Let's look at 1 Timothy. Chapter four. I'm gonna read that chapter and
then we'll probably not look at the whole thing, but it says,
now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times, some
shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits
and doctrines of devils, speaking lies and hypocrisy. having their
conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and
commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be
received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the
truth. For every creature of God is
good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving.
For it is sanctified by the word of God in prayer. If thou put
the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a
good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of
faith and of good doctrine, where unto thou hast attained. But
refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself
rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth
little, but godliness is profitable unto all things. having promise
of the life that now is and of that which is to come. This is
a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. For therefore
we both labor and suffer reproach because we trust in the living
God, who is the Savior of all men, specially or specifically
of those that believe. These things command and teach. Let no man despise thy youth,
but be thou an example of the believers in word in a conversation
in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. "'Til I come, give
it attendance to reading, "'to exhortation, to doctrine. "'Neglect
not the gift that is in thee, "'which was given thee by prophecy,
"'with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. "'Meditate
upon these things. "'Give thyself wholly to them,
"'that thy profiting may appear to all. "'Take heed unto thyself
and unto the doctrine. "'Continue in them, for in doing
this, "'thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee. Now, Paul is, of course, in his
instruction of Timothy, and says, the Spirit speaketh expressly. Now, the Spirit of God was sent by the Lord to
guide us into all truth. And that doesn't mean that we
can never be wrong, but it does mean that the thing that the
Lord would teach us is always right. And sometimes we in our
ignorance, in our weakness, in our lack of understanding, we
stumble upon things. And so it is that We must, as
we look at the scriptures, understand that the things that the Spirit
of God is teaching us is for the purpose of bringing us into
a measure of the fullness of the stature of Christ. In other
words, we're not being taught things just so we'll know stuff.
Now, a lot of people won't learn things just so they can know
stuff. There's a lot of denominations
that pride themselves on teaching people to know stuff. You know,
to know this, that, and the other, and chapter and verse, and all
that kind of thing. And I'm not saying that you don't
need to study the scriptures and know chapters and verses
of things, and that you don't need to know things, but our
goal is not to know things. Our goal is to know Christ. And
that's the whole purpose. When the Spirit comes to lead
us into all truth, you can't come into all truth unless you
come to Jesus Christ, because he is the truth. And so you know
everything. And you can be certain that you
know everything the Bible says and not know the truth. So the Spirit speaketh expressly. Now what does he speak of expressly
that Paul's speaking to Timothy about here? He says, in the latter
times, some shall depart from the faith. Now some folks, this
is a popular prophetic view, that we're yet waiting for the
latter times, that things are gonna happen in the last days. Now, I believe that a honest
appraisal of what is spoken of in the New Testament concerning
what the latter times and the last days are is not a time which
is future to us, but it is a time which was future to the old covenant. It is because John speaks and
says this is the last time. This is the day of salvation.
We're not waiting for another age to unfold in the earth. We're
not waiting for times and seasons. We're not looking for something
to yet occur that would be an unfolding of some great revelation
to men in the earth. The revelation of Christ in the
earth is the revelation of God. You can't be looking for something
else. Now, I know that it is popular prophecy for men to be
all up in arms about looking for this sign to take place and
that one and this, that and the other, which things are going
to yet occur. And people say, well, do you
think this is the last days? Yes, this is the last days. This
has been the last days ever since Christ came into the world. It
is the last time. And so when Paul speaks here
to Timothy, he says that in the latter times, some shall depart
from the faith. He's not talking about, well,
we're good right now. Everything's going great, but
there's coming a time later on. You know what the Bible says,
that in the last days, people are gonna depart from the faith.
And people look around them and they say, see, I believe we're
in the last time because people are departing from the faith.
Brethren, what he's speaking about here is something that
is common to men. And it is unfortunate, you would
think, that there would be no such thing as departing from
the faith in the day in which the Lord has been pleased to
reveal the salvation of Jesus Christ. Why would a man come
up to the very brink of salvation in Christ and turn back and walk
no more with the Lord? But yet that is a true thing,
it happens. It's a sad thing. It's an unfortunate
thing and I have no explanation for it. John writes about it,
he said, they went out from us because they were not of us.
And so men will depart from the faith. Now, does that mean that
the Lord failed? No, it means that they came up
to the faith. They tasted of these things to
some measure, but they turned and walked no more with them.
with the people of God. They had no more interest. It was not a thing seared into
their heart. Now you recall in the Lord's
parable concerning the great feast. When he said those that
were invited wouldn't come, so he sent those out into the highways
and byways to gather men to come in. And they came to the feast
and a great number came in. And then when the master of the
feast stood up, he looked upon the crowd and he said, there's
a guy here that doesn't have on a wedding garment. What are
you doing here? And he was speechless, because he didn't know what he
was doing there. He was there because of all kinds of reasons.
People want to be religious for all sorts of reasons. Many people
think that by a faithful attendance to church, they're somehow earning
the favor of God. And that's why they do it. They
want to be accepted among their friends. It just seems like the
right thing to do. They want to bring up their children,
you know, to go to church. Nothing wrong with any of that
except that that's a poor reason for a man to think that he has
an interest in the things of God. Only the Lord can burn these
things into a marsh. So, in the latter time, some
shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits.
There are many seducing spirits sent out into the world. And
they sound good. And they look good. And people
like them. I mean, we live in an age which
is of what they call the mega church. And I'm not setting forth
judgment upon anybody that's a part of those things or whatever. I'm not saying that there's none
of those people that know the Lord. I don't know. The Lord
knoweth them that are His. But when you are attracting people,
with something other than the gospel of Jesus Christ, then
there's seducing spirits involved in that. Because, you know, when
entertainment is the thing that causes men to gravitate toward
something, that's a seducing spirit. Now, it's not necessarily
anything wrong with having things that might entertain us in our
mind in our worship of the Lord. I mean, singing itself is an
entertaining thing, is it not? But hopefully it's not entertaining
because we're just wanting to do something that kills time
or whatever, but it's because we desire to magnify and exalt
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so there are many seducing
spirits that would turn men aside. There is one thing that Paul,
as Paul said, that he determined to do. He said, I determined
to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And anything, it doesn't make
any difference what it is, if it gets our eyes off of that
one prize, then it is a seducing spirit. And there are many of
them out there. And so we need to be mindful of that. Some shall
depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits. It
does not seem like always that when a man starts out down a
path that that's going to lead to his destruction. You know,
if a man knew that he was going to destruction, he'd probably
turn around, would he not? But when he goes away from nothing
but Christ, then he has gone and started down that path. Just
like we've been reading through Pilgrim's Progress and there's
many bypass along the way. There's many things and they
all look good. They might even look better than
what we're at, you know, but these seducing spirits are those
sent by the devil to deceive men and doctrines of devils. teachings, doctrines of devils. Doctrines of devils are those
which rob the Lord of glory. See, it's not, it doesn't seem like to the natural
man that if somebody speaks about Jesus Christ dying for all men,
that that could be a doctrine of devils. Doesn't seem like
it, could it? But if a man should proclaim
such a message as that without a clear definition of the fact
that Jesus Christ died for a people that he loved with an everlasting
love, that is a doctrine of devils because it robs God of the glory. It takes away that which belongs
to him. And that's what the devil would
do, would he not? I mean, when he came to Eve in
the garden, he didn't, I mean, his goal at that point in time
was not to get her to do a bunch of things, was it? No, he said,
just disregard what God said. Don't have any thought to it.
Don't give him all glory. See, that's the place. where
doctrines of devils take place. Now there's all kinds of doctrines
of devils. We don't have time to get into
them, but to sum it up, any doctrine is a doctrine of devils that
does not primarily and first off and totally give all glory
to God in the salvation of sinners from the beginning to the end.
There's no God's part and man's part. There's no man's part. Salvation doesn't have a man's
part. Salvation is of God. The salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord. May the Lord impress this on
us and cause us to see the danger in false doctrine, whatever it
be. We're not just strumming on a
string in order because we like, say, some system of theology. Some people call what we believe
Calvinism. I don't particularly care for
the term. But some people call it that. But I'm not interested
in strumming on the string of Calvinism or any other theological
position. But I want to strum on the string
of Christ. And I don't believe you can strum
on the string of Christ if you do not set forth His glory in
the salvation of sinners. It belongs to Him, and He's the
one that saves men. And sinners need Him. He doesn't
need them. May the Lord help us and keep
us back from these doctrines of devils. Speaking lies and
hypocrisy. Having their conscience seared
with a hot iron. You know, a man cannot see the
truth unless the Lord shows it to him. And not everyone that
speaks error has their conscience seared with a hot iron. Because every one of us in here,
myself included, has entertained error and has even spoken error
concerning doctrines and teachings in the scriptures. So it's not
that a man might always speak every word and every word that
he says is always true if he belongs to the Lord. But it does
mean that when he is corrected by the Spirit of God, he does
not rebel against it. Now I remember years ago that hearing a man say, and as we
were setting forth some of the things that we believe to be
true concerning the sovereign purpose of God and salvation
of men, and the gentleman said, well, if that's the way God is,
I wouldn't serve a God like that. Now, I don't know if this fellow
had his conscience seared with a hot iron or not, but that attitude,
is an evidence that a man is dangerously close to having his
conscience seared with a hot iron. Because it doesn't make
any difference what God does, I'm for it. I might not like
it. It might not fit in with what
I think, but if the Lord says it, it's true. And we must bow
down before him and desire that the Lord might correct us. Job's
a good example of a man that knew a great deal about God. I mean, Job had a pretty good
understanding, I mean, of things. But when all was said and done
and he was brought to the end where the Lord was bringing him
in the first place, And he said, you know, I've heard of you,
Lord, by the hearing of the ears. He says, I learned a lot of things,
and I knew a lot of stuff. But he said, now mine eye seeth
thee, and I abhor myself, and I repent in dust and ashes, because
I didn't know anything. And you know, I believe, as I
believe Brother Al said in a moment ago, I mean, the further along
that I go in life, the less I know. And things that I thought I knew,
I don't know. I mean, you know, I'm more ignorant
today than I've ever been. And yet at the same time, I'm
more determined to declare the one thing that I do know, which
is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The hope of sinners, the only
hope of sinners. Anything else is indeed a doctrine
of devil. Speaking lies in hypocrisy. You
know, hypocrisy is a easy thing to find ourselves in, is it not? I mean, as parents, we often
find ourselves being hypocritical. As we teach our children one
thing, and then we turn around and we get thinking, well, you
know, I'm guilty of the very same thing myself. Oh, to be
delivered from hypocrisy. I remember, this is kind of a
silly thing, but this is a good illustration of it, that on the
Andy Griffith show, he was getting on to his son about being
honest when he was selling a bicycle to this guy because he had some
problems with it. And so he got on him pretty hard
and told him, you know, you ought to always tell the truth. Well,
in the meantime, they were trying to sell their house. And, of
course, they had been talking about, you know, the pump plumbing
was rattling around and all this kind of stuff. And the little
boy, Opie, he was paying attention to all of this. And then when
the guy come over to look at mine, the house, they were telling
him, oh, you know, everything's great. You know, there's no problems.
And so he pipes up and he says, well, wait a minute. What about
this, that, and the other? Well, and then his daddy got
mad at him because he had let the cat out of the bag, so to
speak. But then, of course, he came to the realization that
he had done exactly the thing that he taught his son not to
do. And so that's a kind of a practical illustration of hypocrisy, but
hypocrisy is an easy thing Because it's easy to hide our hypocrisy.
We think, at least. You know, it's easy to know what
we've got going on in our heart, but be telling somebody else
something else. And they don't know it, or at
least we don't think they do. Having their conscience seared
with a hot iron, that is without remorse, without repentance. Oh, that we might be a people
that are open to instruction, you know, not set in our ways. Forbidding to marry and commanding
to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with
thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. Now, of course,
you know, there are, this is, Specifically, I mean, a good
example of this is found among the Roman Catholics who forbid
their priest to marry because supposedly the institution of
marriage is somehow a lower state in their mind than to be single. Paul addressed that very thing.
He said, you know, it's neither To be married or not to be married
does not enhance a person standing in the kingdom of God. And so
if a man has the necessity to be married, let him be married.
If he does not, then he doesn't have to feel some compulsion
to be married. But there are those in various
sects and divisions among the Lord's people who think that
there's some kind of great spiritual value put upon one position or
the other. So it's neither one or the other.
But there are those, as he spoke specifically to Timothy, I believe,
concerning many in those churches in that time who came from what
was called the Gnostic mindset that thought that abstaining
from various things made one closer to God, that there was
some benefit in that. And that's what he's getting
at here, commanding to abstain from meats. Now he's not talking
about meat in the sense of a piece of beef, he's talking about food.
When you see the word meats in the scripture, generally speaking,
not simply of meat, as we would use the term, but of foods. Now
we know that the Jews, the Lord gave them various restrictions
on things they could eat. But this is a thing also that
appeals to the flesh of men. They say, well, I don't do that.
No, I don't eat that. I don't eat pork. You know, I
don't eat this. I don't eat that. We remember
what the Lord told Peter when he taught him there on the housetop
before he went to Cornelius. that blanket came down with all
those various snakes and all kinds of creeping things. And
the Lord said, Peter, rise and eat. He said, no, Lord, I can't
eat that. I'm, you know, I always do what
you say. Of course, there was a little
hypocrisy involved in that. I imagine, you know, have you
ever wondered about it, about the herd of swine that went off. Now what was a herd of swine
doing? Why did they have such a herd
of swine if nobody around them ate pork? And I've often thought
about that, you know. And I'm sure that there was a
lot of Jews that didn't, but I think there probably was some
that on the sly they did, you know, probably have them a pork
chop every now and then. But the thing about it is, Those
things, Paul's saying, look, that's the way of men to say
these things. The Lord does not prevent us
from partaking of any meat, any food which God hath created to
be received with thanksgiving. of them which believe and know
the truth. For every creature of God is
good, nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving,
for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. Whether therefore
ye eat, or ye drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of
God. Now there are no substances in
the earth that are wicked. There are substances that men
use in a wicked manner. And there are many substances
that are likely to lead men into wickedness if they overindulge
in them. And so it is that we're never
prevented nor are we restricted from partaking of those substances
that the Lord has given to be used for a proper purpose. And
a man's a fool that becomes a slave unto these things. Now, no man's under condemnation because
of the things that he puts into his body. But that doesn't mean
that everything that we put into our body is good for us in unlimited
amounts. I like ice cream, but eating
ice cream You know, every day in copious amounts is not a good
thing. It doesn't make any difference
what the substance is. And I know there's a lot of religious
groups that they would frown upon somebody's use of intoxicating beverages or tobacco
or all of these different things. And they would say, well, these
things are wrong. Well, they're not wrong. God
made them for a reason. I don't know exactly, I'm not
gonna tell you up here. I never found a good reason for
a lot of them myself, but that doesn't mean that the Lord didn't
intend them for a good thing. You know, there's even, and I'm
gonna get off into something here that might be controversial.
The Lord made marijuana, did he not? Now, there's medicinal
uses for marijuana. But that doesn't mean that men
ought to go out if they're wise and light up all the time with
that either. But how could you condemn someone
who was in a place of pain or whatever that this particular
substance could help them with partaking of that? I personally
could not. Not because I would condone it
in an overall sense, but I would say that these things, if they're
received with thanksgiving, can be a useful thing. That doesn't
mean that recreationally they're a good thing. Every creature, everything God
created is for a good purpose. There is a good use of it. What's
the problem with it? Men. The misuse of it, the sinfulness
of men's hearts. A man partakes of something a
little bit and then pretty soon it partakes of him. And that
is where the error comes in. Paul said that he would not be
brought under the power of anything. May that be the case with God's
people. But there are those that would
teach that by abstaining from these things, on the other hand,
oh, we don't do that. No, we would never do that. That
somehow or other, that makes a man to be acceptable in the
sight of God. It does not. Christ alone can
do that. All things are sanctified by
the word of God and prayer. Now, you know, the thing about
that is, when you teach such a teaching as that, there are
always going to be some who have not an understanding of the grace
of God, having not tasted of the truth of God, who will say,
oh, well, good. You know, now I can do this without
any consideration, because he said, if you're thankful and
you sanctify in prayer, it'll be good. And so men will excuse
their sin. The Lord does not excuse sin.
And sin is not in the substance, but it's in the use of it, and
the regard of it, and how we have a mind towards it. Well,
I'm gonna stop there. You know, all things for the
children of God, are blessed, he causeth all things to work
together for good. Them that love God are worthy
called according to his purpose. And we can't always see that. And I've learned this, you can't
judge something before it's time. I mean, if you looked at the
thief on the cross 10 minutes before the Lord broke his heart,
you'd say there ain't no hope for him. I mean, he's a goner. He's deserved getting what he
deserved. But you see, the Lord knows them that are His. And
He calls them according to His good pleasure. and he will turn
the hearts of his people unto himself. And may the Lord give
us a mind to seek after him and not be turned aside with all
these external things. As Paul warned the Colossians
about, he said, there's some that say, touch not, taste not,
and handle not. And this is gonna make you more
acceptable to God. It's not. Only Christ can do that.