Latest / Admonition Podcast / 1 Timothy 4 (Lesson 2) - Aaron Cozort - 06-22-2025
Transcript
- 0:03Good morning.
- 0:08Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to 1 Timothy.
- 0:32First Timothy chapter four is where we're going to be picking up this morning.
- 0:37Let's begin with a word of prayer.
- 0:40Our 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
- 0:52you, to serve you, and to honor you in worship, in spirit, and in truth.
- 1:00Lord, we pray that you will be with those who may be traveling and separated from us.
- 1:05We pray that they uh have safe travels and they reach their destinations and return home safely.
- 1:12We pray for the congregation and all those who may be dealing with illnesses or chronic illnesses.
- 1:18We pray that you give them the strength and the comfort that they need to endure the hardships that they face.
- 1:26Lord, we pray for those who
- 1:28are struggling spiritually.
- 1:30We know at times we all struggle with things and we pray that we might be an encouragement to them.
- 1:37We 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.
- 1:46Pray that as they observe those things that they will faithfully do those things.
- 1:51Lord, we also pray for the work that's being done this week at foundations at the Memphis School of Preaching.
- 1:58We 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
- 2:09service in your kingdom.
- 2:11Lord, we...
- 2:13pray for this nation and pray for the world's nations.
- 2:17We 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.
- 2:29to 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,
- 2:43but rather through the gospel and the truth and obedience to it.
- 2:48Lord, we pray that you be with us as we go throughout this period of study.
- 2:51May 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
- 2:59family of God, which is the Church of the Living God.
- 3:02All this we pray and ask in Jesus' amen.
- 3:04uh
- 3:10Paul, as he concludes chapter three of 1st Timothy, says, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.
- 3:23God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed up in the world.
- 3:37believed on in the world received up in glory.
- 3:43As 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
- 4:01concerning these things and preparing them for these things,
- 4:06He points out that everything God promised that He would do in the prophets, He's done.
- 4:17when you build off of a foundation of saying, everything God said He would do has come to pass.
- 4:32You 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
- 4:47going to happen too.
- 4:50All of this as both a reassurance, number one, that we are not to follow those who depart from the faith.
- 5:00A reassurance, number two, that God was not unknowing that these things would happen.
- 5:09And 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.
- 5:26So he says in chapter four, verse one,
- 5:29Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.
- 5:43Paul, 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.
- 5:58We usually mean that to be fast, okay?
- 6:02That's not what the word here means.
- 6:03The word means explicit.
- 6:07The Spirit was explicitly clear.
- 6:11He was plain spoken on this matter.
- 6:14He 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.
- 6:30He says that in latter times, now,
- 6:35Sometimes 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
- 6:47world, therefore, any time you see the word latter you must be talking about the end of the world.
- 6:54We shouldn't interpret scripture that way.
- 6:57The fact that we hear a phrase or see a word,
- 7:03that we associate with an idea does not mean the context is talking about that at all.
- 7:12And we ought to interpret the word in view of the context of the discussion.
- 7:17So let's see if maybe we can do that as we go through this text.
- 7:22The Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of.
- 7:31demons.
- 7:32Now 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.
- 7:45This 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
- 7:57conscience which some, having rejected concerning the faith, have suffered shipwreck.
- 8:05Of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.
- 8:15Two 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
- 8:34blaspheming God in the process.
- 8:38Now, would we describe that as a departure from the faith?
- 8:45Absolutely.
- 8:47Now, notice what else he says.
- 8:50He says, heed to deceiving spirits, doctrines of demons, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.
- 9:01Now, all of these are descriptive terms of what they have done, what they have allowed themselves to get caught up in.
- 9:12He'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
- 9:29originate with God.
- 9:32So notice a few of the examples here.
- 9:34He says, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry.
- 9:40commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
- 9:50First example, what was the first one?
- 9:55Forbidding to marry.
- 9:59What context do we have in the life of Timothy as Paul's writing this to him?
- 10:11Where is Timothy?
- 10:15Ephesus, is Ephesus primarily a Gentile or Jewish church?
- 10:23Gentile, it's primarily a Gentile city.
- 10:27It'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
- 10:41Ephesus.
- 10:44So 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.
- 10:59Because there are those who are teaching that it is not right to marry.
- 11:07Now,
- 11:09If 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
- 11:23church 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?
- 11:45All right, pay attention to the context.
- 11:49What was the law of Moses concerning marriage between an Israelite and a non-Israelite?
- 12:00It was forbidden.
- 12:02Specifically, 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
- 12:16that God said he was removing from the land.
- 12:18Okay?
- 12:19There was not, and let's be clear on this, there was not a specific provision saying you shall never marry someone from Ur of
- 12:35That's not in the law of Moses.
- 12:38There's never a provision that says you shall not marry someone from Babylon.
- 12:46There's not a provision that says you shall not marry someone from Egypt.
- 12:52But 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
- 13:05intermarry with them because they will tear you and your heart away from God.
- 13:11Rather, he said, you are to not only not marry them,
- 13:17you are to eliminate them as judgment from me.
- 13:22But if you do marry them, this is what they're gonna do.
- 13:26They'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
- 13:36judgment because they're going to get you caught up in their sins.
- 13:42even 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
- 14:00prohibition on marrying an Israelite, marrying someone from some far off distant country.
- 14:08What are some examples?
- 14:12of Israelites marrying non-Israelites, starting with Moses and going forward.
- 14:28All right, hey, having just about, ah I actually, let me clarify.
- 14:31What are some positive examples?
- 14:36All right, Ruth and Boaz.
- 14:39Ruth is what?
- 14:41A Moabitess.
- 14:43Is that an Israelite?
- 14:45No, it's a descendant of Lot, but not an Israelite.
- 14:53What's another one?
- 14:55You 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.
- 15:10And what was the reason?
- 15:15He has married someone who was not an Israelite.
- 15:22What about another, so here's the, by the way, here's the law giver.
- 15:27And if the law said you must only marry Israelites, he violated the law.
- 15:34Yet who came to his defense in opposition to their accusations against him?
- 15:42God did.
- 15:44The Lord did.
- 15:46He said this is my servant.
- 15:48You stay out of it.
- 15:51Now.
- 15:52If 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
- 16:10form 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.
- 16:23then you see, number one, that the Jewish practice concerning the law was not actually the law.
- 16:36What 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
- 16:48marketplace and
- 16:51rubbed an elbow against a Gentile, you better ceremonially cleanse yourself before you eat a meal, were not things taught by the law.
- 17:01As a matter of fact, it was that very discussion in Matthew chapter 15 that Jesus accuses the Pharisees of teaching doctrines of men.
- 17:19their rules and ordinances concerning Gentiles.
- 17:26Not concerning the people that God said specifically, you don't intermarry with them, but Gentiles at large.
- 17:35So here you have the church at Ephesus.
- 17:40in 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.
- 17:59And 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.
- 18:10You're not allowed to marry from someone from that nation.
- 18:15Ignore the fact that they're a Christian.
- 18:19You got a Jewish young man in the church.
- 18:23You'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.
- 18:30The law forbids it.
- 18:33Paul says nonsense.
- 18:35Law doesn't forbid it.
- 18:37That's a doctrine of demons.
- 18:39That's doctrine that didn't originate with God.
- 18:43Further, he points out, by the way, this helps us with the context, what is the second matter that he discusses?
- 18:52Not just forbidding to marry, but forbidding to what?
- 18:56Eat certain foods.
- 18:59As 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
- 19:16and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving.
- 19:24But what did the law say about, the Old Testament law say about certain foods?
- 19:32They were forbidden.
- 19:34Could you eat certain kinds of animals that lived in the water, depending on whether they had fins or scales?
- 19:43There's a law concerning that.
- 19:46Could you eat an animal that had a cloven hoof?
- 19:49There's a law concerning that.
- 19:51Could you eat an animal who dug around in the ground for its food?
- 19:57There's a law concerning that.
- 20:00Were any of those laws given to the Gentiles?
- 20:04Not one of them.
- 20:06Were any of those laws carried over into the law of Jesus Christ in the New Testament?
- 20:13No.
- 20:15Turn to Romans chapter 7.
- 20:21By 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
- 20:36discussion.
- 20:40of we are under which law.
- 20:44Because 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.
- 20:54But 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
- 21:04under that law.
- 21:07and anyone who teaches that you are is not teaching the word of God.
- 21:11Romans 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.
- 21:24Paul 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
- 21:34familiar with the law.
- 21:38And you understand this, that the law of Moses is only binding on you as long as you're what?
- 21:48Hmm?
- 21:51as long as you're alive.
- 21:55Once you're dead, the law doesn't have any more power over you.
- 22:02You're beyond its jurisdiction!
- 22:06Was the law miming over you before you were born?
- 22:11No, you weren't under the law.
- 22:13You weren't under its jurisdiction.
- 22:15You weren't alive.
- 22:17Had no power over you.
- 22:18You weren't here.
- 22:21When did it get power over you?
- 22:23When you were born.
- 22:26When did it lose power over you?
- 22:27When you died.
- 22:30Now notice what Paul says.
- 22:33Verse four.
- 22:34I'm going to skip over the analogy of marriage because I want us to see the argument and the conclusion.
- 22:41Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ.
- 22:52When you became dead in your old man and alive in Christ, Paul says you were never under the law anymore.
- 23:06You're not under the law of Moses anymore.
- 23:10Furthermore, what happens if it's not you that dies, but the law that's put to death?
- 23:19If the law is put to death, is it still binding over you?
- 23:26No, he's not fighting over anyone at that point because the law died.
- 23:34It was put to an end.
- 23:37So 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
- 23:48bear fruit to God.
- 23:53Verse 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.
- 24:03But 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.
- 24:15Paul makes it clear the law is no longer binding over them.
- 24:20All right, turn to chapter 14.
- 24:25The 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.
- 24:41for 600 years in the future from Paul's time about the Catholic Church.
- 24:48Some people think it is.
- 24:50They ignore the context they were living in.
- 24:54They ignore the fact that the problem was already going on.
- 24:59And it was a problem Timothy, as a teacher, was having to deal with right then.
- 25:08And that the departures from the truth that the Roman Catholic Church participated in, 600 years later,
- 25:17were the same departures from the truth that the Jews participated in in the first century.
- 25:25And they were just as wrong then as they were in the first century.
- 25:28Notice chapter 14 of Romans.
- 25:32Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things.
- 25:38For one believes that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables.
- 25:44Let 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?
- 26:00To his own master he stands or falls.
- 26:02Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.
- 26:07One person esteems one day above another, another esteems every day alike.
- 26:11Let each be fully convinced in his own mind.
- 26:15He who observes the day, observe it to the Lord.
- 26:18And he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it.
- 26:22He 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
- 26:30Thanks." Now, remember what Paul wrote?
- 26:32Hold on.
- 26:33Verse in the chapter 4.
- 26:35Verse 4.
- 26:36For every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it is received with Thanksgiving.
- 26:43Does it sound like the same discussion he's having in Romans?
- 26:48Yes, it's because it is.
- 26:51Verse 5.
- 26:52For it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer.
- 27:01Paul 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.
- 27:16You ought to be thankful to God for it.
- 27:19You ought to pray over it and bless it because it's God's provision.
- 27:26And 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
- 27:42doctrine of Christ.
- 27:44Yes.
- 27:55Why would they like that specifically for the Israelites?
- 27:58Why would they say...
- 28:02Okay.
- 28:09absolutely.
- 28:10Even Peter, you see that uh contrast there in Joppa as he's seeing that vision on the roof.
- 28:17says, have never allowed these things to enter my mouth.
- 28:23OK?
- 28:23So the question is why?
- 28:25First, we're not explicitly told.
- 28:31Second, the primary reason that God gives is the term holiness.
- 28:43Now, there's something important to understand about the term holiness.
- 28:48That the original idea of the term holiness is to separate.
- 28:55When something was holy, it was no longer common.
- 28:59It was set apart for a specific use.
- 29:06And 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.
- 29:19The laws that were given to Israel weren't given to the Edomites.
- 29:23Did that mean that an Edomite couldn't be faithful before God and holy before God?
- 29:28No, it didn't mean that at all.
- 29:30God was doing something in Israel that was unique about Israel's role in God's plan to bring about the Messiah.
- 29:43And 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
- 29:55just 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
- 30:08part of His plan to bring about the Messiah.
- 30:12And part of that involved a number of things.
- 30:15We quite often focus on the food one and ignore maybe some of the others.
- 30:22Like, 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.
- 30:38But if you were an Israelite or the tribe of Judah come the year of Jubilee, you could come get your land back.
- 30:44What other nation under heaven did God give that command to?
- 30:47You see, we quite often think about the restrictive commands and don't think about the benevolent commands.
- 30:57The ones that say you have an inheritance forever in this land, in this nation up until the time where I end that covenant.
- 31:11you have a descendant of Aaron.
- 31:15Did the descendant of Aaron have a different set of restrictions than even the rest of the nation?
- 31:23Because they were what?
- 31:26The priestly tribe.
- 31:28Serving as priests, they had certain things they could and could not do.
- 31:32They had certain clothes they had to wear in order to serve in their function.
- 31:38What other tribe, what other family was that command given to?
- 31:42Not a one.
- 31:45Did God do that because there's something morally holy about a white garment with an ephod on it?
- 31:59Or did God enumerate lesson after lesson after lesson derived from the picture that God created of what a holy priest was?
- 32:13You see, all of these things were to teach the lessons about God.
- 32:21And 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
- 32:36relationship with God.
- 32:37They had commands and instructions that the Gentiles never had the benefit of to understand who God was.
- 32:45And yet here you had Gentiles being righteous and Jews forsaking God.
- 32:53You see, the instructions, the restrictions, and the blessings of the Old Testament were a way to set apart Israel.
- 33:03And let me give you the picture Jesus gives for what Israel was supposed to be.
- 33:08Turn to Matthew chapter five.
- 33:21Quite often, we get to Matthew chapter 5 and we just read through it and go, here's the picture of the Christian.
- 33:36That's not Matthew chapter 5.
- 33:39Matthew chapter 5, Matthew chapter 6, and Matthew chapter 7 are the pictures of what Israel was supposed to be.
- 33:53Verse 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,
- 34:03Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
- 34:10Jesus 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
- 34:27poor in spirit, the ones who will humble themselves before God.
- 34:31He says, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
- 34:37Blessed are the meek.
- 34:39for they shall inherit the earth.
- 34:41Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
- 34:46Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
- 34:48Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
- 34:51Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.
- 34:54Blessed 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?
- 35:05None of them.
- 35:06They were all taught in the Old Testament.
- 35:10Jesus 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
- 35:23God would have them to be.
- 35:25But notice what He says.
- 35:28Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.
- 35:35rejoice 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
- 35:48before the disciples as to what they are to be?
- 35:56the Old Testament prophets sent to Israel.
- 36:02Then he says, you are the salt of the earth.
- 36:07And if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?
- 36:11It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
- 36:16You are the light of the world, a city that is set on a hill, cannot be hidden.
- 36:23Nor 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.
- 36:29Let 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?
- 36:47They were to be the light of God.
- 36:53They were to be the shining example to the pagan world of who God was.
- 37:05they were to be a city set on a hill.
- 37:11Anybody know anything about the topography of Jerusalem?
- 37:22It sets us on a series of hills.
- 37:24And what did God say concerning Jerusalem?
- 37:27I'm going to make this my city and I'm going to put my name there and all nations shall flow into it.
- 37:37You 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,
- 37:47you're to be a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden.
- 37:50He then immediately goes, do not think I came to destroy the law or the prophets.
- 37:55I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
- 37:59And he will begin in verse 17, going all the way through the end of chapter six.
- 38:06correcting their understanding of the law.
- 38:13Let's go to the end of chapter 6.
- 38:15Notice.
- 38:19Verse 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?
- 38:30Therefore do not worry saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear?
- 38:35For after all these things,
- 38:41the Gentiles seek.
- 38:45If 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
- 38:55Gentiles.
- 38:59What should we understand?
- 39:00We should understand his discussion was this is what Israel was supposed to be.
- 39:07And 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
- 39:22heaven.
- 39:25The one who hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to one who builds his house upon a rock.
- 39:35The winds come and the floods come, beat upon that house, it will stand for it's founded upon the rock.
- 39:43And the one who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them, oh
- 39:49I will liken him to one who builds his house upon the sand.
- 39:53And when the winds come and the floods come, that house will fall and great will be the fall of it.
- 40:06Paul, 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
- 40:23salt of the earth.
- 40:26And all the laws and all the ordinances were not there so they could be eternally applicable.
- 40:34They were there to create uniqueness, to create flavor as salt, to create light in the world.
- 40:50and instead they had turned them into a series of ordinances and a series of laws to control people.
- 41:01to get what they wanted, to enrich themselves, or to keep from doing God's commandments.
- 41:11So Paul says.
- 41:15Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith.
- 41:20Giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.
- 41:29You go read Paul's descriptions over in Galatians about the Judaizing teachers.
- 41:35These are his words.
- 41:39Forbidding to marry, commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
- 41:48For 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
- 42:02Now here's how I know he's talking about current events in Timothy's ministry.
- 42:10If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ.
- 42:18Was it needful for Timothy to instruct the brethren about false doctrines that were going to come 550 years later?
- 42:29No.
- 42:32but the doctrines that came 550 years later weren't all that different from the doctrines being taught right then by the Judaizing teachers.
- 42:41Paul's telling Timothy, you teach the truth.
- 42:44You hold fast to the word of God.
- 42:47You allow your members to participate in the things that God allows.
- 42:54You don't restrict them from the things that God allows.
- 42:58Well, at same time, he's gonna teach Rome and he's gonna teach all these other congregations.
- 43:03You don't do damage to someone who's weak in the faith, who's unknowledgeable about what God allows.
- 43:10You don't do damage with your liberty and cause Christ to suffer loss through your liberty.
- 43:20You belong suffering with them as they grow.
- 43:26Okay, thank you for your attention.