1 Timothy 4:1-5 Fighting Against False Teaching

Intro

Acts 20:29–30 ESV

I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.

Detect the Deceitful Spirits vs. 1

You fight against false teaching by detecting the deceitful spirits

Apostasy = The act of abandoning or renouncing one’s previously held religious beliefs or faith, often in favor of a different set of beliefs or non-belief

A Warning from the Spirit

This is an interesting quote from Paul

Most scholars believed he was getting a fresh revelation from the Lord

God was showing him that people would depart from the faith

That there would be a fight for the faith in the church because of false teaching

Latter Times

A lot of people have translated this last days

They automatically put it on a calendar and start to count down

Paul wrote this over two thousand years ago so it isn’t referring to a timeline

It is referring to an age of time

Paul wrote to Timothy about the latter times, but he did not misunderstand his time or our own.

History is not, and has not, been rushing towards a distant brink that would end this current order.

As it turns out, the latter times describe a broad era, not a couple of years.

Departing their Faith

Faith describes the essential teachings of the Christian faith.

When some… depart from the faith, they are abandoning the essential teachings of Christianity.

Some argue that this referring to those who came close to following Jesus

That’s not what the text says

It is people who have believed and walked away from the Faith

Josh Harris

Devoted to deceitful spirits

Why do people walk away from the faith?

3 Reasons: Apostasy, Deception, and False teaching

Deceiving spirits: This refers to demonic spirits (angelic beings who have rebelled against God), who seek to deceive men and women and to entice them away from the truth.

Doctrines of demons

This speaks of the specific teachings of these deceiving spirits.

Demons are theology majors, and have systems of doctrine.

We find the first demonic doctrine in Genesis 3.

There Satan, speaking through a serpent, taught Eve

Genesis 3:4–5 ESV

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Since then, every demonic doctrine has found its way back to this root: the idea that we can be gods, and operate independently from God.

2 Corinthians 11:1 ESV

I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me!

Discern Their Teachings vs. 2-3

You fight against false teaching by discerning their teachings

Thru Insincere liars

This describes those who depart from the faith.

This certainly points to the ones who willingly embrace falsehood to justify their sin or pride; but it also refers to those who claim to teach the Bible, while just using it to support their own ideas or agendas.

Their conscience, which at one time would have convicted them of their departure from the truth, now doesn’t reply at all.

It is as if the nerve endings of their conscience have been burnt over and are dead to feeling.

Paul here refers to the ancient practice of branding a criminal on the forehead with a distinguishing mark.

For these, it was not their forehead that was branded with a hot iron, but their conscience instead.

Thru forbidding Marriage & Food

Receive with Gratitude vs. 4-5

You fight against false teachings by receiving God’s blessings with gratitude

Those who believe & know receive w/ Thanksgiving

Everything created by God is good

Made holy by Word & Prayer