A Concise Sermon on Cosmic Apostasy

"Remember that if you are a child of God, you will never be happy in sin.  You are spoiled for the world, the flesh, and the devil.  When you were regenerated there was put into you a vital principle, which can never be content to dwell in the dead world.  You will have to come back, if indeed you belong to the family."  (C.H. Spurgeon)

Apostasy is an act of the volitional will against Christ.  It is falling away from a holy God and His written Word.  It is siding with the dark world in subjective wickedness.  The nature of man seeks to side with Satan.  He was our former "Master" before spiritual rebirth.  It is possible for a converted elect sinner to commit partial apostasy.  Look no further than Galatians chapter 2.  St. Peter stood condemned on the divine truth of the gospel.  He committed what we call something like partial apostasy.   That is, he added circumcision to the exclusive Cross of Jesus Christ.  

St. Paul set him straight through the message of God-speaking.  He declared the unknown grace of Jesus Christ in His unified righteousness alone in how to be right with a holy God.  There is no other way to be right with God than through Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12).  Something like full apostasy is the outward actions of Judas Iscariot.  Full apostasy is most likely the evidence of God's choice of damnation.  There is also a sense where God could really work on a apostate heart.  That is, there is no telling where the sinful nature will led a cosmic sinner.  

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in his excellent Word!
What more can he say than to you he hath said,
You who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?
"Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed;
I, I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.
"When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
"When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
"E'en down to old age all my people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in my bosom be borne.
"The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no, never, no, never forsake."  (TH, 80).

Damnation today would be seen in people who outwardly loved the Reformed gospel but went to the Roman gospel that is not another gospel but a different gospel.  We must remember true biblical history.  The Book of Romans speaks of the one-true gospel of the only God-man Jesus Christ.  Hence the first schismatic was the Roman Church because she no longer holds to faith alone in Christ alone.  To deny the gospel in the plain testimony of Scripture is a sign of cosmic damnation through a willingness of apostasy which if left to itself will led to hell.

"Yes, apostasy happens.  Sometimes the catalyst is flagrant sin.  The pain of conviction and repentance is refused, and the only alternative to it is wholesale rejection of Christ.  But sometimes the catalyst is a thorn growing quietly in the heart, an indifference to the way of the Cross, a drifting that is not reversed by the knowledge of biblical warnings."  (Sinclair Ferguson, Apostasy and How it Happens, Tabletalk, April. 2004, p. 28, Used by Permission).

Again on apostasy,

"The universal witness of the New Testament is that apostasy if persisted in not only damns but shows that salvation was never real in the first place. The New Testament reveals how close one may come to the kingdom – tasting, touching, perceiving, understanding. And it also shows that to come this far and reject the truth is unforgivable."  (D.A. Carson, Matthew, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Zondervan, 1984, p. 292).

Hence the motivation of apostasy,

"No one sets out to become an apostate - it's never the result of one abrupt, drastic turn away from the Lord. Instead, apostasy is most often the product of a pattern of sinful compromises that harden and gradually steer a professing believer away from the truth."  (John MacArthur GTY Newsletter, May 15, 2009, www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by permission).

Those of apostasy sink into hell, 

"None sink so far into hell as those that come nearest heaven, because they fall from the greatest height."  (William Gurnall, A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 20).

 The causes of apostasy are Satan (Lk 22:31), false teachers (Acts 20:29, 30), perversion of Scripture (2 Tim. 4:3, 4), persecution (Mt 13:21), unbelief (Heb. 4:9-11), love of the world (2 Tim 4:10),  hardened heart (Acts 7:54, 57), spiritual blindness (Acts 28:25-27).  Apostasy is manifested in resisting the truth (2 Tim 3:7, 8).  It is possible to hear God's truth but hate it.  It is possible to hear God's truth but turn away from it.  This happens because of the absence of the Spirit of God in a sense of spiritual rebirth or illumination touching Christian living.  Apostasy is resorting to cosmic deception (2 Cor. 11:13-15) and reverting to immorality (2 Pet 2:14, 19-22).   The safeguard against apostasy is God's written Word (Ps. 119:11; 2 Tim 3:13-17), spiritual growth (2 Pet 1:5-11), sound doctrine (Acts 20:29-31), faithfulness (Mt 24:42-51), spiritual perception (1 Jn 4:1-6),  being grounded in the truth (Eph 4:13-16), using God's armor (Eph 6:10-20) and preaching God's holy Word (2 Tim 4:2, 5).

My Saviour's praises I will sing,
And all his love express;
Whose mercies each returning day
Proclaim his faithfulness.
"Ev'ry day will I bless thee!
Ev'ry day will I bless thee!
And I will praise will praise thy Name
For ever and ever!"
Redeemed by his almighty power,
My Saviour and my King;
My confidence in him I place,
To him my soul would cling.
On thee alone, my Saviour, God,
My steadfast hopes depend;
And to thy holy will my soul
Submissively would bend.
O grant thy Holy Spirit's grace,
And aid my feeble powers,
That gladly I may follow thee
Through all my future hours.   (TH, 703).

The nature of fallen man will led to false doctrine,

"There are very few errors and false doctrines of which the beginning may not be traced up to unsound views about the corruption of human nature. Wrong views of the disease will always bring with them wrong views of the remedy. Wrong views of the corruption of human nature will always carry with them wrong views of the grand antidote and cure of that corruption."  (J.C. Ryle, Quoted in: TULIP, The Five Points of Calvinism in the Light of Scripture by Duane Edward Spencer, Baker, 1979, p. 23).

Again we read on false teachers,

"What is the best safe-guard against false teaching? Beyond all doubt the regular study of the word of God, with prayer for the teaching of the Holy Spirit. The Bible was given to be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Psalm. 119:105). The man who reads it aright will never be allowed greatly to err. It is neglect of the Bible which makes so many a prey to the first false teacher whom they hear. They would have us believe that "they are not learned, and do not pretend to have decided opinions." The plain truth is that they are lazy and idle about reading the Bible, and do not like the trouble of thinking for themselves. Nothing supplies false prophets with followers so much as spiritual sloth under a cloak of humility."  (J.C. Ryle, Commentary, Matthew 7).

False teachers twist things.  Dr. Luther wrote,

"The most damnable and pernicious heresy that has ever plagued the mind of man was the idea that somehow he could make himself good enough to deserve to live with an all-holy God"

False teachers stray from God's truth,

"The mark of the false prophet or teacher is self-serving unfaithfulness to God and His truth. It may be that he says what he shouldn’t; but it is far more likely that he will err by failing to say what he should. He will gloss over all the tough questions and issues as did the false prophets in the Old Testament who went around saying, "Peace, peace," when there was no peace (Jer. 6:14). They wouldn't speak the tough word calling for repentance nor suggest that Israel was out of sorts spiritually. Instead they brought groundless comfort, lulling people into a false sense of security so that their hearers were totally unprepared for the judgment which eventually came on them. There are teachers in the church today who never speak of repentance, self-denial, the call to be relatively poor for the Lord's sake, or any other demanding aspect of discipleship. Naturally they are popular and approved, but for all that, they are false prophets. We will know such people by their fruits. Look at the people to whom they have ministered. Do these folks really know and love the Lord? Are they prepared to take risks, even hazard their lives, for Jesus? Or are they comfortable, inactive, and complacent? If so, they are self-deceived, and those who have irresponsibly encouraged their self-deception will have to answer for it. Anyone who is in a position of spiritual leadership who fails to teach the more demanding, less comfortable, “narrow gate” and “rough road” side of discipleship becomes a false prophet."  (J.I. Packer, Your Father Loves You, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986, page for September 19).

The Christian should always stand by the Cross.  There is no escape through man-made thinking.  Rather the good Lord is behind the Christian.  False teachers hate the Cross.  Some take away from the power of the Cross.  Others add things to the Cross.  I am not saying we should exclude the life of Christ in how we are right with a holy God.   I suggest to you that the offense of the Cross is that Jesus Christ freely forgives through His own all-exclusive sacrifice.  No one can stand before a holy God but through Christ alone.  Many fail at the teaching of the Cross.  The Cross is supposed to be the center of the Roman faith.  We see that she adds to the Cross but much worse than Peter.  She has fallen from grace.  She is the essence of apostasy and the pursuit of hell.

Forever trusting in the Lord,
Take heed to do his will;
So shalt thou dwell within the land,
And he thy needs shall fill.
Delight thee in the Lord, and he
Will grant thy heart's request;
To him commit thy way in faith,
And thus thou shalt be blessed.  
And he shall make thy righteousness
Shine brightly as the light,
And as the burning noonday sun
Thy judgment shall be bright.  
Rest in the Lord with quiet trust,
Wait patiently for him;
Though wickedness triumphant seem,
Let not thy faith grow dim.  (TH, 569).