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“That Old Serpent”

Part 4

March 26, 2014

1Ti 4:1  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;
1Ti 4:2  Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
1Ti 4:3  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.
1Ti 4:4  For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
1Ti 4:5  For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
1Ti 4:6  If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.
1Ti 4:7  But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.
1Ti 4:8  For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
1Ti 4:9  This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. 

Yesterday was my birthday and I was marked as 34 years old. When most people hear that they will immediately say something kind and nice like, “congratulations” or “getting old now” or “you’re just a baby”, etc.

Most responses will be positive to most people, and indeed that are intended to be by most people. Birthdays in particular are one of the most respected and positive events most people can relate to because everyone can relate to the idea of, “me”.

However, because of what we know to be true in scripture, “me” doesn’t matter but Jesus Christ and His Father, and to know them, is what REALLY matters.

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
So, I will be using this example of my recent “advancement” to 34 years old as an example of what just happened in your heavens in relation to the Truth and that old serpent when I mentioned it, and how we are instructed to think about it spiritually.

In the previous studies so far, we have covered who the old serpent called the devil and satan are as described in scripture, who he is designed to target, and what our protection is from him.

In the last study, we started to cover being “doers” of the Word and how that plays out in our practical and spiritual lives. If the last study would be “part a” of this concept, then this study today would be considered “part b”.

“Doctrines of devils”

I started off this study by reading 1 Ti 4:1-9 to set the stage of contrast for what the mind and faith of Christ is (the simplicity that is in Christ) versus the mind of the traducer, the accuser, and the adversary birthed in us as the carnal mind.

1Ti 4:1  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;

I have focused these studies on the concept of Faith, and there is a very good reason why. Faith is not something we can gain, it is something given to us. Without it, we can do NOTHING. With it, we can MOVE MOUNTAINS.

In 1 Ti 4:1, we are told that it is in the latter times that some shall depart from the faith because they give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.

So, it is imperative for us to search the scripture (daily) to “see if these things be so”. It is imperative that we know our enemy, death, and he that controls death.

Act 17:11  These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

The same Greek word spoken to us that is referred to as latter “times” is the same Greek word found here:

Gal 4:7  Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Gal 4:8  Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and TIMES, and years.
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

It is in the “latter times,” this season, in which we are given over to LEAVING the Faith of Christ and GIVING HEED (1 Tim 4:1) to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.

G4337

προσέχω

prosechō

pros-ekh’-o

From G4314 and G2192; (figuratively) to hold the mind (G3563 implied) towards, that is, pay attention to, be cautious about, apply oneself to, adhere to: – (give) attend (-ance, -ance at, -ance to, unto), beware, be given to, give (take) heed (to, unto) have regard.

Paying attention to these doctrines and devils leads into:

1Ti 4:2  Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
1Ti 4:3  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.

It is of utmost importance that we know what it is we do when we “leave the Faith” so that we can be on constant guard to NOT leave the Faith, the Faith of Christ.

Again, the simplicity that is in Christ is His mind, His Faith, His sharing of what the mind of the Father is.

Those which “leave the Faith” forbid marrying and direct us to abstain from meat. However, the reason this is EVIL is that marrying and PRATAKING of MEATS has been created and is to be received with thanksgiving of “THEM WITH HAVE FAITH and KNOW JESUS CHRIST AND HIS FATHER”.

Here is what marrying is:

Eph 5:30  For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Eph 5:31  For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
Eph 5:32  This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

And here is what abstaining or partaking of meats is involved with:

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

Joh 4:32  But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.
Joh 4:33  Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat?
Joh 4:34  Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

I point these things out not to guilt anyone, but to prepare everyone for the battle that happens in “the latter times.”

1Ti 4:6  If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.
1Ti 4:7  But REFUSE PROFANE and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.
The marriage that the seducing spirits and the doctrines of devils want us to not partake of is the marriage of Christ and His bride, and the meat we are told to not partake of is of the WORK of the Father.

By knowing our enemy and the one who has power over the enemy, we can MAKE WAR with the beast and the dragon BECAUSE Jesus Christ LIVES IN US. By this, we KNOW and glory in knowing our names are written in heaven!

“Casting out devils”

The Greek word used in 1 Timothy 4 is G1140, “daimonion”, and is different than the word used for “the devil and satan”.

The traducer, the accuser, is the PRINCE of these devils of doctrines, but we have a MIGHTY WEAPON to combat them all, and that is what this series is about.

The disciples were able to cast out devils, as did Jesus, and that is no different than for us today.

Though, what we have always thought of as “devils or demons” is not what Hollywood or the orthodox Christians churches would have you believe.

If you do not know who you are warring against, how is it that you will be able to defeat an unknown enemy?

Heb 10:38  Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
Heb 10:39  But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that BELIEVE to the saving of the soul.

Act 24:14  But this I confess unto thee, that after THE WAY which THEY CALL HERESY, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:
Act 24:15  And have HOPE toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.

Jesus the Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Jesus the Christ is, was and will be. Anything we read about in the new testament has already be written in the law and prophets, though they only could see the letter and the physical applications because the promise has not yet come.

Jesus Christ is the resurrection. He is resurrected NOW in the hearts and minds of them which believe and don’t draw back unto perdition, but WHY is this so important?

If you think what you are going through in your life now as ANY DIFFERENT or harder than what those who were facing the Truth of Christ and His doctrine back THEN, when He walked in the flesh, then consider this:

Heb 10:39  ButG1161 weG2249 areG2070 notG3756 of them who draw backG5289 untoG1519 perdition;G684 butG235 of them that believeG4102 to the savingG1519 G4047 of the soul.G5590

The Greek word for “drawing back” is G5249.

G5289

ὑποστολή

hupostolē

hoop-os-tol-ay’

From G5288; shrinkage (timidity), that is, (by implication) APOSTASY: – draw back.

G5289 (Thayers)

ὑποστολή

hupostolē

Thayer Definition:

1) the timidity of one stealthily retreating
In other words, the church “drew back” from the Truth they had received with thanksgiving. This apostasy, this timidity, was very present before the apostles and disciples died.

From Wikipedia:

Apostasy (/əˈpɒstəsi/; Greek: ἀποστασία (apostasia), ‘a defection or revolt’) is the formal disaffiliation from or abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a person. One who commits apostasy (or who apostatises) is known as an apostate. The term apostasy is used by sociologists to mean renunciation and criticism of, or opposition to, a person’s former religion, in a technical sense and without pejorative connotation.

So what the author of Hebrews is telling us about drawing back is that it is an act of pulling away from what we have ONCE BELIEVED as Truth.

How it applies to us today is that when we have family, friends, peers loved ones VIEW our lives and our walks, they look on us and see our Faith in action.

If they happen to also see some hypocrisy in those works, then they immediate cry foul and this is for good reason.

However, when there is no hypocrisy but a true living out of the judgments that God is sending to us now, our carnal mind often wants to “draw back” to that which is easier, more simple, “the go along to get along” mentality of joining in with the “running of the race” that IS NOT unto perfection or maturity.

Compare the two:

1Pe 4:3  For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:
1Pe 4:4  Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:
1Pe 4:5  Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.
1Pe 4:6  For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.

Versus:

1Co 9:22  To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
1Co 9:23  And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.
1Co 9:24  Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
1Co 9:25  And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
1Co 9:26  I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
1Co 9:27  But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

They, my family and friends, think it strange that I didn’t celebrate my birthday yesterday nor do I celebrate theirs when that time comes around. The immediate REACTION is that I don’t love or care about them somehow.

However, the Truth is that I do in fact love them, but I love them as a brother or sister in Christ and NOT according to the flesh. The real dilemma though is that they themselves don’t know they they will one day be my “mother, brother and sister”.

When I don’t act on the “time” of my birthday, this ACT or WORK of the Lord is the “casting out of devils” in my heavens.

Heb 6:11  And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:
Heb 6:12  That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Heb 6:13  For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,
Heb 6:14  Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
Heb 6:15  And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
Heb 6:16  For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
Heb 6:17  Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
Heb 6:18  That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
Heb 6:19  Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
Heb 6:20  Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

The anchor of the soul is so important for us. The hope for us, which is this anchor, is what allows us to enter into the veil with Jesus Christ.

In case you are wondering why entering into the veil is so important, let us examine the scripture.

Heb 10:16  This is the covenant that I will make with them after THOSE DAYS, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
Heb 10:17  And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Heb 10:18  Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
Heb 10:19  Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,

The law written on our hearts and minds is this HOPE and FAITH we have been given that the MIND we have been given is “His ways are above our ways” and “His thoughts are above our thoughts”.

This is all connected in one VERY IMPORTANT way.

Heb 10:19  Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
Heb 10:20  By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;

We enter into the heavens by the blood of Jesus by a LIVING WAY, through the VEIL which is HIS FLESH.

Who then is His flesh, His bone, His body?

Eph 5:30  For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Eph 5:31  For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
Eph 5:32  This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

What then does this mean for us practically and spiritually?

It has been said in many different ways and in many different teachings that being a part of His body, keeping in communication, “going two by two” is of absolute necessity to our walk with Jesus Christ.

It is when we are isolated in our hearts and minds; it is when the accuser, the traducer and the adversary comes to us “in the wilderness,” that we are tempted into sinful mindsets of doctrines of devils and seducing spirits.

Is this not the same example as Jesus went through? Who then was it that ministered to Jesus if not angels, messengers of God, in His time in the wilderness?

We have talked about how God was Himself TEMPTED in the wilderness when Israel had no Faith in His promises to them.

Num 14:22  Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

Psa 95:8  Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
Psa 95:9  When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.

Heb 3:7  Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,
Heb 3:8  Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
Heb 3:9  When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
Heb 3:10  Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.

It is when we are isolated in our hearts and minds that the foothold of DEATH is able to take its hold on our minds because our Faith will be tried during this time, but the difference in this trial of Faith in the wilderness and the trial of Faith with being connected to “His flesh, His bone, and His body” is literally and figuratively NIGHT AND DAY.

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

The same word used as TRY in 1 Peter 4:12 is TEMPT in many other scripture.

G3986

πειρασμός

peirasmos

Total KJV Occurrences: 21

temptation, 15

Mat_6:13, Mat_26:41, Mar_14:38, Luk_8:13 (2), Luk_11:4, Luk_22:40, Luk_22:46, 1Co_10:13 (2), Gal_4:14, 1Ti_6:9, Heb_3:8, Jam_1:12, Rev_3:10

temptations, 5

Luk_22:28, Act_20:19, Jam_1:2, 1Pe_1:6, 2Pe_2:9

try, 1

1Pe_4:12

The fiery TRIALS we all experience are the TEMPATIONS to DRAW BACK into perdition, to pull away from the Truth, but we have HOPE to WAGE AGAINST THIS!

Mat 6:13  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Mat 26:41  Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Luk 8:13  They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.

Luk 22:28  Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations.

Gal 4:14  And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

We do have a way out, but all of our FLESH is weak. We all sin because of it, but we have been given instruction and weapons to battle this mindset.

The devil is there to seduce us into living lies, but with one another we are able to thwart the arrows of the adversary due to the armor we have been given.

Eph 6:10  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Eph 6:11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Eph 6:13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Eph 6:14  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
Eph 6:15  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
Eph 6:16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Eph 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
Eph 6:18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
Eph 6:19  And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,
Eph 6:20  For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

In the next part of this series, we will be covering practical ways of living out these admonitions. We will see how to apply scripture to our daily walks, and Lord willing, know how to run the race to win the prize!

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