One of the things that we often need to do is remember to count our blessings and be thankful and grateful for all that God has done for us. The last number of years, a lot of people can be very discouraged, and yet we as Christians are never to be discouraged. The Apostle Paul, and this morning I would want to take a look at some verses out of 1 Timothy to build on what we were looking at in the book of Ephesians when we went through Ephesians. So if you have your Bible, turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter 4.
I want to give you a little bit of background as to what Paul was doing when he was writing this letter. Paul could have been moping, feeling sorry for himself, being discouraged, thinking, God must be done with me. Why? Because these are part of his prison letters. He wrote this while he was in prison. He wrote two letters to Timothy and one to Titus. Two young men that Paul had personally invested much time in their lives, as they had gone with him on many missionary journeys, and he had left them in various fellowships that had been just started by Paul to minister to those fellowships, to teach them from God’s Word, to help them to understand what it meant to be a believer in Jesus Christ.
Remember last Sunday I said that Paul, in most of the churches that he started, the vast majority of the people would have been Gentiles. He was the apostle to the Gentiles. The Gentiles, 99% of them, had no knowledge of the Scripture. And he was teaching them these truths to set them free. As he’s writing this letter, Paul could have been singing the song that we just got done singing. Count your many blessings. And Paul did. And we need to do the same. Now I want you to turn to chapter 4, 1 Timothy, because as Paul is sitting in prison, God has revealed some things to him about what’s going to happen in the future with the church.
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God in prayer. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine whereunto thou hast attained.
But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation.
For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe. These things command and teach. Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity, till I come and give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine, continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.
1 Timothy 4:1-16
It’s interesting, in the passage we just read, you saw that Paul refers not only to true doctrine, but he also refers to false doctrine. As a matter of fact, Paul says demons have doctrine. Did you know that? We need to understand Satan’s got a belief system that he wants mankind to fall in line and believe.
The only problem with Satan’s doctrine and the doctrine of demons is it’s based on lies, not truth. And so how do we discern and how do we know what is true doctrine from that which is false doctrine? Paul himself opens this particular passage, paragraph of his letter to Timothy, in the beginning of chapter 4, he says, Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall be part of the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. What does it mean, giving heed to seducing spirits and giving heed to doctrines of devils? It means that you’re listening to them, but not only are you listening, you’re believing them.
And he’s saying, Timothy, this is coming. This is a scheme of Satan to undermine and destroy the truth of the gospel and the true message, to teach that which is false and make it appear to be true. I want us to just understand what doctrine is.
It’s a word that people don’t use anymore because if you want to know the truth, our culture and the whole world, if you sat down and asked them to write a statement of belief on what you believe, what doctrine do you live your life by, I don’t think that most people would be able to do it. Although we live our lives according to a belief system that we’ve adhered to. And if you look at what most people live their lives according to, it’s for today and the moment and what will give me a thrill now or what will make me happy now, instead of principles that have long eternal value.
Doctrine. Webster’s Dictionary says it’s a principle or position, whatever is laid down as true by an instructor or master. And so in other words, what he’s saying is, doctrine will be based upon the one you listen to and whether you believe that they have the authority to present what they’re saying as truth.
Biblical doctrine has a foundation that’s a little different than a man. Timothy in the same passage is being told by the Apostle Paul, and we also read about that in the Psalm this morning. Where is our hope and faith and trust to rely in? Not men.
Because the things that we believe and do can change from moment to moment. They’re not based on absolutes unless they’re based on the only absolutes in the universe, the absolutes that are established by the truth of God and His Word. So the first thing in the definition of doctrine is, you’re listening to somebody and they’re telling you what to believe and they’re teaching you things on how you should live your life.
And the thing is, do you believe them? First thing I want you to do this morning is examine your heart and your life and say, what do I live my life and believe on? I was listening to a man this morning and he was talking about if we could live and not be in debt. And he said, everybody could be debt free. It’s just what our desires and wants are that place us under the burden of money.
And to a degree, he’s right. I mean, there’s certain things that everybody needs and the Scriptures tell us that. We need food, we need clothing, we need housing.
But what do we need? Do we need to be eating the best choice cut of steak every meal? Do we need to be living with marble encased staircases in our house? Do we need to be driving the most expensive car that you can buy? You see, your wants determine your level of your enslavement to money. And what determines your wants? What determines your wants is your belief system and somebody that may have implanted in your heart and life a belief system that you bought as truth. The next time you listen to an advertisement, dissect the advertisement and see, is that advertisement given to appeal to your desires or is it appealing to a need you have? I’ll give you an example.
There’s a chiropractor in town and he’s got an advertisement. He talks about how he can help you if you’ve got knee damage. That’s addressing a specific need.It’s not appealing to a desire. Other than, yeah, I’d like to be desirous without pain. I’d like to be able to walk without pain.
But it’s an advertisement that’s laying out a service to meet a need that some people have. Jump ahead to just about every advertisement you see during football games, basketball games, Super Bowls. Every one of them appeals to desire and lust.
Why do women have to sell products in skimply clad clothes? Why are you told that you deserve a break today? A number of years ago, there was a guy who had the first lines of all the advertisements from all the fast food restaurants and the people had them memorized even though some of the people didn’t even go to them. But you deserve a break today, McDonald’s. Well, do I deserve a break today? Have I been working as hard as I possibly could? Have I done everything I was supposed to do? Do I deserve a break today? Well, maybe I don’t deserve a break today but that advertises me I do and the only way that I can really enjoy it is to eat a McDonald’s hamburger.
It’s appealing to my lust of hunger and my lust of I am somebody. The world is full of that. Doctrines of demons.
A number of years ago, there was a man and he was very good at combining Christianity, Eastern mysticism, psychology all together and so that if you listened and you came from a worldview that was a Christian worldview, you’d pick out certain things that he had injected into his speeches that were loosely tied to Christian principle and he’d use some Christian words. But his whole philosophy was really Eastern mysticism and the thing that centered on you as God. That was really what his main philosophy was.
But if you didn’t have a discerning heart and think about what he was really saying he was embedding in your mind a philosophy that you stood equal to or above God. Give you one example that was an example that he gave. He said that if you bought into his system you could just think things into being.
And they’d have to come. And I’m going, where is that in the Bible? I am not God. I cannot create things out of nothing.
But he says, if you want that new job just think about it. And there’s all kinds of people that have bought into this. Some of them Christians.
Have you ever heard people say they come in and maybe they’re like me the other Sunday that was limping and you ask them, oh, did you hurt your knee? I’m not going to talk about it because that’s negative talk. I’m only talking positive things because I’m bringing into being that my knee will be healed. Well, that’s not in the Bible.
As a matter of fact if you’re just going to go positive negative Jesus at times was a very negative person. He said that we were going to be persecuted for his name’s sake. He didn’t tell us, oh, think that you’re going to have a rosy life and everything’s going to be wonderful.
No, he brought the reality of a conflict of world views and he was the author of the truth and there’s a whole system of world views that are tied to the doctrines of demons that are in direct conflict with him and that they do not like to hear the truth. And when you present the truth they must come to the reality that either they are living a lie and repent of that and come to Christ and come under the truth of God or reject the truth and continue to live the lie and become more enslaved to it. The doctrines of demons.
So Paul is telling Timothy you need to understand the battle you’re in. It’s in the realm of ideas and what you believe because it directly impacts the way you live your life the decisions you make and how you treat other people. He goes on and he says some should depart from the faith giving need to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.
Talked a little bit about that. I want you to say it’s safe to tell you this morning one of the great needs of the church today is to have a discerning heart. Some of the people that are being lifted up and exalted as the great Christian leaders of our time are preaching doctrines of devils.
There’s a woman by the name of Beth Moore and she’s a very good speaker. As a matter of fact she fills auditoriums of women and she appeals to emotions. A lot of times some of the best speakers appeal to emotion instead of dealing with the heart which isn’t just emotion.
Remember we talked about the Jewish view of heart? It’s the intellect it’s the will and it’s the emotions and they’re all to be brought under the authority of God’s word. She will fill auditoriums but yet if you would talk to people today and say she’s a heretic with the things she’s teaching many people come very upset with you. How can you say that? Look at her ministry.
I want to tell you the Colosseums of Rome were filled to watch wickedness. It’s not the number of people that are the measure of whether truth is being taught or not being taught. It’s the content of the message and the doctrine that’s being revealed.
You need to understand what your instructor or master is trying to get you to do and what he’s basing those things that he’s teaching you or she’s teaching you on. And what is her motivation or his motivation? There’s a book that we just got. I haven’t had a chance to read it.
We’ve just started reading it. It’s called Shepherds for Sale. I heard the author of the book and I heard some of the things that are in the book.
And she’s basically talking about shepherds as pastors. And for sale is what is the latest and greatest idea that will enable me to have a successful ministry in the eyes of the world and in the eyes of other Christians. And in this book the author begins to lay out the doctrines of demons that are being taught and brought into the church by Shepherds for Sale.
Paul is very concerned. Why? Because doctrines of devils is speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron. It’s to the point where it doesn’t even bother them that they’re lying to people and not telling them the truth and leading them to hell instead of heaven.
Do you know that every person that has ever been born God gave a conscience to? Some of the most wicked men that have done some of the most despicable things currently pick up in the news today.
Why shouldn’t he want to follow his doctrine? Because he had a conscience. And he feared it so bad that he saw nothing wrong with destroying Israel and killing innocent people and leading thousands upon thousands into following lies. But when it came to his mortality and his eternity, Don’t kill me! That’s how I know God gave a conscience to everyone.
But the problem is, you can be involved in wickedness and doctrines of devils so long that you sear your conscience and God can’t even speak to you through it like Pharaoh in Egypt who hardened his heart and hardened his heart and hardened his heart. And finally, God hardened his heart. I’ll give you what you want.
Paul’s warning Timothy, it’s a big message. It’s a big challenge to be in this battle. And the thing is, we have no ability to fight.
I don’t have a budget of $20 billion to go out and put a whole bunch of ads to counteract the ads that are on. How do I do that? You know, Jesus never sought huge platforms. Jesus’ most effective moments of ministry were one-on-one.
God tells us to go out and speak to those when he said, take the gospel to Jerusalem. That’s where the apostles were. To Judea, that’s the southern kingdom of the divided kingdom of Israel and was where Jerusalem was established and was in Judea.
To Samaria, which was the northern kingdom when the kingdom of Israel was divided. It was also called Israel, but under many of the kings it was referred to as Samaria. So they would take it first to those who were absolutely closest to them.
Then those that were within their circle. Then those that were just outside their circle. And then he says, unto the uttermost parts of the earth.
But I want you to know how Paul took the gospel. Paul took it and when he’d come to a city, he’d go to a synagogue first because they had an understanding of the Word of God and they were Jews and he was a Jew. And also in the synagogue you have the opportunity to say things.
And so he would teach in the synagogue from the scriptures. And those people knew the prophets. They knew the law.
They knew these things. Why? Because they go through the whole Old Testament in their synagogue worship on a regular basis. They have them laid out so that they go through all of them.
So they know these things. But oftentimes they reject them. And then you know an amazing thing? There would be Gentiles that had either been proselyted into Judaism who had been at the synagogue or Gentiles as you go to these towns that would hear about Paul and they’d want to know about him.
And so he’d take it to the Gentiles, the message of the gospel. But then the other thing that Paul did is he was a working evangelist. He didn’t have a mission board.
He didn’t have money being sent to him on a regular basis, although later on churches would help support him. But he had to work for a living to pay for his food and to buy his clothes. And he was a tent maker by trade.
And so you would find Paul, and you see this in the book of Acts, he is making tents And guess what he’s doing when he’s making tents? Sharing the gospel with those that are making tents with him. We find that there are converts in the Scripture at his tent making business. Paul always looked not at the masses but at the individuals.
And he said, every person needs to hear this message. And he tells Timothy, the doctrines of demons, Satan wants to just wipe everybody into hell. And so we’re going to have mass things that appeal to the lusts where the truth is hard.
And but for God’s grace, we’d never understand it. Paul goes on, and he tells Timothy, some of the things that were coming up then, it’s like this is being pulled out and put into our day. He gives some examples of false doctrines, doctrines of demons.