Preventing Apostasy

We're doing a verse by verse study through the book of First Timothy and as we continue in our study through this book, we come this morning to 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 6, and my goal, this morning is to try to cover, verse 6 and 7. And the title of the message, this morning is Preventing Apostasy, preventing apostasy. And we'll get everything we're going to say essentially from, versus 4, through, 6. Last week we heard a stunning announcement, from the text that we covered, and that is regarding the inevitability of apostasy.

Today we're going, Focus on a more positive nature on how we can actually prevent apostasy in ourselves and in others. As we begin this morning, let's let's take a few minutes to think on a parallel track just in the physical realm. This past week, one of the things that grabbed a lot of the headlines was the death of Senator Ted Kennedy. And I believe it was on Wednesday this week that I read a headline that said something like this, Ted Kennedy dies of brain cancer at age 77.

He had been diagnosed with, brain cancer about 14 months ago and fought that, and eventually succumbed, to that. And politics aside, headlines like that, that have the C word in it, remind us of how prevalent cancer is, this dreaded blight, in the world, today. In fact, let me just ask for a raise of hands. How many of you would say that you have been diagnosed with any form of cancer or someone you love and care very deeply about, family or friend, has been diagnosed with cancer?

Raise your hand. See, basically, every hand, in this room goes up when we ask that question. All of us have been touched by, cancer. I was reading this week that the American Cancer Society says one out of every two men and one out of every three women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.

It's a very sobering statistic that they give there. Cancer is, Is everywhere, not only in the news this week, but Jim Brown, one of our missionaries that we support who's in Atlanta, was diagnosed, with bladder cancer and just on Friday of this week, underwent surgery and the surgery went well and the doctors feel confident that they got, all of the, the cancer, and I think there'll be some ongoing radiation just to make sure that they get anything that might still be there.

but cancer is an unsettling reality in our lives, and so we understand, it's understandable why billions of dollars are spent on finding a cure for, cancer, and there's an equal amount of money, I think, and interest that is consumed in finding ways to prevent. cancer, and we're all extremely interested, are we not, in how to prevent cancer and reduce the odds that we might, be diagnosed with this.

This is one of the reasons we're careful to put on sunscreen when we're going to be out in the sun for any length of time. I read a number of years ago, I don't even know how valid it is, but I read that tomatoes and tomato juice, can help prevent a particular cancer, That I especially don't want. And, so, I have 5 tomato plants in our backyard and eat, at least one tomato a day, not only because I love tomatoes, but also if it serves to reduce the odds of this particular cancer, then I'm all for that.

and yet with all of the efforts that we might take to cover our skin, wear sunscreen and eat the right kinds of things, we all know that ultimately all we're doing is reducing the odds, right?

And there's no guarantee God is sovereign and in control of these things, and we know that we can do everything that we could possibly do, and yet still receive this diagnosis, one day. So just thinking along those lines, I want us to then come to what we began to look at, last week where Mike actually helped us to see in 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 1, a very unsettling announcement. he says in chapter 4, and by the way, this headline that we read here comes from a reliable source, the apostle Paul, and he's getting this information from an extremely reliable source, and that is the Holy Spirit, who knows what he's talking about.

And look at this headline that screams at us at the beginning of verse one.

The Spirit explicitly says that in later times, which we're living in now, some will apostatize from the faith is literally what it says. By the way, Mike in his message last week kept using the word apostatize. How many of you noticed that? OK, a few of you.

as he's doing that, I'm sitting there thinking it should be apostasized. I'm going to have to talk to him between services. So I did, and Mike said, no, it's apostatize. Check it out.

So I googled it and Mike is right. That is actually the correct pronunciation. It's apostatize. So, so let's follow Mike's lead and be accurate in this.

But that is actually the Greek word that is used in the passage. We get our English word apostatize from this Greek word. And the Spirit, Paul says, is expressly saying, not just saying it once, but repeatedly saying this because he wants us to know this, that in these later times in which we live, some are going to apostatize from the faith. Paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.

Now, we talked a little bit last week about what it means to apostatize. Literally, the meaning of the word means to set oneself away from. That's what the literal etymology of the Greek word means. It means to withdraw from, to depart from, to move away from, to Distance oneself from.

I am right now behind this pulpit. I am now, if I'm speaking Greek, going to apostatize from the pulpit. I am distancing myself from where I was originally. I'm moving away from the pulpit, and if I were speaking Greek, I would use this word to describe my movement away from.

this pulpit. And Paul says that the spirit is expressly saying that in later times, some are going to apostatize from what? From the faith. Now, we got to make sure that we understand this.

All right. in fact, I would encourage you to underline or mark the words the faith, because Paul's being very precise here. the word the faith or the expression the faith is a synonym for the gospel. We're going to see it again later, today.

And so what he's literally saying is the Spirit expressly says in later times, some will apostatize from the gospel, they will withdraw from the gospel, they will depart from, they will move away from, they will distance themselves from the gospel. Now, notice what he says and what he doesn't say. He doesn't say some will apostatize from the church, or they will apostatize from being professing believers, or they will move away from professing or from genuine believers, the genuine community of faith.

Now, there are some who do that, but understand that the problem Paul is dealing with in the Ephesian Church is people who have moved away from the gospel.

But they won't move away from the church. They've departed from the gospel, but they still call themselves Christians. They've not moved away from claiming to be Christians. They've moved away from the gospel, but they've not moved away from Christians.

In fact, they're still a part of the church. They want to be members of the church. In fact, even beyond that, they want to be teachers. They want to be elders in the church, they want to be Sunday school teachers.

They want to teach in the church. Now indeed, some people apostatize from the gospel, and at the same time they leave the church. They say, I'm, I don't believe in the gospel anymore. and I am, I'm no longer a Christian.

I'm an atheist. I don't want to be around you guys anymore, withdraw my name from the membership of the church. I don't want to ever be seen here again. There are some people that do that, and definitely that's a problem.

The problem Paul is dealing with are people who've apostatized from the gospel, but they're still in the church, and they won't leave. In fact, in chapter 1, verse 20, look at this verse. Paul speaks of such individuals, and he says, among these are Hymeneus and Alexander, whom I've handed over to Satan. That's, that's one of the ways of saying I've excommunicated them.

I've made them leave the church, because they wouldn't go on their own. And so the problem that the Spirit is warning us of, listen carefully, is that there are people in the church. who have moved away from the gospel. In the church today, and I'm speaking of the church at large, there are members of churches, even solid churches who these individuals themselves have moved away from the gospel.

There are men standing in pulpits today preaching sermons, who have apostatized from the truth of the gospel. There are individuals that are teaching in seminaries. Training the next generation of pastors who are teaching Bible, teaching Greek, and teaching Hebrew, who themselves have apostatized from the gospel, but they won't leave Christians alone. In fact, they want to teach them and take them with them on their journey away from the gospel.

Inevitably, in the history of Cornerstone, the Spirit is warning us that there will be individuals in the Cornerstone family. who apostatize from the gospel, and still remain among us. And we need to be discerning. This is a terrible fate.

This is the dreaded a word. This is a terrible diagnosis that one has apostatized from the gospel. And yet, the Spirit warns us that this is going to happen. And what, when we hear this announcement, I hope that we hear it with a spirit of humility.

At the Last Supper, Jesus said, one of you is going to betray me. And then what does the text say? And all of them said, yeah, it's Judas, right? Is that what happened?

No, each of them, they went around the room and each of them said, it's not I, is it? Is, is it I? Because all of them saw that, what, I'm capable. Of this.

And as I sat through Mike's message, last week, there was a part of me that said, It is not I, is it? And we should not either have a fatalistic sense that, well, I guess it's inevitable. And so there's nothing we can do about it. So let's not worry about it, and some are going to apostasize no matter what.

But we also should not have a prideful attitude of thinking that it's utterly impossible for me to ever move away from the gospel. No, what we need to do as a church as we go through passages like this is be very Concern for our own welfare and for the welfare, welfare of our brothers and sisters in the Lord. I don't want to apostatize from the gospel. I don't want my wife to apostatize.

I don't want my children to move away from the gospel. I don't want my brothers and sisters here in the Cornerstone family and my fellow elders. I don't want any of us to apostatize. And so what we're going to be doing, this morning is, this will be encouraging.

We're going to look at 4 actions, which pastors and all Christians can engage in to prevent apostasy in themselves and in others. We're talking apostasy prevention here for ourselves and for others, and we'll begin to see this in verse 6. But let me read to you beginning in chapter 3, verse 16. All the way through verse 7 of chapter 4, Paul says, by common confession, great is the mystery of godliness.

He who was revealed in the flesh was vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up into glory. But the spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron. Men who forbid marriage and. Abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in 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 gratitude, for it is sanctified by means of the Word of God and prayer. Verse 6, in pointing out these things to the brethren, Timothy, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine, which you have been following, but have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose.

Of godliness.

Let's see how far we get this morning. 4 things that we can do to prevent apostasy and ourselves and our children and our spouses, and then our brothers and sisters here in the church. Number 1 is we need to be willing to point out truth to one another. We need to be willing to Actually talk to one another and point out truth to one another.

See, it's not even, Paul's telling Timothy to not only just be concerned about preventing himself from apostatizing, but he's giving Timothy responsibility to be looking out for his Brothers and sisters and to actually do things. In fact, he's talking to Timothy as a pastor here. And he's telling Timothy, as a pastor, you have a role to play in preventing apostasy. You are one of the means that God has chosen to employ to prevent God's people from apostatizing.

And we learn here that we should point out truth to one another. Look at what he says in verse 6, in pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. Now, When he says in pointing out these things, what are these things that he is referring to? I think it refers back to what Paul has just been saying.

In fact, what I just read, the truth of the gospel as it's presented in verse 16, the truth about Christ and what he has done, the truth that some are going to fall away from the gospel while not falling away from the church just yet. the truth regarding what false teachers are teaching, and then the truth that contradicts or refutes that false teaching. ultimately, guys, essentially what Paul does, in verse 16 of chapter 3 through verse 5 of chapter 4, is he reminds Timothy of the gospel.

He actually tells Timothy that some are going to fall away.

He then talks about false teachers and even describes false teachers. He then in verse 3, Does he not explicitly states what some of the false teaching was. Paul was obviously aware of what the false teachers were saying. And he states the false teaching.

And then in verses 4 and 5, he refutes the false teaching. And then he says to Timothy, what I just did to you, I want you to do that for the brethren. Point out these very things to the brethren. In other words, speak the gospel, point out the gospel to the brethren.

Point out the warning that some are going to fall away according to what the Spirit says, You need to point out to God's people the truth about false teachers and their spiritually ruined state. You need to even tell the brethren what the false teachers are saying. And then you need to refute that with biblical truth. We need to be willing to do this.

And he says, and pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. In other words, this is what Jesus wants you to do, Timothy. And I think this is a valuable lesson for us. Because, there are some ministries today that they just, they try to be positive, and they'll even say, well, we just want to just speak positive truth and we're not out to rip on anybody or criticize anybody else.

This is just who we are and we, we teach what we teach, and they just try to keep things positive. and they're not exposing false teaching in any way, shape or form, and they just think somehow that'll automatically take care of itself. We need to realize, guys, that God gives the pastors the responsibility. At times to say things about false teachers, and to even tell God's people what the false teachers are saying, and then to examine that and break it apart and refute that with biblical truth.

In the path of ministry here at Cornerstone, it's inevitable, it has happened, it'll continue to happen, that there are times where we need to say things about false teaching. About false teachers and, may even mention names at times like Paul does, Hymeneus and Alexander in chapter one verse 20. there are times where we need to break open with the false teachers are saying and then refute that. And occasionally when we do that, we might get in the past a criticism or two from people that are uncomfortable with that, but if you're inclined to be critical of that approach, please read chapter 4, verses 1 through 5 and see, is this not exactly what Paul does?

Is this not exactly what Paul tells Timothy to do, to point out these very things that I have said to the brethren. Now, I know that there are also ministries on the other side of the ledger that, that relish a fight. And they love, it seems like they love ripping on other people and just, they, they love just punching people hard from, from the pulpit. And you almost get the sense sometimes that they're not happy unless they're fighting against somebody.

And there's an arrogant spirit that you can detect, a critical spirit of everybody else except themselves. They never assess or criticize themselves, and they act as if they're the only ones that have got it right. Everyone else has it wrong, and they just love delivering. those blows.

We would stand against that as much as we would those who would refuse a fight altogether. But we believe that if we approach it with a spirit of humility, and we're trying to follow God's word, and we're driven by love, For God's people. And we're also willing to criticize ourselves where that's appropriate, that there is a time and a place to point out these kinds of things to believers, and, and, and believers in the church do well to let their pastors point these kinds of things out because it's for the safety and for the protection of God's people.

It just might prevent you from apostatizing from the gospel.

See, most people who apostatize from the gospel, they don't even realize that's what's happening. They don't realize they're buying into assumptions that very skillful liars have, have fed them with. They don't realize that they're embracing things that are slowly leading them away from the gospel, and they need shepherds who at times will point these kinds of things out. In fact, let me say something about the Greek word that's translated pointing out.

It literally means to place under. Paul is literally telling Timothy, and placing these things under the brethren. That's what it literally means. And some writers suggest that the idea is that, that we should have is that, God's people are walking through very treacherous terrain as they make their way through life in this world, and there are pitfall falls on the left and on the right and even directly.

In front of them. And it's hard sometimes to get their footing. And one of the jobs of pastors and one of the things we can do for one another is speaking these kinds of things that help put underneath people's feet solid, solid stepping stones that they can walk through the treacherous terrain of this world and false doctrine all around them. Without slipping and falling.

There's a touch of grace here, that sometimes even brethren can get off the beaten path. There have been times in my own life where I've moved away from the gospel, and I, I lost sight of it and wasn't sure even how to practically get myself back. There are times where even believers start to buy into the lies. that are leading them away from the gospel.

That's what happens in the book of Galatians. and, and sometimes what we need to do is to go to those brethren and not blast them, but to actually take solid truth and put it under their feet and say, OK, now step here and then step here and here, and actually help them back to regain their footing and to get back to the right and the Orthodox path. Pastors should do this for God's people. To prevent them from apostatizing, and we all should follow Timothy's example and Paul's example in doing the same for each other.

Well, there's a second action that we should engage in to prevent, apostasy, both in ourselves as well as in other people. And that is we need to constantly be nourishing ourselves with gospel words. We need to constantly be nourishing ourselves with gospel words. Look what he says in verse 6, and pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly, and this is present tense, perpetually.

continuously, constantly nourished on the words. All right. He's letting us know God has chosen to reveal Himself by using language and by using words. He's revealed Jesus, the person of Jesus, the work of Jesus.

We know about these things because God has chosen to use words to express these things. And Paul is telling Timothy, and by extension, all of us to be constantly nourishing ourselves on the words. And then there's two phrases modifying words. Look at this, on the words of the faith, which is a synonym for The gospel on the words of the gospel, and on the words of the sound doctrine, which you have been following.

So he's telling Timothy, I want you, if you're going to, prevent apostasy in yourself and, and, and want to be used of God to help prevent it in the lives of other people, you need to be in a constant state of nourishing yourself on gospel words, all the time. This is a perpetual thing, a daily thing that Timothy and all of us are to be engaged in. Now, there's several things implied here. Let's linger over this if we can.

He doesn't say, nourish yourself once for all, on the gospel. as if I can so nourish myself on gospel truth today that I never again ever need to nourish myself. I'm forever in a state of nourished because of what I have done today. No, one of the things implied here is, yes, the gospel can indeed nourish perpetually.

That's one of the things implied here. Paul wouldn't say be nourishing yourself perpetually on the gospel, if it were not true that the gospel could perpetually nourish us. What that means is if the Lord for 50 years, 50 years from now, You can be chewing on gospel truth. And it's still going to have stuff in it to nourish you, and to strengthen you.

You'll never reach a 0.50 years from now where you're chewing on, on the gospel, and you're like, what, this is, I'm down to the gristle here. there's, there's no more nourishment left for me. That'll never happen. It's inexhaustible.

You're never going to be able to take everything off the table that God has prepared for you in this sumptuous feast that we call the gospel. There's enough here to nourish you throughout this life and in and throughout eternity. But another thing implied here, as I said a minute ago, is that there's a need for constant nourishment. we need to nourish ourselves today, and then we need to nourish ourselves tomorrow and then nourish ourselves the next day.

It's possible that you may totally effectively nourish yourself with gospel words today, but on Wednesday you're starving and weak, and the devil comes and just pushes you. Just very little and you fall over because you're so weak. And you might say, what happened to me? I was so nourished on Sunday.

Well, yes, you were, but you weren't perpetually nourishing yourself. Another thing implied here that's related to that is that the gospel is not intended by God to once and for all nourish. No, it's something that we are to be constantly engaging in. John 6:35 used to trouble me.

It says, Jesus says, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst. And I remember thinking, wait a minute, I've come to Jesus. I've believed in Him.

Why am I hungry and thirsty for so many other things that even God has prohibited? But one day I was looking at this verse in the Greek text, and let me give you a literal reading. I am the bread of life, he who continually comes to me. He will never hunger.

He who continually believes in me will never thirst. Jesus would say, don't just come to me today, Come to me tomorrow and the next day, perpetually, repeatedly come to me for nourishment. And as long as you keep on coming back to me for nourishment, I guarantee you, you will never, while in that state of coming to me, you're never going to hunger for anything else. It is to be repeated.

And you might say, man, that just sounds so tiring. Every day, I got to nourish myself on the gospel. what, do you complain that way about physical food? Oh, I got to get up today and I got to eat again.

I got to eat this delicious meal and, and for the rest of my life, I've got thousands of meals that I'm going to have to eat. And imagine all the chewing involved in that and the, the swallowing that I'm going to have to do and then the energy that my body's going to expend in digesting. Do you, does anyone complain about that? No, we like being nourished.

And we ought to have the same attitude here. It's a delight for God to say, hey, you get to nourish yourself every day on gospel words. Now, where do we find gospel words? In the Bible, we find them in the Bible.

And what we're learning here is that we need to have a voracious appetite. We don't just read the Bible, we don't just read words on the page, but we chew on those words. And we don't just chew on them, we swallow them, and we digest them. This speaks of more than just a casual.

reading of a chapter a day, and then we could say, OK, I'm done with my Bible reading for today. No, God says eat them. Don't read them, eat them, digest them, take them into your heart and your mind to where they become as much a part of your being as food that you eat becomes a part of your physical being, after you have partaken and digested that food. We need to be in a constant state of nourishment.

In fact, I would say, and is this not true? Well, you don't know, this is personal, but you, I think this would resonate with you all. The dumbest things I've ever done in terms of stepping outside of what God allows and doing what He's prohibited, I've done those things when I was not in a state of being nourished and full. I was not in a state of fullness.

I wasn't feasting. And when you're not feasting, your soul stands empty and hungry, and when your soul is hungry and empty, aching for something to fill it, then the devil comes along with these temptations, and suddenly in your hungry state, empty state, those things begin to look appealing. And we solve that problem by nourishing ourselves continuously. Think about this in the Garden of Eden.

What was the first command that God ever delivered to Adam? Well, we find record of that in Genesis 2 was the first command, don't eat of this tree. Was that the first command? No, listen.

But then the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden, eat freely. And this is a very intense expression. It doesn't just mean eat. It means eat sumptuously, eat freely, literally of every tree of the garden, gorge.

Adam, eat sumptuously. And he's saying, I want you to eat of every tree. Don't just eat of one or two. I want you to eat everything that I provided for you.

I want you to freely and sumptuously eat. That's what he wanted for Adam and Eve. And then he says, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, don't eat, don't ever eat from that tree, but feast on all these others. What do you think the odds are that if Eve had been feasting on all these other trees and was full, What do you think the odds are that she could have handled that temptation from the serpent differently?

She could have said, what, I'm sorry, but I'm full right now. I'm not even hungry for what you're offering. Because I've been feasting. Had she been feasting on those other trees, she wouldn't have even been hanging around this tree that God prohibited anyway, but she looked at the tree and one of the things that caused her to, to take the fruit as she saw it was good for food.

She was like, man, I, I, I want this. She would not have desired that if she had been stuffing herself. In the best of ways and feasting sumptuously the way that God had instructed Adam and Eve. And so let us be about the task of feasting.

If we do not want to apostatize and we want to stay close to the gospel and not get seduced away from it, it's absolutely critical that we be feasting perpetually on the words of the gospel. So today, man, read your Bible, read the words on the page, chew those words, swallow them, and digest them and meditate upon them, memorize those words to where they're now inside of you. Don't just chew your food, and then spit it back on the plate and say, I think I'm better off for having chewed this.

No, swallow it.

That's, that's what meditation and even memorization is all about. Take the very thoughts of God and memorize them to where his thoughts are now, your thoughts, swimming around in your brain, be constantly nourished. If you want to prevent yourself from apostatizing, be perpetually nourished. If you want to be strong enough to even help others, to stay true to the gospel, then you need to be nourished on the words of the gospel and of sound doctrine, which he says is good for you.

There's a 3rd thing you need to do, and that is, you need to reject worldly myths. You need to reject worldly myths. Look what he says in verse 7, but have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. the way the New American Standard translation translates this, it sounds bad about like old women.

but literally, seriously, in the Greek text, it simply says have nothing to do with or reject old wives' fables. In fact, that's where we get our expression, old wives' tales. This expression was around. In Paul's day also, and it's just a cliched saying to refer to something that was not believable.

It was something fantastic that someone passionately believed in, but there just wasn't evidence for it. And so this isn't a knock against. old women or, or even women in general, he's just basically what he's doing is he's saying all this stuff and nonsense that the false teachers are saying. In my mind, Paul says, and in your mind, all of these things belong in the category of crazy old wives' tales.

All right, that's, that's his point in using this. Expression. The word that is translated myths is the Greek word mythos or mythos. We get our English word myth from this Greek word and it speaks of anything unhistorical, such as a legend, and there were stories.

These false teachers were using the medium of story to get across their points. In fact, he even says it in, chapter 1, verse 4, he says that we're not to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies that give rise to mere speculation. These false teachers, they were really for some reason, captured by, the genealogies in the Old Testament, they would fill in names that they thought were missing and they would have stories and legends about some of the names. They would make them up even if they're not in the Bible, and they would craft those stories in a way that would be very compelling, people would want to listen to them, but inserted inside those stories are the theological Points that they wanted to make.

And so people are listening to these stories and without even realizing it, they're imbibing the theological lessons that these false teachers were trying to convey. We need to learn a lesson from this, that liars, false teachers that are working against the cause of Christ, use the medium of stories in order to get people to buy into, to imbibe. their theological points that they would never have imbibed or believed in if they had just sat down and said, let me make a few doctrinal points to you.

And so it speaks of these stories that they were telling that were not biblical, but this word myth is also a big enough word to just speak of anything that's untruthful, that's not fact, that's not theologically sound.

Anything untruthful like that belongs in the category of myth. Paul refers to these myths as worldly myths. In other words, they're profane. The amplified Bible says profane and impure and godless fictions.

In other words, they're The myths that don't lead to godliness. In fact, they lead to further ungodliness. They are myths that in spite of what the false teachers say, they will never lift you beyond this world to true godliness. They're simply of this world and only of this world.

And if your goal is to truly be pleasing to God and to make it all the way to God, these myths, the teaching of the false teachers will never get you there. Worldly fictions. Paul says, Timothy, I want you to be constantly nourished on gospel words and a sound doctrine. I want you to have a voracious appetite for these things, constantly eating and chewing on and meditating and nourishing yourself with these things.

And at the same time, Timothy, I want you to push yourself away from the table that the world is setting for you and refuse, reject. The fair that they are offering to you, which means, guys, that if we want to stay close to the gospel and prevent Any movement of apostatizing in our life away from the gospel, then it's essential not just that we feast on the gospel. But that we say no to other offerings, that we say no to the worldly fictions, to the worldly fear that is being offered to us.

If you love the gospel, you're going to have to hate some things that are contrary to the gospel.

If you love the truth, you're going to have to hate falsehood. If you love what the gospel stands for, then you're going to have to hate anything that stands against. The gospel and the God of the gospel. If you want to feast on the gospel, you have to reject.

Anything contrary to the gospel that is being offered to you. we don't have time to elaborate on this, but look, look real quick at some of these verses. Paul tells Timothy, don't pay attention to myths that give rise to further speculation, rather than furthering the administration of God, which is by faith. Chapter 6, verse 20, avoid worldly and empty chatter.

The opposing arguments that is of what is falsely called knowledge. Chapter 2, verse 16, avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness. You could put all that together to say this, that worldly fables that we are supposed to reject is anything that the world offers us. That gives rise to speculation rather than faith.

Anything that does not serve God's gospel purposes in us, anything that opposes God and the gospel, and anything that influences us or other people towards godliness, anything that falls into these categories, we simply decline. I don't want this. I'm not going to be a partaker of this. Just some practical questions, That I think people would do well to ask.

the entertainment choices that you make. Who is it that provides those entertainment choices? Who is it that's creating these stories that are so compelling that maybe you can't go a week without, catching that particular show or watching the movie that comes out, it baffles me sometimes how undiscerning Christians can be. And how there are some People in the church who almost any movie that comes out, they got to see it.

They just have to see it and maybe not every one of them, but 7 or 8 out of 10, it's just they have to see it and they don't review the movies before they watch them. They don't review the movies before they invite their brothers or sisters to come watch those movies with them. They don't think through the message of those movies before they go watch them. They're not careful about the objectionable content that might be in those movies, and they just have this trust of Hollywood that Hollywood doesn't deserve.

And I'm not saying every movie is bad. That's not my point, but But there's a lot more bad stuff than I think sometimes people think that there is, and they just naively, whatever table you want to set for me, I'll trust you and I'll eat whatever you set before me, and they end up eating a lot of garbage that is shoved down their throats. They're not feasting on the gospel. But they're feasting on the world's fair.

In fact, you can, you can actually discern the degree to which perhaps you're feasting on the gospel by observing the other things that you seem to have an appetite for. People that are feasting on the gospel and they're full, when they look at a lot of these offerings that you might find, so, man, I got to see this. This is awesome, they look at that as manure. But to you, it seems attractive, and could it be that you're not feasting on gospel truth the way that you should be?

There was recently someone who was in the forest for a period of days, and they were driven almost mad with hunger, and they said when they were found, That they started looking at different things in the forest that started to look very appetizing to them because the hunger changed what they began to find appetizing and something like an earthworm or whatever began to be very tasty and appetizing to them. And anyone who would be that way, you would look at them without knowing anything about them and say that person's hungry, that person hasn't.

had anything else to eat, or else they would not find these kinds of things, appetizing for themselves. By feasting on the gospel, we can change our appetites.

I just want to ask you guys this morning, this is about as far as we're going to be able to get, but, but what are you, what are you feasting on? I would ask you to, it's just the music that you listen to is Jesus Christ the Lord of your iPod? Is he? would Jesus be able to go through everything on your iPod and say, yep, he's feasting on me.

She's feasting on me. I'm not saying that there's no secular stuff on there. There's, there's secular stuff that's produced that where the, the artists display the image of God in a beautiful way that we can receive that and enjoy that with thanksgiving. But come on, guys, if 98, 99% of the stuff on your iPod is stuff that the world is offering, you're not feasting on the gospel.

You're not using this beautiful technology called an iPod to feast upon the words of the gospel, and then maybe you wonder why am I so weak? Why can I not stand up to temptation? It's because you're malnourished. Not only are you malnourished in terms of not feasting on the gospel, but you're feasting on the garbage of the world that not only is not nourishing you, but it's actually destroying your spiritual health.

We need to be feasters. On the gospel, and we need to push ourselves from the table of anything that is contrary to the gospel. And even when fellow Christians say, hey, man, you got to listen to this. Hey, man, you got to watch this.

Hey, you got to read this book. Listen, if it's in the category of anything that works against the gospel, we just need to have the courage to say, I'm not interested. I'm already full. Thank you.

I'll just give you this so you can fill in the blank, kids. The fourth thing to do is exercise yourself for the purpose of godliness. That's the last thing we need to do. And I'm just mentioning that because the whole purpose of the message next week is to talk about this subject of exercising ourselves for the purpose of godliness.

Paul picks up on that theme and lingers on it, and we're going to try to do that next week. Let me ask you to bow your heads, this morning. again, we have learned that A lot of times our movements away from the gospel are not even detectable by us. We don't even realize that's what's happening because we're not focused on the gospel, we're focused on all this other stuff that the world is offering.

And then one day we look back and realize we've come so far. And if you learn nothing else from the message today, Learn with me that we just need to be daily stuffing ourselves, gorging ourselves on gospel. Truth, gospel doctrine, and it has a wonderful power to nourish and strengthen. And we need to say no to the offerings of this world that compete with the gospel.

Let us commit ourselves to doing just that. I'm going to pray in just a moment. We're going to take up an offering here also, we would encourage you to give as the Lord leads you to give. And let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We have much to learn and so far to go. We have hearts that are prone to wonder. Wondering hearts as we sang about already this morning.

And then outside of us, there are demonic spirits, there are deceiving. Spirits and doctrines of demons and then very shrewd, skillful liars who know how to package a lie in a way that even sounds godly. We're no match for these things, Lord, if we're not going to be committed to nourishing ourselves on the gospel, We're not going to be any match for these things if we don't push ourselves away from the table and say, I don't want to eat this stuff. We know, Lord, that ultimately, you are the one who preserves us in faith.

And to you be all the glory. We know that, we believe that. And yet in this passage, you're, you're telling us That we have a role to play that you will empower us for. But we can't just meander through life and expect to be true to the gospel.

We've got to be disciplined, we have to exercise ourselves, we've got to be nourishing ourselves and saying no to certain things. Give us the grace to do these things. And when we do these things, Lord, we'll give you all the praise for preserving us in faith. Thank you for the opportunity to give.

Of our offerings to you also this morning, Lord, receive our offerings as an act of worship to you, and then use the money that is given. To spread the fame of Jesus Christ, that other souls may be nourished. As we ourselves are in Jesus, and in the glorious gospel of Christ. We commit ourselves to you, Lord, in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said,