The Danger of Apostasy - Dr. Steven J. Lawson

I invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of second Timothy second Timothy chapter 3 it's been a few weeks since we have been in our Sunday evening series on 2nd Timothy and I want to resume our study in chapter 3 beginning in verse 1 the title of our message this evening is the danger of apostasy 2nd Timothy chapter 3 I want to read the first 5 verses I'm not certain as to how far our study will take us into these verses this evening the Apostle Paul writes to young Timothy but realize this that in the last days difficult times will come for men will be lovers of self lovers of money boastful arrogant revilers disobedient to parents ungrateful unholy unloving irreconcilable malicious gossips without self-control brutal haters of good treacherous reckless conceited lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its powers avoid such men as these what makes these verses so shocking is that they do not refer to society at large but to those in the last days who claimed to be religious and who find themselves inside the church if this would be bad enough if this only described the world in general in the last days much as Romans chapter one does but sad to say these verses refer to large segments in the church at least in the church by name Paul has already warned Timothy and first Timothy 4 verse 1 with these words but the Spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons and this falling away of which Paul speaks is the meaning of the word apostasy apostasy means a falling away or an abandonment of once core beliefs it is a falling away from the Christian faith these who fall away from the faith are those who are in the church who have confessed allegiance to the core truths of Christianity but they were never saved to begin with they are those who profess to know Christ but who deny him with their very lives and they fall away from the Christian faith but they themselves never had faith in Jesus Christ Paul says in this text in 1st Timothy 4 that the church will be under siege in the last days under the attack of demon spirits in an invisible war this is no fairy tale this is no Christian fiction this is the reality of what the Apostles as as he writes in the inspiration of the holy spirit there will be a revolt in the church against the truth at the most basic level of Christianity within the church there will be a blatant denial of the faith once and for all delivered to the Saints there will be an attack on the inerrancy of Scripture there will be a blatant assault of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ there will be a full-scale attack on the deity of Christ and on his sinless life now there will be an attack on the very purity of the gospel itself as it will be under besieged and attack and there will be a great advance against the blood atonement of Jesus Christ there will be an outright denial a salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone this apostasy will even include a refuting of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ and claim that Christ was raised only in his spirit small s but not in his body with this apostasy will come a crumbling of Christian values also at the most core level the family as designed by God will come under assault in this apostasy marriage as we know it will be repudiated purity will be ridiculed and people will simply live together in adulterous relationships though being in the Church of Jesus Christ worse homosexuality and lesbianism will come into the church and be accepted as an alternate way of life still worse the church will ordain openly practicing homosexuals into the ministry this is a significant part of the apostasy of the church in the last days in the present edition of world magazine dated June 4th 2011 today is June 5th 2011 this is as current and up-to-date as it can possibly be there is an article entitled quote mainline death throes close quote the subheading is another declining Church votes to ordain open homosexuals close quote the article reads members of the Presbyterian Church USA on May 11th woke up to a new day in the life of their strife-torn fast shrinking 2.1 million member denomination that previous night the 87th and 88 of the PC USA's 173 presbyteries regional governing bodies voted to ratify a jolting change in the church's constitution surpassing the required majority needed for church wide approval effective July 10th gone will be explicit language in the church's ordination standards that require pastors quote to live either infidelity within the Covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness close quote this opens the door for liberal controlled presbyteries to ordain non syllabic gays and lesbians the change didn't come as a surprise to conservative leaders in the PC USA the issue of whether to admit open gays to the ministry has been debated in the churches governing General Assembly for more than three decades four times in the past 15 years the General Assemblies passed measures challenging the ordination standards meaning challenging that their elders and pastors should be married to a member of the opposite sex that has been challenged for the last three decades all of which failed ratification in the presbyteries but each subsequent vote saw less support for holding the line on ordination with most pastors caving than elders conservative leaders saw what was coming when 19 presbyteries earlier in the current round of voting surprisingly switched sides one reason quote people are simply weary of this seemingly ceaseless struggle and have disengaged from the process close quote in other words they're tired of fighting the good fight they are just caving in to the tzunami of perversion that is flooding into their churches and press interviews grand Parsons the PC USA's top executive likewise attributed the vote partially to quote church members simply weary of the conflict close quote but also to the quote growing acceptance homosexuality in the larger culture close quote now this starter startling sentence for some presbyteries nothing has changed in other words they've been perverted up to their eyeballs all along the PC USA joins three other troubled mainline denominations that have voted to accept open gays and lesbians as clergy the United Church of Christ the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America looking ahead the embodied gay activist if ever there was an oxymoron that's it and their advocacy cohorts in the ruling ranks of the PC USA aren't through with their Extreme Makeover efforts yet as in 2010 there's bound to be a proposal at next year's General Assembly to change the Constitution's definition of marriage they want it defined as a covenant between quote two people close quote rather than between quote a man and a woman close quote the 2000 proposal 2010 proposal lost but stay tuned well we can hardly wait to hear the result of the 2012 PC USA assembly this is precisely the apostasy of which Paul warned Timothy and of which he warns us that we'll come to the church let's give heed to the words of the Apostle Paul in these verses this is more up-to-date than tomorrow morning's newspaper I want you to note first in verse 1 difficult times Paul begins his instruction to young Timothy Timothy will not be naive in the ministry that Timothy will not be caught off guard he begins by saying but realize this the idea is mark this well Timothy it's in the present tense in other words be always alert and aware of this Timothy never forget this never lose sight of this Timothy Timothy understand this that in the last days difficult times will come these last days refer to the last hour of human history from the beginning of the church to the return of Jesus Christ these last days refer to the entirety of the time between the two appearing of Christ between the first and the second comings of Christ Hebrews 1 verses 1 & 2 says that in these last days God has spoken to us in his son and the entirety of the church age from God's eternal perspective are these last days acts 2 verse 17 is that the last days of which Amos spoke are now here first John to verse 18 John says children it is the last hour and just as you heard that Antichrist is coming even now many antichrists have appeared from this we know that it is not will be it is the last hour this is to say the entire church age will be characterized as difficult times the word times here refers to seasons and epochs and eras seasons of time movements of time times is plural you will know and indicates that there will be many such times and there will be many such movements throughout this period and perhaps the meaning is that these seasons will come in varying degrees of difficulty and varying degrees of danger throughout the flow of church history from the first to the second coming of Christ as these last days are defined for us as difficult times perilous times grievous times dangerous times difficult times violent times beloved we are presently living in such difficult times and we are living in Grievous seasons for the church the truth is always under assault and these seasons will come and they go and the last season to appear on the scene will be increasingly worse than the previous season and in between the seasons there will be brief respite and then the next wave and the next movement that will come sweeping into the church will come in like a plague in like a flood paul says later in this chapter in 2nd Timothy 3 and in verse 13 that each season of difficult times will degenerate G generate downward into lower and lower cesspools of iniquity of ever-increasing wickedness verse 13 says but evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse from bad to worse deceiving and being deceived no wonder jesus said in Luke 18 and verse 8 when the Son of Man comes will he find faith on the earth these are the difficult times in which we serve the Lord Jesus Christ this is no time for us to be naive this is no time for us to be in peacetime mode this is no time for us to be at ease in Zion this is a time for us to stand tall and stand straight for the truth of the word of God for us to fly our flag high and to take our place on the front line of spiritual warfare second I want you to note that defiled hearts the beginning of verse 2 Paul now begins to describe to Paul why there will be such difficult times for the church he begins verse 2 by saying for men will be lovers of self who are these men these men I believe in verse 5 we see that they are those who hold to a form of godliness they claim to be religious and godly perhaps these are the false teachers that are referred to in the at the end of the previous chapter in verse 26 those held captive by the snare of the devil to do his will they will be men like verse 8 speaks of Janice and jamberries not from among the Egyptians but from within the camp of Israel from those within the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ and at the end of verse 5 Paul says you are to avoid such men like the plague the implication is they are rubbing shoulders with you they are in your midst they are not far away and they are to be avoided these men may be the very leaders of these difficult times the human mouthpieces through which the devil will speak and spread his deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons in the Church of Christ or at least by name these men that begin verse 2 are those who are in positions of influence and leadership within the larger body of religion either way they will be religious men with a form of godliness but will deny the power of God they are rank-and-file apostates who have fallen away from orthodoxy who have fallen away from sound doctrine who wants subscribed to a standard of faith but in their heart and in reality they never embraced it and they never embrace Christ and they look for the opportunity to depart from the standard of sound words Paul describes these men in a two-fold way lovers of self lovers of money this is the heads and tails of the same coin first they will be those identified as lovers of self and that is to say they will not be lovers of God one love will displace the other love when love of self goes up love of God goes down in reality with these there was never any love of God never any love of Christ never any love of truth never any love of purity never any love of Scripture never any love of praise never any love of family values these are the deceivers of which verse 13 speaks who were deceived within their own hearts these are the Judas's in the church lovers of self they worship at the altar of self Jesus said before anyone can enter into his kingdom they must deny themselves they must die to self they must disown self of self or you cannot follow me jesus said except a man hate his own father and mother and brother and sister and yes even hate his own life he cannot be my disciple and these lovers of self are those who are always seeking self esteem and preaching a message of self-esteem and self-worth they are always talking about getting in touch with themselves they seek fulfillment self-realization self-satisfaction they are preoccupied with themselves they pursue passionately themselves they pamper themselves they indulge themselves their whole religion is but a platform and but an altar upon which they worship them cells and if there is anything that gets in the way of their worship of self it is God in Christ and truth and pure religion hand in hand with these lovers of self they are described as lovers of money this is the heads and tails of the same coin these lovers of self this love of self always leads to love of money the one inevitably inseparably leads to the other first John 2 verse 15 John writes do not love the world nor the things in the world if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the father that is from the world there will be those in every century of the church from the beginning of the church in the first century until the church at the time of the return of Jesus Christ there will always be such charlatans within the church who are lovers of self and who are lovers of money and they have the devil's initials carved into their hearts I want you to note third the depraved lies out of this love of self and out of this love of money comes their depraved lives out of this foul depraved fountain within their heart and soul now comes these various manifestations of wickedness and depravity notice the first two on the list boastful arrogant these are the first manifestations of self-love the one who loves oneself is always a braggart it is always arrogant is always conceited is always infatuated with themselves are always looking out for self rather than for the interests of God this word boastful indicates that there is no humility there is no lowliness of heart there is no concept of grace there is no dependency upon God this person is constantly exaggerating their view of themselves and constantly pontificating their own abilities before others as they are ever and always boasting in themselves and in their own goodness and in their own merit boastful then arrogant the person who is boastful is inevitably arrogant these are two ugly twin sisters a two-headed monster that are always joined together this word arrogant means to place oneself above others no servant leadership here no humbling of oneself to come alongside the needs of others and giving oneself for the good of others this one has come to be served not to serve the arrogance here represented is self exaltation and self elevation above others and we are no one is ever more like the devil himself than when they our boastful and arrogant I would remind you that it was Lucifer who said I will I will I will ascend above the heights of heaven I will be like the Most High God then the third word that describes their lives is revilers it's the Greek word blasphemous from which we derive the word blasphemers they are those who are irreverent towards sacred and holy things they treat holy things of God in a sack religious manner they use abusive language and heaping insults upon holy things they consider holy things to be common things and they profaned that which is holy they love to be edgy they love to be crass they love to be crude they love to take down walls that separate that which is secular from that which is sacred it is all the same to them there is no holy ground there is no removing of their sandals but to approach the holiness of God notice it says they are disobedient to parents they fail to honor their father and mother they are rebellious at the point of the most important human relationship that between them and their own parents this is another inevitable result of self-love they are totally destructive and disruptive of the family unit they have no comprehension of headship and Submission and no idea of coming under the god-given authority that is placed over them they are a law unto themselves and they are ungrateful Paul says to young Timothy that is to say they are never thankful they have an entitlement mentality they think they deserve every good thing that has come into their lives they see themselves as better than others not lower than others and therefore everything they have they presuppose is the result of their own ingenuity and their own efforts and they have no understanding that every good gift every perfect gift comes down from God above there is not one drop gratitude nor thankfulness in them the list goes downhill from here unholy they're of a depraved mind they feed on trash they are full of gross indecency they lust for that which is viola unloving this indicates that they have no common decency they have no love that is natural they have no love for motherhood they have no love for virginity they have no love for purity and they have no love for the family they are without any common affection for that which is holy and right and good they're irreconcilable that is they must have everything their way they never yield to others their self-love is so extreme that they refuse to yield to the preferences or the desires of others they adamantly refuse to come to terms with any kind of conciliation with others their entire world their entire universe result revolves around themselves their malicious gossips because they love themselves so much they must tear down others they lack any self control towards others with their tongue and they are constantly accusing others in fact the very word that is used here Diablos is used of Satan who is the accuser of the Brethren they are continually firing their guns of accusation against others and note they are without self-control their flesh has no brake pedal their flesh has no restraints either in their actions or in their words they are living wide open without any restraints whatsoever their conscience is seared as with a hot iron and notice the next word brutal they live at an animal level they resemble fierce untamed animals and their passions and in their lusts and in their attitudes and in their actions this word brutal means their savage they are violent they have no regard for human life abortion for them is nothing they are feminists to the insta green they are absolutely brutal savage animals haters of good they love what they should hate and they hate what they should love your haters of good I hate godliness they hate purity they hate truth they're not neutral towards it they hate it they hate those who stand for the truth they hate preachers of the truth they hate believers of the truth that is why he will say in verse 12 of this very chapter all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted and the reason that they will be persecuted is because there will be those within the church in these difficult times who will be haters of good verse 4 begins with the word treacherous they are ready to betray all close alliances they know nothing of loyalty they know nothing of allegiance they are treacherous they're ready to betray their spouses ready to betray their parents ready to betray their own children they are the ultimate pragmatist they will do whatever is necessary to further their own causes and their own purposes they will say anything they will do anything they will go to whatever degree is necessary to break a covenant to break their word to break their bond they are absolutely treacherous they are reckless that is to say they are totally careless about their commitments they are brash they are so infatuated with themselves that they do not have any regard for others they run roughshod over others in a totally reckless manner they are conceited that is to say they are swollen up with self-importance there is no humility to come under the authority of the word of God there is no lowliness of mind to submit themselves to the lordship of Christ they again are a law unto themselves they established their own Authority by their own making and verse 4 concludes they're lovers of pleasure they are hedonist on steroids they crave for comfort they crave for sex they crave liquor they crave food they crave every imaginable indulgence they live for sensual pleasures like the very animal that they are and their own twice dead souls this is quite a list and I debated tonight whether to preach this as we come to the Lord's table there was really a tug of war in my own heart to bring to you a devotional message tonight to say something that would be so palatable and pleasing to our senses I believe the Holy Spirit kept drawing me back again and again to what is our next passage as we seek for the full counsel of God and I believe that all Scripture is profitable and all Scripture can prepare us for coming to the Lord's Supper it should be our response as we now prepare to come to the Lord's Supper number one this calls for every one of us to say there but for the grace of God go I my brother and sister in Christ you were born in total depravity you were born in dead in your trespasses and sin and the only thing that has made a difference between us and these are described in this text is the saving grace of God there is nothing in us inherently that makes us any better than the worst hater of good in this world except the invading converting transforming presence of the sovereign grace of God in our lives that has sought us and has brought us to Christ and that God has renewed our minds and that God has given to us a new heart and that God has taken out our old heart of stone that was dead to decency that was dead to truth that was dead to purity that was dead to love for the things of God that is what our heart once was until that day in which he made us willing in the day of his power until that day he performed open-heart surgery in you and in me and we were born again from above we were born again by the Spirit of God from above this is what has made the difference in our lives from what we read in this awful despicable list of those who will be the ringleaders of the apostasy in the major movements within church history of difficult times in which men will depart from the faith and give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons it is only the electing predestinated redeeming reconciling regenerating converting sealing and dwelling preserving grace of God as we come to the lord's table tonight this text that we have looked at is the black velvet backdrop upon which the grace of god's mercy should shine forth in your life this is the ocean of poison from which we were redeemed this is the pit of destruction from which we were rescued this is our life just in varying degrees before we came to faith in Jesus Christ we were lovers of self yes we were we were arrogant we were conceited we were boastful we were haters of good we were lovers of evil until God's grace saved us If any man be in Christ he is a new creation the old things have passed away behold new things have come what thankfulness what gratitude should be in our hearts tonight towards God what praise what worship how could we be lukewarm tonight knowing what we once were and now understanding what we are by grace how could we ever leave our first love how could we ever be complacent with the things of the Lord as we come to the Lord's table may there be a deep sense of gratitude to God think of your own families think of unconverted brothers and sisters think of unconverted parents think of unconverted in-laws think of unconverted people who are all around you and have been all around you what has made the difference were you smarter were you better were you more receptive in and of yourself no it is but the grace of God that has found us out and saved a wretch like me join me in a word of Prayer father as we now prepare to come to the Lord's table I trust that a wave of deep gratitude thankfulness humility will sweep over our souls and that we will be so aware of your unmerited favor in your undeserving unconditional eternal grace that has been made real in our lives tonight we rise up and we bless you we rise up and we speak our praises to you that though we once were lost now we are found but once we were blind but now we see once we were dead but now we are alive in Christ father seal all of these truths to our hearts in Jesus name Amen

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Keywords: The, Danger, of, Apostasy, Dr., Steven, J., Lawson, Falling, away, eternal, security, OSAS, Difficult, Times, Will, Come, unholy, lovers, self, money, arrogant, boastful, prideful, unloving, haters, good

Id: sbi6yBzYnnA

Length: 47min 31sec (2851 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 11 2011