A PREMIUM ON GRATITUDE 1 Timothy 4:1-5

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1 A PREMIUM ON GRATITUDE 1 Timothy 4:1-5 January 20, 2013 Providence INTRODUCTION: Last month when you sent your Christmas cards, did you go through the list and ask yourself, Do I really need to send them one this year? Or have you ever give someone a gift, invited them to dinner, babysat for their kids not because you really wanted to, but because you felt that you needed to you owed it to them? The subtle idea of payback creeps in unnoticed in a wide range of things we do. That inclination works well in relationships built upon a cycle of give, receive, repay. But that creates a huge problem for followers of Christ when we come into a whole new world where grace allows no room for payback no way to earn back an upper hand, or an even hand in the nature of the relationship we have with the Lord. Gratitude is the only acceptable response to God s grace in Christ Jesus. We can never pay Him back for dying for our sins sacrifice sufficiently to make us all square up the ante by adding on more outward behavioral changes so we can show Him we actually deserve His love and grace. With the idea of paying God back comes the danger Paul confronts in this passage today. False teachers have already started influencing the church at Ephesus, as we have already seen in previous chapters of 1 Timothy. Now Paul addresses one of the consequences of some of their false teaching the idea that followers of Jesus Christ can compensate for grace by austere life choices and forbidden behaviors. Gratitude gets buried under legalism, grace gets abandoned in favor of religious duty. THESIS: Everything created by God can be received with gratitude once we know His grace and live by faith in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The natural direction of the human heart is inclined away from God. Therefore we will drift from Him until we have moved far enough to run from Him. Some will hold onto the pretense that they are followers of Christ but with no real intention of actually acting in a manner worthy of Him. I. WITHOUT A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF GOD S GRACE, SOME WILL FALL AWAY FROM THE FAITH. --Paul s affirmation of true faith in Jesus Christ at the end of 1 Timothy 3 prompts him now to warn young pastor Timothy that not all who say the words will remain true to them. --He begins this next section with this observation: 1Tim. 4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons -- In later times usually refers to the present age of the church, the time between the resurrection of Christ and the second coming of Christ. --The Spirit explicitly says connects what Paul is saying here to Timothy with what has been spoken by the Spirit in the words of Jesus prophesied by the Spirit through the prophets of old and in all ways revealed through the Spirit in all of Scripture. A. GETTING THE WORDS RIGHT DOES NOT MEAN THE HEART IS RIGHT! --Certainly some of the same people responsible for leading others astray could recite the creeds correctly, sing the hymns forcefully but at the same time miss the meaning entirely! --Paul was concerned that those under Timothy s leadership in Ephesus had learned the correct words and could say the right things, but the reality of seeing many fall away pointed out that the meaning of the words had not taken any root in their hearts. B. GETTING THE GRACE MESSAGE WRONG ALWAYS LEADS TO FAITHLESS RELIGION

2 2 --The gospel of grace is so contrary to the human inclination toward acceptance through performance that without proper teaching, all religious effort flounders into various attempts to gain favor with God through outward actions. --The idea of grace unearned, unmerited favior battles against the idea of human ability to earn God s favor. --Left on our own, we always drift toward faith in our own actions to please God rather than toward faith in Christ s perfect sufficiency to delight the heart of God. -- Faithless religion is nothing more than unbelief, distrust in God s provision for our life and salvation through faith in Christ alone. --How does this happen, especially in a church as well-grounded as Ephesus where Paul had been their pastor/teacher, Timothy had been building them up in the faith and leading the charge to reach their culture with the gospel? II. WITHOUT AN UNSHAKABLE COMMITMENT TO GOD S TRUTH, MANY WILL DRIFT TOWARD DISTRUST. --No church in no period of history, nor in any cultural context, is immune to this drift toward unbelief, this slipping away toward trust in the futile works of man and distrust of the atoning work of Jesus Christ. 1Tim. 4:1-2 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, A. TWO DOMINANT FACTORS CONTRIBUTE TO THIS DRIFT: HUMAN NATURE AND DEMONIC DECEPTION. 1. Human nature drifts away from faith --Paul points out some factors that lead us to this drift the gradual move away from trust in God. a. Lies are more attractive than truth when people prefer their own ways to God s. --People will listen to deceitful spirits more readily than they will to the truth. ILLUS. Who do you ask when you want a good opinion of yourself? Someone who will tell you the truth, or someone who will tell you what you want to hear? If I want to keep eating what I want without worrying about how I look with added weight, I could ask my doctor if I need to lose weight and be prepared for the bad news or I could ask someone who is much larger than I am, and hope they will say I look great (without saying it, but meaning compared to them). If I want to continue to behave in a questionable manner, I could ask what God wants and be prepared for the bad news that He calls that behavior sin or I could ask those who are likely to give me the green light to do what I want, believe what I want. b. Consciences are sealed off by the hypocrisy of living according to those lies. --The word Paul uses when he says that people have seared their own consciences as with a branding iron, is the word from which we get the English word, cauterize. ILLUS. When I had MOH s surgery on my face to remove basal cell carcinoma, as the surgeon cut he was careful to cauterize the cuts and seal off the bleeding with heat. There are two images contained in the Greek word:

3 3 1) The idea of marking so in Paul s words, the false teaching of Ephesus was leaving an indelible mark of unbelief on those whose consciences had been seared by the lies. 2) The idea of deadening here, the deadening of the moral sensitivities of those who had drifted away and been numbed to their guilt, desensitized to their sin. --Once that deadening marks our response to true godliness, our consciences remain silent while we do things contrary to the expressed will of God. --Hoping no one will condemn us, or even contradict us, we allow dead consciences to dull our spiritual senses and drift inevitably into spiritual deadness! 2. Demonic deception sears the conscience --Of course the source of that deception is Satan who perpetuates his lies with subtle inaccuracies with noble sounding falsehoods and with just enough truth attached to bait the hook of his demonic doctrines. 1Tim. 4:1-2 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, --Jesus refers to him as the father of lies (John 8:44). So what happens when we lose sight of God s perfect grace in Jesus Christ and fall prey to deceptive thinking? B. TWO FAITH-SUBSTITUTES MASQUERADE AS RIGHTEOUSNESS: MARITAL ABSTINENCE AND DIETARY RESTRICTIONS 1 Timothy 4:3 men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. 1. Those who forbid marriage --Some among the Ephesians were promoting the idea that marriage was a spiritual failure and that the truly spiritual man and woman abstained from marriage as a sign of their true devotion to God. --Vestiges of that still remain in the practices of some churches, but Paul confronts that premise and points out that only those who have been deceived and misled about the nature of God s grace in Christ fall prey to this kind of prohibition. Note: According to the Scriptures, marriage is a divine institution, created by God for His glory and the good of the human race. To forbid what He created for good merely shows that those who demand such a practice care more about their own rule and traditions and imaginations than they do about what God says in His Word! Although He does affirm singleness as a unique calling and commends those who are given that particular gift, there is nothing gained in your walk with God by rejecting marriage. 2. Those who restrict foods --In the Law of Moses, there were dietary restrictions given for the protection of the people and to set them apart in a pluralistic culture. --But with the coming of Christ, those things were no longer necessary because the character of the heart sets us apart now instead of the uniqueness of our menu! --In each case, Paul s conclusion is simple that those things forbidden by those who have been set free are not the result of godliness or demonstrations of righteousness.

4 4 --Rather, the things taken away for the sake of proving spiritual superiority are nothing more than examples of self-righteousness, not the righteousness that come from faith in Jesus Christ! Two more current manifestations of the same tendency add to instead of take way : --You may be wondering what this has to do with today, since very few followers of Christ today suggest abstaining from anything like marriage or food. --But in our day, the same problem shows up not in what is denied, but in what is demanded! --The issues confronting Timothy in Ephesus as he led the church there are still alive and well today that ceremony and outward behaviors become substitutes for a life of grace through faith. --I will mention just two that show up in nearly every church I have ever known and continue to get in the way of genuine trust in Christ alone. --Just like self-denial regarding food and marriage were indications of a failure to understand God s grace, so the two dominate versions of this failure also show that people are more inclined to depend on ceremony and outward behavior than Christ alone! 3. Those who depend on ceremony --Some have come to depend on worship forms and traditions that once produced a desirable effect, and without realizing that it was the Lord, not the form, people insist on clinging to the outward when the effect was born of the Spirit from within! --The practices themselves become more important than the purposes they are intended to support. 4. Those who rely on methodology --Instead of trusting by faith in the Word of God and prayer, many have come to rely on methodologies and rules that promise results without any need to rely on the Lord. Parenting Education Quiet Times Witnessing Health/Wealth --The assumptions behind these practices is simple, just like those Paul is condemning in Ephesus: God has to produce good results if I follow the right rules! He owes it to me if I am sincere and consistent! III. WITHOUT A PROFOUND APPRECIATION FOR GOD S GOODNESS, INGRATITUDE WILL LEAD TO UNBELIEF. --Paul reminds us that the first indication that we are heading in the wrong direction is that we lose sight of three things: God s goodness Godly gratitude God s holiness. 1 Timothy 4:4-5 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude; 5 for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer. A. EVERYTHING CREATED BY GOD IS GOOD --If we forget this, we begin to believe the lie that in the created order there are things that are evil in themselves and to be avoided forbidden kept from pure eyes and hands.

5 5 --Yet the Lord made all things and declared them to be good in the beginning, at creation. --Therefore, the troublesome folks at Ephesus tried to divide the creation into what they saw as bad from what they had determined was good going so far as to contradict God s own declarations! ILLUS. Paul warns us Don t let anyone rob you of the joy of what is intended for pleasure! Some would try to say that the views of the Ephesian deceivers is echoed in what is now called a Puritanical view of sex and marriage. In fact, the Puritans rescued a biblical view of such things and taught that they were good and glorious when enjoyed in God s way. For centuries before, the Ephesian error had continued to influence the views of the church until God s ways were restored and returned to a biblical perspective marriage is good!! And so is every good gift that comes from the Father s hand all creation declares His glory and with it, demonstrates His goodness! B. EVERYTHING CREATED BY GOD CAN BE RECEIVED WITH THANKSGIVING --The missing element in all of this is gratitude we are to give thanks to the good that God has done for us and given to us. --What is the greatest enemy to having a thankful heart? Entitlement self-righteous ideas that we deserve and have earned every good thing we have. --You will not be thankful to God for what you think you have worked hard to gain for yourself. ILLUS. People who depend on their outward behavior and compliance with their rules for godliness will seldom be grateful people. They will always think that God owes them something because of their attempts to be godly and righteous on their own terms. Their conscience gets seared like the Pharisees who cared little about love, but a great deal about propriety as they defined it. Unloving, ungracious, unthankful people consider their own religion to be superior to the grace of God in Christ Jesus and will fight for their manmade stuff while trampling His grace under foot! --But wait a minute I can hear the wheels turning in your head! --Does this mean that since God made sex, I can throw off all the regulations regarding it? that since He made marijuana, I can use it without concern? that since He made food and drink, I can eat and drink whatever I want and as much as I want? C. EVERYTHING CREATED BY GOD IS MADE HOLY AS IT LINES UP WITH HIS WORD --Paul s last words in these verses can easily be overlooked! 1 Timothy 4:4-5 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude; 5 for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer. 1. Am I thankful to God for everything I have and get to do? 2. Is what I am about to do holy according to God s Word and confirmed by prayer? 1Cor. 6:12 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. 1Cor. 10:23 All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. --In this passage, Paul does not grant us carte blanche to do whatever we want in any way we want as long as we are thankful!

6 6 --He says that the criteria is simple if it can be viewed as holy because it is consistent with God s word and prayer, then we have a gracious green light to enjoy life on His terms and enjoy it to the fullest measure! CONCLUSION: All it takes for you to fall away is stop paying attention to God s word and prayer, and allow yourself to build you life on man s efforts and vain religious perspectives. Take-ways: 1. Does your sense of spiritual well-being depend more on how well you keep the rules of your religious practices, or on how gracious Jesus Christ is in His perfect mercy? 2. Do you find more satisfaction in doing righteous things or in trusting in and treasuring a righteous Savior? 3. Are you more grateful for how good you are doing lately or how good God is eternally? Our outward performance can never take the place of an inward transformation. The truly transformed heart sees everything God created as good and gives thanks for it!! The truly transformed heart sees everything as holy when it is received by means of God s word and prayer! We are in the later times of which Paul speaks. Therefore it should not surprise us when fellow believers show signs of drifting away from the faith. Our responsibility and holy calling is to anchor ourselves by faith in the sweet doctrine of God s grace and determine to stand firm with grateful joy for every good thing that comes our way by His glorious lovingkindness. January Providence Baptist Church David Horner, 2013 Sermon outlines are copyrighted in the event of future publication. They may be used for preaching and teaching purposes but may not be published or sold.