4.10.49 11.2.2025 1 Timothy 4.1-5 The Haunting

Start:

Entice: Having just gotten past Halloween we still have “scariness” on our minds. We live in an age cognizant of evil. We dream of haunted houses and institutions. We know that Human beings do evil things to one another all the time.

Many of those deeds are so evil they are described as “demonic” the presumption being that humans are basically good and some deeds so bad they can only be explained as being something beyond normal humanity. 

Engage:  May I ask a couple of questions?

Have you experienced evil so depraved that you thought of it as something bigger than a bad person?

Second question. Which is worse, bad doctrine or extreme, evil external spirits?

OK, that’s  really a trick question, because in today’s text Paul addresses

the “doctrines of demons,

or

teaching of demons”, and it’s not horror movie stuff.

It’s not ghosts or ghouls, 

witches or werewolves.

The real danger,

the destructive doctrine of demons that Paul is warning about is teaching that misrepresents the accurate message of Scripture and the true teaching of Christ. Doctrinal departure is far more hazardous than any external evil.

That is the issue.

That is the threat.

That is the danger.

And it’s not external.

The various threats Paul details throughout 1 Timothy are all internal threats. 

Expand: I know that does not sound right. “Surely Bob missed something here!” Well let’s read the text. Paul is the one who introduces the concept and then he defines and explains it.

1 Timothy 4:1–5 ESV

1 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.

The problem arises when we use a Biblical term or concept differently from the way scripture uses it.

Excite: Paul is pretty clear throughout this epistle. He reminds Timothy…and us, over and again that the most problematic risks are internal. In fact, what he writes here to Timothy, echoes what he said to the Ephesian Elders among whom Timothy worked—

Acts 20:28–30 ESV

28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.

The Church is still threatened by fierce wolves arising from among the faithful who twist the truth, seeking demonic influence and unfettered power. Paul discloses the nature of this haunting, reminds us of the risk, and recommends resistance.

Explore: 

Demonic teaching combines an unbiblical focus with fearful control. 

Expand: We need to demystify and de-scarify the doctrines of demons to expose, understand, and avoid them. Paul names four teachings which distract us from sound biblical teaching. 

Body of Sermon:

1 Departure from the faith.

1.1 Abandonment.

1.2 Attention.

2 Deception of insincerity.

2.1 Deceitful Spirits

2.2 Teaching of demons

2.3 Insincere.

2.4 Conscienceless.

3 Deflection from what is vital. 

3.1 Graceless legalism.

3.2 Thankless fear.

4 Denial of God’s good creation.

4.1 Creation. 

4.2 Sanctification.

Shut Down

Most of the matters which Paul mentions, the things that really threaten the cohesion of the Church and our ability to stay on mission are not the kinds of things movies are made of.

Satan deludes and deceives more than anything else. We spend a lot of time scared of the wrong things. It’s not monsters we should fear but manipulators. Not external attacks so much as internal abandonment.

Disconnection which is driven by the discontented who distract us from our calling.

First Timothy is not about the bad things that happen to us from external threats but internal threats. Much of the problem is who does the departing, deceiving, deflecting, and denying. People we trusted who abandoned the faith.

Paul wrote these words to Timothy and us so that we might give attention to how we teach, and learn, and lead, and follow so that we create maturing disciples who do not fall prey to manipulative, complaining, detracting voices that are in fact teaching the divisive doctrines of demons.

God has redeemed us to pursue His purposes. For some people that is not enough. They become the ghosts that haunt God’s house tempting the faithful with some other Gospel.

Let’s work together to hear the voice of God rather than those who would haunt the household of God.