We're supposed to begin Chapter 4, and it just so happened that this text has a marvelous section which fits very much with the theme for tonight's service. So I'm not going to be looking at everything in this text, just mainly focusing on the one theme, and I'll come back to the other themes in this text at the next sermon. But I want us to read 1 Timothy, Chapter 4, verses 1 through 5. 1 Timothy chapter 4 verses 1 through 5. It's printed in your bulletin, but you can also find it in your Bibles. Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter 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. Let's pray. Lord, I pray that you'll help us to receive those things which you say are good with thanksgiving and prayer. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the book of 1 Timothy, the Apostle Paul had been writing to the church in Ephesus And particularly one of the reasons for his writing seems to be a heresy, a false teaching which had arisen in the congregation. We're not going to look at what he says here about the Spirit talking about people falling away. giving themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. We'll return to that at a future sermon. But it seems that one of the things that these false teachers were teaching that was going through the Church of Ephesus was that they were telling people they shouldn't get married and requiring them to abstain from certain foods out of an effort of religious devotion. seems to be a form of incipient asceticism, meaning that they believe that the world, kind of a Gnosticism, they seem to teach that the world and the physical reality is bad, you know, maybe not even the creation of God himself, and it's something therefore to be avoided. We want to feed our spiritual selves and to Our reality is spiritual and not physical, so we should end up shunning and moving away from physical things, including food and even the institution of marriage and sexuality. We're to reject those things, and we are to instead abstain from them. And Paul says that this, far from being an innocent thing, is actually a demonically inspired false teaching. Those who forbid marriage and to require abstinence from certain foods. Why is it demonic? Because it's calling things that God created and called good at creation. You know, in creation, God saw that he made it and said that it was good. Things that God created for the benefit and for of humanity, for the blessing of his people, for the furtherance of his kingdom on earth, calling those things that God created good, evil, and requiring them to be abstained from. God created these things, called them good, and said they are to be received with thanksgiving. Now, there's nothing wrong with being single or even choosing to be single for certain purposes. The Apostle Paul was one of those. He, for the sake of the gospel and his ministry, decided to abstain from marriage or with being a vegetarian for numerous reasons. But what is wrong is calling these things, which God created as good, calling them not good and saying that they are to be rejected by all people. The problem is not in the gifts, because it's true, as we'll look at shortly. Food can be misused, and frequently is. Our sexuality can definitely be misused, as we see in our own lives and in the culture around us. But these things are not bad in themselves because of their misuse. They are God's good gifts designed to be used how he has created them to be used. What makes them bad is not that they are physical things. What makes them bad is that we do not receive them with thanksgiving and use them as God has created them to be. A good test to see if we are receiving and using God's goods rightly is to ask that question. Am I receiving this with thanksgiving? Can I give thanks for how I am using this thing? Can I give thanks for how I am using the food that God has provided me with? Can I give thanks for how I am using my sexuality? These are things that God has created and are to be received as a gift from God as he intended them to be used. An interesting example of this that kind of struck my mind as reading through this book of 1 Timothy is something that arises in this book. In the early 20th century, and still in some circles in Christianity today, there was a strong movement because of the horrible abuse of alcohol and alcoholism. which has wracked tremendous damage on our society, on societies around the world. Because of how alcohol and wine and things have been so horrendously abused, there were some Christians, and still are, Christians who said that because of how terribly these things have been abused, they should be abstained from altogether. And anybody who uses them is in sin. In some churches, it would be considered a sin if you ever partook of alcohol. But Paul would have something to say about that. He'd say that wine is something that God has created and called it good. What makes it good or bad is not the thing itself, but how it is used. And the example of this is from the book itself. For instance, Paul, as we looked at a few weeks ago, warns that one of the characteristics of deacons Right? Deacons, likewise, must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. Right? Church leaders are to not be addicted, not be given over too much wine. They use the word addicted, but it's like given over too much wine. That's not something that is to characterize them, the abuse of the gift. But then Paul himself writes later in the book to Timothy, in chapter 5, he tells Timothy, no longer drink only water. But use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments." And it's the same word. The word for wine that deacons are not to be given over much to, and the command he gives to Timothy, hey, you know. Don't be quite so abstemious, right? Take a little wine for your health. See, what's evil or not is not the item itself, but how it's used. Are we receiving this thing with thanksgiving? And again, there might be great wisdom in deciding to completely abstain from alcohol. I think that might be a wise move for many people. But what's wrong is if we call the thing itself, because of the way it's been abused, bad in itself. The problem is not the gift, but how we receive it. Now, our culture doesn't always fall into the same sort of asceticism that the false teachers in Paul's day did. Now, we could think of some examples, you know, particularly in the way some people behave around certain foods and things like that, as kind of having a similar sort of, you know, if you eat or partake of that, you are you are outside of the realm of acceptability. But oftentimes we fall into the other side of things. We tend to say that because it's a physical thing, it's good and I can do whatever I want with it. My body, I can do whatever I want with it. Going and falling on the other side of the horse and overindulging and misusing the gifts of God. not abstaining from, say, marriage and sexuality, but saying that because I'm a sexual being, I can use my sexuality in any way I please. Again, it's the same error. Both is saying that not receiving God's gift with thanksgiving, saying this is a gift God has given me to be used in the way that he has intended it. We're not treating it as a gift from God for a specific end and purpose. For example, just a silly one, you know, you can give God thanks for chocolate cake, and I think many of us probably will, or for turkey, or for whatever, right? We can give God thanks for these things, but we can't give thanks for it if we're going to gluttonously overindulge in it, because then we're using a gift for something that God calls a sin, right? Then you're not receiving it with thanksgiving, you're using it for another end. So again, we can test the way we are using God's good gifts. If we can truly say, thank you to God, and truly say, I thank you, God, I'm going to use this gift as you've given it to me, as you've intended it. You know, again, an example. If you were to give your son a hammer for Christmas, And he immediately started hitting his siblings over the head with it and putting holes in your wall. And you'd say, what are you doing? And he's like, oh, thanks for the hammer. And you'd say, you can't thank me for the hammer. That is not why I've given you this hammer. That's not the end for which you have given it. You're not receiving it with thanksgiving. You're taking it and abusing it in a way that I have not intended. The Apostle Paul says here that we're to receive God's gifts with thanksgiving and prayer, with thanksgiving and prayer. For everything that God, verse four, everything God has created is good. It's good because God has created it. And nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. For it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. That's kind of an interesting thing. You already said it's good. Why does it need to be made holy? Right, because we're not holy. We're the ones who corrupt the gifts. The gifts are not corrupted in themselves. It's how we receive them. And so in prayer and thanksgiving, as we receive them and acknowledge them and pray that God would help us use them as he's intended us, that puts them to godly use, holy use. The gifts are good, given to all mankind, right? Food is given to everybody. God pours out his rain on the just and the unjust. He gives the gift of marriage to everybody. It's a universal thing given to mankind, not every individual, but to all mankind. But it's only those who acknowledge the origin of it and receive it as it's given that it is made holy to their use. That's the only way it becomes a good gift for us, by the word of God and prayer. This text is one of the proof texts, you could say, for the regular Christian practice of giving thanks before a meal, which I think is a good and salutary practice, where we, when we eat, we acknowledge before God and each other that what we are about to receive is a gift from God, and that we are to receive it as that, acknowledge that God is providing for us in this food. And I think that's a good practice for us to do, to give thanks. But I think if that's the only time we ever give thanks is the kind of perfunctory prayer we give before a meal, we have a reduced vision of what Paul is talking about here. Everything, whether marriage, right, or the marriage bag, or the fruit of the womb, or your job, or everything else is to be received with thanksgiving. have that attitude before everything. G.K. Chesterton has a good quote to this effect, which I think is helpful for us. He says, you say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the play and the opera, and grace before the concert and the pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing, and grace before I dip the pen in the ink. I think it's a good reminder that we're to treat all things as gifts from God and receive them with Thanksgiving. If we cannot receive it with Thanksgiving, then we should really question ourselves, should I be doing this? Am I using this gift right? a good test for us in the media we consume, in the activities we engage in. Can I receive this with thanksgiving? The principle applies to all that God has given us. When we don't receive it with thanks, we are treating God's gifts as if they are our own and not gifts. When we treat marriage and sexuality not as a gift, but something that we can use to express our own identity, When we don't use it for the purposes God has given it, we're not treating it as a gift. and instead we're using it in the purposes of sin, which we see so rampant in our own lives and in the society around us. When we don't treat our children as gifts from God, and we treat them instead as things that belong to us, that can lead to our own frustration when they don't turn out as we, our gods, would like them to be. We hold on to them as our own, and that can convey to children a very different message than the message we should be conveying to them, that they are God's children and called to be God's children. Or with our wealth, if we treat our wealth and our material prosperity as something that we have deserved as opposed to a gift, we hold on to it tightly. When we receive things as gifts and acknowledge them as gifts, it enables us to hold our things with loose hands and say, where can I be gracious and giving as my father has been giving to me? So we should look to this example the Apostle Paul gives us here and thank God for all his many gifts that he pours out on us and ask ourselves that question. Can I receive this with thanksgiving? And then when we do receive it, give thanks. 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. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you and help that to be something that characterizes our whole lives, lives of thanks. May we recognize the multitude of gifts you poured out on us, not just our food, but everything, Lord. And may we return to you the thanks which is due, not just with our lips, but in how we use the gifts. May we put them to holy use by receiving them as you gave them for our good and for the good of our neighbor. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Before we turn and sing Psalm, hymn number 637 in your hymnals, just a reminder to those of you who are watching.