Let us turn to our Bibles to 1st Timothy chapter 4. 1st Timothy chapter 4, as we continue through the pastoral epistles. 1st Timothy chapter 4 verses 1 through 5. 1st Timothy 4, 1 and the following, let us listen attentively to the word of God. Now the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. Let us pray. Here, Lord, you have given us a snapshot into the rising apostasy even during the time of Paul.
He warns the young pastor Timothy of these matters so that Timothy himself can go to the churches, his church, and express the truth in these things and protect them from the lies of the devil. We implore your Spirit to be with us, protect us from the lies of the devil today, although there may be variations of this or different kinds of lies and deceitfulness in the body of Christ. We pray for more of your Spirit and understanding so that we can avoid this confusion, we can avoid the pitfalls of false teaching and false practices, God.
May we take the warning of apostasy or against apostasy to heart, Lord God Almighty, that we would persevere by your grace and your mercy as promised in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen. As you may recall, I grew up in dispensational circles.
That meant that I was taught that the last days or the latter times or the end times, we have the word here, latter times in this text in particular, whatever was described that way, and that reflects a lot of Bible verses, pointed to what they called the great apostasy that would be in the future from our time, our time frame right now, sometime in the future, from 2025, there would be a great apostasy during or just before the seven years tribulation. Which itself was before the 1,000 year reign of Christ when he would rebuild the temple and reign from that. We looked to newspapers to find out the signs, the times often, and we would eagerly await the invisible rapture when Christ would return to catch us up in the sky before the great tribulation of seven years.
And although most of the stuff I heard and read focused on the bad things, apostasy and bad signs, there were warnings about false teachers now and then in my circles, although I don’t recall the word apostasy being used, certainly the idea was assumed. So it’s not a new thing, and it’s not unique in our circles as all kinds of Christian circles. Whatever one thinks about the future apostasy of the latter times and the like, it is a given here that we are to be aware of false teachings, lies, and deception that are all around us.
Whatever one’s view of eschatology, the end times, this is still applicable to us today. It remains true for all of us to avoid falling away from our great apostasy in our own lives from the faith once delivered to the saints. These verses in particular describe one type of falling away that still has influence today, believe it or not.
These things are still taught in some circles. Thankfully not in our circles, by God’s grace. Let’s look a little more carefully here.
Apostasy Prophesied
The apostasy prophesied, verse 1. Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times, some will depart from the faith. And he continues on to describe what this departure looks like from the faith. The latter times.
This particular phrase is only used here. The latter can mean last or later times, but the idea clearly is about a whole time period, as we’ll see elsewhere, from Paul onward is considered the end times, the last times, or the end days, in fact. That’s my position.
That’s the position of many churches over 2,000 years of church history, although not all of them. Like I said, eschatology, one can go one way or another sometimes. We’re covering this, in fact, finishing on Wednesday night in the Bible study, right? A whole book on eschatology where he covers the four major approaches.
I’m not going to get into all that, but to simply give a little evidence here that what Paul is speaking of here is not unique to him only, that the phrase latter times, end times, or end days are all synonymous and point to that time period forward to our time period until Christ comes. The great time period we find ourselves in here. It implies, of course, it seems to me that even this text, without having to go to the other text, and I’ll get to that, that Paul is writing about a pressing matter.
Why would he spill ink about something that’s not going to happen for another 2,000 years? To Timothy, warning him about something that won’t bother him when he’s in heaven. He’s not going to live that long. So just the mere fact that this is written here this way I think already expresses to us that Paul’s idea of latter times is not some great thing in the future, but here and now.
Something happening in his own lifetime. It’s a similar idea to 2 Timothy 3.1, so his second letter to Timothy. In chapter 3, verse 1, we read, But know this, Paul writes, that in the last days perilous times will come.
He continues to describe these things. There he uses the phrase last days. Here he uses latter times.
The wording is similar in 2 Peter as well. Knowing this first, we read, that scoffers will come in the last days walking according to their own lusts. There it is again.
Acts 2.17 And it shall come to pass that in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions.
Your old men will dream dreams. This is Peter’s great sermon at Pentecost. And he’s quoting the book of Joel.
A prophecy in the book of Joel. And he’s telling them this prophecy is that. It’s now being fulfilled before your very eyes to his audience.
And what does that prophecy say? It says that in the last days. Peter believes he’s in the last days. This is it.
This is the final stage, in other words, before heaven. And we’ve been waiting 2,000 years for heaven. That is the end of all things when Christ returns and brings a new heaven and a new earth.
That’s what I mean. That’s the next big step. And compared to what? 4,000 or 5,000 years before the time of Christ? This is kind of like the end times.
I mean, 2,000 years isn’t not even half yet of that time period before then, from creation to Christ. This is all in God’s timing. Hebrews 1-2.
God, who at various times, we read, and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets. God, through the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the like, before the time of Christ, spoke to them in various and sundry ways. Verse 2. Has in these last days, he says.
This is the writer of the book of Hebrews telling his audience, these last days something has changed. He has spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he made the world. And so the last days, in other words, is not simply and only about apostasy or the seven-year tribulation or something like that.
But when Christ came and did come, they’re like, we’re in the last days. This is it. A lot of days, to be sure.
But again, to the Lord, one day is a thousand years, a thousand years is one day. 1 Peter 1-20. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, that is Christ for our salvation, but was manifested in these last times.
There’s a different phraseology, but it’s all similar, right? Later, last, the end, whatever you call it, hour, day, times. It doesn’t matter. It’s all saying, this is it.
This is the last big thing before Christ comes a second time. That’s the point here, it seems to me. Now, apostasy, as to fact and function, Paul speaks of it here, of course, as though it’s obvious to his writers what apostasy is, reminding us again, apostasy is to abandon God and His truth.
It’s to abandon God and His truth. In other words, professors of Jesus Christ and His gospel, who join the church and later on denounce it all, whether in word or in action. You don’t have to sit there and say, I made a formal declaration.
Just a simple factor like, I don’t care about the church, I don’t care about the gospel, I don’t care about the Bible, I’m not going to read it, I’m going to do my own thing and go off. That’s an implicit form of apostasy. It may be slow, it may be sudden, but it’s clearly apostasy, leaving what they profess to be true.
Now, what’s interesting here, it seems to me anyways, maybe my own oddity, but Paul does not go into the psychology or the sociology of the apostasy of these people. Presumably, some kind of church leader. He mentions church leaders, as you recall, in the opening chapters by name because the biggest concern of a pastor would be other false pastors and teachers who have enough influence to affect the entire church.
They would typically have more influence than a typical layman. And so it seemed to me, although not necessarily, that this is mostly about church leaders. Paul is not concerned about uh-oh, I think Timothy’s church was a little too mean.
I think they had a little too much sin. And it’s probably they were probably a stumbling stone to these people who fell away from the faith. It’s not really their fault is the implication.
I’ve seen this over and over again, in Christian circles even. They’re quick to point the finger at the church. And there may be a time for that, to be sure.
Yes, the church does sin. Maybe the church had this problem. But Paul isn’t concerned about that.
He’s like, here’s the biggest problem. These are false teachers bringing and teaching to the church harm. That’s what I’m concerned about.
That’s my point. They apostatize, they leave what was true. At the end of the day, it comes down between them and God.
You may have sinned, you may have stumbled them in your walk, but it doesn’t matter. You can ask for forgiveness from before God, and they can ask for forgiveness, but they’re not, because that’s what apostasy is by definition. They don’t care about forgiveness anymore.
And the church needs to be warned, and certainly, if you know them personally, you can have pity and pray for them, but you must have your eyes wide open. It is apostasy. Call it what it is, as Paul does.
It’s very dangerous for them, of course, their own souls, and the rest of us. The fact of it is mentioned elsewhere, besides here, in Acts 20, in the great discourse where Paul meets with the elders, the church leadership at the city of Ephesus, and he says, For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.
Also from among yourselves, that means within the church, the body of Christ, there will be leadership, he says, that will what? Lie, eat the flock, speak perverse things, what’s that called? But apostatizing. That is, they are people who claim to be Christians, but now are speaking and saying the opposite of what it means to be a Christian. And Paul warns the leadership there, we’re not in heaven yet, brothers.
Be aware, they’re there. They’re going to come. It’s just a matter of time.
So we should not be surprised, and I know people are. This is one of the things that you run across when people leave the church. They say, oh no, I found out a church leader did wicked things, and they do, unfortunately.
And they use it as an excuse to leave the church, to apostatize. I guess they were never told that church leaders can also apostatize as well. Maybe they put them up on a pedestal, and expected more out of them than they could do as mere humans.
In some cases, those pastors, as you can imagine the worst case, are wolves themselves, and it doesn’t matter what you did, they were going to be wicked anyways. Now, what are the functions of apostasy? Maybe you’ve never thought about this before. Function of apostasy, well that’s terrible.
Why would I ever want to use apostasy? God uses it. We forget sometimes, in the struggles of life, God uses the wickedness of this world for His glory and for your good. For the good of the church.
We have this explicit language in 1 Corinthians 11, by Paul himself. 1 Corinthians 11 verse 19, for there must also be factions among you, he writes. Must also be factions, that those who are approved may be recognized among you.
He uses it to purify the church, and that God, in this particular case here of them causing problems at the Lord’s Supper, would express to the rest of them, who’s taking the Lord’s Supper seriously and who’s not. Who’s taking God’s truth and His practice seriously and who’s not. That’s one of its functions.
That those who are approved may be recognized among you. To draw out the wheat from the chaff, we would say, and also to strengthen, is another purpose, our resolve in the light of God’s truth to do the right thing. To make it clear, because some things can be very obscure at times, even amongst the best of us, morally speaking.
And difficulties arise, and that flushes it out more clearly, more stark, more black and white, no longer gray. And that’s what happened there at the church of Corinth. And so that’s the first point, the apostasy prophesied, as Pericles says in the latter days, it’s going to happen, it’s going to come.
Apostasy Detailed
I believe it’s coming in Timothy’s lifetime, that’s why Paul wrote it here. It’s detailed in verses 1, 2, and 3, what this apostasy looks like. It’s departing from the faith.
They will depart from the faith, right there in verse 1, giving heed to deceitful spirit and the like. Departing from the faith, the idea here is not faith as a subjective experience of your soul, that is, what you enact, what you believe, that you have to have what? Faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. But the objective faith, that is, the content, the truth, the Bible talks this way at times, the faith of the church, what is what we believe, what we confess, the gospel, the truth, sometimes described as the word faith.
And so, in this particular case, of course, the public apostasy from the public truth, that the church is what? A public pillar and foundation of, because we’re there to exalt it before the world, the gospel of God’s truth, His public truth. And this is in a two-fold manner, two-fold way, in which one apostatizes or flees or departs from the faith, the objective truth of God’s word. In general, the gospel is used at times to mean the New Testament truth, so all kinds of truths in the New Testament, not just Christ and the resurrection and His incarnation, those specific doctrines, but the host of other doctrines there, especially in the New Testament.
Or more narrowly, the good news itself, what Jesus did to save His people. Either way, it’s a departure from serious truth. It’s not a minor thing and a minor departure, because certainly we all sin, brothers and sisters.
We all sin in doctrine and our beliefs and in practice at times. But the Bible doesn’t describe that as apostasy, because you’re still clinging to Jesus, you still want to do the right thing, you still want to repent. Those who apostatize don’t, they don’t repent and they don’t care.
It’s bad news, in other words, either way. Whether it’s specifically or narrowly the good news that Jesus saved sinners or denying or, more broadly, every other doctrine is also a company of that, where God says you’re supposed to have, you know, good works. You’re supposed to have a church.
You’re supposed to have elders. There’s all kinds of things the Bible teaches us that we shouldn’t just ignore, because we don’t think it’s the gospel narrowly conceived. It’s part of the whole package, or the faith once delivered to us.
Giving heed to deceptions is another description here. He continues on as he piles on, description after description. Giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.
Paul has used this language before in Corinthians with those who would go to the altar of false pagans and participate and take in the food of those offerings given to demons, he said. Here, it’s strong language. And notice the application of this strong language.
At the very least, it’s being applied, it seems to me, the basic doctrines of the Bible, they’re denying something along those lines. But here specifically, he has it in conjunction with what? Verse 3. Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from foods which God has given us. Does that sound very serious to you? Would you call that apostatizing? Paul puts that in that description.
Have you ever noticed that before? You may think apostatizing means denying Jesus Christ as God. Denying that He saved His people. He needs your good works, or something like that.
Or just throwing the whole thing away and saying, I don’t care about Christianity. I don’t think that’s what’s going on here. These people are pretending to be Christians, it seems to me, of some sort.
But Paul puts in this description, attacks upon marriage and food. But in this case, abstaining from food. They’re attacking God’s what? Creation and ordinance.
Marriage is an ordinance or a command given by God to humankind, not just Christians, all mankind. We don’t think believers who marry aren’t really married because they’re not Christians. No, of course they do.
They’re humankind. They’re made in God’s image, although fallen, and God gave them that law. That includes marriage.
But creation itself. If you attack God’s works, God’s word, God’s creation, that’s a violation of the third commandment. That’s at least what’s going on here.
Probably more, it seems. But Paul highlights these things as especially a big problem that they have to deal with. Timothy has to deal with.
Speaking lies. So I’ll unpack that in verse 3 in the next section. Speaking lies is another way of describing apostatizing.
It doesn’t mean, of course, lying about any old thing. It’s not just saying they’re lying about anything that comes out of their mouth. But they’re lying specifically here, again, about marriage, about food, and perhaps other things as well.
But this is what the text clearly gives us. And if they’re saying, and they are, don’t marry because you’re more godly if you don’t marry. Don’t eat these foods because you’re more godly if you don’t eat these food.
They’re lying. And call it what it is. It’s not just, well, you know, they’re kind of confused.
You may not say it in your mouth. I mean, you talk to lots of Christians and other people who are confused sometimes. A cult, I think, in particular.
This would probably fit more under the idea of a cult. You don’t have to say you’re lying. Stop it.
I grant that. You have a little conversation with them. A coworker, a friend of the family.
But in your head, don’t lose track of that. It is a lie. And I say this because it’s easy for us, especially with family members and close friends, to water it down because we don’t want to offend them.
I’m not saying you don’t always have to use the word lie, but keep it in your head so you know how serious it is. If it’s a serious enough lie. If it’s a serious enough problem.
Because you’re concerned for them. You’re not going to help them if you confuse your own mind by using euphemisms. And euphemisms eventually die off and become not really a serious sin at all.
That’s all I’m saying. A seared conscience. A seared conscience.
This is a terrible description to have of a person who claims to be a Christian having their own conscience seared with a hot iron. It’s like they’re psychopaths or something. That’s one of the descriptions of a psychopath.
They have no conscience. They have no idea of right and wrong other than what they want to do is right. I don’t care what the society says.
I don’t care what the law says. I may have to be kind of quiet about it so I don’t get caught. But they feel no remorse.
They have no empathy. Nothing’s there. They have no conscience we say.
And apparently this is what’s going on here with what I think are these church leaders. Nothing’s there. Seared with a hot iron.
That’s terrible. So they have no conviction of sin in other words. The Spirit uses our conscience to prod us.
We sang that in the song earlier about God’s law is there to remind us of our sins so that we can repent and flee to Him. They don’t have that. That’s terrifying.
Not feeling anything about sin. That has to be at least one of the implications here of having no conscience to speak of. It’s all wiped away as though a hot iron went right into their soul.
They took a hot iron. Don’t think of it as passive. Oh look what happened to me.
I can’t help myself in my apostasy. Oh no. No.
Brothers and sisters they do it intentionally. They want to leave and do their own lusts and their own desires as we read there in 1 Peter and elsewhere. And again this is important especially for church leadership because they look nice.
They seem open and friendly. They speak well perhaps and stand for a number of good things even. But if they go after things of God’s Word as we read here.
Go after Christ. Go after His creation ordinance. Attacking marriage.
Doesn’t matter how much they smile. You need to stay away from them. They’re dangerous.
That’s the point. You can’t see the conscience of course. You don’t know what’s going on in their head and their soul.
What you can see is what Paul expresses here. False teaching. False practices.
Going after marriage and God’s good creation. These are the evidences of things that we need to flee. Forbidding to marry.
In particular Colossians 2.20 is another text to remind us that it wasn’t just one particular problem there at Timothy’s church but elsewhere in Greece. Therefore, Colossians 2.20 If you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why as though living in the world do you subject yourself to regulations? Do not touch, do not handle and the like and do not taste which all things concern which perish with the using according to the commandments and doctrines of men. They were teaching all kinds of things made up in their own mind of what they thought was holy and good.
This is what’s the significant part here. You don’t have to marry in one sense. If you can’t find a spouse and it’s hard to find a spouse, you end up being single for the rest of your life.
That’s not a sin per se. Paul talks about singleness in 1 Corinthians 7, right? There’s a time for it, to be sure. It’s specifically, you’re more holy because you don’t marry.
You’re more holy because you don’t eat this kind of food. Does that ring a bell? About the food especially? Yeah, Peter with the food coming down and the cloth and all the different animals. He’s like, God you told me not to eat this stuff.
And he did. In the Old Testament they had restrictions on their diet. That was an expression of holiness.
Will you believe God and take his word when he says don’t eat this food or are you going to make excuses? That’s one of the reasons why he gave that restriction of the food. One of the reasons. And it’s done away with.
Christ has come. You don’t have to do that anymore. That’s the point of the sheet coming down and telling Peter three times, arise and eat for whatever God has given you is not evil.
It’s good. Eat it. It’s not wrong.
God put a temporary restriction for his own purposes. It’s gone now. But to go back to the old ways, as it seems to be this case, of the Judaizers is probably what’s going on here.
Maybe a mixture of Judaizers with Gnosticism it’s called that was on its rise at this time period for the next hundred years which taught the bodily things of this world are inherently sinful. And in fact they taught it wasn’t God who created this world but something else created this world and God came along and made things better and made his people or something like that. Things in this world are inherently evil is what they taught.
So you better abstain from food. Don’t get married. Don’t be close to people like this.
But be holy and special and good like I am. That’s what’s going on. You may again abstain from certain foods because of diet considerations or because you don’t like the taste of it.
That’s okay. That’s not what this is about. This is about saying I am holy between myself and God.
And I’m holy as we read in Colossians 2.21 because I made up these rules. Touch not. Taste not.
Do not handle. These are what? According to the commandments and doctrines of men. Made up.
False worship is what it’s called. Abstaining from food. Colossians 2.16. So let no one judge you in food or in drink.
Don’t let the Judaizers or the Gnostics or a combination thereof who want to go back to the Old Testament or make up these new things and doctrines tear down your conscience and take away your freedom. Enjoy what God has given you. Acts 10.15 is the other passage about Peter I mentioned before.
Now, we don’t have Gnostics per se today anymore. It’s a dead cult nowadays with all its teachings. You may have something that looks like Gnosticism perhaps.
People like to use the word sometimes to describe some confused ways of thinking. But there is a denomination, a huge one, worldwide with about a billion people. It’s the second or third largest in America.
I think it’s the second largest in America behind the Baptists and the Protestants. Roman Catholic Church. Don’t forget about the Roman Catholic Church.
Some of you have Roman Catholic connections. Some of you came from a Roman Catholic background. What do they teach? Well, the priests are better than you.
And one way they express that is the priests can’t get married. They forbid to marry. And it’s still here.
They have the same Bible. Of course they add extra books. They also add church tradition.
But here it is. Forbidding to marry. Singleness is exalted and marriage is forbidden with the priesthood.
Various foods are forbidden during certain holy days. You can’t eat meat. Oh, except for fish.
That doesn’t count. Wink, wink. That’s what’s going on.
And they think they’re more holy because they’re doing these things. They’re doing man-made laws to bring them good feelings. That’s what’s going on here.
That’s what’s going on at Colossians. That’s what’s going on in the Roman Catholic Church. And anyone else, the Seventh-day Adventists don’t get off the hook either.
They used to really push certain foods you can eat or not eat. Although they’re not very big on that anymore, apparently. Apostasy rebutted or rebuked.
Apostasy Refuted
Refuted. Verses 4 and 5. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving. We read that a little bit before in verse 3. God created all these things to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
That’s us. So, what you basically have is the opposite here. That marriage is good, and eating food is just fine, and that no one judge you accordingly.
But we should give thanks to God for the blessings that he has given us to, as we read here in verse 5, to sanctify by the word of God in prayer. Sanctify. Not as though the food, for example, is what he especially emphasizes here at the end.
Somehow it becomes unique and holy, magical. That’s not what the idea of sanctified is. It’s set aside for a purpose of satisfying your hunger for God’s glory.
Taking care of your body for God’s glory. So, it’s a sanctified event more than a sanctified item. Because the sanctifying event is, you’re a Christian, you are sanctified, you are set aside, you are called to be holy.
That’s what sanctification is, to be holy, godly, consecrated before God. And this meal that you’re having is for God’s glory. That’s the act of sanctification, to set it aside.
This food is not just any old pagan who doesn’t care about God. It’s a Christian who cares about God, and he’s eating for God’s glory. That’s the idea here.
Nothing more, nothing less. It’s not the Lord’s Supper or something like that. Creation is good, in other words.
Although fallen, this is important, but still good. Sin did not destroy the basic nature and use of nature, of the items of nature, of the animals of nature, of humans who are part of nature. Of what it means to be human.
When you are born again, you’ll become less human. You’ll become a different kind of human. You’re still human.
God says, take care of your wife, take care of your husband, take care of your kids. You don’t throw it all away because you’re a Christian. God sanctifies marriage.
He makes it holy in a way the pagans don’t make it holy, because they use it for wicked ends. Nothing wrong with creation. Everything good with creation, God uses it for us, gives it to us.
And we are especially blessed, brothers and sisters, to have your eyes open, so that when you eat the meal, when you have marriage, or you do other natural things of this world, like create society and do a good work at your job, you do it as a Christian. As one who loves the Lord, and wishes to be helpful to your neighbor, and above all, to love God. And that’s different than the unbeliever, who wants nothing to do with it.
He does the same things outwardly, but then relates a different idea altogether. Sanctified through word and prayer, and so we typically pray over our meals. It’s a long-standing practice amongst the Christians.
And you can pray for all other kinds of events, of course, in your life, not just meals itself. Anything else you do that’s not in violation of God’s law, that your neighbor does. Neighbors, they eat, they get married, they do their job, they take care of their yard, you can pray for help, pray to take care of the car, pray to be good stewards and the like.
But at the end of the day, brothers and sisters, although a warning to a pastor is still a warning to us, a reminder to us that apostasy is real, that we must stand firm against apostasies and lies that are growing in our nation, unfortunately, even in our churches. To stand firm in the liberty God has given us to marry, or not marry, to eat, or not to eat. And that, always, with thanksgiving, and trust and faith in God Almighty.
Let us pray. We are grateful, Lord, that you have softened our hearts, you have opened our eyes, you’ve given us so much freedom through our Lord and Savior that we don’t have to follow the old forms, the Old Testament, where the saints of old were restricted. But now you have given us this freedom in the way they struggle with us, as we see in the book of Acts, and finally accept it.
May we, Lord, bless you and thank you in all that happens in our life, all the things that we do, always trusting and depending upon you by the Word of God, as we read here in verse 5, always with an eye upon your truth. Lord Jesus, be with us, we pray this week, day by day. Amen.