Apostasy

Intro: Peter denied his Lord three times. Not once, nor twice, but three times. When we think about Peter, we might use words to describe him like…soft…scared…unfaithful. But would we say Peter lost his salvation? Was he an apostate?

Put yourself in Peter position. He considered his life in danger. Jesus was just arrested for blasphemy. Would he be next? Jesus predicted his crucifixion after his arrest. Surely all this was going through his mind. Would you do the same?

Let’s escalate this. If masked individuals entered our CG this week and pointed guns at you and your family and told you to renounce your allegiance to Jesus, would you do it? Would you have the strength to continue a faith in Jesus Christ?

We are going to consider these ideas today as we look at 2 Thessalonians 2:3. At times, when a preaching verse by verse, I feel it is important to park on an idea of topic that is mentioned and expound on it. That is what I will attempt to do this afternoon as we consider the topic of apostasy.

Last week, we looked at 2 Thessalonians and Paul warning to the church to avoid falling into the lies and deceit of the false teachers. We labeled them appropriately as wolves that come into our churches and infiltrate our lives in a myriad of ways. We looked at how we can spot and identify those wolves, noting how they operate and their end goal: the disruption of the glory of God and the advancement of their own fame and enrichment.

Today, I want to continue along these lines of Paul’s statements to the church at Thessalonica. They were facing these trials as a church with false teachers who had come in preaching a false doctrine about the 2nd coming of Christ. Sadly, these wolves were successful in trapping some of those persons in the church into believing the heresy they were teaching.

Today, I want us to think about the victims of false teaching who turn away from the faith that they once believed. We don’t often think of them with this term anymore but I want to teach today on the topic of apostasy.

What is an apostate? It sounds like the word apostle but it is far from the opposite spectrum in meaning. Micheal Kruger gives us a helpful definition by starting first with what an apostate is not and then defining the term:

“…they are not just a non-Christian. The world is filled with non-Christians, people who don’t know Jesus and who aren’t saved. An apostate isn’t just an unbeliever out there. Also, an apostate is not just a struggling Christian. There are many people who are Christians and who love Jesus that have periods of backsliding and periods of struggle and even periods of disobedience. An apostate is someone who’s inside God’s covenant community, is part of the visible Church, whose professed faith in Christ, seems to be a believer, probably partakes of the Lord’s Supper and is a member of that congregation, and then later consciously and intentionally repudiates their belief in Christ and leaves the covenant community.”

I know for many of us we have people in our lives that fit into this category and it troubles us deeply. We watched their display of what we considered a faith in Christ. We watched their devotion to a church body. We watched them serve the needs of other people. Then something changed.

It’s usually at this crisis in our lives that we contemplate the question: Can a person lose their salvation? Its the most logical question to ask after we have observed such things. I will take you to God’s word today and answer this question for you. I am going to spend some time taking us to a few other passages this afternoon and then I will end up in 2 Thessalonains chapter 2 to deal with Paul’s words.

The first truth I want to address this morning is …

1. There Cannot Be Apostasy Among The Elect

Let’s define our terms for a moment. We have defined apostasy but how about the term elect. Who are they? Scripture tells us that a person who is genuinely saved by the grace of God has believed by faith in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation because God had chosen before the foundation of the world to do so.

Ephesians 1:3–5 “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,”

There are many people today who want to refute the clear teaching here. They cannot come to grips with the doctrine of election because they wrestle with the aspect of free will. Did I have a choice to choose Christ? We can answer yes here because the Jesus commands all people to “repent and believe the gospel.” (Mk 1:15)

On the other hand, we also must acknowledge that Scripture teaches that you would not have repented and believed the gospel if the Father did not choose you as his own before the earth was ever created. This is where the question gets answered about whether a genuine believer can lose their salvation. I do not want to persuade you of this truth from anything other than Scripture alone. Turn with me to John 6:37–39. Jesus said these words about the church…or the elect of God.

“37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. 38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.”

Jesus is teaching that the church is a gift to Him from the Father. He is not talking about the idea of the church but every genuine believer that is called by God out of darkness into marvelous light. They regenerated person makes us the elect of God or as I like to call it the True Church. Jesus promises in John 6 that no of the elect will be “cast out” nor will “he lose them” but instead he will raise them up on the last day.” We can say that “all” of verse 39 includes not only the elect of God but also includes the earth and heaven and all that exists will be raised to newness and under the reign and Lordship of Christ.

In John 10, Jesus is giving the parable of a shepherd who cares for his sheep. This has been a clear image of God and his people in the OT and in the NT. Jesus is assuring his disciples of their security of salvation while also condemning the listening religious leaders of their absence in the glories of eternal reward.

But he says in v 28-29 of John 10 the most clear very on the security of the salvation to all who truely believe:

John 10:27–29 “27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

Now there is alot that I can say here so let me be brief and clear. If you are the elect of God, you hear the voice of your Shepherd when He calls you to salvation. It is an call that will move you towards Him in faith. In faith you are justified before a holy God and receive forgiveness of sins and adoption as sons and daughters of God. You are his sheep and you were His lost sheep before you came to Him. As the Chief Shepherd, “he sought you and bought by his redeeming blood.” Now if you believe that by his death and resurrection Jesus has the power to give you eternal life, as he says in v 28, then you cannot dismiss that power in the second half of that verse where he says, “they will never perish.” If that clarity is not enough, then again in v 29, he yields to the power and might of the Father who gave the elect to His Son and protects them from being snatched from his mighty grip on their lives. As the elect, your physical and spiritual lives rest in the clutches of a protective and omnipotent God.

Therefore, we as the church confess the doctrine of the security of the believer or the perseverance of the saints. Our statement of faith at RCC, the abstract of principles written by James P Boyce reads:

Those whom God hath accepted in the Beloved, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere to the end; and though they may fall through neglect and temptation, into sin, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, bring reproach on the Church, and temporal judgments on themselves, yet they shall be renewed again unto repentance, and be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. -James Boyce

What this does not mean is that the elect never stumble in sin. This is the hard part of the Christian life because we see our friends stumble in sin. In those moments, we might wonder, are they truly saved? That answer often comes with time and continue gospel care. Sin is still powerful to our flesh and so it has an effect on us still. But our Lord is stronger and he draws those who belong to him back from their stumbling. Stumbling as the elect of God is NOT apostasy! Stumbling as the elect will always result in a return to Christ.

One example in the Bible is Peter. He denied knowing and following Jesus 3 times and yet he was restored. We see grace dispensed by the Lord and we see Peter receive such a grace when the opportunity was afforded to him.

If you are being gripped by some sin in your life and the Holy Spirit has convicted you that you must turn away, do not hesitate, do you wait. Turn now to faith in Christ and turn from that rebellion in your life. God’s grace is sufficient for you.

1 Timothy 1:14 “14 and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus.”

2. The Church Will Continually Have Apostates

While the elect cannot fall away from the faith, the church will experience apostasy. Now I know that sounds contradictory so let me be clear: the visible church will experience apostasy. The Visible church can be defined as those persons among the churches of the Lord Jesus who are members of a local body upon their profession of faith in Christ. Be reminded that apostates are not non-Christians as Michael Kruger stated. Apostates are people who once displayed faithfulness to Christ and since have turned away. The term apostate actually comes from a root word HISTEMI in the Greek that means “to set in place or to stand firm.” But when you combine the prefix APO to HISTEMI, you get the opposite meaning which means “rebellion or falling away.” Apostates once stood firm with Christ in their confession but they rebelled against Him. How is this possible?

This is where some will claim that a person can lose their salvation. But Scripture actually speaks to the reality that the church will have wolves in sheep’s clothing. They will also have goats among the sheep. They will have those in the church who are not truly saved even if they confess the name of Christ. Turn with me to Hebrews 3. (Read Hebrews 3:6-12)

Hebrews 3:12 “12 Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.”

The writer looks back to rebellious Israel who consistently turned to idols and rebelled against the covenant they had with the Lord. He warns the church to examine themselves to see if the characteristic of unbelief in the heart is present in them. We all may experience moments of unbelief in our minds, but unbelief of the heart leads to ruin and destruction. The regenerated heart by Christ cannot be undone or reversed. If unbelief exists within you it will lead to your apostasy.

Albert Barnes writes to the professing Christian:

Hebrews Chapter 3

“You are traveling through a wilderness—the barren wilderness of this world. You are exposed to trials and temptations. You meet with many a deadly and mighty foe. You have hearts prone to apostasy and sin. You are seeking a land of promise; a land of rest. You are surrounded by the wonders of Almighty power, and by the proofs of infinite beneficence. Disobedience and rebellion in you will as certainly exclude you from heaven as their rebellion did them from the promised land; and as (Israel’s) great sin was unbelief, be on your guard lest you manifest the same.”

If the writer is talking to professing Christians, then we must heed his warning and examine our hearts to look for genuine faith. Who are we believing in for salvation? Do our desires long for Jesus Christ and obedience to His word? Do our affections seek heavenly or earthly pleasures?

This can be any of us here today.

2 Corinthians 13:5 “5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?”

The circumstances of Apostasy

Often this apostasy occurs when trials and temptations reveal the true heart of that person. Jesus made this clear in Matthew 13 when he gave the parable of the good seed. He teaches that the good seed falls on different types of grounds. The seed on the path represents the person who never commits to Christ. Jesus states that the devil snatches away the gospel seed like a bird because the person receiving it does not understand. We know this a person who is not regenerated because “he does not understand the word of the kingdom.” But the following examples appear to be people who confess with thge mouth that Jesus is Lord, but they do not believe with their heart.

Matthew 13:20–22 “20 “The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. 22 “And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.”

A. Trials

You can see that the person represented with the seed on rocky places receives the gospel message with joy but it is only temporarily. We know this could be a few weeks or a few years. Their spiritual emotions are high for Jesus. They are faithful in community. But the trials and afflictions like persecution arises and they fall away. The trial itself served as the X-ray of their unbelieving heart.

B. Treasures

The other person described is one who again receives the word at first. The seed grows to a plant but the plant growing among the thorns will only wither and die. Jesus describes that the thorns are the cares of the world that choke out the fruit of the professing believer. Again, they immediately displayed growth but the world’s treasures ultimately won the heart of the man.

C. Teaching

The third circumstance that we looked at last week is false teaching that lures a person away from their faith in the Lord. These false teachers lure them with words that soothe their egos and their desires.

2 Timothy 4:3–4 “3 For 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.”

We see this so clearly today in the atrocities of the new god of this age. When I say god, its actually an acronym GENDER OFFENDED DEMONS. This is the LGBTQ infiltration into the religious sphere where worship is replaced with ritual, preaching is replaced with political speeches, and accountability is replaced with subjectivity. It is luring people away from sound doctrines of God’s word that condemns such evils. Some, who were once well known preachers and influencers in the church like Joshua Harris and Jen Hatmaker, now reject Christ and bow down to these false gods. They are unbelieving, unrepentant apostates.

We are deeply discouraged in the church when we see such a fall. This year alone who great men in the Reformed world shattered our minds when their sins were revealed and their gospel ministries were destroyed. I do not know currently where Steve Lawson and Josh Buice stand in their faith in Christ but I pray they repent and turn back to Him. But their actions reflect the discouragement we can feel.

But there is hope for those whom we might call current apostates because there is still time to repent. There is still grace to enjoy by the Lord Jesus if they forsake their sin and believe in Christ alone. Friends, we can pray fervently for the Lord to do a resurrection work in their lives.

Friends, if you examine yourself and you discover an unbelieving heart, then please let today be the day of salvation for you.

Romans 10:9“ 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;”

3. There Will Be The Final Apostasy in the Church

Finally, we come to the last category of apostasy to be considered today. Going to our passage in 2 Thessalonians, Paul mentions this briefly but the event itself stands so powerfully in the future history of the church.

2 Thessalonians 2:3 “3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,”

Paul instructs the Thessalonians that they will know the immence of the return of Christ when they see “the apostasy” that comes first. The second clue which is connected to that apostasy is the anti-Christ or the man of sin. Paul calls this “THE APOSTASY” and it precedes the coming of Christ. With the definite article, we know that it is a prophesied event in the church.

I have no doubt that Paul reflects back to the words of the Lord on this issue as he teaches the church about the 2nd coming of Christ. Jesus taught that before HIS 2nd coming and the final judgment, there would be events that would occur that would be signs to warn of His imminent return.

One such event is the GREAT APOSTASY of the CHURCH. He says

Matthew 24:10–13 “10 “At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. 11 “Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. 12 “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. 13 “But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.”

Paul gives a similar warning to Timothy:

1 Timothy 4:1“1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,

It seems that one of the great effects of the coming of the Anti-christ is the way he will be able to lead many in the church away from true faith in Christ.

2 Thessalonians 2:3–4 “3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.”

We will spend more time on the Anti-christ next week but it is clear that this worker of Satanic power will have such an effect that it will lead a great number in the church astray and they will not endure to the end. It seems inconceivable for us to consider this that a great number, an unknown number, will turn from the faith. But is it so hard to believe?

Consider the nature of humanity and the nature to “go with the flow.” I call it the herd mentality. If you were in a downtown area of a city, with large crowds of people and all the sudden that crowd starts screaming and running in one direction, what is your instinct? You run first and ask questions later. What do you think will happen when the Antichrist comes on the scene and does miracles by the power of Satan and large amounts of professing believers turn from their faith….herd mentality. Like the swine full of demons running off the cliff to their death, many professing CHRISTIANS will follow the herd to the doorstep of the teaching and blasphemy of the anti-Christ, forsaking the Lord.

This is where true faith comes into play! If we live to the time of the anti-christ, how will we make it. How will we not also fall away?

Genuine faith in Christ will gives us discernment to not fall away. True faith will give us strength not to succumb to forsaking our faith in Christ. True hope will tether us to the rock of Ages so that we will overcome.

Revelation 3:5 “5 ‘He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”

Revelation 5:5 “5 and one of the elders said to me, “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.””

The True church will avoid apostasy and will overcome all temptation and trials because we are rooted in the One who overcame for us. It will be the power of Christ and the Spirit that empowers us to the end. As we overcome and not fall away, the glory of Christ will be displayed in us!