Devoting Themselves to Deceitful Spirits

“Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving 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 thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.” (1 Timothy 4:1-5 ESV)

What is the faith that these people are departing from? Well, first of all “biblical faith” means to be persuaded of God. And God persuades us as to his holiness and righteousness, and of our sinfulness, and of our need to repent of (turn away from) our sins and to now follow him in obedience to his commands. And faith is authored by Christ, and it is gifted to us by God, and it is not of our own doing – not of the will nor of the flesh of man – so we do not get to define what faith looks like. God does. His word does.

And the faith that Jesus Christ taught, and that his NT apostles taught, was a faith which resulted in the believer in Christ being crucified with Christ in death to sin, and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. It is a faith which results in the believer walking in progressive salvation and sanctification and denying self, dying daily to sin, by the Spirit, and walking in obedience to our Lord’s commands, in practice. 

[Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 12:1-2]  

Nonetheless, biblical faith is not what is being popularized today in America, and in other nations, too, I believe. The faith that is gaining the most ground and popularity and acceptance is a distorted and altered and manipulated and deceptive faith which comes from deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons. For the full intention of this “faith” is to lead people away from pure devotion to the Lord Jesus, and from obedience to his commands, and to convince them that they can keep on living in sin without consequence.

So, what they are teaching is that we can make a one-time profession of faith in Jesus Christ and now all our sins are forgiven, heaven is guaranteed us when we die, and it cannot be taken away from us, but regardless of how we live, even if we keep on in deliberate and habitual sin and we do not walk in obedience to our Lord in holy living. And so we have a majority of people professing faith in Jesus Christ, many of whom have never died with Christ to sin, not in truth, and who have never been reborn of the Spirit of God, because they kept on living in sin and not for the glory and praise of God.

But these deceitful spirits have worked their way into the gatherings of the church and into their teachings and into their practices and into the hearts and minds of so many who profess to believe in Jesus Christ. And so we have multitudes of people claiming to be Christians who are still living in sexual immorality, in adultery against their spouses, in wickedness, in deception, in manipulation, in trickery, and in moral impurity and not in faithfulness, and not in loving God and their spouses and children.

And so many of them are going deeper and deeper into sin and in moral decline and so they keep sinking and sinning and deceiving and manipulating and not loving those who they are supposed to love. And many of them are leading others to follow suit and to do the same. And so people are not loving God and following him in his ways, but they are still living to please the flesh. And marriages are being destroyed and families broken and “churches” turned into marketplaces to be marketed to the world.

And so we have all these many distortions, not only of the teachings of the Scriptures, but of God’s moral laws and the teachings of Christ and of his NT apostles. So many are taking Scriptures out of their context and are making them say what they don’t say if taught in context. And they are twisting them to teach what they know is contrary to what the Scriptures teach with the full intention to manipulate and to deceive and to turn people away from true obedient faith in Christ Jesus. Because this is of the devil.

And a lot of this deception is coming through pastors of “churches” and public speakers and authors of “Christian” literature and social media memes and tiktok videos and other short videos and anything short where the message can be cut short with the full purpose to deceive. And some of this deception is not outright lies which are easy to identify, but much of it is in the form of misimpressions (indirect lies) which are manipulative and harder to prove. And so we must be very discerning people. Very discerning!!

So please be students of the Scriptures who study them for yourselves and who read them in context. And compare Scripture with Scripture to make certain that you are getting the correct understanding. Do this prayerfully, seeking the wisdom of God, praying for discernment, and being willing to unlearn the lies which you have accepted as truth and to now follow the truth of what God’s word teaches even if it disagrees with your church denomination or famous theologians. For they are just humans. 

Teach Them  

An Original Work / May 24, 2012

Based off various scriptures

Open up the blinded eyes of

Those who walk in sin’s darkness.

Turn them to the light of Christ

And to His righteousness.

Turn them from the pow’r of Satan.

Turn them to the peace of Christ,

So they may receive forgiveness

And eternal life. 

Teach them to put off their old selves

And their former way of life,

And to put on their new self,

Reborn to be like Christ;

To not copy worldly customs;

Be transformed in life and mind;

Obey freely His word in them,

Pleasing unto God.

Teach them how to love their neighbors

Truly as they love themselves;

Be a witness; share the gospel;

Satan’s lies dispel;

Comfort all who mourn in sadness;

Share Christ’s love and joy today.

Do this through your life and witness

For your Lord always. 

https://vimeo.com/125485489