Dedicated To The Men of God Who Preach the Word of God As It Is To Men As They Are

















"Preach The Word"

Text: 1 Timothy 4:1-10

1 Timothy 4:1 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; 2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; 3 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. 4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: 5 For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. 6 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. 7 But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. 8 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. 9 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. 10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

As we enter into Chapter 4 of 1^st Timothy, we move into an entirely different area of 1^st Timothy. We leave the "mystery of godliness" to see how in the last days that men and the church will be characterized by apostacy.

"Apostacy" has reference to deliberately and knowingly turning away from the true God of redemption, to false gods and sinful ways.

In the N.T. we see that "apostacy" happens when men turn aside from following Jesus and deny him after having before confessed Him as the Lord of their life. That is what many of the disciples did in Jn. 6:36–"From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him."

That apostasy can take many forms such as:

1- Falling away from the faith under persecution

2- Denying the deity of Christ

3- Living an open life of sin which denies faith.

One thing is sure, it is to characterize the last days.

Verse 1 is a prophetic warning.

The bottom line is this----since faith is the foundation upon which everything rests, Satan is out to destroy that first before he tampers with anything else.

Satan knows that if the faith is given up and the Truth of God is denied, he can put his seducing spirits and substitute for the true faith the doctrine of devils.

2 Tim. 3:1 characterizes the last days as "perilous" times. That word "perilous" refers to something that is–"hard to take or approach, that which is fierce, harsh or savage." We are in those days for sure!

The "mystery of godliness" or the doctrines and truths about Christ, is becoming more increasingly denied as seducing spirits take their hold upon Christendom.

The "cults" are evidence of a part of that spiritual seduction that is going on under the leadership of our arch enemy the Devil. Cults hold to the very doctrines of demon. Anyone that denies the full deity of Christ is not of God and does not have the God the Father’s blessing.

When the Church of the Lord Jesus is snatched out of this present world, there will be a totally apostate church left behind.

To "depart" literally means to "stand away from." Apostacy comes from within the organized church and happens when people depart from the basics which they have held to previously.

Let’s look at some of the things which characterize the times in which we live.

4:1- "Seducing spirits and doctrines of devils."

The reason there are so many "cults" arising on every hand is due to the fact of Satan’s frenzy of activity, just prior to the coming of the Lord Jesus. The devil knows his time is short, so he and the demons work tirelessly day and night to deceive and blind people all around the world.

It is every race and every color that Satan is trying to deceive.

God has His holy ministers, but on the other hand, Satan has his unholy ministers. Some of them are seen and unseen.

There are so many suicides today, broken homes, and loose doctrines. You know when you see those kinds of thing that the Devil is at work.

If you hated someone, like the Devil hates God Almighty, and if your heart were full of evil, like the heart of Satan is, then you would do all you could do to try to hurt one you hate.

In 1 Jn. 4:1 we are told to "try the spirits." In other words we are to test the spirits. One of the best tests I know of is judging what others teach by 1 Timothy 3:16: "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory."

Some folks get too involved in pondering and studying demons. We should simply live the right life and think the right thoughts, that Satan cannot get a foot-hold in our lives.

There is a great deal of demonic activity in rock music and some of the contemporary country music of our day. The devil would like nothing more than to numb people’s minds and hearts through the wrong kind of music, and deceive them into refusing Christ as their Savior and Lord.

"Seducing spirits" has reference to a word that means one who rovers or wanders. It means a vagabond or a deceiver. Satan is all that and more.

The reason today that so many people wear so few clothes at certain times of the year, indicates a flurry of demonic activity.

If you do not think so, just study the incident of the Demoniac of Gadera. He was full of demons and ran through the graveyard in the middle of the night with no clothes on, doing what we called many years ago "streaking."

"Speaking lies in hypocrisy" (1 Tim. 4:2a).

This is a day of lying and false statements.

We are not to live in pretence or hypocrisy, but rather we are to be genuinely, honest and above board in our living and doctrine.

A. If anyone says Jesus is less than God then he is a liar.

B. If one denies the bodily resurrection of Jesus, he is a liar.

C. If anyone denies Jesus’ resurrection he is a liar.

Lies will find you out sooner or later.

I heard about three boys who arrived at school late. They did not get there until 10:00 A.M. They had really been fishing. For their excuse they said they had been delayed due to a flat tire.

The teacher decided to immediately give them a test. She set them apart from one another, kept her eyes on them. The test only had one question and she gave them 30 seconds to put their answer down. The question was, "Which tire?" All three of them put down a different answer. The boys were found out to be liars.

The cults lie about who Jesus is and also lie about how salvation is obtained. You are not saved by your works (Eph. 2:8-9) but by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is a "lie" to say there is an "Investigative Judgment"—where if one’s good outweighs his or her bad, then they will be able to go to heaven. That is just no so and cannot be supported by the infallible and inerrant Word of God.

The "last day" professing church will be one full of lies and hypocrisy. It will be hard in these last times to hold many people to the Truth. Folks today believe whatever is convenient for them to believe. We tend to want to follow the path of least resistance.

III. Deadened Consciences

"Having their conscience seared with a hot iron" (1 Tim. 4:2b).

"Conscience" is that sense within us of right and wrong. It decides the rightness or the wrongness of our actions and affections, and instantly approves of or condemns them.

1. In Jn. 8 many of the people who were accusing the woman caught in adultery left the scene of accusation, being convicted by their own consciences.

2. The conscience has to do with a feeling of obligation concerning our actions.

3. Some consciences are in good shape, others in foul shape.

4. "Seared" means -"to be burned as with a hot iron," destroying the nerves that give feeling to the body.

A person can get to the point and so violate their conscience, they do not even know right from wrong anymore. I believe when you violate your conscience, a part of it dies and is no longer truly useful.

A seared conscience will cause you to make wrong decisions.

IV. Denial Of Marriage

There was a group called the Essenes in Jesus’ day who lived by the Dead Sea. It was from their community many of the Dead Sea Scrolls came. Christianity came along and many joined the Palestinian church and helped to produce most of its heresies.

Including the regulation, not to marry. I would never have made an Essene. I like having a good wife.

It is beneficial to my personal live and ministry. Between the two of us we have four great children and four grandchildren.

I am glad I was not deprived of that privilege.

Proverbs 18:22 -"Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD."

Paul did indicate in 1 Cor. there would be a benefit to being single--one could concentrate more on the things of God.

The Bible says, "It is not good for man to be alone" (Gen.2:18).

Even now many try to deny marriage and say it is alright for a man and woman to have sexual relations, live together, and not be married. Their consciences are seared!

"To abstain from meats"(v.3)

It is not sinful or wrong to eat meat. You could overdo your quantity of meat. I have no inclination to become a vegetarian.

God gave the animals not for us just to watch, but to help provide the food we would need to live on planet earth.

Note:

Some animal groups are completely against killing animal flesh and eating it. They do not have to worry about me joining! I like a little t-bone and rib-eye steak once in a while.

What you eat or don’t eat does not make you a bit more spiritual than anyone else.

A. Every Creature is Good- (v.4)

"Nothing to be refused"

That is a hard Scripture to follow.

B. Man is to be thankful for the animal creation (4b)

"Receive with thanksgiving"

C. Man is to enjoy the animals( watching and eating)

D. Sanctified by the Word of God and prayer(v.5)

The meat becomes separate and special when you pray over it.

The key to being the right kind of minister is to remember the right things.

Feeding–digesting– constant process (pres. tense verb)

profane and old wives fables

C. Exercising (8)

Godliness-compare its worth to bodily exercise.

VII. Definite Reproach (v.9,10)

What comes out of trusting God?

B. Suffering
Savior of all men in that he made provision, but man must receive what He did.

Let’s walk with God in troublesome days.

Site created by Tom Walker