Our scripture reading tonight is from Paul's letter to the Philippians. I invite you to turn to Philippians chapter 3. We'll begin reading at verse 17 of Philippians chapter 3, reading the verse 1 of chapter 4. Philippians chapter 3, starting at verse 17. Join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many of whom I have often have told you and now tell you even with tears walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their God is their belly and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord My beloved, God's holy word to us, may he bless his word to us, and may we attend the word he gives to us even tonight. Well, we make it as it was asked, what number are we on? It's the sixth one in the list of the seven deadlies, the deadly sin of gluttony. the medieval's distinguished five gluttonous errors. So before you think this is the little chubby puppy of a sin or that gluttony is about chubbiness, it can be about that, certainly gross obesity. But the medievals reminded us of five gluttonous errors. Eating too soon, too expensively, too much, too eagerly, and with too much fuss. You might be benefited to remember that though in our age the poor are often overweight and obese. In former ages, the poor were gaunt and scrawny and more like runway models in a former age. And if you've seen Rubens' paintings of Renaissance, you know, the beauty of women was to be plump. So people could be gluttonous and scrawny. In fact, if you think of the context of the medieval monks, they weren't portly people. They had a very disciplined diet and it was very easy to covet and so desire Brother Andrew's slice of bread. So gluttony is not about hogs and being a hog and being fat. It can be about that, and sometimes it is, certainly. But when Paul talks about those who are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose citizenship isn't in heaven, when he gets around to talking about the enemies the gospel faces, he has characteristics of them. First, their end is destruction. Yes, their God is their belly. Their glory is their shame. Their minds are set on worldly things. We're of the world. We're of the dirt. We're of the dust. We are formed. We return to dust when we die. We need food. We need sustenance. We need food and drink. We need daily bread. But like all the deadly sins, we get things out of focus. It's an inordinate, not ordinary, inordinate love for food and drink, for being satiated, turning to food, to drink, to fill up holes that only God can fill. Food and drink are wonderful gifts of God. The Lord's supper is food and drink. Jesus is the bread of life. We need to eat of him. So it's not that food and drink are bad, of course, but it's this getting it out of focus, out of shape, out of priority. Yes, sometimes too soon, eating too expensively, too much, too eagerly, too much fuss. In fact, in our culture, if there's those who eat way too much, there's also those who eat oh so very finicky. All the fuss about it. They care just as much as the glutton who eats too much. They got food out of focus. Now, we want to look at the deadly sin of gluttony. which has to do with inordinate satiation of bodily appetite or the discipline, the so very disciplined intake of food and drink that brings another benefit that is so important to us, that it can be a god we serve and bow down to too. Out of focus. What will make me happy? And then what happens is, if the deadly sin of gluttony is serving yourself to meet these needs and these desires, what's the remedy? Well, from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' beatitudes were called to suffer. Just the opposite of satisfying ourselves, but to suffer for righteousness' sake, for Jesus' sake, for his name's sake. A very different life, isn't it? That's a soul life, a different priority in life. Now to look at this, we're just simply gonna look what this sin of gluttony is and then explore that, this belly god. as it's described in Philippians here. And then at its remedy, this call to suffer. And that one is like just out of orbit with modern American Christianity. Blessed are those who suffer for righteousness' sake. What? This is the good life? This is kingdom living to suffer because of Jesus? He says you're blessed. There's a happiness, there's an embrace of God, you're in fellowship with him, suffering for his sake. Now, to start here, I wanna go all the way back to the first book of the Bible. Because in the first book of the Bible, we're introduced to Adam and Eve in one way, one avenue, a key one that the devil went after to trip up God's image bearers in Eden was to refute God's word to them. Of course, with the knowledge of good and evil, they could eat all the trees of the garden, but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was forbidden to them. This was something of a test commandment, a commandment of life, a commandment to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. Not to follow your appetites in your belly on a whim. What does God say? To live out of the word of God. And what do we learn? The tree was good for food. The fruit was a delight to the eyes. And eating of it said the tempter, you'll be like God, you'll be wise. Well, that sounds like a good deal. Good food, beautiful, delicious looking, and we'll be wise. But that's not living out of trusting God's word, living in faith in what God says. That's not living in dependence upon God. That's not knowing that you're already like God as his image bearer on God's terms. That's how he made us. You're already like God, Adam and Eve. You don't need to know, like God, sin and evil. You just need to know God and walk with him. So the first sin is certainly pride, stepping out of line. It's certainly a kind of covetousness, but it's also a kind of gluttony. I want what I want. I want to satiate myself with what is good for food and a delight for the eyes and will benefit me. People do this all the time. There is the horrible gluttony of overeating. I don't know if any of you ever make it to Iowa, but in Iowa there's a pizza chain called Pizza Ranch. Ooh, is that a place to go eat pizza, especially in Iowa. It's not Chicago, but okay. But you go to Pizza Ranch, they serve a lot more than pizza. They serve fried chicken and macaroni and cheese. and mashed potatoes and gravy. And this and that and the other. And I once saw, beheld, now this is the sin of gluttony and the excess. There was two very, very, very overweight people, husband and wife it looked like. And they literally both had two plates stacked with potatoes and cheese and pizza and chicken and everything you could think of. Honestly, they each had two plates, like this, at lunchtime. And it was pathetic. It was broken. There was, something's really eating you. Something is really broken inside and all those calories and all those carbs and all that filling the stomach full is not going to satiate and make well or happy or content or joyful. We look about and we see all kinds of a-holics, right? Work a-holics, alcoholics, sex a-holics, drug a-holics, food a-holics. There's that sort of person. Exercise a-holics. Everything's out of whack. Life isn't ordered. God isn't first. No, there's There's sex gods, that's lust, but there's belly gods. There's fitness gods. There's people who do not walk after the imitation of the apostle, and those join in imitating me. Keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you see in us. Many I've told you this, says Paul. I even mention it with tears, perhaps tears of the damage and opposition they do to the church, perhaps tears on behalf of them that they're so lost and astray. But many walk as enemies of the cross, the answer, the way, the solution, the hope, the victory. We probably know people that stand opposed to the cross, to the gospel, the very truth that would set them free, they set themselves against. Yeah, we can remember loved ones like that with tears. And their end is destruction. Their God is their belly, their glory is their shame. Boy, don't we live in a world in which people glory in their shame. They're so proud, they'll stand up boldly in their shame. Minds set on earthly things. This life now. Maximize, you know, like the old, old Schlitz beer commercial. You only go around once in life, you gotta grab all the gusto you can get. best life, spend, enjoy, eat, explore, adventure, fun, what God, what Jesus, what cross, I'll find it on my own. Why they serve a belly God. Now in our culture, as I just described, some people who are poor and worldly and priceless turn to food as remedy, as help, as a kind of drug, a high, a momentary feeling good, some endorphins sent to a place in the brain to pump you up. But others are fixated with image, Touch not. Taste not. Taste not. Touch not. And they shrivel. And they shrink, or they binge, and then throw up what they've binged. Anorexic. Bulimic. Yeah, that's inordinate. understanding of self, your identity in Christ, citizenship in heaven, the promised transformation of body, the one who can make every knee bow and will. We've gotten things all out of warp. I must have heaven now on earth absent Jesus. It will never happen. The sin of gluttony is Adam's sin, it's Israel's sin, and if you'll remember, the devil tried to make it Jesus' sin. We already see in Eden in the garden how God used food and made it, turned it a natural, a proper appetite, we need food, you have to breathe, you can't go without food. But it gets, it has second place to God. And then the devil, Israel, there she is wandering in the wilderness, dependent on God. And she had to learn to depend upon God through the manna. As she cursed God and He allowed the quail to come, He made that meat rot between their teeth. You don't live by bread alone. You live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. You pray to Him for daily bread. You don't live for daily bread. And then there you have, as Israel had to learn through the manna, that question word, manu, what's this? Bread from God. And only for the Lord's Day could they take a ration for the next day, for the Sabbath day. They had to learn to live by the word of God, and now Jesus in the wilderness, 40 days, 40 nights, as Israel was 40 years in the wilderness, there He is, He's hungry. He needs daily bread. He's fasted all this time, and the devil comes, if you're the Son of God, and it's an if clause that means, and of course you are. Turn these stones into bread. You need that. Live by the belly, God. Live by your appetites. Live by your needs. Live by your desires. God will understand. Chase your own happiness and desires. And how does Jesus answer? He quotes scripture. Man doesn't live by bread alone. You don't live by eating too soon with too much fuss and too much concern and too much expense and too much eagerness. Man lives by what God tells him. It's a hard lesson to learn. The devil thought maybe I can get the second Adam to trip like I got the first one to, but Jesus doesn't follow his appetites. He follows what God tells him. Some people do not have a glandular problem or some sort of caloric intake problem. But they can still have a gluttony problem. Living to satisfy myself. Disciplining myself to make myself into what gives me happiness. And that too can become then inordinate, out of place. The Philippian opponents here, one of their Marx is, their God is their stomach. I suppose we live in a whole culture in which the God is the stomach. Eating out, eating expensively, eating fast, eating conveniently, fixating on what we're going to eat, wondering the day revolving around a supper time, not because it's a special occasion, that's just how you live. Or the very strict discipline, not this, or the very strict discipline of the best, the best shopping center, the best groceries, the healthiest, the this, just this much, thus this type, just this, just this, just this. That's gluttony too. As if, if you can just do it right enough, well enough, correct enough, you'll be happy. And meanwhile, the world starves for the bread of life. And there's Christians who starve for the bread of life. Their priorities get out of whack. Some Christians want the ascetic life versus the athetic life. Aesthetic versus ascetic. The one is, you know, rooted in a Greek word about training and discipline and exercise and rigor. And, you know, getting your, it's taste not, touch not, not that. Almost party poopers. Everyone's having a little ice cream. Oh no, no, no. No cake for me. Okay. Well, if it's really bad for you, I mean, you're gonna die from it, you know. Once a year. I guess you're holier than Jesus. But other people live for good taste, aesthetic. That pertains to the senses, to beauty, to the arts, living for pleasure. You know, you can have both types, chasing all the high things of life, including the best food to eat, or chasing nothing, restraining everything, discipline no to everything. Neither of those is the Christian life. Now, you could join John the Baptist in the wilderness and eat bugs and, you know, live this austere life. They called him a nut. Or you could join Jesus and go to parties and drink wine and enjoy food, and they called him a glutton and a drunk. Or you can keep food in its place. It is part of celebration. Glory is a banquet, a party. It's a feast. but it's not an inordinate looking to the food, but the food is the occasion to celebrate a salvation. And that's why we give thanks and pray for daily bread, because we need it. That the devil ever would invite us to a taste-notch, a rigid, wacky Christianity, or an indulgent, whether it's the excessive intake or the excessive, it just has to be the best. He wants to get us off the path that God is our God and get us onto the path of a belly God. Worldliness. We usually think of worldliness as watching bad movies and having affairs. But worldliness can be centered around what you put in your mouth. The deadly sin of gluttony. Now the answer to it, oddly, is if this is to make me happy and it's all about me and my stomach and my joy and my body and my fitness or my being satiated with numbing the pain in my life through food, whatever it is. It's about me and myself and my joy. And the gospel calls us to suffer. for righteousness sake. You can suffer for all kinds of unrighteous reasons. You can do unrighteous things and you'll suffer. You can have an affair and some husband wants to beat you up or shoot you. You can lose a job because you're a thief. You can suffer for all kinds of sins. You can go to jail. All kinds of things, we suffer with the things that come out of our mouth, words that are spoken carelessly, and it gets back, and it's hurt people, and now they give us their opinion strongly, and yeah, you suffer for a lot of your sins, but we're called to suffer for righteousness' sake, and as Jesus further explains that, you suffer for Him. This is nowhere in the orbit of modern American Christianity, certainly not any of the TV celebrity sort of preaching you hear. When's the last time you turn on the television and you have a preacher who's gonna explain, you know, if you're not suffering for righteousness' sake, maybe you're not chasing righteousness. Suffering doesn't say, chase my happiness. It says, follow Jesus. Taking up a cross didn't mean your mother-in-law's difficult. And some are, I suppose. Or your father-in-law. Or your sister. Taking up a cross is going to a death. Yours! That's what people were doing in the first century when they took a cross. They were going to their crucifixion. You're dying to your sin in yourself and you're offering your life. You first deny yourself in order to take up the cross to start with. Self-denial, this chief model of Christian living. Calvin is very good on this. You deny yourself, and now it's not about myself. You deny yourself and it's about other selves. You deny yourself and it's about lost selves. You deny yourself and it's about the glory of God. You deny yourself and it's not being fixated for food to heal your soul. And many of us have gotten food wrong. We get into food habits where we think this little bounce I get from this kind of intake or use of food, it's kind of a crutch. It's kind of a, it's almost like a little drug. It gives us a boost. But it can't do the job. Neither can a spouse. A love life, you can be lonely and want, but that's ordinary. But inordinate, my spouse has to meet my every need. Your spouse can't do that. Your spouse isn't God. You're designed for him. Augustine said, our souls are restless till they find rest in Thee, O Lord. But you could also say our souls are empty until they're filled by Thee, O Lord. We're lonely, our souls are lonely till they're befriended and made whole by You, O Lord. Our lives are broken and aching until they're soothed and comforted by You, O Lord. Our stomachs ache, our physical appetites, including eating. Will this satiate? Will this fill the gap? Will this make me happy? None of it will. You don't live by what you put in your mouth. You don't live by bread alone. You live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. That's life. It's not about toys. It's not about adventures. Jesus didn't venture very far in the little territory of Palestine. He lived a full life. He was filled full in doing his father's will. Remember what he said? How he had food to eat that his disciples didn't know about as he witnessed to the woman at the well. Man, you need to eat. I got other kind of bread you don't understand. But we need to understand. And all of that takes faith, doesn't it? To trust God that what he says is right. That I really don't have to chase calories or grape. dining experiences. I don't have to withhold myself from food and starve myself or vomit upon losing control or just indulge and bulge and bulge and indulge. I need to turn to Jesus afresh. I need to really trust that he is the way and the truth and the life and he fills me full. He loves us. I think most people don't believe that. They know it's true. I mean, they know the words. But so many Christians live life as if God doesn't really love them. And he does. And maybe if we would learn to meditate, even with life's brokenness, that he's with us when we're broken, hurting. Loves us when we fail. Maybe in the food department. The greed department. The sloth department. The envy department. The anger department. The pride department. The lust department. Failed again. I know. I died for you. I want you. I love you. Believe that. And then maybe, rather than... What it would mean is, not that we stop being their friend, but when we're... We'll live by His word. Also a word of assurance. A word of pardon. A word of forgiveness. A word of embrace. Be filled full with that. Amen. Lord, teach us this. Whereas some of us, perhaps that's not the sin that's closest to our hearts or breaks us. For many of us, it is a sin that is on our list, that puts us out of the ordinary in the way we should desire daily bread. Forgive us for Jesus' sake and assure us of your love and goodness toward us. All in Jesus' name we pray, amen.