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1 Timothy 4:1-6 - Apostates and Marriage and Food · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
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podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
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you to know Christ, grow in his word, and show his love to
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others. Let's dive right in.
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Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. Today we are in First Timothy
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chapter 4, verses one through 6, First Timothy chapter 4 and
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verses one through 6. This is the apostle Paul.
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He's writing to his son in the faith, Timothy, who is pastoring
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there in the church at Ephesus that Paul himself had started.
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He'd spent three years there, and he had left behind Timothy
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at the church so that Timothy could help with some of the
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false teachers and false doctrine that was going on at
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the church. And so we learned today some of
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the specifics of what was going on.
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So there's been a lot of generic talk in the verses preceding
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this. In the three chapters so far,
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what we have heard is there's been like fables, genealogies,
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speculations, like those were things that were being taught in
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the church that Timothy was called to reject that.
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And instead instead he was called to preach the gospel that
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had saved and transformed Paul. That Timothy had learned growing
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up, that some people had tossed it away, but the gospel was the
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thing that Timothy was supposed to focus on.
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And so we're going to read through these verses today and
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see some more things that if someone is teaching this, you
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should ignore them. And I'll, I'll tell you guys
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right on the outset, even as I read through this list, some
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specific teachings came to mind that I went, Oh yeah, that
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sounds a lot. This sounds a lot like that.
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And so if those come to mind, know that I am not trying to
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pick on any particular group, but we always need to come back
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to the word of God to say it doesn't matter what a specific
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person or what a specific denomination teaches.
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We need to be focused on what does the Bible say and what is
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the gospel that Jesus died for our sins, or as Paul phrased it
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in chapter 1, Christ. Christ Jesus came to save
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sinners. And he says, and I'm the chief
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of them. And so that is the message that
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we hold onto and that we pursue. That's the main message of the
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Church, so let's read together verses one through 6.
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Now the Spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will
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depart from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits
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and the teachings of demons through the hypocrisy of liars
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whose consciences are seared. They forbid marriage and demand
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abstinence from foods that God created to be received with
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gratitude by those who believe and know the truth.
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For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be
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rejected if it is received with Thanksgiving, since it is
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sanctified by the Word of God and by prayer.
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If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you
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will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished by the words of
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faith and the good teaching that you have followed.
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All right, let's dive first into verse #1 I'm actually right now
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preaching through John 14 through 16, which talks a lot
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about the Holy Spirit. And so even as I'm reading these
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verses, I'm remembering what literally I was writing in my
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sermon today about the Holy Spirit guiding the disciples
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into all truth. And Jesus told them the Spirit
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will tell you things to come. That even as you think about the
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life of John and that he was the one that wrote Revelation.
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And so certainly as he's reflecting back on his time with
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Jesus that he goes, yeah, Jesus told me that the Spirit would
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tell us things to come. And now the Spirit has done it.
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And here the Spirit that lived in John and in the rest of the
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apostles also lived in Paul and in Timothy.
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And so Paul tells Timothy something that he needed to
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know, that the Spirit explicitly says this isn't guesswork.
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This is directly from the mouth of the Holy Spirit.
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He says that in latter times, some will depart from the faith.
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All right. This first part is that not
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every person that starts off in, in the church, in Christianity,
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in being a Jesus follower, not every person that starts the
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journey will end the journey. Some will leave.
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And that's something that's really important for us to take
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note of because number one, we can pray like God, would you?
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Would you keep me safe within your truth?
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Like would you keep me walking in your way?
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That we would have a desire to follow Jesus, not just for a
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year or a couple decades, but for all of our life until he
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calls us home. May we be faithful to follow
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Jesus and not abandon Him. But Paul says some will depart
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from the faith, and he gives some of the reasons why.
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He says they will depart from the faith, paying attention to
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deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons through the
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hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared.
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OK, there is satanic opposition, there is demonic opposition to
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the work and word of Jesus. And so those that will leave the
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faith, they are not just, if you will, they're not just leaving a
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church. They are paying attention to
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lying demons who in communicating with a person's
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inner soul will say you don't really need the church or the
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church is filled with imperfect people and you can only ever
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experience pain here and so you need to leave lying demons that
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would say there is greater love or purpose to be found not
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within following Jesus, but in following your own way or in
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following this other false God. It is incredibly easier to see
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nowadays because of like social media and different things like
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that, that people often turn their backs on God and they'll
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give 1000 different reasons for why they turn their back on God.
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But even as a pastor, what I've seen again and again is it
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almost always results in immorality, greed, or in a new
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found devotion to some form of alternate religion.
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Like whether that is atheism, whether it's, you know, going
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wholesale into some cult or other world religion that most
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of the time someone then becomes militantly against Jesus, that
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it's not simply a well, I, you know, used to believe that.
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I still think it might be true, but I'm just kind of doing my
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own thing now. Very rarely have I ever seen
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that to be the case. When someone turns their back on
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Jesus here, they depart from the faith demons whose main ways of
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interacting with mankind is to provoke them towards immorality,
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sexual immorality, greed, a love and pursuit, and all consuming
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desire for money and power, whether that's political power.
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Sometimes in other cases it can be through domination, sometimes
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verbal domination. Some of the heaviest verbal
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abuse that I've ever experienced has been from those who once
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purported themselves to be Christians, turn their back on
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Jesus, and now are just vehement about their despising of
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Christianity and Jesus in the word of God.
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So here this is, this is a heavy thought.
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Like I, I, I don't ever want it to come across as though, as I'm
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saying this, it's like, Oh yeah, you know, this just happens.
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No, this breaks my heart. And I've got people within my
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kind of extended family that this is their exact story.
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And as I look at their lives each and every week or each and
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every month of my life, it becomes very apparent.
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Yeah, Satan and his demons, they have lied to that person.
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They have lied to that family member of mine and they are now
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walking in a path that leads to the destruction of their own
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soul and this is not what God has for them.
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So here these spirits are deceitful.
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It is lying and the teachings of demons through the hypocrisy of
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liars whose consciences are seared.
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Very rarely will you find someone that has once been
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walking with Jesus and then walked away from him entirely
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that did it all by themselves. Very often there was someone
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either in their life, there's someone that they found, you
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know, videos or teachings online that they began to follow this
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person into the bad path, or they found their rationale for
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why they wanted to leave from an individual.
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And here Paul describes these types of people as hypocritical
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liars with seared consciences. The word hypocrite, it carries a
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specific connotation nowadays that it carried a slightly
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different connotation in Bible times.
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Nowadays when we see the word hypocrite, we think someone that
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is intentionally trying to bamboozle someone else.
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That's not what the word hypocrite meant 2000 years ago.
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It was if you will, it was the the word actor that it is a
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person that is playing a part. It's not meant to be necessarily
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nefarious, but it is a person who is a bit player.
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And so within this context, this is someone who, as he says,
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hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared, that
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there are people who are feeding you or feeding your loved ones
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lies about who God is, about what his character is, about
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what the word of God has to say. And they do not often, they do
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not know that they are playing a part, that the demons who hate
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their souls want them to play. And because they have gone
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against God's will and word so often, their consciences that
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should be telling them, hey, that's wrong, that that's not in
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line with what you were made for.
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This is not truth because they have silenced that voice inside
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of them so often their conscience is no longer even
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tell them that what they are proclaiming to others is false
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and will lead to destruction. This is a abysmal sight and this
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is not something that we should ever gloat in.
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This is not something that we should ever just have a hard
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heartedness to say. Oh yeah, well, that person,
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they're just too far gone. No, this is a heartbreaking turn
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of events because we don't want to be on team Demons.
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The the Demons and Devils, these evil spirits, they want people
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to be in this spot. They want people to abandon
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Jesus. They want people to, if you
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will, spread a false gospel to turn to turn others away from
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God. Because the demons know what
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humans often suppress. The demons know that the end
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result is death forever and ever.
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The end result is hell. And so we as the children of God
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should not be like, OK, well, you know, there's various
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different atheistic and agnostic individuals in the culture
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today, guys like Richard Dawkins or Alex.
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I can't remember what his last name is, but it starts with AK.
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Several others that I've seen online that just their entire
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life purpose is to dissuade people from believing in the
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Word of God and in Jesus that the word of God proclaims and
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shows to us. And for those individuals, we
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should never have a Glee about their downfall.
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We should never be indifferent to the state of their souls.
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We ought to go, man, those demons want these individuals
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and all those that they teach to end up in hell with them.
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They, we, we should have a mindset.
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We want to see these people transformed like Paul, the chief
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of sinners, was transformed into a missionary and an apostle.
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That should be our desire. So pray for those who right now
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have are not walking with Jesus, do not profess him as their
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Savior. Pray that God would open their
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eyes so that they would be able to see the beauty of Christ and
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His truth and His way, and that they would pursue Him and not
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their own ends. Verse #3 then gives.
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Here's some of the teaching that these false teachers will have
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in latter times. It says they forbid marriage and
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demand abstinence from foods that God created to be received
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with gratitude by those who believe and know the truth.
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False teachers will say that what God has made for us is
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actually bad. That's a little bit of a
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simplification there, but this is something that we see over
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and over again throughout church history.
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We frankly even see it in some denominations today that purport
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to be Christian and yet follow what is what we're told in the
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Word of God are doctrines, teachings of demons.
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So marriage is good. Our our culture very often does
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not view marriage as good. Or at the very least they would
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say heterosexual marriage is not good.
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And there will always be power imbalances between men and
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women, that there cannot be mutual love and care and respect
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within a home, that men will always take advantage of women.
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And so it's always going to be to a woman's disadvantage to be
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married. Has that been true in the past?
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Has that been true in many marriages today?
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Yes. However, that is not God's
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design for marriage. God's design for marriage is a
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husband sacrificing himself for his wife, caring for her needs,
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giving her love like supporting her in every way, and a wife
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loving her husband and caring for him in submission and and
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adopting his like direction and mission for the home just as the
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church does with Jesus. Like that's God's mission for
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marriage. And so God views marriage as
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good. God put together the first
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marriage with Adam and Eve and Jesus like he has given marriage
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to us as a picture of his relationship with the church
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which is his bride. So those that listen to demons
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will hate marriage. They will want to destroy
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marriages and break them apart Over church history.
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Sometimes this is looked like, well, the flesh and everything
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about the flesh and its desires is bad.
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So therefore like you should do a whole ton of fasting because
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like food and and drink is bad and so you should only have what
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you need of it in order to survive.
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Or they would say, you know, fleshly desires, if you will,
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I'll say it this way, the desire for human intimacy with your
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spouse. Well, that that can be a bad
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thing. And so that's a desire of the
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flesh. And so marriage is bad because
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it, if you will, it gives you an opportunity for this marital
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intimacy. And so they would say this is
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something that you should reject.
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And we we forbid it. That is a here a teaching of
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demons. Marriage is good.
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If you are not currently married, I want to encourage you
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like pursue marriage. Find a good godly man or woman,
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the opposite of whatever gender you are.
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That's very important. So find a good godly potential
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spouse, choose I'm not going to, you know, date them for 10 years
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and then maybe I'll decide to get engaged and then we'll be
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engaged for five years and then maybe I'll marry them.
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No, no, like pursue marriage. This is God made Adam and day
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one of Adam being created, he made Eve and brought him to him.
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Now, I'm not saying, you know, do the, I know they have like 90
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Day Fiance or married at first sight or something like that.
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There's a bunch of shows like that nowadays.
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That's not what I'm advocating for.
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But don't put it off like years and years or don't put a decade
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between you beginning to date or court or whatever you want to
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call it a a potential spouse. Like when you know this person
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genuinely loves Jesus from the heart and wants to follow him
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with their life, like lock that thing down.
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The the greatest, the happiest, one of the most wonderful things
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that I've ever done in my life has been to marry Samantha Buck.
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And we, we got married a little under three years from when we
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first met. So we met in March of 2016.
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And then we got married, OK, actually, so just over three
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years and we got married in May of 2019.
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And that was the best decision that I have ever made outside of
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my salvation in my life. I, I love my kids, I love my
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church, all that. Those do not compare.
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Those choices do not compare to the choice of my spouse and I
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want to affirm Contra the the words of our culture, marriage
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is good. It is a wonderful thing that
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ought to bring joy and peace and strengthening to your life.
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If your marriage doesn't currently look like that, I want
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to encourage you. It is absolutely possible.
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Talk to a Well, I'll say first talk to your pastors.
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They are there to be able to help you to live out God's will
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together. They are for you.
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They are for your marriage. They want your marriage to go in
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a good direction. They don't want your marriage to
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be destroyed like Satan wants your marriage to be destroyed.
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So see your pastors for some of you, maybe you might have some
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issues that are a little bit past, maybe even what your
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pastor might be able to do all by himself.
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And so I encourage you if you have talked to your pastors and
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you're like, we are still really in some need right now, talk to
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a marriage counselor or therapist.
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Like God has placed so many people, especially here in the
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US, so many people that will be able to help you.
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Marriage is a wonderful gift from God and it is for like your
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holiness, it is for your joy and fulfillment of God's mission
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within your life. So love and treasure marriage.
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I'll, I'll say this as well. This might get me in a little
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trouble. I don't really care for the
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denominations that would say are spiritual leaders cannot marry
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like they are forbidden from marrying.
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That is not a biblical position to take.
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Now, I I recognize that they would say, OK, well, if you look
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over here at at First Corinthians 7, we're going to
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ignore like the historical context in which Paul is
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talking. We're going to ignore the fact
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that Paul explicitly says, hey, I'm saying this as a person that
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is currently single and able to dedicate my entire life to the
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Lord, he says. But I am saying this, not the
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Lord. I I have seen people take verses
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from First Corinthians 7 out of context to then say, and This is
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why none of our regular declares of God's word can be married.
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It's prohibited to them. I think that would fall solidly
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under opposition to the Word of God and what it says here.
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That is in fact a doctrine of demons to teach that.
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So if you don't like that, it's too bad got to continue.
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They forbid marriage and they demand abstinence from foods
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that God created to be received with gratitude by those who
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believe and know the truth. The way that we see the show up
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most often in the New Testament is that God declared the Old
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Testament law fulfilled in Christ, that New Testament
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believers no longer had to follow what was a mandatory
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under the old covenant. Now we have been given the new
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covenant and sometimes you would have those that had lived had
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operated under the old covenant. That said, we are going to
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continue with the dietary restrictions from the old
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covenant and we're going to tell you guys that you can't, we
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cannot eat these foods while we are in the new covenant.
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And Paul says no, everything what he says in verse 4,
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everything created by God is good.
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So as God has created it, we are not to reject any of it if it's
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received with Thanksgiving that we thank the Lord for it.
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We recognize that whatever we put into our bodies, when we do
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it as an act of worship to the Lord, what we're in verse 5,
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it's sanctified by the word of God and prayer that God's
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express revelation is you can enjoy that ham sandwich or that
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BLT or you can enjoy a cheeseburger to the glory of God
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as you thank the Lord for it and you thank him for his provision
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and you recognize even with the Holy Spirit within you.
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One of my favorite things from the book of Leviticus was that
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the fellowship offering that you give, like you sacrifice some
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stuff to the Lord and you have part of the food as well, and
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you're supposed to eat it within three days.
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And this is a fellowship meal between you and God.
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It's such a cool thought. And with the Holy Spirit living
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inside of me, every meal that I eat now is a fellowship meal
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that God is with me. And I just love that thought.
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So as we thank the Lord for the food that we have, we do not
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have to be limited in what we eat to only what was allowed in
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the old covenant. These are one of these those
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passages here in First Timothy 4.
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This is one of those passages that explicitly declared to us
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the Old covenant is done, the new covenant has come.
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We have a new way of relating with God that is based on like
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truth and our relationship with Jesus, if you will, the spirit
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of the law, not the letter of the law that we had in the Old
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Testament. We can certainly continue to
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learn things from the Old Testament and it shows us what
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Jesus did for us, and we can grab the principles of what we
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learn in the Old Testament so that we operate in the spirit of
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what God wants here in the New Testament.
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But those that would forbid food, I think even again, I
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might get in more trouble during the Lent season where people are
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prohibited from eating meat during some specific times.
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And it is a measure of like their faithfulness or commitment
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to God that is not outlined in Scripture.
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And here nothing created by God is to be rejected.
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Every food that God has created is to be received with gratitude
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by those who believe and know the truth.
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It is good and nothing is to be rejected if it's received with
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Thanksgiving since it's sanctified by the word of God in
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prayer. If you voluntarily if you want
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to give up meat because it's particularly like filling and
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all that and you want to be able to have, if you will, some
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hunger pains that reminds you of like your need for prayer of the
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reminder man God, I am always, if you will like I'm I'm one day
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away. I'm one breath away from no
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longer living, but God, thank you that you sustain me each and
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every moment like that's a great thing.
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But whether or not you eat meat on weekdays or on Fridays or
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whatever like that is not an indication of your dedication to
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God or your obedience of His word here.
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From this passage, I would say if someone equates your eating
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of a particular food as as like being bad, that you shouldn't do
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it because of your relationship with God.
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That is a doctrine of demon that is focusing on things that God
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has called good and then now calling them bad.
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Don't listen to that. So what is the take away that we
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have from these verses? It is this God has made our
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world, not just the spiritual, He has also made the physical
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world. And our response to that ought
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to be with gratitude, like thank God for your spouse.
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You can thank God for intimacy within marriage.
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You can thank God for the foods and the drinks that he has
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created in our world. And when we interact with all of
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these things, our marriage ought to be for the glory of God, The
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food that we eat and the drinks that we drink, We ought to do so
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with gratitude and with glory given to God as a result.
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Don't listen to those who go against the Word of God.
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Instead, may we be faithful to obey what the Word actually
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says, to keep our eyes focused on Jesus and the gospel.
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Realize what the New covenant means for us, and not get bogged
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down by false teachers. Keep our eyes on Jesus.
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Be thankful, and do not listen to demons.
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I hope that's an encouragement to you today.
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God bless.