Asceticism and the Doctrines of Demons

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

But ours is a privilege now to gather as God’s people on the Lord’s day and to worship Him. And as we assemble, we remember that our help is in the name of the Lord. Who may God be heard. Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Break forth into joyous song and sing praises. Sing praises to the Lord with a lyre, with a lyre and the sound of melody, with trumpets and the sound of the horn. Make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord. Let the sea roar and all that fills it, the world and those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth.

He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity. Father, we do gather as your people this morning to worship you. We gather with a view to being transformed by our worship into the one whom we behold, into the likeness of your son. We join with all creation in our worship, and we do it with joy. We give you praise as the one who has made creation. You are the measurer of the earth, and you are the one who has given us your spirit, given us new life, and given us the desire to worship you. As we lift high your name then, may we in obedience to Christ do so in spirit and in truth. We ask that you would exalt yourself among us today, we pray in Christ’s name, amen.

Legalism is like a warm blanket. And if we’re going to be successful legalists, we have to write some new definitions. Because while it’s impossible to realize true holiness in the flesh, it’s absolutely possible to manufacture that through legalism. It’s absolutely possible to keep a bunch of external laws that God has not written, and that is in fact legalism, instituting laws where God has not. A man, it feels great to look holy while knowing you’re not. Yeah, to be sure, legalism has a lot of problems, but one of the problems that the legalist has is that he is not rightly thankful. You may recall the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke chapter 18 verses 9 through 14.

The Pharisee expressed thankfulness, so what’s the problem? Well he did it the wrong way. He was blessed to be a Jew. He was blessed to have the law. He was blessed in many, many more ways. But his expressed thankfulness reveals a wicked heart. He said, I thank you that I am not like other men. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. Well, this sort of thankfulness is actually perverse. And it advances a mindset of independence and self-sufficiency and self-righteousness. It’s a weapon, all right, but it’s a weapon that attacks our holiness. And it does so with a vengeance. Our holiness ought not to be what we are attacking.

We ought to be attacking our sin. This sort of thankfulness inflates pride. It robs God of glory, and it is oh so easy to do.

Perhaps you’re here this morning clinging to vestiges of legalism in your own life, supposing that by your good performance you can actually impress God when the work of Christ is complete. The work of Christ, as you mentioned, on your behalf that you do not need to then work to impress the Lord. Perhaps you bought into false teaching that and have called things that God has called good bad. Perhaps you have been thankless. Perhaps you have taken for granted the countless blessings that you enjoy. Does your heart need the refreshing and the perspective alignment that comes with repentance and thankfulness, well then this is the time for you. Perhaps this does bring to your mind a particular sin or set of sins related to one of the things I’ve mentioned or perhaps other sins come to mind that require your confession and repentance. We’re gonna take a moment right now in silent confession and if you’d like to and you are able to do so I would encourage you to kneel at this time and after a

few moments, I will pray for us corporately. Let’s bow together. Father, there is a special kind of presumption reserved for those who think that the blessings that we enjoy are the fruit of our own efforts. And even as those gathered in this room, how easily we take for granted our occupations, our jobs, our families, our church, the roof over our heads and suppose that we enjoy these things because we’ve worked hard when our hard work is actually not that impressive to you unless of course it is spiritual which you energize anyway. How quickly we forget that being numbered among your people is not something that we can manufacture and the standard certainly isn’t the righteousness of another sinner.

Please forgive our contenting ourselves with being better than the next person where no better off in practice than the Pharisee who proudly contrasted his piety with the situation of the tax collector. Our culture calls good what you have called bad. We are willing to call women men, and we are willing to call men women so long as they identify that direction. We call fornication healthy so long as it’s monogamous. We rationalize our own self-destruction as long as we are not hurting someone else. Please forgive us. Forgive us for the presumption of redefining what you have created. us for our refusal to follow your instructions, to practice your laws, and to honor you as God.

As individuals, we default to thanklessness, to selfishness, to independence. And we need the orienting benefits of thanksgiving, and we need for you to give it to us, and we ask you to do so now. We pray this in Christ’s name. Amen. Please stand. Our reminder of forgiveness this morning comes from 1 Timothy 2, verses 5 and 6. Our reminder of forgiveness is just that. It’s a reminder of what’s already promised us because of the work of Jesus. I cannot absolve you of your sins. That’s not what this time is for. No man can do that. But what I can do is point you to Scripture and to the work of Christ and what He has done to help inform your worship and your thanksgiving.

read 1 Timothy 2 verses 5 through 6, for there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. Christ, our mediator, our one mediator, has affected our forgiveness as he alone can do. This is cause for us to worship and to sing. So let’s do that even now. Today’s scripture reading is 1st Timothy 4, one through five. First Timothy four, one through five. Now the Spirit expressly says that in the later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons. Through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

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 in prayer. Let’s pray. Father, we come to you today in this time of political craziness in our country. We pray for our leaders, especially those that are sons and daughters of yours that are in the government and have influence to be strong witnesses in this time, to hold people’s feet to the fire on how they should behave. The reason we pray for this is so we can lead quiet and tranquil lives and be able to proclaim the Gospel and train up the next generation to even make it better than ours.

We thank you for those people that are serving our government. We thank you that Jubal is back with us today. We thank Ben, who is up north in the Navy also, and that he is going to come down when he can to be with us. We thank you for those men’s service in our government. We pray also for the fathers over the families in our congregation and the future fathers, the young men, that you would grow them into the men that they need to be, to be the leaders of their future families and their current families. All of those things, the generations, help us to pass that on. We pray for the wives and mothers and young women that will be wives and mothers and and all those things, the same way, though, and the way that they can be discipled and the way that they can bring up those underneath them.

Each generation, each stepstone help them to minister to each other. And while we create that atmosphere, we do come to you with prayers that, for sickness in our congregation, we think of Carmen Nielsen as she is still recovering. She still has dizzy spells and things like that, but incrementally is getting better. We pray that she would be patient and do the things she needs to do to keep on getting better. And we thank you that seemingly the tumor has come out with very little complication that could have happened. So we thank you for that. We pray for Mary Kay Durden, as we all know Mary Kay can be stubborn and wanting to do a lot of things, help her to obey the doctor’s orders and to continue and be patient because it will be a long time for this infection to be cured and help her to recognize the little small steps of improvement that she’s getting and help her to be able to get up and exercise a little bit and help Ralph and her to be able to team up together to help her exercise in that way.

We think of Brooke Higgins, Shawn’s sister. We thank you that she is still with us as of this time, and that Sean and Morgan were able to be with her this week, and that she was able to communicate a little bit with them, and we thank you for that. And we pray that Sean, even though he’s already delivered it, that it was a good message for the people, and that it came straight from his heart, from back to his home church. And we just thank you for the way that you are superintending that with Gail and I taking care of the kids here and all the rest of it as they’re gone. So we thank you for the way that you do take care of these things in a supernatural way.

We thank you for our outreach of our school, for the Children’s Law Center, placing kids in goods homes, and the Children’s Home in India, where those women are being raised up to go out into their society. And we want to pray especially for those churches here in our Marysville community this morning. And we pray that they would preach the gospel accurately and be a good witness for you. And we thank you for all of those voices. But of course, most of all, we thank you for your son for without his sacrifice, we wouldn’t even be able to pray any request to you. So we thank you for him. And it’s in his name, Jesus Christ, that we pray.

Amen. Father, what rich promises we turn to in your word, and even as we get to sing them in the Psalms, would you please plant them deep into our hearts. Unlike the words of the wicked, which also fasten themselves, lodge in themselves deep within our hearts, as dainty morsels, we ask that your word would be planted there and would transform us. We’re grateful that you are intimately involved in the details of our lives, that you keep our hearts beating, that you have given us, your word. We’re thankful for your servant Paul, who inspired these words too. Well, who wrote these words to Timothy, and of course, under the Spirit’s inspiration.

We pray that you’d help us to find application in them this morning. May our thinking be clear, and the soil of our hearts be well tilled to hear your word now. We pray in Christ’s name, amen. This morning I want to advance a singular point, the terms of which I hope will make more sense as our time together goes on. The best defense against the doctrines of demons is sanctified thankfulness. I’ll say it again, if you wanna write this down, you’re welcome to do so. The best defense against doctrines of demons is sanctified thankfulness.

Now you might be wondering this morning, why on earth would we care about doctrines of demons? Obviously, if they exist, then there’s something that needs to be resisted in them. And hopefully that will become clearer as our time together goes on. What do we mean by sanctified thankfulness? A thankfulness that is informed by scripture. Every time we give God thanks, we’re not just saying thank you. You hear people say in almost glib fashion, Lord, thank you for this day. Well, yeah, if we’re just being glib over and over and over again, that that is bad. But there is something fundamentally right about giving God thanks for the day.

You do that enough, your thinking is going to be changed. Rather, when we give God thanks, we don’t just say thank you, we reorient our minds, we point to God as the supplier of what we need and what we enjoy. There is a slow, a gradual, a certain shaping effect to our constant thanksgiving. What if you resolved never to look at a sunset without giving God praise, maybe even out loud, for the beauty that’s on display there, for the reflection of His imagination and His delight in the beautiful that we see? What if at every meal that you ate, you were thoughtful, you were actually thoughtful, and you’re thanking God for the food?

Well, over time, this would shape you, and in very good ways. The faithful man, of course, will not give thanks for the things that he shouldn’t have. And frequent thanksgiving will keep us from that as well. Yeah, to be sure then, Thanksgiving is itself a weapon. And Thanksgiving can be used to combat a variety of sins in our hearts, from selfishness to pride to ingratitude. But it does intend to skyrocket to the top of our weapons checklist. As we’re assessing our arsenal, we don’t make sure Thanksgiving is in there. when we wish to combat false teaching in particular. Like if I were to have asked you when you walked in this morning, if you were trying to address heresy and you could have a weapon to do so, what would it be?

And you say God’s word, and that’s true. We definitely need that. And God’s word influences how we give thanks. We must receive the good gifts that God has given with thankfulness. In doing so, we’ll combat a host of sins. That was the case in the first century at Ephesus, and it’s the case in 2016 in Marysville. It always has been. There are lies all around us, forces compete for our affections, for our hearts, for our worship, and having our minds well informed by scripture, and then our consciences, of course, then our deliberate thankfulness can help us to fight against these forces. From the dawn of the church age at Pentecost, until Christ returns again and the church age comes to a close, there has been and there always will be the false among the true.

And I’m not just talking about unbelievers who show up at church, maybe even what we would classify as seekers, people who are not yet redeemed but are looking for some answer to the agony that’s in their hearts. I’m talking about those who have been planted there by Satan, the deliberate false among the true who have an intent to destroy the church, what Jude calls hidden reefs. And a potent weapon that the devil has consistently used in this war against the church has been false teaching to try to deceive the people of God. Now for my part, though I have not always sat in pews in Orthodox denominations, I I’ve actually been the recipient of pretty Orthodox teaching all of my life.

I haven’t had a tremendous poisonous heresy filling my mind where I’ve needed to. I mean, this has just been a mercy of God because of course you always want to have our filters on and want to have our guards up and be examining what we’re hearing against God’s word. But I have not been in that situation before. But in today’s shrinking world, there’s no shortage of false teaching out there. With the advent of the internet, the world wide web is a veritable cesspool of damnable lies. Everywhere you look, somebody is pandering what Paul calls a false gospel, another gospel, and they’re from the minds of men. Some of course, some of these teachers are disguised better than others as wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Others are more brazen. Their message is sweet. It’s palatable. toxic. It doesn’t taste like it. When it goes down, it poisons. It’s easy on the ears. It satisfies our greedy hearts. It inflates our egos. It drives us from God. This is demonic. This is of the devil. And in some cases, it’s literally of the devil. And what I mean is sometimes these speakers are actually being energized by demons. Other times, they’re just the sort of lies that come forth from the the devil’s forked tongue. And the church is not impervious to the presence of false teachers pushing insidious doctrines of demons. In the first century, the first generation of the church, this is written, scholars disagree, in the 50s or 60s AD.

So we’re talking about the first generation after Christ’s coming and then his ascension again. Paul wrote a letter to his son in the faith, Timothy. And Timothy, as you may recall, was an overseer. I’m using that word carefully. Obviously, we believe that bishop overseer, a lot of those words are interchangeable in Scripture with similar connotations. But Paul charges Timothy and Titus with appointing these other overseers. So his was a really important position of oversight in the Ephesian church. And this was a problem there, just as it is here. And this morning we’re going to look at the first paragraph of 1 Timothy 4.

And I invite you to turn there if you haven’t already. But before we get into the passage itself, I’d like to consider where this paragraph fits in the greater context of 1 Timothy and what is the faith from which these individuals are certain to depart. So a brief examination of the context. As I said before, Timothy was an overseer of the church in Ephesus and he was tasked with shepherding the Ephesian congregation, as well as training other Ephesian church leaders. And chapter 3 of 1 Timothy is one of the most important resources that we have regarding church leadership and the identifying of elders and deacons.

As even the subheadings in your copies of the Bible might suggest, we have the qualifications for elders in chapter 3, verses 1 through 7, And in chapter 3, verses 8 through 13, we have the qualifications for deacons. What’s often missed, I know I’ve missed it a bunch of times, is the paragraph that follows. In 1 Timothy, chapter 3, verses 14 through 16, Paul presents for Timothy a miniature Christological feast. It is a Christological Orthodoxy, a creed that proclaims much about Christ and the mystery of godliness. And it’s full of exactly the sort of doctrine that would make many an Ephesus either nervous or downright angry.

It did not reflect their conception of God or of the gods that was popular at the time. Read that paragraph with me. Chapter 3, verses 14 through 16. I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that if I delay, you You may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth. Great indeed we confess is the mystery of godliness. He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.” Now, just those last few lines would be enough to completely blow the mind of the typical Ephesian.

You have to understand that. The popular religion of the day and the philosophy that had infected the culture could not conceive of any God taking on flesh, let alone these other aspects of God in the flesh. This is one of the points that is so emphatically clear when we look at the Lord preparing the way for the gospel in what sorts of philosophies were prevalent and how close they got to the truth without being able to get there all the way. Augustine suggests that of all the philosophers, all the philosophical groups that we ought to be ready to engage, the disciples of Plato would be number one. They did a pretty good job because they got about as close as you could possibly get using your natural mind. But there’s no room in the mind of natural man for God becoming flesh, taking on corruptible flesh, and dying for His creation. There’s no conception of that. Dying for His worshippers in order to effect their salvation. And Paul calls the the church who is to hold up this truth, a pillar and a buttress of the truth.

If there’s anybody in the ancient world who knew what a pillar served, what purpose a pillar served, it would be the Ephesians. You may remember from chapter 19 of Acts that they proudly housed the temple of Artemis. There are over 100 pillars in that temple. It’s basically a bunch of pillars and a roof. It’s not standing anymore.

replica over there in modern Turkey, it’s in Asia Minor. But they knew what a pillar and buttress of the truth looked like, or at least a pillar and buttress. Paul could be alluding to that here. The truth is, of course, what the church is tasked with holding up, but Paul anticipates something entirely different. He anticipates that there will be by Satan the false planted among the true with an intent to destroy the church from within. And Satan had, in fact, planted false teachers at Ephesus, and he still does so elsewhere, even today. Paul, in his… This was almost prophetic. He warned the Ephesian elders back in Acts chapter 20, the chapter after Acts 19, if you do the math. And he said, they’re coming, and now it’s like they’re here. And then church historian Eusebius This helps us see later on that they were, in fact, their…

Our outline for this morning is rather simple. It’s a pretty straightforward passage. I want to talk about, in verse 1, the warning about false teaching. In verse 2, the purveyors of false teaching. The first half of verse 3, the nature of false teaching. And then the second half of verse 3, through the end of the paragraph, the guard against false teaching. So first examine with me verse 1 what I’ve entitled the warning about false teaching. 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. As I mentioned moments ago, Paul is revisiting here a concern that he expressed in Acts chapter 20 verses 29 through 30.

He says, 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.” So this isn’t some sort of accidental introduction of error that is ready to be corrected.

Think of, um, oh was it, was it, who was it that needed to be corrected about was it Apollo? I forget an axe. But it was an honest mistake. And so he was set straight and moved on. It was an indaminable heresy. The intention here is with an intention to draw away, if possible, even the elect, but to pull away the disciples of Christ. And what do we know about the later times? Well, in our text this morning, we see Paul addressing this concern to Timothy. Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times, some of the part from the faith. The Spirit expressly stating this could be because Paul was the recipient of prophecy from time to time. The Spirit could expressly be talking to Paul, but more likely he’s pointing to the wealth of passages from what was soon to be canonized scripture relating to this imminent defection from the faith on the part of these churchgoers. Jesus talked about it, that it would happen in the later times between His first coming and His second coming. And that’s what the later times refers to.

It refers to this age that we’re in now. And if it was imminent, His return was imminent then, it’s imminent. It’s even more so now. There’s nothing more that needs to happen. But if this defection, this apostasy, characterized the church in the first century, how much more so now? The church is bigger now and there is way more error now than there was then. That’s one of the things that we see when we look at those on whose shoulders we stand theologically, ecclesiologically. So people who wrote the creeds, for instance, when you look at the Nicene Creed and the apostolic creed, the Apostles’ Creed, there’s no mention of same-sex marriage. There’s no mention of the, well, goodness, I could go on and on.

But where’s the battle being fought? There, the church in its infancy had plenty of error, but the longer time has gone on, the craftier the enemy has gotten, and the more he has introduced error mixed with the truth. And Paul had seen, had read the teachings of Christ and knew that this was accurately prophesied. Apostasy to them was, as regular of an occurrence in the first century as it is right now. Some will depart from the faith. So some who enjoyed the safe harbor of church life had heard the Bible taught, and who had enjoyed the fellowship of believers will walk away from the faith. That has to be said that this is not language reserved for those who could possibly lose their salvation.

There actually isn’t such language in Scripture. Even when we look at Hebrews chapter 6, those sorts of thorny passages, were the passage in 1 John that those who went out from us were not really of us, for if they would have been of us, they would have remained, we see that it is not possible for one to be actually among God’s elect and then become un-elect. What we do see is that wherever possible, the enemy would love to, as much as he can, prevent people from coming to faith in Christ. The enemy cannot finally hurt the redeemed. He can afflict us just as He did Job. He cannot destroy us. But for those who are not gods, He has the green light.

And even those people who are not gods, when as long as they are maybe even in this congregation, they enjoy a special protection and a harbor, this is why church discipline is so effective. It’s because the person who is in ongoing unrepentant sin is not allowed to commune with this body. then he is put out for the sake of Satan to have full reign with him, and so that he can come back to the full. Well, this is all tragic to be sure that there would be plants, false among the true to deceive and to pull away those who are church-going and enjoying fellowship. It is work then of Christians individually and corporately to guard against this.

But how does this apostasy happen? Well, in brief, by these churchgoers believing lies, by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. That is, by putting into practice the instruction of lying spirits, these men who destroy themselves. Now it’s exceedingly rare for someone to leave the fellowship of a local church expressly to worship demons, although that does happen from time to time. But usually, spiritual destruction is far more subtle. It has long been the practice of the devil to mix truth with error, to twist the word of God into damnable heresy. That was Satan’s tactic in the garden.

Heth God really said? And it’s his practice with Benny Hen. It’s a very effective method. A naive churchgoer perhaps lets down his guard, does not compare what he hears from a pulpit with what he reads in God’s word. And the next thing you know, he’s devoting himself to the doctrines of demons. the case with those in our text. That’s why we invite you to open your Bible. And if you hear something that I say that doesn’t square with what Paul has said, then that’s a problem. Now many of the ancients recognized that the gods of men are actually demons. It’s remarkable how when you read ancient writings, how many of them just assumed this.

And I’m in complete agreement with them. like Jupiter, Baal, Osiris, and Ra are in many cases demons demanding worship that would destroy their worshipers. And that is one of the most compelling evidences of it. When you look at the sorts of worship that they require, it is to the destruction of their worshipers. And why is that? Because those demons hate the image of God in man. So So whatever they can do to destroy the image of God in man, they will require of their worshippers. Things like gross sexual practices, frenzy drunkenness, hallucinogenic drug usage, self-mutilation. You think of the prophets of Baal who cut themselves repeatedly, and even though they did, far from answering, Baal would have said, do it more, if he could have answered it at all.

Now don’t think I’m crazy. I don’t believe that every object of worship, every idol is itself a demon or occupied by a demon. Some of them are just nothing. Some of them are just figments of man’s imagination. You cut down a tree and you build a fire, and with the other half you fashion an idol and worship it. I mean, those things are nothing. Paul says that meat sacrificed to idols is not really a thing. But they are, at a minimum, inspired by—and the worship of these false deities, these gods, is inspired by—demons. It makes perfect sense, and it is also compelling when you look at the nature of the worship that they would require.

So while the destruction of the image of God in men’s physical bodies was high on the priority list for these false gods, these demons, the destruction of the soul is far better in their view. So destroying their bodies, that’s fantastic, but if we can get their soul, well, first of all, they are a soul and have a body. The body, it was just, we could destroy that image, but destroying the soul is better. So mixing the truth with damnable error is a very effective way of doing this. And so Paul will speak of the nature of some of these false teachings, which have, it’s worth noting, external practices related to them in just a moment. But But first, he instructs Timothy about the teachers themselves.

And in verse 2, we look at the purveyors of false teaching. Through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, the term insincerity is hypocrisis. So every other translation I’ve seen translates this hypocrisy. And of course, you may know that in ancient theatrics, a hypocrite, a hypocrisis referred to an actor who would act behind a mask. So if you’ve ever seen a little kid, a Halloween time wearing a mask, he might be smiling behind that mask but you cannot tell. So if it’s a big scary mask and he’s grinning from behind because he thinks he scared you, you have a duplicitous situation there. What is on the outside is different from what is on the inside.

And the insincerity of these liars, through their hypocrisy, they intentionally go about this. They deceive. A hypocrite offers an impression of a self that is, in fact, different from reality.

And these particular hypocrites act as though they love Christ and his flock. That is the mask that they put on. But they’re actually inspired by demons, or in some cases, they’re even possessed by them, wishing to destroy the flock. It’s worth noting here that I think it’s curious. And I don’t think it is just because Christ has come and died and introduced a new heavens and a new earth and that the enemy is not free to deceive the nations like he once was. Satan is loose. He is. But there’s no mistaking that the influence of the gospel has changed Western culture from the first century onward. And we enjoy a very privileged position having our culture has been flavored by the gospel. And one of the things that we see are the abuses inherent in that. Wherever there’s grace you can count on it. Grace will be abused. That’s why there are just as many demons running around now, influencing, occupying people as there were in the first century, but when you read the the Gospels in particular, they were able to identify that a whole lot faster than

we are. There was a man who was occupied by a demon and he used to, nobody could keep him shackled. There was a man had a son who had it was occupied by a demon and he would jump into the fire and so on and so forth. There was a man occupied by a demon walking down State Avenue waving his arms in the air and telling people to turn or burn a false teacher. That’s an example, but how would we know that? They were more sensitive to it than we are now, but part of the reason for that is because of our the grace that we have enjoyed has bred insensitivity and callousness of heart. So speaking of callousness, The consciences of these false teachers in first century Ephesus were seared as with a hot iron.

They are spiritually insensitive. One with a seared conscience can intentionally harm somebody without blushing. And of course, that is not only to the destruction of others, but that is to the destruction of himself as well, the one who is doing the injury. So these are teachers with an appearance of love for Christ, to appearance of good intentions, hence their ability to get their way into the church. But they’re actually, terrors among the wheat, false among the true. And Paul offers two examples. These are just examples. This is not exhausted by any stretch. Two examples of the sort of false teaching peddled by these savage wolves.

Look at the first part of verse three. This is our third point, the nature of false teaching. Who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created. The sorts of false teachings, these doctrines of demons that are being peddled here in the Ephesian congregation, or at least that Paul anticipates, relate to externals. There’s a set of rules that someone can obey on the outside even though their hearts are wicked. As John Calvin puts it in his commentary on this passage, they arise from that hypocrisy which, having forsaken true holiness, seeks something else for the purpose of concealment and disguise.

Now the ancient philosophies of the Platonists, the followers of Plato, the Gnostics had a foothold in the first century. The absolute disdain for the material and love for the spiritual was not easily cast off by the Ephesian Christians. So you have to keep that in mind. Their whole culture was influenced by these philosophies. Then they come to Christ. They learned that all these foods were clean. Even some of the Jewish baggage from the Old Testament. All these foods were clean. This way of thinking was pervasive and you can’t easily cast that off. So that’s why Christ is a stumbling block. God in the flesh is a stumbling block to the Gentiles.

It’s foolishness. So again, this school of thought had a disdain for the physical. So the earthly is bad. There were abuses of Gnosticism. Some said the physical is bad, so it doesn’t matter what we do. Or the physical is bad, so it only matters about the spiritual and we have a disdain for the physical. So some Gnostics, they would go on both ends of the spectrum, just over sexual practices and debauchery and all sorts of crazy things. It doesn’t really matter. It’s just stuff. What really matters is my heart. All the way, and then of course the reverse as well. And this was not easily cast off even when you introduce the gospel.

Even if it does, all makes sense. Instantly, wait a minute. That fits. flesh and actually fixes our problem. Yeah, that makes sense. And although these were… So there were external practices associated with eating certain foods. Of course, that’s external. That’s something I can measure. I can tell if I’m having these Cheetos or not, right? Cheetos are clean, by the way. And of course, there were other types of doctrines of demons, but Paul addresses these two examples. They relate to marriage and food. So now, why on earth would somebody prohibit Why would somebody forbid marriage? What’s he saying here? Well, he’s actually talking about the preaching of celibacy.

As Church historian Eusebius talks about three false teachers who preached abstinence from marriage in animal meats. This was several generations after 1 Timothy was written, but the seeds were being sown right here in Ephesus in the 1st century. And of course, even if that is well-intentioned, it’s still misguided. The Catholic Church is absolutely riddled with accounts of abuses by those who have committed vows of chastity, abuses of sexual prohibitions. But that’s not well, but this in our text is not well intentioned. Remember these false teachers are peddling doctrines of demons. They’re trying to destroy the church from within. Now it is wicked to call evil what God has called good.

It is wicked to call evil what God has given to his people as gift. And that includes sex. The sexual union of a husband and a wife is blessed, it is pleasurable, and children are the very good fruit of this union. Procreation is itself so important that God has designed us with strong physical impulses in that direction. Sex is a gift. He wants his people to enjoy it, but it must be received rightly or else it is sin. And Paul is not silent on this point, but first, let’s talk about food. What about the requirements of abstaining from certain foods? Well, this is more than simple Hebrew Christians who grew up abstaining from hot dogs and catfish.

This is teaching that keeping away from certain foods, yes, catfish are bottom dwellers, keeping away from certain foods actually makes you holy. And then conversely, eating certain other foods is actually evil. That is of the devil. So perhaps for your breakfast you prefer a bowl of M&Ms to a bowl of Cheerios, and instead of milk you fill the bowl with Mountain Dew. Well listen carefully. As long as you receive this with thanksgiving and a clear conscience, you can glorify God in the eating. We have to qualify that. In the eating. There is no biblical prohibition on these foods. There is nothing objectively sinful in the eating of them.

As long as it’s done with thanksgiving and an informed conscience. The same goes for animals that chew the cud or pork products. I’m glad that bacon is clean. All foods are clean. The New Testament is clear on this. But also to be clear, while it may be possible to honor God in the eating, I don’t think that somebody who routinely eats M&Ms and Mountain Dew for breakfast can glorify God in the living. That’s probably poor stewardship of his body. But today, many food fussers and clean eaters behave as though foods that God has called clean actually aren’t clean. That is wicked. If you want to eat clean, great. I recommend it.

I think it’s, yeah, you’re going to feel great and you’re going to last longer. Maybe. But it must be done with a heart of gratefulness for what God has given and not because eating those foods is inherently righteous. Important distinctions. And those who exercise more dietary liberality are free to do so. Though we are not free, however, to incite others to sin along the way. And so the false teachers that Paul saw on the horizon in Ephesus would argue that external obedience to what God has not said was essential to please him. And that is literally diabolical. We saw some Judaizers earlier in the New Testament who said that Christians need to adhere to the law of Moses, need to be circumcised, things like that.

That is wrong. We need to adhere to what God has said. Now having anticipated these heresies, Paul now takes just a moment to address how to guard against these doctrines of demons. So this big guard against false teaching in our fourth point, our last one, the second half of verse three through verse five. To be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 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. Remember again our main point for this morning, the best defense against doctrines of demons is sanctified thankfulness.

That’s the point I opened with. We must give thanks and our thanksgiving must be informed by the word of God. I’ve tried to make the case that thanksgiving is a weapon in this war on sin. It’s like kryptonite to those false teachers. With a grateful heart, God’s good gifts can be rightly enjoyed and the false teachers will wilt like Superman before that little green rock. And all of the advice that Paul could give, for all that he could give, he chooses this. Under the inspiration of the Spirit, he chooses to tell Timothy that these Ephesian Christians must receive God’s good gifts with thankfulness. According to Paul, the ones who are doing the receiving and thanking are believers.

This is an important qualification. Look again at the second half of verse 3. To be received with thanksgiving by whom? By those who believe and know the truth.” Paul is not concerned here with unbelievers, which makes sense since he’s writing to Timothy about the Ephesian church. But additionally, Paul is of the mind that only true believers can rightly give God praise and thanks. An unbeliever and a believer alike can enjoy a bowl of ice cream. An unbeliever can eat a bowl of ice cream and enjoy it because it’s yummy. That is a common grace. But those who believe and know the truth can eat their ice cream and enjoy it not only because it’s yummy, but because it is a gift.

And not only is it a gift, but they also know the giver of that gift and what’s more, they love him. The unbelievers then are not in a position to properly receive God’s good gifts because they cannot do so with thanksgiving properly. They maintain rather an adversarial relationship with the giver of those good gifts. doesn’t even allow for the possibility that an ungodly man can properly be grateful for bad things. So an adulterer ought not to receive somebody else’s wife with thanksgiving. And then suppose that because he’s grateful that makes it okay, of course not. And Paul emphasizes this point there in verse four. Everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. So he uses the term thanksgiving there two times in two verses, and it is the right weapon to wield in this war on ascetic legalism.

He finishes the paragraph then with a further confirmation of what must inform our thankful receiving of God’s good gifts, the word of God in prayer. We must inform our consciences in our receiving, or we cannot rightly give thanks. When we fill our minds with God’s word, and we are rightly taught from it, we are better position to recognize God’s good gifts. When we read and apply His word, we can discern the difference between feasting and gluttony. We can discern the proper sexual relations and sinful sexual relations. We can enjoy a forest without worshiping the trees. We can recognize that the good gifts that He’s given are for our enjoyment and they are intended to point us toward Him. And our prayers or how this is all appropriated.

So by prayer, we ask God to illumine His word and to help us to understand it. By prayer, we labor to wield properly the weapon of thanksgiving. For instance, we ought to pray to be more thankful. And we ought to then work to give thanks wherever it’s necessary. And it’s necessary everywhere. And I’m not just talking about giving God thanks directly, though He owes our thanks for everything, but instead really being thankful people. Thanking others for saving you a seat this morning, thanking others for giving you a bulletin, for holding the door, for driving you to church, for fixing a lunch, for cleaning up afterwards.

You do this enough and you can count on becoming a different person. By prayer, we rightly understand the Word as we ask the Spirit to illumine it for us. And of course, rightly understanding the Word then helps us to inform our thanksgiving as well as directing our opposition to false doctrine. Remember, that’s what we’re talking about here. Scripture will teach us what is righteous and what we ought not to be receiving in the first place, let alone giving thanks for. I wish to conclude this portion of our liturgy with a reminder that for all of his efforts, Satan cannot prevail against the church, the doctrines of demons notwithstanding.

He knows the truth and he hates the truth and he keeps fighting against it, and he will until he is finally crushed and cast in the lake of fire. We must be faithful in this, but the story is already written. Our good works have been prepared for us. Now it’s our duty to walk in them, and it’s our joy to do so.

Let me read you two verses from a popular hymn, see if you recognize it. The church shall never perish. Her dear Lord to defend, to guide, sustain, and cherish is with her to the end. Though there be those who hate her and false sons in her pale against both foe or traitor, she ever shall prevail. Though with a scornful wonder men see her sore oppressed by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed, yet saints their watch are keeping, their cry goes up, how long? And soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song. That’s from the Church as one foundation, and it’s good. Let’s pray together. Father, we are thankful for these promises.

We are thankful that although there’ll be those who hate the Church, she’ll be victorious in you in the end. We can be as certain of this as we are certain of your word and your character. Christ is personally invested in presenting to himself a pure spotless bride. As individuals, we are a part of that collective body, that bride of Christ, meaning Jesus is personally invested in our sanctification, our increased holiness. We pray that you would give us wisdom. Help us understand your word. Guard us from error. And please, Father, help us to be discerning and increase our thankfulness. May we intentionally combat error by receiving with gratefulness what you have given and what you have called good.

We ask by your grace as we continue to worship you that you would be honored among us. We pray this in Christ’s name. Amen. Please stand together. We’re going to invite forward our musicians once again who will lead us in a couple more songs. And this is our opportunity where we get to bring forth our offering collectively. It has liturgical significance, one bucket, one gift, one body, many parts. And we’ll bring that forward.

do, we’re going to continue to sing. If my math is correct, this morning is the 299th time that Trinity Evangel Church has celebrated communion since the beginning. If we were like many churches and had communion just once a month, it would be some time in the year 2034 or 18 years from now before we’d reach that many times breaking bread together. When it was first decided that we would have communion as a part of our weekly liturgy, there was some concern that it would lose its specialness to become just a religious filler in the church service. The passage that Jonathan taught from this morning warns that equating spirituality with saying no to good things is the doctrine of demons.

On the other hand is an equally false notion that overindulgence in of itself sanctifies activity. In Matthew 6, 7, for example, Jesus said, and when you are praying do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So how do we keep communion from becoming an exercise in vain repetition? In a word, thankfulness. Where thankfulness is expanding, so also are the occasions to express it. Go ahead and stand. I suspect that thanklessness often lies at the root of boredom with the familiar. Thanklessness turns our salvation into an event in the past, rather than a daily anticipation of a glory yet to be revealed that’s beyond our wildest imagination.

Thankfulness, on the other hand, remembers what it was like to be dead in our trespasses and sins before we were adopted by God into His family. Thankfulness remembers what it was like to be blind before we could see. Thankfulness remembers what it was like to be unable to comprehend the love of God before he turned our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. Thankfulness remembers that hell was our future before God redeemed us and set about preparing the place for us in heaven. Is a weekly time for reflection and thanksgiving too little or too much? It depends largely on how much you have to be thankful for. For those of you who are new to our church, we welcome you to join us at the communion table provided that you have put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

And then as the worship team leads us in the song, we’re going to come down the middle, grab the elements, go back down the sides, and then we’ll all partake of it together. And again, if you prefer juice as opposed to wine, remember that there’s one tray with a J on the front of it. So go ahead and please come as we sing. The person who wants God to adequately meet their needs brings a spoon-sized prayer request to him. The person who wants God to abundantly meet their need brings bucket-sized prayer requests to him. It’s possible to be amiss in what we ask of God, but it’s also possible to be amiss in not asking God at all.

You have not because you ask not. The Father is not stingy, nor is the Son. Jesus said you may ask anything in my name. That’s a pretty open invitation. This is not name it and claim it theology. This is how big and how good is your God theology. Do you have needs in your life? There’s good news for you. God is willing and able to meet those needs and that is something to be thankful for. Our benediction comes from Philippians 4 19 through 20 and 23 and my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus to our God and Father be glory forever and ever amen the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit