The unregenerated world is full of apostasy. This devotional reading looks at what that means and what it means to the world.
Nuggets
- Disciples should have the opposite of apostasy in their hearts.
- Disciples must guard against falling away from the faith because of apostasy.
- Disciples can choose to rebel against God and commit apostasy.
An unregenerated world is full of sin. But the worldview doesn’t see not being a Christian is not a “crime.” They don’t want any nor believe there should be any consequences for their having that belief.
They are wrong.
What that is called is apostasy. Apostasy means not believing in the state religion or not being a Christian.
That is a big part of being an unregenerated world. Let’s dig in to see what Boston said about it.
Let's Put It into Context
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Devotions in the A World without God series
The foundation of this series is Boston’s sermon The Unregenerate World Described.
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Described
“Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God” (Heb. 3: 12 ESV)
Disciples should have the opposite of apostasy in their hearts.
Okay, this verse threw me. I thought we were talking about the unregenerated world – aka non-believers.
The writer of Hebrews is talking to his brothers – other children of God.
It really doesn’t matter, though, does it? Apostasy is apostasy, whether we are believers or non-believers.
Plain and simple, apostasy is rejection of the gospel. We recently looked at the verse that said that there is no God. “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good” (Ps. 14: 1 ESV).
You don’t think this applies to believers? Listen to what Cumming said. He wrote, “You are a Christian just in as far as the grace of God transforms your heart.”
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Jamieson gave us some direction on what stops our transformation. He talked about sin, temptations, and influence.
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The power of sin in our hearts is strong. It is our very nature.
Satan knows exactly how to tempt us. He knows what we consider is shiny and appealing. That is exactly what he will throw before us — again and again and again.
The influence of the world is also strong. It doesn’t want to change, and it doesn’t want us to follow God.
Jesus’ teachings are counterculture. Regardless of how much we want to obey God, He is in the process of cutting our sin out of us.
That puts us in a precarious position.
If we compromise with the worldview, we aren’t in as far as the grace of God wants to transform us. Why? There is a big problem here.
If we are compromising with the worldview, we aren’t exclusively following God. That is sin. That is apostasy.
What they are doing is devaluing the gospel. We are being negligent in fulfilling our duties as disciples.
We can’t think that God’s mercy will give us license to sin. We must
Despair is also a form of apostasy. We are filled with despair when we are looking for justice instead of faith.
In what are we to have faith? Jesus’ righteousness.
Part of our apostasy is due to ignorance. Yes, the unregenerated world does not know what God is about or Who He is.
Unfortunately, some disciples feel the same way. God told Pastor Steve a couple of years ago that the church is missing Jesus. Recently, He has been saying that it is because of ignorance and apathy.
We don’t know, and we don’t care to know. Rather, we don’t know the truth, and we don’t care for the truth if it is different than what we believe.
Oh, we are stubborn when we don’t want to give up our opinions.
Unbelief does not mix with righteousness. Bottom line, it is disobedience to God.
Disobedience is the love of sin. Sin comes from Satan, the prince of the unregenerated world.
Why do disciples confess to believe in Jesus and then continue in disobedience? We think God should provide for us the way we want – and He doesn’t.
We blame it all on God. He doesn’t answer prayers. He can’t do what He says.
The issue is with our unregenerated hearts. We cannot change them ourselves. It is God Who just sanctify us.
There are deadly consequences when we appear to be disciples have an outward form of godliness without the true inward transformation. When worldview people see disciples’ flawed confession, they may think God is willing to accept that.
Jamieson called this deception a secret apostasy. We can’t have that.
We have to make sure our witness brings people to God, not sets up barriers to a relationship with Him.
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As disciples, we don’t want to fall back into sinful ways. We want our faith to truly be at the heart level.
Oh, yeah. Disciples can practice apostasy. But the unregenerated world is full of it.
Caused by Persecution
“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another” (Mt. 24: 9-10 ESV)
Disciples must guard against falling away from the faith because of apostasy.
Jesus warned us that, in the end times, many would fall away from the Church. They would become immersed once’s again in the unregenerated world.
This will happen because of persecution. In other words, the unregenerated world is fighting back against God and His leadership.
We lose faith because we think we shouldn’t have to endure persecution when we are disciples. We let our emotions take over and take our eyes off God.
Face it, the unregenerated world doesn’t want God, so they especially don’t want His Church growing stronger.
Tucker had an interesting term — speculative error. We think we know — but we don’t really know.
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That is the state of many churches right now. They think we have interpreted God’s Word correctly, but too many times we interpret it the way we want it to read.
This is a flat-out error. We are wrong.
Dealing with the unregenerated world can cause us to lose our love for the worldview people.
Yes, we are to love them — but not condone their sin. Yes, we are to love them — but not give up witnessing to them.
More importantly, we aren’t supposed to be like them.
It is like Paul correcting Peter. “But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, ‘If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?’” (Gal. 2: 14 ESV).
How can we call worldview people to something better if we are like them?
Unfortunately, there is a big pull to be like them. We don’t like being different, especially when that alienates us from others.
It isn’t that we always want to be voted the most popular person. We just don’t want to be voted the most unpopular person.
Kitchen made a good point. Early disciples were only tempted to fall back into the worldview mindset. They were tempted to fall back onto the Jewish mindset.
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We know the Jews were expecting a military Messiah. They were probably really expecting this when the Temple fell in AD 70.
But they had a speculative error.
I bet it did feel like they were choosing the New Testament over the Old. And you know how we dislike change and confrontation!
That is what we have to do. We have to choose the new creation over the old.
- “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezek 36: 26 ESV)
- “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!” (II Cor. 5: 17 ESV).
Since we are so good at speculative errors, it is easy to place blame on other causes. We say there is no way we can be totally pure and blameless. Isn’t that too much of an expectation anyway?
Our duty is to endure in God’s doctrine. We are to follow Him.
Caused by Worldliness
“For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia” (II Tim. 4: 10 ESV)
Disciples can choose to rebel against God and commit apostasy.
Who is Demas, and why should we care?
Demas wasn’t one of Paul’s inner circle like Barabbas, Silas, Luke, Timothy, and Titus. He was, however, with Paul when he wrote to Philemon and to the Colossians. He was mentioned by name in the list of greetings.
- “Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers” (Philemon 1: 23-24 ESV).
- “Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas” (Col. 4: 14 ESV).
We don’t know anything more about Demas’ relationship with God. Knowing the Energizer Bunny for God, Paul was particular about who went with him on mission trips.
- “Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem” (Ac. 13: 13 ESV).
- “Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work” (Ac. 15: 37-38 ESV).
The books of Philemon and Colossians were written anywhere between 57 AD and 62 AD. That means Demas was probably with Paul a minimum of seven or eight years.
Demas had endured his share of persecution being with Paul. He was cowardly. He probably made a true confession of faith, or he wouldn’t have lasted that long. He made a conscious decision to stick with Paul.
It wasn’t like Demas was lacking in opportunities of being fed. His teacher was Paul himself.
In his letter to Timothy, Paul was willing to call Demas out for his backsliding. He had deserted Paul; but more importantly, he deserted God.
Somewhere along the line, things changed. The outward appearance may have been in line, but the inward relationship wasn’t right.
Apply it to today’s world, we may be a church member, but not right with God.
We don’t want that to be with case if the end times are upon us!
Crawford gave us an idea of Demas’ unfaithfulness. He wrote,
“He refused to stand by the apostle in his hour of trial, withheld from him his former sympathy, withdrew from those Christian labours in which he had once been noted as a sharer with him, and shunned to be any longer seen in his society. He was not prepared to ‘endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.’ That want or weakness of faith which he had hitherto concealed from others, and, probably, from himself also, could not be any longer disguised. That world which he had long loved secretly, without perhaps being aware of the strength of his attachment to it, he now openly clung to and embraced.”
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I know. It is easy when we start reading that to interpret it as Demas’ beef was with Paul.
We have some clues that Demas’ relationship wasn’t right with God.
- He withdrew from Christian labors.
- He wasn’t willing to endure the persecution for Christ’s name.
- He secretly loved the world, but then turned to embrace it publicly.
Christian labors may not be only going on mission trips and witnessing. We can stay home and witness.
We are to labor by working out our salvation. “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2: 12-13 ESV).
If we are okay with how our relationship is with God today and not willing to grow tomorrow, it isn’t as good of a relationship as we think.
But let’s make sure we give Demas his due. Melville said that Demas had attended to Paul’s needs while he was in prison. He had worked with Paul up to the point that Paul is facing execution.
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Bottom line is Demas loved the world more than he loved God. That isn’t a true profession of faith.
But think of it this way. Demas had endured all the other persecutions. What was different from this one?
Paul really was going to be executed this time. This was really the end.
Demas was probably fearing for his own safety— and life. He just couldn’t stick.
God’s Word tells us time and time for us to be aware. We are not to be of this world — we are not to put it over God. “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world — the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life — is not from the Father but is from the world” (I Jn. 2: 15-16 ESV).
Verrall helped show us how that could play out today. We were raised in a Christian home. We graduated from high school. We move off to college or to some city states away to secure a job.
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We are on our own.
No, it may not be a mission field like Paul’s. However, wherever we are, that is our mission field.
How can we let the world in?
- We don’t follow our beliefs — meaning we don’t follow our conscience.
- We fall in with the wrong crowd.
- We fill our time pursuing interests God would rather we didn’t.
- We don’t worship God regularly.
- We don’t submit our lives to Him anymore.
Satan loves to bait the trap with this. He loves nothing more than having a disciple turn away from God.
I know. Did Demas lose his salvation or did he never have it in the first place?
It doesn’t matter. That is above our pay grade and is no concern of ours.
What we have to be concerned about is our relationship with God. Is it where it is supposed to be?
How Do We Apply This?
- Know God’s Word and apply that knowledge to situations in our lives.
- Look to God’s truth and believe in it.
- Don’t be stubborn when it comes to God’s Word.
- Don’t reject Jesus or any portion of God’s Word.
- Hold on to God’s promises.
- Rely in God in Christ.
- Get belief in God to the heart level.
- Don’t love the world more than God.
- Don’t be afraid of suffering.
- Don’t be prideful.
- Watch for Satan’s influence in the world around us and guard our hearts so we aren’t deceived.
- Examine ourselves to remove any unbelief in our hearts.
- Grow in faith and knowledge so that we can be diligent in seeking God.
- Ask God to open our hearts.
- Guard our love for Christ.
- Seek God and His true grace.
- Practice what we preach.
- Increase our love for God.
- Deny ourselves and follow Him.
- Become more humble.
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Father God. We so want to be out of the clutches of sin. We no longer want to be its slaves. We want to be totally obedient to You. Help us to withstand temptation and be pure in Your eyes. Amen.
What do you think?
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