False Gospels and True Freedom

In the year 1522, in the city of Zurich, Switzerland, there was a man, a printer, by the name of Christopher Froschauer.

Now, this was about 80 years or so after Gutenberg had invented the movable type printing press.

And so printers were quite prestigious and often influential and wealthy men.

And on one Friday in the spring of 1522, Froschauer and his apprentices had completed a fresh printing of Paul's epistles, his letters, one of the letters that we're reading this morning.

And they, at the conclusion of this print, wanted to celebrate.

It was hard work, it was a long process.

They wanted to celebrate, and they wanted to do so with a hearty dinner.

And so they did.

They decided to have a sausage dinner and invite people to come and join them.

The problem with this, however, was that Zurich was governed by the Roman Catholic Church.

And this Friday in the spring of 1522 happened to be during the season of Lent.

Now, unlike here at Missio, our observance of Lent, which is one simply of remembrance and preparation for the celebration of Easter, Rome at the time demanded its observance, not just as a remembrance, but as an act of righteousness to further gain God's acceptance through external means of self-denial, part of which was the abstention of certain foods, particularly eating meat.

But these printers, having just printed the Apostle Paul's letters, decided to rebel against Rome and celebrate their hard work with sausage.

One of the men they invited to their celebration was a priest at the Gross Munster Church in Zurich, a man by the name of Oric Zwingli.

Zwingli then followed that meal with a sermon he titled On the Choice and Freedom of Foods, which he grounded in Matthew chapter 11, verses 28 through 30, on the call of Jesus to all the weary and the heavy burdened to come to him and take his easy yoke for themselves.

Matthew 11:28–30

Zwingli preached that the Catholic Church, by demanding these outward forms of self-denial, such as the forced abstention from eating certain foods, was betraying the call of Jesus to freedom and his yoke of grace, and was instead binding the consciences of people and bringing them further into captivity and bondage.

So whereas a few years earlier, in 1517, the Reformation came to Germany through the hammer of a man named Martin Luther, in 1522, the Reformation came to Switzerland through Froschauer's sausage dinner.

There have, from the very beginning of the church, been people who have tried to manipulate and distort the gospel into a form of self-salvation by demanding outward expressions of self-denial in addition to the work of Jesus Christ.

So they've said Jesus is, yes, part of salvation, but you also need to fill in the blank.

And when it comes down to it, every other religion in the world, including the religion of so-called atheism, is attempting to bring salvation through any other means except Jesus.

But there are some who, rather than saying, no, Jesus isn't the way to salvation, they instead say Jesus is part of the equation.

But you need a few other things too.

And this is exactly what we find the Holy Spirit warning against, and we even find it happening among the church in Ephesus in our text, as Paul communicates these things to young pastor Timothy.

We see people who are attempting to add external works of self-denial to the equation of redemption in order to attain salvation.

And in doing so, they are preaching false gospels.

And in this text, we essentially see three things.

We see the source of these false gospels, we see the substance of them, and we see the solution to them.

So before we go any further, let me give you a summary statement of this passage.

If we walk away with nothing else this morning, I hope we walk away and contemplate and reflect on this.

False gospels are demonic burdens.

But true freedom comes through Jesus Christ alone.

False gospels are demonic burdens, but true freedom comes through Jesus Christ alone.

Let's start by looking at what we see in the text as the source of these false gospels.

Look at verse 1.

Paul writes, Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons.

At the end of chapter 3, the Apostle Paul tells Timothy that he hopes to come again to see him in Ephesus very soon.

But then he makes this interesting statement in verses 14 and 15 of chapter 3.

He says this He says, I hope to come to you soon, but I'm writing these things to you that 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.

Paul tells Timothy that he's giving him these instructions that he, these, these, these previous exhortations that he's given him.

Instructions in prayer and gender roles within the church, and instructions for the offices and functions of elders and deacons.

Paul's telling him these things so that the believers in Ephesus, including the elders and deacons there, know how to behave, know how to live life in the church.

Then in verse 16 of chapter 3, Paul confesses this beautiful statement regarding what he calls the mystery of godliness, that Jesus Christ, God the Son, had come into the world, had accomplished his work of redemption, and had ascended back into glory with the Father.

He calls this the mystery of godliness.

And now, here as we move into chapter four, Paul conveys what some have called the mystery of ungodliness.

In other words, Paul is saying that in light of everything that it's already been told to Timothy, all the instructions, all the qualifications, Timothy needs to understand that those are not simply beneficial tips to help things run smoothly.

No, they are crucial.

Because the Holy Spirit has clearly spoken and communicated that there are days coming, he says, when false gospels are going to make their way into the church.

And these instructions are going to be lifelines for the church.

Paul's already told the Ephesian elders of this previously when he gathered them together.

We find this in Acts chapter 20, verses 28 and 29.

Acts 20:28

He tells them this he says, Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

He says, I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.

And from among your own selves, he says, will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them.

So Paul's already warned the Ephesian elders, times are coming when men are going to creep into the church and begin to teach false gospels that distort the work of Jesus and call disciples away into believing other untrue gospels.

Jesus himself also prophesied of this in Matthew chapter 24.

Matthew 24 · chapter mention

But if you look at this phrase in here in 1 Timothy, he uses this phrase in later times, it's not simply a reference to some specific time in the future that is yet to come.

It's a theological and an eschatological term.

Meaning Paul is placing this within a specific framework that helps us to understand the relevance of this prophetic word from the Spirit.

It's theological because it ties into a theme that both Jesus and Paul, throughout several of his letters, has spoken about, often calling them the last days.

So it's theological in nature.

It's telling us something about God and his work.

But it's also eschatological.

I know that's a uh that may be a strange term to some of us because it's it's simply a word that means the science or the study or the understanding of final things or last things or finality.

And so it's eschatological, that is, it's thinking through the lens of these final things, because it doesn't just tell us of some future event, but rather it informs how we think through the life and struggles of the church between the first coming of Jesus, when he, that's the mystery of godliness, that he came into the world, put on flesh, accomplished his work, rose from the grave, ascended into heaven, right?

That's his first coming.

And then what happens between that and the promised second coming?

When Jesus is going to come back and he's gonna set things straight.

And when we think through this big theological term called eschatology, it's simply the framework through which we understand this what is called final days between when Jesus came and when Jesus is coming again.

So Paul isn't simply speaking of some far-off day that Timothy and the believers in Ephesus don't have to worry about, that they're disconnected from, that doesn't apply to them.

No, even in our text, Paul begins to shift from this future language to the present tense as he begins to describe these false teachers who are currently wreaking havoc among the Ephesian church.

At other points in his letters, his second letter to Timothy, for example, Paul even names names.

Paul isn't listen, he's not above saying, like, this dude over here is the guy I'm talking about.

Like, treat him like an unbeliever.

Like Paul, Paul's not above naming names when it comes to false teachers, and we'll we'll we'll get into that a bit.

But this isn't just some far-off thing.

No, Paul is warning, he's telling them this is going to happen, this is happening.

And how does Paul describe this occurrence?

He says, some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and to teachings of demons.

In other words, Paul says that the source of false gospels is demonic.

It's Satan, the enemy himself, from whom these other false teachings are coming.

Scripture says that he's the father of lies and he roams about seeking to steal and kill and destroy.

Scripture says that this is what he does.

And how does he do it?

He does it by contriving other gospels, other narratives of redemption that call into question both the nature of God and the work of God, just as he has been doing since the beginning when he tempted Eve in the garden.

This is why we as Christians cannot simply be neutral when it comes to false teaching or narratives that try to steer people away from the sufficiency of Jesus Christ alone to save us from our sins.

We can't be neutral about this.

These aren't just varying but equally valid opinions.

Paul says that false gospels are demonic at their source.

And they are deadly when they're followed.

The Apostle John in 1 John chapter 4, verses 1 through 3, and then verse 6 writes this Beloved, do not believe every spirit or every spiritual teaching, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.

1 John 4:1–3

For many false prophets have gone out into the world.

By this you know the Spirit of God.

Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.

And then Paul goes on.

He says, verse 6, we are from God.

Whoever knows God listens to us.

Whoever is not from God does not listen to us, and by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Now, Paul is not being arrogant here when he says, those they're not of God, we're from God, because, and then measuring himself in a different standard.

No, Paul himself even encourages the churches.

Look, even if I come to you, he says, even if angels come to you and preach another gospel, then cast them out, anathematize them, pronounce them as dead.

And so Paul isn't holding himself to another standard here.

But he's helping us to see that spiritual teaching that draws our attention away from Jesus Christ toward other lesser means of redemption are at their source demonic.

John says you'll know when it's the Spirit of God and when it's the true gospel when you are pointed to the work of Jesus Christ.

But these other spirits, these other teachings, they are not from God.

In fact, they are from Satan, leading people away from the truth.

That's the source, that's where these false narratives, these false gospels come from.

So let's talk about the substance.

Of what are they made?

What comprises these false gospels?

Verse 2.

Through the insincerity of liars, he says, whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage, and who require abstinence from foods that God created.

There are two groups of people in view here as the Holy Spirit, through the words of Paul, is telling us of these false gospels.

First, there are those who are being deceived, those who are being led astray and departing from the faith.

The second group, however, are these people we see in verse 2 and 3, those who are doing the deceiving, the ones who are actually leading people astray by preaching these false gospels.

And when it comes to these people, there are no punches pulled in the descriptive language that's used here.

The insincerity of liars, Paul says.

The weight of this accusation doesn't, it doesn't fully come through in the English translation.

Paul is saying that these false teachers who are preaching a false gospel are doing so with full knowledge of what they're doing.

They're claiming the name of Christ and then using his name to validate a false message, knowing that that is exactly what they're doing.

It could be translated hypocrites.

They've confessed the faith, they've even instructed people in the truth, and now, based on the authority that they've accumulated to themselves, they're now deceiving people by leading them astray toward a false gospel, and they're undermining the very confession of faith that they've previously confessed.

Paul says they're hypocritical and they're liars.

They're doing this with intention.

And he goes on to say that their consciences are seared.

In other words, they've so continued to make a conscious choice to persist in their sinful and hypocritical misleading that they've now desensitized themselves to their own consciences.

It's this idea of cauterizing.

Like closing up a wound with such intense heat that in doing so, it desensitizes the nerves.

And Paul is saying that they have so committed and continually walked in this uh this dishonesty, this hypocrisy, that they've now desensitized themselves even to their own consciences.

This is a terrifying cautionary tale.

Paul says that there are ways in which we can persist in willful rebellion that even those who profess to follow Christ can become so desensitized to our sin that we don't even listen to our own consciences, the gift that God has given us to help us know right from wrong.

And in verse three, we're given two specific examples of how these hypocrites, these false teachers, are leading people away from true faith and toward these demonic false gospels.

Paul says that they're doing it through first forbidding marriage, and second, through requiring abstinence from certain foods.

Now, at first, this this may seem strange.

Why would the forbidding of marriage and abstinence from certain foods be so deceiving and so alluring?

And why would Paul use such harsh language against something that at first glance doesn't seem to be that big of a deal?

Because isn't it true that even Paul himself says that there are times when singleness rather than marriage is more beneficial?

Paul says that.

So what's the big deal?

Here it is.

The issue isn't primarily marriage and food.

The issue is worship.

And primarily the issue at hand is the means by which one believes that they can come to God rightly and worship Him rightly.

That's the issue at hand.

John Calvin, who was a 16th-century pastor, wrote this.

He says the controversy is not about flesh or meat, or about a Friday or a Wednesday, but it's about the mad superstitions of men who wish to appease God by such trifles, by contriving a carnal worship of him, and through doing so, they contrive for them, excuse me, for themselves an idol instead of God.

In other words, the main problem with this is that in the forbidden of marriage and in the requirement of abstention, these teachers have ceased to come to God on his terms and have made for themselves an idol of worship.

They've ceased to come to God on God's terms.

And they are now trying to come to God on their own terms.

He wrote this He says, It's a sign that men have departed from the faith when they will command what God has forbidden, such as saint and angel and demonic.

Worship and forbid what God has allowed or commanded, such as marriage or meats.

See, the problem is when we do not come to God on his terms, but try to approach him on our own terms.

So take marriage and take meat and fill in the blank with whatever it is that your own heart tries to put as a means by which you can get to God.

The issue isn't marriage.

The issue isn't meat.

The issue is worship.

And the truth is, friends, is that we all try to put things in the place of God in order to come to Him on our own terms.

We see this all the way back in the beginning when a man named Cain brought an offering to God, but it wasn't the offering that God had commanded.

Did he bring an offering?

Yes.

Was he worshiping?

Yes.

The problem was he was trying to worship God in his own way rather than worshiping God in God's way.

And in doing so, he broke the law.

He broke God's commands.

It's an issue of worship.

The substance of all false gospels is idolatry.

It's worshiping lesser things than God, or attempting to worship God through lesser means than how He has demanded we worship Him.

1 John chapter 4, Jesus says that we must worship God in both spirit and in truth.

1 John 4 · chapter mention

In other words, right worship is empowered by God and informed by God.

We don't get to decide how and through what means we come to God.

So the issue here was not simply marriage or simply meets.

It was that these teachers were elevating a false gospel saying that in addition to the work of Jesus, you also were demanded to practice this asceticism, this extreme self-denial of any sort of pleasure, whether it be pleasure within marriage, whether it would be the pleasure of enjoying certain foods, and they were saying that that asceticism, that self-denial was the very means by which they were coming to God and achieving righteousness.

So it wasn't simply that they were saying, don't get married and don't eat meats, it was that they were saying, we have another way to get to God.

But we don't get to decide that.

That's up to him as the only true, rightful recipient of worship.

And therefore, when we attempt to create our own avenue of approaching God, we miss the mark.

And we fail to worship him in spirit and truth, and we begin to believe a false gospel that attempts to communicate to us that we can get to God through some other means.

So if the source of these false gospels is demonic, it's it's evil, it's it's from the enemy.

If the substance is that it's it's not simply don't do this, do this, but it's it's trying to use other means to get to God or to attain righteousness, if that's the substance, then what's the solution?

Verse 3.

They 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's made holy by the word of God and by prayer.

And giving the solution, the answer to these false gospels, Paul immediately points us back to creation and ultimately to the character of God.

He says, it's God who created, and everything that he created is good.

Therefore, goodness seen in his gifts, such as food, and by extension, within the context of the text, marriage, Paul doesn't speak directly to marriage here in his rebuttal or in his answer here, presumably because he's already dealt with the idea of the goodness of marriage earlier in the letter, particularly in chapter three in the qualifications of elders and deacons.

He's also dealt with it in his earlier letter to the churches in Ephesus.

And to clarify here on the matter of food also clarifies on the matter of marriage.

So he's not dodging a bullet, he's kind of killing two birds with one stone, if you want to put it that way.

But the goodness seen in these gifts reveals to us the goodness of their creator.

When looking at a painting, we don't simply stand in awe of the paint itself or say, man, what a canvas.

No, when we look at a painting, we stand in awe of the mind of its painter.

At the creativity, at the beauty that flowed from his work.

And with God, when we see his good gifts in creation, their purpose isn't simply to make us sit back and say, wow, what a tree.

No, they show to us a glimpse of the goodness of God who created them.

So in essence, just as we saw the source of the false gospels, it's here that we see the source of the true gospel.

A good God who created all things good, who gives gifts to be enjoyed and to point us toward Himself.

This is the source of the true gospel.

It originates with a God who is good, who then from his goodness provides a way for redemption.

So if that's the source of the true gospel, what then is the substance?

Substance is this.

Though God has given us good gifts to enjoy and appoint us to Himself, we instead choose to abuse His gifts.

We don't receive them with thanksgiving.

In fact, we turn the gifts into God's.

We try to take these things that God has given us to stir worship in our hearts for him, and we say, wow, this is really good, therefore we must worship that.

And we begin to believe that if we do this, if we could just do this, or if if we don't do that, if we eat this, or if we don't eat that, if we marry or if we don't marry, then we will truly be right with God.

Then we'll be righteous, then we'll be satisfied, then we'll find our true identity, then we'll be fulfilled.

And in doing this, we find ourselves under the burden of a demonic false gospel that promises freedom and life, but instead only leads to bondage and death.

But the solution to every false gospel, and there are a myriad of them, the solution to every one of them is the realization that, and this is our gospel conviction, true freedom only comes through God's good gift of Jesus Christ alone.

True freedom only comes through God's good gift of Jesus Christ alone.

He has given us a myriad of good gifts, and what have we done with them?

We've abused them.

We've put them on a pedestal, we've plated them in gold, we've denied them or received them.

All of that trying to turn other lesser means into an avenue for our own righteousness.

But God says the only way to true freedom is through his ultimate gift, his son, Jesus Christ, and through him alone.

That's the distinction.

It's not Jesus plus self-denial, it's not Jesus plus certain means of consecration, it's not Jesus plus self-indulgence, it's not Jesus plus our own attempts at self-righteousness.

It is Jesus Christ alone where freedom is found.

Paul says God created these things to be received.

Received how?

With thanksgiving.

With a recognition that it is the giver of life who is giving us these things.

Not that we deserve them in and of ourselves, but we receive them with thanksgiving, recognizing who it is from whom these gifts are flowing.

Received by whom?

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.

If it's received with thanksgiving, this is not simply a caricatured idea of thanksgiving.

This idea of thanksgiving is a total uh admission that there is nothing in and of ourselves that makes us deserve these good gifts.

And so the only proper response is to look to the giver and say, thank you.

Verse 5, for it is made holy by the word of God, more specifically by the word of the gospel, and by prayer, by our reliance upon Him, not a self-reliance of denying marriage or denying meat.

These things are to be received by those who believe and know the truth.

Believe what?

This great mystery of godliness.

That Jesus Christ has come into the world to save sinners, that he put on flesh, that he lived in the world, that he died on the cross, that he rose from the grave, he ascended into heaven.

And one day he will return for his people, at which time he will fully do away with all the remnants of the curse.

And every false gospel will fall away.

This is the answer to every false gospel, every demonic teaching that points people everywhere except toward Christ.

Believe and know the truth, the person and work of Jesus Christ to redeem his people and to restore his creation back to that original pronouncement of goodness.

Freedom does not come through trying to approach God on our own terms.

It may promise freedom, but it only delivers slavery.

True freedom only comes through receiving his good gift of salvation by faith alone, reliance alone on Jesus Christ alone.

We toil, we work our hands to the bone at means and methods of trying to redeem ourselves.

And if we do that, it only brings bondage.

Don't marry, they said, don't eat meat, they said, then you'll be righteous.

But the gospel says there is nothing that you can do to make yourself righteous.

But there is a good God who has given good gifts and has ultimately given the best gift in his son, Jesus Christ.

And if you will only cling to him, if you will come to him alone by faith alone, if you will trust in him and abandon your attempts at self-justification, that is where freedom is found.

It is for freedom we have been set free through Jesus Christ.

So where do we go from here?

How does this what is how does this apply to this week as we walk out from here?

First, watch out for false gospels.

Philip Riken, he's a Presbyterian minister and theologian.

He said this.

He says, though Christians may be saddened by false theology or false gospels, they should never be surprised by them.

Watch out for false narratives that will pull your attention away from Jesus, even just a little bit.

Yes, Jesus, but also if it doesn't point you solely and fully to the finished work of Jesus Christ alone, then it is not the gospel.

It's interesting.

We we won't get into it, but uh uh if you study the language here in the text as Paul walks on, he keeps using um uh uh plural words when it comes to these false teachings, false gospels, false narratives.

But when he gets to the gospel, it's always the gospel, the faith, the good doctrine.

There is only one true gospel, and his name is Jesus Christ.

Number two, don't play nice with quote-unquote small chains.

Attempts at self-justification, promise freedom, they only deliver bondage.

But all of us, if we're honest, we there are small ways in which we think, man, we can we can just give in a little bit here.

We can just watch this, just this one time on the internet.

Nobody's looking.

Just this one time, it's small.

It won't and we begin to, with these quote-unquote small chains, these small sins, and we begin to live in them.

And Paul warns us we are headed toward bondage.

So don't play nice with small chains.

Bring those things into the light.

Freedom is not found in the dark, it's found in the light.

This is why we stress the importance of living life in community as Christians, because when we live in isolation, our propensity, our tendency is toward hiding, is toward darkness, is toward bondage.

Bring those things into the light.

Don't play nice with small chains that will ultimately and inevitably bring bondage.

Kill that thing.

Number three, fight with the weapons of faith and joy.

Though we're promised that false gospels and hypocritical teachers will come around, God has not left us empty-handed in the fight against them.

In fact, he has given us weapons that when rooted in him cannot be defeated.

Fight with faith.

And I'm not talking about this blind, cinematic, you can do anything you set your mind to, faith.

I'm talking about rock solid, rooted in the person and work of Jesus Christ, taking on Rome with a sausage supper kind of faith.

And fight with joy.

Thankful joy that we see the good gifts of God, especially the gift of Jesus Christ in the gospel.

And we know that there is no other news out there as good as this good news.

That Jesus Christ has come into the world to save sinners.

Pray with me.

Father, our hearts, when left to themselves, tend to run toward lesser things.

And so I pray that this morning, through your scripture and through the power of your Holy Spirit, that you, first, that you show us the danger of narratives that would lead us away from Jesus Christ, but that ultimately would point us to his beauty.

That we would see in him such a beauty, such a splendor, such a magnificence that we cannot help but look and gaze and cling to him alone, that lesser things simply fall away.

They've been trying to self-justify, they've been trying to come to God, but it's been on their own terms.

If I just work a little harder, if I just press a little longer, if I just hide these things and sweep them under the rug, then perhaps, then maybe I'll be righteous.

Father, I pray this morning that your Holy Spirit would turn their gaze toward Jesus Christ, that their inherent belief that they can somehow do it themselves would be exposed for what it is, simply bondage that's holding them down, and that you would lead them to true freedom and faith in Christ.

I pray this morning, Spirit, that you would make someone new.

We pray all this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen and amen.