Saturday, November 8, 2008

Picky Eaters Get Unhealthy - 2 Timothy 3:16-17

(Title is incorrect English by choice.)

Behind the sermon title stands a phrase - a cliché - Feasting On The Word.

This morning I plan to speak about the Word we call the Bible.

Bible means simply - the Book.

The contents of the Bible are called, not "the book", but, in the languages of the Bible , the contents are called scripture or literally - the record or writings.

I must warn you that if you "Feast on the Scriptures" you will have participated in only a part of the great "Feast of the Word." For God said through Moses, "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord." And that saying does not mean "Man lives by the Book" alone.

This book does not contain all of the "Word o God" or even "every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord." Even this scripture, this record, testifies to that.
Further more, God h as not stopped speaking. Certainly the one who wants a personal relationship with us has not stopped talking to us individually and as a people.

He has not said, "There. I have spoken and so we'll just let those words stand. I have given you a written record so you don't need to hear from me nor will I have anything more to say."

There are still words proceeding from the Lord's mouth - words spoken into the fabric of the universe and affecting or arranging our lives. Words spoken into the hearts and minds of men instructing them, comforting them, even enlightening them to the LIFE which is spoken of in the recorded words.

While the record is sufficient to thoroughly equip the believer, still the LIVING WORD alone brings life and sustains it. In John 5:38-39 - how strange that one of the common teachings of today is this same idea that Christ spoke against. As He said then it is still rue today. Life does not come from the study of the scriptures but only from the Christ the Living Word who brings life and sustains it.

You can consume the whole of scriptures and still be unhealthy spiritually. So don't make the common mistake of thinking that when the scriptures refer to the "Word of God" or the "Gospel" that it is referring to this Bible alone. Neither term is. They are referring to what God has said and done. To what God is saying and doing, not to a book that records only a fraction of that. For man must feast on every word that proceeds from God.

But now what about picky eaters?

Specifically what about those who are picky eaters in the matter of the scriptures.
Well, let's look back at our text, 2 Timothy 3:16-17: "All the recorded writings is useful."

We need all of the scriptures.

As Romans 15:4 says, "Everything written in the past was written to teach us."

All - everything - written is useful.

So, picky eaters are turning down, or in some cases turning their noses up at, good gifts from God - things provided by God for them.

It is picky eaters, not God, who say, "Well, I like the New Testament best. The prophets are for the past. Those genealogies are valueless - that was a different day and age. This does not have meaning for today.

To neglect of any portion of the record is to be a picky eater.

To say, "No thanks, God," which is saying, "No," to God is sin.

To reject any of the past record is to turn down up to 50% or more of the meal. To reject the fiber, the minerals, or the vitamins, so to speak, that keep the whole from being regulated.

But again back to the text and another set of picky eaters.
Look at what scripture is useful for: TEACHING, REBUKING, CORRECTING, and TRAINING IN RIGHTEOUSNESS. And all of those are necessary to thoroughly equip a man of God for every good work.

We must eat the herbs as well as the sweets to be healthy. We must have the meat as well as the milk to be thoroughly equipped for spiritual living.

Paul is saying that scripture is a four course meal. All four courses of the meal are useful and, in fact, necessary to be whole. That is to be healthy.

All four courses are a necessary part of the regular continuing diet, to keep us equipped for service. No one out grows the need for teaching, rebuking, correcting, or training in righteousness, but not all people like the courses.

Some folks don't ever set under scripture teaching, privately or at the Lord's Family Table. Others come only for the lectures and never to the labs and even then they get upset if the teaching lasts more than 20 or 30 minutes.

They don't have a taste for teaching. And the other three courses people readily dismiss as unloving, not needed, or to demanding, and so never partake of them either privately or at God's Family Banquet Table.

Yet others take some or all of these, even though they don't like them, but they spice them up with worldly teaching, water them down, or otherwise distort the scripture until it is palatable for them. Usually they label these "my interpretation of scripture."

These people scripture calls the ignorant and unstable, the unhealthy and in danger of dying.
They have forgotten that scripture records "not even those who wrote down the record did so by man's interpretation." How much more so then should those who eat not adulterate it.

Of course both categories of these picky eaters are weak Christians. Their good fronts and self-righteous, "I'm okay!," not withstanding. If you listen carefully they probably will even tell you of their weak condition, because they need to be weak. It gives them an excuse for falling into sin, for yielding to the flesh, for being slain by temptation, or even for outright living in sin.

If they fed on a balanced meal and grew strong they would be forced to face the facts the way God sees them. Especially the fact that says, "You sin by choice, not by chance or weakness."

Balanced eating would reveal their pride, self-righteousness, favoritism, or other sins.

Those who eat an imbalance or exclusive diet of teaching are always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth in their lives. They can' model the truth because rebuke and correction have not been allowed to keep them in balance. Rebuke and correction have not bee allowed to discipline their use of knowledge. Also, training in righteousness has not bee allowed to show them the practical, "life shaping," application of the teaching.

Those who eat an imbalanced or exclusive diet of only training in righteousness are subject to various problems like:
  • discouragement because the standards are not understandable or attainable inwardly without the foundation of teaching.
  • self-righteousness or even haughty piety because rebuking and correction have not been allowed to reveal shallowness or incompleteness.
  • legalism because humanly attainable standards in outward righteousness are all that training offers without being rooted and balanced in teaching, and without the heart of repentance and change that only rebuking and correcting can elicit from the soul.

Of course, most unhealthy Christianity is due to failure to accept the sometimes distasteful correcting and rebuking from scriptures. However, those fairly rare individuals who do eat imbalances or exclusive diets of either correcting or rebuking are woefully unhealthy as well. Most commonly they suffer from inability to love or to be loved. Especially if Christ's love is the measure.

They suffer inability to forgive self or others or to accept the forgiveness of others.

They get warped attitudes such as:

  • God is out to get me.
  • God won't love me till I get all this done first.
  • Good times are for heaven only.

You see, without teaching and training in righteousness they are so ill equipped that rebuke and correction are all they can hope for. These, then, become all they can see.


Of course narrow vision, no matter which form of imbalance it comes from, affects the other picky eaters, too. That is why most picky eaters think they are all right - that their condition is "normal Christianity."

Picky eaters think that their form of food is the most important one for full health.

Even whole church fellowships may share these thoughts. But picky eaters are unhealthy and in danger of spiritual death.

We all need all four courses from the fires day of spiritual life until our last earthly breath.


Regardless of physical or spiritual maturity or age, we all need:

  • Teaching
  • Rebuking
  • Correcting and
  • Training in righteousness.

In the beginning, these bring the sin sick soul and life to health. But until we leave the hostile environment of this world, they are also the basics that maintain that new health of heart and life.

Teaching. Rebuking. Correcting. Training in Righteousness.

Here are four of the basic foods at the Lord's Table.

Are you a picky eater?

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