29 - HOW SATAN OPPOSES THE TRUTHJune 3, 1962
Henry F. Kulp
I Timothy 4: 1 - 5 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 in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath 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 it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
Paul tells young Timothy that the Holy Spirit teaches expressly. Here is something that is to be emphasized, something that is to be known. And what is it? That in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith. That word, depart, is our word apostatize. It means that in the church there will grow up those who will apostatize, depart, turn away from the faith, as it is in Jesus Christ.
1/ This is not talking about the world, because the world is at enmity with God. This is talking about the professing church of Jesus Christ, and the day is upon us. Men have turned from the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. They have substituted religion. Religion that constitutes good works, man trying to make himself acceptable to God. And every religion on the face of the earth is guilty of this act.
2/ What will cause this condition in the professing church? Men will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. In other words, they will fall in with the program of the devil. The devil is not omnipresent—he can’t be everywhere—and so he has demons to do his work throughout the world. And these demons will cause men within the professing church of Jesus Christ to embrace their doctrines—their teaching of demons. Now what do demons teach?
3/ They teach—be good, do good things, but reject the blood of Jesus Christ, Reject that Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved.
4/ Now let us look at how Satan works—he himself or his demons through men.
Acts 13: 6, 7 And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Barjesus: Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man; who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God.
Here we have Paul and Barnabas going to the other end of Cyprus and there was Paphos—apparently the seat of the government of the island, and there was a certain sorcerer—a false prophet, a Jew by the name of Bar-Jesus. Here was a Jew who had gone among the Gentiles, pretending to be a marvelous, wonder-worker—and of course making a prophet. He took the name, Bar-Jesus. The word, Bar, means son—and his
name really means son of Jesus. He had undoubtedly to hear, made the lame walk, and so He came to these folks and he said, I am the son of Jesus, and I am able to work miracles even as He did. And then he came to the counselor of the country Sergius Paul —or Sargent Paul. He was evidently the governor of this island—a Gentile, But Sgt. Paul, the Gentile was a prudent man, and he proved it by calling for Barnabas and Saul and desiring to hear the word of God. But Elymas or Bar-Jesus, the son of Jesus, immediately saw that he would lose his grip on this Gentile if the truth were preached to him. He would be shown up to be exactly what he was—a false individual. He knew his influence over Sargent Paul would be gone. So he understood Paul and Barnabas, seeking to turn the deputy, this man Paul, away from faith.
Verse 8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith.
5/ But Paul full of the Holy Ghost, set his eyes upon this wicked man and said, O full of all subtility and mischief, thou child of the devil. It is slightly different then the word, child, the original—it is son. He is son of the devil. In other words, he is doing the devil’s work here, he is doing the devil’s bidding and trying to turn this deputy away from faith. And he says, wilt thou cease to provoke the right ways of the Lord. Here is the key —this man who was the son of the devil was trying to pervert the right ways of the Lord. He was religious—he was teaching this man, Paul, religion, but not the truth concerning Jesus Christ. He was perverting the right ways of God. This is ever the devil’s program. He is the angel of righteousness. They tell men and women, to do good deeds, be religious, but don’t embrace Jesus Christ and His shed blood.
6/ But let us just show you a portion of the old Scripture that shows you the folly of depending upon religion, of demons teaching Isaiah 19: 1 The burden of Egypt. Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.
Here the prophet Isaiah is speaking of the Egyptians and their god. He has been called a master of satire. And so he characterized the Egyptians and their god. He uses the word, idols—and in the original language that means “good-for-nothing,” and in Job 19: 4 it is translated “no value”. So the Scripture should read—the good-for-nothings of Egypt shall be staggering—reeling—at His presence. In other words, the folly, the vanity of depending upon these evil demons and their teaching.
7/ It is well for us to recognize that God is not going to permit this condition to go on and one of these days He is going to come back and judge all those who have fallen for demon teaching, all who have propagated the demon’s doctrine.
Numbers 33: 4 For the Egyptians buried all their firstborn, which the Lord had smitten among them: upon their gods also the Lord executed judgments.
It would be well for us to just take a moment and study Numbers 33: 4 when God has a contest with Moses and Pharaoh, this was not God bringing judgements down upon the
Egyptians, but rather He was bringing judgements down upon the gods of the Egyptians. They were a very religious people, they had followed the doctrine of demons and they had many gods. Their gods, of course, were demons, and when God brought judgement down upon the demons, He naturally had to bring it upon the Egyptians—for notice it in Numbers 33: 4—for the Egyptians buried their first-born which the Lord had smitten among them upon their gods also the Lord executed judgement. He brought judgement down upon them. That is why it is well for us to recognize that we must judge and weed out in our assemblies those who do not believe the truth. We cannot permit them to continue on.
8/ Now the next thing we want to see is this—these men who followed the seducing spirits and teaching doctrines of demons, they through hypocrisy of men speak lies. They know they are not telling the truth—they have their conscience seared with the hot iron—branded with a hot iron as it were. In other words, they have no conscience left. It is a bad thing to trust the conscience unless it is under the direction of the Holy Spirit. These men haven’t even any conscience left any more. These men never believe the doctrines which they propagate themselves, but there is always money in it—there are always those who will follow them and pay tremendous prices to be part of their movement.
9/ Then in Verse 3 Paul just uses two illustrations of some of the things that they would teach. First of all, forbidding to marry, and then to abstain from food. Again you see what is behind all this. These folks are endeavoring to make themselves righteous by not doing certain things. Under the law, there was a prohibition upon certain foods, but that is not true today. We are not under law, but under grace.
10/ You will notice that everything is to be received with thanksgiving. God wants us to be thankful for what we have. If there is one thing that marks this age, it is the age of thanklessness. Notice in verse 4 that every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving. The giving of thanks before the meal seems to have been the practice. Our Lord blessed the loaves—Matthew 14: 19 And then Paul gives thanks for the meal on the ship.
Acts 27: 35 And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, and gave thanks to God in presence of them all: and when he had broken it, he began to eat.
We should always be thankful, but I believe that just giving thanks before the meal is not enough. We should always do that. But certainly we should go beyond that. We should be thankful in our hearts for all that God has given us.
11/ Then in verse 7 But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.
Timothy is exhorted to refuse profane and old wives fables. Of course, that means the word myth, or rumor—in other words it is tradition—we are warned against tradition. The demons come and mainly bring with them the word, tradition—things that men have
dreamed up under the guidance of demons. In those days, many made their living by going from market place to market place, and giving lectures on folk-lure or myths or traditions, and these are the things that were embraced in the church, and so Timothy is told to exercise thyself rather onto godliness. And you have the word, exercise in Verse 7 and 8. In Verse 7 it says exercise thyself unto godliness, in verse 8 for bodily exercise profiteth little. The word, exercise, is the word from which we get our word, gymnasium or gymnastic, and it means—exercise. Paul is not saying that to exercise is wrong and there is no profit—it is just a little profit compared to exercising Godliness. Physical exercise has a limited benefit, but exercise unto godliness has eternal benefit.
12/ We are living in a day when we have this physical culture that is so important. I believe a sound body is a good thing, but when a Christian becomes so involved in bodily exercise in sports that he doesn’t have time to really exercise in godliness—it infringes upon his godliness, then, he is in trouble. The thought is, of course, your physical body will die, and it will go to the grave. Does it matter whether you live 50 or 70 years if in 50 or 70 years you do not glorify the Lord Jesus Christ? What difference does it make for a Christian to live to be 80 years old, when in that time he has done very little for the Lord Jesus Christ? He has been taking care of his body so he would live along time. Paul did not live to be what we would call an old man in our time—but he certainly accomplished a lot for the Lord Jesus.
13/ A fit body is a wonderful thing. But a fit soul is far more important.
14/ Our president is calling for a physical fitness program because many of our young folks are not physically fit, and certainly this is a good program—I am not against it. But our country in order to stand against our enemies has to be more than fit physically. We have to be mentally fit for the next thing, but the most important thing is that our nation be spiritually fit. Not fed upon a lot of trash and fables—upon religion, but belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. If our churches were strong in preaching spiritual truths, we would not have to worry about communism—it could never overthrow us, but because we are weak spiritually certainly our physical program will be of little benefit. O, that the leaders of our nation would recognize this truth.
AMEN
Ref: 06/03/1962/ 29 - HOW SATAN OPPOSES THE TRUTH / 09/08/2021
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