"Peter, Feed My Sheep” (16 Of 21)

As the children of God, we used to wonder what the Word of God was warning us about in Matthew 24:22-23. We read, “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.”

But today many of the children of God now understand exactly what the Word of God was trying to warn them about.

The Lord warns us that in the days before His return, society and churches would be so corrupted by sin, that “except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved”

How could this ever happen? Look at verse 24, we read, “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.”

But in this age of apostasy, we now understand why God’s Word warns us about the many false prophets that exist today.

Peter's goal in writing this epistle, is to prepare Christians for the great apostasy that is to occur before Christ returns. He assured the saints of his day, that as long as he was still living, he was going to keep warning them of the dangers of these things.

Why? When the church lets down her guard, it leaves an open door for the devil to enter in. God’s church has to be constantly on guard to keep the devil and his teachings out of the church.

We find today that many pastors have stopped warning the church about apostasy, and the devil is having a field day in desecrating God's house with his damnable teachings.

In Jude 1:3, we read, “…it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”

Look at the word “Contend”, this is the Greek word “epagonizomai”, (ep-ag-o-nid'-zom-ahee) which means to struggle for -- earnestly contend for.

There is not a lot of effort being made today to keep the church clean from false teachings.

Illus: Too many have this Rodney King religion, “Can’t we all get along?”

No! When the ungodly attack the Word of God, we cannot sit there and let them do it without making an effort to straighten out the mess they made.

We are not like the militant fundamentalists that are looking for a fight, but we certainly cannot run when we are facing the enemy head on.

For example, the religious news magazine -“Christian Victory” stated:

• In New York City there is a church built in honor of that great missionary to Burma, Adoniram Judson. But apostasy has closed in on that church, and from what goes on there, there is no reason for that place to be called a church. Not long ago they put on a show on Flag Day - a show "dedicated to the Stars and Stripes." There were depraved and obscene exhibits defiling the flag, and; according to Max Geldman in the National Review, there were exhibits that were "simply unquotable." The police closed the show down; it was so deplorable.

On another occasion, the pews were removed to make room for dancing and the people sat in circles of folding chairs. The pulpit had been removed for a presentation of "Winnie the Pooh" and had not been replaced. The place where the choir used to be is vacant. On Sunday a nude couple danced there during the service. This "church” is so deep in apostasy that it would have to reach up to touch bottom."

• Christianity Today, reported on a church in Richardson, Texas, called “The First Unitarian Church." On one particular Sunday, Pastor William Nicholes invited Diana King, an exotic dancer at a Dallas nightspot, a Unitarian from Fort Worth, to take part in the service. As two hundred people watched, she did the same routine she performed every night as a strip-tease dancer in the nightclub.

All across this nation, we can see apostasy like we have never seen apostasy before, and very little is being SAID ABOUT IT, much less BEING DONE ABOUT IT!

But Peter assured the saints of his day, that as long as he had breath in his body he was going to speak out against it.

Look again at 2 Peter 1:12 “Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.”

How did Peter plan to attack the apostasy of his day that has overflowed to our age?

He had two plans, Plan A and Plan B.

Let’s look at-

I. PLAN "A" - PETER REFERS TO HIS PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH THE LORD.