Good morning.
Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to 1 Timothy.
First Timothy chapter four is where we're going to be picking up this morning.
Let's begin with a word of prayer.
Our gracious Father in heaven, we come before your throne grateful for the day that you blessed us with, grateful for the opportunity that we have to praise your name, to glorify
you, to serve you, and to honor you in worship, in spirit, and in truth.
Lord, we pray that you will be with those who may be traveling and separated from us.
We pray that they uh have safe travels and they reach their destinations and return home safely.
We pray for the congregation and all those who may be dealing with illnesses or chronic illnesses.
We pray that you give them the strength and the comfort that they need to endure the hardships that they face.
Lord, we pray for those who
are struggling spiritually.
We know at times we all struggle with things and we pray that we might be an encouragement to them.
We pray also that they might look into your word for wisdom, for grace, for knowledge, how they ought to live and what they ought to do.
Pray that as they observe those things that they will faithfully do those things.
Lord, we also pray for the work that's being done this week at foundations at the Memphis School of Preaching.
We pray that things will go well, there will be safety uh for all those who are attending, but also that many will be encouraged and exhorted to greater faithfulness and love and
service in your kingdom.
Lord, we...
pray for this nation and pray for the world's nations.
We pray that individuals make choices that will lead towards peace, but also that the church throughout the world will be ready to preach the gospel.
to bring about the message of salvation to all those who are under heaven, that we might readily recognize that peace in this world is not going to come through political actions,
but rather through the gospel and the truth and obedience to it.
Lord, we pray that you be with us as we go throughout this period of study.
May we apply our hearts and our minds to this text, that we might know both how to live, how to worship, how to operate in the
family of God, which is the Church of the Living God.
All this we pray and ask in Jesus' amen.
uh
Paul, as he concludes chapter three of 1st Timothy, says, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed up in the world.
believed on in the world received up in glory.
As Paul rounds out his discussion of the eldership, the role of deacons, the function of Timothy in the church in his role of both teaching these things and admonishing the church
concerning these things and preparing them for these things,
He points out that everything God promised that He would do in the prophets, He's done.
when you build off of a foundation of saying, everything God said He would do has come to pass.
You immediately then observe in chapter four, verse one, that he's going to begin to discuss those who have departed from the faith and will, and that God promised that was
going to happen too.
All of this as both a reassurance, number one, that we are not to follow those who depart from the faith.
A reassurance, number two, that God was not unknowing that these things would happen.
And number three, as validated by the fact that God was right all this time, we know that we ought to stick with God and not those who are departing from God.
So he says in chapter four, verse one,
Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.
Paul, as he is addressing this situation, says that the Spirit expressly says, the term expressly here is probably not how we use the term express anymore.
We usually mean that to be fast, okay?
That's not what the word here means.
The word means explicit.
The Spirit was explicitly clear.
He was plain spoken on this matter.
He revealed that this would happen and he revealed the details, not vague references, but the exact details of what would occur in this departure from the faith.
He says that in latter times, now,
Sometimes people come to the term latter L-A-T-T-E-R, and they go, oh, that sounds like latter days, and oh, I think there's some passages that maybe talk about the end of the
world, therefore, any time you see the word latter you must be talking about the end of the world.
We shouldn't interpret scripture that way.
The fact that we hear a phrase or see a word,
that we associate with an idea does not mean the context is talking about that at all.
And we ought to interpret the word in view of the context of the discussion.
So let's see if maybe we can do that as we go through this text.
The Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of.
demons.
Now if we were to go back to chapter one of the same writing of the same letter and we were to pick up in verse 18 we would find this.
This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good
conscience which some, having rejected concerning the faith, have suffered shipwreck.
Of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.
Two individuals in the text already have been identified as those within the early church who were allowing their own faith to be shipwrecked and were teaching others and
blaspheming God in the process.
Now, would we describe that as a departure from the faith?
Absolutely.
Now, notice what else he says.
He says, heed to deceiving spirits, doctrines of demons, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.
Now, all of these are descriptive terms of what they have done, what they have allowed themselves to get caught up in.
He's then going to enumerate a number of things that they're actually teaching and what they're teaching that is proof that what they teach and what they uh proclaim does not
originate with God.
So notice a few of the examples here.
He says, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry.
commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
First example, what was the first one?
Forbidding to marry.
What context do we have in the life of Timothy as Paul's writing this to him?
Where is Timothy?
Ephesus, is Ephesus primarily a Gentile or Jewish church?
Gentile, it's primarily a Gentile city.
It's one of those cities where Paul had great success in preaching the gospel and converting Gentiles, so much so that he was affecting the idolatry manufacturing trade in
Ephesus.
So as a result of that, you have Paul sending Timothy, writing to Timothy while Timothy is in a Gentile church, and there's a problem.
Because there are those who are teaching that it is not right to marry.
Now,
If we were to just evaluate what we know about the situation in the churches of Galatia, the writing of Paul to the Ephesian brethren, to the Philippian brethren, to uh the uh
church at Colossi, to the church at Rome, what might we surmise is going on here as far as who was forbidding someone to marry whom?
All right, pay attention to the context.
What was the law of Moses concerning marriage between an Israelite and a non-Israelite?
It was forbidden.
Specifically, contextually in the Old Testament, the Israelites were forbidden to marry anyone from the nations which God had judged who were part of the land of Palestine and
that God said he was removing from the land.
Okay?
There was not, and let's be clear on this, there was not a specific provision saying you shall never marry someone from Ur of
That's not in the law of Moses.
There's never a provision that says you shall not marry someone from Babylon.
There's not a provision that says you shall not marry someone from Egypt.
But of the Hittites and Parasites and Hivites and Jebusites, all those who were in the land who were the descendants of the Canaanites, God said you don't marry them, you don't
intermarry with them because they will tear you and your heart away from God.
Rather, he said, you are to not only not marry them,
you are to eliminate them as judgment from me.
But if you do marry them, this is what they're gonna do.
They're going to turn your hearts away from me to idols and they're gonna cause you to bring judgment on, or they're gonna cause me to bring judgment on you, that is their
judgment because they're going to get you caught up in their sins.
even in the Old Testament, while there was a command to marry and to be careful to only marry those who are faithful to God, even from among their own nation, there's no
prohibition on marrying an Israelite, marrying someone from some far off distant country.
What are some examples?
of Israelites marrying non-Israelites, starting with Moses and going forward.
All right, hey, having just about, ah I actually, let me clarify.
What are some positive examples?
All right, Ruth and Boaz.
Ruth is what?
A Moabitess.
Is that an Israelite?
No, it's a descendant of Lot, but not an Israelite.
What's another one?
You remember the occasion where Aaron and Miriam got upset with Moses after they were off away from Sinai and believed that Moses was no longer qualified to lead the people.
And what was the reason?
He has married someone who was not an Israelite.
What about another, so here's the, by the way, here's the law giver.
And if the law said you must only marry Israelites, he violated the law.
Yet who came to his defense in opposition to their accusations against him?
God did.
The Lord did.
He said this is my servant.
You stay out of it.
Now.
If Moses married a non-Israelite and Moses was the one who gave the law and God didn't condemn Moses for doing so and if you find a descendant of or an ancestor of Jesus in the
form of Ruth celebrated in the book of Ruth as one who is not an Israelite and yet marries Boaz who is an Israelite, no condemnation anywhere in the text.
then you see, number one, that the Jewish practice concerning the law was not actually the law.
What they taught about the law, that all Gentiles were unclean, that all Gentiles were those who you needed to abstain from any contact with, that if you went into the
marketplace and
rubbed an elbow against a Gentile, you better ceremonially cleanse yourself before you eat a meal, were not things taught by the law.
As a matter of fact, it was that very discussion in Matthew chapter 15 that Jesus accuses the Pharisees of teaching doctrines of men.
their rules and ordinances concerning Gentiles.
Not concerning the people that God said specifically, you don't intermarry with them, but Gentiles at large.
So here you have the church at Ephesus.
in the midst of a period of time where we know there are false teachers going out from the churches in Jerusalem and Judea teaching that you must keep the law of Moses to be saved.
And at the same time, they're going out and they're preaching, you're not allowed to marry a Gentile if you're an Israelite.
You're not allowed to marry from someone from that nation.
Ignore the fact that they're a Christian.
You got a Jewish young man in the church.
You've got a gentile young lady in the church and you've got these Jewish teachers saying, no, no, you two can't get married.
The law forbids it.
Paul says nonsense.
Law doesn't forbid it.
That's a doctrine of demons.
That's doctrine that didn't originate with God.
Further, he points out, by the way, this helps us with the context, what is the second matter that he discusses?
Not just forbidding to marry, but forbidding to what?
Eat certain foods.
As he points out, he says, to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth, for every creature of God is good
and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving.
But what did the law say about, the Old Testament law say about certain foods?
They were forbidden.
Could you eat certain kinds of animals that lived in the water, depending on whether they had fins or scales?
There's a law concerning that.
Could you eat an animal that had a cloven hoof?
There's a law concerning that.
Could you eat an animal who dug around in the ground for its food?
There's a law concerning that.
Were any of those laws given to the Gentiles?
Not one of them.
Were any of those laws carried over into the law of Jesus Christ in the New Testament?
No.
Turn to Romans chapter 7.
By the way, this is part of the same point, and you see here the strength of this argument in the beginning or the end of Booklet 1 of Back to the Bible when we get here into the
discussion.
of we are under which law.
Because if we're still under the Old Testament law, we're still responsible to follow all of the dietary restrictions of the Old Testament law.
But Paul is going to emphasize to the church at Rome, to the church at Colossae, to the church in Galatia, to the church in Ephesus, through Timothy, to the churches, you're not
under that law.
and anyone who teaches that you are is not teaching the word of God.
Romans chapter 7 verse 1, or, you not know, brethren, for I speak to those who know the law, that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives.
Paul writes to the church at Rome where there are both Jews and Gentiles present in the church, and he says, I'm writing to you all who know, have been raised up in, and are
familiar with the law.
And you understand this, that the law of Moses is only binding on you as long as you're what?
Hmm?
as long as you're alive.
Once you're dead, the law doesn't have any more power over you.
You're beyond its jurisdiction!
Was the law miming over you before you were born?
No, you weren't under the law.
You weren't under its jurisdiction.
You weren't alive.
Had no power over you.
You weren't here.
When did it get power over you?
When you were born.
When did it lose power over you?
When you died.
Now notice what Paul says.
Verse four.
I'm going to skip over the analogy of marriage because I want us to see the argument and the conclusion.
Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ.
When you became dead in your old man and alive in Christ, Paul says you were never under the law anymore.
You're not under the law of Moses anymore.
Furthermore, what happens if it's not you that dies, but the law that's put to death?
If the law is put to death, is it still binding over you?
No, he's not fighting over anyone at that point because the law died.
It was put to an end.
So he says, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ that you may be married to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we should
bear fruit to God.
Verse 5, for when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.
But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
Paul makes it clear the law is no longer binding over them.
All right, turn to chapter 14.
The reason why we're going through this is I want us to understand that this discussion in chapter four is not some far-off prophecy.
for 600 years in the future from Paul's time about the Catholic Church.
Some people think it is.
They ignore the context they were living in.
They ignore the fact that the problem was already going on.
And it was a problem Timothy, as a teacher, was having to deal with right then.
And that the departures from the truth that the Roman Catholic Church participated in, 600 years later,
were the same departures from the truth that the Jews participated in in the first century.
And they were just as wrong then as they were in the first century.
Notice chapter 14 of Romans.
Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things.
For one believes that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables.
Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has received him." Who are you to judge another's servant?
To his own master he stands or falls.
Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.
One person esteems one day above another, another esteems every day alike.
Let each be fully convinced in his own mind.
He who observes the day, observe it to the Lord.
And he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it.
He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks, and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat and gives God
Thanks." Now, remember what Paul wrote?
Hold on.
Verse in the chapter 4.
Verse 4.
For every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it is received with Thanksgiving.
Does it sound like the same discussion he's having in Romans?
Yes, it's because it is.
Verse 5.
For it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer.
Paul says, if there's an animal living on the top side of God's green earth or in the earth that you want to consume, you're free to do so.
You ought to be thankful to God for it.
You ought to pray over it and bless it because it's God's provision.
And if a teacher comes along and tells you that you are violating the Word of God because you ate a creature that God put on this planet, Paul says, he is not teaching you the
doctrine of Christ.
Yes.
Why would they like that specifically for the Israelites?
Why would they say...
Okay.
absolutely.
Even Peter, you see that uh contrast there in Joppa as he's seeing that vision on the roof.
says, have never allowed these things to enter my mouth.
OK?
So the question is why?
First, we're not explicitly told.
Second, the primary reason that God gives is the term holiness.
Now, there's something important to understand about the term holiness.
That the original idea of the term holiness is to separate.
When something was holy, it was no longer common.
It was set apart for a specific use.
And by the laws which God gave in the Old Testament, he set a contrast between Israel and every other nation on the top side of God's green earth.
The laws that were given to Israel weren't given to the Edomites.
Did that mean that an Edomite couldn't be faithful before God and holy before God?
No, it didn't mean that at all.
God was doing something in Israel that was unique about Israel's role in God's plan to bring about the Messiah.
And as a result of Israel's role and function, the descendants not just of Abraham, because you could be a descendant of Abraham and not be an Israelite, the descendants not
just of Isaac, because you could be a descendant of Isaac and not be an Israelite, but specifically the descendants of Jacob, God was doing something specific with them that was
part of His plan to bring about the Messiah.
And part of that involved a number of things.
We quite often focus on the food one and ignore maybe some of the others.
Like, if you were an Israelite and you were a descendant of the tribe of Judah, you might end up losing access to your land because of a famine.
But if you were an Israelite or the tribe of Judah come the year of Jubilee, you could come get your land back.
What other nation under heaven did God give that command to?
You see, we quite often think about the restrictive commands and don't think about the benevolent commands.
The ones that say you have an inheritance forever in this land, in this nation up until the time where I end that covenant.
you have a descendant of Aaron.
Did the descendant of Aaron have a different set of restrictions than even the rest of the nation?
Because they were what?
The priestly tribe.
Serving as priests, they had certain things they could and could not do.
They had certain clothes they had to wear in order to serve in their function.
What other tribe, what other family was that command given to?
Not a one.
Did God do that because there's something morally holy about a white garment with an ephod on it?
Or did God enumerate lesson after lesson after lesson derived from the picture that God created of what a holy priest was?
You see, all of these things were to teach the lessons about God.
And Paul will go forward from that discussion in the book of Corinthians to point out that here were the Jews who had all of this to tell them who God was, to tell them about their
relationship with God.
They had commands and instructions that the Gentiles never had the benefit of to understand who God was.
And yet here you had Gentiles being righteous and Jews forsaking God.
You see, the instructions, the restrictions, and the blessings of the Old Testament were a way to set apart Israel.
And let me give you the picture Jesus gives for what Israel was supposed to be.
Turn to Matthew chapter five.
Quite often, we get to Matthew chapter 5 and we just read through it and go, here's the picture of the Christian.
That's not Matthew chapter 5.
Matthew chapter 5, Matthew chapter 6, and Matthew chapter 7 are the pictures of what Israel was supposed to be.
Verse 1 of chapter 5 of Matthew, seeing the multitudes, went up on a mountain and when he was seated his disciples came to him, then he opened his mouth and taught them, saying,
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus said, among this nation, among those in Israel, those who will inherit the kingdom of heaven, because he was preaching the kingdom of heaven is at hand, are the ones who are
poor in spirit, the ones who will humble themselves before God.
He says, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek.
for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Which of those things wasn't already taught in the Old Testament?
None of them.
They were all taught in the Old Testament.
Jesus is enumerating these things to the Israelites, to His disciples, who were going to preach to the Israelites about being prepared for the kingdom and being the people that
God would have them to be.
But notice what He says.
Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.
rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Who is the shining example that Jesus lays
before the disciples as to what they are to be?
the Old Testament prophets sent to Israel.
Then he says, you are the salt of the earth.
And if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?
It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
You are the light of the world, a city that is set on a hill, cannot be hidden.
Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven." What was the role of Israel to the Gentile world?
They were to be the light of God.
They were to be the shining example to the pagan world of who God was.
they were to be a city set on a hill.
Anybody know anything about the topography of Jerusalem?
It sets us on a series of hills.
And what did God say concerning Jerusalem?
I'm going to make this my city and I'm going to put my name there and all nations shall flow into it.
You go down to verse 17, right after he's just said, blessed are you, blessed are you, blessed are you, blessed are you, blessed are you, you're to be the light of the world,
you're to be a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden.
He then immediately goes, do not think I came to destroy the law or the prophets.
I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
And he will begin in verse 17, going all the way through the end of chapter six.
correcting their understanding of the law.
Let's go to the end of chapter 6.
Notice.
Verse 30, now if God so closed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Therefore do not worry saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear?
For after all these things,
the Gentiles seek.
If he's starting in verse 17 talking about the law and fulfilling it and he's all the way over here at the end of chapter 6 and he's talking about the Israelites in contrast to the
Gentiles.
What should we understand?
We should understand his discussion was this is what Israel was supposed to be.
And yet you come down to verse 21 and we read, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my father who is in
heaven.
The one who hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to one who builds his house upon a rock.
The winds come and the floods come, beat upon that house, it will stand for it's founded upon the rock.
And the one who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them, oh
I will liken him to one who builds his house upon the sand.
And when the winds come and the floods come, that house will fall and great will be the fall of it.
Paul, sorry, Jesus is speaking to the Jews, to the Israelites, about their preparation as Israelites, as those who are to be the light of the world and a city set on a hill and the
salt of the earth.
And all the laws and all the ordinances were not there so they could be eternally applicable.
They were there to create uniqueness, to create flavor as salt, to create light in the world.
and instead they had turned them into a series of ordinances and a series of laws to control people.
to get what they wanted, to enrich themselves, or to keep from doing God's commandments.
So Paul says.
Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith.
Giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.
You go read Paul's descriptions over in Galatians about the Judaizing teachers.
These are his words.
Forbidding to marry, commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
For every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer." If you
Now here's how I know he's talking about current events in Timothy's ministry.
If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ.
Was it needful for Timothy to instruct the brethren about false doctrines that were going to come 550 years later?
No.
but the doctrines that came 550 years later weren't all that different from the doctrines being taught right then by the Judaizing teachers.
Paul's telling Timothy, you teach the truth.
You hold fast to the word of God.
You allow your members to participate in the things that God allows.
You don't restrict them from the things that God allows.
Well, at same time, he's gonna teach Rome and he's gonna teach all these other congregations.
You don't do damage to someone who's weak in the faith, who's unknowledgeable about what God allows.
You don't do damage with your liberty and cause Christ to suffer loss through your liberty.
You belong suffering with them as they grow.
Okay, thank you for your attention.