crazy.... and yet, so many people, even today, live life this way.

Marriage and food are not to be rejected, Paul says. If fact, these things are to be enjoyed by the people of God because they truly understand their great value. This is what he says in the rest of the passage. Look at the text with me. Look at verse 3-5. 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer (1 Ti 4:3–5).

If the false teachers want to go back to Gen. to make their argument, Paul is going to go there too. He points back to what we read in the Gen’s account. When God created the world, and everything in it, God declared that it was good. The only thing that God declared not to be good was that man was alone. So, God being the entirely good and wise King of the Universe that He is, He created a help mate for Adam. He made Eve. Both in the image of God. Created equal in value and worth.... but different from one another so that they complement one another. And in God’s good creation he gave them marriage and the martial union where they would reproduce and fill the earth. This was God’s good design. This was not to be rejected. And the food that God made, all creatures and everything that was made, was good and was not to be rejected. To reject God’s creation and claim it to be bad would be an assault on the creator.

Instead, these things are to be received with thanksgiving toward God. Believers get to see how awesome these gifts really are to us. God gives these gifts to all mankind… but it is only upon seeing God for who is He really is, that we are able to actually rejoice in these gifts. We should not take them for granted. God is so good us because of His love for His creation, don’t miss that.

And one of the reasons that we are to give thanks is because it, talking about food here, is made holy.... other translations say sanctified, they mean the same thing… set apart… by the Word of God and prayer. This is they are set apart by (again that is the means by which this is being done) the Word of God, which could either mean God’s word of declaring it good in Gen. or it could refer to a tradition of a Scripture being shared around the meal, and by prayer… which is a reference to blessing over the food. We often see Jesus doing this when he broke bread. This is why before we have meals together here at the church, we pray. It is not just something that we do because it is something that we have always done. In a very real sense, when we are asking God to bless the food and are giving thanks to Him for it, God is setting it apart for us. Only believers can truly understand and see the significance in what is going on there.

And I have to tell you, this has caused me to slow down when we pray together as a family over our meals. Sometimes we can get so caught up in going through the motions that we forget that something special is happening… even when we sit down to eat. The God of the universe has provided a meal for us to enjoy. We should receive it with thanksgiving and gratitude. It is that way with all of His good gifts towards us.

Conclusion: ‌We have walked through this text. We have a good, or at least better, understanding of what is being said here, now we have to ask the question that my preaching professor would ask at the end of every message: So What?

What are we to do with this information? How does this apply to our lives? How do we bring this into our context?

What Is a Healthy Church?

Main Point: A Healthy Church Is a Church That Avoids Legalism.

We cannot be a church that relies on our works and efforts to be made right with God. God is not impressed with our religious performance. Does He care about our holiness? Yes, He does. That is a fact, and next week we are going to get into that. But God will not be bought off by our works to be made right with Him. Our relationship with God is based solely on the finished work of Christ.

This leads me to what we need to be mindful of. False Teaching to Be aware of: Any Other Religious Belief (Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Reincarnation, Judaism, etc.)

Jehovah’s Witnesses Mormonism The New Age Movement The Occult Prosperity Gospel

All of these things have 1 very important thing in common: They focus on you and your religious activity to be made right with God. The are Anit-Gospel because they teach that you can connect with God through some other means other than Jesus Christ. Jesus said that He IS the Way, The Truth and The Life, and that NO ONE comes to the Father but by Him. That is the truth. Either Jesus was the perfect Son of God or He was a liar… He cannot be both.

So, I want to ask you.... What Kind of Teachings Are You Listening To?

This is where this passage should drive us. It should cause us to really think about what messages we are hearing on a regular basis. Are they promoting Christ as the Savior of the World or are they promoting something else?

4 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. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already ( 1 Jn 4:1–3)

Let’s Be a Church That Pursues Christ Above All Things.

Let’s Be a Church That Avoids False Teaching and Legalism.

That is my prayer for us. That is how I want to lead us. Let’ s avoid legalism. Let’s pursue Christ together.

Let’s pray.