influenced by the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared with a hot iron.through the hypocrisy of men who speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron,Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron;
3 sermons cite this verse
we ask, gracious Father, that you will take your truth, plant it deep in us, and shape and fashion us in the likeness of your Son, in whose name we pray. Amen. Well, what I want us to spend this first session doing is taking seriously the notion of being a good servant of Christ Jesus, as Paul puts it here to Timothy. If you do these things, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. Now, the framework in which we consider this, indeed the context in which chapter 4 is set, is very, very straightforward. forward. If you look at verse 14 of chapter 3, there Paul explains, I hope to come to you soon. He's not there, but I am writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. So, at the moment, he says, I'm not with you, but it is imperative, Timothy, that you know and that your congregation also understands what it means for you to fulfill the calling that you have. And very specifically, although we won't spend time on this, the opening five verses here of chapter 4 further provide the context. What he's describing there is departure from the faith, people who have been led astray by deceitful spirits. These deceitful spirits have come to them, not in some magical way, but demon-inspired doctrines had gained an entry into their world …
… They just stay at it. 1 Timothy 4, verse 2 tells us these wicked speak lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron. This is where we're going today. I told you that's why it's a hard message. People who speak lies and hypocrisy long enough, their conscience becomes seared. And the Bible says, uses the terminology, a hot iron. A hot iron. Have you ever seen someone who has been severely burned? Their skin is calloused. Imagine that happening to your heart. Your heart eventually becomes so sin-bent in the realm of perversity that you can't feel anything anymore. When you don't feel anything anymore, it means you're not feeling the conviction of God. You don't even think it's wrong anymore. And so you You don the colors. You don the outfit. You don the team, the jersey, so to speak, of evil. And God says we're living in a time like that. And God is calling our young people and the old people and all people in between to stand up and resist these evils. …
… go live normal human life without jesus or might you go from here and live in your body in a holy way that's what we talk about these in these moments so this is first timothy chapter 4 verses one to five. Paul is here writing to his protege Timothy and the Ephesian church is reading this letter over Timothy's shoulder and he's warning Timothy and the Ephesians about a group of false teachers who apparently under demonic influence. This is demonic. This is what Satan did in the garden when he tempted Eve. He questioned God's goodness. And so he's warning them of these false teachers, he says, who forbid marriage and outlaw certain foods. So these false teachers are ascetics. You know that word, ascetics? That is persons who pursue severe self-discipline. They have disavowed God-given pleasures in marriage and among certain foods, apparently they can't outlaw all foods because the people who do that tend to die within a few weeks. So they have to make, some foods have to be okay, but because we have this suspicion of physical life, of bodily life, we're going to outlaw some of these foods. …