Good morning and welcome in today. Today we’re going to take a look at some scripture from 1st Timothy chapter 4, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
You know the Bible teaches us that were supposed to walk on the narrow road of Christ. Narrow implies not much room for deviation.
I just happen to be looking today at a street in Brasov Romania thats called Rope Street. It’s located right downtown. It was initially developed in the 15th century as a corridor that firemen could use so that they could access fires. At its narrowest this street is only 44 in wide. It’s approximately 263 ft long, but that sure is a narrow Street isn’t it. It’s just a little wider than three and a half feet. There are a few places where it’s a little wider than 4 feet, but when you think about it two people can hardly pass by on a road that narrow.
It makes me think of the narrow road of Christ. It’s also a one way Road. When we get on it it’s so narrow that you don’t want to deviate from it and all the traffic is going the same direction!
Christians are supposed to keep on that narrow path. There are those who will sadly depart from it. The road simply becomes too narrow for them. What they end up doing is walking away and ending back up on that wide road to destruction. They leave the Christian faith. When you depart, it means to deviate from the accepted, prescribed or the traditional course of action. Our path is laid out for us in the Holy scriptures. It’s a road map that leads to eternal life for all who obey it in faith. Those who depart, go away and they leave.
1st John 2:19
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
That takes us to our study verse for today.
1 Timothy 4:1-2
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;
2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
When we have faith in Christ, we are putting our complete trust in confidence in Him, and the things that he taught. We are trusting that He knows the way and we don’t. When we have faith, it’s a strong belief in God and the doctrines of our religion. One other definition is loyalty to duty or to a person or thing.
For Christians, our loyalty is supposed to be to Jesus Christ. When you are loyal, it’s giving or showing firm constant support or allegiance to a person or an institution. It’s just like a wife is supposed to be loyal to her husband. We want to be loyal to the teachings of Jesus Christ. A marriage represents Christ and the church. As a church is subject unto Christ, the wife is supposed to be subject to her husband in everything. That is what you call loyalty.
Have you ever had a loyal pet? Maybe you have a dog who is very loyal who always remains by your side. Maybe some of you had a dog that kept running away, and wouldn’t stick around home. It completely walked off and left you. Well, these are the kinds of people that we are talking about today. They are disloyal to the teachings of Christ.
We can come boldly to the throne of grace in time of need and get forgiven because when we admit that we’re wrong, that is the beginning of truth in our life with God. It’s accepting the fact that He is right and I am wrong. That gives us an opportunity to change our ways.
Disloyalty goes completely against that, because it’s turning away from Jesus, like a wife who turns away from her husband.
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith,
They will no longer want to follow the way of Christ. They no longer want to adhere or do the things the Bible teaches. So, what they do is they leave that narrow road that they were on, and then they start to walk on the wide road from which they had left. The reason why they do this is because they love the world more than Christ.
Proverbs 14:12
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
That means it’s really going to feel like it’s okay and correct the road that you are on, but that path will lead to death. It’s because you’re on the wrong road.
2 Peter 2:20
For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
Remember Judas was receiving the same spiritual information from the Lord Jesus Christ as the rest of the Apostles and disciples, but Judas left and betrayed Jesus completely.
The group of people that we are talking about In this passage today leave the Christian faith. They turn away from what they have been taught and instructed to do. What they do is they start to listen to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Remember that’s what Eve did in the Garden of Eden.
She was deceived. She actually listened and believed what the devil told her. That’s what these same people will do.
Somebody who is a seducer, tries to persuade and lead people to be disobedient and disloyal. That is what the devil does.
We might make a mistake along the way, but we have forgiveness with Christ in the church. The devil on the other hand is a seducer, who tries to convince you to disobey Jesus, to disobey God’s Word, and become disloyal to him. He is trying to lead other people astray.
A seducer leads somebody astray from their duties.
In the latter times they are actually going to listen to these kinds of people. What is going to happen is they’re going to believe a lie as though it’s true. They will be damned because they didn’t believe the truth of what Jesus taught. They will be listening to the doctrines of devils.
Remember, the devil does not want to do God’s will, nor does he want other people to do it. His purpose is to try to lead others away from Christ. Sometime the end time Antichrist spoken of in the scripture will usurp over everything that is called God.
He will usurp over all religions. He will proclaim himself that he is God. The devil hates God. The devil does not want to submit to God. The devil does not want to obey God. The devil is never going to apologize to God. Towards the end, people are going to be seduced completely by devils. What do you think the devil appears like? He can appear like an angel of light. They can be dressed up in fancy robes and looking very religious.
Where do you think the devil would want to seduce people? Probably in a false church somewhere and leading others away by trickery. He’s trying to seduce others away from Christ. I read that they are trying to put all kinds of different people into leadership in supposed Christian groups to turn them away from the teachings of Jesus. It’s going on as we speak. Jesus warned, judge not by appearance. Paul warned about spiritual darkness in high places.
These same people will speak lies in hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy is somebody who is pretending to be something that they are not. I stress the word pretending. Imagine pretending to be a violinist in an orchestra and you sat there during a concert, but you didn’t know anything about the violin and you didn’t even know how to play it. That is hypocrisy.
Remember all the religious leaders spoken of in the scriptures when Jesus was here upon the Earth . The truth is, a lot of them did not believe in Jesus taught. They didn’t believe in His message and eventually they wanted to kill him and put Him on the cross.
That’s why Jesus warned to beware of those who walk around in long robes and have an appearance externally of religion, but they do not have any love for the truth inside of their hearts. That is religious hypocrisy.
I’ve always said, it’s kind of like being an actor in a play. People will play a part in the theater, but the person on the stage is a pretend character.
The Apostle taught Timothy, you know my faith. Timothy had spent a lot of time with Paul and he knew what Paul believed inside of his heart. It’s different than somebody who just wants to wear a fancy robe or to have a name tag on that says the Apostle so and so. All they want is be up in a Pulpit somewhere to be noticed and be the center of attention. Jesus’s pulpit was a fishing boat! To be honest with you, it would have been far better off for these people to go to acting school and go into a different career.
They will speak lies in hypocrisy. Instead of preaching love for Christ, they preach hate and discord. Instead of preaching obedience, they will tell you that you don’t have to obey what Jesus taught. They will claim that he Bible was written years ago and we have progressed since then. This is what’s going on in society today and it will get worse and worse and worse until the day Jesus returns. You can believe that.
These people are going to leave the truth of Christianity and walk away from the church. They will listen to false teachings and they will speak lies. The reason why they do this is because their conscience is seared with a hot iron.
The conscience is the inner sense of what is right or wrong in ones conduct or motives. The conscience is what tells you that you were wrong and I shouldn’t have done that. It makes you feel bad so you apologize for it. These people will not apologize because their conscience is burned like a overcooked piece of meat.
I burned the side of my arm one time on boiling water and I can’t feel anything there anymore because I burned the nerve endings. When you burn your conscience, you don’t have feelings for other people, or for doing the will of christ.
A seared conscience turns into hate. It’s a hate for others and a hate for God’s truth. It turns into an unwillingness to serve Christ and what he taught.
What people did to Jesus 2,000 years ago they are doing it to him again today.
As I said, if you make a mistake along the way in the church, we can come boldly to the Cross of Christ and confess our sin and get forgiven. You can also apologize and forgive others who have wronged you as Christ forgives us.
The people spoken of in our passage have turned away from Christ completely and what he taught. They’ve turned away from the narrow road that they were brought up on and raised in and went back out on the wide Road. They’ve turned away from their biblical faith.
People’s consciences today are burned. They don’t feel bad about going against Christ or what he taught. Peter was very sad when he denied the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew that he had done the wrong thing.
The humble Publican wept bitterly for what he had done and asked God to have mercy on him. He was forgiven for His sins and Justified.
The people in our study could not care less about hurting others or Christ. They have no feelings of contrition or remorse for what they’ve done wrong. That’s the result of a burned conscience.
The road to eternal life is extremely narrow so make you strive to enter into it the straight gate. It’s a lot narrower than….
…….Rope Street
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching tlkjbc, or by going to hipcast, buzzsprout or amazon, or by going to our blog at tlkjbc.com, or I suppose, you can find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody. ❤️
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