Our subject this week is understanding Bible prophecy, understanding Bible prophecy. We have dealt in the last session with the resurrection body. We didn't get quite through that. We didn't get to the spiritual body and the heavenly body and the immortal body, but we're going to go now to the great prophecies for the present time, the great prophecies for the present time. which is a major section of our course. And we're going to end there, basically, with these prophecies. 2 Timothy 3 and 4, end-time apostasy. Psalm 2, the rebellion of the nations. 2 Peter 3, skepticism and unbelief. Ezekiel 37, the valley of dry bones. Matthew 28, the end of the age. Matthew 20, the busy householder, which will end up at midnight tonight. We're going to get as far as we can and do what we can with this. We're going to begin this morning with II Timothy 3 and 4. Major One of those great passages is it put these great events together into one passage and summarize all the major lessons of that prophetic event. This is prophecy we're looking at, II Timothy 3 and 4, but the prophecy began to be fulfilled in the days of the apostles and is continuing to be fulfilled in our day. II Timothy 3 and 4, Well, let's read the first. First is here, verses one through, I guess, 12 or 13 in chapter three. This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come. Men shall be lovers of their own selves. There, that's the root problem. That is the, yeah, that's the fundamental characteristic of the modern pop culture. Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthinkful, unholy. without natural affection, truce breakers, 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. Who are these people? You say, well, yeah, that's the world. No, it's not talking about the world. It's talking about professing Christianity, those that have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof. These are Christians, so-called, ever learning, never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. They creep into houses, verse six, and leave captive silly women, related with sins. There's a good title for a sermon. I've never heard it. I'll be the only one to love a preacher, probably. Silly women laden with sins. Wouldn't that be popular? The word of God is so powerful and sharp. Amazingly blunt. Ever learning, never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Janice and Jambres withstood Moses, and so do these also. Resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. They shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was. But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith. longsuffering, charity, patience. The Apostle Paul, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Let's continue reading. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, truly furnished unto all good works. And then chapter 4 verse 1, chapter 4 verse 1, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom. Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort. with all longsuffering and doctrine, 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. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me in that day, and that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." There, the imminent return of Christ. It's just mentioned everywhere. Apostasy. The doctrine of apostasy is a doctrine that's taught clearly in the Bible, and it's no small thing. It is a fundamental doctrine. It is a fundamental issue. Apostasy means to turn from the true Christian faith. The Greek word apostasia appears twice in the New Testament. It's translated forsake Moses, Acts 21, 21. They forsake Moses, forsaking the law. But in 2 Thessalonians 2, 3, it's translated falling away. and in brief, the doctrine of apostasy is the teaching that there will be a falling away from the New Testament Christian faith, beginning even in the days of the apostles and progressing in strength throughout the church age, ending in a, in an explosion of apostasy at the end of the age, just preceding the appearance of the mystery Babylon and that One World Church church, so-called, and antichrist described in Revelation. That is the Bible's doctrine of apostasy. It's taught right here in this passage. The New Testament prophecy describes two streams of churches, sound ones that will continue down to the end and be raptured, but also apostate ones. Christ definitely promised that true churches would continue to the end of the age. and he promised he would be with them, Matthew 28, 18 through 20, but scripture also describes multitudes of false churches, false churches, and eventually the apostate churches will far outnumber the true ones. That's where we are. The doctrine of apostasy, it's summarized in one little verse, chapter 3, verse 13. Here it is in a nutshell. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Are they deceived or being deceived? Both. And that's talking about these false teachers. And they're going to increase and increase and increase throughout the age. That is one of the major characteristics of the church age. Jesus taught the doctrine of apostasy in his parables of the mysteries of the kingdom in Matthew 13. And in a nutshell, the mysteries of the kingdom, the parables are describing the church age, which is not described in the Old Testament. It's a mystery. And so he's describing the character of the church age in these parables. And for example, Verse 33, Matthew 13, 33, parable of the hidden leaven. Here it is again in a nutshell, in a summary, little summary. God puts these big things in just a few words. Matthew 13, 33, the kingdom of heaven is likened to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leaven. The whole was leaven. And this teaches, and so this woman comes and hides leaven in the meal, in the loaf, and hiding leaven in there, sneaky, deceptive, wrong. But leaven increases, spreads. The only way to stop it is to cut it out. Very hard to stop. And so it spreads. How does it spread? Till the whole was leavened. That's where we are today. Talking about Christianity. There's true New Testament churches, but Christianity, the whole is leavened. The whole thing is apostate. And you've got to understand that. It's good. It's a proper worldview. Biblical worldview to understand that Christianity is apostate. And The description of apostasies woven into the entire New Testament epistles, the beginning with Jesus warning about false teachers coming, wolves in sheep's clothing, powerful language. And then all of the apostles warning about it, and the warnings increasing as the New Testament canon is completed and formed, and the farther we go into the New Testament toward Revelation, the more warnings there are. And then entire chapters, and here's two almost entire chapters we read in Paul's writings, and then Peter, 2 Peter 2, 2 Peter 3, the whole chapters, and in Jude, the whole epistle, and, and so it, it, this doctrine of apostasy is woven into the very fabric of the New Testament epistles. It's a very important, major New Testament doctrine, apostasy, very little known. Even an independent so-called. The necessity of understanding the doctrine of the apostles, absolutely necessary. It's necessary for a right understanding of church history. It explains the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek orthodoxy, Gnosticism, Montanism, and Corinthianism, and adoptionism, and Sabellianism, and Arianism, and Manichaeism, and infant baptism. What are you doing baptizing that little baby? It's apostasy, baptismal regeneration, priestcraft, the papacy, transubstantiation, sacramentalism, auricular confession, meriality, the cult of the saints, purgatory, pilgrimages, holy bells and holy water and holy relics, scapulars and rosaries and monasticism, asceticism and cathedrals, iconography, inquisitions and amillennialism and the Crusades. Antinomianism and Enlightenment theology, Unitarianism, Transcendentalism, Theological Liberalism, Documentary Theories, Formed Criticism, Textual Criticism, Socially Sabbath-Keeping, and that's just the beginning. Where did all these crazy things come from? Not here. Apostasy. The doctrine of apostasy is necessary for a proper understanding of the times in which we live. Christian worldview? Why are there so many contradictory denominations in churches? Why are so few churches there? Why are there so few churches that take the Bible seriously? Why? Why is Christianity so divided? Is the ecumenical movement a good thing? Why are there so many disgraceful scandals in Christianity? Apostasy, the doctrine of apostasy. It explains the existence of the word-faith Pentecostalism, queer theology, critical race theory, female theology, God the mother, the universal fatherhood of God, self-esteem theology, gender-inclusive Bible versions, contemplative mysticism. Rock and roll Christianity, cultural liberism, universal salvation, the widespread denial of judgment in hell among professing Christians, and a multitude of other heresies. What? How can I make sense of it? Well, the Bible explains it, apostasy. The doctrine of apostasy is necessary for spiritual and doctrinal protection. necessary. This doctrine, understanding it, has protected me for more than 50 years, protected me in the early years when I was wandering before I was in a good Bible church, wandering in the wilderness of apostasy. And God protected me. And I knew that to expect lots of false things in Christianity and not just be gullible. And I knew I had to study the Bible and test everything by the Bible. It protected me. protected me, has protected me ever since. I was in a, the first ecumenical conference I attended with media credentials was in 1987, giving reports, firsthand reports for Old Timothy Magazine. And it was in New Orleans in 1987. It was called the North American Congress on the Holy Spirit and World 35,000 or so people there, massive conference. 40 denominations, they were all there. 50% of them were Roman Catholic, Roman Catholic priests and nuns everywhere. And charismatic, the music and the charismatic experiences united them. It's all about unity. Roman Catholic mass every morning. prayers to Mary in the bookstore. There were books about Mary pilgrimages to places where Mary has appeared. You know where Mary has appeared? Nowhere. Demons. Absolutely. And you could buy little statues of Mary and you could buy rosaries. What an absolute mess of apostasy. Well, I was talking with a young man one afternoon, and I asked him, he was Episcopalian, and I asked him about his salvation testimony, and it sounded like he had a salvation testimony. So I said to him, well, if you're born again, why can't you be comfortable in the midst of this apostasy? And he said, well, he said, you need to relax and enjoy what God's doing. That's what he said to me. And you know what? I want to relax and enjoy what God's doing, but I don't want to relax and enjoy what the devil is doing under the guise of being an angel of light and ministers of righteousness, 2 Corinthians 11. No, sir. No, sir, Mr. Gullible. The simple believeth every word, but the prudent looketh well to his going. Simple goes to the ecumenical conference. Whoa, it's all good Prudent goes there and test it with the Word of God and says, oh, it's all bad. It's just what it's not our opinion This is not our opinion. This is definitely not our opinion. This is not man's thinking But we can learn it and test things by God's thinking and Every born-again saint must understand this doctrine and protect himself and his loved ones against error. We see here the characteristics of apostasy. We want to look at the characteristics of apostasy. We're giving an overview of this great passage. And God gives us the characteristics. We see, first of all, it's self-focus. Self-focus. They shall be lovers of their own selves. First thing that's mentioned. And isn't it interesting that that's a major characteristic of modern society, the pop culture? It's all about me, my music, my fashion, my Facebook, my iPhone, iTunes. What's that all about? YouTube. Advertising slogan, you can have it your way. A new Chinese car, build your dreams. If you just get that electric car. In 2006, Time Magazine's person of the year was you. Why not? The cover featured a plastic reflective mirror so you could see your own image and celebrate yourself. That sounds like lovers of their own selves. The age of the selfie, 2015, Kim Kardashian, that great, anyway. published 500 selfies entitled it, Selfish. I mean, what kind of age is this? Worldly. Verses 2 through 4 describes, 2 Timothy 3, 2 through 4 describes an amazing seeming description of the world, but it's not. It's professing Christianity. and all these descriptions, unholy, without natural affection. Many of them killed their own babies. That's got to be the apex of that to some degree. And there it is, the worldliness. It's a description of professing Christianity. It's been true of a large number of professing Christians since the apostasy that created the Roman Catholic Church, when they began to accept pagans just by infant baptism, and they brought all their sins with them into the church, so-called. fulfilled right there. The Catholic Church in more modern times have spent billions of dollars to satisfy lawsuits caused by its perverted priests. But the pop evangelicalism of the late 21st century is also a fulfillment of this. 1978, Richard Kibbido wrote the book, The Worldly Evangelicals, And he listed R-rated movies, and abortion, and profanity, and pornography, and homosexuality, and drinking, and marijuana, among who? Evangelicals. It's 1978. It's gotten a lot worse since then. Having Christian religion, but denying the power thereof, verse 5, having a form of godliness, a form, externals, But denying the power thereof, the power thereof is first of all born again. There's no power without born again. It's not sacraments and baptism. It's born again, supernatural conversion. That's power. That's life-changing power, but not religion. There's no power. But the World Council of Churches, Well, Council of Churches is huge. 340 denominations representing 500 million professing Christians. November 1993, they had the re-imaging conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota attended by 2,000 women. And they were seeking to change Christianity. They worshiped Sophia, the biblical goddess of creation. And they prayed the trees for energy. And they had a standing ovation for lesbians. They had all the lesbians come up on the platform and they all gave them a standing ovation. That sounds like apostasy. They were celebrating, quote, the miracle of being lesbian, out, and Christian. DeLores Williams of Union Theological Seminary said, I don't think we need a theory of atonement at all. I don't think we need folks hanging on crosses and blood dripping and weird stuff. We just need to listen to the God within. Christians, Virginia Mallincott said, Jesus is our elder brother in the sense that he was the first to show us that it's possible to live in oneness with the divine source while we're here on the earth. I can no longer worship in a theological context that depicts God as abusive parent and Jesus as an obedient, trusting child. That's blasphemy, Virginia. the Sixth Assembly of the World Council in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Sixth Assembly, they opened with the Native Americans dancing around a sacred flame, making pagan offerings of tobacco and fish and readings from Hindu and Buddhist and Muslim scriptures, and Muslim scriptures. And Mark, Dirk Mulder, moderator of the Interfaith Dialogue Program at the time said, He does not believe people are lost forever if they're not evangelized. And in another interview, he said, he was asked, would you feel, he was asked, would you feel that a Buddhist or Hindu could be saved without believing in Christ? You feel that? And he said, sure, sure. Enthusiastic. Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. That's it. That's the Roman Catholic Church. It's been a perpetual state of change. It's true for Christian philosophy, theological modernism. Rejection of sound Bible teaching. They shall not endure sound doctrine. We go over to 2 Timothy 4. They shall not endure can't endure it, they shall turn away their ears from the truth. It's a willful thing. It's not an ignorance thing. Turn away, apostropho, to remove, to revolt, to reject, to desert. Turn away, act of the will. I don't like that old theology. I need some new theology. They have itching ears for teachers who will be their new theologians, and there's multitudes of them, walking after their own lust, 2 Timothy 4, 3, the characteristics of apostasy. What kind of Christianity is that? I can live according to my own lust. Don't you tell me what I can do, what music I can listen to. Who do you think you are? Whether or not I can go to the tavern and drink, whether or not I can dress or whatever style I want to, or not, or no style. No, don't you tell me that preacher. Try to preach this stuff in the average church and see what, average independent Baptist anymore. Absolutely, because they're evangelical. But definitely, you go beyond that, try to go over here to one of these rock and roll outfits and preach this stuff today about silly women and things? Oh, my. Fierce? You'd experience some fiercity. Yeah, this is a perfect description of rock and roll Christianity. They call the standards of holy living, biblical standards, grace killers. Grace killers, those rules are legalistic. Burying Christianity is pharisaical. Yeah, there you go, walking after your own lust. After I got saved, God began to teach me not to walk after my own lust. in every area, and it's called cultural liberalism. One group of evangelicals, Mark Driscoll, he said, we are theologically conservative and culturally liberal. culturally liberal. So we got our theology right, he said. He didn't have that right either. But he wanted to be considered a Bible believer in the sense of doctrine. But culturally liberal, hey, rock and roll is great. They had secular rock, rock and roll every month. The church hosted a secular rock. One time this Japanese group came in and took all their clothes off. What do you expect of rock and rollers? Why'd they do that? They're rock and rollers. And they had champagne dance parties for New Year's Eve. This was Mars Hill Church out in Seattle, evangelical, mainstream kind of thing. You had to bring your ID for the New Year's Eve dance program where you come bust a move. They said, come bust a move. But if you brought your idea and proved your age, you could drink the champagne, R-rated movies, drinking, filthy music. Donald Miller, we're talking about walking after their own lust type of Christianity. We're not talking about Roman Catholicism here or Greek Orthodoxy or whatever, theological modernism. We're talking about evangelicalism. Donald Miller wrote a popular book called Blue Like Jazz. Jazz is an unresolving kind of thing, kind of music that just, there's no rules with jazz. That's one of the main things. And so he's saying, I want a Christianity that's like jazz, no rules. He described a very popular, very influential book, Blue Like Jazz, 2003. And he described how he was in a traditional Bible church. He wasn't happy. He wanted to drink beer. He said, I want to drink beer and watch raunchy movies and talk trashy and hang out with atheists and hippies. There you go. Well, okay. Go do that. But no, I still want to be a Christian. Oh. So he found that. He found liberty in cultural liberalism in those kinds of churches. David Foster. There's all kinds of books promoting this today, but one of those was David Foster, A Renegade's Guide to God, Finding Life Outside Conventional Christianity. And he's a pastor. He said, we won't be told what to do or commended how to behave. There's your pastor. You don't like rules and stuff? There's your guy. There's the equivalent in Australia. They're out there. Go over there. Are you a pastor? We're not going to be told what to do or commanded how to behave? No telling where he is today. Affection for ear-tickling teachers. 2 Timothy 4.3, heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. I was at an Emerging Church Conference in San Diego, California a few years ago, sponsored by Zondervan Publishers. Most of the big influential guys were there. I was there with media credentials. I got to have interviews. I was having an interview with one of those prominent Emerging Church guys. We were sitting, it was a little late, so we were sitting there, the video guy and me, waiting for him, and there's this young man sitting over there. So we started talking to him, and he started telling me his testimony. He said, I was in this very strict Baptist church. They preached against rock and roll, if you can imagine. That's what he said. He said, I left it, I went out, helped form the rock and roll group, Jimmy Eat World, I think it's called, Jimmy Eat World, and the rock and roll, secular rock and roll, and God is liberty. And then he said, I started hearing these things from these merchant guys. And he said, it resonated with me. Yeah, it did, because you can live as you please. And be a Christian, so-called? I don't really understand that. If I'm going to live as I please, I'm going to just live as I please, which is what I did, and throw the Christianity, because it's false Christianity. If you can live as you please, that's not biblical Christianity. Even I knew enough about that. Love of fables. But these ear-tickling preachers, oh, they got them here in Australia, Hillsong. And that guy, what was his name? Brian Houston. You know, the Sydney Morning Herald years ago interviewed with that guy. Why is your church so big? Churches in Australia are big. He said, we're scratching them where they itch. Okay, Brian. And that's what he did. Well, he bombed out. I want those preachers that are, ah, new theology, new Christianity, love of fables, they shall be turned into fables, 2 Timothy 4.4. Fables, what's that? Any teaching that's contrary to God's Word, really. It's broad. Apostate people, any teaching that apostate people turn to when they reject God's Word, There's the biggest Mary church in the world is in Rome, Mary Major, been there multiple times, doing my research. And of course, it's all about Mary. And you go inside there and there's Mary, the statue, Queen of Peace. You look up on the ceiling, there's Mary sitting in the throne with Jesus being crowned Queen of Heaven, blue orb. Then you walk outside, you walk over to the left, you go toward the parking lot, there's a huge crucifix as tall as this room, and there's Jesus on one side, and then there's Mary on the other side, which is Catholic doctrine. Mythology, the path by sea, infant baptism, tongues speaking as an unintelligible babble, spirit slaying. Greek mythology, fables, the Shaq God. The Shaq was a novel that was very influential in a lot of Southern Baptist season. It resonated with them because he was preaching a new kind of God, a God that doesn't judge, a God that doesn't have any hell, and it resonated with a lot of Baptists. Fables! Theistic evolution, contemplative mysticism. Christian rock is a fable. People can go to heaven without personal faith in Christ. Billy Graham believed that, said that in multiple interviews. Willful, they will not endure sound doctrine. They will heap to themselves. They shall turn away their ears. This is a willful thing. It's not an ignorance thing. If you have an ignorance problem, when you hear the truth, it will resonate with you. But no, this is a willful problem. They shall. And then the apostasy takes control. You reject the truth, then there's a power that's going to become effective upon you. Notice what it says. 2 Timothy 4, the wording here, they shall not endure. After their own lusts, they'll they teep themselves. They shall turn away their ears. But then it says, shall be turned unto. So something else is acting upon him now. Shall be turned unto fables. You reject the truth. Even in a Bible-believing church, you can sit there and reject the truth, especially as a child. And then that's what happened to me. And then something started operating upon me. And I went places I never intended to go, bad places. And so they shall be turned. apostasy. And so we want to conclude this in the next service because there is great victory in apostasy. Great victory in apostasy. Very encouraged. I know about as much as the negative things that are going on as anyone, I guess. in Christianity, in the world, in politics and everything, but a very encouraged person, very encouraged in the Lord's business, in the New Testament church, and very encouraged in these apostate times, and we need to be. And so we want to look at victory in the midst of apostasy. And so somehow or the other, we're going to leave you with that. Negative, very negative. If you're not big on negative, well, you're not going to like the Bible much. There was a man that decided he would make a positive Bible. I bought it. And he's going to take all the negative out of the Bible. Really, he published it. And I saw it, positive Bible. And he did take all the negative out. It's very small. It's very small. My wife said, you buy any kind of book? bless her heart, she doesn't understand. Victory. But we've got to understand. Got to understand. And then, yes, there's great victory. You've got to understand these things. Most independent Baptists aren't even dealing with these things. There's no victory in ignorance. God bless you, Pastor.