{"id":18210,"date":"2016-01-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-31T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/2-timothy-020-the-last-days-apostasy-of-the-church\/"},"modified":"2024-09-12T14:19:40","modified_gmt":"2024-09-12T19:19:40","slug":"2-timothy-020-the-last-days-apostasy-of-the-church","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/2-timothy-020-the-last-days-apostasy-of-the-church\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Timothy 020 – The Last Days Apostasy of the Church"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[100],"series_event":[454],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18210","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-2-timothy","series_event-2-timothy","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"2 Timothy 020 - The Last Days Apostasy of the Church","sermon_date":"20160131","sermon_month":"01","sermon_year":"2016","sermon_notes":3354,"sermon_slides":3366,"sermon_mp3":3369,"sermon_id":"131161043331","series_or_event":454,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":100,"chapter_and_verse":"3:1","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\r\nThe Last Days Apostasy of the Church\r\n1-31-16 2 Timothy 3:1 Lesson 20\r\n\r\nIf we could take our Bibles and open them to the book of 2 Timothy, chapter 3, and verse 1. The title of our message this morning is The Last Days Apostasy of the Church. If you\u2019re here with us for the very first time we have been moving verse by verse through the book of 2 Timothy, and really beginning in chapter 3 as Paul writes to Timothy he begins to warn him about something that would come at some point in time called the apostasy of the church. And he explains to Timothy how he is to conduct himself in the midst of this coming apostasy. He doesn\u2019t tell him that you can change the reality of the apostasy, the apostasy is coming, but he does tell him once it comes here\u2019s what you are to do as a man of God.\r\n\r\nNow most Christians, when you hear this word apostasy they don\u2019t even really know what you\u2019re talking about. There\u2019s such little teaching in the body of Christ on this topic of apostasy. So to sort of prepare the way, if you will, set the table for things that are coming in the book of 2 Timothy I am going to give you today a topical study on the subject of the apostasy. We\u2019re going to define what the apostasy is and I\u2019m going to be giving you characteristics of the apostasy. And once we have that background then we\u2019ll be really prepared to navigate our way through the last two chapters of the book.\r\n\r\nBut let\u2019s start with some definitions. We throw this word \u201capostasy\u201d around, what exactly are we talking about. The English word translated from the Greek, apostasy, comes from two Greek words. In other words, apostasy is a compound word; a compound word means two words combined into one. It comes from, first of all, the Greek word apos, which is a preposition; apos in Greek means away from. And then apostasy also comes from the verb hist\u0113mi, hist\u0113mi means to stand. So those are the two words that form the word \u201capostasy\u201d so literally when we talk about apostasy what we\u2019re literally talking about is a word that means to stand away from.\r\n\r\nSo we can define apostasy this way: apostasy is a departure from known truth. In other words, at one point in time there was once truth that was acknowledged, there was truth that was embraced, there was truth that was universally accepted, and now there has been an apostasy which is a departure from truth once acknowledged as truth. Apostasy therefore means to stand away from, or better said, a departure from known truth.\r\n\r\nNow most people when you begin to broach this subject of apostasy they start looking around at the world. Yeah, the world out there is pretty bad is what they say, and I agree with them. And guess what? It\u2019s always been bad. So the concept of the apostasy is not talking about conditions in the world; the world has no truth to depart from. When we talk about apostasy we\u2019re not talking about whether the economy is up or down, we\u2019re not talking about whether the stock market is doing well, we\u2019re not talking about which party controls the White House, those kinds of issues that are out there in the world.\r\n\r\nWhat we are talking about is the temperature and the thermometer inside the church. This is a pastoral letter; Timothy is a pastor. Paul warns Timothy of a coming apostasy within the ranks of Christendom or Christianity, or the church. So to help us grow in our understanding of apostasy what I\u2019d like to share with you this morning are ten characteristics of apostasy. And I think once we understand these ten characteristics we\u2019ll have a better handle on what Paul is going to tell Timothy to do in the remaining chapters of the book. So here are the ten characteristics that we\u2019re going to move through very quickly this morning. .\r\n\r\nCharacteristic number 1, apostasy as we have defined it is a sign of the last days; it\u2019s a sign of the end times. Now most people when you talk about signs of the end times usually what their mind goes to is yeah, we\u2019re getting close to the end, look at the Jews that have been regathered in unbelief in the land of Israel, look at the trend in our society towards a one-world government, look at the microchip technology setting the stage for the mark of the beast, those kind of subjects.\r\n\r\nBut you see, those are subjects related to God\u2019s end time program with Israel, which by the way must be drawing very close if all those signs are starting to materialize. Apostasy is something different; it is a specific sign not related to Israel after the church has been removed from the earth through the rapture, but it is a sign related to the church itself. Apostasy is a sign that God is getting ready to wrap up His program with the church.\r\n\r\nApostasy is not something that prophetically the stage is being set for; apostasy when rightly understood is a prophetic sign that is happening right now. And that\u2019s why I had you turn to 2 Timothy 3:1. You know someone gets ready to die the most important things they are going to talk about usually come out of their mouth. Even our legal system many times gives greater credence to what people say on their death bed, assuming they\u2019re not senile or something like that, because when you\u2019re ready to die you\u2019re getting very, very serious about things.\r\n\r\nAs we have studied in the book of 2 Timothy, Paul is getting ready to die. In fact, remember 2 Timothy 4:6, Paul says, \u201cFor I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come.\u201d So this man is ready to die, he knows he\u2019s ready to die, and what does the man talk about when he\u2019s ready to die? What\u2019s most important to him. What was most important to Paul is predictions of the coming apostasy and consequently Paul tells Timothy, in 2 Timothy 3:1, \u201cBut know this, that in the last days perilous times will come.\u201d\r\n\r\nWell, what\u2019s going to happen Paul? Drop down to verse 13, \u201cevil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.\u201d Timothy, as the church age is getting ready to wrap up don\u2019t look for it going out on a note of optimism. Don\u2019t look for the church going out on a blaze of glory. Don\u2019t look for the church succeeding in establishing the kingdom of God on the earth. What you look for is the life of the church deteriorating, morally and doctrinally.\r\n\r\nNow in the world of science we have something called the second law of thermal dynamics. The second law of thermal dynamics simply states when things are left to themselves they proceed from order to chaos. And if you want to test this out sometime don\u2019t wash your car for a month, don\u2019t clean your house for a month. You\u2019re not going to find things more ordered when you return. And this, by the way, is one of the reasons evolution cannot be true because when you think about it, the theory of evolution is saying the exact opposite.\r\n\r\nSo things if left to themselves will begin to unravel. And this principle is not only true in the physical realm and the scientific realm, it\u2019s true in the moral realm, it\u2019s true in the spiritual realm. The church, unless God re-energizes things by sending a refreshing revival, which He can do and has done sporadically in history, unless God does that the age of the church will be marked by a progressive deterioration in the church.\r\n\r\nNow hold your place here in 2 Timothy and go over, if you could, to Matthew 3:2, I want to show you one other place where this prediction of apostasy is found. If you understand the outline of the book of Matthew you know that the kingdom was offered on a silver platter to first century Israel. It\u2019s bound up in the expression used by John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, and the twelve apostles, and the seventy: \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.\u201d\r\n\r\nThat was an offer given only to Israel in the first century and you\u2019ll see proof of that if you study Matthew 10:5-7 where Jesus says do not go to the way of the Gentiles, do not go to the way of the Samaritans, go only as you preach this offer to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. [Matthew 10:5-7, \u201cDo not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; [6] but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. [7] \u201cAnd as you go, preach, saying, \u2018The kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u2019 [8]\u201cHeal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.\u201d]\r\n\r\nWell, we know how that story ended for first century Israel; we know that first century Israel rejected Jesus. In fact, the turning point in Matthew\u2019s Gospel is Matthew 12:24 where the religious leaders attributed Christ\u2019s miracles to Satan. [Matthew 12:24, \u201cBut when the Pharisees heard this, they said, \u2018This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.\u2019\u201d] Once that happens it\u2019s very apparent that Israel is not going to receive the long-awaited kingdom; that offer is going to be postponed for a distant generation of Jews.\r\n\r\nAnd since that is a reality, what Jesus begins to do in Matthew 13 is he begins to describe what is going to happen in the interim age, this brand new period of time, that has never been disclosed thus far in the pages of the Old Testament. Now that the kingdom is in postponement what is going to happen during this time period when the kingdom is in abeyance? And Jesus fills this teaching out through thirteen parables; by my count there are eight parables here in totality.\r\n\r\nThe first parable is the parable of the sower, and I\u2019m just going to give you a very quick interpretation of each. The parable of the sower, Matthew 13, teaches the gospel during this interim age, while the kingdom is absent, will be preached faithfully but with different results depending upon the preparation of the soil (or the human heart) in advance. And as I\u2019m understanding that parable only one soil becomes productive. So Jesus is saying don\u2019t look for a mass Christianization of the world; some will get saved, many will not.\r\n\r\nAnd then you have the second parable, the parable of the wheat and the tares where both are allowed to grow up together and they\u2019re not separated until the end of the age. And what that parable means is during this interim age, while the kingdom of God is in postponement, it\u2019s going to be difficult to distinguish between the saved and the unsaved within professing Christendom. Of course, the apostle that fits that bill is Judas, nobody suspected that Judas was not a true believer and yet he wasn\u2019t.\r\n\r\nAnd then you have this third parable, the parable of the mustard seed, which was the smallest seed of that time, and what is going to happen is that seed is going to sprout a giant tree which will grow up and fill the whole earth. That parable simply means Christendom will experience great numerical and geographical expansion from a humble beginning. And that is exactly what has happened over the last 2,000 years. The church started with these disciples huddled together in the Upper Room in Israel and over the course of time the church has grown throughout the entire earth.\r\n\r\nBut then we come to a fourth parable land this is the most significant one in terms of the apostasy where Jesus talks about yeast working its way through the dough. Now people look at yeast going through the dough and they say that\u2019s a good thing, that\u2019s a happy thing. May I beg to differ; when you study yeast in the Bible it\u2019s always used of something negative. In fact, in Matthew 16, the very same book, Jesus tells the disciples to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees.\u201d [Matthew 16:6, \u201cAnd Jesus said to them, \u2018Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.\u201d] So the yeast going through the dough is this: Christendom will experience internal corruption to greater and greater degrees as the church age comes to a conclusion.\r\n\r\nThen just to kind of round off our knowledge you have another parable, the parable of the hidden treasure. The hidden treasure is the nation of Israel; God calls Israel His special treasure in Exodus 19 and here this treasure is hidden. And what that parable means is Israel will remain in unbelief throughout this age only to be converted at the end of the age. It\u2019s not saying that an individual Jew can\u2019t get saved today, what it\u2019s saying is the bulk of the nation will stay in unbelief throughout this age. And that\u2019s what we see, isn\u2019t it. You look around the room, we have in this room very few Hebrew Christians. There are some, but they are in the minority. The majority of people that get saved are the Gentiles in this age.\r\n\r\nAnd then there\u2019s something called \u201cthe pearl of great price,\u201d which simply means that the Lord will gain a treasure during this time from amongst the Gentiles. And then the dragnet, which teaches almost the same thing as the wheat and the tares, where a net of fish come in with good and bad fish. And what that parable simply teaches is the existence, the co-existence of the righteous and the wicked in this age, only to be separated at the conclusion of this age. And then the last parable is the parable of the householder, where a person takes old material and augments it, or supplements it, with new material.\r\n\r\nAnd what that simply means is these New Testament truths that we have just walked through, the description of the condition of the world prior to the coming of the kingdom, if you want to understand the kingdom program then you have to understand what Jesus just described in Matthew 13 because He\u2019s describing the course of this age prior to the coming of the kingdom. So Matthew 13 is a description of characteristics prior to the manifestation of the kingdom, and then one day the long-awaited kingdom will come. If you want to understand God in His totality you have to factor in the Matthew 13 teaching with Old Testament teaching about the coming kingdom.\r\n\r\nWhat is my point in rehearsing all of this information. It\u2019s Matthew 13:33, \u201cHe spoke another parable to them, \u2018The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.\u2019\u201d What is Jesus saying? As the kingdom is in postponement during this interim age that\u2019s gone on for 2,000 years, God is at work, people are getting saved. However, the devil is also at work. As God is at work there is a counterfeit sowing that is taking place; even as the church is growing gradually what is happening is it\u2019s becoming more and more internally corrupted. So you look at 2 Timothy 3:13, \u201cevil men and impostors will wax worse and worse,\u201d and then you properly understand the fourth parable, the parable of the yeast, and you have descriptions of what we can expect in the life of the church as we get closer and closer to the conclusion of the church. What I\u2019m simply trying to say is this: apostasy is a sign, given by God Himself, of the last days of the church.\r\n\r\nLet me take you to a second characteristic, if I could. Number 2, apostasy is a massive New Testament subject. It is a huge, huge topic. In fact, there was a man that wrote his doctoral dissertation at Dallas Seminary and he tried to figure out how much material in the letters of Paul, in the general letters, relates to the subject of apostasy and he ran the numerical calculations and he discovered that apostasy is the second most frequently dealt with subject in the letters, or the epistles.\r\n\r\nIn fact, this subject of apostasy is all over the Bible. Jesus predicted it, Matthew 13; Paul predicted it, we\u2019ll see that in a minute in Acts 20. All over Paul\u2019s letters you see warnings of apostasy. You get into the general letters you\u2019ll see constant warnings of apostasy. And frankly, the entire book of Revelation is about apostasy because who is the book of Revelation written to? It is written to seven churches in Asia Minor; five of those seven churches are in an apostate state. There\u2019s only two that are not apostate, and so consequently Jesus has to correct five of the seven churches, churches that were once on fire for God. By the time the book of Revelation is written five of the seven are in a state of apostasy.\r\n\r\nIn fact, entire books of the Bible are dealt with or written to address the subject of apostasy. The book of Galatians, for example, was written to correct an apostasy that was occurring as the flock in Galatia was moving into legalism, the Galatians heresy. The book of Colossians was written to correct apostasy as that flock was moving into what\u2019s called the Colossian heresy. The whole book of Hebrews was written to address apostasy as the folks in the book of Hebrews were leaving Christ and returning to Old Testament Judaism. In fact, if you study the book of 2 Peter and you study the book of Jude you\u2019ll see that the whole books are dealing with this topic of apostasy.\r\n\r\nAnd yet your average Christian in their church today has never heard a single sermon on apostasy. And you kind of look at that and slap your forehead, it\u2019s like how do we miss this? I think one of the reasons we don\u2019t talk about apostasy is as preachers and teachers we want to be positive; you know, positive\/negative; that works with electricity. So I guess it works in the life of the church, we want to give people some uplifting thoughts for the day and the subject of apostasy is not a very pleasant subject. It\u2019s not a positive subject, in fact, it\u2019s a very negative subject and so the topic itself is ignored.\r\n\r\nI remember when I was a student at Dallas Seminary, I couldn\u2019t wait to listen to Dr. John Walvoord, one of my theological heroes, he\u2019s written a ton of books on the rapture and the millennial kingdom. And by the time I got there he was so old that he could only speak for eight minutes, and typically they wheeled him out in a wheel chair and put him in front of the microphone, and the man could only talk for about eight minutes given his deteriorating health, and so I sat there on the edge of my chair waiting for him, figuring out what is he going to talk about, is he going to talk about the rapture, the kingdom, all of these subjects that he was known for in his books. Do you know what he talked about? Apostasy! He had eight minutes to talk before his health would tell him you\u2019re not talking any more, and what he spoke of was warnings of apostasy in the churches and how apostasy had come into the churches. So if you have an interest in the Bible you have to have an interest in apostasy, given the dominance of the subject.\r\n\r\nLet me take you to a third characteristic of apostasy, number 3. Apostasy impacts every major doctrine. There is no sacred ground with the apostates; there is no place where they, out of good decency, say well, I won\u2019t deny that or I won\u2019t deny this. With apostasy and the warnings of apostasy everything is on the table. So we have these predictions of what is going to be denied.\r\n1 Timothy 4:1 says the apostates will deny the faith. [1 Timothy 4:1, \u201cBut the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,\u201d]\r\n\r\nNotice the definite article in front of faith. They are going to \u201cdeny the faith\u201d itself. They are even going to deny God and Christ, Jude 4 says they will \u201cdeny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.\u201d They will deny Christ and His death for the world, 2 Peter 2:1 says, \u201cdenying the Master who bought them.\u201d They will deny the return of Christ, 2 Peter 3:3-4 records the words of the apostates who will say, \u201cWhere is the promise of His coming?\u201d They will deny sound doctrine, 2 Timothy 4:3-4 says, that \u201cthey\u201d apostates in the last days, \u201cwill not endure sound doctrine.\u201d\r\n\r\n[2 Peter 2:1, \u201cBut false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2 Peter 3:3-4, \u201cKnow this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, [4] and saying, \u201cWhere is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.\u201d 2 Timothy 4:3-4, \u201cFor the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, [4] and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.\u201d]\r\n\r\nYou know, you would think the resurrection would be off the table, I mean, they\u2019re not going to deny that, are they? Because without the resurrection there\u2019s no Christianity. Well, we\u2019ve already studied the passages. 2 Timothy 2:16-18, they will say this, \u201cthe resurrection has already taken place, and they upset the faith of some.\u201d 2 Peter 3:5 says they are even going to deny God as creator. 2 Peter 3:5 says, in the New King James Version, \u201cThey will willfully forget,\u201d these apostates, \u201cthat by the Word of God the heavens of old and the earth standing out of water and in the water,\u201d it\u2019s a statement about creation and it\u2019s saying there that these apostates will willfully forget, or deny even God\u2019s role as Creator.\r\n\r\nCertainly we see that, don\u2019t we, even with this theory of evolution, which deprives God of His glory as the Creator. God, You didn\u2019t create everything; everything emerged spontaneously by accident, as we move from the goo to the zoo to you over billions of years. How fascinating it is to see these scriptures relating to apostasy jump right off the pages in the time period that we find ourselves in.\r\n\r\nThe fourth characteristic of apostasy; number 4, let\u2019s go over to Acts 20 just for a minute, Acts 20:29-30, apostasy happens inside the church. The warning by Paul is apostasy is coming up right from your own midst. Now here in Acts 20 Paul was wrapping up missionary journey three, he goes to a little harbor city there off the coast of Asia Minor, called Miletus. He summons the elders of the church at Ephesus, the spiritual leaders of the church at Ephesus, a church that Paul planted, he gets them all together and he is teaching them how to be elders in Acts 20. He is teaching shepherds how to be shepherds.\r\n\r\nAnd it\u2019s in this discourse, Acts 20 that he begins to warn them about the subject of apostasy. Notice what Paul says to them in Acts 20:29-31, \u201cI know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; [30] and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. [31] Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.\u201d\r\n\r\nYou read this and it sounds like this man, Paul, is pretty serious about this subject of apostasy. He says I know it\u2019s coming, I, in fact, have already warned you about it; how frequently? Night and day. How long? For three years. Did you feel strongly about it, Paul? Yes he did because he warned them \u201cwith tears.\u201d He warned them to the point of emotional breakdown of this subject of apostasy. And in this conversation with these Ephesian elders he tells them, very clearly, \u201calso from among your own selves men will arise up\u201d and speak \u201cperverse things.\u201d Yes, Paul\u2019s doctrine comes in from the outside but it\u2019s also going to come up from you, spiritual leaders. So what he is revealing here is apostasy transpires from within.\r\n\r\nNow the book of Jude, verse 4, says the exact same thing. It says this: \u201cFor certain men have crept in unnoticed, long ago were marked for this condemnation, ungodly men who turn the grace of our Lord into licentiousness and deny our only God and Lord, Jesus Christ.\u201d Notice Jude, the Lord\u2019s brother, in his predictions of apostasy, says people are going to creep in \u201cunnoticed.\u201d What these verses are saying is you don\u2019t look for apostasy in the world. You look for it in books written by Christians. You look for it from pulpits occupied by so-called \u201cmen of God.\u201d You look for it in so-called Christian schools. You look for it in so-called Christian seminaries. That\u2019s exactly what these verses are teaching.\r\n\r\nBack to Dr. John Walvoord for a minute. In these eight minute chapel messages that he gave another thing that he talked about, besides apostasy, was a study that he had done. Dr. John Walvoord was a brilliant theologian; he was brilliant in systematic theology, he was brilliant in historical theology, and what he told us in these messages is that he had given a study to why schools and seminaries leave their theological position and become apostate. And he said this: In all of my study of church history, here\u2019s how it always works. Somebody gets into a position of teaching and they start to say things that aren\u2019t quite right, a little off, and typically what happens is Satan puts that person in that position at a time when the school has very weak leadership and a non-aggressive president. And nobody really challenges what this faculty member is saying because after all, they have the PhD from Europe so they know everything, right? And as that unchallenged person begins to promote their ideas another faculty member gets contaminated and another one, and another one. And eventually what you have is a whole school, if you\u2019re not careful, has moved away from its theological position.\r\n\r\nYou see, one of the things that I have been accused of here at this church, by people that I think are well-intentioned, is I\u2019m too assertive about the subject of doctrine. Why are you making doctrine such an issue? This is the answer: I make doctrine an issue, I want to know what\u2019s being taught here, there are certain people here that I would not want to teach, I make doctrine an issue because I\u2019m a student of Dr. John Walvoord who was a student of church history. I understand what a little bit of false doctrine can do; it slips into a little shepherds group over here, or another meeting over here, and this is how the devil works and eventually it contaminates a lot of people. Number 4, apostasy, then, is something that happens from the inside.\r\n\r\nNumber 5, apostasy knows no limits. You look at people and you say to yourself, well, that person over there, that\u2019s the last person I would ever think would ever be involved in apostasy. And in fact, they are often the ones leading the charge. Let me give you some examples of this.\r\n\r\nYou remember the golden calf incident, where Moses is on Mount Sinai for forty days and the children of Israel get busy and they build a golden calf and you can\u2019t get more apostate than that, if you\u2019re building a golden calf you\u2019ve just violated the first two commandments, no gods before me, no graven images. It\u2019s all recorded in Exodus 32. Do you remember who was leading the charge? Aaron. Who\u2019s Aaron? The high priest! He is the guy that is the spiritual custodian of the nation of Israel and he is the one that leads the golden calf incident.\r\n\r\nTake a look at the book of Judges for a minute, Judges 18:30. Judges 17 and 18 is a description of idolatry coming into the land of Israel for the very first time after Joshua had conquered the land. This is a description of how idolatry enters the land of Israel. It enters the land of Israel through a wandering Levite whose identity is not given until the end of the story.\r\n\r\nJudges 18:30 says this: \u201cThe sons of Dan set up for themselves the graven image,\u201d now here\u2019s the wandering Levite that caused all the trouble, \u201cJonathan, the son of Gershom,\u201d \u201cson of Gershom\u201d I\u2019ve read that somewhere before, wasn\u2019t Gershom the son of Moses? So if Jonathan is the son of Gershom, Jonathan is Moses grandson. And the rest of the verse actually goes on and explains that. [Judges 18:30b, \u201cthe son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land.\u201d]\r\n\r\nWho brought idolatry into the land of Israel for the very first time after Joshua conquered the land? Who brought such a spiritual and theological problem into Israel that it was literally a thorn in their flesh for 800 years, to the point where God had to bring discipline on them 800 years later? Who started the ball rolling? It was none other than Moses\u2019 grandson.\r\n\r\nIn the book of Revelation, chapter 2, verses 4-5 we read these words, \u201c But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.\u201d Here is a church that has become apostate, they have departed.\r\nAnd which church is that? Do you know which church it is? It\u2019s Ephesus. What do we know about Ephesus? We know a lot about Ephesus. Ephesus was planted by Paul; Ephesians was ministered to by Priscilla and Aquila. Timothy, as we have been studying, had become the pastor of the church at Ephesus.\r\n\r\nAs you continue to travel through New Testament history you\u2019ll learn that John became bishop over Ephesus, in fact, he wrote three books (four books really) from Ephesus. Ephesus is the key church that\u2019s vibrant and on fire in the book of Acts. And yet they are the ones that \u201cleft their first love.\u201d Not Ephesus! Yes, Ephesus. Not Jonathan! Yes, Jonathan. Not Aaron! Yes, Aaron. There is no limit to apostasy, there is no limit to who can become involved in apostasy.\r\n\r\nLet me read to you a doctrinal statement of a Christian college. \u201cLet every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life (John 17:3) and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. And seeing the Lord only giveth wisdom, let everyone seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seek it of Him (Prov. 2, 3). Everyone shall exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein.\u201d You say wow, where\u2019s that school, I want to get my kids enrolled in that. Well, if your eyes are good and you see the bottom of the screen, those are the Rules of Harvard University when the school was started in 1636.\r\n\r\nYou have to understand something about Harvard; Harvard was \u201cit\u201d in colonial America. Harvard was where ministers were trained to be preachers and teachers of the gospel. Many of our Founding Fathers that believed in the Scripture and the Bible were educated at Harvard. And you look at Harvard today; there is not a hint or trace of Biblicism or evangelicalism at Harvard, other than perhaps a few things engraved in the wall by a prior generation. And Harvard has apostatized.\r\n\r\nYou say not Harvard! Yeah, Harvard, it happens. And if you had stood up in 1636 and said this: One of these days this school will go apostate. Could you imagine the laughing stock you would be made of? What an obscurantist you are saying something like that, that\u2019s not going to happen at Harvard, this is God\u2019s school. And yet it apostatized.\r\n\r\n2007 was a bad year, a lot of bad things happened in 2007. There is a group called The Evangelical Theological Society; The Evangelical Theological Society is the leading think-tank amongst conservative Bible scholars in the world. In fact, in 2007 there was actually a President of that organization, named Frances Beckwith, an individual that I have had and in some cases still continue to hold a very high view on. So Beckwith is not just a member of the Evangelical Theological Society, he is the President of the whole organization.\r\n\r\nIn other words, Frances Beckwith, in the year 2007, is probably considered the top conservative Bible scholar in the world. And there he is, right in the middle of his tenure saying this: You know what, I\u2019m not going to be a Protestant any more, I\u2019m going to be a Catholic. I grew up Catholic and I\u2019m going back to Catholicism.\r\n\r\nAnd when pressed as to why he was doing this, this is what he said: I have been studying the writings of the church fathers; we have, in some cases, an epidemic of many people leaving Protestant Christianity and going back into Catholicism, and when you look at these people and what they say you\u2019ll never hear this\u2026 you\u2019ll never hear this: I was studying my Bible and I decided to make the leap. What they always says is I was studying something else, or they cite some kind of external circumstance, tradition, something, and that\u2019s what causes them to make the leap.\r\n\r\nYou\u2019ve got the top evangelical scholar in the world right there, in apostasy, or departure. And I used to get angry about things like this. I don\u2019t get angry anymore; I get fearful because if it can happen to Beckwith it can happen to me. If it can happen to Aaron, if it can happen to Jonathan, if it can happen to the church at Ephesus, if it can happen to Harvard, can\u2019t it happen to me? Can\u2019t it happen to you? Can\u2019t it happen to Sugar Land Bible Church? Number 5, apostasy knows no limits.\r\n\r\nNumber 6, apostasy can happen very, very quickly. We look at these examples like Harvard and we say well, it took multiple generations for that school to become apostate. May I just say to you that if we understand this subject biblically we understand that we need not wait a long period of time for apostasy to occur. It can happen just like that.\r\n\r\nOne example, notice the book of Galatians, chapter 1 and verse 6, Paul writes to the Galatians and he says this: \u201cI marvel that you are turning away so soon,\u201d or \u201cquickly from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, for a different gospel.\u201d Paul looks at the Galatians and he says I\u2019ve got two things on my mind ya\u2019all, that are just bugging the daylights out of me. Number 1, you\u2019re leaving me on the subject of the gospel, not exactly a minor issue, would you agree? And number 2, you\u2019re leaving the foundational teaching that I gave you so fast.\r\n\r\nIf you want to understand the timetable, the timetable is Paul\u2019s first missionary journey. The green line is the outgoing trip, the red line is the return trip. Essentially what happened is Paul launched out from Syrian Antioch, he planted all of those churches there in the southern Galatian region. You can read about his ministry, a powerful ministry, in Acts 13 and 14. He returns to Syrian Antioch and he gets word that the churches that he had planted and the people that he had won to Christ are now drifting away from grace and into legalism.\r\n\r\nAnd here\u2019s the timetable. Paul planted those churches about A.D. 49, 48 really, and he wrote to them six months to a year later. It only took six months to a year for these people to move away from foundational teaching.\r\n\r\nYou remember the golden calf incident; how long did that take to happen? Exodus 32:8 says this, God is speaking to Moses on Sinai, \u201cThey\u201d referring to their making of the golden calf, \u201cThey have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them.\u201d And here\u2019s the timetable: Moses is on Sinai for how long? Forty days, that\u2019s all it took. And \u201cwhen the cat\u2019s away the mouse will play.\u201d And they went into, during this forty day period, full blown apostasy to the point where they constructed a golden calf and in the process violated the first two commandments God gave. You know, if you\u2019re going to violate the first two commandments that really doesn\u2019t give me a lot of hope that you\u2019re going to respect the rest of His commandments. It only took forty days for this to happen.\r\n\r\nHow about the church at Ephesus. You know, Ephesus has a paper trail, it\u2019s called Ephesians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, all written to Ephesus. You study those letters and there\u2019s not a hint of apostasy. There\u2019s warnings of it but it hadn\u2019t happened yet. When Jesus finally addresses that church, Revelation 2:4, He says \u201cyou have left your first love. [Revelation 2:4, \u201cBut I have this against you, that you have left your first love.\u201d] Well, when did Jesus address that church: Answer, A.D. 95. Well, when were the other letters written? A.D. 60, A.D. 62 and A.D. 67. In other words, within a span of three decades, thirty years, which is not an awful long period of time, the most instrumental church in the first century world had drifted into an apostasy that was so severe that it merited a verbal correction by Jesus Christ. It doesn\u2019t take long for apostasy to transpire.\r\n\r\nI learned this the hard way in the church where I met my beautiful wife, a church in California. I was saved through that church, I had outstanding nurturing and teaching in that church. And then I went away to college, I went away to graduate school, I returned to that church thinking it was the same place, and let me tell you, the whole thing was different. Same pastor! And they began to say things like this: we don\u2019t mention the blood of Christ from the pulpit because blood is an offensive term. We don\u2019t talk about the Second Coming of Christ, well, there\u2019s a guy over here in the corner that will teach it in a Sunday School class but we don\u2019t mention those things from the pulpit because those things divide. I tell you, they were not saying that when I was a regular parishioner-member at that church. And within the span of a very short period of time the whole philosophy of ministry changed. What happened there is they got into debt and once you get into debt, as the Bible says, the borrower is servant to the lender and you do what you have to do to make budget. And you\u2019re not going to make budget by talking about the blood of Christ. You\u2019re not going to make budget by talking about the Second Advent.\r\n\r\nAnd you have to understand something about Sugar Land Bible Church, this is a blessing of many at this church, this church has no debt other than to God, which allows us to unashamedly declare the full counsel of the Word of God. You know, if people don\u2019t want to come and they don\u2019t want to hear it our philosophy as the elders is simply this: the exits are clearly marked. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of churches in this community that will cater to itching ears. You\u2019ve got a lot of menu items if that\u2019s what you want. We seek to deliver truth here, to the best of our ability and the financial position that we are in allows us to do that. Not everybody has that luxury.\r\n\r\nLet me take you to a seventh characteristic of apostasy; number 7, apostasy is satanically energized, it is always the devil using fallen men to create apostasy.\r\n\r\nNotice, if you will, 2 Corinthians 11:3, Paul says, \u201cBut I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted by from the simplicity that is in Christ.\u201d You know, Adam and Eve had a pretty easy job description when you think about it. The only thing they were told to do is don\u2019t eat from the tree of knowledge. No other restriction was placed on them.\r\n\r\nAnd in the same way the gospel of Jesus Christ is so simple that a child can understand it. And yet Paul is fearful that just as the serpent beguiled Eve from the simplicity of the command, the devil is going to do the same to you Corinthians, and lead you away from the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus. Notice that Paul says the culprit of apostasy is the devil.\r\n\r\n1 Timothy 4:1 says this, \u201cNow the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons\u201d (Italics mine) Wow, did you know that demons have doctrines. We try to teach doctrines here, Bible based doctrines, the demons have doctrines. And Paul says \u201cthe Spirit\u201d is \u201cexpressly\u201d saying something. Notice the word \u201cexpressly,\u201d the Spirit wants to talk, Paul says, and here\u2019s what the Spirit says for the last days, the devil, and demons, are going to introduce doctrines into the body of Christ that are going to lead you away from biblical truth.\r\n\r\nWhat causes apostasy is Satan. And here\u2019s basically how it works; he moves (Satan does) on people that have influence. He moves on people that are, what we would call \u201cthe movers and shakers,\u201d the people that have a voice. And the devil begins to plant in their minds false ideas, and once they fall under the deception they can influence everybody else that they have influence over. Now you\u2019re saying well, wait a minute, Andy, ANDY, please, are you telling me that the devil can use a believer? And that\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m telling you. Just ask Peter; Peter opened his mouth, Matthew 16, Jesus said \u201cGet behind Me, Satan!\u201d Ananias and Sapphira, Acts 5, were slain in the Spirit, which is not a good thing, by the way. I\u2019ve got students at the college that want to get slain in the Spirit and I\u2019m like count me out! [Matthew 16:23, \u201cBut He turned and said to Peter, \"Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man\u2019s.\u201d]\r\n\r\nActs 5:1-5, \u201cBut a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, [2] and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife\u2019s full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles\u2019 feet. [3] But Peter said, \u2018Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? [4] \u2018While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.\u2019 [5] And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last; and great fear came over all who heard of it.\u201d]\r\nVery clearly you look at verse 11, Ananias and Sapphira were believers, Satan had filled their heart.\r\n\r\nThis is why the book of Ephesians, chapter 4, verses 26-27 says, \u201c\u2026do not let the sun go down on your anger.\u201d (So move to Alaska) [27] \u201cand do not give the devil an opportunity.\u201d What happens when we cater to the flesh, as Christians? Ephesians 4 is written to Christians. We give Satan an inroad. And if you\u2019re a person of influence Satan uses that to contaminate other people. This is why the book of James, chapter 3, verse 1, says, let few of you become teachers \u2026 knowing that the teacher will incur the stricter judgment. [NASB \u201cLet not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.\u201d]\r\n\r\nSatan cannot possess a believer (because God and Satan cannot be roommates) because the Spirit is in you, but he can influence a believer. And he loves to get the church off of its game. The church basically has three functions. Number 1, glorify God; number 2, edify the saints; number 3, fulfill the great commission. You can study those verses all on your own, you\u2019ll see they are in the Bible.\r\n\r\n[Glorify God, Ephesians 3:21, \u201cto Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.\u201d\r\n\r\nEdify the saints, Ephesians 4:11-16, \u201cAnd He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, [12] for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; [13] until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ, [14] As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness sin deceitful scheming; [15] but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, [16] from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.\u201d\r\n\r\nFulfill the Great Commission, Matthew 28:18-20, \u201cAnd Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying \u2018All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.\u201d]\r\n\r\nThat\u2019s why the church exists. The church has power when it operates according to the blueprint given by Christ. Should the church start to change any of these objectives and become morphed into a monstrosity that God never gave to the church, or should the church pursue a task that God never gave to the church, should the church begin to function outside of its intended design, is the degree to which the church loses its power. So the number one agenda of the devil is get the church off its game; get it outside of divine priorities, and this happens through what? Through apostates in positions of influence.\r\n\r\nNumber 8, apostasy is destructive. Whenever a church, an organization, becomes apostate in the wake you will always see bleeding sheep, bruised feelings and a spiritual body count. It\u2019s always there. See, we understand physical harm pretty well, but the Bible reveals spiritual harm and it often uses analogies related to physical harm to describe spiritual harm that can come into the life of a person when apostasy occurs.\r\n\r\nYou remember Acts 20:29, \u201cI know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.\u201d Think of a wolf wreaking havoc on innocent lambs. That is analogous to spiritual apostasy.\r\n\r\n1 Timothy 1:19 analogizes apostasy to a shipwreck. \u201chaving faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected concerning the faith, having suffered shipwreck,\u201d think of the loss of life and property that occur through a shipwreck, like the sinking of the Titanic. That is what apostasy is like from a spiritual point of view.\r\n\r\nThis verse we\u2019ve already covered in our study of 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy 2:17-18- \u201cand their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, [18] men who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they upset the faith of some.\u201d Notice the analogy to gangrene or some of your versions say cancer. We understand cancer from the physical world, there is a spiritual cancer, there is a spiritual gangrene that happens as apostasy transpires.\r\n\r\nNumber 9, apostasy makes life difficult for the man of God. That\u2019s why Paul is warning Timothy of apostasy here. Remember his warnings of apostasy? Evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. [2 Timothy 3:13, \u201cBut evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.\u201d] Notice 2 Timothy 4:3-4 \u201cFor the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.\u201d\r\n\r\nI don\u2019t know how that verse hits you but here\u2019s how it hits me: that is a perfect description of the modern day church growth movement; not that church growth is wrong in and of itself, as long as God is causing the growth. But you see, here\u2019s how the church growth movement works today: what you need to do is you need to go out and you need to do some polling data and some sociological studies about what unbelievers want in a church.\r\n\r\nNow Robert Schuller, the Crystal Cathedral, was the first guy to do this, of any influence. It spread to different places like Rick Warren\u2019s Saddleback Church, Bill Hybels in Willow Creek, and the idea is you figure out, through a marketing mix, what does your typical person that would never go to church, in fact, is probably unregenerate to begin with, you figure out what they want in a church. And they say things like this: we want the sermons to be shorter, now I\u2019ve got a bunch of believers here that tell me the same thing anyway. We want some skits, we want some drama, we want relevance to our daily lives and we don\u2019t want any talk about the Second Coming of Jesus, we don\u2019t want to hear about the blood of Christ and don\u2019t use the \u201cS\u201d word--sin!\r\n\r\nAnd so the church growth movement says great, let\u2019s design a church like that; you figure out what the unbelievers want, you develop a church around their values, and you give it to them. And guess what? It works, it packs auditoriums, it makes the budget. But let me tell you something, at the end of the day, once the process is completed you have a church which is not a church because it does not reflect the priorities of God. And what happens at the end of the day is the spirit of the world invades the church.\r\n\r\nAnd what do people become like in the church once the spirit of the world invades the church? Paul answers that in 2 Timothy 3:2-4 which is (if you want a fancy word for this) this is what we call an intercoluthon. An interoluthon is an idea starts, you\u2019ll see the starting of an idea in verse 2, the idea concludes, you\u2019ll see the idea concluding in verse 4, and everything in between fills out, or better explains, that idea started in verse 2 and ending in verse 4, an intercoluthon. So what is the big idea? The big idea is in the last days people will become \u201clovers of self,\u201d end of idea, \u201crather than lovers of God.\u201d [2 Timothy 3:2-4, \u201cFor men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, [3] unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, [4] treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.\u201d]\r\n\r\nWell, what does that mean? Everything in-between explains it: lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unloving, unholy, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, and pleasure lovers. You say yeah, I agree with you, the world out there is really bad. If that\u2019s what you think you\u2019ve missed the whole point.\r\n\r\nThe world has always been like this; this is front page news because it\u2019s happening in the church in \u201cthe last days\u201d because the spirit of the world has come into the church. What\u2019s the end result? People are like this in the church; if they\u2019re saved at all they\u2019re at a very low level of spiritual maturity; many of them are just unregenerate to begin with, having never trusted in Christ for salvation. And here\u2019s the point: once the church gets like that, Timothy, pastor, your job is hard because you\u2019re going to be surrounded by a bunch of people that won\u2019t want to hear what you\u2019re saying and in fact, they\u2019re going to fight against you, because as long as you\u2019re standing for God in that type of climate or environment, you\u2019re fighting uphill, swimming upstream.\r\n\r\nThis is why this is included in a pastoral letter, that\u2019s why Paul tells Timothy, \u201cbut in the last days perilous times will come.\u201d Perilous for who? For the man of God that wants to declare the full counsel of God\u2019s Word and anybody else in that environment that wants to stand for truth perilous times comes for them.\r\n\r\nWe\u2019ve seen the passage about them heaping up itching ears but did you see the following verse, \u201cBut be watchful and in all things endure afflictions.\u201d Why does he talk about afflictions? Because life is going to become difficult for the man of God in that type of climate. Do you remember the prediction that \u201cevil men and imposters will grow worse and worse\u201d? [2 Timothy 3:13, \u201cBut evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.\u201d] Look at the previous verse, verse 12, \u201cYes, and all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.\u201d Persecution from who? Persecution from the church world that has become just like the secular world or pagan world. Life gets difficult for the man of God, the woman of God; anybody that wants to live for God is fighting an uphill battle, swimming upstream in that type of climate.\r\n\r\nFinally, number 10, and with this we are finished. Number 10, apostasy impacts those who have not taken preventive measures. Apostasy is inevitable, Paul says; he never says okay Timothy, here\u2019s how you stop the apostasy, do these five things. It\u2019s never portrayed that way. What it\u2019s portrayed as it\u2019s coming and if you don\u2019t do something in your personal life you\u2019re going to be swept right up in it.\r\n\r\nLet me tell you something: no action is action. Passivity is action, and I want you to picture yourself in a stream that\u2019s pulling you a certain direction because of the current. If you don\u2019t do something of an active nature you are going to be pulled and pulled and pulled. In that type of situation you have to become active, you have to swim for shore, you have to call for help; if it\u2019s shallow water you\u2019ve got to put your feet at the bottom of the stream to brace yourself. If you don\u2019t do anything you\u2019re just getting pulled and pulled and pulled.\r\n\r\nSo by way of analogy, in the midst of an apostasy it\u2019s coming for all of us, we\u2019re all in this current. And something active has to be done in the life of the individual child of God to keep you out of being pulled in a direction you don\u2019t want to go.\r\n\r\nWell, what do you do? Here\u2019s what you do? Ready? Every time you see in the New Testament a command you obey the command. That\u2019s how you keep yourself out of the apostasy. These are what we call Greek imperatives, which are commands, the Bible is full of them. For example, 2 Timothy 2:15 says, \u201cpresent yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.\u201d Are you doing that? Are you in this book daily? I\u2019m not talking about coming on Sunday and listening, I\u2019m talking about you in your personal life in this book? Because let me tell you something, there is a war on for your mind, in the church and outside the church. And if you are not in this book you\u2019re going to be pulled in a direction you don\u2019t want to go.\r\n\r\nAnother command is 1 Thessalonians 5:21, \u201ctest all things, hold fast to that which is good.\u201d Does that describe you? Are you a tester, or are you one of these people that just blindly believes everything you\u2019re told as long as the person does it from a position of authority? That is not the biblical model. We are not to blindly acquiesce to everything we are told; we are told to \u201ctest all things\u201d by the standard of God and only \u201chold fast to that which is good.\u201d By the way, you don\u2019t even have a standard if you don\u2019t know the Bible; there\u2019s no standard to compare to.\r\nAnother command, renew your mind, Romans 12:2, \u201cDo not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.\u201d Your mind is under assault, the mind has to be renewed. Does that describe your life? Ephesians 6:11, another command, \u201cPut on the\u201d partial \u201carmor of God\u2026\u201d Oh, I\u2019m sorry, it doesn\u2019t say that, \u201cPut on the full armor of God,\u201d not just a piece of it here and there, all of the pieces. Ephesians 6:10-20 explains how to do that. We\u2019ve given multiple teachings on this armor of God, not only from this pulpit but also in Sunday School classes. Are you doing that regularly? Are you dressed for success in that sense? [Ephesians 6:10, \u201cSince we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; [7] if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; [8] or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. [9] Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. [19] Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; [11] not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; [12] rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, [13] contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. [14] Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. [15] Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. [16] Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. [17] Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. [18] If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. [19] Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, \u201cVENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,\u201d says the Lord. [20] \u201cBUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD.\u201d [21] Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.\u201d]\r\n\r\nAnother command, Jude 3, \u201cContend earnestly for the faith.\u201d What does that mean? It means that faith is under attack. Well, who\u2019s attacking it? The history channel, A&E, Mysteries of the Bible, the Peter Jennings or Dan Rather Easter Special, where these types of programs have a tendency to deny the resurrection, deny that Jesus Christ was a historical figure. We\u2019re being told that everything in creation came about through random chance, called evolution. What\u2019s happening? The faith is under attack all of the time. What are you supposed to do in response? You\u2019re supposed to \u201ccontend for the faith.\u201d [Jude 3, \u201cBeloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.\u201d]\r\n\r\nDo you have an answer when people deny the historicity of Jesus Christ and say Jesus never even lived? Do you have an answer for that? Do you have an answer when people say the Bible you read is filled with errors and contradictions and it\u2019s been mistranslated? Do you have an answer for that? If you don\u2019t you\u2019re just going to be pulled in the current.\r\n\r\nThe apostasy of the church in the last days; Number 1, the sign of the last days. Number 2, a massive New Testament subject. Number 3, something that impacts every major doctrine. Number 4, something that springs up from within. Number 5, something that knows no limits. Number 6, something that can happen quickly. Number 7, something that is satanically energized. Number 8, something that is destructive. Number 9, something that makes life difficult for the man or woman of God. And number 10, apostasy will always impact those who have not taken preventive measures.\r\n\r\nShall we pray. Father, it\u2019s so clear what You taught us on this subject and this area is such a neglected area we ask for Your forgiveness. Make us people that are bold witnesses for You in the last days as we contend with the warning that You gave us called the apostasy of the church. We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name. Amen.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t