I want to show you two things about AMNESIA AND APOSTASY.
First, let us look at…
I. AMNESIA
WHAT IS AMNESIA?
When a person has amnesia they forget some very important things in their life, such as…
• They forget who their loved ones are...ISN’T THAT SAD!
• Where they live… ISN’T THAT SAD!
• Their age… ISN’T THAT SAD!
• They cannot find their way home..ISN’T THAT SAD!
All the IMPORTANT things in their life they forget.
• Illus: President Ronald Reagan with all his achievements in life before he died he could not remember any of the great achievements in his life. ISN’T THAT SAD!
Illus: The only good thing that can be said about amnesia is that you can watch repeats cowboy movies like you have never seen them before.
BUT HERE IS SOMETHIG REALLY SAD! The modern church today seem to have SPIRITUAL AMNESIA.
That is some of the important doctrines from God’s word they seem to have forgotten and they no longer preach, teach and sing about them.
For example, one of the important doctrines of the scriptures is the imminent return of Christ.
In some churches they are busy preaching HEALTHY AND WEALTHY TEACHINGS they no longer hear their preachers preaching on some of the great doctrines they use to preach and teach.
This probably explains why you have a church today that no longer live the Christian life like Christ may come back today!!!
For example, let me give you some example:
1) This crowd today who profess to be born again that seldom ever come to church you think they think Christ may come back today? I DO NOT THINK SO!!!
2) This crowd that who profess to be born again who takes God’s tithes and use it on themselves do you think they think God may come back today? I DO NOT THINK SO!!!
3) This crowd that who profess to be born again who takes God’s day to go shopping, fishing, golfing, hunting etc. you think they think the Lord may come back today? I DO NOT THINK SO!!!
I could go on and on about people who profess to be born again and you cannot tell one difference between their life style and those who do not profess to be born again.
I am not saying they are not saved (Maybe they are and maybe they are not) What I AM SAYING THEY HAVE SPIRITUAL AMNESIA when IT COME TO THE TEACHINGS OF GOD’S WORD!!!
They live their life daily like they have forgotten that Christ may come back to rapture His church from this earth any moment.
They have forgotten the doctrine of the imminent return of Christ.
Paul wrote to Timothy and warned them of this dangerous times in which we live.
Look at 2 Timothy 3:1-5 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
Folks this is the age in which we live!!!
Spiritual Amnesia prevail in many of our churches today!!!
2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Going back to 2 Timothy 3 look at verse 5.
Notice the warning Paul told us about this apsotasize church “…from such turn away.”
Illus: Many of those who profess to be saved when they are looking for a church to join they look for a church that can offer them….
(1) Location of church. It does not matter what they teach just so long as it is convenient.
(2) Activites for youth. It does not matter what they teach just so long as it is convenient.
(3) Social Level. It does not matter what they teach just so they have those who attend are on the upper social level.
(4) Building facilities. It does not matter what they teach just so have a beautiful building they can call their church.
Listen, none of these things are bad but whatever happen if a church did not teach and preach the Word of God a true believer would not join such a church.
Again I remind you the warning Paul told us about the apsotasize church “…from such turn away.”
WHY DID PAUL GIVE SUCHA WARNING?
Because it has been proven over and over again that if you listen to a lie long enough…you will soon believe it!
Illus: These politicians who oppose each other will tell a lie over and over again against each other. Why? Because they know if you listen to THE LIE THEY ARE TELLING it want be long you will soon believe it.
This is why Paul warned the believers not to allow these false teachers into their home. Because if you do sooner or later you will soon start to believe a lie.
The same go to listening to some of false teachers and preachers on television. If you listen to their lies long enough you will soon start to believe it.
You might say that could never happen to me!!!
Have you ever dealt with a good sales man? THEY CAN CHANGE YOUR MIND.
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger went to a STAINLESS STEEL POT PARTY where they try and sell you some pots and pans.
He went there with his wife as a courtesy of an elderly woman that lived in the neighborhood.
He had no intention of buying pots and pans when he attended this courtesy party.
This top notch salesman before it was over with sold him a thousand dollars of pots and pans and convinced him that his wife was trying to kill him cooking out of the pots and pans she cooked with.
Also, the devil has got some top notch salesman and if you listen to them long enough they will sell you a bunch of junk!
This is why Paul told the early christians not to allow the devil salesmen (false prophets) in their home.
Illus: Spurgeon quote ‘We are one in Christ; let us be friends with one another; but let us never be friends with one another’s error. If I be wrong, rebuke me sternly; I can bear it, and bear it cheerfully and if ye be wrong, expect the like measure from me…Let us all be true to one another, and true to Christ; and as soon as we perceive an error, though it be but as the shadow of one, let us root it out and drive it from us, lest it plague the whole body, and put leprosy into the entire fabric of the church.’
Let me ask you a question…How do you boil a live frog?
Illus: If you put him in a pot of boiling water, he just jumps out. The way to do it is to sit him in a nice comfortable pot of lukewarm water and turn on the fire underneath. As the water warms up gradually, he doesn’t realize it. He will end up being boiled alive!!!
The apostatize church (not the Bible-believing, Bible-preaching church) the modern church today no longer believe in the imminent return of Christ and I can PROVE IT.
For example, if they did believe in the imminent return of Christ they would live their life each day THIS MAY BE THE DAY CHRIST WILL RETURN!!! And I can assure you they would change their life style.
Listen, if a person really believe that Christ may come back today they would change their behavior!
Often as I drive I look into the sky and say, “Lord, is this going to be the day of your return?”
I personally believe in the imminent return of Christ.
I AM TALKING ABOUT THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH.
I am not the only one who believes that!
Dr. John MacArthur one of the great Bible preachers of our time said it best, he said, “Christ could come at any moment. I believe that with all my heart—not because of what I read in the newspapers, but because of what I read in Scripture.”
The New Testament church believed in the imminent return of Christ.
We have looked at this age of SPIRITUAL AMNESIA that no longer is looking for the imminent return of Christ.
Now let us look at this age of…
II. APOSTASY
I told you at the beginning of this sermon that SPIRITUAL AMNESIA LEADS TO APOSTASY.
I want to start by defining the word Apostasy. It has two meaning…
1) Depending on your bible it may say shrink back, draw back, turn away.
2) But it also refers to withholding or hiding out of sight because of timidity or fear.
The word apostasy never actually appears in the Bible, but our English definition of it is basically, “abandonment of your religious faith”.
That is a somewhat accurate word to use here but it misses the nuance of the original Greek meaning and context which is much BROADER.
I think maybe we have misused that word at times in the church.
The broader meaning:
1) It is not so much an outright choice to turn away from God which the Bibles is teaching,
2) But it is ALSO a fearful denial or hiding of your faith once you have believed, that often turns into sinful compromise with the culture.
Let me illustrate…
Illus: It is basically what Peter did when Jesus got arrested and taken away to be crucified. He denied knowing Jesus because he was afraid of what would happen to him if he were associated with Jesus.
We have Christians today who critize Peter for WITHOLDING THE TRUTH of knowing Christ and yet our churches today are full of Christian WHO will never acknowledge they are a born again believer in fear that it may offend someone and put them in a place of danger.
And remember what Jesus himself said, “Anyone who is ashamed of me before people, I will be ashamed of before my Father”.
So looking at the BROADER meaning of apostasy that way, as a fearful hiding the fact that we are followers of Christ, as opposed to an outright falling away from the faith, should make it more relevant for all of us as believers.
Paul was telling these believers in Thessalonica before the rapture take place there is going to be two things to take place…
(1) FALLING AWAY OF BELIEVERS
(2) APOSTASY WILL BE WIDE SPREAD
One reason today we have every right to believe in the imminent return of Christ is because of all the apostasy today in the world.
The Christian church today is nowhere close to what it was in past years due to SPIRITUAL AMNESIA AND SPIRITUAL APOSTASY.
It is not the bible preaching churches who are filling stadiums with ITCHING EARS how they can be HEALHTY AND WEALTHY.
How did this happen?
In the case of the USA:
It has been slow gradual process like Amnesia occurs.
Such as..
When we have taken prayer out of public schools,
Illus: According to a Cornell Law summary of the case, it involved a New Hyde Park, New York, school district, which directed the district schools to use the following prayer, to be said aloud by each student, along with the teacher:
“Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country.”
The government of this great country said this is illegal.
Illus: On June 25, 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that based on the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment that the government can’t sponsor a prayer and require schoolchildren to say it.
• We have taken prayer out of our graduations
• We have taken prayer out before the ball games are played.
And now decades later we are reaping a generation of students who have not heard about God and for some who no longer believe in God.
We no longer can pray and teach in the imminent return of Christ
However, the church in Thessalonica believed in the rapture of the church. But they had some errors in their belief concerning the rapture of the church.
For example, there were two aspects of error troubling the Thessalonica church:
(1) First one was the notion that they had missed out on the rapture of the church. WHAT A TERRIBLE THOUGHT!!!
(2)The second one was the apocalyptic judgment that signaled the day of the Lord had arrived already. (Tribulation period)
Paul wrote to the church of Thessalonica to straighten out their errors.
Look at 2 Thessalonians 2:3-5 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
We do not want to be deceived also about the coming of the Lord.
Paul writes to this church and tells them that Day will not come until two things transpires:
(1) The falling away
(2) The man of sin revealed (Anti-Christ)
In this age of APOSTASY…
We have changed the definitions of sin:
• Drinking now is a disease
• Abortion now a woman’s right
• Homosexuality now is being born that way
• We condemn people for telling the truth.
• Cheating is good business
• Transgender (men becoming women and women becoming men)
• Transgenders using the same bathrooms and shower room.
• In this WOKE SOCIETY some can not even define what a woman is.
Did you know we have?
• False preachers who are more popular than movie stars today.
• False preachers who are some of the richest people on the earth.
APOSTACY IS A DANGEROUS ATTACK ON THE BIBLE-BELIEVING CHURCH AND IS GOING TO GROW STRONGER AS THE RAPTURE AND END TIMES APPROACH.
Illus: THERE IS AND EPISCOPAL BISHOP WHO CHAMPIONED VIEWS LIKE THESE FROM THE PULPIT:
• THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST WAS NOT A REAL EVENT BUT A LEGEND.
• THERE WAS NO EMPTY TOMB, NO ANGELS, AND NO APPEARANCES.
• NO REASONABLE PERSON COULD BELIEVE IN THE LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE.
• THE VIRGIN IS RIDICULOUS.
• BETHLEHEM AND THE MANGER – “WILL HAVE TO GO”
• THE CHURCH SHOULD ACTIVELY ENDORSE AND EVEN CELEBRATE HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVIOUR, AS WELL AS HETEROSEXUAL LIAISONS OUTSIDE OF MARRIAGE.
PAUL SPEAKS OF THIS IN 2 TIMOTHY 4:3-4, FOR THE TIME WILL COME WHEN PEOPLE WILL NOT PUT UP WITH SOUND DOCTRINE. INSTEAD, TO SUIT THEIR OWN DESIRES, THEY WILL GATHER AROUND THEM A GREAT NUMBER OF TEACHERS TO SAY WHAT THEIR ITCHING EARS WANT TO HEAR. 4 THEY WILL TURN THEIR EARS AWAY FROM THE TRUTH AND TURN ASIDE TO MYTHS.
WITHOUT THE WORD OF GOD AS THE STANDARD WHO DEFINES THE NORMS OF SOCIETY?
The apostates do not like to be exposed.
THE APOSTATE WILL OFTEN WRONGLY CLAIM THIS VERSE:
Look at MATTHEW 7:1-3: “Matthew 7:1-3 Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
JESUS IS NOT SAYING THAT WE SHOULDN’T MAKE VALUE JUDGMENTS.
• IF A PERSON IS COMMITTING KNOWN SIN IN THE CHURCH WE ARE ADDRESS IT?
• HOW DO YOU ADDRESS IT WITHOUT FIRST JUDGING THAT THE ACTION IS WRONG?
THIS PASSAGE IS NOT ABOUT MAKING VALUE JUDGMENTS FOR CHRIST TOLD US TO MAKE VALUE JUDGMENTS.
It is teaching we should not condemn others of their sins if we have a beam in our own eyes.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 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 power; Avoid such men as these. (2 Timothy 3:1-5 NASB)
Some denominations have completely abandoned the scripture as a denomination, such as:
• They stop singing song about blood.
• Preachers have become motivational speaker
• They don’t talk about Hell
• They open their doors to homosexual and lesbian priests and ministers
We have looked at the age of AGE OF APOSTASY THAT WILL TAKE PLACE ON EARTH BEFORE THE RAPTURE AND AFTER THE RAPTURES.
Conclusion:
If you are not save today you can choose to walk out of this church building saying I do not want to accept Jesus as my Savior.
But when you miss the rapture of the church you will have no choice about accepting the anti-Christ.
2 Thessalonians 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.
We all need to pray that prayer that John prayed on the Isle of Patmos, “Even so Lord, come back!”
Someone said, “If He does not come back soon He is going to have to apolize to Sodom and Gomorrah for destroying them!”
Concerning the immenent return of Christ we have looked at:
I. Spiritual Amnesia
II. Apostasy
