Falling Away From Faith

1 Timothy 4:1-5 (NIV)

Christians should conduct themselves in a godly manner.

The church should be the pillar and foundation of the truth.

But there are people who are falling away from the faith into unbelief.

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There are people whose hearts are hardened into unbelief because of sin.

Continual, habitual, unrepentant sin will harden our heart to the point of unbelief.

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If we live in sin for so long that we find it is easier to stop believing in God rather than to live under conviction, we are not saved.

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It is true that some people leave the faith.

They fall away.

They leave the faith and are paying attention to deceitful spirits.

They pay attention to the doctrines of the demons.

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There are demonic forces to cause us to believe a lie.

They will cook up all sorts of deceptions to lead us away from the truth of God.

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The doctrines of demons have infiltrated the church, in the form of false teachings.

They come from all sides, in every area of Christianity.

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The only way to have a true, Biblical Christianity is to stick to the true Christianity taught in the Bible!

Let us pay more attention to the Word of God, which teaches us the only true gospel.

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The doctrines of demons are propagated by hypocritical liars whose own consciences have been seared.

Their inner voice that tells them right from wrong has been burned up by their hypocrisy.

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Hypocritical liars in the church always have some new teaching that we must believe and some new practice that we must observe.

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Paul uses two examples of this: forbidding marriage and abstaining from foods.

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It is widely believed that a truly righteous person is unmarried.

To remain unmarried can be advantageous for those who want to be devoted to the Lord.

But not everyone is cut out for that.

In other words, if we can manage in our singleness, praise God.

But if we know we need to get married, then get married.

There's no law of God saying that we must be single.

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Abstaining from certain foods is viewed by many to be the more holy thing to do.

The key to food is to receive it with gratitude.

No one can condemn us for violating religious rules regarding food, if we give thanks to God, if we give Him the glory.

Whatever we eat, no one can condemn us if we do it all to the glory of God!