A Bold Quest for Truth in the Shadow of Spiritual Deceit

Discover the power of discernment and godly perseverance as I take you through 1 Timothy chapter four, confronting the deceptions that threaten our faith in a solo episode. With Joe under the weather and our friend Jason sending his blessings, we're peeling back the layers of false doctrine and the impact of a seared conscience on our ability to navigate the moral complexities of today's world. You'll come away with a steadfast understanding of how to maintain purity of belief, the joy of God's gifts within the bounds of gratefulness, and the eternal rewards of spiritual discipline.

Venture with me into a heartfelt conversation about our collective role as Christians in laboring for the Gospel, enduring challenges, and effecting transformative change in nations guided by divine principles. Without a guest to exchange thoughts with, it's just you and me, exploring the urgency of taking action, praying for one another, and embarking on a mission to reshape countries under God's guidance. The dialogue may be personal, yet the call to action is universal, inviting you to join the movement towards a better world, empowered by faith and united in purpose.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

I mean, how many of you out there wonder what does it mean to be an adult? What does it mean to be a man? What does it mean to be a woman, a lady? What does it mean to grow up? This is not. Oh yeah, I check a box on Sunday. No, no, no, no. Everything that this book says should be lived through your life. The only way that happens is through the Holy Spirit working through you.

Speaker 1: 0:33

Welcome back to Young America everybody. Today it's just me, because Joe is sick this week. So hopefully he'll be back, lord willing, with us next week and, don't worry, he is bringing you the five minute Friday this week as well, so keep tuned for that tomorrow. But today I wanted to go over 1 Timothy, chapter four, because that's a chapter that me and Joe and Jason or other partner in crime you could say have been going over in our Bible study together. That we do every week, or almost every week at least when we have time to do it, and it's been a blessing to me, so I hope it'll be a blessing to you.

Speaker 1: 1:04

Now let's jump right in with 1 Timothy, chapter four and verse one. 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, have in their conscience seared with a hot iron. So before we just keep going and I'll read it all in context but the first thing that we see here obviously is in verse one and two, that in the latter times, or at which the latter times are now, that's happening now it's ever since Jesus went back to heaven in the ascension there will be people who preach false doctrines There'll be people give heed to. Later on, it says in verse seven, he will old wives fables and give heed to just crazy profaneness and just a lot of. I mean, that's where you get a lot of cult stuff too, even. But you know, in the latter times there'll be a lot of this. And then it says Speaking lies and hypocrisy. So sometimes they'll say stuff and it'll sound really good. I mean, consider the amount of things we hear every day that sound really good but really it's just in hypocrisy, it's not actually true, it doesn't actually matter. And then having their conscience seared with a hot iron, and of course the false teachers that we're talking about here, their conscience is seared with a hot iron. But it's not just them.

Speaker 1: 2:30

Think about how many Christians you know. This is a little bit off of what it's saying here, but it's true. Think about how many Christians you know who do things that are wrong and don't even think twice about it. How many of us are?

Speaker 1: 2:44

Consciences are seared. Is my conscience seared, you know that's an important question to ask. There's the point to bring out. You know this is a Young America podcast. I think a lot of young Americans consciences are seared as to what's right and what's wrong, and even just America as a whole. We've seared our conscience as to, you know, what life is, the right to life, what you can do with your body. You know the list could go on forever, but it's we've. We've seared our consciences.

Speaker 1: 3:13

And then continuing on. So in uh, in verse three, it's that right after they says let me read verse two, that'll make more sense. The way speaking lies in hypocrisy. Having their conscience seared with a hot iron forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God has 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 be received with Thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. So there's several things here, starting in. Verse three says people who speak lies in hypocrisy and the ones who give heed to, uh, seducing spirits and doctrines of devils and false teaching Do things like forbid to marry, and that reminds me of Catholics and priesthood. That's a whole nother tangent. We could get on. We're not do this in this episode, but this is just an example and I'm sure there's other cults or religions that have done similar things. And commanding to abstain from each, would God which God hath created, to be received with Thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.

Speaker 1: 4:18

After the flood, god gave the animals to know what to eat and you know, of course, during the Old Testament times and the Israelites, there were certain things they couldn't eat and that was by God's law and that was God's covenant at the time, with the promise of the new covenant to come. And then, once the new covenant came, like it says here I mean this pretty much sums it up it says for every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with Thanksgiving. So there is no food that is forbidden us, and in a sense it reminds me of the passage where it talks about Not eating food offered to idols. If it's gonna be a stumbling block and that sort of thing, like there is things that you should avoid, obviously I don't think you should. Well, I don't know if it's obvious or not, but I don't believe you should drink or do things that would harm your body or impair your, your judgment. In that sense, I believe we're supposed to be filled with the spirit. Instead, like the verse says, be not drunk with wine but rather be filled with the spirit.

Speaker 1: 5:24

That's paraphrase, but that's pretty close to what it is, and so, but all that to say that God has given us the food on this earth to eat and it's perfectly okay to eat if we receive it with Thanksgiving, and In verse 5 it says for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. And this is just something interesting and this isn't the main point of the passage. But you know I, as Christians, oftentimes in the people who run around in my circles and the people who run around with Joe circles, you know we pray for the food before we eat it, just that of habit. But the reality is I mean it's right here in God's word says to do it for to sanctified by the word of God and prayer. Pray for your food and thank the Lord. That's how you receive it when Thanksgiving is. Thank the Lord for providing it and that, in this sense, thanks buys it. Because you know he's talking and to you know Paul deals a lot with Jews, like I've been reading in Galatians for a different Bible study.

Speaker 1: 6:23

Or he's talking to the Jews and Gentiles and comparing the two and how we rebuked Peter for Going off with the Jews when really we're all one in Christ, and how it's just it's. It's. Everything is available for us to eat if you do it in the right spirit, and that is why you should avoid some things. If you can't do it in the right spirit and in good conscience, um, man, that's a whole nother thing we could get into With. You know, if it's gonna be a stumbling block, don't do it. My name is. It's just the interesting point I wanted to bring out.

Speaker 1: 6:58

Then if we continue on so continuing on here, so you have verses one through five says avoid false doctrine, and Then it kind of continues on in that grain, and then we get to verse six. It says If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things that shall be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, were unto thou has attained now. Let's just stop right there. So what is he referring to? Put them brethren of remembrance of these things. He's talking about verses one through five. He's reminding them. You know, these false doctrines are gonna come, that are from seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils and hypocrites and People whose conscience and seers you know. It's gonna come, so remember and be ready for it and be prepared with the gospel and know the truth. And then. So that's verse six. So that's what we should do as Christians, you know, just applying that to us real quick is like we, we know these. There's a lot of lies out there in the world and we have the truth. So we need to be prepared and ready and in remembrance of these things so that we know how to deal with it when it comes.

Speaker 1: 7:58

Now. Verse seven says but refuse profane and old wives fables and exercise Thyself rather unto godliness, for bodily exercise profited little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. Let's just stop right there for a minute. Um, there again. Verse seven refuse profane and old wives fables, that's sort of that ties in with the doctrines of devils and in those sorts of things and those that depart from the faith. And Even back in the beginning of verse Timothy, in verse here, let me, here we go, verse four. It says neither give he defables and endless genealogies was minister Christians rather than godly edifying, which is in faith.

Speaker 1: 8:40

So do you study this book. You see it again and again and again. Don't give heed to all the old tales, don't give heed to the legends, don't give heed to the stuff that isn't true. Give heed to God's word. That's why we're supposed to be doing, is Christians, is giving heed to God's word. And be careful what you let in. That's another point we could bring up is you need to be careful what you're exposing yourself to and you know I'm in this boat too but be careful what you watch and what you listen to. And and it's it's, it's amazing how the one you should actually start to think about it how much the world's Ideology gets in your mind as a Christian. So we need to be careful to refuse the things that aren't true and rather exercise, exercise Ourself unto godliness. And Then in verse nine.

Speaker 1: 9:27

Let's go back to verse nine here. It says this is a faithful saying 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, especially of those that believe. I Mean this. Yeah, I like this verse and this is kind of going off a little bit, but we just got done talking about how we should refuse wives tables and rather Exercise I self to godliness. And we have to comparison there of bodily exercise propheteth little in the long run compared to godliness. That doesn't mean we shouldn't exercise. I think Christians should care about their bodies because these are the bodies God gave us and our bodies the temple of the Holy Spirit. But you know it's we need to make sure that our main focus is Godliness and which is profitable into all things.

Speaker 1: 10:15

And then, continuing on in that vein, it says this is faithful saying and worthy of all the Acceptation, for therefore, we both labor and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God who is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe. Let's just spend a minute here. Number one we trust in a living God, which is amazing. Think about all the other religions in the world. They're God is dead and and their faith is dead, but ours isn't. We can trust in the living God and I was just talking about this earlier this morning. It's like we were talking about we were in Galatians, chapter Three, relations, chapter three, and we were talking about how God gave us his promises and we can put our faith in those promises and we can bank on them. And here's sort of the same thing. We trust in a living God. We put our trust in a God who is alive and who does keep his word, and that's just a blessing.

Speaker 1: 11:06

And because of that reason, because God is Living and God is who he says he is, we we can gladly Labor and suffer approach, and I mean because we live in America, it's very easy to wimp out for some reason and not want to suffer reproach and not work hard for God. And that what we live in America. We have religious freedom. Think about all the other countries in the world. I mean most other countries. I mean you could think about the Middle East. You could think about a lot of communist Asian countries. They hate Christians, they want to do everything they can to stomp them out, and yet people are still getting saved and people are still doing what's right. That is a rebuke to us here in America, where we have it easy.

Speaker 1: 11:54

The worst we get is not a comments online Like what is that going to do? What's the worst people could do? If you try to give them a track, say no. I mean maybe, but we're supposed to suffer reproach, we're supposed to die daily and take up our cross and follow God, and that's not an easy thing to do. But that's. Christ lives in us and he's holding us in His hand and it's His power and His strength. So what are we doing? And my question is is do we labor enough to get to the point where we suffer reproach? Are we working hard enough to where we do get opposition? Or are we just so lazy and scared of the comments or scared of whatever we're scared of? I mean, honestly, what do we have to be scared of? And trust me, this is a rebuke to me too. But what are we doing? What are we doing?

Speaker 1: 12:49

Our goal is to tell the world that God is the Savior of all men. Like it says the next phrase in this verse, god can be the Savior of all men. He came to die to be the Savior of all men, but he is the Savior of those that believe. It's kind of like you can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped. God has the ability to save everyone, but only if they accept His gift. And the only way more people will accept His gift is if we tell them and we have the perfect ability.

Speaker 1: 13:20

Think about the opportunities we have at our fingertips. We have podcasts, we have media, we have our phones, we have our mouths. We go places all the time. We're always socializing with somebody, we're always ordering food or checking out or something. There's opportunities everywhere, and yet we don't take them. What are we doing? That's our whole mission. We have the Great Commission. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations. That's our job, and we won't even teach our own. What are we doing? Anyways, that was my rant on that verse.

Speaker 1: 13:51

Moving on verse 11, it says going back to verse 12. I love verse 12. I love verses like this. I love Titus 2. I did a 5 minute Friday for a short on that the other day. It lays it out because this is a young American podcast. My passion obviously is for other young people like me. It lays out what we're supposed to do right here.

Speaker 1: 14:52

How many of you out there wonder what does it mean to be an adult? What does it mean to be a man? What does it mean to be a woman, a lady? What does it mean to grow up? How do you gain the respect of those that are older than you? I think, honestly, deep down inside every single one of us, we want to be respected by those who are older than us. We want respected by our friends too, but we want the respect of those that are older than us. It lays it out right here Let no man despise thy youth. How do you let no man despise thy youth? By being an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith and purity. Here's a list right here. Not that lists are easy to keep, necessarily, but that's reality.

Speaker 1: 15:40

Now. First thing is in word and will lump in conversation too. The things that you say and the things that you do should bring forth sound doctrine, and it should be correct and be an example of the believer in what you say. There's so many ways this could go. Are you tearing down other people? Are you trying to build other people up? Are you making sure what you're saying about the Bible is true and accurate. That's one of the most important things in life, because this is real life. Christian faith is real. This is not. Oh yeah, I check a box on Sunday, no, no, no, no. Everything that this book says should be lived through your life. The only way that happens is through the Holy Spirit working through you. We're humans and we mess up, I know that, but Everything that you do, you need to get your focus off of yourself and your conversation off of yourself, and you need to put it on God and say things that are true and accurate. It's very, very important.

Speaker 1: 16:47

The next thing is in charity or in love. Now, I mean this would be an interesting thing to study more. I should have studied it more before this. But we're supposed to love others that the way they are supposed to be loved, and you know that's hard to do. Let's be honest. I mean God. We can't love like God can, and yet he still loves us. And we need to love others. We need the way we talk to our friends needs to be a loving, godly way. The way we talk to our family needs to be in a loving, godly way. The way that we talk with others, whether they agree with us or not, needs to be in a loving and godly way. You know it's not true love.

Speaker 1: 17:36

The real kind of Christian love is not the ushi-goshi oh you just gotta love everybody, kind of stuff that you hear preached so much. It's sort of. I mean, there's a lot of facets to it, but it's number one. It's a decision, because you're not always going to feel like loving somebody or being kind to them or whatever word you want to throw in there. It's a decide. You decide this is what I'm going to do because I know it to be right. The second thing is is you love God by keeping his commandments and doing his word, and if you're doing that, then you can love others properly.

Speaker 1: 18:17

Now the next word here is in spirit, and then in faith and purity. You know, if I would have been smart, I would have looked up the word spirit before, but it reminds me and this is a point that could be made is that what's your attitude? I mean, I know me, I would get bent out of shape over nothing and, let's be honest, I mean maybe life is bad, but life could be way worse In spirit. We need to be filled with the spirit as well. There's a lot of things we could say about that word, but it's just. You know, that's one thing. I don't know if this is exactly what I was talking about, but what's your attitude? And you know, think about letting no man despise your youth. A lot of times we young people have really bad attitudes. Let's just be honest with ourselves here for a minute. I mean, I know I have bad attitude sometimes, probably more often than I should, but others see that, and if you want respect in a sense, just on a practical level, you need to have the right attitude.

Speaker 1: 19:22

Now the next thing is in faith. Now, what's faith? Faith is trust and dependence, dependence on the Lord, and you know that's another thing we talked about in Galatians is that. You know it's. You must depend. We as young people, must depend on God and lean, not on our own understanding. That was another five minute Friday. We must depend on God and what he's done for us and show that to others.

Speaker 1: 19:51

And then, finally, impurity. I mean there's a lot of ways, obviously. I mean the main way people think about it is in how shall we say? Relationships and that sort of thing. But you could even say purity in word, purity in conversation, like in all these words that we just mentioned, purity just in life in general. What is your? Are your motives pure? Are you pure in every way, shape and form? Because people can see that People can see if you have an angle on things or if you're true and genuine.

Speaker 1: 20:23

Moving on to verse 13, it says till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine, and I think this ties in with let no man despise thy youth. If you're young, we're supposed to be growing and you know, I always wish I had the mindset I had now when I was younger. But we're always supposed to be growing and one way to grow is giving tendance to reading. We need God's word for Pete's sake, I'll get back to that maybe eventually but to exhortation, so preaching and doctrine and what God's word says, and be growing in that and listen to what your pastor has to say and be reading and studying the Bible for yourself and be learning and growing. I mean, how else are you supposed to know what you need to know? We're so young and dumb. We don't have the wisdom that we need. I don't think we'll ever have the wisdom that we need, but God can provide it, and the only way we're going to get it is if we study his word Now, 14, neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on the hands of the Presbytery.

Speaker 1: 21:18

Meditate upon these things, so everything it just was said. Give thyself holy to them all. So and I mean this is back to make God the focus, and not yourself that thy profiting may appear to all, and that kind of refers back to let no man despise thy youth. Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine and continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. Now, one thing I want to focus on this will probably be the last thought that I bring for today is neglect, not the gift that is in thee.

Speaker 1: 21:49

God has given each one of us young people, and each one of every single person, a gift to be used for his glory, and so many times I feel like I see people who have gift. They have so much potential. There's so much that could be done for the Lord or even just in life in general, for Pete's sake, but we're too lazy to get up and use it. God has given each of us a purpose. Find it. Ask what you can do. Serve the Lord with your whole heart. That's a key to revival, like we talked about in our last episode. You know is service, and what are we doing as young people? Just standing alone and doing nothing?

Speaker 1: 22:30

Now is the time to act. There's no time to lose. There's people who need to be saved, countries that need to be turned around for God and things to be done, and someone has to step up, and it's going to be me and it should be you. Let's do it together. I'll pray for you and you pray for us. God bless America. I'll talk to you next time. Thank you for listening to Young America. If you enjoyed the show, please consider sharing it with a friend, and if you want to see more content from us, please check the links in the description below and consider supporting the show. God bless America.