In this message taken from 1 Timothy 4:1-5 we examine how Paul rebukes asceticism as a demonically inspired set of doctrines. Asceticism consists of practices in which a person attempts to garner holiness or favor with God by either denying themselves something God allows or by doing something that God never commanded. In Ephesus, the city addressed in both 1^st and 2^nd Timothy, false teachers claimed that people must abstain from marriage and refrain from eating certain foods in order to garner favor with God. Paul understands this as a tacit denial of the sufficiency of Christ. Biblical doctrine teaches that a person who trusts in Jesus Christ has completer favor with God forever more. The claim that a person can add to this status found in Christ by ascetic practices is not piety but collusion with demons. Come and hear for yourself how people unwittingly collude with demons through ascetic practices.

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