Please turn with me and your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 4 So we continue our series in 1 Timothy. So focus focusing on leadership and the church What does it mean to be a part of a church and as you're turning there? It's page 992 in the P Bible I think it's important for me just to remind all of us why we're here Sometimes we can just sort of go through the motions of Sunday morning, so we're here to glorify Jesus Christ You see it printed there. I feel like the solo summed it up the Paul saying give me Jesus Give me Jesus. You may have this whole world all of it Just give me Jesus. And why do we why do we say that here at IPC? You may come here this morning and you're full of anxiety You may come here today and you're full of worries and cares and you're just overwhelmed in your life Matthew chapter 11 Jesus Christ said that you can come to him and cast your cares upon him He'll give you rest rest for your soul So Jesus is here to comfort you. That's why we glorify Jesus and secondly We also come here because Jesus is the only one that can give you courage to live in this world Because Jesus has overcome this world So I think it's important sometimes before we Continue through our service just remind ourselves why are we here? We're not here so we can look at each other's nice clothes We're not here because we can check it off our list. We are here to glorify the risen Jesus Christ and he is all that you need And so let's go to his word now First Timothy chapter 4 First one 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 Through the insincereity of liars whose consciences are seared Who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth For everything God create for everything created by God is good And nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving For it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. Let's pray
Lord Jesus He told us to come to you all those who are weary burdened and some here today know exactly what that's like
Summer at their wits end and they need to hear a word of peace and hope from you They need to see Lord Jesus that you're strong enough to carry their burdens
So Lord, I pray for those who are here for those who aren't here Those people that we love pray that today You will encourage and comfort the downcast And Lord also pray for those of us here that Need a word of encouragement as we go out into the mean world that we are often so overwhelmed by so We feel so outmatched The Lord Jesus you overcame the world So would you give us the courage to live in this world boldly for you? We need to hear from you today that you don't need a word from richi sessions From any other man we need a word from you. So would you teach us from your word From first Timothy that you holy spirit inspired We ask it in your precious name Jesus. I mean
Today sermon is about bad theology Not just bad theology in general. He actually gives a case study an actual case of bad theology The spirit told as we see in verse 1 the spirit informed Paul that That false teachers were going to come from their myths from their own church In fact in Acts chapter 20 verses 29 and 30 Paul tells the same leaders the Ephesian leaders remember this churches and Ephesus That wolves fierce wolves will come in from among you from yourselves literally And seek to divide and devour the flock And here we're seeing it in first Timothy. It's actually happening This Division has come through elders leaders in the church that have turned away from the faith This faith is the objective statement of the gospel that is something that Christians believe kind of like Our apostles creed the core teaching about Christians have believed All the time everywhere by everyone They have departed from historic Christian teaching And they have given themselves over to deceitful doctrine and in doing so they have divided the church When Paul says this will happen in later times He's speaking of the time he's writing right then. He's not talking about a time in the far future A lot of times when we think of the last days of the later times We think he's speaking about something that's just in the future that never pertains to us But Paul is seeing that the latter times are being fulfilled as he's writing this very letter The later times The last days include the ascension of Jesus when he resurrected was resurrected and ascended into heaven and his return So this may be good news to you. This may not be good news to you But you and I are living in the last days
It's kind of exciting. It's also kind of scary, isn't it? It's scary if you don't believe Jesus Christ has conquered Satan This conquered our sin, but he has And so bad theology has come that during this later times just as the spirit has informed Paul. It's happening Three points today that I want us to look at First where does bad theology come from? Where does it where does false teaching come from? Then secondly, what's so bad about it? Why is it bad then third? What are we supposed to do with it? How do we counter it? How do we fight against it? So where does it come? Where does bad theology come from? Why is it bad? And what are we supposed to do with it? The third point and we'll begin with our first point Where does bad theology come from? Paul is talking about people who have come from the church They have come from within the church and they have they have Left the faith, but they're now spreading dissension and false teaching And there are really four ways that We see the origins of this bad theology where it actually comes from First it comes from people who have turned a deaf ear to conscience And verse two he says that their conscience Has been seared with a hot iron the word here some physicians will know this This word means cauterize something is cauterize It has been burned in order to stop the bleeding And oftentimes when something is cauterize that you may lose feeling in that tissue Paul is saying that this burning this searing can actually happen to your conscience He uses a physical image to talk about a spiritual truth That over persistent sin and turning away and sitting against the conscience The conscience is what tells you yes, this is true. Yes, this is not true Our conscience has to be informed by God's scripture But persistently sitting against the conscience over time can sear it
Can actually cause deadness and a lack of feeling
He's saying first of all That that these False teachers that false theology comes from people who have been within the church and have become a postate Maybe you've heard that word before that's literally the word he hears it uses here for turning away or left They have apostatized that is they have publicly rejected Gods truth they rejected Jesus and rejected the gospel but it's happened At early stages where they are rejecting and sinning against their conscience Here's a practical illustration of that Nothing breaks my heart more than people who leave the church not just leave IPC and then go to another church I'm talking about leave the faith There's nothing that's more confounding as a pastor for personally speaking. There's nothing that's more Heart-breaking than someone saying I'm done with that Then here's how it happens. It's I've never encountered anyone That have that has left Christianity or left the church because they had some theological problem Now they may explain that later In other words, I just I have a problem with this teaching of that teaching It's always come because of sin first In other words Dealing with people who have struggles in their marriages or struggles in their jobs or struggles in issues and they they're under Conviction of sin in their life or some secret sin in their life, and it's maybe exposed or someone has called them out on it And it and it comes into the the light and people can see it what happens is people say I don't want to change my life. I'm going to leave my wife I am going to leave my husband And here's what happens. I remember actually having a conversation with someone about this who wanted to stay in this lifestyle Who wanted reject Jesus it comes at a very visceral practical personal level that this person said? I don't want to leave this lifestyle, but here's what I really have a problem with I really don't think I believe the virgin birth anymore I really don't think I believe in the air in the scripture in other words the compromise started in their heart As they rejected their conscience over time. Do you see how dangerous sin is
That the reason most people leave the faith Comes first of all because they want life their way and they persist and they persist and they persist
So the first place that we see that false doctrine comes from a cauterize a seared conscience The second thing we see is that There's hypocrisy the sv says the insincereity of liars, but the word literally here is hypocrites They're hypocritical liars a hypocrite as an actor. He's someone who plays a role So false teaching comes from people who have have a seared conscience But this seared conscience leads into a falsehood in their lifestyle and they project a hyper spirituality In other words false teachers You don't spot them because they look like losers or like they look like bad guys with horns False teaching comes from people who look ultra-spiritual In fact, they look more enlightened than everyone else, but it's all an act It's all a role that they're playing and it's full of insincereity And deceit the third thing that Paul says about false teaching and where it comes from It comes from those who have devoted themselves to deceitful spirits Do you see a common theme here of deceit? They have devoted themselves to deceitful spirits why because Satan is the father of lies as Jesus says in John chapter 8 verse 44 That he has always been a liar Jesus says from the very beginning because that's what he did in the Garden of Eden He lied to Adam and Eve He is fundamentally a liar and here's where false teaching comes from from those who have devoted themselves to lying spirits think about that think of that inage He uses the word devotion We're familiar with this word devotion. It's the common word for devotion. That means to submit yourself your heart your soul your mind To something you give devotion to Your favorite football team, right? You give devotion to things that you love you give devotion to the Lord Jesus you give devotion to his word Here's where false teaching comes from from those who have devoted themselves to deceit That it actually begins to shape who they are
They have devoted themselves to deceiving spirits and then finally The product is this These false teachers who are espousing bad theology Always try to find disciples
In other words, they want to lead others astray
You know, it's behind all this The devil he is far craftier far more sophisticated, intelligent, and much much more powerful than we are He is the wolf And he has wolves that seek to destroy the church so at the end of the day bad theology May look like it comes from humans, but its ultimate source is from the father of lies and bad theology kills people
That's why that this image of a wolf is so prevalent in the Bible and the Old Testament especially in the New Testament This idea of a wolf in sheep's clothing why would a wolf be an image for a false teacher
Well, actually did a little research on wolves this week. I think wolves are kind of cool. At least I used to think wolves are cool You know how a wolf hunts some of you may know this The first thing about a wolf is that they pray on the weak The wolves don't go to the strongest caribou right They find the oldest or the youngest they find the most susceptible the most vulnerable and in the same way false teachers try to find the most vulnerable among us Do you see leaders elders why it is so important for us to protect the sheep
Even these young ones And our old ones Wolves pray on the weak here's the second thing they do they isolate their prey You've seen maybe some of you seen these pictures of some one Caribou or some poor animal that has been cornered by by by several wolves That's what they do they come into a pack and they isolate the weakest one and they surround it that way And you can see that is the same way that false teachers those who espouse bad theology and we'll talk about the bad theology in a second Those who teach that that's the same thing they do to those who are in the church That they try to isolate and they form little clusters It's a good way to know that you have some questionable teaching little clusters And I'm not talking about little groups of friends who have this like the same books I'm talking about when that little group of friends like the same books and then they don't think anyone else is a Christian anymore You use some of you've been a part of churches where they do they isolate people and then they are the enlightened ones You need to have some little sirens going off there So they pray on the weak they isolate and then they attack but here's the third thing about them wolves are sneaky Hunters Some of this one writer a single wolf will distract the herd with its presence and act as a decoy While the pack mates attack from behind Wolf packs may also set up ambush trails Indian wolves have been observed to chase gazelle herds through ravines Where other wolves will lie and wait within holes dug prior to the hunt These are not dumb dogs Why do you think in act 20 Paul refers to them as wolves why do you think Jesus refers to them as wolves It's because they pray on the weak that isolate and they are sneaky
See what Paul has done in this passage is he has taken bad theology and false teaching for the church And he's put it in slow motions You'll watch those shows on the animal channel or these things and you watch like a it's kind of gory Slowly watch an animal attack another animal. I know it's really kind of disturbing But you can slow you watch this slow motion of actually a wolf attack Right as they go to their prey and what Paul has done here for us is that he slowed the process down He's put it into slow motion so that we in the church can know how false teaching comes into the church It first comes through a seared conscience Which leads to hypocrisy
Which ultimately leads to those who are leading others astray May the Lord protect us from false teaching May we be wary of it but you go to our second point That's where it comes from that's helpful But he actually specific about a brand of false teaching a type of bad theology and honestly it's kind of shocking Because he's talking about it being from Satan it's from the teaching of demons He says these deceitful spirits you're expecting this outrageous horrible doctrine and here it is in verse three Here's what the bad teachers teach That they forbid marriage And eating certain kinds of foods Well, I don't know about you. I don't just be honest as I was coming to the passage I was like that didn't seem like it doesn't is that bad Why is what he's saying so bad or first of all it's brilliant Because it appears to be benign It appears to be a very innocent teaching but as we'll see that it's not an innocent teaching at all
Basically what Paul is saying here is the false teachers Are teaching celibacy is a prerequisite to be a Christian And Vegetarianism is a prerequisite Certain kinds of foods in the New Testament world that was basically code for you can't eat meat Even remember Peter struggled with this That they required those who are going to be true followers of Jesus the truly initiated Those who are the truly spiritual will not be married that is they will not have sex is what it means But it also means they will refrain from certain types of food This is What it's referred to as asceticism. Y'all know what that word is if not you've learned a new term seniors. How about that ascetic A-S-C-E-T-E-T. I'm certain and ascetic is a person It's one definition who practices severe self-discipline From all forms of pleasure and abstains from all forms of pleasure Especially for religious or spiritual purposes as Philip Reichen who wrote a great commentary on this By forbidding marriage and changing their diet some members of the Ephesian church were denying the pleasures of sex and food At the same time saying that physical self-denial was essential to a person standing before God
This comes from the idea of nosticism It's ancient belief that the material physical world is somehow evil And therefore our bodies are evil and the true spiritual life is a soul is a bodyless existence somewhere off Where where there is no hindrance of the physical world or the or the body so food is evil The body is evil and you should only just if you need to eat food Then you should just only eat vegetables that somehow they've made that a prerequisite to This idea that only souls matter
It's been a problem in the church for a long time But here's why it's so dangerous So what one scholar put it this way first It separates a Christian from God Why is Paul so angry about this teaching is it separates a Christian from God? Why? Because God created marriage and food And to tell someone that you cannot do it tell someone that you cannot be a part of it Tell someone that you cannot eat this certain type of food is separating them from the creator of all good things bad idea And since God created all things and called them good They are to be received with thanksgiving in other words We'll speak a little later that to receive these things with thanksgiving is orthodox It is heterodox to not receive these things with thanksgiving Now there are certain times periods of time where fasting is appropriate There are certain times where people are called to singleness and celibacy That's clearly nothing wrong or sinful But to abstain from those things based on thinking that it's righteous to not do those things Is actually from the devil And it separates us from our creator The second thing that makes it dangerous and why it's bad is that it causes division among Christians Think about this It created an elite group of people who considered themselves to be more spiritual than others Right I'm the one who does this I'm the one who doesn't do this and here look It always looks good doesn't it in church? The truly spiritual the people are the people that do x one z they only read these kind of books They only do certain kind of things like this and they only wear their hair certain ways and they wear these types of clothes we know these things That true legalism Really produces division in the church because there's always someone looking at them saying I can't I can't live up to that standard And so it divides the body of Christ strike to The third thing it does is it keeps the church away from its mission It keeps the church away from making this from making disciples of Jesus Christ Why because they're totally preoccupied with themselves Anybody been in churches like that Where a church is so preoccupied with it's with its own way of doing things and and what's going on with the internal affairs of the church That that we actually forget that there are people There are people that are that are that are down the street whose lives are falling apart that Jesus isn't there in the church Jesus is over at that person's house And if we want to be where Jesus is we need to be comforting that person you know churches like that we all have that tendency in our church He keeps this away from making disciples of Jesus Christ it makes us preoccupied it's like staring at your at your own system so much I remember this story about a About a young boy who's when I was in the Delta This boy had grown up and he's doing fine now, but he would ride his bike And he loved to look at himself riding on the pedals You don't like that you remember you kind of like the way you look on ride on the pedals But he would ride they would look at the pedals and just look at the pedals and then one day he had a terrible wreck He went over his his his handlebars and it was because he was staring at himself riding the bike and in a lot of ways the church will not do what it's supposed to because it's too busy staring at itself So now can you see how this division occurs How it keeps us off task math theology is like a dirty bomb It goes in all directions But ultimately the reason it's so bad Is it because it breathes a deadly self-righteousness That is if I refrain from sex if I will refrain from certain types of food That will make me more righteous in my standing with God and it makes you less righteous if you do those things And it breeds self-righteousness before God and folks there is no one righteous no not even one And if we have any clue or or guess that we're righteous we're actually standing before ourselves in a holy God Holding up some filthy rag expecting ourselves to be justified when there will be no unjustified by their works It ultimately is a compromise of the gospel is bad teaching because it rejects the work of Jesus Christ It rejects the fullness of God's grace it rejects the power of the Holy Spirit and now you can see how it is a wolf lying in weight
What are those secondary things that you struggle with making primary
What are those things that maybe you look at and say this is what true Christians do and it's something more than the gospel
Okay, how do we fight it Look at verse 4 with me Everything God create everything created by God is good And nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer Here's the two ways that you counter bad theology and in particular a setisism or raising secondary things to primary things First the word of God says the creation is good
God said it Genesis 1 verse 31 God looked at all that he had made and he said it was good Everything that God made i'm talking about everything that God made is good. I'm not saying we don't corrupt it I'm not saying that we don't bend it But every single thing that God has made in this world God himself in his word declared it good and so nobody's telling us Enjoy yourself God's word declares it good So if anyone looks at any part of this creation and says that it's not good Because God has said it's good. They're actually denying God's own word
Jesus declared that all foods are clean You're what happened to Peter Peter had this vision in Acts chapter 10 Where there was this this blanket it's like a picnic blanket going up and down this vision because he wouldn't eat with Gentiles Because remember Gentiles 8 pigs and other things and and crawfish and all kind of crazy stuff and And there There was this great blanket with all those foods that he was never permitted to eat anymore He was he was never permitted to eat because he was a Jew and they couldn't eat those foods But for three different times that three and the Bible means he repeated it God repeated it over and over again because Peter wasn't getting it over and over again All these foods that were nasty to Peter They were going up and down on this blanket and then God here's what Jesus told him. I'll paraphrase All this stuff is clean Peter Do not call unclean what I've made clean Eat Man The first way you counter false teaching is with the word of God What does God's words say about it and what does God's words say about this teaching all things are clean All things are clean that God has created and made good The second thing is with gratitude Like what he says There to be received with thanksgiving for it is made holy by the word of God and with prayer Let me just quote with G.K. Chesterton British writer thinker ss He said you say grace before meals all right But I say grace before the concert in the opera I say grace before the play in the panaman I say grace before I open a book I say grace before sketching and painting and swimming and fencing and boxing and walking and playing and dancing I say grace before I dip my pin in the ink That is this man understood what Paul is saying The lordship of Jesus over this entire creation enables us to embrace this creation as a good thing to thank God for it To pray to God for it and to do and to use it and to enjoy it for his glory He actually understood what he's talking about Here's what I personally struggle with I grew up in the Bible belt just like you. I'm just like most of y'all grew up in churchy entity churchy entity And here's something we we struggle with I've struggled with over the years is that we're so afraid Of sin messing things up and we're so afraid of the world and so afraid that we've sort of created our own little Christian world We we create what I call diet world You know what diet coal is right now? I've now have to drink diet coke because coaks are too delicious And they're like 200 calories But I have to drink diet coke now because they they they won't hurt me anymore, but I feel like I'm drinking a coke, but then I drank a real coke That's different And the diet coke is different than a real coke the same way that Christian movies Not saying thing about about Christian movies But we have to invent our own Christian movies and our own Christian music and there's some great Christian rock music and stuff And some not so great But we have diet music we have diet movies. We have diet books We have diet Christian versions of stuff and we look like it it's Because it is second rate And if we believe that all that God has created is good We should challenge ourselves to make the best food to make the best music to make the best art Because our God owns everything do you realize that and so this is tremendously liberating for us To to closing points. I want to make
some of us do not know what to do with the created world Some of you do not feel comfortable just being human Because because you see sin in your life and you're and you don't know what to make of Of you feel dirty and you feel ashamed
That's not biblical Some of us feel unable to enjoy anything because we're sinful creatures and if it's good and if it's fun if it's pleasurable Then it must be wrong and we bought into this sort of this Puritanical light it the Puritans weren't like the way we make them out to be right these these pilgrims with these black things You know black hats and the you know the always dour expression the fake they're probably worse some like this But most of them as one writer said not only were Mary at their work were very Mary at their meat I like that Mary at their meat That means they enjoyed their food See as Lewis said that the world has gotten the Puritans wrong Their aversion was not beer It was a bishop the Puritans Were people that actually understood that God's creation was good And that some of us are here today And you don't know what to make of the created world and you don't know how to interact with the created world And you feel shameful about sexuality and you may feel shameful even about food when God has said it is good And some of us need to kick our shoes off and we need to run through the grass Some of us need to be like children and explore God's world and enjoy God's world because folks according to Paul that's orthodox That's actually the way you're supposed to interact with the created world That this dour miserable experience where we create subcultures of diet Christianity this diet world is actually wicked That we are to be people that look at the world and redeem it and where it's broken we make it right How do I know this is true? Because of honeysuckle honeysuckle I can't get over honeysuckle how do I know that my God is like this? How do I know that my God is So into things being beautiful and wonderful is because this this path where I run in the mornings There is this thicket of honeysuckle and every time I I walk past it I want to be like ferdinand the bull and just stop and eat it You know you can get a little bit of that honey you can get a little honey off of honeysuckle And I just want to stick my face and sometimes I'll just rip a piece off of it. I don't know who owns the area, but I'm just sticking in my face and people think I'm crazy And the point is The same goes for true folks for food and for sexuality and for art is that the God who made some little Flower that is here today and gone tomorrow He also created my nose and my sense of smell and he wants me to smell that just for smelling it Why so I would praise him for it This is a wonderful world That you're called to go out and to conquer and to make beautiful for Jesus. This is his world. It's not Hollywood's world Some of us need to breathe in the honeysuckle Some of you need to breathe in life in your marriages Enjoy your spouse some of you some of us Need to understand that that this food that we eat is good It's for it's for our enjoyment. Why do you think Jesus was called a drunkard and a reveler Wasn't because he was a drunkard the man wasn't a drunkard We know he was a perfect there was he was the holiest man that ever was The reason they called him a drunkard and a reveler is because they would walk through town And they would see Jesus of Nazareth the great rabbi teacher who they couldn't figure out because he was so smart he'd be at the parties He would be at absolute throwdown parties in the middle of town with known sinners and tax collectors Levi the tax collector Jesus is with Levi the tax collector he brought all his cronies They're throwing this big party and Jesus ate food and he drank wine and he had a good time Because Jesus understood that God's creation was good
Jean LaRue once had a great quote about that He said sometimes it's almost like Jean LaRue was a pastor here a long time ago some of you don't know that Jean LaRue said that sometimes it's almost as those Christians are sort of pressing their face up against the world wishing that we could have what they had I wish I could live that life when in reality we should be the exact opposite We should be enjoying life so much and enjoying God's good creation and living to the fullest and laughing to loudest and singing our songs And laughing with each other and enjoying life so much their times of heartache But there are a lot of wonderful times but enjoying this good creation so much that the world is pressing its face up against the window saying I want what they have why because you know what we know what to do with food and sex
The second thing is some of us abuse food food Yes, please are you kidding me Who doesn't want to who doesn't feel that temptation or it's same thing with food and sexuality these these two appetites Some of us abuse those things why? Because we're doing this we're doing the exact opposite that Paul's telling us here We are not thanking God for them in the right way Here's the point the reason you make a God of food and sexuality is if you have forgotten the God who created food and sexuality And we try to make food and sexuality and marriage and relationships be something they were never created to be That is they're good and they're wonderful But they were never created to save you they were never created to fill the void that you fill in your soul and your heart They were never created to make you complete and to make you whole and to be those people who know as Paul says Is to be those people who are under God's authority Understand that these things were created for me to give glory to God when you take God out of your bedroom When you take God out of your sexuality sexuality will inevitably become your God and it will destroy you But when you bring God Who created sexuality and marriage and relationships when you bring him you no longer objectify that person But you begin to appreciate and you begin to use it the way God intended us to use it We're not to be fruits What does God telling you today? What does God teaching us about the created world? He said part of it saying in Jesus Christ you can become comfortable in your own skin He's also calling you and I to truly use this creation for the ultimate goal to bring glory to God to swing for the fence Swing for the fence come on y'all know I love baseball You know what swing for the fence means You know what you do when you swing for the fence You swing for the fence because it doesn't matter if you strike out you're going for the fence anyway And here's the good news as a Christian Jesus Christ has died for you He rose again for the from the dead for you. He is returning for you. Guess what you can't strike out swing for the fence Swing for the fence folks. That's the Christians should be people that swing for the fence because you know what You're gonna hit a homer We won more Jesus Christ you are the great winner You are the one that enables us to be able to swing for the fence for us to live life to the fullest and Lord I pray that you would free us from the bondage of the lies of the evil one Who has told us lies about your creation. I pray that you would protect this church from false teaching Lord, I pray that we keep us always faithful to Jesus and to his truth Because that is the only way that we can know you that is the only way that we can be safe That is the only way that people can grow Bless us now in Jesus name