“Do Not Depart from the Faith”

I Timothy 4:1-6

1) Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;

2) Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

3) Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.

4) For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:

5) For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

6) If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.

Introduction

A

ll too often, when people are spoken to about faith, one hears “I don’t have that kind of faith.” There is no “kind” of faith that one needs but to simply believe in God’s word. In that nothing that He says is a lie, we have no excuse for not simply agreeing with Him.

Main Thought

If it was important that we believed Him to come to salvation, it is that much more important to our operation in salvation. When Man begins to depart from the Lord, He does so because he does not believe that God has his best interest at heart. In other words, he does not trust Him.

Evidently, we forget Whose power it was that brought us into salvation, for all too often, we think that we receive power through fasting, praying, and praising God. These things are always appropriate, for they are the least of what we should offer to God as thanks. Why should we always be in an attitude of praise? Because what He has for us, He has already done.

When one says that he is dealing with “reality,” or believes that he has gained something through his human understanding, one is really saying that he is dealing with is humanity. When one is “on the defense,” he will do anything to look out for himself. On the contrary, when one is “on the offense” he is in the position to win others to Christ, and in this “stance,” one can only help rather than “hurt.”

We would become wise if we would accept that we create our own problems when we do not line up with the word of God, but yet, persist in blaming things on the enemy. When we refuse to accept that our difficulties arise from our disobedience, ultimately, we will be destroyed. Lest we be confused, it will not always be the problem that destroys us.

Those of us who are part of this ministry must stop ascribing a different meaning to what we hear and the ways that things are presented. For example, we know that a doctor is engaged in “the practice of medicine.” Despite this, we expect him to know everything. While he/she may be able to temporarily “fix” something or provide relief from it, only Jesus can “cure.”

Particularly now, that we have evidence of our shortcomings in the Lord—what we have failed to accomplish and accept—we know that there is nothing that we can do to make ourselves more spiritual. Until and unless we voluntarily submit to the Lord, we will remain mere human beings. Only through obeying God is anyone able to do as He has said.

Have you ever wondered why, when we hear the truth, we are not particularly “thrilled” with doing it? It is because we are being seduced by seducing spirits, and those in this state are tricked into believing that the viewpoint to have is a human one, and that those who advocate righteousness and spirituality are, somehow, “wrong.”

Probably no one would argue against the statement that people have more problems in their lives than ever, and particularly, the people of God. When we should be the ones to whom the world can come for hope, we are continually fighting our own “neuroses” and trying to solve our own problems. Well, you know what? We need to stop creating these problems and dealing with what is contrary to the word of God. When we fail to accept the truth of the Word and live the triumphant life, we are allowing the devil to cheat us out of our blessings. You see, when we allow him to confuse us about Whom God is and what He has done; how He operates or His plan for us, we find it hard to give God the praise that He deserves. However, if we are going to live in the blessings of God, we are going to have to learn that our praise cannot be predicated upon anything but the fact that He is!

What we cannot afford to do is to continue to deceive ourselves. It will often seem as if nothing is changing and that all is staying the same. Don’t believe it! What we know about the Lord and the spiritual world is that nothing is static. All is progressive and as we know, the moment we stop progressing is the moment that we “backslide.” That is what faith is about—accepting that the “moment” is nothing but a moment, that whatever has come has been allowed to teach us something and that before the “moment” came, it was seen and “handled” by God.

Despite all of the revelation that the Lord has give to Man in these last days, the Church still conducts itself as if not interested in the truth. We can say this because though offered help, very few accept it. Something intrinsic to Man fears that he will be required to change and too many have been deceived into believing that they are happy the way that they are.

No matter how satisfied one might be with his own situation, if he is not obedient to the Word, God is not satisfied. You see, He requires strict obedience and this is impossible for a human being to give, as he thinks that he should have a “say” in His Word and his own life. This is simply not the way that it is, not the way that it was, and not the way that it will ever be.

Living for the Lord means that a conscious decision has been made to turn the reigns of one’s life over to Another. If this is the profession that you have made, all that remains is for you to concern yourself only with what He says.