The Sin of Gluttony — Denny Kenaston

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I've been a little curious sitting in the service this morning. If you'll allow me to be so bold as to ask a couple questions. This morning, I was wondering how many of us went home last Sunday morning and, oh, maybe Sunday evening or Monday or Tuesday, we put some action to the message that we heard about the Word of God.

Applying the Word of God

How many of you have set something in concrete that you're going to do in the next year with the Word of God? Can I see your hands? Keep them up. Keep them up. Amen. God bless you. We responded to that message last week and I believe it was a message from the Lord.

You know, you can miss a message from the Lord if you're not careful and let it just slide right by. But we took that message as a family. We took it as a message from the Lord and we set some real, real nice goals for the next year.

And I set some goals. I have to admit that someone gave me a big, thick book of treasures by Oswald Chambers. And I've been captivated by his writings. And God spoke to my heart last Sunday morning and said, you know, those are good writings.

And he's a good, godly man, but he's not God. And we can easily start reading other things instead of reading God. And I repented of that and set my focus back on the Word of God. Not that I'm not reading the Bible, but just letting other things slowly creep in and take that which only the Word of God should take.

You see, it's only this book that's quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword, which strengthens us with might and gives us direction. And so, I just want to let you know that I heard last week and I wanted to see how many of you heard.

Because it seems like that's how things are flowing this morning. May we be doers of the Word and not hearers only in 2009. Amen. All right, this morning I have a little different message for you. I hope you can handle it.

The Sin of Gluttony

I would like to preach this morning on the subject, the sin of gluttony. That may seem like an odd subject this morning, but I assure you my motive is preventative. And I don't want to heap guilt on your holiday festivities.

That is not my burden this morning, but my burden is preventative. We want to look at a subject which is very clearly in the Bible and it's not one that you hear very often. I don't know how many of you ever heard a sermon on gluttony.

Just a few. Gluttony is a sin. It's clearly revealed in the Word of God. And I think it's one we need to look at, you know. Often times as I visit with people from other congregations, they often tell me, Oh, you're the church that doesn't have any standards.

And I'm not sure how we got that name, but I guess that some people think that we're a church that doesn't have any standards. And I often tell them, Oh, we do. We have standards. We believe in the standards of the Word of God.

In fact, we have more standards than you do. And this is one of them that I always give them. We believe it's wrong to be a glutton. And that stops just about everybody right there. We believe it's wrong to be a glutton.

We believe in soul winning in our church. We believe it's a sin if you don't win souls. We believe in fasting. And I just go down a big long list of things to get their attention and help them to realize that we're not a church that believes that you can just go do what you want.

Come to this church and you can do what you want. We're not that. So, gluttony is a subject that you hear very little about. And most of the time it's a bit of a silent subject among God's people. And I'm sure that we can imagine why it's a silent subject.

Because it's one that God's people wrestle with pretty often. And of course, if you're wrestling with something, it's a little hard to get up and preach about it. It's a little bit like the sin of covetousness.

You don't hear very many sermons on covetousness in Lancaster County either. I'll never forget. It's years ago now that David Allspall had a message on covetousness. I don't know how many of you were there to hear that message.

Just a few. It was in a tent. We had a tent out here. And he was having the messages every evening. And got up and made his announcement of what his message was going to be. And started down through the verses.

One after another after another. It got very quiet in the tent that evening. When brother David Allspall was preaching about the sin of covetousness. Well, you know, that's a little hard to blast that one here in Lancaster County.

Because there's a lot of it around here. I think that gluttony is a bit the same way. Why this message? I'll give you four reasons just as an introduction before we look into the Scriptures. Number one reason for this message is We live in America.

That is a good enough reason if we go no further than that. We live in America. And America is a land of gluttony. Can I hear the amens on that one? We live in a land of gluttony. We are famous in this land.

All the other lands in the world acknowledge that America is the fattest nation on the earth. That means we live in a land of gluttony. So that's a good reason for us to take a good look at it. Second reason.

The Bible gives equal warnings against gluttony. As it does against drunkenness. They're about equal. If you track down through the Scriptures, you will find God warning and damning drunkenness. And you will also find God doing the same with gluttony.

It's not a little issue. It's not something to laugh about. Although many American Christians laugh about it all the time. Thanksgiving afternoon, you know, when they're sitting back in a chair and holding their tummy for all they ate.

It's a thing that everybody laughs about. Seems a little bit like glorying in your shame to do such a thing. So because the Bible gives equal warnings to gluttony, as it does also to drunkenness, I think it's good for us to take a look at it.

Number three. Gluttony will drain your spiritual life right out of you. Little by little, you will undo everything that you did. By coming to church on Sunday morning. By getting up to read your Bible.

By sitting your family down to have devotions together. Little by little through gluttony, you can undo the spiritual life right out of you. And lastly, the influence of gluttony is very subtle. You know, we are a people here, this congregation, we don't believe in drinking.

We stay away from drinking. Nobody goes to their refrigerator and gets out a bottle of beer or a bottle of whiskey or a bottle of wine and sits around and drinks it in the evening. We stay away from that.

But eating is something that we do. All the time. And therefore, it has its subtle way of creeping in and getting a hold of that. Us, and therefore, a bit of a preventative sermon this morning. I remember very well years ago when God began to deal with us, Jackie and I, on this subject of gluttony.

We felt a bit alone. I was thinking about it this morning. It was about 28 years ago that God began to deal with us on this subject. And as we begin to open our hearts, Brother Tim, and hear what the Word of God says on this subject, we didn't find a whole lot of encouragement.

There weren't a lot of other people around saying, Amen, when we brought the subject up for discussion. It was just kind of like, there's something wrong with you. You're a bit weird for even thinking that maybe we're not eating the way that we should.

But I remember as we were meditating upon these things, and God began to deal with us, I remember so clearly, I don't know, maybe it was a week or two before Thanksgiving 28 years ago, we decided we are not going to do Thanksgiving like we've been doing Thanksgiving for many years.

And I mean many years. We decided we're just not going to make as much. And we're just not going to make as many things. And we're just going to work a little bit at this thing so that Thanksgiving doesn't end up being, you know, that painful feeling that you have because you ate and you ate and you ate, and there you sit and you're so full and you wish you hadn't ate so much.

We just decided we're going to work against that. That was 28 years ago. Let me give you a definition of gluttony. It means to be lavish, to swallow greedily. These are pretty powerful words. Please forgive me if you feel uncomfortable this morning, but these are pretty powerful words for us Americans.

I know, you know, there's more restaurants in America than there are any place else in the whole world. I mean, you name it, you can get it, you know. And I think it's good for us to look at a subject like this, even though it may make us feel a little bit uncomfortable.

To be lavish, to swallow greedily. Listen to this definition out of the Bible, and we'll look at the verse later. Riotous eaters of flesh. That's what gluttony is. Riotous eaters of flesh. It means to eat and to drink excessively.

And in simplicity, it simply means overeating. It's letting food become an addiction in my life. Something that controls me, instead of me controlling it. That's gluttony. When food becomes an addiction in my life, and food is controlling me, instead of me controlling food.

That's gluttony. It means eating more than you need. Us Americans are often guilty of that. In Titus chapter 1 and verse 12, Paul, writing to Titus, gives a little, oh, character description of the Cretans that are there on the island.

And he says that they are called slow bellies. Remember that little phrase in the Scriptures? Slow bellies? That word, slow bellies, is also translated in other translations. They are idle gluttons. Idle gluttons.

The Greek word for belly is gaster. I know that these are strong words. And we want to look at a few verses, but I want us to begin with Philippians. If we can turn there, Philippians chapter 3. This is not a hidden subject in the Bible.

The Belly as a God

And it's good for us to look at it. Paul gives some very strong words on this subject in Philippians chapter 3. Now, he doesn't use the word gluttony. But he clearly brings out the principle of gluttony and the sin of it.

As he is describing those who are the enemies of the cross of Christ. Just to remind you that these words that we're going to read in verse 18 and 19, these follow Paul's beautiful words of commitment to Christ.

And how that he has made the rule of his life Christ. And if anything would get in the way of that beautiful relationship, it goes and Christ stays. And so, Paul, flowing in that context, writes these words in verse 18.

For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. They are the enemies of the cross of Christ. Now, that's a serious statement to say that someone is an enemy of the cross of Christ.

But he goes on to describe a little bit of the character of these who are the enemies of the cross of Christ. And he says these words, whose end is destruction. Whoa! Whose end is destruction. What kind of people are these whose end is destruction, who are enemies of the cross of Christ?

He says, whose God is their belly. Whose God is their belly. That word is speaking about gluttony. He's simply saying they are being ruled by their belly. That their belly has control over them instead of God's.

That their belly has taken the place of God in their life. That their belly and the desires of their belly is feeding them, is satisfying them, is consoling them, is comforting them. And they are getting many, many things that only God should be giving them.

And they're getting them through their belly. Whose God is their belly. It's speaking about gluttony, brothers and sisters. And he goes on to say, whose glory is in their shame. You know, and as I read that word, I thought, you know, that is so typical.

Such a beautiful description of America today. And multitudes of those who name the name of Christ would laugh and glory as they stuff themselves on Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day or whenever else it is.

They will sit around and laugh and make jokes about who ate the most and one more piece of pie and one more of this and one more of that. And they glory in their shame. My brothers and sisters, these things ought not so to be among God's people.

Their end is destruction. Whose God is their belly, who glory in their shame and put their mind on earthly things. This is not a little one, is it? Oh, we move on just a little bit, if we can, over to the book of Ecclesiastes.

Eating for Strength Rather Than Pleasure

Such a precious word there. In the book of Ecclesiastes, if you can turn there with me, chapter 10. This is one of those verses which God began to speak to my own heart about this subject many years ago that started grabbing my attention.

In Ecclesiastes chapter 10 and verse 16 and 17 says these words, Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child and thy princes eat in the morning or indulge themselves in a banquet in the morning. Verse 17, Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles and thy princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness.

Now, that's a very interesting use of words there. There's a few insights there. I want you to notice, first of all, that the word drunkenness is used in the framework of eating. You can get drunk on eating.

Now, it's not drunk in the same way that you can get drunk on alcohol. But there is a dulling, there is a silliness, there is a dulling effect that comes over the heart and the life of one who eats for pleasure instead of for strength.

In other words, my motivation is to eat, not for strength because I need strength to live and walk and serve God and all that, but I'm eating for pleasure. That eating for pleasure is called drunkenness.

Right here in this verse. We can see from this verse that there is a proper place given for food. It's not that God doesn't want us to eat. It's not that God doesn't want us to enjoy eating. We should enjoy the things which God has freely given to us.

But God puts food in its proper place. We are to eat to live, not live to eat. And there's a far gap between the two of those. The one, we simply look at life and say we need to eat because we need to have the strength in order to be able to work and care for our families and do God's will and do God's work.

We need to eat in order to live. But if you turn that thing around and all of a sudden your belly is becoming your God, then you will find yourself living to eat. And you'll be finishing your meal and wondering what's for the next meal.

This is not good, brothers and sisters. To eat for strength is the will of God. To eat just for pleasure's sake is drunkenness according to what I see in the Scriptures. And it doesn't have a good effect upon us.

Some years ago, I don't know, maybe three or four, I was in Shady Maple. In an afternoon, my wife and I went for a date on a Tuesday afternoon, I believe it was, and we were sitting in Shady Maple. And you know what Shady Maple is.

And you know there are people who go to Shady Maple for one thing and one thing only. And I would say that if you have those tendencies in your life, you do not belong in Shady Maple. But we were there, Jackie and I, having a little bite together, sitting and chatting after our meal.

And a man came on the scene there in front of us. Must have been about a 400 pound man. Very, very big man. And he had three plates of food that he set out on his table. And then he quickly went over and drew himself three different kinds of drink.

You know, one of this and one of this and one of this. And he brought his three glasses and he set the three glasses on the table. And he had his three plates sitting there on the table. And he pulled himself up to the chair and he got his napkin and stuck it in his shirt like this.

And he grabbed his knife and he grabbed his fork and he went at it. Just like that. I literally lost my appetite as I watched that man sin and sin and sin and sin. And he ate, how did he say? He swallowed greedily and ate plate after plate of food.

Now I know, I don't think there's anybody in this room that would eat plate after plate after plate of food. And I thank God for that. As I said again, this is preventative. But the fact of the matter is that you can get addicted to food to such a place.

Like that man there, he was a prisoner inside of his body. A total prisoner. Food was his God. I want to challenge your thinking this morning. I don't believe that you can live like that and go to heaven.

Do you believe that? You cannot live like that and go to heaven. Turn with me to Proverbs, chapter 23. Some very staggering verses here in chapter 23. God gives a warning to the man or the woman who's given to appetite.

In other words, your appetite has a hold of you. You know, not given to much wine. Here we're talking about being given to appetite. In other words, I have no control over my appetite. My appetite has got me.

And here's the warning that is given in chapter 23 and verse 1. When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee, and put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.

Be not desirous of his dainties, for they are deceitful meat. Now, the context there, I'm not going to read the rest of the verses, but the context there is that of an influential man who is trying to deceive and trick somebody, and he uses food to get him.

We call it today, whining and dining. He's whining and dining, this man, because he has an ulterior motive. And that's not our point this morning, but the point that God is saying here is, if you are a man given to appetite, it would be better for you to put a knife to your throat than to sit down at a table like that, where someone is going to lay before you and tantalize before you all of his dainties.

You're going to give yourself over to it, and he will get you and deceive you and get what he wants out of you. Better to put a knife to your throat. Strong words. That's like plucking out your eye or cutting off your hand.

It's better to put a knife to your throat, if you're a man or a woman given to appetite, than to be drawn in by the tricks and the deceitfulness of one who is whining and dining you. Proverbs 23, again, verse 19.

Hear these words. And again, Timothy, God says here, in verse 19. Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way. Be not among wine-bibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh. For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

Pretty graphic words, isn't it? Again, we can see that whether it's gluttony or whether it's drunkenness, it's going to bring you to drowsiness. It's going to bring dullness over you. It's going to bring laziness into you.

And according to God's Word here, the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty. It seems to me that what God is saying there is, if we allow our appetites to get out of control, those appetites begin to control us, and we begin to go down, we get dull, we get lazy, we don't feel like working, and on and on it can go.

But I also want us to notice here, brothers and sisters, that the drunkard and the glutton are put in the same verse. God does that. That's not the only place in the Scriptures where you will find that.

That God takes the two of those and puts them together. And the reason why that's important to us is because we already have a conscience about drunkenness. Our hearts would say, No! I don't even want to touch those things!

I will not allow my body to be controlled with drink! But yet, here we are, living in America, in a gluttonous land. And I wonder if sometimes we aren't slowly being taken over by that same spirit of pleasure and desire, though we will not drink.

It's coming through food. Danger! Danger! I think it's also good for us to note, looking at a verse like this, that we should be a little careful where we eat and when we eat. Did you get that? Where we eat and when we eat.

You know, you can go to a restaurant at the wrong time of the day and you'll be sitting down right in the middle of all kinds of people that are drinking and carrying on and you'll be eating and they'll be over there and this table is full and they're over there having a good old time and there you sit having a meal.

Be not among winebibbers and among riotous eaters of flesh, the Bible says. Maybe that's not a place for us as God's people. There are places where you can go and have a nice little meal where you don't have to sit down in the midst of all the drunkenness and all of the overeating and all those things.

God warns us in verses like this. Turn with me now to Numbers 11. Very sad story over here in Numbers 11, which was written for our learning, for our learning, upon whom the end of the world has come.

Israel's Lust for Meat in the Wilderness

In Numbers chapter 11, verse 4, we find these sad words. And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a-lusting, or fell into lusting. And the children of Israel also wept again and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?

You've got to picture the scene here. Who's going to give us some flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely. And the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic.

Oh, we remember the nice tasty food that we had in Egypt. And all the flesh that we had freely there to eat. We remember that. Who's going to give us flesh? They said. But now our soul is dried away. Our soul is dried away.

Are you sure? Our soul is dried away. There is nothing at all besides this manna before our eyes. And the manna was as coriander seed, and the color thereof as the color of bendalum. And the people went about and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it.

And the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil. Now God put that in there. See? Just to let us know that what they are now looking at and abhorring is not some bad tasting food. This is prime meat!

In fact, the Bible calls it angel's food. They did eat angel's food. But they got to looking and remembering what it was like, and the flesh that they had in Egypt. And they began to complain to the Lord.

And Moses heard the people weep. I'm sorry. And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it. Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families. Every man in the door of his tent in the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly.

Moses also was displeased. Flip over now to verse 31. God is going to give them what they want. You know, God does that sometimes. He gives us what we want. God help us when God gives us what we want, when we want something that we don't need.

May God help us. But in verse 31, we see God giving them what they want. And there went forth a wind from the Lord and brought quails from the sea and let them fall by the camp as it were a day's journey on this side and as it were a day's journey on the other side.

That's a lot of meat. A day's journey this way and that way. Meat everywhere. Round about the camp and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth. Now that's a lot of meat! And the people stood up all that day and all that night and all the next day.

Look what they're doing. And gathered the quail. He that gathered least gathered ten homers. And they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp. And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, e 'er it was chewed.

Another place in the Scriptures it says they ate it raw. Their lust for flesh had gotten so bad that they ate it raw. They didn't even stop to cook it. While the flesh was yet between their teeth, e 'er it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people and the Lord smote the people with a great, very great plague.

And He called the name of that place Kibrath Hathava because there they buried the people that lusted. And Kibrath Hathava means, let's see, where is it? The graves of lust. That's what they named the place.

These are the graves. This is the cemetery where all the people who lusted died. This is a very sad picture of what lust can do. And I want you to note here that it was lust for food that they were after.

And lust for meat. And I'm not against eating meat. Don't misunderstand me this morning. But I think it's good for us to acknowledge or at least to know that the rest of the world only gets meat once a week.

We can have it two or three times a day if you want it. But do you need that much meat? I'm not sure. I'm not sure you do. Reading Tozer a little bit yesterday, he said these words about evangelical Christianity sixty years ago, which I wonder what he would say today.

But he said these words about evangelical Christianity sixty years ago. He said, the church has followed the example of the children of Israel. The people began eating and drinking and they rose up to play.

That's what Tozer said sixty years ago as he looked at the evangelical church and recognized that this whole matter of eating and gluttony and more eating and church socials and all those things were just getting a hold of the people of God.

Fullness, Prosperity, and Forgetting God

All through the book of Deuteronomy, God warns His people repeatedly. He says these words, when you come into that prosperous land called the land of Canaan, beware! Beware! When you get full, beware lest you forget God.

And it seems to me as I look at the context of all of those warnings, it's like God is saying, if you are always full, you will have a tendency to forget God. Am I wrong in making those two connections?

If you are always full, you will have a tendency to forget God. Ezekiel, turn there. We are not covering all the verses, but I just want to go through a few and we can take a look at them and hear what God would say to our own hearts.

In Ezekiel chapter 16, God is complaining to Israel because He has done so much for her. He has cared for her abundantly and she has taken that abundance and consumed it upon herself. And in doing that, she has forgotten God.

God warns and admonishes in chapter 16 and verse 49 with these words, Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom. Whoa! Thy sister Sodom? Yes. That's how far you have fallen. What was the iniquity?

Pride. Fullness of bread and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy. And they were haughty and committed abominations before me.

Therefore, I took them away as I saw good. And what God is saying here is, He's just pulling back the history veil a little bit and helping us to see what brought Sodom to the place where He had to destroy it and what had also brought Israel to the place that He was having to say, I cannot have you anymore.

I'm sending you away to Babylon. And fullness of bread was right there in the middle of it. Right in the middle of it. He uses the word iniquity. Interesting word. Iniquity is right and good, perverted and twisted by our flesh.

You see, there's nothing wrong with eating. God has put within us as human beings a desire to eat. And He's put taste buds in our mouths that we might enjoy the food, which would also encourage us to come back and eat again.

God wants us to eat. We need to eat in order to have strength, in order to work, in order to serve God. But, we can take that natural desire which God has put in there and twist that thing out of the desires of our flesh and all of a sudden that which is something beautiful, something good and right, something that God gave to us turns into something that has gotten control of us.

We are no longer controlling it, but it is controlling us. And this is a danger. In Luke 21, we find these words of warning in chapter 21, toward the end of the chapter there, I believe. And this is in the context of the second coming of Christ.

This is in the context of what it's going to be like in the last of the last days before the Lord Jesus Christ comes back. This is the context. Verse 33 of chapter 21 of Luke. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.

Watch ye therefore, and pray always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man. Oh, that's beautiful! There's some glorious promises in there that we can escape those things, that we can be counted worthy, that we can have the blessed privilege of standing before the Son of Man, but it is given in the context of a warning to us.

And the warning is a danger sign that your heart can be overcharged with eating and drinking, gluttony and drinking, to the point where that day comes upon you unaware, unaware. In fact, in Matthew, Jesus said it this way in Matthew.

He said, it will be like in the days of Noah. And what does He describe the days of Noah as? They were eating and drinking. Now, there's nothing wrong with eating and there's nothing wrong with drinking.

But if we are so caught up in our eating and our drinking that our heart is overcharged or burdened down or drugged down that we're not aware of what's going on around us, that we do not sense the signs of the times that we live in, and we're just eating and drinking and rising up to play and living it up and having a nice day, and all the while, destruction may not be very far away.

The warnings are given to us. Eating and drinking can drain the spiritual life right out of you. How many would say amen? You know that by your own experiences. Yes, it can. And we don't want that. Romans 13 says it this way.

Beautiful little portion of Scripture there in chapter 13. Verse 12. Listen to what God says. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light.

Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envy, but instead put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.

Now that's talking about more than eating, but it is talking about eating. Amen? Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in the last of the last days. The night is far spent. Be careful what you do and what you allow your flesh to do is what He's saying.

Fleshly Lusts and Spiritual Sobriety

1 Peter 2 .11. Just a kind and a loving word from an old preacher named Peter. Dearly beloved, I beseech you, Peter says, as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.