Let's hear the Word of God. Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. Amen. We'll end our reading there in verse five of 1 Timothy chapter four. One of the things that Paul has to do in the pastoral letters, in the two letters directed to Timothy and the one letter directed to Titus, where he's instructing others in how to carry out their ministry, is he has to deal with the problem of false teaching, the challenge that that presents to the church. And in the early church, just as is true today, there were many different kinds of false teaching. Well, one of the kinds of false teaching that Paul was expecting to arise would be false teaching that was proceeding from deceiving spirits, and doctrines of demons. Now that could be doctrines that demons teach. That would be one way to take it. It could also be doctrines concerning demons. In other words, there are times when people develop a sort of an unhealthy obsession with exploring the supernatural realm. And they go around saying a lot of things that ultimately you can't prove from scripture. Well, I think that both of those could likely be true. There are things that demons would like us to believe, and there's nothing to prevent that from being an incorrect, a distorted focus on truths about invisible beings that we don't have any way to verify, we don't have any way to trace out. But those who engage in false teaching speak lies and hypocrisy. They don't practice what they preach. It doesn't bother them. They still sleep well at night because their consciences have been seared with a hot iron. They've been so blatantly hypocritical that their conscience no longer speaks to them about what they're doing wrong. It's been burned. It's been cauterized is the idea there. And what does that turn into? What results from that? Well, one of the ways that this can go, not the only way, there's other false teachings identified in the Bible, but one of the ways that that can go is a false teaching about asceticism. Now, that's not maybe a word that you use all the time. Asceticism means being strict with yourself, denying yourself, turning away from enjoyable things, and there is a time and a place for it. You know, the Bible talks about fasting. Well, when you're fasting, you say no to most or all food for a little while in order to be able to focus on prayer. Sometimes you might stay up late in order to pursue prayer, or if you're at a meeting with Paul and he continues his discourse past midnight, as happened on one occasion, you might stay up late in order to hear more of the Word of God. Well, that can be called watching, staying awake on purpose, denying yourself sleep for some spiritual end. And Paul talks about how he was frequent in that. Or we find in the Gospels that the Lord Jesus, on a couple of occasions, stayed up all night long in order to pray. So there is a time and there is a place for self-denial. There is a time to say, no, I'm not going to live my regular life. I'm going to make an exception for a spiritual purpose. But you can see where that could be abused. You can see where people would start to make the mistake, ooh, because it's good to fast sometimes, maybe that means that food is unspiritual. Because it's good to stay awake sometimes, maybe that means that getting eight hours is a wicked thing to do. Now, that's not the conclusion the Bible draws. I'm not defending that conclusion. I'm gonna speak against it. I just want you to understand how it's possible for people to get there. And of course, if you have somebody with obsessive tendencies, then they can easily get drawn into that. Perhaps you've never heard of this, but the kids will enjoy this. So there used to be a gentleman named Simeon Stylites, and... He's most commonly referenced as Saint Simeon. Now, he was called Stylites, which is a weird name, but he was called Stylites because he lived on top of a pillar for many years. In other words, there was a pillar, it was big enough for him to move around on a little bit, but he lived up there for many, many years. If I'm not getting my legends of these ancient characters confused, I believe he was originally chained to the top of the rock, and then after a while, he's like, yeah, you can take the chains off, I'm not gonna come down. He had gotten used to it. Well, at the time, unfortunately, people thought, oh, what an amazingly holy man, he's living at the top of a pillar. You know, climbing to the top of a pillar didn't actually bring him closer to God. and living on the top of a pillar, he wasn't useless. People would come to him for advice and people would bring him baskets of food. And so he'd pray for people and he'd give them advice. And they were more ready to listen to him because he was living at the top of a pillar. But so many people got that kind of idea, and then when that kind of an idea meets somebody with obsessive tendencies, you can see where it would easily go south. It would easily become a tremendous burden. It would become such a source of strain. Oh no, you know, I haven't fasted enough yet. I haven't stayed awake enough yet. I haven't lived at the top of this pillar long enough, or whatever it was. Some people would wear rough shirts, like shirts made out of a burlap bag or something like that, so that they were always scratchy and uncomfortable, so that the stiff hairs on the shirt, the part that was supposed to be outside was inside, so it was rubbing up against your sensitive skin and making you miserable all the time. And in the Middle Ages, it got so bad that you would have groups of flagellants, is what they were called, from the Latin word for whip. They would go on pilgrimage. They would walk from one town to another, and then as they walked through the town, they would whack themselves on the back with whips until they were bleeding. One time especially, they did that, thinking, well, if we punish ourselves enough, God will deliver us from the Black Plague, which was a huge problem at the time. So when we talk about these dangers, they're not hypothetical. They're historical. What Paul says here happened. There were people who said, no, don't get married. Marriage is bad. Marriage is unspiritual. If you really want to be godly and serve the Lord, you got to forget about marriage and family and all that kind of thing. That's just a distraction from what really matters. Or you had people saying, look, we know you gotta eat in order to survive, but just eat lettuce, you know, don't eat anything else. Or whatever other crazy diet they might have had. In the Middle Ages, you had people who were like, I haven't taken a bath in 40 years. That was one of the ways they were ascetic. Or like I said, you had people whipping themselves. Now, We might not understand that. And not understanding that might not wholly be a good thing. If we're like, oh no, I would never do that for God, there could be two ways to take that. One would be a bad way. The bad way would be to say, oh no, God isn't worth that. You know, those people, they might have been crazy, but you have to say they took God seriously, right? You have to recognize that there was a level of commitment there. But still, we shouldn't imitate them in that. Why? Because that's not what God wants. If God demanded that, would it be worth it? Yes. Hopefully that's not a question for anybody here. Does God demand that? Specifically, explicitly, absolutely no. What does Paul say here? He says that it's a doctrine of demons when you forbid to marry and command to abstain from foods. That's not the God we serve. The God we serve, the real God, the God of the Bible, created foods to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. Who's behind your pecan pie or apple pie or pumpkin pie or cherry pie? I don't know. What pies do people have at Thanksgiving? I think those are the main varieties, right? Who's behind that pie? Who's behind pie crust as a whole? It's God who did that. And God made that good. Now, I'm not saying God came into your kitchen and grabbed your rolling pin and rolled out your pie crust. Obviously, you were involved in that or somebody in your household was involved in that. But God created a world where pie crust was possible. And not just pie crust, but the filling too. And the ingenuity to figure out how long you gotta bake that thing. and the reality that you can add ice cream or whipped cream or whatever other kind of cream on top. Or you could hollow out the middle and pour cream in there if you wanted to. Who came up with all of that? Well, human beings came up with that using the good things that God made. Now there's a time and a place for pie and there's a time and a place to say no. If you're fasting in order to seek the Lord, maybe you say no to pie. If you've got a medical condition or you're allergic to cherries or whatever, okay, another reason to say no to pie. But is pie bad? No, even if you don't happen to particularly like pie, you can recognize that pie is a good thing. And if pie isn't working for you, swap it out for quesadillas or cake or whatever else it may be. God made that to be received with thanksgiving. Now Paul spells that out and then that's where our verse comes in, verse four. Paul is gonna prove that. He wants everybody to know that so they won't be taken in by this false teaching, and he gives the proof. For every creature of God, every individual thing that God has made is good. Now, some things are received in different ways. Everything that God has made is good, but not everything is good food. Sand is good, but who here is gonna make a sand pie tomorrow? Sand has different uses. You can use sand to make glass. And again, you wouldn't eat the glass any more than you would eat the sand. That was its raw ingredient. So Paul is not saying everything is food, everything is edible, but he's saying everything that God has made is good in its proper place, in its appropriate function. How do we know that? Well, we know that, first of all, because a good God made it. When God had created everything, when he'd finished the work of creation, God considered it all, and behold, it was very good, Genesis 131. Creation is wonderful. The things that God has made in this world are great. Now, that doesn't mean that there's no problems. That doesn't mean that there's no challenges or that there's no need for wisdom or for discernment. But in order to exercise wisdom, in order to approach this properly, our starting point has to be God's is good. There's a lot of pain and suffering in this world. There's a lot of sin and sorrow. There's poisonous things, you know, there's poisonous bugs, and there's poisonous snakes, and there's poisonous plants, and there's poisonous sea creatures. Well, okay. Those things are out there. Our sin has brought a curse on all of creation. But as creation came from the hand of God, it is good. And if we use things appropriately, if we don't eat poison or non-food as food, for instance, It can be received. It can all be received in its proper place. So that's where we start. God's creation is good. And you can break that down into its individual details in a way that speaks to you. If you're not a fan of pie, then think about ham, or think about turkey, or think about whatever for tomorrow. God's creation is good. Now, it's also true that many people use that creation in a way that is damaging, in a way that is destructive. So how can we be sure that we're receiving God's good creation in a good way, that we're not taking what God has made and twisting it to our own destruction? Well, that's where it's so critical what Paul says twice. God has created foods to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. And then he says it again in verse four, nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving. You know, we think about Thanksgiving as a holiday once a year, and all sorts of things are mixed up in there, right? You've got probably turkey and stuffing mixed up in there, but you've also got football, and you've got a couple days off of work, and so on and so forth, and all of that is mixed up. Maybe you have some historical awareness, maybe you're thinking of the pilgrims and things of that nature as well. Deeper than that, below all of that, something that's much bigger than a particular holiday is the basic principle. How do we receive God's good creation in a good way? Well, first of all, we receive. We recognize we didn't make that. We didn't cause that to be. This is a gift. We're receiving it. We're holding out an empty hand and God is filling it. And when we recognize that, we receive with thanksgiving. We receive with gratitude. We're not suspicious. We're not wondering, hmm, I wonder if this is a good part of God's creation. It's part of God's creation, it is good. No, not everything is good for everyone in the same way, but we're not opposed to it. We're not thinking, ooh, this part of creation is gonna defile me. That part of creation is gonna make it worse. If you use things for their intended purpose, everything is good. but it's to be received with thanksgiving. You see, in the absence of gratitude, what do we do with everything that God gives? Well, we twist it. We distort it for our own condemnation. We abuse it in a way that leads to destruction. God didn't give food in order to make us less healthy, and yet the way a lot of us use food, that is what happens. God didn't give alcohol in order to have us lose our reason and do ridiculous, reckless things, but of course alcohol is often used that way. It's possible to abuse God's good creation. And so we need to be mindful of that. In our fallen condition, it's possible for us to be enslaved to some aspect or another of God's creation, and that's not right. And those are places where we might need to exercise some self-control, where we might need to say no to this or that or the other. Not because it's bad, but because we're not using it right. At the bottom, the starting point for a right use of all of God's good gifts is this recognition. God is good, therefore his creation is good. It is a gift to be received and the right way to receive it is with thanksgiving. If we're not responding to God in gratitude, we're not receiving his gifts appropriately. And that's very simple, isn't it? Because we're not receiving them as his gifts. Thanksgiving then is not one day out of the year. Thanksgiving is the key to a fruitful and God-glorifying life in this world. It's so much bigger. than one day. I mean, it's good we have a day to remind ourselves of all these things, but gratitude is our first duty to God. because the first thing that we experience about God is that he is giving us undeserved gifts, existence, life, experience, the ability to take in the world with eyes and ears and nose and mouth and fingers. All of that is a gift. And it can only be received when there's a response of joy, of gratitude to the Lord that He gave us this. He didn't have to, but He did anyway. And what He gave us is good. That's why Paul is so serious about this. If you can persuade people that God's good creation is bad, You snip the root of gratitude. You cut it off. And then what are people going to be like? Well, when we're unthankful, we fall into condemnation. When we don't glorify God, neither are grateful, we get worse and worse. You can read about that in the book of Romans 1. Gratitude. is the appropriate response of God's creatures to God's goodness made visible and tangible in creation. Now, sometimes we're worried about that. We have specific concerns. We wonder whether this or that is good for us, et cetera. And again, there's room for prudence. There's room for you understanding what you can handle, how much you can handle, et cetera, with all different kinds of foods. I knew one fellow, anytime he ate too much watermelon, his lips would swell. Well, that doesn't make watermelon bad, but it meant he needed to watch out about how much watermelon he was going to consume at one sitting, right? He had to space it out a little bit. I'm not speaking against that kind of practical day-to-day prudence at all. But if you're worried about it, notice how Paul finishes this passage. It is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. Now, a lot of people will take that in sort of a superstitious way. It's like, well, if I don't pray over my food, then it might set off my allergies. But if we remember to say our table prayer, then everything's fine. That's a ritualistic, superstitious approach. The reason to pray before meals is because it's the invariable example of the Lord Jesus. When you find him having a meal, you find him praying before the meal is eaten. That's the reason to pray before meals, because that's the pattern Jesus taught us. And of course, all of us have an internal criterion. If the family sits down together on a special occasion, we're definitely gonna pray. But if I just get a bowl of ice cream, I'm not gonna pray over that. Most people have some dividing line, right? Some level of food intake below which you don't have to stop and pray first. None of this should be superstition, okay? It's not the prayer over the elements of the meal that sanctifies it. So if that's not what Paul had in mind, What is he thinking of? Well, he says it's sanctified by the word of God. In other words, we're taught by the word of God that what God gives to us to use, to us, his holy ones, those who are set apart, it is legitimate for us to use it. It doesn't take away from our holiness. It doesn't render us unclean. If you eat turkey tomorrow, if you eat ham tomorrow, if you eat prime rib tomorrow, whatever it is, it doesn't render you unclean. Even if you have fish, that doesn't render you unclean, or lobster. That's okay. The Word of God has sanctified all those things for our use. So then where does prayer come in? What's the value of even mentioning it if it's not really specifically talking about table prayer per se? Which again, just so I'm not misunderstood, I think you should pray before meals, but in imitation of the practice of the Lord Jesus, not to make sure that the food doesn't make you sick. That's not the point. You could pray over a meal, and if the mayonnaise had gone bad, you could still get sick, right? So why mention prayer? Well, remember our catechism. Prayer is the chief part of that thankfulness which God requires of us. A life without prayer is a life that's being lived without reference to God. If I'm living my life without reference to God, can that be called a sanctified life? Can that be called a good life? Can that be called a life where God's gifts are received? No, it cannot. It's a life of abuse, constant ongoing abuse arising out of myself of all the parts of God's good creation that fall under my hand. Well, that's not sanctified then because that's a distortion. That's a perversion of God's good creation for other reasons. If there is gratitude in my heart, there will be prayer in my life. And if my life is one of grateful prayer or prayerful gratitude, however you want to describe it, well, what the word of God says carries weight with me, and I can receive all of God's good gifts appropriately, in due measure, at the proper time, with appropriate self-denial when necessary, yes, but I can receive them all with thanksgiving for this reason. They are an overflow of the goodness of God. They are little tastes, little droplets, little indications. of the goodness that is God himself. The goodness of God is mirrored in creation. Because of our sin, it's not perfectly mirrored, but it continues to be mirrored. And when I see that, when that's how I approach my meal or whatever other good thing, Oh, then I am receiving it as it was meant to be received. And then, of course, I'm receiving it as part of a grateful, prayerful life. Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God.