So I thought it might be good just to look at apostasy. And I don't have anything specific other than some views and considerations, and you'll see as we go along. With my background, it's easy for me to see apostasy. So we'll go through that a little bit. So let's start with a definition. I got this out of the Bible dictionary and classical Greek. About the fear is a technical term for political revolt or defection and that you're in the subject. It always relates to rebellion against God originally instigated by saying. In the. New Testament. There are two instances of this Greek word in Acts 2121. Paul is accused by the Jews of telling the other Jews to forsake Moses by abandoning circumcision and traditional observances. They wanted to kick him out of the synagogue and get rid of him. until he had them stop at the stairwell. He asked them to stop the people who were taking him away, the military. And he stopped and talked to them about, you know, I am one of you, but on the road to Damascus, this is what happened to me. And so he wanted to show them and tell them what had happened to him. to have people forsake Moses, because they didn't understand grace. And then the second one is in 2 Thessalonians 2.3, which describes the great apostasy of prophecy alongside or prior to the revelation of the man of lawlessness. And as pre-trib, pre-millennials, we believe that it is prior to the tribulation. So, we'll look at that too. What is an apostasy? Well, the words to describe apostasy are words like rebellion, revolt, departure from truth, falling away from the faith, abandonment, defection, and I guess the term that most Protestants use As I came from a Catholic environment into a Protestant environment, I was hearing these strange words, you know, backslidden. Well, what the heck is backslidden? So, I understand what backsliding is now, but that would also fit in here. Just for grins, I went to a Catholic webpage and looked at the Catholic apostasy definition. And they don't use the Greek, they go into the Latin, thanks to Jerome. And apostasy is from apo, from, part, that's the Latin. And stasis, which is station or standing or position. So the word itself in its etymological sense signifies the desertion of a post, giving up of a state of life. so that he who voluntarily embraces a definite state of life cannot leave it without becoming apostate. The examples I give are, most authors distinguish with Benedict XIV and some synods, between three apostasies. The apostasy affidavit, so that the Christian gives up their faith, The apostasy abordinae, when a cleric abandons the ecclesiastical state, so that's when the priest leaves, or apostasy religione, which is when a religious leaves a religious life. Okay, I fall into that category. Apostasy in its strictest sense means apostasy from the faith, and of course that came from the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas, who is a revered saint in the Catholic Church. I got to thinking about apostasy, and I wondered what the point of view would be. So, from a Roman Catholic view, all Protestants are apostates. Why is that? Because we used to be there, you know, back in the early hundreds. From an Orthodox Jewish view, all Messianic Jews are apostates. From the Protestant view, maybe Roman Catholic Church and other Protestant denominations could be apostates. So really, you know, where's your point of view on all this? From an orthodox biblical view, the Roman Catholic Church and many of the Protestant denominations I would call apostate. The real issue is between God and man. Will man acknowledge the creator-creature distinction? Will a man accept a divine viewpoint? So, who was the first apostate? The first one, of course, was Saint. In Isaiah 14, 13, and 14, we read, But you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven, I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the Mount of Assembly and the recesses of the north, and I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High. So, there's a departure, there's a rebellion, there's the first sin, there's the first apostate. Who is the second one? Adam, the first man in whose image and likeness you and I are. So we know that the broken relationship once enjoyed by a man with his creator has been broken. And we are born at enmity with their creator. Yet we know Romans 1 18 through 20 is also true. And that reads for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth. I can't suppress the truth if I don't have it. So God has planted that truth in me. And now I suppress it in unrighteousness. Because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power, His divine nature has been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made. So everything around us, we have to admit that there is some supreme design. So they are without excuse. So this is what we look like. We are enemies with God when we were born. This is where we come into this world, and I wanted to review the world's moral strategy. The strategy of the world is simply to make the world a safe place for sinners. Now think about that. When you walk down the street, nobody talks about God, nobody talks about religion, nobody talks about things that are eternal, because they don't want to talk about God's things. They've never thought about Him, or if they do, it really bothers them. They get a guilty conscience, and so they don't think about it anymore, nor do they want to hear it. So, it is true that the world wants to be a safe place for sinners. So, what does that mean? It means a world without God. It means a world of human viewpoint only, where a man's intellect and ideas are supreme. a world of relative truth, accommodation, compromise, and permissiveness, a world where we make sense of what we see about us from an evolutionary point of view, or the universe from a Big Bang theory, just to keep God out of the discussion. So we don't want to bring him in, and so human philosophy, the logic of The so-called logic of science takes over and they say, well, you know, the stratospheres and the things when you dig down, there's layers and you can see and you can tell how old the world is and evolutionary things. But what happens, we're building up to it, but what happens when this person... These people down here are looking at human viewpoint. So right here we have human viewpoint, and on this level, this is where they are. This is where most people live. And so by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, they are newborn believers. Now, how do you stay? I mean, once you're born, what do you need? You need to be taught. You need to be fed. You need to be taught biblical truth. You need to read, study the word of God. You need to mix with other believers. Just to stay in that environment. You need to look for and use your spiritual gifts. And this is the way we grow stronger in the faith. And the divine viewpoint takes over. That's really what we're after. And so in this state, we enjoy a new relationship, one of father and child. So right in here is where we live right now, you and I. And we live in this fellowship. We're going in and out of fellowship. But that's the sanctification process. And so, when we are spiritually born, we are fed, and we grow, and we grow, and we grow, until physical death, and God takes us home. That's the way we want to have it. But as we look around, apostasy happens one by one, believer by believer. And so, when we find these people, and we think that they are spiritually alive, we have to assume so, what happens? Okay, we're going to go through this again, but from a different point of view. It's grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. They are newborn believers. But if they're not said, if they do not read, if they do not fellowship. They do not look to use their spiritual gifts. They do not grow. And that's what causes people to walk away from churches. I don't like to use the word churches, but from assemblies of believers. They're so influenced by the workplace or some person that they're dating. They just don't have all of the doctrinal truths within them to counteract all the stuff that comes at them. And so consequently, they go from the divine viewpoint to the human viewpoint. So now they're back down here. Are they saved? Yeah, they're saved. But they're not going to grow. And that's what apostasy is. It's the lack of growth. And why is that? It brings in the importance of the Bible. If the Bible is the word of God, then it is the divine viewpoint. And it is the standard by which we live our lives. It contains truths, history. The whole plan of salvation is in there. You can see it flow through the book. You can see the promise in Genesis 315, where I'm going to send a Savior. And you can see all this down through the Exodus. We've been in there. And you can see how God works with Israel. They are very special people that have been called out. Nobody in this world is like the Israelis. There's nobody. Because God has made a contract with them. Nobody else has a contract. There is no religion in this, anywhere, that has a contract with God, that has a relationship between God and this nation. Now, you can transfer that over to the church side, too. We are under contract, if you will. He said, if you believe in me, you are saved. Okay? I'm going to trust you that that's true. We're going to watch that as it goes through, because you can see through history, the contract is stipulated. And through the Bible, you can see the history, the behavior of the contract pieces that they're supposed to fulfill. And the one who fulfills those is God. And he will not go back on his contract. So there's no reason to believe that Israel will not have their land again. But this whole thing of the word of God, it's the essence of what we're talking about tonight. And so when we talk about the Bible, that's a whole mixed bag, too. We say, well, means one thing to one person, something else to somebody else, and how do I read this thing, and what do I do with it, I just don't know. Well, the Bible interpretation, the correct way, is that there's only one, there's one and only one interpretation of any given passage in the, or text of scripture. What is incorrect is the, and you hear this all the time, When people have Bible studies, the revelation exchange, what does this verse mean to you? Or the open box theory of, I feel that this has a much deeper meaning than the words indicate. Or the self-determining exchange of, I don't think that verse is meaningful in our times. Why can't I be a pastor? I'm a woman, but why can't I be? So when we start to look at the rules of hermeneutics, that is the interpretation of this wonderful book, these things are very important. Otherwise, you are falling into these other misuses and you'll get yourself tangled up. And let me say this right now that the wonderful thing about this assembly is that we have good teaching. And if we have questions about it, we know who to go to. That's Jeremy. It's truly, and I say this, I'll say this every Sunday when I get up, but it's a Sunday. I mean, it's a very unique church assembly that we have. because I don't think you can go anywhere in 50 mile radius of here and get the correct interpretation of scripture as we do. I just wanted to say that. Anyway, the rules of hermeneutics. There are six rules that I've got here. The rule of normal, literal, plain sense, and this thing goes, when plain sense of scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense. Take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literary meaning, unless history or grammar in the context indicates clearly otherwise. I know it's Not easy to sit there and understand everything we're saying. I can make copies of this. I printed this part out because I think it's really important. Although I didn't take time to make copies for you. I can afterwards. Use the normal literal plain, not the wooden interpretation of all scripture. Just like you read the newspaper. and include direct significance. For example, Genesis 7.12, it rained forty days and forty nights. In figures of speech like Matthew 7.15, inwardly false prophets are like ravenous wolves. We understand that. Number two, the rule of authorial intent. the original author's meaning, not the original audience's understanding, or our own imputed meaning. So when Paul writes under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, what he's writing there is what we want to pick up and try to understand from the original rule of single meaning. A single text has a single meaning. Now, interpretation is one, but the application can be many. Rule of context. Verse, we're looking at the verse before, the verse after. Let's look at the chapter. Let's look at the book. Let's look at other books by the same author and see if this gels for us. And then looking through the New Testament and the Old Testament, The whole Bible. So the context can be very narrow or very big. The rule of progressive revelation. This has helped me a lot. The Bible came down to man over time and not all at once. And that really helps because you can start to feel history being brought in, brought in, brought in, brought in. And looking back, we can see so much more than they could at the time of the first century. So it's a wonderful time that we're living in. The rule of analogy of faith. All interpretations must harmonize with one another. The Bible is consistently harmonious as a consistently harmonious witness. Things do fit together, and God cannot contradict himself. So these are the kinds of things that I wanted to bring out simply because our focus, even in this church, but the idea is that scriptural truth coming to us from God means that In order to understand it, we need to follow these rules and understand them so that we're doing it correctly and we're doing it consistently. Then we begin to understand. Then when we talk to our fellow believers or help them, we'll know what to do. If they're newborn babes and we're trying to help them, we have to look at the sheet, that's fine. But we're going to do it this way. Warnings about apostasy in Scripture. In 1st Timothy 4, 1-3, the Spirit explicitly says that in later times, some will fall away from the faith. That's apostasy. Paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, which God has created to be gratefully shared by those who believe and know the truth. So, that's a misleading and falling away. And 1 Thessalonians 2, 3, But no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come until the apostasy comes first. We're talking about the rapture. And the man of law We're looking forward to an apostasy and so we'll see later on how conflicting that is. 317 you therefore beloved knowing this beforehand be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your steadfastness. From false prophets and false brethren. In Matthew we read, many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Jesus said that. In Galatians we read, but it was because of the false brethren secretly brought in who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus in order to bring us into bondage. Of course, these were the Jews who would sneak in and try to cause trouble because they were teaching something very different. They weren't teaching Moses and the law anymore. So when we look at false teachers and another gospel, in Galatians 1, 6 through 8, we read, I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting him. who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is not really another. Only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed. Okay? And the word is anathema. We'll find a lot of that later on in Second Timothy four three and four for the time will come when they will no longer. They will not endure sound doctrine. But wanting to have their ears tickled. They will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires and will turn away their ears from truth and will turn aside to miss. Again this is warnings about apostasy false teachers are coming. another gospel is here. I've talked about that a number of times. There are a lot of false gospels out there. First Peter 2, 1 and 2 we read. But false prophets also arose among the people. It says there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them. bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned." Now, these were written a long time ago, but you can just read things in here. The application of this is present today. There's a warning about ungodly persons. In June three and four beloved I was making every effort to write you about common salvation I felt necessary to write to you appealing that you can earnestly for the faith which was one handed for all and which was once we're all handed down to the same. For certain people have crept in and noticed those who are long before and mark that for this kind of nation ungodly person. who trust the grace of who turned the grace of our God into my consciousness and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. Apostasy in the last day. Think of Timothy three one two five. But realize this that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revelers, 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 as these. Well, when are these last days? Well, Dr. Ryrie believes that the term last days covers the entire period from the first to the second advent of Christ. Defection and apostasy, among other things, will characterize that period. So the presence of apostasy is not in itself indicative of the end of the church age, but the increase of it is. And that's why you can't be looking for this great uprising that we're going to have. It's very slow. It's one by one. They drift away. Then all of a sudden you realize it's happening. Apostasy is both present and future. When the climatic apostasy will occur that leads to the religious reign of the man of sin during the tribulation period, we may expect apostasy to become increasingly widespread as we draw nearer to the tribulation days. I know every generation has probably said the same thing, but I'll say it too. It just is getting closer. Now I want to look at the apostasy and Christ's coming. We have two prophetic addresses given concerning Christ's coming. Christ describes his coming to his disciples at two different times. One we find in Matthew 24 and the other one in 14, the Mount of Olives in the upper room. And it's answering two different questions. When will the age at the end of the age occur and where are you going. And it will point out two different events. The first one in Matthew is his second coming for Israel and the church rapture and John 14. Regarding two different groups of people one the Jewish remnant which is explained in Matthew 24. and the soon-to-be church in John 14. And as I was looking at this, it's really interesting the way that it's explained. Matthew 24, the Mount of Olives, and the Olivet Discourse, and it's regarding his program for Israel, the Messianic kingdom, the kingdom that he is trying to give the Jews at this time, and they're not accepting it. So the question as he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, his disciples came to him privately, saying, Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age? Jesus answers, Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations on my account, on my name. And at that time, many will fall away, and will deliver up one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many. And because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations. And then the end shall come. Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, let the reader understand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to get the things out that are in his house. And let him who is in the field not turn back to get his cloak. OK, so you see this whole situation of this answer. What is the age going to end and he's trying to tell them. And so you keep that in mind as we go in to John 14 and the other question. The upper room discourse. This is a very intimate setting for his last night here and he has his disciples around him. It's really a touching scene. But this is regarding the program for the church. for the catching up with church. So the question comes in John 13, 36. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? Because he's been saying, you know, where I'm going, you can't come. But the answer comes in 14, one through three. Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father's house, there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you. For I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself. And where I am, you may also be. You may be also. And then in verse 16, it says, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper, that he may be with you forever. So you can see the two clear answers are not pointing to the same place. They're pointing to two different places. There's an intimacy over here in the upper room. And on the other side, he's out in the open, and he's just sitting there on the Mount of Olives, and people come up and ask him, his disciples come up and ask him, when is the age pinning out there? So there are two different things here we need to look at. Also note that the disciples represent two groups of people. First they represent the faithful of Israel, that is, the remnant for his kingdom. and secondly they represent the new body of the church for which he will take to the father's house. So when I was looking at this I thought well what's the deal with the apostasy then. So the only way I could picture this was to Trying to look at it this way, where the seven years of tribulation here, maybe we call that Israel's last day of apostasy. We got peace over here, don't we? And then right here in Bitcoin is where the piece is broken. So everything breaks loose here. But this whole period here is where Israel is going to have great trials and tribulations. So only a remnant will call upon the Lord and and repent and accept their Messiah and call on him to save her and he will. And then he sets up his kingdom. And then. The other thing we're talking about this intimacy in the upper room with his disciples. He's talking something entirely different. And here he's talking about. Israel's already rejected her Messiah. And so I'm going to send a helper to you. Of course that happens now. We know at Pentecost. So from that point on, we're in the last days. The only thing we can look to is, we don't know whether the apostasy that we're looking at now is actually larger than the one saved before the reformation. We don't know. But, we know that Christ said, I am coming quickly. So, that's what this is. He's going to come in the air, we go up, meet Him in the air, be with Him forever. So, this is different from that. Matthew 24, Israel, John 14, the church. So when we look at apostasy views, we have post-millennialism, amillennialism, pre-millennialism. So the post-millennialist thinks that the church is Well, first of all, the kingdom is now, so the church is going to be victorious. And all of a sudden, when it's full, and everybody's ready for Christ, I mean, we can't get any better. Then he's going to come and say, OK, let's judge the living and the dead, and let's get on with eternity. Well, another view, the Amillennialist thinks pretty much the same thing. He's reigning now in heaven and hearts. But they believe the church ends in apostasy. So when the church finally ends up, they don't believe in a rapture. So what are they going to have? They're going to have a second coming which will usher in eternity. So we'll have a new heaven and a new earth. So this is where we live. We're pre-trib, pre-millennial. We believe also that the church will end in apostasy. And Christ is building his church right now. And there will be a time where he comes to pick us up and capture us out of this place, catching up. And then the second coming we will be with him. And then we will be with him in the millennial kingdom. So those are the three views. So, when we look at apostasy evolving, we're looking at doctrines being challenged in the first century, Greek and Egyptian influence, culture, mythology, intellectualism, superstition. These were not dumb people back then. These were people of letters. But still, it was idolatry. The culture was very much influenced by the Greek. So you can just see that as we come in to Constantine's time in 324, where he pretty much captures the known world, Rome is ready for him. And Rome is poised to take control, which they do. So they have political control, and they have religious control. And so from 600 to 1500 AD, they have power, they have authority, and they have developed tradition. Until the Reformation, where scripture alone is hammered. So let's look at apostasy recognized. Now this is, as I was looking at this, what this is, is a You've got the apostasy from Rome, rebelling against God. You have the reformers on this side, rebelling against the rebellious, who are rebelling against God. So that's why I call it the rebellion against the rebellious. So we've got Rome, which is justified by God's work of grace in man. Now hear me. This is very important. Everything we're going to live here. This is where this is what cuts right through Catholicism and a Bible believer. Reformation says justified by God's work of grace in Jesus Christ outside. Justified by faith which has become activated by love. That's Rome's saying. Well, try justified by faith alone. Justified by infused righteousness. And the infused righteousness happens at baptism in Rome. Over here is justified by imputed righteousness. Justification means making man righteous in his own person. Okay? I've been there and done that. It's not worth that. Justification means that a man is accounted righteous. It's the righteousness of Christ. So, in Rome we're subjective, in the Reformation it's subjective, we're man-centered here, Christ-centered in the Reformation, grace with human experience, and based on a historical event. It's already done. So, when we look at the Roman Catholic Church, we can see apostasy and taking place through history. Jerome translate the scripture into Latin around 400. Latin in prayer. They're big on Latin. In 600, prayers directed to Mary, dead saints, and angels. You can see these things coming in. In these centuries, they're developing their traditions. Kissing the Pope's feet. and seven hundred veneration of the cross. College of Cardinals, canonization of dead people as saints, and then the attendance at mass made mandatory, and celibacy of the priesthood in 1079. The rosary comes up in 1090. The sale of indulgences in 1190. It was there a long time and it's still there by the way. Transubstantiation proclaimed in 1215, confession of sins to the priest. Doctrine of seven sacraments affirmed. In 1545, the Council of Trent had tradition of the church claimed equal in authority with the Bible. So, what does that do to their Bible? It is simply another book. So, it loses its authority. The Apocryphal Books declared canon by Council of Tribes in 1546. Well, there's also a very leap of faith, and let me go through this quickly. The Roman Catholic Church makes a distinction between explicit and implicit faith. Explicit faith being in a known truth. Implicit faith in truths not known. So, that only a few primary truths of religion need to be known and that faith without knowledge as to all other truths is genuine and sufficient. This is coming out of Catholic writings. Thomas Quinert says on this point that the faith of the people is simply a general intention to believe whatever the church believes. And I did that. For example, the church teaches that there are seven sacraments. A man who had no idea what the word sacrament means or what rights are regarded by the church as having sacramental character is held to believe that orders, penance, matrimony, and extreme unction are sacraments to all the other doctrines in the church. Is said to be consistent with absolute ignorance. This is that leap of faith thing according to this doctrine a man may be a true Christian if he submits to the church although in his interior and internal convictions and modes of thought he may be a pantheist or pagan. So, what this says is that it's very easy for Rome to open their doors to Eastern religion, to Muslim friends. Bring whatever it is you have, and we'll just incorporate that. Just recognize our church, and you can kind of keep this somewhere. You can't keep it private, but you can have it. Well, don't think they were not without apostasy. So right after the Reformation, what happens? Protestant issues over church and authority start up. The Roman Catholic influence is still there. Still have culture, spiritualism, liberalism, superstition, internalizing, mysticism, 1600s, 1700s, rationalism. And as you can see here, It started out okay, but then what happened? Rationalism comes in, psychology comes in, we buy into it, relativism. So what we have is the apostasy of the so-called Protestant people. Okay, so here's the, this is the evangelicals and Catholics together, the ecumenical movement. Worldwide, I mean the worldwide, I'm sorry, this is the web, and this is the World Council of Churches. So we're moving into the areas of, I want to say, one world religion, one world economy. So we are moving closer and closer. I don't think we've ever been this close before. So again, I think that's something that we can use to think that Christ will be here real quick. But why did this happen? Well, we're compromising and we're accommodating. That's what's happening. I mean, we don't stand up for anything. And that's why, because we've lost this biblical theology. So, the Reformation principles still hold. Scripture alone, faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone. So, we've got to hang on to that. The environment that we live in, secular humanism. Situational ethics, the study of theology is dead. Self-help books are in. Churches rely on secular psychology. They've got libraries for guidance in that. Protestant liberalism is here to stay. People's faith in the traditions of their church compete with Scripture. Now isn't that interesting? These rebels back in the fifteen hundred. You know we've been doing this for three hundred years we're not going to give this up. What are you doing here. You're competing with scripture. There are poor faulty or no human hermeneutics for interpretation of the Bible. The Bible becomes a coffee table ornament. World Wide Web has an explosion of suspect religious knowledge. The gap between clergy and laity continues to grow. Now I thought that was already dealt with earlier so when I came to be Protestant, I was really taken back when I go to church. I mean the people up here are in garbs just like I saw at the Catholic Church. There's a separation, you know, you guys are having a few, and we're up here, you know, in our lofty position. You know, what's going on here? It's an apostasy movement. Clergy has become a term for equal employment opportunity. You know, if you're homosexual, that's okay. You know, if you're a woman, lesbian, that's okay. Salvation is taught to be tenuous and uncertain. I bumped into a Lutheran not too long ago, a guy a little older than I am, and he was hurting, and I said, well, you know, it won't be long and we'll be with the Lord. Oh, he says, I sure hope so. I said, oh man. Something was not presented well. Alternative lifestyles are taught, promoted, and encouraged in our schools and sex ed. Homosexual marriages are applauded. Individual rights have overtaken the authority status of the family. So, you dare not strike your son because if he dials 911, you're in jail. So, I mean, is that what it's coming to? That is the environment we're living in. So is the standard being followed that scriptural truth that we need to hold on to. I think not. We already saw it here. Catholic Church is going off this way. And the Protestant Church is following right after him. And do you know that the Catholic Church has prayers that are being said continually for the fallen away brethren. Those Protestants that left us in the 1500s. And we know they've gone astray. But they're coming back. And we'll all be one big family and their holy mother the church. So. That's really happening. And it is happening. I mean if they get back there there will be one big church. How do we keep from being drawn into apostasy. Well by recalling our spiritual assets for one thing. We justified regenerated everything reconciled. We're dealt with and what with the Holy Spirit baptized by the Holy Spirit sealed and filled with the Holy Spirit. We have a recovery mechanism in 1 John 1 9. And we're eternally secure. Don't forget that. Every spiritual blessing is ours. We have been elected, predestined, adopted, and have access continually to God We have the word of God. Remember who you are now as a child of God. You are saved. That is a judicial declaration. Sure, it's by grace we do this on our own. It's by grace through faith alone in Christ alone. So now we have fellowship here. We are saved. We are already healed by the Holy Spirit here. And inside here we go round and round just like we do in the family. We get in arguments and we have to make up and say I'm sorry and forgive me and so forth. But our Father is eternal. So we want to live out your new relationship. We have a life span of say 90 years at the most. So, right here, where we're born, and then we start to grow and so forth. This is a sanctification process. And that's where we live. And we become overcomers. So in contrast, the Orthodox Bible, biblical doctrine says justified by God's work of grace in Jesus Christ, the road to apostasy, justified by God's work of grace in man. The orthodox position is justified by faith alone. The road to apostasy is justified by working out our salvation. Justified by imputed righteousness, the orthodox says. Justified by works, the road to apostasy. Justification means that a man is accounted righteous Justification means that a man is righteous in his own person, going into apostasy. So, on the Orthodox side, we're saying it's objective, it's Christ-centered, and it's based on historical event. The road to apostasy is subjective, it's man-centered, and it is graced within human experience, meaning that you can merit your way. Signs of apostasy today, the premise is the Bible is the standard for scriptural truth. Well, we're drawing away people from the standard. We have no hermeneutics or poor hermeneutics. Therefore, allegorical, you know, whether you want to say the Bible just in general is a good against evil. It's just a little play that goes on, and we're supposed to learn from that. private interpretation, it'll mean what I want it to, or mixing of theologies, philosophies and religions. With the output, and all of this stuff brings an output of misguided groups and movements like the ECT, Ecumenical Councils, Emerging Church Movement, Purpose Driven Churches, World Council of Churches and on and on. So, think. Doctrine vs. Experience, Bible Truth vs. Ritual, Biblical Principles vs. Human Philosophy, Objectivism vs. Subjectivism, Faith vs. Works, Grace vs. Merit, Catholic vs. Protestantism. Think about what these things mean. Christian vs. Believer. I really had some problem with that one, because people kept saying Christian, Christian, Christian, and I kept thinking, well, what do you mean by Christian? I prefer the word a Believer. But anyway, Christian vs. Believer. Truth vs. Sincerity. We've got a lot of sincere people out there. Believers vs. Clergy. Church Tradition vs. Biblical Truth, Grace vs. Coercion, Integrity vs. Compromise, Acceptance vs. Accommodation, Exclusivity vs. Inclusivity. Very important. There is only one way. Jesus Christ. The only way. So we look at Divine Viewpoint vs. Human Viewpoint. Now we've made full circle. Today we are witnessing false church messages, false gospel messages, and unbiblical doctrine taught by false teachers everywhere, as foretold in the scripture. And believers are being enticed and led astray. It's a bittersweet situation. We know that the church apostasy must happen before Christ comes at the ratcheting, and this we desire. Yet we are saddened by the movement because those believers are not being fed the real truth of the scripture and their spiritual lives are stunted. Fortunately, we in this assembly are truly blessed by God with clear Bible teaching and orthodox Bible doctrine. We are also blessed with edifying examples of men and women here wanting to serve the Lord by using their spiritual gifts with humility and grace. Always giving God the glory and expecting Christ to return soon. What a great God we serve.