Oh, Sovereign Lord. Father, when we sin against you, even by sinning against our brother or sister, we say with David, against you have I sinned. And we cry out with David, Create in us a clean heart, O God. Renew a steadfast spirit within us. Wash us with hyssop that we may be whiter than snow. And Father, we pray that you would mercifully take the blood of your son and apply it to each of our hearts this morning. Make us clean. We confess that we are sinful people and we live in the midst of a very sinful people. And we beg you for the forgiveness of our sins. Lord, we need you, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. We pray, O God, that in our lives, in our homes and in this church, that your fire would come down upon the altar of our worship We have nothing and we possess nothing that you need, but you have everything that we need. Lord, we thank you for each precious soul in this room, from the smallest little ones to the oldest ones. And Lord, I pray especially for the marriages in the room that you would Guard each marriage covenant That you'd protect it with your holy jealousy and your holy zeal And you'd help us to as husbands and wives to love each other to be committed to each other and To fiercely guard the love that you've entrusted to us In Jesus name Amen We've arrived at chapter four. First Timothy, chapter four, verses one through five, this is the word of the Lord. Now, the spirit expressly says. That in latter times. Some will depart. from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving By those who believe and know the truth. For. Every creature of God is good. And nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving for it is sanctified. By the word of God. And prayer. Thus far, the reading of God's holy word. God hates divorce. He hates divorce because it is a departure from the marriage covenant. A man who has bound his life to his wife in a solemn covenant before God and who subsequently divorces his wife. In a sinful manner. Breaks the marriage covenant. He commits marital apostasy in that he departs. He leaves. God hates divorce in Malachi 2.16. For the Lord God says of Israel. Says the Lord God of Israel says that he hates divorce. For it covers one's garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. Therefore, take heed to your spirit that you do not deal treacherously. He hates it because it's destructive. It hurts. You can picture a three year old boy. With heavy raindrop tears falling from his eyes, watching his father pack up the bags to leave the house for the last time. He's just going to abandon his wife. And the little boy with the raindrop tears is trying to fit himself into his father's suitcase because he does not want to be separated from his father. And then you think of the single mother who, on the night of what would have been her 10th wedding anniversary, is heartbroken because her husband has left her. And she's weeping, but she has to do it quietly because she doesn't want to wake up the children. Or you think of a young bride gazing down from the church sanctuary platform on her divorced parents, who, for the sake of the wedding ceremony, are sitting next to each other in the pew in the sanctuary. And she's wishing even from her own wedding altar that her father and mother were still married. Divorce is marital apostasy. And God hates it for many reasons. I think he hates the wreckage that it causes. But most importantly, I think the reason why God hates divorce is because marital divorce symbolizes spiritual divorce. Marital apostasy is horrible because it damages, but spiritual apostasy is even more horrible when a man has pledged himself to Christ through baptism. And subsequently departs. From the faith. This is an unthinkable horror. Hebrews six, four through six. This is spiritual divorce or spiritual apostasy. For it is impossible. For those who were once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, that is, if they apostatize, they leave and depart. To renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again, for themselves the son of God and put him to an open shame. The spirit of God says through the book of First Timothy that in the last days. In the final epochs of world history. There will not only be rampant marital divorce or marital apostasy, there will also be in the church rampant spiritual divorce or rampant spiritual apostasy. There will be a lot of people in the last days falling away and departing from the faith. 1st Timothy 4, 1 through 2. Now the Spirit expressly says, He says it, that in the latter times some will depart. They will apostatize. They will commit spiritual divorce. They will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits. and doctrines of demons speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron. Who says this? Well, the spirit says it, the spirit expressly says it, the spirit of Christ warns that there will be rampant spiritual apostasy in the last days. The spirit says this again in Hebrews three, seven through 12, therefore, As the Holy Spirit says, the Spirit says it today. If you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion in the day of trial in the wilderness where your fathers tested me, tried me and saw my works 40 years. Therefore, I was angry with that generation and said they always go astray. They depart in their heart and they have not known my way. So I swore in my wrath. They shall not enter my rest. Beware, brethren. Lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing. Apostatizing. From the living God. So much like. Plants that have no root. Which are blown away with the wind. The spirit of Christ expressly says that there will be amongst the false believers. People who They make a false claim to Christ. There will be amongst them a great falling away, a great spiritual apostasy. Prior to the second coming of Christ. Second Thessalonians, two, three, let no one deceive you by any means, for that day, the second coming will not come. Unless. The falling away, that's the apostasy. Comes first. And the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, the apostle Paul says in Second Timothy four four, and they will turn their ears away. There's the apostasy from the truth and be turned aside to fables and this this flirting with other doctrines, the doctrines of demons is dangerous, it is deadly. The Bible warns that spiritual apostasy is is not a matter that is to be tinkered with. Hebrews 12, 25, see that you do not refuse him who speaks, for they did not escape who refused him who spoke on earth, that is, at Mount Sinai. How much more shall we not escape if we turn away, if we apostatize from him who speaks from heaven, that is, from the heavenly Zion, from the gospel of Jesus? And I think adultery and abortion typically go hand in hand, it doesn't always happen that way, but you could see it at least symbolically, whether there is an actual mistress or another kind of mistress. For example, it's very easy for a husband to turn money into a mistress. A man who sinfully divorces his wife, and of course, in the Bible, there are cases where divorce is not sinful on at least one side. But in the case of a sinful divorce, a man who sinfully divorces his wife, Almost always does so for the sake of some other lover, some some other love. And in the same way, the spirit, the root of spiritual apostasy, a spiritual divorce from Christ always involves another lover. First Timothy four one. Now, the spirit expressly says that in latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed. And here here come the other lovers to deceiving spirits and the doctrines of demons. So why do some professing Christians divorce themselves from the true faith that is in Christ? Well, they do so because they commit spiritual adultery with The teachings of demons, they go after demons, they go after other gods. And in the book of Deuteronomy, there's an equation between the forsaking of God and the chasing after of demons. Deuteronomy 32, 15 through 18. Here's spiritual apostasy again. But Yeshurun and that's Yeshurun is a name for Israel. Yesharun grew fat and kicked. You grew fat. You grew thick. You are obese. Then he forsook God. That's the spiritual apostasy, turning away, divorcing from God who made him and scornfully esteemed the rock of his salvation. They provoked him to jealousy. Here come the other lovers with foreign gods, with abominations. They provoked him to anger. And here come the demons. They sacrificed to demons, not to God. to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not fear, of the rock who begot you, you are unmindful and have forgotten the God who fathered you. Those who commit spiritual apostasy do so by going after the teachings of demons. That's what the Bible says. First Corinthians 10 20. The apostle warns, rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons. and not to God. And I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. So in the last days, according to the apostle, there will be a lot of spiritual apostasy, and this spiritual apostasy will not be innocent. Far from being innocent. It shall be demonic. Those who divorce themselves from Christ who commit spiritual adultery and spiritual apostasy will do so because they desire the teachings of demons, which means that there are no valid excuses for spiritual apostasy. I think that's what it means. I've talked to people and they've said things about loved ones, that try to excuse their loved ones for falling away from the gospel. For example, my uncle, they say, he says, my uncle got burned by the church. He trusted his pastor and loved his pastor and was loyal to his pastor. And his pastor ran off with the wife of the youth pastor. And he was so incredibly hurt that now he goes to an ecumenical church that doesn't believe the Bible. And he says that they're more tolerant and loving. And you can understand why, because he got burned. Or someone else says, my cousin lost his unbelieving wife in a car accident. She was an unbeliever and he cannot bear the thought of her being in hell. And so he's become a universalist. He believes that all people, no matter what they believe here in this life, will go to heaven and be covered by the blood of Jesus. And when the people say these things, what they're trying to say about their loved one is it's not his fault. Given his circumstances, the uncle burned by his pastor, the cousin lost his unbelieving wife in a car accident. If you were in his shoes, if you understood his circumstance, you would understand the apostasy. It's somehow to be seen as acceptable. He's not to be blamed for it. But the Apostle so gently and lovingly, yet very truthfully says, this is not true. There are no valid excuses for spiritual apostasy. No matter the reason, the circumstances, those who depart from the faith, which by the way, I think is evidence that they never were really born of the Spirit in the first place. They do so willfully. They willfully follow the teachings of demons. They've divorced Christ because they willfully want the teachings of demons. And so, First Timothy, chapter four, as the chapter opens, is a warning. And I can see, as I try to picture the Apostle Paul, I can see him warning the church with tears. He would say to the church, yes, there is a struggle in the Christian life. There's pain. There's struggle. But here's the warning from the great apostle. There is no such thing as taking a break. From the Christian faith. In other words, if you start listening, if you're hurting. and struggling and questioning, and you start listening to motivational speakers on the Internet and reading popular psychology books and magazines, and you start watching carpe diem movies to try to feed your soul, and you start trying to seek to actualize your dreams the way they'll teach you to do so. You are not awakening to your true self. You're not having some kind of epiphany of self-discovery. You are, in fact, putting yourself under the teachings of demons. And unless you flee the seductive lures of the demons and repent because you're drifting from God, you're turning away from God, was not innocent. It was soaked in sinful pride and fleshly lust. Unless you repent. And I can see the apostle with tears. saying, unless you repent, you will blindly follow the demons into full-blown spiritual apostasy. And once you're in full-blown spiritual apostasy, there is no turning back. And you will stand before Christ someday and you will plead and say, in my younger days, did I not drive out demons in your name? Did I not prophesy in your name? And Christ will look down upon you because you followed the teachings of demons. And he will say, I never knew you depart from me. You who practice lawlessness. It's it's become way too trendy to question God. I'll take a break from the faith. And the apostle warns with tears. So how do you how do you recognize an apostate, especially an apostate teacher? If in the last days there will be a great apostasy, then how do we recognize who the apostates are and who especially the apostate teachers? How do you know who they are? An apostate teacher will claim to be married to the gospel. He will make the claim to be wedded to Christ. But in reality, he has departed from the true faith and wedded his soul to the teachings of demons. So how do you recognize him? First Timothy four, one through four. You recognize him by his fruits. by his works. Now, the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart, they will apostatize from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. And here's how you know them. Speaking lies in hypocrisy. You will know them by their hypocrisy. They will be hypocrites. speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry. It's very specific and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature is of God and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving. So you can recognize the apostate and especially the apostate teacher by his fruits, by his hypocrisy. Again, in 1 Timothy 4, 1 through 2, just one more time, now, the Spirit expressly says that in latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy. You will know them because they are hypocrites. They're actors. They're liars. The particular apostates. So the Apostle Paul gives a broad category of apostasy, and then he gets very specific and gives a very specific example. And the particular apostates whom Paul exposes here in 1 Timothy chapter 4 are what I would call the clean-cut hypocrites. So specifically, he focuses in on the clean-cut ones, the ones who deal with categories of marriage and food. The clean-cut hypocrites are those who abstain from certain pleasures in order to look holy and clean on the outside. These are the clean-cut hypocrites. 1 Timothy 4, 3, they forbid to marry and they command to abstain from foods. The clean-cut hypocrites do those things because they want to look holy and good on the outside, but they have nothing good on the inside. I think the root of this, it's hard to get at. I don't I don't have a clear answer to it, but I'm guessing that the root of this is some form of Gnosticism. So there may be some elements of Judaizing, the Judaizers coming in and trying to Judaize the gospel. But but I think that probably the root of this heresy here is Gnosticism. The Gnostics were some of the earliest heretics in the church, and they believed in dualism. They thought that the spirit is good. Anything spiritual is good. But the body is evil. They believe the body to be evil. Matter is what corrupts the world. The physical body is bad. And so they made a large distinction between the spiritual and the material, and they had two responses to that. If the material is bad, if the body is evil, Well, then there were two kinds of Gnostics. There was one kind that said, well, just go ahead and indulge the body any way you want to because it doesn't matter, everything's spiritual. And then there was another group, the clean-cut hypocrites, who said, well, you need to take the body and abstain from all physical pleasures because all physicality is bad. And these early first century Gnostics, many times, would abstain from marriage, and they would abstain from meat, because those are physical pleasures. And later on in history as this develops, it eventually develops into a teaching of a man by the name of Mani, and it turns into a religion called Manichaeism. And that was the religion that Augustine of Hippo was entrenched in before he became a Christian. The Manichaeans, under Manichaeanism, had a group of elect holy people who abstained from marriage and practiced vegetarianism. Because again, the body is evil, and so we don't indulge in any kind of material pleasures. And today it's still around, it just takes different forms. If you interview strict Hindus, and people who practice a very strict form of Buddhism, they will abstain from marriage, and they will also abstain from meat. So the same kind of thinking exists today. But in the church, as we talk about people who apostatize or drift away or turn away from the church and divorce themselves from Christ. There are the teachings of demons that involve marriage and food, but they're not necessarily dualistic. They don't have the Gnostic view of reality, but they have a demonic view of reality. And you can judge them and know them by their fruits. They have distorted biblical views on marriage, on health and on food, for example. Ellen White was the founder of Seventh-day Adventism. And I do think that there are some people within the Seventh-day Adventist community who may be born-again believers. But overall, Seventh-day Adventism is an aberration. It's a turning away from historic Christianity towards forms of demonic influence. And Ellen White, in her prophecies and in her visions, saw a lot of things that she said regarding food and particularly regarding vegetarianism. And so Seventh-day Adventists are vegetarians today. They abstain from meat. Christian science doesn't have specific teachings on being a vegetarian or not marrying. But in Christian science, physical matter, just like for the Gnostics, is evil. And the only thing real is spiritual. and therefore to be healed you have to abstain from all modern medicine, because healing comes only through the visualization of the spiritual realm. The Mormons follow the teachings of Joseph Smith, who in his teachings gave what's called the Word of Wisdom, which included abstention from all hot drinks, which is why if you invite a Mormon to have coffee, or tea with you, the Mormon is obligated to abstain because the demonic teachings led them into this kind of legalistic category. But even Islam, if you think about it, has its own way of twisting Christianity and apostatizing from the faith. Islam is really Judaism and Christianity distorted, a mixture of Jewish and Christian doctrine, deeply distorted by the teachings of demons. And Muslims manifest this in terms of food in a difference, and you cannot eat pork. If you go to a Muslim table, you will not find pork. If a Muslim finds that you're a Christian and you eat pork, that's an abomination to them. So these things manifest themselves. They forbid, they abstain from certain foods. And then ironically, the very church that claims to be the historic church, the Roman Catholic Church, with all of its claim to be in the doctrines of Christ and wedded to Christ, forbids their own priests to marry. When Paul says they follow the teachings of demons and they abstain from foods and they forbid marriage, the very preachers of the Roman Catholic faith are forbidden to marry. So it takes on many different forms, this kind of clean cut outward hypocrisy. And Jesus says of this in Matthew 23, 25, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Isaiah says you're fasting on the outside, but you haven't fasted on the inside. Isaiah 58, 3 through 5. Why have we fasted, they say, and you have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls and you, God, take no notice? And God's response is, in fact, in the day of your fast, you find pleasure and exploit all your laborers. Indeed, you fast for strife and debate and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day to make your voice heard on high. Is it a fast that I have chosen the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord? You're a clean cut hypocrite. The clean-cut hypocrites afflict themselves. They deny themselves the outward pleasures. They make rules that are not in the scriptures, only to look good on the outside, but on the inside. Their hearts are full of greed and selfish indulgence. They have, as it says in 2 Timothy 3, 5, a form of godliness, but they deny its power. And I would say that even today, there are many of these clean-cut apostates running around the church. They've departed from the faith, but they they mask themselves in their clean-cut hypocrisy and they come in many shapes and sizes. Some wear friar's robes. They're out there. They're still there. They walk around in poverty and wear friar's robes and beg. Others sport white priestly collars to show their cleanness. Others shave their heads but leave a little tuft of hair on the back of their heads to show their holiness. Those are the Hare Krishnas. Others wear suits and ties and name badges and go two by two, door to door, promoting their hypocrisy. Those are the Mormons. But I think still others are in the mainstream church claiming to preach the gospel and yet preaching in luxurious clothing. and living in ten point five million dollar mansions. And all of them are apostate teachers. But then I would add that there's another group. Paul specifically wants to address the clean cut hypocrites, the Gnostics and perhaps the Judaizers who want to look good on the outside, but are dead on the inside. But I think today there's another group that are hypocrites, but they're not the clean cut hypocrites. They don't prohibit marriage. And they don't prohibit the eating of certain foods. They do the opposite. Instead of hypocritical prohibitions, they practice hypocritical indulgences. And these are the group of people that I would call the business savvy hypocrites or the culture savvy hypocrites. They just do the opposite. But they're still hypocrites. They want to modernize the church. by decorating it with the idols of the football gods and the statues of the entertainment gods. They do the opposite of what Paul says. Instead of abstaining from certain foods, they are food and wine connoisseurs. Instead of forbidding marriage, they embrace homosexual marriage. And they encourage sinfully divorced people to remarry, contrary to the express command of Christ. They twist Titus 1.5. They love Titus 1.5, the first part, anyway. To the pure, all things are pure, they'll quote. So they'll take tattoo art, yoga, and Darwinian evolution and call it pure. forgetting that the rest of Titus 115 says, but to those who are defiled, and unbelieving nothing is pure, but even their mind and conscience are defiled, they are of seared and defiled consciences. So, he can be a clean-cut hypocrite, or a culture-savvy hypocrite, But the Apostle Paul says it doesn't matter if you turn away from the faith, you've apostatized. And what I see as I look around America, this isn't pleasant, it's not what I want to see. What I see is America is apostatizing. We're not the America we used to be. The American church is not the church it used to be. We don't want to live in an age in which the church is apostatizing, but we do. And yet and yet for us, the church, the true church of Christ, those who love the gospel, and there are many good true churches left. This is a great opportunity. Are you tempted to join the apostasy? Is the pressure to conform to the pattern of apostatized American Christianity becoming very heavy upon you? If so, then there's a great opportunity. There's a great encouragement here. I say that the rock concert of contemporary American Christianity will come to an end. The laser lights and the smoke show will come to an end. God will bring it to an end soon, and it will be shown in the day of the reckoning to have been a vapor. A vanishing smoke, a flower that withers and fades very quickly. And when God exposes it all and brings it all into the light and all is said and done about what true Christianity is in this nation, there will be a remnant. A great, powerful remnant that God has preserved in this land, and it will be said of that remnant there. They're the ones, there they are, they are the ones. who refused to turn away from the historic Christian faith in the age of a great apostasy. So instead of just getting completely defeated and destroyed, there is a great moment of opportunity to stand and be immovable in an age of apostasy. But with so many people in America departing from the faith, and they are, committing spiritual divorce The question is, what keeps us from doing the same? How do we know that we're not going to depart and forsake our first love? And here I think the question of marital divorce and spiritual divorce go hand in hand. I think the question is the same. You could ask the question of marital divorce. With so many church people getting divorced maritally, what keeps me from getting divorced? Or you could ask the question spiritually, with so many people apostatizing from the faith, what will keep me from turning away in an age of great apostasy? And the questions are the same because the answer to both of those questions is the same. The answer to both questions is the gospel will keep us from turning away. The gospel will guard us. Listen closely to the end of the passage, 1 Timothy 4, 1-5. Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. This is the gospel part. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving, if it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. And I think this is not as easy to understand as it first sounds. It first sounds very simple. Well, how do you keep yourself from becoming Joining in with the apostates, well, they're the ones who forbid marriage and abstain from foods. And Paul's response is, every creature of God is good. There's the apostolic response. And that sounds simple, but I don't think it can be oversimplified because here's where the Judaizers come in. A pig is a creature of God. And according to the apostles response, every creature of God is good. Therefore, the pig is good. And yet Moses says that in ancient Israel, eating from the pig pork is an abomination. Or blood. Blood is from the life, blood of the creatures of God, the creatures of God are good, and yet even in the New Covenant, Christians say that eating blood is an abomination to God. So why can Christians eat pork but not blood? This is the great problem raised by the Judaizers. There was an especially fierce group of apostates who attacked the Apostle Paul. They were the Judaizers and they would come to church and they would say, you can have Jesus. That's fine and great. Jesus can be your Christ. But if you come to church, you must not eat pork. You must obey Moses, you must be circumcised or you cannot be saved. And this was a huge divide between Paul and the Judaizers. So why was the eating of certain foods, the eating of pork, a dividing line between the Christians and the Judaizers? So, again, it's not quite as simple as it sounds, but the answer is simple. The answer is the gospel. The gospel is what divided Paul from the Judaizers. Paul says in Romans 14, 20, Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things, indeed, are pure. But it is evil for the man who eats with offense. So the apostle Paul says, if you stand in the gospel, then all things become pure. So the gospel is what is what divides. Why are all foods, except for blood, pure for the eating for the Christian? And the answer is the gospel. It's a big deal. It's not just a little trifle about food. It's a big deal because the answer is the gospel. Notice in First Timothy four, three through five, the repetition of Thanksgiving. Forbidding to marry, so the apostates forbid to marry, commanding to abstain from foods. And then Paul says, which God created to be received with Thanksgiving. And then he's going to repeat that by those who believe and know the truth for every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused if it is received with Thanksgiving. There it is again for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. That phrase received with Thanksgiving is a gospel phrase. It is what divides Paul from the Judaizers and from all the apostates. He says in First Corinthians 1030. But if I partake with thanks with Thanksgiving. Why am I spoken of? Why am I evil spoken of for the food over which I give thanks? So that's the dividing line. I give thanks for it. They speak evil of it. But why? Why is it OK for Paul to enjoy all food so long as he receives it with Thanksgiving? Why? And the answer is, again, the gospel. Notice where this is taking place. First Timothy four, four through five, for every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused if it is received with Thanksgiving, literally with Eucharist, for it is sanctified by. The word of God and prayer. So we're not just talking about You know, your daily diet and how healthy you are. We're talking about the word of God in prayer. We're talking about the context of the church. We're probably talking about the agape meal of the church, which takes place after the Thanksgiving or the Eucharist of the church. The Eucharist is the Thanksgiving at the table of the Lord. And so we're really talking about the gospel. First Corinthians 11, 23 through 24, For I received from the Lord That was also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread and when he had given thanks. There's the breaking of bread, the Eucharist at the table, when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. So we're really talking about the gospel. A Gentile believer. Brings bacon. to the agape meal. And the Judaizer stands up in the church and says, you cannot love God and eat bacon in church. And the Apostle Paul stands up in response and says, that's apostasy. What the Judaizer just says is anti-Eucharist and it's anti-gospel. Because the conflict gets at the gospel definition of the new covenant. The reason why there's a conflict over this food matter is because there's a conflict over the gospel. Paul says the gospel is now the opening of salvation for not just the Jews, but also for the Gentiles. And so the preaching of the gospel requires that we open the food of the church to the Gentiles. In other words, Jesus' covenant is greater than the covenant of Moses. And it has to be that way or you lose the gospel. Or to put it another way, the true altar of salvation is not the temple, the Jewish temple, but the faith that is represented by the table, by the Lord's table. And yet, as I've said before, the gospel freedom can be abused. The Gentile, the Judaizer can come in and deny and deny the Gentile the right to eat. But the Gentile pretender, the libertarian Gentile can come in and say to the pure, all things are pure. The apostles declared all things to be clean. Therefore, at our agape meals, let us not forbid others from partaking of all things, including the dainty foods of fornication. And and and the delicate morsels of worldly diversions, so long as they practice these things with Thanksgiving, the Gentile pretender can say that and the apostle will also stand up in the midst of the church and say apostasy. That also is anti-Eucharist teaching. It's anti-Gospel teaching. It's a conflict that gets at the heart of the Gospel, because the New Covenant also says that to be born into the faith is to be born of the Spirit. And once a man has been born of the Spirit, he has been given the power by the Spirit to take sin and put it to death. And the Spirit living in the life of the believer gives the believer a great desire to obey the law of Christ. And if someone lacks that desire to obey the law of Christ, that someone most likely lacks the Spirit of Christ. So, again, it's an issue of the gospel. So what makes a person a true Christian then? How do you differentiate between an apostate and a true Christian? Well, let's just wrap it up this way. A true Christian eats the agape meal of the church with true thanksgiving. He knows that the food that is shared amongst true believers, Whether it is shrimp with lobster sauce or salad topped with bacon bits has been sanctified by the word of God and prayer. In other words, the good food. that is shared is part of the celebration of the Eucharist, which is the Lord's table. The Thanksgiving is focused upon the table. It serves as a remembrance for us that Christ gave his own flesh and blood for us. It is a spiritual sign of Christ's real spiritual food and Christ's real spiritual drink. It's about the gospel when we eat food together. Ultimately, it's about the gospel. We were formerly starving in our sins. We were dying of thirst in our sins. Sin had robbed us of the sustenance of life. Christ Jesus, in his mercy, gave gave himself for our nourishment. He gave us his own body to eat and his own the cup of his own blood to drink. We deserved death and eternal condemnation. He died for us and gave us the food of everlasting life. So the Christian. unlike the apostate, can partake of all foods with thanksgiving, for God has made them good in the gospel. And that's the key in the gospel. When we break our bread together, when we eat meat together, we do so having already celebrated the Eucharist, the table. And there at the table of thanksgiving, we have remembered our marriage covenant with Christ. and have renewed our commitment to our spiritual covenant with Christ. We have vowed. We have come to the table and we have vowed by the working and power of his spirit in us never to depart from Christ. We've made the vow. But they, the apostates, turn away from Christ. Having never truly known him. They divorced themselves from him. But we. Shall not turn away. Since the Spirit of Christ dwells in us, we shall never apostatize. We shall continue to feed upon the life-giving food of the Gospel, and we shall celebrate the marriage covenant of the Gospel with thanksgiving, and we shall do so, and we shall continue to do so until we die or until Jesus comes again, because we know that one day, one final day, the very things which the apostates deny, which are Christian marriage and Christian food shall be fulfilled at the wedding feast of the lamb. And there at the lamb's banquet table, we, the bride of Christ, shall be wed to him, married to Christ. And there at the wedding feast, we shall eat of all the good foods of the kingdom and we shall eat with thanksgiving and be satisfied. For God shall sanctify all things in heaven by his word and by his holy presence. So that makes me look at the table a little differently this morning. We renew our wedding vows to Christ as we come to the table this morning. But before we do so, here's the doxology. Praise be to God, our Father. Who has preserved a strong, faithful remnant of believers during this age of apostasy. Praise be to our Lord Jesus Christ, who summons us to the remembrance of his new covenant at the table of thanksgiving. Praise be to the Holy Spirit, who expressly warns us of the coming apostasy and who at the same time promises to keep us in the protective marriage covenant that has been made between Christ and His Church. Thank you for joining us for the preaching of the Holy Scriptures. You can find more resources at our website www.GodCenteredUniverse.org You may also send correspondence to us at the following address P.O. Box 461978 Aurora, Colorado 80046 God-Censored Universe is a faith-driven ministry that exists to encourage the Church in family-based discipleship and to call the Church to continue trembling joyfully at God's Word.