Transcription
Turn your Bibles with me to First Timothy chapter 4, verses 1 through 5. Let me read it to you. It says, "But the Spirit expressly says that in the latter or later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars, seared in their own conscience as a branding iron. Men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God hath created, get this, to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with, you see it, gratitude. For it is sanctified by means of the word of God in prayer."
He makes a correlation between demonic activity and ingratitude. In other words, if you are an ungrateful person, and especially if you are an ungrateful Christian, you are one who is living under demonic influence. Now, that sounds a little bit like overkill. And yet, how do we feel about kids who don't have manners, who don't say please or thank you? That bothers us because gratitude ought to be part of good training and appreciation of others. Well, what's true among men is also true among God and true among the realm of the spirit.
Let me look at four things quickly with you. The problem of thanksgiving. He tithed it in these first through three verses to a problem having to do with a spiritual issue and not just a human issue. He says that there would be these deceitful spirits and this teaching of demons. So, we are entering spiritual warfare. It would come through men who have their consciences seared with a hot iron. In other words, they're cold-hearted, hard-hearted. They have lost their ability to feel. And notice how it reflects itself. Men will forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods.
To appreciate this, you have to understand that there was in the world at this time, and even in our own day, especially in the West, a view where nature was divided between spirit and matter. That is, things that were matter were viewed as unholy, things that were spirit were viewed as holy. So you would have, we would call it today, the secular versus the sacred, where there would be this wall, this division between that which is tangible and bad, and that which was intangible and therefore good. The spirit realm versus the material realm.
There were these false teachers under the influence of demons who were critiquing Christians, the Christians of the church at Ephesus, and saying certain things were bad. "You shouldn't eat this. This is bad. You shouldn't have this relationship. This is bad." He pulls out two very popular things: forbidding marriage. They were not only against the institution, their particular focus was on sexuality, and forbidding foods, saying that this was unclean. "You don't eat this."
So the problem is that false teachers, under the influence of demons, get this, were keeping Christians from fully enjoying what God had provided. And I don't know about you, but a lot of Christians don't get a chance to give thanks because they're not enjoying everything God has given them. If your Christian life is a negative, if your Christian life is measured by only what you can't do now that you are a Christian, you have been duped by demons. The Christian life should be made up more of what I enjoy under God rather than what I can't enjoy unto God.
Now, let me give you a biblical illustration of this lack of gratitude that shows up as the demonic doctrine. We reviewed it in detail some weeks ago, but let's look at it again. Now, remember Eve in the garden. Satan, who's an angel, head of all the demons, got Eve to question the goodness of God. Satan got Eve to focus on the one tree she couldn't eat from, rather than the 1,000 trees she could eat from. He said, "Do you see that tree in the middle of the garden? If God was really on your side, He wouldn't keep that tree from you. He would let you eat that tree like He let you eat all the other trees." And the reason God won't let you do it is because He's jealous, and He knows that if you eat of that tree, you're going to be a little god just like Him. And he got Eve to focus on the one thing that she couldn't have, and she lost sight, and get this, of the goodness of God. When she lost sight of all the other trees. God told Adam, "From every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but if the tree, this one tree in the middle of the garden, don't eat it, unless you die." Satan got her to focus on the one and caused her to lose sight of the many.
Listen, if you live your Christian life with ingratitude, if you only look at what you don't have or can't have because you're a Christian, then you're missing out on maximizing your spiritual potential. Because the Christian life is much more made out of what you can enjoy under God as opposed to all the restrictions of God. He calls it a doctrine of demons that limits your Christian life to a miserable experience of "can't do this, don't do this, don't go there, don't be this." There are certain things you can't do with a Christian, but He says here that it's a doctrine of demons that limits you from being able to fully enjoy that which God has provided.
In Romans 1, where the world is condemned by God, notice part of this has to do with the spiritual issue of gratitude. Verse 18 says, "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold down the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God has made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, has been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse."
Now watch this. "For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, nor give what thanks, but they became futile in their speculation, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the image and form of corruptible man's birds, four-footed beasts, and crawling creatures." He says the essence of autonomous evil man is that they lose sight of giving God the glory. And worse yet, limited to a holiday once a year. God is going to get more prayers tomorrow than He's had all year long, perhaps from some even in the house tonight, because we have lost sight of being grateful. And He says that that is idolatry. He says lack of gratitude means that you are worshiping the creature more than the Creator.
Well, now, you may say, "Well, I'm tired of having to say thanks to God." Now, what would you tell your child who's saying, "I'm sorry, I'm tired of saying thanks, Mom and Daddy, every time you do something for me"? You would tell them that, "Well, maybe I'll stop doing stuff, so you don't have anything to say thanks for." They have forgotten God, He says, and that is idolatry. God created all of this for man to enjoy under His control, and it is a doctrine of demons that turns the Christian life into a drudgery that you don't enjoy. Don't blame God if you have a consistently miserable Christian life. Blame you that you have lost sight of giving God thanks.
We'll look at that closely in a moment, but look at with me Israel. Israel was told in Deuteronomy chapter 6. Look how important this was to God. Deuteronomy 6, verse 10: "Then it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which you swore of your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you great and splendid cities which you did not build, and houses full of good things which you did not fill, and huge systems which you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees which you did not plan, and you have shall eat and be satisfied." Then, "watch yourself," we'd say today, "check yourself, lest you forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall fear only the Lord your God, and worship Him, and swear by His name. You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the people who surround you. For the Lord your God is in the midst of you, He is a jealous God. Otherwise, the anger of the Lord your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off of the face of the earth."
Gratitude. I wonder, has anyone in this place adopted the doctrine of demons and have forgotten to be grateful? Have forgotten to live a grateful kind of life? He's not just saying "thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you." He's talking about a grateful heart. "Give thanks with a grateful heart," and that ought to be an orientation. It is the doctrine of demons that causes us to lose sight of the goodness of God.
Secondly, the priority of thanksgiving. He says that the second half of verse 3, "which God hath created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth." That's a powerful verse. The most grateful people in all of the world, according to verse 3, should be those who believe and know the truth. He says those Christians who really know who God is and what God does and has done, ought to be the most grateful people around because they know that "every good and perfect gift comes from above." We're going to look at that in a moment.
What people want today is they want the goodies of God without, without being grateful to the God from whom the goodies come. They want to enjoy the benefit of God. Listen, there is nothing that you enjoy now that cannot be traced back to God. If you are enjoying the home you live in, then that means you are enjoying a home that somewhere in it has beams made of wood. That means it was taken from somebody's tree that's located in some place on some parcel of land, and you can all trace it all back to the provision of God. If you can reach into your wallet or your purse and take out some money, that was money that was taken from trees, that was turned into paper, that was printed on and given cultural value that you get to spend. In fact, Deuteronomy 8 says, "It is the Lord that gives you the power to get wealth." In other words, everything you do can be traced back to God. There is nothing that you enjoy or that you benefit from that I benefit from that cannot be traced back to God.
And His point in the second half of verse 3 is that if anybody knows that, it ought to be Christians. If anybody knows that God is the source of all good, it ought to be Christians. And therefore, we ought to be thankful. We shouldn't have to be begged to give gratitude. We don't need a holiday to have a thanksgiving session. It ought to be a way of life because we know it comes from God. So Ephesians 5:20 says, "Always give thanks for all things." First Thessalonians 5:18 says, "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God concerning you."
Turn with me quickly. Hold your finger here, but turn to Romans chapter 14, verse 6. "He who observes the day observes it for the Lord. He who eats does so for the Lord, and he gives thanks to God. For he who eats not, and he he's not for the Lord, he does not eat and give gives thanks to the Lord. For no one lives for himself, and no one dies for himself. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's." He is saying, "You give thanks to God because God ought to be the central and sum total of your life." When you get up in the morning, you ought to give thanks. And the first thing you ought to give thanks for is that you got up in the morning, that God has given you another day of life, and for that you give thanks. It's not automatic. Look at the obituary section, and you ought to give thanks.
Now, you ought to say, "You might, you might say, 'Well, I don't feel like giving thanks. I mean, He's been getting me up hundreds of mornings.'" But you don't want Him to miss one, do you? He says our life belongs to the Lord, and that ought to be the sum total of how we focus. We must be able to give thanks.
Of course, the classic story of this, as you well know, is the story of the ten lepers. Ten lepers, all of them with this debilitating, ultimately fatal disease called leprosy, a sort of cancer of the skin that caused you to lose feeling in your limbs and your extremities, and your fingers would waste away, and your hands would waste away. You'd be eaten alive. That's what the disease of leprosy did to the skin. It would literally eat you up alive. Jesus Christ came passing one day, and all ten said, "Have mercy on us, Son of David, heal us." Jesus had compassion on the ten, spoke the word, and said, "Go show yourselves to the priest." And as they walked to show themselves to the priest, the Bible says their skin became like the skin of a baby. They were totally healed and totally transformed. So they begin talking to one another, "Look at us, looking good. Look at us, finally people can come close to us now." For lepers were quarantined. But while they were on their way, one of the lepers remembered something. The scripture says he hadn't said thanks. He had been totally transformed and hadn't said thanks. So he stopped, did a 180-degree turn, went back, fell down before Jesus' feet, and said, "Thank you. Thank you for healing me. Thank you for demonstrating Your power. Thank you." And then Jesus asked a question. He said, "But were there not ten?" Do you hear the question? "Were there not ten?" What happened to the other nine? I'll tell you what happened to them. They were so busy enjoying the blessing, they forgot the blesser. They were so busy enjoying the goodness of God that they forgot the God who had been good. And it is possible, as Christians, that we have so much blessing from God that we forget the blesser because of the enjoyment of the blessing. Whenever you love the blessing more than you love the blesser, it's idolatry. You are worshiping the gift, not the giver, and that is idolatry. Idolatry is to worship anything more than God. And I would like to say to you, I was going to say this in my last point, but many of us are not getting more from God because He's not about to give us more for which we will forget to say thanks. That is, have a thankful orientation about it.
And so the question is, are you forgetting to say thanks as a lifestyle? Because I can guarantee you that people who worship the Lord for all the benefits that accrued to them will hear from the Lord regularly. But people who forget are idolaters. And remember, behind idolatry is demons. So God is not going to help you worship demons.
Notice in verse 4, the provision of thanksgiving. "For everything God created, or everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with what? Gratitude." And this is in the same passage that's talking about demons. Listen to me. This verse is a powerful verse because it says everything created by God is good. If there's something that's not good, that means it's been tampered with by the devil or by you. Because when God made what He made, remember creation, Genesis 1, and God said it was good. It was good. It was very good. God doesn't make junk. And as a result, He says, "Everything from God is good." Satan wants you to believe, "God is holding out on me." Listen to me. If God is holding out on you, it isn't good. You say, "But it looks good, it tastes good, it smells good." You know, a baby root is good, but that don't mean you need it. In other words, goodness has to do with intrinsic quality, not external enjoyment. That's a fundamental distinction. When the Bible talks about good, it talks about that which is beneficial, not simply that which is enjoyable. Unrighteous man measures good by, "Do I like it? Did I enjoy it? Was it fun?" If it was, it must be good. No. In the Bible, good has to do with intrinsic benefit, not merely external enjoyment. Those of you who worked hard to go through college, everything you did wasn't good-feeling, but it was good, beneficial, if it was being used to take you towards your goal. "All things work together for good" (Romans 8:28) to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. It's not that everything that happens is fun. It is that anything God does has benefit tied to it, and therefore it is intrinsically good.
Now, let's, let's see something about God real quick here by looking over a few pages to the book of James chapter 1. One of the great, great verses on, on God's immutability, His changelessness. Chapter 1, verse 17: "Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, that is from God, coming down from the Father of lights, that is the Father who created the luminaries in the sky, the stars, the moon, the sun. That's the Father of lights. He created the lights in the heavens. It comes down from the Father who created the starry skies." Now get this last line: "with whom," talking about the Father, "there is no variation or shifting shadow." That's deep. Some of you say, "I don't know what it means." That proves it's deep. All right. He says a number of things in this verse. First of all, what comes from God to you is like what comes from a father to a son or to a daughter. He calls you. It says it comes from the Father, so He's talking about relational gifts. What a parent who loves their child gives them are things that are beneficial to them, even though sometimes they may be painful. When you take your, when you take your child to a doctor, and, and that child needs a needle, the needle is painful, but it was good. It was not good-feeling, but it was beneficial. Everything God gives to His children, it says, bestows on them. Perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights. And then He says this: "with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow."
To understand the phrase "shifting shadow," you have to make the link to "Father of lights." There is a shadow outside right now because it's night. In other words, darkness has now pervaded this portion of the hemisphere. Why? Because as the earth rotates around the sun, it turns in such a way that a part of the earth is no longer facing the sun. So that X amount of hours during the day, depending upon the season, there is a shadow or darkness that's cast over the earth because it is no longer facing the sun. We call it nighttime. That is the shadow, that is the darkness that comes because of the rotation of the earth around the sun. Now, the sun has not changed. The sun is full of light. The sun is full of power. The earth changes, and therefore a shadow or darkness or nighttime comes across the earth. He makes that comparison here when He says, "with the Father of light, there is no variation or shifting shadow." We call this the immutability of God. That is, that God is consistent.
Now watch this. If there is a shadow in your life, it's cause you've been turning. Cause this Bible says in the Father, there is no shifting shadow. If you have nighttime in your life, you've been turning. You've been like the earth. Listen to me. You say, "But how can I not turn when I have a bad day? How can I not turn when I lose my job?" I'll tell you how you don't turn. You don't turn by giving thanks. You see, giving thanks points you back to God, regardless of your circumstance. What we do is we turn to the circumstance and become a shadow with our back to the sun, even though it's nighttime by the hour. Keep facing the sun so that the consistent light of God, where there is no shifting shadow, can continue to radiate on you despite your circumstances. One thing about going up to Alaska is that it stays light a long time in the summer, and it stays dark a long time in the winter because of how the earth is rotating. The longer you are facing God, whose light never dims, the less shadow you will have on your life. But the more you turn from God because of your circumstances, the longer the darkness will last in your life. Look for the goodness of God because no matter what you're going through, it's always there. And that's why Job said, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." When Jerusalem was falling apart in the book of Lamentations, Jeremiah says, "Great is Thy faithfulness." He kept pointing himself to the goodness of God.
So tomorrow, if it's a bad day, if things are not going like you wanted them to go on the human side, give thanks. You say, "What can I give thanks for?" Was like Matthew Henry. Matthew Henry was robbed one day. Thief came up and stole from him. He said to the thief, as the thief was about to ride off with his money, "I just want to have a time of thanksgiving." And then, with the thief hearing him, he prayed, "Lord, I want to thank You. The first thing I want to thank You for is that I've never been robbed before. That You took me through all these years, and this is the first such occurrence. So I want to thank You for Your faithfulness. Second thing I want to thank You, Lord, for is he took my wallet and not my life. So I want to thank You that even though I don't have money, I have me, and that's more important than what I lost. And then thirdly, I want to thank You that even though he took all I had, I didn't have much." [Laughter] What I'm trying to say is, there's always something to give thanks for in the worst of situations. There is always something to give thanks for. But you have to have an orientation toward God. And that's why He says, even in 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 17, "Instruct those who are rich." Those of you who've moved up from the ghetto. "Instruct those who are rich in this present world. You've got cars and houses and land and investments and CDs and this and that, and you've accumulated a certain, a certain amount of wealth, to not be conceited." Thank you. Something because you got a little bank account now? "Or to fix their hopes on the uncertainty of riches." He says, "To think that somehow because you've got it tucked away somewhere that you're gonna be okay." He says, "But place your hope on God." Why? "Who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy." If you're trusted in the bank account, it's in the wrong thing. If your trust is in stocks and bonds, it's in the wrong thing. If your trust is in your house, it's in the wrong thing. He doesn't complain rich people for being rich. He just complains about rich people fixing their hope on their riches. He complains about them having a misappropriated perspective. He says your focus should be on God who gave it, not on simply what He gave.
And so the provision of thanksgiving to counteract the doctrine of demons is to say, "God, I give You glory." And finally, the power of thanksgiving. First Timothy 4:5 says, "For it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer." Sanctified. The Greek word sanctified means to set apart, consecrate, dedicate. It was to section off for God's special usage. That's what sanctify means, to set apart for God's unique usage. Now, this is deep. He has already said in verse 4, "Everything good is created by God. Don't reject it." The question is, did it come from God? If it came from God, it's good. Okay? And therefore, you can receive it. How do you know whether it comes from God? Well, can you authenticate it by the Word? And can you say a prayer over it legitimately? Those are the two criteria to determine whether something is good from God. Okay? People want to say it's good just because. I mean, Robert can't rob a bank and say, "Well, this came from God because the Bible says, 'Thou shalt not steal.'" See? So you've got the Word of God that provides the boundaries to let you know whether that is authentic or not. As this is where people get into this thing about rich versus poor. The issue about riches is never riches. The issue of riches is how did you get it? Did you get it legitimately? Did you get it responsibly? Did you earn it? That's the problem with, with uh, people who want to, who want to get rich off the lottery. Okay? They want to get rich quick, okay, without doing anything to earn it. They want to lock themselves the wealth. So the person who gets a million dollars from the lottery is a lot different in God's eyes from a person who has responsibly worked or earned or even legitimately invested and they wind up with the same million. Why? Because one was born out of a biblical orientation. The other was born out of a misrepresented orientation. And God will, by, by the way, God will let you get rich without Him. The Bible just says He will also send with those riches, leanness to your soul. In other words, you'll be an unhappy rich person if you have the wrong perspective on wealth. Nothing wrong with wealth. Everything wrong with the wrong perspective on it.
Now, listen to what verse 5 is saying. Verse 5 is saying, when God gives something that's good, substantiated by the Word of God and prayer, then ordinary things become extraordinary. Once they are consecrated. Let me say that again. Ordinary things become extraordinary, or extraordinary things, once they are given over to God. When you take the good things that God gives and give God the glory that He deserves, He touches the ordinary and makes it extraordinary. See, you, not I, can tell you ain't with me. When you take the good things that God provides and rather than looking at them from the standpoint of the doctrine of demons, you look at them from a heart of gratitude and you sanctify it, that is, you give it to God. The ordinary becomes extraordinary.
Turn to John 6. Let me show you what I mean. Saint John chapter 6. You all know the story, but let's look at it one more time. Verse 5: "Jesus therefore lifting up His eyes and seeing a great multitude was coming to Him, said to Philip, 'Where are we to buy bread that these may eat?'" Philip says, in common every day English, "I don't know." "And 5,000 men, not counting women and children." Jesus says, "Phil, where are we going to get food for these folks?" Philip answered, verse 7, "He's the mathematician in the group. 200 denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them for everyone to receive even a little." Our little bank account can't handle all these folks. We have a financial limitation here. We cannot solve this problem. Verse 8: "One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, 'There is a lad who has five barley loaves, five little pancakes, and two fish. But what are these for so many people?'" Or to put it another way, Jesus, let's be practical. And then you like that. Real practical people. Philip says, "Pull out the calculator. Jesus, 200 denarii, that's all we have. 200 denarii won't even buy a McDonald's number six for these folks. No archburgers here. That we, we, we cannot solve this problem. It is too big." Anybody in the house with that kind of problem? No matter how you add it up, it won't pay for the bill. Everybody in the house with that kind of problem? Then we got Andrew says, "Well, we got a boy over here. He's got five pieces of bread." Basically, we, when I was over in Israel, we saw the little barley loaves. They're about this big. They still make them over there. The fish are about this big, coming out of the Sea of Galilee. And, and this is this kid's lunch. He says, "There is some food on the property, but it can't work." Okay. They had forgotten who they were talking to. That's number one. And they forgot thanksgiving.
Now watch this. Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." In one of the other versions, He asked for the boy to bring Him the fish and the barley loaves. "Have the people sit down." Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down, and their number was about 5,000. Now watch verse 11: "Jesus therefore took the loaves." Now get this. "And having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated." Now, how many were seated? 5,000. That's not counting women and children. "Likewise also the fish as much as they want." Oh, come on now. Did you read that?
Now follow me. We have five pieces of Mrs. Bear's bread, basically. All right. Little barley loaf, little loafs. You can split them in two. That's why they call it little loafs. A couple of fish this big. This is all we have. We cannot fix this problem. Jesus comes over and says, "Have everybody sit down and let's give thanks." If you catch anything, catch this. Philip and Andrew only saw what was lacking. They only saw what they didn't have. They only saw what was missing. They only saw the negative. They saw what couldn't be done. But what Jesus saw was what God had provided. All God had provided was five barley loaves and two fish. But what they needed were hundreds and thousands of barley loaves. Because it not only says that everybody ate, it says everybody ate all that they wanted. So they weren't just lacking a few extra pieces of bread here. We're talking about a factory of bread. We're talking about a fishery here. They are, they are in need of Moby Dick on the beach. All right. They are in desperate need. Jesus could have said, "Lord, how come You didn't provide more money? How come You didn't provide more food?" He could have complained. And thus, He said, "Lord, thanks. I want to thank You that even though it's two fish, it's the two fish You supplied. I want to thank You, even though it's only five pieces of bread, You supplied it. Now, I'm going to be grateful for what I have, but I just need to tell You, I need more. I thank You because whatever the Son asks, You give." Jesus Christ closes His prayer. Prayer opens up His eyes, and they have more bread than they can eat, more fish than they can eat.
What did Jesus do? Unique. Only thing I can see in His whole passage. He didn't say "hocus pocus." He didn't do any David Copperfield stuff. There were no magic acts in here. Verse 11 says, "Jesus did one thing: gave thanks." Giving thanks is powerful. He sanctified five loaves and two fish, and they began to reduplicate themselves. You say, "But everything is wrong in my life." No, there is something right. God has done something for everybody in this room. And so you need to give Him the praise. You don't have to read it now, but sometime when you get a chance, read First Chronicles 16, verses 7 to 36, and listen to the saints give God thanks. If you and I begin to give God thanks, Satan must vacate the premises. We must give Him thanks. We were at our leadership retreat the other day, and we had a speaker for the leaders, and he was referencing the fact that when the players make up great play, they'll often walk around and do this. And of course, he was wondering, since he was not culturally attuned, what did this mean? And he finally came to understand, "Somebody don't give it up, right? Give it up!" And it's a call to the audience to get in on what just happened on the field. And so the audience comes into it. And he made the great point from Psalm 100 about thanksgiving, that Christians ought to give it up. They ought to give God the praise. Do His name, and let that thing spread and watch the fish multiply. So let's give it up. Give God the praise. Let's do His name. I guarantee you, as much as a human can guarantee anything, but based on the divine, the Word of God, that if you introduce thanksgiving, if you increase thanksgiving and decrease complaining, your circumstances will begin to change. Because when you increase complaining, and when you don't enjoy what God has given you, you have adopted the doctrine of demons. Idolatry. Those who love God give thanks.