Nature and Causes of Faithlessness

Sermon text: Pro 30:8-9

Proverbs 30:8–9 ESV

8 Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, 9 lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.

Introduction:

Our lesson is an uphill battle today.

It presents things that are not Easter themed and Bunny Rabbit cute.

It does what sermons all over this Globe should do. Challenge you in your thinking without the addition or subtraction of God’s Word.

We will look at the Nature and Causes of Faithlessness. So buckle up your seat belt and be ready for a life changing message your soul truly needs and desires. Not by making you feel good about your independence from God and His commands, but calls you to repentance that you might be saved.

Thesis/ Summary:

The abandoning of a commitment to the Lord, seen in disowning him, wandering from the truth and becoming entangled with the world, and resulting in judgment.

[Let’s begin by looking at…]

Warnings against faithlessness

2 Timothy 2:12–13 ESV

12 if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; 13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.

Additional scriptures are available on the sermon outline for your additional study

All that speaks to Christianity being true will always be in effect

Therefore it is the individual who needs to endure and stop denying the faith

Truth will march on into eternity

[The signs of faithlessness are evident…]

See also Mt 10:33; Lk 9:62; Heb 10:35–39; Hab 2:3–4

Ways in which faithlessness is seen

Turning away from the Lord

Hebrews 3:12 ESV

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

Those who have fallen away need to be restored

Hearts that are troubled in doctrine and spirit need to be renewed

Do not grow weary or fall away from the grace of the Gospel

[Another sign that men move in faithlessness is abandoning the Word that saves and directs our steps…]

Abandoning the gospel of grace

Galatians 1:6 ESV

6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—

One who leaves spiritual reasoning as a priority of thinking and living, needs to understand, all that remains is the world

Physical and temporal ways of thinking

Atheist openly admit this life is all there is

[You had better be sure that your death is annihilation if you refuse to believe in God…]

Becoming entangled in the world

2 Peter 2:20–22 ESV

20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

Proverbs and 2nd Timothy say more about this. See the outline for further study

See also Pr 26:11; 2 Ti 4:10

[Certainly there are causes for our faithlessness…]

Causes of faithlessness

We have 6 things we are going to look at as the cause of faithlessness, see if any of these you struggle with...

False Teaching

Persecution and Trials

Inappropriate substitution

Concern for Money and Possessions

Love Growing Cold

Sexual Desire

False teaching

2 Timothy 2:17–18 ESV

17 and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18 who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some.

So called christian teaching can be false and certainly competing worldly endeavors lead falsely and blindly

There are more scriptures available to deepen your study on the outline

See also Ga 1:7; Ga 4:8–11; 1 Ti 4:1–3; 2 Ti 4:3–4; 2 Pe 3:17

Persecution and trials

Matthew 13:20–21 ESV

20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.

We have the scripture precisely for difficulty

Why do so many fall away when the difficulty becomes realty?

See also Mt 24:9–13

Inappropriate substitution

Isaiah 5:20–22 ESV

20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! 21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight! 22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink,

Our world today offers many virtual substitutes

You can work virtually now in many cases

You can have a virtual doctors visit

You can be interviewed virtual for a job

You Zoom conference instead of physically being in the same place

I’m waiting to hear about the first virtual only relationship and come to find out I’m light years behind in this phenomenon

I want to briefly scroll down this website to give you a flavor of what is going on in our world

This is what we face today

Is the church on fire?

Liar, Liars pretending online in their relationship with God, their creator, savior and life guide?

Concern for money and possessions

This one gets so many of us unawares

1 Timothy 6:10 ESV

10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

More study available on the outline

How many of us needlessly pierce ourselves with the worlds dagger of money and things

See also Pr 30:8–9; Mt 13:22

Love growing cold

Today it can be easily said that the standard of right and wrong has gone right out the window

Many of us participate in lawlessness ignorantly

Matthew 24:12 ESV

12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

Do not be found to have abandoned your first love

See also Re 2:4

Sexual desire or teachings

many leave the faith and or become faithless because of sexual teachings of the Bible

Poplar belief contends the Bible is out of step with a modern world

If you would leave the Bible because of it’s teachings on homosexuality; adultery; pornography; LGTBQ+ issues; sexual fluidity and identity; etc. you are a hypocrite and in danger of the judgement of hell’s fire!

[Let’s look at a few scriptures…]

Romans 13:13 ESV

13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.

James 5:5 ESV

5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

2 Peter 2:18 ESV

18 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error.

Those who bemoan the Bible about sexual issues are hypocrites they want to pick and choose against the Bible based on their own thinking

You say the Bible is wrong about sex, but not wrong about stealing

You say the Bible is wrong about LGBTQ+, but not about murder

You say the Bible is wrong about premarital sex, but not about forgiveness, mercy, grace, and love

You say the Bible is wrong about self-control and anyone and everyone should be able to do what ever it is that there heart desires, but you will stand firm with the Bible in it’s teachings not to covet your neighbors wife and stuff

The cause of faithlessness are too numerous for this one lesson and a disciplined life is encouraged to walk in these truths

Most people are not even aware of what the Bible teaches and are only mad about what they heard someone say about the Bibles teachings

In other words you are only upset about what somebody said about these sexual issues and you have not read for yourself how one is to treat his neighbor and those who are lost in sin

and if you did read for yourself and build your own faith on what scripture truly teaches, you will have no choice than to stand with God against wickedness and evil in this untoward generation

you could wish things could be different and one day they will be

but the road of faithlessness is the road to perdition and momentary pleasures giving way to eternal torment

The overwhelming theme of scripture is not about condemnation, it’s about reconciliation!

See also 1 Tim 5:11-15

[True faith and perseverance are the opposites of faithlessness…]

The faithlessness of those who fall away

The absence of true faith

1 John 2:19 ESV

19 They went out from 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 might become plain that they all are not of us.

Not trying to be mean but there will always be pretenders in the earthly Kingdom of God

Those who are here today and gone tomorrow have issues of faithfulness to work

Encourage them yes, but do not do what they do

Pray for them yes, but do not excuse what they do

challenge them in love

present for them a better example

True faith is proved by perseverance

See also Jas 1:2–3

1 Peter 1:5–7 ESV

5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Conclusion:

This morning we intend to warn you against faithlessness.

We have endeavored to look at the ways one can be faithless.

We took a very sobering look at some of the causes of faithlessness, perhaps some of that sounded controversial. you are challenged to determine for yourself what thus says the Lord and stand with Him in obedience and committed to His Body.

It has been stated that the absence of true faith and perseverance can be the downfall of the majority of mankind.

However it is not to late to turn your ship around, line it up with what God commands and be saved...

Invitation: