Tim 4:1-4- All food is sanctified by prayer !!!!

Good evening everyone this is Shane Vaughnn with First Harvest Ministries I want to address a question that came into our ministry uh we've gotten this question several times and I want to address it for you real quickly if we can we're going to go to First Timothy chapter 4 we're going to read verse 1 through verse 4 and it is in those scriptures that uh there seems to be evidence that Yahweh God if that's what you choose to call him uh has allowed in the New Testament for all food to be uh eaten uh distinguishing not between clean or unclean um and of course if this is what 1 Timothy 4 1-4 is saying then that renders uh our teaching uh that we still uh should adhere to God's clean and unclean laws it renders it useless if in fact this is what Paul is saying in 1 Timothy chapter 4 so it is incumbent upon you and me to study these scriptures together tonight let us have a quick Bible study and let's just go verse by verse and let's see if this is what the Bible is saying if it is then we're going to have to change our teaching on clean and unclean food so let's go to 1 Timothy chapter 4 and 1-4 uh I have a favorite saying here at verse service Ministries that context is King and uh that is certainly the case in these particular verses so let's begin reading shall we 1 Timothy 4 and 1 uh 4 and verse one now the spirit speaks very plainly that in the end times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils so before we go any further let's set the context text we have in these verses a warning from the Apostle Paul that in the last days that there would be some doctrines that would be preached that would be among the church and he warned us to be careful of these doctrines by calling them doctrines of devils seducing spirits and he said in verse two that these people would speak lies in hypocrisy having their conscious seared with a hot iron learn so then we come to verse three one of the doctrines that they would be teaching in the last days uh is this forbidding to marry now we know without getting too plain in this video that marriage is another word for uh uh sexual relation pleasurable enjoyable sexual relationships it comes in the confines of marriage however Paul was dealing with a group of people you can Google it to study more and these groups of people were known by the following moniker number one Dost do oce TI s t was one of the groups with which Paul had tremendous problems in the early church another group is known as gnostics g n o s i CS if you take the time to Google their understanding and their philosophy and their teaching you will find that these were a very spiritual people very connected to the cosmos or to the spirit world very connected to spiritual things very enlightened always looking for the path to Nirvana always looking for the Escape into the other world tapping into their Spirit guides tapping into the inner voice that is within the universe I'm giving you some phrases that perhaps you've heard and it's in our day and those phrases are spoken by the new age uh adherence the this comes from a Wiccan Pagan Celtic Druid um vernacular and verbage this is the phrases that is spoken by even today many of the Pagan persuasion here's what the pagans believe uh many of them that were Dost and gnostics they were very determined to connect with the universe to do that they needed to deny the pleasures of the flesh because they believed that the pleasures of the flesh was hindering them from a greater Enlightenment and therefore they uh were against anything pleasurable anything that the body enjoyed was a hindering them for getting more power from the universe verse so they were on a quest to connect with the spirit realm and in so doing they had to deny the Flesh and call it evil and therefore they had to deny it all pleasure well one of the primary pleasures of uh of Flesh and living is the sexual relationship so they would create a teaching that forbid men to get married we know this is carried over into the Roman Babylonian Church forbidding to Mary somehow bringing them closer to God which is not true so this was one of the first doctrines that Paul said watch out for these groups that hinder any pleasure of the flesh by connecting you to God through other means besides Yeshua the Lord Jesus so the gnostics were all about getting to the father but they weren coming through the head which was Yeshua Christ Jesus they didn't believe that you had to go through him to get to the father they believed you could forbid sexual pleasure and get to the father they also believed something else that was very prominent in Paul's day and it's becoming more and more prominent in the last day the next thing that they forbid was the eating of any pleasurable food especially meat they believed that meat was a delicacy and they believed that all animals were on the same playing field they did not believe that man was superior to the animals they believed that we were all one happy Universal family and their teaching continues even to this day and they were Tree Huggers they were the ones that believed we shouldn't kill Bambi we shouldn't kill animals and eat them and therefore we should not enjoy the pleasure that our bodies receive from a good steak on the plate and so their next teaching was not to eat any meat they were totally against the eating of meat well in the Christian church there was a lot of meat eating going on at their holy days and at their festivals there was much food it was a celebration so these pagans were against any meat that's why Paul says in verse three that their second teaching would be commanding us to abstain from meat all meat now I want you to notice the next line which God hath created to be received with Thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth so here's what Paul said that these pagans were going to teach the church not to eat even the food which Yahweh had created to be received now that word to be received sets this whole chapter in context Paul notice Paul said here that hey these pagans are going to teach not to eat any meat even the meat that Yahweh created for us to eat now we know that when Yahweh created animals not every one of them were created for food for example the horse was created for travel the snake was created to crawl on its belly the Cockroach was created to do what it does the shrimp was created to clean the ocean the oysters were created to clean the ocean the catfish was created to clean the rivers the pigs were created to clean the Barnyard none of these animals were created to be received into the body they were not called food just because it's an animal doesn't make it food it may be an animal but it might be a pum that pum does not serve the purpose of food so all animals if you'll read in Leviticus was not created to be received but the ones that were created to be received there was absolutely nothing wrong with putting them on a barbecue pit and Grilling them eating them and enjoying the pleasure of that good clean meat so here Paul tells them that these pagans were going to teach against eating even the food the animals the creatures which God created to Beed verse four now here's where we get people just they they misunderstand it verse four for every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with Thanksgiving see the Bible says every creature of God is good brothers and sisters every creature of God that Paul is talking about is specifically stated in the verse above it that we just read the ones that are created to be received every one of those creatures that were created to be received is good every one of them is good to be received we give Thanksgiving to God God but there is another test that we never talk about verse number five for it is Sanctified by the word of God and prayer for some reason when we quote this verse we never quote that first part the word of God we say it's Sanctified by prayer but you see not prayer alone it's sanctioned or Sanctified by the word of God see if you go read the word of God in The Book of Leviticus you will find out which foods were sanctioned or Sanctified by the Torah or the word of God and those foods are specifically listed in Leviticus 23 so now let's read these verses starting at verse three one final time forbidding to enjoy sexual pleasure forbidding to enjoy the food food that Yahweh created for you to eat every one of those creatures that he created to be received is good why is it good because it is sanctioned it is allowed it is set apart for food by the word of God and then we receive it with prayer of Thanksgiving that's it that's what those verses mean it is so simple and yet we have completely misunderstood it all of these years this scripture does not say that all food is now to is now sanctioned by prayer no no no it says all food that was created to be food is good for you because it's sanctioned by the word of God and by the prayer of Thanksgiving hope that helps you today if you have any further questions feel free to inbox us we'd be happy to answer for you God bless you have an awesome evening