A Warning About Falling Away from the Faith

How does someone fall away from the faith?

In this sermon from 1 Timothy 4:1–5, Pastor Blake walks through Paul’s warning that in the later times, some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and false teaching. This passage is a sobering reminder that every Christian must be watchful, discerning, and deeply rooted in the truth of God’s Word.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We are dealing with the subject today of falling away from the faith. Falling away from the faith. You know, we live in amazing times today. You know what's interesting is at the click of a button, you can go on your phone and learn almost anything you want to know. Who here in the last week of your life, this last week, you looked up something to learn something really quick? A lot of us. Isn't that amazing? Isn't it amazing what we can learn and do right now in this day and age so quickly in the palm of our hand? It's amazing, and because of that, there's a lot of opportunity. A lot of opportunity to spread the truth. But with that also comes a danger. With that also comes opportunity for the enemy to spread lies, for the enemy to spread deceit in this world. For the enemy to spread things that are that are contrary to God's word and unbeknownst to us, we can lean into that and feed on that ourselves. I read a statistic this past week done by Barna Research, and it said something really interesting. It said, among adults attending evangelical Protestant churches, that would include us, gospel-believing Protestant churches, here's what they found. They found among adults attending evangelical Protestant churches, only eleven percent had a biblical worldview. 11%. And that says something striking. It says something that in this day and age where information is all around us, it is easy to fall away from the truth. It's easy to lose sight of the truth of the gospel or to have a blended view of the truth of the gospel merged with lies of the enemy. We're dealing with this passage today in 1 Timothy 4, which is really a warning passage. And as a child, one of our responses to that is, I know, I know, I know. Right? It's like, I know, I know. It's only later on in life that you learn to appreciate some of those warnings, isn't it? Where you realize I didn't know that we don't know how significant this warning is. We are warned today in this passage, and we are warned about falling away from the faith. About falling away from the faith. And as we look at this, I want to I want to challenge you with something, because even at the understanding and hearing just the topic of the word today, you may be tempted to think, oh, this is gonna be for my cousin, or this is gonna be for my child, or this is gonna be for uh my friend who is wandering away from the faith. I want to I want to challenge you. Today, this is for you. This is for me. I need this warning. How many have we seen who have fallen away from the faith? There are there are men uh who I watched and listened to who I've seen fall away. What an important topic. What an important discussion today. In 1 Timothy chapter 4, uh we know in this letter, Paul is writing to his protege, Timothy, and Timothy is leading the church in Ephesus. And he's writing to encourage Timothy in this work, but he's also writing to instruct him. If you've been with us the last few weeks, Paul has unpacked how leadership is supposed to look in the local church, how serving is to look in the local church. Last week we looked uh in verse, in chapter 3, verse 16, 15 and 16, what the church is. It's a pillar and a buttress of the truth, a support of the truth. This is what the church is. And then in chapter four, he is now immediately going into this warning. And he's unpacking again some more specifically of the false teachings that is happening in the church in Ephesus, the teachings that are spread. And as we hear this, my hope for us, my aim, my main thing that I want us to grab from this is that we would heed this warning to not fall away. That as followers of Christ, you and I would be people who test everything we hear. And not only test everything we hear, but that we would pay attention very closely to the truth of God's word. We're gonna see two things in this passage. Uh, two things that I want you to see. One and the first is a warning to heed. A warning to heed. Look at verse one and two. Paul writes Now 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 consciences are seared. He mentions in later times, he's warning that there are going to be some who leave the faith. Now, that word, that phrase later times really is the time period between Christ's ascension, his first coming, and his second coming. So we ourselves today live in later times. Paul himself, in writing this, they understood themselves to live in the later times or the the last days. This time period between the first coming and the second coming, this time period known as the last days. And in this time period, he is telling us that this thing will happen, that this uh reality of some departing from the faith, it will happen. Notice the source of our warning. Look in your Bible, look in verse one. It's he says, now the Spirit expressly says, This is something that God Himself is warning of. If y'all remember back in uh January and February, we would get all these warnings about snow is coming. Snow is coming, we're gonna get a blizzard, it's gonna be 14 feet of snow in Chesapeake. Watch out. And if you were like uh the majority, you probably heard that and said, Yeah, okay. That may mean one one inch or so. The warning we're looking at here is not like that. Understand the warning in our passage is from God who makes no mistakes, God who is always right, God who never exaggerates. The warning is coming from God. He says the Spirit expressly says that some will depart from the faith. In other words, they're going to leave it behind. They're going to fall away, they're going to abandon the truth of the gospel. And notice who the culprit is behind this. The culprit is Satan himself. Some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. You know, Satan is very active in the world today. And we are gravely mistaken if we think that Satan is only involved in a Satanist group. If you think Satan is only involved in a Satanist group, then you're gravely mistaken. He is involved in very subtle ways. And one of the things that Satan is adamant about, what his priority is, we see it in the word, is through teachings. Through teachings, through deceitful spirits, through teachings of demons, he says. And these false teachings, which originate from Satan, he uses false teachers as his puppets. He uses men and women to promote lies that really come from hell, and they're not true. And they're deceiving people, they're leading people astray. He says that they're insincere through the insincerity of liars. They don't tell the truth. They're insincere. They're hypocritical. And they have seared consciences. Their consciences are seared. Your translation may word it. They're seared as with a hot iron. I want you to picture when an animal is branded, when iron is put in fire with a brand, and then it is pressed upon an animal, how it brands that animal. Literally, the picture here for these false teachers is that they are branded. They're seared by the enemy. They belong to the enemy, and they're promoting lies of the devil. And this should change the way we view just false teachers throughout the world. What does the Bible tell us? Our warfare is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against darkness, against the enemy, and they are leading people to fall away. And how are people falling away? It says it, they are devoting themselves to these teachings. They're devoting themselves to what is false. You know, think about it. Can a person stare into the sun and not go blind? Can you stare into the sun and not be blind in doing that? Well, likewise, it's this this word devoted is to pay close attention to. And so when someone is paying close attention to false teachings, it's inevitable that they're gonna go blind, spiritually blind. And this is the danger of it. This is why, if you've been going through our 757 groups with a group of people, you've probably reached uh in 1 John and read this. In 1 John chapter 4, verse 1, listen to what he says. 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. This is his warning. Many, not some, many false prophets have gone out into the world. Therefore, based on that, test the spirits. Test them, watch out for them, scan everything through the scripture because when people pay attention to that, it's leading people to fall away from the truth. It's leading people to fall away from the gospel. Now you may be wondering, is this saying that a person, a Christian, can lose his or her salvation? Is he saying a Christian can lose their salvation? Well, the answer is no. A true Christian cannot lose his or her salvation. Why? A lot of reasons. Number one, God holds us in his hand. No one is able to snatch you from the Father's hand. Ephesians chapter one says this. In him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, look what happens when you did that. When you heard the word of truth, when you heard the gospel, friend, and you believed in the gospel, when you put all your trust in Christ, no longer trusting in your good works, only trusting in Christ, look what happened in that moment. You were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. Who, verse 14 of Ephesians 1, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory? If you're in Christ, you have been born again. If you're in Christ, you have been adopted by God, and God does not unadopt his children. He does not. He is a loving, merciful Father. But that still leaves us. What do we make of this? It says here, we just read it. Some will depart from the faith. What do we make of that? Those who depart from the faith prove they never truly had it. It's evidence that they never truly knew the Lord. That they were self-deceived, as James warns about. That they are among those that Jesus said in the end, they will profess to know him, they'll say, Lord, Lord, and Jesus will look at that, look at them and say, I never knew you. 1 John makes this clear. 1 John chapter 2, he writes, about these who left the faith, about these who left the fellowship of God's people. Look what he says, 1 John 2, 19. They went out from us, meaning they abandoned us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it may become plain that they are all not of us. You want to know the mark of a Christian? It's not perfection. But you want to know the mark of a true Christian? It's that they continue following Jesus. They keep following Jesus. It's not this uh I once repented and trusted in Jesus, but it's this lifestyle of repentance and faith. It's this ongoing trusting in Christ, this ongoing following Jesus as Lord and Master and King. You know, we have to be so careful. I'm convinced that the greatest uh tragedy in our day, the greatest tragedy, even among God's people, is that we have forgotten what a Christian is. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. A new creation. We make a distinction in our culture, a distinction that the Bible doesn't make. We make this distinction of, well, you can be saved, but not follow him. The Bible doesn't make that distinction. It does not. Those who are saved demonstrate the fruit of that salvation in their following after Christ. In John chapter 15, Jesus talks about this. He says, By their fruit you prove to be my disciple. Prove. That's not salvation by works. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. So we are saved by faith, but we have to understand that real faith is always accompanied by repentance. John the Baptist, what did he preach? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Those who leave prove they never really had Christ. And this really has to shape the way we love people, the way we examine our own heart and soul, the way we look inward introspectively at our own life, always asking the question: do I really know Christ? Am I following after Christ? It's not God's will for a Christian to constantly doubt their salvation. That is not at all the case. However, our assurance of salvation is rooted in this trusting in Jesus. It's rooted in this reality, not that I once prayed a prayer 15 years ago, but Christ is changing me. I'm not the same person I used to be. He's changing me in that. It's evidence, it's evidence of salvation. He gives us a warning. And just like you and I give others warning, our children warnings, it's a warning to heed. It's a warning to be very careful about. It's a warning to watch out. It's a warning that you would not fall away. This is heavy. This is difficult. This doesn't feel like uplifting and and and sappy. You know, it's not like super spiritual and and and encouraging and loving when I look at my child and I say, don't go into the street. But why do I say it over and over and over again? So that she would not die. Because I love her. Why does God warn us of this today? Of not falling away so that you would not die. So that you would, as Matthew 24 says, endure to the end. So that you would keep following Christ. Out of love for him, one thing to take away from this is to test what we hear. Do you test what you listen to? There's a hundred ways to fall away from the Lord. One of the things he's emphasizing in our passage is people falling away by devoting themselves, by paying attention to false teachings. And so we have to ask that question: is are you a person who is very careful about what you listen to? Very careful about what you read. Very wise and listening with one ear to whatever we hear and listening to the Bible in our other ear, always testing what we hear. You know, Paul in Acts 17. Paul was doing ministry and he was going from place to place, he was preaching the gospel, and he came to a little place called Berea, and he met these Bereans. And one of the things that Paul said about those who were in Berea, he calls them noble. Noble. You know why? Because they tested what he said. That they listened to him eagerly, but they examined the scriptures to see if what he was saying was actually true. Is that a habit in your life? Do you test your feelings against scripture, friend? Our feelings can lie to us just like the person on TV. Do you test your opinions with scripture? Do you test? Your own preferences against Scripture. Do you test the YouTuber against Scripture? If we want to be on guard, and if we want to love Christ and treasure Christ and follow him and glorify him with our lives and enjoy him each and every day of our lives, one of the things he wants us to do for our own safety, for our own good, is test what we hear and persevere in the truth. We have a warning to heed, number one. Number two, we see a common trait to avoid. A common trait to avoid. He goes on. He gives us this warning, and through whom it's going to come. Some are going to fall away through the teachings of demons, through people. But then in verse 3 to 5, we see a very specific example of the false teachings that are taking place in Ephesus. And really, we see in this a common trait of all of these teachings that lead people to fall away. Let's read it, verse 3. Who, meaning these people, 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. What is the common trait of these false teachers in Ephesus? It's a common trait that we see today. They are abandoning the truth of God's word. They're abandoning the scriptures. They're abandoning what clearly God has said is good. And this is really something that the devil has been doing ever since the very beginning. Think 6,000 years ago, before everything went wrong, before death entered the world, before sin, before a tragedy, before cancer, before disease and sicknesses, before all of that, how did it all start? What was the catalyst? Did God really say sowing doubt on God's word. This is the common trait. Did God really say? And after that, you have the fall, the fall of man. This is what these false teachers in Ephesus are doing here. They're corrupting God's word. They're adding to it, they're twisting it, they're mishandling the word. Notice the two things that they're doing that's wrong. They're number one, they're forbidding marriage. And number two, they are requiring, emphasis layer, they're requiring abstinence from foods that God created to be received. You know, one of the things that uh may have been the case back in their day was this belief that any type of pleasure is bad, that enjoying food is bad, or indulging in certain kinds of food are automatically bad, sinful. And if you want really a high spiritual life, you need to avoid all pleasure altogether. Right? It's this asceticism, pretty common back then. And it may sound pious, it may sound uh very religious, but actually, it's religious pride disguised as devotion. And this is the same problem with the Pharisees. They seemed very religious, they seemed really holy on the outside, but really it was just religious pride. That's all it was. You know, God is not anti-pleasure, he's not anti-pleasure. God gave marriage as a gift to us. Marriage is a blessing. Marriage is a good thing. Think back to the six days of creation. After each day, God said it was good, it was good, it was good, it was good. And then he looks at Adam and he says, Hold up. It's not good that he be alone. Now there is a place for God's people, some of God's people, to uh live a single life. And there are benefits to that. There's nothing wrong with that. But for the majority of God's people, I think it's safe to say that we should view marriage as a good thing, and those who are not married generally should pursue marriage. It's a good thing, it's a blessing from God. Don't let anyone say it's not good. Or if you want to live an extra spiritual life or to be extra close with God, then you can't be married. That's false. That's false. God created it. And not only that, we see this idea of the foods. They're saying you can't eat certain foods. Same thing. You know, in the Old Testament there were restrictions on certain things, but in Christ, when Jesus came, he came to fulfill the law. Not to do away with the law, but to fulfill the law. And things change. Now in Christ, in the new covenant, we have a freedom to enjoy uh foods, certain foods. And when we receive them with thanksgiving, it says they're made holy by the word of God and prayer. That does not mean that if you pray before you eat that Big Mac, that it will go down holy. It may go down holy, but not holy. Or to receive these things with thanksgiving. You know, in every Christian home, don't despise the tradition of giving God thanks before a meal. Don't despise that tradition. Let that be a sweet time, let that be a daily reminder. This God that we serve is so good. He is so kind, he provides. Look, this is proof we don't deserve this bread. We don't deserve this meal before us, but he gave it to us. That's a good habit for a Christian home. A good habit for a Christian family. If God's word says it's good, then it's good. Enjoy it. Give him thanks for it and enjoy it. Marriage is good, and the foods that he has given us to enjoy, they're to be received. To be received with thanksgiving. You know, in our world today, though, in their world here, this is what they were perverting. They were adding restrictions that the Bible didn't give. And that's what we see today. We have dangers on both sides. You can have the danger of adding to the word of God, but then you have the danger of removing from the word of God, of taking away from the word of God and falling short of the word. We have to be careful about that. You know, this past week, I was listening to testimony after testimony of individuals who claimed to know God, who professed faith, but then they walked away. You know what the common trait was in every single one? Do you know what the starting place was for every single one? Doubting God's word. Or believing in another source, contrary to God's word. A different authority. And each and every time you have this fall that takes place, it always starts with the word of God. You know, demonic teachers, they don't come to us with horns and pitchforks. They come off as sweet, they come off as clever, they come off as persuasive. Think about what the Bible says about the devil. He's disguised as an angel of light. Jesus warned us about wolves, but he said, in warning us that these wolves would come in sheep's clothing. You wouldn't be able to tell just by a look. You gotta see the inside. They come in wolves in sheep's clothing. You know, this is what we have to be careful of. As you listen to God's word being taught and various sources that you listen to it, understand this: quoting the Bible doesn't make one biblical. Simply quoting the word doesn't make one biblical. In fact, the most effective false teachers quote the Bible. That's what makes them effective. We have to test, we have to examine the word. They use the Bible like a trampoline. Think about how a trampoline works. You bounce up and down. Rather than sitting in it, rather than wrestling with the word, uh, they touch it for a moment and then they leap over to their own ideas. They touch it, they don't sit in it, they don't wrestle with it, they don't examine it very carefully. They use the Bible like a trampoline. Hebrews chapter 2, verse 1. It gives us the positive focus. Earlier I said that we need to test what we hear. Be like the Bereans, test what you hear. But now we have the positive focus of pay attention to the true. Pay close attention to what is true. Hebrews chapter 2, verse 1 says, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. You know that phrase, pay much closer attention. It's the same word that we see in verse 1, them devoting themselves, paying much closer attention. It's the same word. We must pay much closer attention to the truth of the gospel. Otherwise, we can drift from it. I remember growing up and going to the ocean front, playing in the beach, and growing up, we played football anywhere. So if we were in the road, we put rollerblades on and played football. If we were in the grass, we played football. If we went to the beach, we played football. And I remember going out into the ocean and playing and having a good time with buddies, and over time, after being in the water for an hour, even, and walking back to shore, I remember realizing I'm lost. This is not where I first walked out into the water. I didn't realize it, but I had drifted so far down. He says, Pay much closer attention to what you have heard, lest you drift. The danger of drifting is that you can be drifting and not know you are drifting. Because it's slow, it's gradual, and it starts off with not paying attention as much to God's word. I want us to examine ourselves before we take communion. I want us each to examine ourselves and ask ourselves this question: are you paying close attention to the word of God? Are you paying close attention? Are you spending time in God's Word on your own? Are you putting it on your schedule as the first and most important thing? If you're in this room and you don't have a habit of being in the Bible, then I challenge you, I encourage you today, start. Grab you an ESV study Bible. Grab and start uh that and go through the Gospel of John. Read a chapter a day in the Gospel of John and do it with friends, do it with a trusted believer, and study God's word. To those of you who are sitting here, like, look, you don't know my work schedule, you don't know how busy I am. Bring your Bible with you to work. Bring it with you. Let this be a part of your body, just like your phone is a part of your body, just like your keys are a part of your body. Bring it with you. Study the word every minute you can. Trust the word. Don't settle for crumbs. Don't settle, friends, for a verse a day. If you're getting a verse a day, I'm glad. Chew on it, meditate on it, memorize that verse a day, feed on that verse a day, but don't settle for a verse a day. Feast on the word. Not only for your protection from the devil, but feast on the word for the sake of your joy in Christ, for your love in him. Pay close attention to the gospel. Through feasting on God's word, we grow. We grow to maturity. We find ourselves being strengthened by the Spirit in us. Feast on the Word. Pay close attention to God's word. And we will find ourselves not falling away by the grace of God. You know, one of the ways that we do this is through communion. One of the ways that we try to remember closely and pay close attention to the gospel is through something visual, through something tangible. This is why Jesus gave us the Lord's Supper to practice on a regular basis. And this is a picture, this is something for us to remember in a visual way the good news of the gospel. If you're here today and if you haven't heard the good news of the gospel, understand this in summary. That we all have sinned against a holy and righteous God. That we have rebelled against our Creator, we have broken God's laws, we have gone our own way, and because of that, our sins have separated us from God. And apart from Christ, the Bible says, you are under judgment. Under judgment. You know, I want you to think about the flood in Noah's day. In Noah's day, there was judgment coming to the earth. God was gonna flood the earth. And in that, though, God in his love, in his grace, he made one way. He created one safe place. It wasn't in the tallest mountains, it wasn't in the cave, it was in the ark. The only safe place. Well, likewise for us, Jesus is like the ark. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the only way to the Father. No one can come to the Father apart from Jesus. No one can be saved apart from him. You cannot be saved by being good. No one is good. No, not one, says the Bible. You cannot be saved by being religious. The Pharisees tried that. Only through Christ, the one who came as the Son of God, fully God and fully man, Jesus lived a perfect life. He died on the cross to bear the punishment for our sin. The Bible says he became sin who knew no sin, so that we in him could become the righteousness of God. That he would give you as a free gift. You can't earn it, but as a free gift, his righteousness, credited to your account, so that when you stand before a holy and righteous and perfect God, you will be warmly received. That's the good news of the gospel. The good news that is applied to anyone who would repent and believe in him. If you have not turned from your life of sin, trusted in Jesus alone as your Lord and Savior, then do that today. For us as God's people, as we take communion, this is what we're remembering. We are remembering that this salvation, which is a free gift, was paid for at a very high cost. From the body and the blood of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior. You know, this time of communion is a time that we celebrate, but it's also a serious time. This is a time of self-examination. Just like always, we're gonna have a minute where on your own you can go before the Lord. To examine yourself before the Lord, this is a time to confess sin to the Lord. This is a time to repent. This is the time to quickly make amends with someone that you may have wronged before you partake. You know, this supper, this uh taking of the bread and the cup, uh, we have to understand that this is for believers only, for those who follow Christ. And so if you're in this room and if you don't follow Christ, we're very glad you're here. But right here, you should just observe and just watch. Likewise for little children, parents, this is a great opportunity to teach them on the way home what Christ did for us, but they too should watch during this time. And so I want to do that now. If we can go before the Lord on your own and take a minute, and then I'll pray for us before we take a lot of people. That we all have missed the mark. In fact, that there has not been a single day that has gone by that we have fully loved you with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength, which is the greatest commandment. And Lord, we thank you for your mercy. We thank you for making a way for us to be forgiven and to receive the gift of salvation, the gift of eternal life through the sacrifice of Jesus, our Savior. Lord, we rest in this reality that if we confess our sins, you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Thank you for your mercy. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, we read that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, he took the bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And it says, in the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. He says, For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes again. Would y'all pray with me? Father, we love you and we praise you. Thank you so much for forgiveness. Thank you for the hope that we have in you, Jesus. Thank you for dying in our place on the cross. That shame and guilt and all of that can be wiped away because of your sacrifice for us. We love you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Hey, we are glad you could join us this morning. We pray that this message speaks life into your walk with Jesus. If you don't have a home church, we'd love to see you in person. And don't forget to subscribe for all of our content.