First Timothy lesson 19 q 5

Okay, everybody have less than 19 questions? Which is 1 Timothy? Chapter four, I think, verse one. Is that right? Yeah, it's chapter four. So Miles has taught the last couple of weeks. I think he thought that he was in Roger's class, that he could get through all these questions in two weeks. You made it through four questions. We stopped, I think, we're talking in the middle of question five, and I wanted to make some comments about that.

The question was, are there deceitful spirits at work in today's world? What do you think? I may say, yeah. I may say, I'm not sure. Notice that the word says, verse 1 says, but the Spirit explicitly, the Holy Spirit, that in latter times, some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.

So, what would you say Give me one doctrine of demons. Because they're masters at the Bible. No, that's a religion. One doctrine. Government? Government? No. How about forbidden to marry? Okay. How about Lent? Lent? Lent. Oh, are you going to get your ashes on the forehead? Whatever.

Those are doctrines of demons. How about legalism within the body of Christ? Or baptism of infants? Water baptism of infants. Well, I just mean required. Oh, required. Yeah, to join a group. Now there's that side, and then there's another side, and it's really from a worldly standpoint.

Do you believe in capital punishment? Yes, yeah. Do you not believe in capital punishment? The non-belief in capital punishment is the doctrine of demons. Do not believe in it? Because God is the one that put government into place, and he's the one that also put capital punishment into place. He says clearly in his word in a lot of places, you take a life, you give a life. It's real simple. And oh, you don't wait for 10 years, you do it now.

How about, oh, what was the other one we were talking about last week? A lot of these things that are, How about, I'm not gonna go there. It's too simple. Yeah, you could do a list on that. The point is that I think that we need to be aware of, it's critical that when we study the word that we study it. We really look to see what it says. Because you're going to find, especially over the last couple of years, a lot of...

Well, here's a good one. Do you think God believes in one world government? That's an interesting way of phrasing it. Does God believe? Yeah. Or does God want one world government? Maybe put it that way. No, he doesn't. Does he believe in borders? Yeah, he does. And the point is that you're going to start to see more and more of these one world government people and border people and stuff start to quote scripture out of context. As an example, the female Episcopal bishop that stood up in front of Trump and quoted scriptures totally wrong.

But if you're uninformed and you don't know, you're going to say, well, it must be from the Bible. It must be right. So the point that Paul is making to Timothy is, You need to understand, well, it's a real simple equation. If you work for the Secret Service and you're in the counterfeit, how do you know when you run into a counterfeit? Because it doesn't align with the truth that you know. That's right. And you have to know that truth first. Yeah.

If I'm going to study $5 bills, I don't have a $5, oh yeah, I do. How do I tell a counterfeit? Because I know the real one really well. But even currency has changed through the years. Sure. Sure. But the point is, how do I identify a doctrine of a demon? You have to know the truth first in order to detect the counterfeit. This guy isn't going to wave a flag at you and say, I'm a demon. Get ready.

He's going to look really cool. Climate change. Perfect. Perfect. Yeah. So, anyway, I'll tell you at the end of class where I've been listening to these tapes, you probably ought to all listen to them because they're really... To answer the question, are there deceitful spirits at work today? Yeah, there are.

There are, and the closest place that they are is in a Reformed church, where they try to get their people to work as hard as they can, and they don't give them security of salvation, where the salvation message in Paul's epistles and Peter, James, and John is security. But they don't give you any security. William Kelly said, it was human pretension and not the faith of the Holy Communion. Communications of the divine mind nor the submission of the heart to his will who cannot but direct us for his glory through the corruption of a world ruined by desire.

So, the next question I asked then, how do these seducing, deceitful spirits work their deceptions? And the word seducing or deceitfulness, it looks like the word piano. P-I-A-N-O-S means wandering, roving, misleading, leading into error. It's like the farmer that sets his sights on that carving instead of something secure like a skull when he's trying to plow a straight line. But if you have GPS, you don't have to worry about that. It's the subtlety of Satan. how he deceived Dean.

That's, I think that's really the point is that if I can get you to question something, then I can mislead you. Because when you're in doubt, you stray into deception and deceit. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know about your life, but I'm always being assaulted by a thought that's contrary to what I know to be the truth. Even like last night, I was dreaming something, I forget what it is now, but I remember thinking, �Oh, that's not right.

That doesn't fit with what I know.� Quote 1 John 4, 1, �Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Because many false prophets have gone out into the world, but we are from God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not from God does not listen to us. But this we know, the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. this from John in 90-something A.D. What you don't understand about demons is that they're lieutenants of Satan who's not omnipresent, but they're constantly at work. Just because you woke up to some truth doesn't mean they're going to stop. And you know what their method is, don't you?

Did God really say? Did God really say? Whatever the circumstance is, did God really say that he would or did ABC? Why are you in so much pain? Did God really say, you must be doing something bad? And if you respond to that, they got you. Because that's how he approached Eve.

He said, did God say that you can't eat of any fruit in the gardens? See the subtlety of the question? No, he didn't say that. But Eve took the bait and said, no, he didn't say that. He said that we couldn't eat that specific fruit. The next thing out of Satan's mouth was, God's a liar. Well, his methods haven't changed in 7,000 years. He does the same thing to us about every little thing.

Did God really say, or I know the scripture, or I know, but that doesn't seem like it fits here. It's the same question. Where do you think that comes from? Well, I was just going to say the other side of that is, did God really say, and then I know I, know better than he does. Yeah. That's the answer. That's your answer. And you're in trouble right there. You've been deceived.

Even when you study the Word of God and you come to an opinion about it, but you're not really sure, that's why fellowship is so important. A good example on Wednesday night, I don't know if you picked up on that. I made a point that the word to be was aorist tense in a verse in Ephesians. And a minute or two later, Courtney says, wait a minute, I'm looking at the Greek and it's not aorist tense, it's present tense.

And he was right. Because I checked it afterwards, and so I had to send him a note telling him he was right. Well, of course, I blew his ego up a little bit. No. But I appreciate that. Anybody who's teaching God's Word, if you challenge Him based on Scripture, you look for that. Because the teacher that thinks he's got all the answers is a fool. How about like shaming? Shaming.

Yeah. I can't really believe it. Oh, sure. Oh, yeah. Here's a more subtle one. Well, you're entitled to believe what you want, and I can believe what I want. Yeah, all those who are going to hell believe what they want. Sure. Or you can make, you can composite your own system from multiple sources. Sure. You can take a little bit of this.

It's the buffet style of religion. And so you can say, well, why does God hold me responsible for what I believe? Because he's already revealed himself. Okay. When you create a creature like Adam, and you give him free will, you've got to allow him to exercise that will. You see that? You can't manipulate things so that he's always choosing what you want.

So, he gives us a will, right? What's the one thing you have a will for? To believe. So, I use my will to believe what God says or I use my will to, you know, do the cherry pick. I'll take a little of this and a little of that. So when you start to exercise your will, He holds you responsible. That's why it's so important that we learn carefully the basics of God's Word in terms of salvation and all of the blessings that He's given us. It's really important, because if you don't have it, you're a target. You're a target anyway, but you're susceptible.

One of the things that happens here in our state is I find God in the outdoors. He reveals himself through the river or through the top of a 14er or, you know, a really beautiful hike in the morning. That's where I find God. And I think that term, where I find God, could be defined in multiple ways, but there's only one source where you find God.

You know what's subtle about that? Romans 1 says, you don't find God, He finds you, through His Word. But you can see Him in His creation, because He puts Himself in it. He points you to his work through his creation, but if you rely on just the creation itself, you'll never know the truth. It's fallen. What's that Cheryl? I said it's fallen. Yeah, the creation has fallen. And it yearns for restoration too. You know, I'm not a big fan of, you got to be watching out for demons. But I am a fan of the fact that a lot of the information that comes into my mind, the source of it is demons.

You know, and it can be the world, it can be whatever the stimulus is, and I think, oh, that's either right or wrong, or that sounds okay. But if I don't have any, it's like, if I don't have something like this, or I don't be familiar enough in my Bible to at least look up something in the index or a concordance, if I can't do that, then I'm vulnerable. If I can't find out, you know, I mean, call your elder, he may be dumber than you are. I think that one of the most deceiving things is that we can be the deciding factor. Like, we can decide.

Well, you can believe, but you don't inherently know you have to be taught. Yeah. Yeah, you do. And so people that don't, Christians that don't spend any time going to Sunday school or Bible studies or anything like that. I mean, they're sitting ducks. Yeah, but it's not really going to the Bible study or this and that, but that you find it out yourself.

Through His word. Yeah. You can listen to other people, but it's got to be real to you. You've got to be convicted and convinced through the Spirit of the Word of God. Repentance. That's a change of mind. Yeah. You've got to change your mind about... What grace is in repentance. It is. You know, even that word, repent, is such grace. Well, what does the word repent mean? Change of mind. Change of mind. It's real simple. You have to change your mind. What does the word convert mean? It means change directions. So you change your mind before you change your direction, you know?

And so you find that the Word of God is new to every new believer, the whole focus of it is different than the world system. Well, it may take you 30 years to figure that out in terms of there's nothing in the world, including all of its theology and philosophy and religion, that has anything to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing. And if he isn't the one, and the only one, you're going to go to hell thinking you're right.

You're still going to go there. And you know, God says, it's interesting, God says you're without excuse because you know. That's the interesting thing. You know. But you don't know salvation. No. And in Romans 1 is what I think you're referring to. You know that he exists, and you know that you are a creature underneath is creating, well, yeah, if I can say it that way.

So that's the first thing that everyone recognizes in their existence is I didn't get here on my own will. I'm here based on the sovereign will of a creator and I can see the creation and I know that I am not in control. I know that I am not the one who created. Even though I can do things, I didn't put this in existence. I didn't speak these things here, put these things here.

So you've got a lot of choices. And there's a lot of false doctrines that... What's interesting about that, when you're... I came to the Lord at 35. And the first thing I came to understand is that I'm lost. That's the first thing. I'm lost. I can't fix what's wrong with me or with God. Like AA says, whoever you think him to be. Well, there is only one God. It's the Father and the Lord Jesus and the Spirit in three persons. But I couldn't fix my problem. So, the first thing the Spirit of God does is convince a person that he's lost. Because you don't need a savior if you don't know your loss.

It's real simple. And then he presents the Lord Jesus through reading or through someone who brings you the gospel message. And then you think, well, this is only the 55th thing I've tried in my life. What makes me think that this is going to work? But the doctrine of demons would tell you that you can solve it yourself. That's right. and mislead you to something outside of God's offer. Or you can solve it with His help. It turns you from grace. It does. Well, you don't know any of that, you know. I mean, when you're sitting there and the Spirit says, you're lost. Yeah, I agree with you. I am.

So what do I do now? and somebody presents the gospel to you, and you think, that news is just way too good. I've lived 35 years in a world that there's no free lunch, and the Lord is offering me a free lunch, free salvation. Makes no sense. And I think that's my point is, the doctrine of demons is centered on turning you away from grace.

That's right. It's exactly what it is. And they'll do it intellectually, emotionally, through spiritual experiences, tradition, pomp and circumstance, whatever. Money, whatever. anything to keep you from the one thing that matters, and that's faith in the person and work of Christ. Okay, speeding ahead here. We're now to verse 2.

But many of the hypocrisy of liars, by means of the hypocrisy of liars, seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron. That's the New American Standard. The New King James says, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron. So who are these people that are speaking, who are these liars? Men, he forbid marriage. You think it's men? Oh, it's the whole world system. The ones that depart from the faith.

Well, I'll give you some of the homework I did. The spirits work, and the teachings are exhibited in the hypocrisy of them that speak lies. This hypocrisy finds detailed expression in regulations, rules, and laws suggested by a false asceticism. So there's one of the keys, and you said it earlier.

If what's presented to me is anything other than grace, where God does everything and my job is just to receive it by faith, then you can assume from that that somebody's lying to you. If you have to do in order to be righteous or holy or whatever, that's a false premise. God offers righteousness freely. And the one thing you have to do is to believe him, which is a non-meritorious act. You can't go to God and say, well, listen, my part in this was I believe, so that's what I did, so you have to save me.

No. Because when you exercise faith, the value is in who you exercise faith in, not the fact that you exercised it. And your life in Christ proceeds that same way. Yeah. Same principle. Exactly the same principle. I learned I've been crucified with Christ. I didn't do anything, did you? Oh, wow, that has a lot of meaning. I'll just read from the Bible Knowledge Commentary, verse 2.

But God's spiritual enemies do not directly confront their victims with error. Instead, they work through hypocritical liars, literally men who speak lies and hypocrisy. This is Satan's standard procedure. He selects likely representatives and renders their consciences beyond feeling.

And then that word seared... Those are actually great words, aren't they? I mean, all of us have people in our lives that we either read or it's been our experience or like I was raised in Catholicism. I relied on that information and those people. I didn't realize that they were wrong, you know? So when the Bible says there's no other name under heaven and earth by which a man can be saved other than Jesus Christ, okay. Demons are not going to tell me that. But the restoration is setting your affections on things above.

Let's talk about that. What if the things above are things that I need to enjoy and get rescued from pain and suffering? Well, that has to take place. What does? Well, that's the whole package of salvation. When the word of God says, set your affections on things above, where is your focus? On Him.

That's right. How long does it take? That's where that tractor should be looking. Well, and you're there. It's like a traction. Yeah. Yeah. And you're already there. There you go. But you have to find out these things. Well, and you know, it's interesting. I've been going through these tapes lately, and I really admire the guys that are doing them. And I want to talk to you about them later. Okay.

But what I find is, is that A guy can be biblically solid about spiritual growth and not get the idea that it's the focus is on the person of Christ. Well, how do you find that out? The Spirit of God shows you in His Word that it isn't the methodology of Christianity or the doctrine is as important as it is. It's the person. And he's the one who wins your heart, and so you agree to be a disciple. You learn to trust. To trust him. To believe. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And so you find that what used to be really kind of drudgery, spending time in your Bible, turns out to be the coolest thing you do every day. Because you get alone with the Lord of the universe and you spend time with Him alone. And the bomb could go off and you wouldn't even hear it. So, yeah. All right, here we go. Five things. You're going to love this.

Five things as you keep your mind about demons. Let's see what you agree with these. Number one, they are spirits. and thus immaterial beings, Matthew 8, 16, Luke 10, 17. As spirits, they are invisible, but we can see their works manifested. Second, they have great intellectual capacity, 1 Samuel 28. I would put it another way, they're smarter than me. Three, they have a moral character, Matthew 10, Mark 1, Mark 3. Fourth, they have a system of doctrine, 1 Timothy 4, 1 through 5.

And five, they use human instrumentality to do their work. By reading those off, I thought, boy, when I read those, everybody's going to be looking in the closet for demons. The thing is, is that when you talk to guys that are in their 80s, Christians that are my guys that I know, they all have kind of the same thing. That what's going on in the world today is a spiritual battle. It's not a material one. I used to do that. you know, I'd go to the movies and see Friday the 13th and then I'd go home and I'd be looking under the bed in the closet. That was your first mistake going to the movie.

I know, but what's the truth? Yeah, well, I mean the point is, let me challenge you, is the chosen biblical base The Chosen? Is it biblical-based? Have you ever watched any of it? I know people that watch that, and I watched it a little, and I said, no. So I quit watching.

Well, because they use the name Jesus and, you know, apostles and all that other stuff, people buy that as scripture. Guess who put it together? The Mormons did. They're the ones that did it. Outside of the Word of God, everything is a lie. You used the term counterfeit earlier. What good is a counterfeit if it doesn't look really close to what the picture says? That's the most seductive method of deception is getting just there.

Just a little. Just a little. Yeah. But I'm always curious. When I pay with a $100 bill, they'll take it. and put that magic marker on it? Yeah, well what's your magic marker? You know, because you've got to know what that is. Sure. I think it's kind of to settle this up. We recognize that demons are at work, but you know what you need to recognize about yourself? You're safe. You're safe. can't touch you. It can mess with your mind and have you going in different directions, but your position in Christ is absolutely safe.

And I mentioned that Monday night that one of the guys in there called me up and said, oh, I got to tell somebody this. I said, what? He said, I figured out today I'm safe. The world can do whatever it wants to me, and this guy's in some pretty heavy stuff. He said, I'm safe. I said, yes, you are. Yes, you are. You're safe, because you're in Christ.

So, which is really cool. Go ahead. What's that? But then after you believe, or it seems like then's when the trial comes. Immediately. Yeah. Well, maybe I was too arrogant. Well, what's the trial all about? Why do you have a trial? What does Romans 12, 2 tell you why you have the trial? So you can prove out, God can prove to you that what he told you is real. If you don't have a trial, you don't have a test, you don't know if it's real or not.

I think I can get question eight done. What's a seared conscience? I'll read some stuff I got. Those who depart from the faith have their conscience seared with a hot iron. The word's hot iron. are superfluous, Vincent offers, branded in their conscience. He says, the metaphor is from the practice of branding slaves or criminals, the latter on the brow. These deceivers are acting under delusion, but deliberately and against conscience. A seared conscience is one that has lost its sensitivity to moral right and wrong. I like that one.

Can you do that as a believer and still confess 1 John 1, 9 and return? Can you be seared or is it possible to see like a, in your opinion here, is that a final decision and you live your life that way, or can you fall into those things throughout your Christian life? You know, I would say yes, you can. But I don't discount the power and the work of the Holy Spirit in you. So if he allowed you to fall into that searing process, to show you what's happened, to get you to change your mind about that.

Oh, no, I know a little bit more than I did about the monarchy. My phone starts talking back to me all the time lately. There must be a demon. I think you said Siri, and I thought you said Siri. I honestly didn't. Yeah, I think so. And I think there's what the Spirit of God does. Makes you aware. And I think it's normal behavior for a believer to go to the Lord and say, you know, how's it going? Am I being fooled? Do I understand? Am I right? Am I wrong? I'm open for you to correct me in any manner.

Wouldn't you say that seared conscience is the fact that God can't use the man's conscience anymore? Well, let's look at it this way. Before Adam fell, did he have a conscience? No. No. A conscience is a thing in you that says, this is right and this is wrong. So until you become a sinner, there is no right and wrong. You're innocent. So a conscience is a creation of the fall of man. Is your conscience reliable? No. The Spirit of God is reliable? Yes. So your conscience will follow your faith.

So, again, back to finding out what God's word has to say about certain things. I think every believer that's serious about their walk with the Lord will say, gee, I haven't gone through, I haven't confessed my sins lately. Is there anything between you and me? Whatever it is, let's get it out of the way.

Am I relying too much on my conscience, rather than just faith in what I know your word to be? But the conscience is what we deal with in this world system. Well, you know, it's interesting. The conscience, you would think that the world system, but I think that a believer walks by the spirit, not by his conscience. He walks by what God's word says and the spirit in him, and his conscience comes along. If he's not walking that way, he's depending on his conscience. He's going to find he's going to take the wrong road a lot of times, because the conscience isn't spiritual.

It's just a mechanism to say, well, this is right, this is wrong. It's how we interpret. And it could be cultural. Yeah. It could be cultural. All right, we're over. We got this close. Father, how thankful we are that your Word is here and that you, with your Spirit, will teach us not only the facts of your Word, but the person revealed to us, the person who is in the Word, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you, Father. We pray in your Son's name. Amen.