How to Leave the Faith

0:30Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciousness is 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. This is God's Word, you may be seated.

1:10In the mid-1940s, two young evangelists became very good friends. The first young evangelist was a man of extraordinary speaking gifts, and just about everybody who ever met him or heard him speak thought that he was destined for a great ministry. The second man was the pastor of a tiny church in a rural area. A few years after they met, the first man, the extraordinary preacher, began to have serious doubts about the Word of God that were brought on by things that people in the surrounding culture were saying about the Bible.

1:50And so he went off to Princeton Theological Seminary trying to get those questions answered, but they only reinforced the doubts that he had about the Word of God, since many of the professors at Princeton denied central tenets of the Christian faith. By 1957, the first man declared himself to be an agnostic, while the second man continued to study God's Word and to preach it faithfully. The first man left the ministry, and the second man went on to preach faithfully for another 50 years.

2:24My guess is that you probably have never heard of the first man. His name is Chuck Templeton, and he died seemingly without faith in Christ in 2001. The second man is Billy Graham. Chuck Templeton departed from the faith, but he didn't depart from the faith overnight. In fact, it was something that took 10 to 15 years, where little by little, he began with questions about God's Word that turned into doubts about God's Word, that turned into him completely rejecting God's Word.

3:01And over that 10 to 15-year period, he took one small step after another, leaving the Word of God, and eventually that resulted in him departing from the faith entirely. Whereas Billy Graham continued to study God's Word. And it wasn't that he never had any doubts. It wasn't that he never had any questions that he couldn't answer. Every one of us has those things. But he chose to believe the Word of God because he believed those who wrote it.

3:32Friends, today in 1 Timothy 4, Paul is going to come back to the subject that he opened his letter with, and that is the false teachers that had infiltrated the church at Ephesus and what they were teaching. And he's going to note that their false teaching included them leaving the Word of God in seemingly small ways, but that it resulted in many people departing from the faith entirely. And so, what we're going to learn in 1 Timothy 4:1 through 5 is that departing from the Word of God is the precursor to departing from the faith.

4:05So, let's look here at verse 1 together. Paul begins: Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith. Now, what does Paul mean by the Spirit expressly says? Perhaps he's referring to his own prophecy that he made by the power of the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 20. Look on the screen. He told this to the Ephesian elders. Know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them.

4:45And so maybe when Paul says the Spirit expressly says, he's referring to his own prophecy from Acts chapter 20. Maybe he has in mind the words of Jesus himself, who in Matthew 24 and in other places said that in the last times that men would rise up and lead people astray. Maybe he's referring to a prophecy that was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit since then. But at any rate, it is the Holy Spirit who is the revealer of these things, and Paul says that they pertain to the later times.

5:18Now, when does Paul mean? Well, he's not only speaking about the future, he's very clearly speaking about the present. Because here in verses 1 and 2, you can see, even in your English translation, future tense is used. But then when you look at verses 3 through 5, Paul switches back to the present tense. The later times, or the last times, or the end times, they are now. Timothy lived in them, and so do we. See, from Scripture, we know that the last times started with the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and that those last times or later times would continue until Jesus resurrected. Returned again.

6:02Even in the Old Testament, we find this language. When Peter stood at Pentecost and preached to the thousands of people gathered, he quoted from Joel chapter 2, and he noted that in the last days God would pour out his Spirit on his people. In Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, look at what the author says here. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

6:40So the Spirit revealed these truths to Paul and then to Timothy in the Ephesian church and also to us, and they and we all live in these later times or these last days. Now, the good news for us, friends, is that God has revealed what would happen in these later times and in these last days, so we don't have to wonder about them. We can be prepared. But we will only be prepared in so far as we listen to the Word of God.

7:11Listening to the Word of God is the most critical component of the Christian life. And the Spirit most regularly and most normally speaks to us through the written word. That's why gathering together to hear the word read and to hear the word preached. Each Sunday is so important because every time we gather together to hear the word read and preached, we are hearing God directly speak to us. We don't have to wonder if God is speaking to us through His Word. We know that He is speaking to us through His Word. Now, there are many Christians out there, and you may know some of these people, you may be in this category yourself. There are many Christians out there who are always looking for extraordinary experiences, looking for God to speak to them in visions and dreams, looking for those burning bush moments, as it were. Now, certainly throughout the Word of God, we see examples of God speaking in extraordinary ways. The danger in prioritizing those experiences, which by any account in Scripture are rare, the danger in prioritizing those experiences is that we start to look to those rather than to God's clearly revealed word to know what to believe and how to order our lives.

8:30That's very dangerous. When we stop listening to God's Word, we're already departing from it. And we're opening ourselves up to all kinds of subjective interpretations that may or may not be true, rather than just simply listening to what God has already told us in the word. Now, what we see here is that some are going to depart from the faith. And how is it that they do this? Look at the text. They do this by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits.

9:00And teachings of demons. In other words, some people who initially profess faith in Christ and who even seem to give evidence that they believe in Jesus are going to depart from the faith. They're going to walk away from Jesus and they're going to walk away from the gospel, the good news of his life and death and resurrection. That shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone in the first century. That shouldn't be a surprise to us today because we know that Jesus Himself warned that many would fall away in the last days.

9:34But how does that happen? Paul says, rather than devoting themselves to the Word of God, they devote themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. Now, that word devoted is really important. They devoted themselves. That evokes Jesus' language that he uses in Luke chapter 6. He says that nobody can serve two masters. You'll either love one and hate the other, or you'll be devoted to one and despise the other. But you cannot serve two masters. It's impossible. So you can't devote yourself to God's word and to teachings of demons simultaneously. You have to choose between them.

10:22But who devotes themselves to demonic teaching? Who does that? To be fair, there are people. In our country, there are people around the world. You may know some of them. You may know of others who have devoted themselves to demonic teaching. They would self-identify as worshipers of Satan. Those people exist. But friends, that's not most people in the world. In fact, if you've ever traveled to Central America, if you've ever traveled to South America, if you've ever been to Africa before, There are billions of people in the world who do everything they can to avoid evil spirits, to avoid demonic teaching. That's the last thing that they want, is to devote themselves to demonic teaching. So how can Paul say that some are going to depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons when almost no one in the world wants to do that?

11:20Well, first of all, I want you to consider the terminology that Paul is using. He calls them deceitful spirits. Well, that's very important because the very nature of deception is that you don't know that you're deceived. That's what the word means. And so I want you to listen to how Jesus describes Satan himself, because I think this is very telling and very important for us. Look on the screen at John 8. Jesus says about Satan, he was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar. And the father of lies.

12:05See, when most people think about Satan, and maybe this is true for you as well, they think of Satan as a tempter and only a tempter. Well, certainly he is a tempter, but they often don't think about the fact that he's called the father of lies, that he's also a deceiver. And that's very important. Because if Satan cannot devour you with temptation to sin, then he's going to try to devour you with deception. And that deception comes in a lot of forms. It comes in loud shouting from the pulpit at times through false teachers, but it also comes through lies that are whispered in your ear. It's both overt and subtle.

12:51It's deception that explains, especially in our community, why highly intelligent, well-educated people find themselves in a cult or a false religion or no religion at all. It's because it's deception. There is a spirit of truth and a spirit of error. That's what Paul is teaching us. So he says, the reason that some depart from the faith is because of deceitful spirits, but not just deceitful spirits. He says, the teaching of demons. What is demonic teaching? Well, quite simply, demonic teaching is teaching that denies the truth about God, that He is revealed in His Word through Jesus and His prophets.

13:48That's what demonic teaching is. There's a great example in 1 John chapter 4. Look on the screen. John writes, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this, you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

14:28You see, the Word of God presents Jesus, and Jesus presents Himself as fully divine and fully human, both at the same time. If Jesus were not fully divine, he could not have lived a sinless life, and he could not have risen from the dead. And if Jesus were not fully human, he could not have been tempted in every way, just as we are. God cannot be tempted. And Jesus, if he were not fully human, could not have been our substitute. Standing in our place and dying in our place on the cross. You see, Jesus had to be fully human and fully divine for him to be the Savior that he claimed to be. And so to deny Jesus' full divinity or to deny Jesus' full humanity is not merely wrong, it's demonic in nature.

15:22And it's demonic in nature because Satan and his demons do not want you to believe the truth about Jesus. Because if you believe the truth about Jesus, you will be saved. They don't want you to be saved, they want you to go to the same condemnation that they're going to. So understand, this is why Paul takes this so seriously. These false teachers aren't merely wrong, their teaching is demonic in origin. Now, obviously, demons are not standing up and teaching the church on Sunday mornings. I don't know what you think about me.

16:02But I would say, in general, demons are not standing up and teaching on Sunday mornings. So how is it, then, that Paul can say these deceitful spirits are getting their demonic teaching to the church? Look what he says. Through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared. Paul's not one to mince words, is he? He gives a scathing assessment of these false teachers. He says first that they are insincere. Some translations render that word hypocritical. They're insincere hypocrites. They're people that don't even believe what they're teaching. The only reason they're teaching these things that they teach is to gain a following or to make money or some combination of the two.

16:57And, friends, if you think about it, it's really not hard to pick out insincere hypocrites who are leading the church. They're the ones calling you to sacrificially give while they live lavish lifestyles, spending their money on themselves and sacrificing little or nothing for the cause of Christ. They're the ones calling you to serve while they don't lift a finger to serve anyone. They're the ones who say that Jesus taught that humility was true greatness, and yet they're puffed up with pride, building their own platforms.

17:38It's not hard to pick out the insincere hypocrites who are leading the church. And Paul says this is how they get their false teaching into the church. But it's not just that they're insincere hypocrites. Look at the next word that he uses. He calls them liars, just straight-up liars. They don't tell the truth. And one thing I consistently have to do in my house is to help my kids understand the difference between a mistake and a lie. A mistake is an innocent error. Everybody makes mistakes. But a lie is a deliberate falsehood.

18:18It is deliberately misrepresenting what you know to be true. And this is what the false teachers were doing: they were deliberately misrepresenting the truth. Some of you in the room are old enough to remember Jim and Tammy Faye Baker. Jim and Tammy Faye Baker were false teachers who made an enormous fortune preaching on television in a program that they called Praise the Lord, or PTL, as it came to be known. And there was a recent Christianity Today article that was highlighting a biography that came out about them and warning about all of the dangers in their teaching and in their lifestyle.

19:03And the author gives this one example in the late 1970s. Jim and Tammy Faye Baker were building a Christian amusement park. There's your first clue. I don't think this is hard. It's like, hmm, no. And they're writing to their supporters and saying, we need you to give. We are giving every penny. Of our life savings to this endeavor. At that very same time, they purchased a $30,000 house boat with funds that were donated to the ministry.

19:42Hypocritical, insincere, liars. And sadly, there are hundreds of them in pulpits all across the United States. How can false teachers do those kinds of things? I mean, you just stop and think about that for a minute. This man and his wife were on television before thousands, even millions of people, and they were lying in God's name. Could you do that? I would hope every one of us would say, I don't know how you get there. I don't know how anybody could do such a thing. Paul tells us how people get there. Look at what he says. Their consciences are seared.

20:31When I was a kid, I used to get really bad nosebleeds. So embarrassing. I'd be sitting in class. This one time I was in my freshman accounting class at A ⁇ M, and we're taking an exam, and my nose is just like, you know. And what are your options? They don't let you leave the room, you know? Like, that's a great ruse, right? Oh, it's my nose. It's bleeding. I've got to go get the answers to the test. You know, they don't let you leave. So I just had to jam all the Kleenex in there, you know, and just take the rest of the exam trying to look around the Kleenex, you know, as I was.

21:04So, what I had to do was I had to go to an ENT, a special doctor, and what he said was, you have a blood vessel that's too close to the surface of the skin, and so what happens is it bursts sometimes and you get nosebleeds. So, what we need to do is cauterize it. So, they take this little piece of paper and it's got chemicals on it, and they burn that blood vessel. They sear it. It doesn't hurt. You guys are like, oh, gosh, it really isn't that bad.

21:26I mean, I teared up. Okay, I cried. But what they're doing is they're searing that blood vessel. They're cauterizing it. And the doctors do that, so you can't feel anything anymore. And this is what Paul is saying has happened to these false teachers. Their consciences are seared. They're burned to the point that they don't feel anything anymore. So they can stand up in front of five people or 5,000 people and they can teach falsehoods and they can live a hypocritical life because their conscience doesn't work anymore. It's seared.

22:08This is what happened to some people, even in Timothy's church. Look on the screen at 1 Timothy 1 again. This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom Are Himeneus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

22:39You see, Paul says that these two men rejected faith and a good conscience, and they made shipwreck of their faith. In other words, they quit listening to God's Word and they quit listening to their consciences, and the end result was that they walked away from the faith. Friends, nobody departs from the faith overnight. It happens little by little as you begin to walk away from the word of God and consider false teaching in its place. And that false teaching is espoused by teachers who love sin and adjust their teaching accordingly to cover it up.

23:24See, the reality is, whenever we love sin more than we love Christ, we will eventually find a theology that will support that sin, and we will find teachers who will reinforce that theology for us. That's what we do. That's the nature of deception. And friends, that's why it is so critical to be a part of a healthy local church where you are hearing sound biblical teaching, where you are able to watch the lives of Godly men and women who are living in such a way that you can say, there's no hypocrisy there. These people are modeling repentance and faith for me. It's where you're surrounded by other believers who will not only remind you of the truth, but will hold you accountable to living that truth that we profess to believe.

24:24Perhaps the most dangerous place that we could be as Christians is unconnected or casually connected to the local church. Because when we're unconnected or casually connected to the local church, then we are functionally submitting to no one. We're functionally held accountable by no one. No one has authority or permission to speak into our lives. If you think that will never happen to me, I will never depart from the faith. I would just submit to you that you may think too highly of yourself.

25:06Because I don't think that anybody has ever started out trusting in Christ and then saying, oh, you know, one day I'm actually going to walk away from everything that I believe. I don't think that happens. And so some of you have already noticed a slide in your life. There was a time in your life where. You loved God's Word. You read it regularly. You prayed over it. You read books about it. You were excited about God's Word. But little by little, the Word of God has occupied a smaller and smaller and smaller place in your life.

25:51If you stop and think about it, you see a slide there. And there are others who started off very committed to the local church, always regular in attendance at worship, a part of discipleship programming, committed to a small group. But over time, your commitment to God's people has gotten smaller and smaller and smaller. If you stop and think about it, you see a slide. And we have to recognize that when we depart from God's Word, it doesn't happen overnight. It happens little by little. And so I would encourage you and I would challenge you this morning to examine your life. Examine to see: am I still as committed to God's Word as I ever have been? Is my commitment growing? Am I as committed as I ever have been to the local church? Is my commitment even growing? Or is it going the other direction?

26:52You see, once you begin to depart from the Word of God, that's the precursor to departing from the faith. And what you see Here, starting in verse 3, is that these false teachers who leave the Word of God have to replace it with something else, and so they just make up their own theology and their own ways of pleasing God. So, let's look now at verse 3 together. Paul says, They 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.

27:44So, what these hypocritical liars have done is that they've left the Word of God and then they've substituted their own theology in its place. And what they were teaching was, among other things, probably, if you want to be holy, or even if you want to be saved, you have to stay single your whole life and you have to abstain from eating certain foods. Well, that's obviously influenced by Stoic and Gnostic teaching, which was going around everywhere during the first century. And if you know anything about Stoicism or Gnosticism, it was the belief system that the material world was evil and the spiritual world was good. So, anything in the Material world, it has to be interacted with as little as possible, as little human interaction as possible, as little eating as possible, as little drinking as possible, as little enjoyment of material things as possible, because it's evil. So you have to stay away from it. And these guys are obviously influenced by that kind of teaching. They've departed from the Word of God and they've created these unbiblical standards for holiness or even salvation. And I want to remind you what Paul wrote in Colossians 2 again. Look on the screen. He asks, if with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch? Referring to things that all perish as they are used, according to human precepts and teachings. Now, listen to this. These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body. But they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

29:42This rings true for every one of us. I don't know if you've ever met a nun or a monk before. I don't know if you've ever met someone who is a part of a different religion who is devoted to this kind of ascetic lifestyle. But I think every one of us, we meet those kinds of people and we think, They are so much closer to God than me. They must be so much holier than I am. If I were really committed, I would do the same thing.

30:11But what Paul is teaching here is that you can give up marriage, but that won't get rid of the lust in your heart. You can get rid of eating certain foods. You can stop doing that. But that's not going to rid your heart of greed or gluttony or idolatry of any kind. He said these things have an appearance of wisdom, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. And so Paul says, in contrast to those teachings, he makes two points. First, we should receive everything with thanksgiving as a good gift from God. We should receive everything with thanksgiving because they're good gifts from God. We don't worship the gifts, we worship the giver. And that's why we pray before we eat. I think some people think, well, we pray before we eat because the food is unclean. And, you know, if you go to many places in town, I don't know what to tell you. That's probably right. You know, we think this food is unclean. I've got to pray it holy. No, we are thanking the giver for the gift. At least that's what we should be doing. Look at what James says in James chapter 1. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift. And every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

31:40So we worship God when we acknowledge that He is the giver of good gifts. We worship God when we acknowledge He gives and He takes away. We worship God when we recognize that everything that He gives us or doesn't give us is for our good and for His glory. So, first, we should receive these things with thanksgiving. But Paul's second point is this: we shouldn't reject God's good gifts. Why? Because they're made holy by the Word of God and prayer.

32:14Now, what does that mean? Made holy by the Word of God and prayer. Well, I think what Paul is doing is He's calling us back to God's revealed Word. You don't have to wonder whether marriage is a good and holy thing. You don't have to wonder whether food is a good and holy gift from God. God created marriage before the fall and declared it to be very good. Jesus Himself taught that marriage was a gift that some have.

32:47Paul said that marriage is a picture of the gospel. So to deny marriage and to forbid marriage is to reject God's word by calling someone Evil that God says is good. And in the same way, to require abstinence from certain foods is to call something evil that God has called good. The false teachers were saying, if you eat certain foods, they will make you unclean before God. But look at what Jesus says in Mark chapter 7 on the screen. Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach and is expelled? Thus he declared all foods clean. And he said, What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.

34:02So, friends, do you see that to forbid marriage and to require abstinence from certain foods is to depart from the Word of God? And when you depart from the Word of God, you've got to fill it in with something else. And so, what these men did is they said, if you want to please God, if you want to be holy, if you want to be received by Him, you have to abstain from these things. And what they've done is they've added to the gospel. And as soon as they're going to be able to do that As you add to the gospel, the gospel is no longer good news.

34:35The gospel is the good news that Jesus came to fulfill all of God's requirements on our behalf. That He lived sinlessly, He died in our place for our sins, and He rose victorious over sin and death. As soon as you add to that good news with any other requirements, you have to avoid these things or you have to do these things, it's no longer good news. It's bad news because none of us do those things perfectly all the time. We can't even meet our own standards, much less God's. And so we turn the good news into bad news when we require anything beyond repentance and faith in the work of Jesus. That's what these false teachers did. God's gifts of marriage, food and drink, work and rest, and many, many more were created by God and they were good. And they're to be received with thanksgiving because they're made holy by the Word of God.

35:35But you notice he doesn't stop there. He says, and by prayer. They're made holy by prayer. What does that mean? Well, I don't think Paul obviously is saying that we can just pray and any sinful thing will become a good thing. I think what he's doing in the context of the passage and in the context of 1 Timothy is he's referring back to the conscience. Look at what Paul writes in Romans 14. Such an amazing. Important passage. As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him. But not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables.

36:19Me and my lucky charms win again. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, uh-oh, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats. There's a word for everybody here. For God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls, and he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.

36:55The one who observes the day observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. Now Paul brings all of this down, and where the rubber meets the road is at the end of the chapter when he writes this. Look again on the screen. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

37:36So, what we find here, friends, in Romans 14, coupled with 1 Timothy chapter 4, is that there are two elements here that we need to consider. The first is that God has declared all things that he has created holy and good. We don't have to ask a question about that. But the second element is the conscience. And what Paul is teaching is that not everybody can partake in those same things that are holy and good because God has called some of us to limit our freedoms in Christ.

38:09So, in Christ, many will get married, but in Christ, some will abstain from marriage for the cause of the gospel. In Christ, all foods are at our disposal, but some will choose not to eat certain foods at certain times, either for their own reasons or so they don't make someone else stumble. Christians can drink alcohol, but not every Christian can or should because of their conscience. Some Christians are going to decide the Sabbath needs to be observed more strictly and some more loosely. All of those things are fine, but they're subject to the Word of God first and the conscience second.

38:50So, because we are in the society that we're in, and because we live in a university town, let me just make this direct application. If you are 21 years old, you are free in Christ. To consume alcohol. But you need to pray about that. You need to pray about if you should drink it, when you should drink it, where you should drink it, and why you're drinking it. Because I think in our culture, especially in our town, everybody just assumes you're 21, it's fine.

39:24When we were in college, after my wife and I turned 21, we chose to abstain from alcohol for the rest of our college careers. We didn't drink it until we got married. And the reason for that is that we were in a business fraternity where the only reason people drank alcohol was to get drunk. We did not want all of our teaching about Christ and all of our example about Christ to go down the drain because somebody saw us with a drink in our hand and they said, oh, Kendra and Allen are just like us. They get drunk too.

39:55So just because it's allowed based on the principle of freedom in Christ and the Word of God doesn't mean that all of us should partake. And that applies to alcohol and food and so many other things. Friends, this passage is clear that some professing Christians were going to depart from the faith. And they were going to do that because they first left the Word of God. That doesn't happen overnight. It happens little by little. And I don't think for a minute that Chuck Templeton in 1915, 1936, when he professed faith in Christ, thought to himself, in 20 years, I'm going to completely forsake Jesus and his gospel.

40:43I don't think he thought that. I think he thought, that will never happen to me. And in the same way, I think many of us think this morning, I will never walk away from the faith, but it can happen to anyone. It can happen to any church. And it happens little by little. So, friends, we must give ourselves to preserving the gospel. We must give ourselves to ensuring that we never move away from the foundation of the person and work of Jesus. We need to make sure that Jesus and his gospel, the word of God, remain central in our lives individually and in our life together as a church.

41:25Because departing from the word of God is the precursor to departing from the faith. Let's pray.