Sermon: "Apostasy vs. Truth "
As Jesus drew closer to His cross, He began to tell His disciples about what was going to happen. Matthew 16 records one of those instances where He explained to them how He must be killed. In this instance, the apostle Peter reacted…
MATTHEW 16:21-23 - From that time on Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
22Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to You!"
23Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."
Jesus says, “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
I find it very fascinating that Jesus addressed Peter as “Satan”. Why did He do that? I think it’s because Peter was expressing the essence of Satan’s agenda – to frustrate, to foil, to put a stop to God’s plan for the redemption of mankind. Given Peter’s statement, “This shall never happen to You!” it’s not difficult to imagine Satan responding with a hearty “Amen!” “Let it be so!” “Let’s put a stop to the Son of God right here, right now!”
Jesus said, “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
Last week, we began to deal with the subject of apostasy. We said that apostasy was “a falling away from the truth of the Bible.” Apostasy is a departure from sound doctrine. It is the act of leaving behind the things of God and emphasizing the things of men.
We pointed out that both Jesus and Paul spoke about the coming of false teachers and their ruinous doctrines. Both taught that there would be “wolves in sheep’s clothing” – false teachers who would arise to gather flocks of people unto themselves.
From 2 Thessalonians 2, we learned that The Great Apostasy will come before Jesus returns. Prior to Christ’s Second Coming, there will be a time of a great departure from the truth of the Bible.
And we saw how we have been repeatedly warned about apostasy in general in several places in the New Testament. Don’t be naïve! Be on your guard!
Also, we discussed how we shouldn’t assemble together each week solely for the purpose of “having our ears scratched.” We’re not coming here to have some kind of motivational speech solely designed to make us feel better.
And we further saw that it is our responsibility to be sure that what we’re being taught is indeed the truth!
This morning, I want us to look deeper into what the Bible has to say about apostasy, and about what we can do to keep apostasy at bay. We want to look at three things:
- The Source of Apostasy
- Fighting Apostasy…and …
- Rejoicing in the Truth
In His rebuke of Peter, Jesus linked Satan to the rejection of the things of God and to the embracing of the things of men. It should not surprise us that apostasy would have so evil a source…
I. SOURCE OF APOSTASY
A. Child of the Devil
We’ll begin looking for the source of apostasy by examining an incident from the book of Acts. Barnabas and Paul are just beginning the first missionary trip to spread the Gospel beyond the regions of Judea and Samaria. They started the trip on the island of Cyprus…
ACTS 13:6-12 - They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus, 7who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. 8But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. 9Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, 10"You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? 11Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind, and for a time you will be unable to see the light of the sun."
We see that this Elymas is speaking things to the proconsul that are contrary to the word of God. He “tried to turn [him] from the faith” and was “perverting the right ways of the Lord.” Paul called him a “child of the devil,” “full of all kinds of deceit and trickery.” He said that Elymas was “an enemy of everything that is right.”
Elymas was trying to make apostasy happen! He desired that the proconsul would fall away from the truth of the Gospel and he was working to bring that about. The account says that, for this reason, Paul was used of God to strike the man blind.
I suppose you could make a case that Elymas’ physical blindness was a literal expression of his spiritual blindness. But more importantly, I want you to notice that Paul called Elymas a “child of the devil.”
The active promotion of false doctrine is the progeny of Satan.
B. Son of Perdition
Here’s another passage with a similar idea. We saw this passage last week when we talked about the Great Apostasy that will arise prior to Jesus’ Second Coming…
2 THESSALONIANS 2:3 – Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for (that day will not come) until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessnessis revealed, the man doomed to destruction.
Now, in the NIV translation that we have here, the last phrase speaks of “the man doomed to destruction.” The translators make it sound like the man himself is doomed to destruction. But the original text is translated better in other versions…
Both the KJV and the NKJV translate the phrase as “son of perdition.”
The NASB translates the phrase as “son of destruction.”
The original language used the Greek word for “son” in this passage. I don’t know why the NIV translators opted for “man.” And, while this man is ultimately “doomed to destruction”, that’s not what this text in Thessalonians is saying. The Thessalonians passage is describing “destruction” and “perdition” as being the source of the man, not his destiny.
The word translated “destruction” or “perdition” carries with it the idea of an utter destruction. Though the Message is not a literal Bible translation, listen to how it renders verse 3…
1 THESSALONIANS 2:3 – Before that day comes, a couple of things have to happen. First, the Apostasy. Second, the debut of the Anarchist, a real dog of Satan. (The Message)
This paraphrase captures the sense of the meaning of this text. This one who will come on the scene after the Great Apostasy is termed “a real dog of Satan.” He’s a “son of perdition,” a “son of destruction,” or a “child of Hell.”
As we read these Scriptures it’s not difficult to determine who exactly is the source of apostasy, is it? Returning now to the NIV, let’s look at what this “son of perdition” will do, because it speaks to our topic this morning. Continuing with 2 Thessalonians 2:4…
2 THESSALONIANS 2:4 – He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
Do you see the tie-in with apostasy here? This “son of the devil” sets himself up as God, desiring worship, exalting himself over everything that is called God. Is it surprising that such a person would be able to come on the scene with such power following a time of Great Apostasy? After people are deceived into believing a lie, they are more willing to be led about by someone repeatedly foisting that lie upon them. It’s been said that Adolf Hitler once remarked, “If you repeat a lie loud enough and long enough, eventually the people will believe it.” Certainly, Hitler lived up to that philosophy.
You perhaps know that this text is speaking of the Antichrist who will come. 2 Thessalonians 2 is an amazing passage. I wish we had more time to look into it further, but our topic today urges me to move on.
The point of looking at this passage this morning is to show you Biblical evidence that Satan is the source of apostasy. He is the founding father of false doctrine. Jesus, talking to the Jewish leaders who opposed Him, describes Satan like so…
JOHN 8:44 – You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Satan, the father of lies and liars, using the language of lying, is the source of teaching designed to cause us to fall away from the truth of God’s Word.
We next want to look at…
II. FIGHTING APOSTASY
A. “Did God Really Say That?”
Satan was a liar from the beginning; lying is his original language.
GENESIS 3:1 – Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
When you get into a study of apostasy, you quickly find that it is a topic that is spread throughout the scope of the Scriptures. Here at the outset of mankind’s Fall we see Satan questioning God’s Word and distorting it.
“Did God REALLY say that?” “Did He REALLY say that you’re not to eat from any tree in the garden?”
Satan begins to get Adam and Eve to question the Word of God. He lies about what God said. And he plants doubts in their minds about what God said.
And when they eventually fall away from the truth of God’s Word, they likewise fall away from a relationship with Him. Apostasy is a falling away. And it is destructive, not surprising since its source is all about destruction and perdition, death and decay.
We don’t have time to examine it much this morning, but let me just mention that Israel’s history was filled with constant occasions of falling away from God’s Law and going after false belief systems in the form of the idol worship of the neighboring nations. It can be readily demonstrated from Scripture that Satan is the source for all false belief systems in the world.
And we also know that Satan’s scheme is to destroy the church, the Body of Christ. Peter warns the Church…
1 PETER 5:8, 9a – Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9a Resist him, standing firm in the faith…
As the father of destruction, Satan seeks to destroy us, but we can resist him. How? By “standing firm in the faith.” We need to “be self-controlled and alert.” That’s how we will keep Satan and his apostate lies from gaining a foothold in our church.
Both last week and this week, we’ve looked at a lot of Scripture about apostasy. We could look at much more. There are entire books of the Bible devoted to the theme of warning about apostasy. But, even from what we have examined in this sermon series, you ought to know by now that we have been warned. Now it’s time to get practical. What do we do about it? We need to be…
B. Standing Firm on the Word
If we resist the devil by standing firm in the faith, then where does our faith come from?
ROMANS 10:17 – Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
Faith comes from the Word. So, as we know the Word, we will be ready to stand against apostate teaching. Paul warned the Galatians (in one of those books of the Bible devoted to warning about apostasy) to not listen to anyone who teaches anything other than the true Gospel of Christ. As Paul starts out, we see that these Galatian believers have already begun to fall away…
GALATIANS 1:6-9 - I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! 9As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!
Paul says here that even if he showed up again and began to teach something other than the Word the Galatians had heard from him before, that he himself should then be eternally condemned! Paul says you can’t trust anybody! Even if an angel from heaven gives you a message other than what the Bible teaches, you are to recognize it for the heresy that it is. I find it significant that at least two other major religions I know of were founded by men who each claimed to get their messages from an angel.
Beloved, we need to know the truth. So we need to…
C. Search the Scriptures
The obvious conclusion that we ought to draw from this is that we need to know the Bible and know it well. How else can we expect to discern what is false unless we first know the truth? The Galatians had heard the truth from Paul before – but they abandoned it when false teachers arose.
They should have been like the Bereans…
ACTS 17:11 - Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
Let me ask you something: Do you receive the messages with great eagerness? Are you interested at all in hearing from God’s Word?
Furthermore, do you examine the Scriptures on a regular basis to see if what you’re hearing here at Five Forks is true? Or do you just trust the PowerPoint and the bulletins? Do you simply trust the pastors to give it to you straight? Or do you think that maybe they might be human and subject to error just like anyone else?
Do you bring your Bible to the sermons? You may say, “Well, the Scriptures are on the PowerPoint!” That’s true – but it’s not the entire text, just a portion. What does the text around that portion say? What is the context of what you’re getting on the screen? Is the speaker taking the passage out of context? How would you know?
You know, there are those here who do come and question what they hear in the sermons. There are those who take the time and show concern that what they’re getting from the pulpit is the truth. I welcome those questions and comments and observations.
Folks, listen! We’re in this whole faith journey together! The pastors here do have an obligation to study the Word and to know what it says – a tremendous responsibility. Let me be honest with you. I get concerned that my own schedule can get so busy with “ministry” that I don’t take time to study the Bible like I should. A pastor’s office used to be called the “Pastor’s Study.” There was a reason for that. It was a tacit, unspoken acknowledgment by the church that having a pastor who was studying the truth of the Bible was an important aspect of church life.
It’s all part of shepherding the flock. Jesus told Peter, “Feed My sheep.”
And you as the congregants around the Word each week also need to be studying the Word.
If we truly become people of the Book, we will readily be able to recognize apostasy when we see it. That’s where we ought to be.
We ought to be…
III. REJOICING IN THE TRUTH
Let’s begin this rejoicing by looking at the Berean Christians once again…
ACTS 17:11 - Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
It’s exciting to read how they “received the message with great eagerness” and how they “examined the Scriptures every day” to see if what they were getting was indeed the truth. Truth mattered to them, and they understood that the Scriptures were the source of truth, the standard by which all other claims ought to be judged.
There’s a good passage on this in 2 Timothy 3. Paul is writing a letter to Timothy and I find it quite to the point that he reminds Timothy of the significance and the authority of the God-inspired Scriptures within the context of yet another warning about apostasy. He talks of “evil men and impostors…deceiving and being deceived”…
2 TIMOTHY 3:12-17 – In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Earlier in this same letter, Paul speaks to Timothy the importance of correctly handling the word of truth. And, once again, we find this within the context of warnings about apostasy. Both this passage and the one I just gave you are familiar Bible verses to most Christians. But I would suspect that most of us have been unaware of the warnings of apostasy surrounding them. Listen to Paul’s admonition and the surrounding context…
2 TIMOTHY 2:14-18 – Keep reminding them of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen. 15Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 16Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. 17Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some.
Notice the contrast between the two phrases highlighted in this passage for you. Timothy is admonished to work hard to study and correctly handle the Word of Truth because there are those whose false teaching is spreading like gangrene. This is reminiscent of Jesus’ warning to His disciple to “beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees” which we studied last week.
When it comes to the Bible, we need to have the attitude of the psalmist. Listen to all the great things he says about the Word of God, His commands, His decrees, His commands, His laws, His precepts…
PSALM 119:9-16 – How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to Your word. 10 I seek You with all my heart; do not let me stray from Your commands. 11 I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You. 12 Praise be to You, O LORD; teach me Your decrees. 13 With my lips I recount all the laws that come from Your mouth. 14 I rejoice in following Your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. 15 I meditate on Your precepts and consider Your ways. 16 I delight in Your decrees; I will not neglect Your word.
“I delight in Your decrees; I will not neglect Your word.”
CONCLUSION
We have been warned from all throughout the Bible that there will be false teachers. We have seen that Satan is the source of apostasy and that his lies seek to destroy and corrupt God’s people. We have been told by the Word of God that we must not neglect the word of truth. We need to dig into it to be sure that what we are teaching and what we are being taught is indeed in conformity with the Bible.
May I say in closing that I believe that we need to hear this biblically clear warning more so in our day than ever before in the history of the church. We know that the Great Apostasy will come before Jesus returns. For all we know, the Body of Christ as a whole may be well on that road right now.
Let us never underestimate the massive effects of the media of our day. Just within the last few weeks, I have learned about Oprah’s church. Her New Age message does not just water down the Biblical Gospel of Jesus Christ. It completely dismisses Christ’s death on the cross as being the only way to God. There are “millions of ways”, she says, to “what you conceive of as God” in your life.
Knowing Oprah’s powerful influence, how many will fall for this message? And how many other false doctrines are being perpetrated via the media monster today? We live in a postmodern culture where the idea of absolute truth has been removed from the dialogue as being too dogmatic, too controversial, too politically incorrect.
God needs people today who will stand for His truth.
Where are you going to stand?