Preaching a Watered-Down Gospel is Sin-Jeff Noblit

Are you a "milky christian in a milky church"? One that runs from going deeper into the doctrines of Christ? "A fertile ground for false teachers and their false doctrine".

Today there is "an idol of glorying in shallowness". This is sin and the church at large needs to repent of it. We recommend all Christians listen to or watch the video of this excellent sermon by Jeff Noblit:

Preaching a Watered-Down Gospel is Sin Hebrews 5:12-6:2 -43 min Click to Play Video WMV or Play Audio (Right-Click/Save-As to download either)

"Well, what is this enemy I'm talking about today? Well, I'm gonna call it the milky way. The milky way. I'm not attempting to be clever or cute. I'm using Bible terminology. You'll see that when we read the text. When I say the milky way, I mean the idol of elementary or first or shallow principles of Christianity. It's when there is a glorying in shallowness, doctrinally speaking. And a general spirit of demeaning or condemning any attempt to go deeper in the doctrines of Christ. Accompanying this idolatry is a demeaning or condemning, spirit, and they use catch phrases. And to be politically correct, you must reject all teaching and all teachers that can be labeled or associated with these phrases. One phrase that's been used through the years is the deeper life. "If you hear somebody's into the deeper things, run from them. That's dangerous. That's bad stuff." Or I used to hear about the seminary. "If you go to the seminary, why, it's really the cemetery." Well, now it's true. Our cemeteries have been, seminaries, rather, have been bad. But that's because they were liberal, not because they were deep. There's a difference there.

A couple of late coming catch phrases, and don't get hung up here, we're gonna move on, "Calvinist" or "Reformed." "If you see that, run and cover your ears! Get away from it." The very persons using it have no idea what they're even talking about. When they condemn these things if you understand what they're saying, they're talking about extreme or hyper-Calvinism, not a true understanding of historic reformed theology or Calvinism. And it all comes from this idol or glorying in shallowness, which I'm calling the milky way.

Now you can search far and wide across the Baptist or evangelical universe, and you will see the dominance of the milky way. You have milky churches that demand milky preachers, preach milky sermons to milky Christians who desire to have their bottles refilled with formula each week that they might nurse themselves back to sleep and satisfy their lactose dependency. But in the natural realm, an adult man still sucking on a bottle or nursing at his mother's breasts is pathetic. It's a perversity. It's even a crime punishable by law. But for Christians to love milk and stay on milk and embrace milk and in turn reject and even ridicule solid food or meat is to God a perversity, even a sin. And it's a ploy of the enemy. It makes the church weak and pathetic. It dishonors God. It dishonors the church. It dishonors the minister of God. And it is fertile ground for false teachers and their false doctrine, this milky way.

But today's Christians, they love their pabulum. They demand more of the same. Now not to say they do not like variety. Why, the most popular preachers are those who can most crafterly, craftily, rather, and cleverly use milk to delight their shallow appetite. So they search out teachers who can flavor the milk and package the milk and color the milk in different ways, shapes, varieties, and forms, but just make sure it's still milk. By all means make the milk more interesting. Make the milk more appealing, more attractive, more humorous and more entertaining. But it must be only milk. We don't need any Paul type preachers who are determined to preach, quote, "the whole counsel or purpose of God," end of quote, Acts 20:27. NO young Timothy's upon us who will heed Paul's admonition to, quote, "Preach the Word," though it will bring hardship and decreasing attendance, Second Timothy chapter 4. We'll have no Apollos's among us who was, quote, "mighty in the scriptures," end of quote, teaching accurately the things of Jesus, Acts 18:24 and 25. Let's not have any Aquilla's and Pricilla's among us who took Apollos aside and taught Apollos further so he could go deeper concerning the things of Christ, Acts 18:26.

No Jesus type preachers who on the Emmaus Road taught the disciples the things concerning Him in all the scriptures, Luke 24:27. No. We basically only need to know what we learned in Sunday School as a child. You can say it in different ways, you can say it cleverly. Matter of fact, use alliterative outlines. That's impressive. Teach us about milk with deer hunting stories and bass fishing stories. Get football stars and basketball stars and baseball stars to say it. That makes Jesus look even better. And then throw in a beauty queen. We don't want people to think Jesus is against popularity. Fascinate us with muscle men who can crack blocks of ice over their heads and magicians who can make pretty girls disappear. Get them to say it. Yes, say it in all these ways, but make sure it's still just milk."-Jeff Noblit

Hebrews 5:12-6:2 "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment."

I previously posted a 10 min clip of this sermon here: The Idol Of Glorying in Shallowness-Jeff Noblit.