Usenet has proven itself to be full of apostasy. Many people claiming to be
Christian are quickly shown by the Word of God to be heretics and apostates.
Their false teachings are refuted by the Holy Scriptures yet they close
their eyes and ears denying that their heresies have been contradicted by
the Word of God. Even when other scholarly men of God refute their heresies
(which aren't original by the way -- the vast majority of the heresies being
promoted today existed for centuries and have been refuted time and time
again with sound Biblical teachings) the arrogant heretic claims they
weren't refuted. This is not surprising. We Christians can only present the
Gospel in truth and love and leave it up to God to change the heretic's
heart and mind. Meanwhile, we Christians can only continue to present
Biblical truth to teach, correct, rebuke, inspire and encourage while the
heretics and apostates remain blatantly dishonest even to the point of
patently misquoting the very scripture they claim to believe in order to
insulate themselves from the light of God's truth. Vernon McGee offers
Biblically sound advice to us as believers in Jesus Christ in regards to
what we can do in these days of apostasy. I choose to get out the Word of
God to Christian Usenet newsgroups.

May God bless,
Carl
my website -- http://www.nettally.com/saints/
my blog -- http://www.anniemayhem.com/cgi-bin/wordpress/

---

What Can Believers Do in Days of Apostasy?
(The Epistle of Jude)
by J. Vernon McGee

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common
salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye
should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the
saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old
ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God
into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus
Christ.. But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before by the
apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; how that they told you there should be
mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
These are they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. But
ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the
Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of
our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making
a difference; and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire,
hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. (Jude 3-4, 17-23)?

Many of us who have been preaching that someday there would be an apostasy
in the church never believed we would live to see what has happened in our
day or how far along the organized church now is in apostasy. In the epistle
of Jude this man, a half-brother of the Lord Jesus, wrote intending as he
tells us to write on one of the common doctrines of the church. He could
have written about many things, or about any one of many, but the Spirit of
God deterred him and detoured him and caused him to write on the apostasy.
That gives, then, a note of alarm to the epistle. The Spirit of God felt
this was such an important subject that it was necessary to turn Jude from
writing on what he intended and to write instead on this particular subject.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN, APOSTASY?

The word apostasy means to stand away from the truth. It comes from two
Greek words, apo histemi. Apo is a little preposition which means "?away
from,?" and histemi means "?to stand.?" Apostasy can only take place in a
church or in a so-called believer who professes to believe something and
then moves away from it-he stands away from it and no longer holds what he
professed to believe at one time.

Webster, who always does a good job of defining words, says that the
apostasy is the "?abandonment of what one has voluntarily professed; total
desertion of the principles of faith.?" Abandonment of that which was
voluntarily professed-our Lord used that expression when He was giving the
parable of the sower. Referring to the seed that fell on the rock, He said:

They on the rock are they who, when they hear, receive the word with joy;
and these have no root, who for a while believe, and in time of testing fall
away. (Luke 8:13)

"?Fall away?" is the Greek aphistemi-they apostatize. They professed to
believe, then they moved away from it. They no longer believe. They have
departed from the faith.

Apostasy would be impossible among unevangelized tribes who had never heard
the gospel. An apostate is one who has not only heard the gospel but has
professed to believe the gospel, and then departs from it. That's apostasy.

This word occurs also in Hebrews:

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief,
in departing from the living God. (Hebrews 3:12)

Here are those who have professed to believe. Now they no longer believe.
They have departed from it.

Time and again I have heard this among preachers. There are today thousands
of men in the ministry (and they're an unhappy lot) who can say, "?I once
professed it, but I no longer believe it.?"

It may surprise you to know that Karl Marx was an apostate. This is the man
who wrote Das Kapital, the basis of communism and world revolution. He was
brought up in a Christian home. His father, who descended from a long line
of rabbis, accepted Christian baptism for himself and his family when Karl
was six years old. Young Karl attended the gymnasium at Trier, and his
examination papers from when he left school have been discovered. The one
that gained the most unqualified approval was a theological essay on "?the
union of the faithful in Christ according to John 15:1-14, portrayed in its
origin and essence, in its unconditional necessity and in its effect.?" That
is quite a subject for a young fellow! It was marked by the teacher as a
thoughtful, copious, and powerful presentation of the theme. The boy was
seventeen when he wrote this essay in 1835. This is the man who went on to
write the ideology for godless states. He was an apostate. He once professed
to believe something. There came a day when he stood away from it; he no
longer believed it.

All the New Testament writers speak of the approaching apostasy. To them it
was just a little cloud on the horizon, the size of a man's hand. But that
cloud has now darkened and covered the sky. Today you and I are in the
storm. We are seeing one of the greatest departures from the faith in the
history of the church.
Jude is the book in the New Testament that deals almost exclusively with the
apostasy. Jude begins his subject with verse 4:

For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained
to this condemnation..

He warns against these certain men who have crept in unawares. "?Ordained?"
here means they were written of beforehand. This is not something new, Jude
says. They "?were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation.?" We
went through a period when some theologians said that God was dead. Of
course they would say that because they were "?ungodly men,?" and God was
not even in their thinking.

. Turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only
Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. (Jude 4)

A better understood translation would be, "?They turned the grace of our God
into blatant immorality.?" You see, the difference today is the fact that
sin, which before was carried on under cover (I'm perfectly willing to admit
that there was sin and unbelief in the church before) is today blatant.
Immorality has come out in the open. Ministers in our great denominations
are saying that adultery, lying, and stealing are perfectly permissible.
They have turned the grace of our God into blatant immorality.

Some years ago in Washington, D.C., a minister said, "?We liberal churchmen
are no longer interested in the fundamental-modernist controversy. We do not
believe we should even waste our time engaging in it. So far as we are
concerned, it makes no difference whether Christ was born of a virgin or
not. We don't even bother to form an opinion on the subject.?"

An Arlington, Virginia, minister said, "?We have closed our minds to such
trivial considerations as the question of the resurrection of Christ. If you
fundamentalists wish to believe that nonsense, we have no objection, but we
have more important things to preach than the presence or absence of an
empty tomb twenty centuries ago.?"

A leading minister in Washington, D.C., said flatly, "?In our denomination
what you call '?the faith of our fathers?' is approaching total extinction.
Of course a few of the older ministers still cling to the Bible, but among
the younger men, the real leaders of our denomination today, I do not know a
single one who believes in Christ or any of the things that you classify as
fundamentals.?"

Another man said,

We are interested in human life and human destiny on earth. We don't know or
care whether there is a life beyond the grave. We presume there is a God,
but we know that He will ever be a mystery to us. We do not know or care
whether God possesses personality or not. He may be just an impersonal
force. Religion means very little, if anything. In the modern world religion
has no vital place. The function of the modern minister is to guide the
thinking people along social and economic lines. Morals, like religion, are
out of date. The world today requires a new social order. The younger
generation won't need either morals or religion if we create a social order
without ignorance or poverty. We are moving in the direction of the
elimination of prayer from our services entirely. We still include it
occasionally to please those who are accustomed to it, for prayer is a sort
of habit with folks. It takes time to educate them to a realization that it
is a hangover from the religious past. We do not teach Bible to our young
people. We do not teach them to pray. Our youth program is centered around
recreation.

Friend, at the present moment and for some time now the church has been
engaged in a great brainwashing program to absolutely get rid of the Word of
God. Now, I went to school with some of these fellows, and I know what kind
of grades they made, so that their intellectual facade is interesting
indeed. It is my feeling that real believers ought to wake up at this hour.

You see, the apostasy is not outside the church. It is on the inside. The
severest attack upon the Word of God, upon the Christian faith, and upon the
church is coming from inside the church. So much so that when the American
Association for the Advancement of Atheism disbanded their organization a
number of years ago, Smith, who headed it, gave this as his reason, "?The
pulpit is doing a much better job than we are doing!?" He felt that the work
of the atheists' association was no longer needed. You no longer see the
greatest attack upon the Word of God made in the city square where the
soapbox orators hold forth-they are pikers. Go to some liberal church today
and you will hear the greatest attack upon the Word of God. The Bible is
being discredited all across America every Sunday morning.

It was Horatius Bonar, a great saint of the past, who made this statement in
light of the little epistle of Jude, "?In some ages evil seems to sleep. In
the last days it will awake to full life and activity. It will seize every
instrument: the press, the pulpit, the platform.?" Today evil has taken over
the press; it has taken over the pulpit and the platform. Bonar continues:
"?It will enlist every science and art-music, sculpture, painting, portrait,
philosophy-making them all subservient to its development. The
multiplication of crimes, contempt of laws, blasphemies-these are the
specimens of the energy of evil.?" In this day in which you and I live these
are the things that fill our morning newspaper. There is no use for me to
recount ad nauseum the things that are happening in our contemporary
society. We are now in the midst of the apostasy.

Way back in the days of Bernard of Cluny, that wonderful saint of God (and
he was that), he said,

The days are very evil,
the times are waxing late;
Be sober and keep vigil-
the Judge is at the gate.
The Judge who comes in mercy
the Judge who comes with might,
To terminate the evil
and diadem the right.

WHAT CAN WE DO TODAY?

Now these are the days in which we are living, and the question is, what can
believers do in days of apostasy and revolution? What can we do today? Well,
Jude answers this question in his epistle, and it is not a negative answer.
He tells us that there are seven things that believers can do in days like
these in which we are living. Up to this point he has described the
apostasy, and believe me, he paints a dark picture. But now he is speaking
to believers: "?But ye, beloved,?" do these things:

1. "?Building up yourselves on your most holy faith?" (verse 20). The word
"?faith?" is actually the faith, the body of truth that has been given to us
in the Bible. All the way through the Word of God there is that constant
injunction upon believers to get into the Word of God. This today is our
shelter; this is our armor; this is our protection; this is our help. And we're
told again and again, "?grow in grace?"; "?study to show thyself approved
unto God?"; "?give attendance to reading?"; "?meditate upon these things?"!

When the first church came into existence, it is said that they "?continued
steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine?" (Acts 2:42), which was the faith,
that body of truth that has come down to us in the Word of God. We must
build up ourselves in that if we are to stand.

In other words, we are to study the Word of God. Since God gave sixty-six
books, He meant that we are to study all sixty-six of them-not only the
three or four that are our favorites. How many Bible classes go back and
forth, teaching John, Romans, and probably they'll teach Revelation-but what
about the other sixty-three books that are in the Bible? Why don't we study
them? Why don't we study all of them?

My friend, if you are going to build yourself up in your most holy faith,
you must have the total Word of God. You can't build a house without a
foundation. And when you get the foundation laid, you will need to put up
some timbers to hold the roof. And you will need a roof on it. You will need
sides on it. You will want to fix it up on the inside. And you need all
sixty-six books of the Bible if you are going to build up yourself on your
most holy faith.

Paul urges us to study the Word of God. He said,

Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)

We are to study! And he added:

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. (2
Timothy 3:16)
In other words, the recourse that you and I have in these days is the Word
of God.

Now the reason many fall by the wayside is that the Seed has fallen among
stones. It didn't get deeply rooted. The Word of God is the Seed, and unless
you study all the Bible, getting down in the good rich soil, you are not
going to become a very healthy looking plant. And it won't be long until you
are trampled down and burned out by the sun.

Peter in his second epistle says,

We have also a more sure word of prophecy, unto which ye do well that ye
take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn,
and the day star arise in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy
of the scripture is of any private interpretation. (2 Peter 1:19-20)

Don't pull out just one or two verses and think you have it, my friend. That
is the tragedy of Bible study today-drawing out a few verses here and a few
verses there and building a system. Why not take it all? Certainly there are
parts of the Word of God that you are not going to like. It steps on your
toes, or it runs counter to current philosophy, but it is necessary to build
up ourselves on our most holy faith.

In other words, when you get into days of apostasy, the compass and the
chart that you have is the Word of God. This is the reason I have built my
ministry entirely upon the Word of God. I believe it is our only hope.

Now as to these pastors who say they do not believe nor teach the Bible, I
am wondering how many people are interested in their liberal message today.
In spite of days of apostasy, I find that there is a great heart-hunger on
the part of many folk. They want a sure word from God Himself in this hour
of uncertainty. They want to know what He says.

At the turn of the century there was a movement in the church away from
preaching and teaching the Bible. I remember as a boy going to church how
ignorant I was-I knew nothing, and I knew nothing even after I'd been to
church because the Word of God was never preached. It was always a service
built on emotion. Or it was a book review. Or it had to do with some sort of
entertainment. As a result, we have in America a "?Christian?" civilization
of the most biblically illiterate people who ever have been on topside of
the earth. The common man in Germany after the Reformation knew more about
the Word of God than does the average man in America today.

The tragedy is that even believers are ignorant of the Bible. In this hour
of apostasy God's people need not only to say they believe in the Word of
God from cover to cover, but they need to know what is between the covers.
In this day of confusion and compromise you need to build up yourself in the
most holy faith by a serious study of the Word of God.

Let me remind you that the Bible is unique. It is a Book that is different
from any other book. It is written by men and they include in it their own
personalities-God did not disturb that at all. But He so guided them that
when they had finished, God had gotten through His message to man without
error.

Not only is it without error, but this Book still has power. Paul writes to
the Thessalonians:

For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the
Holy Spirit, and in much assurance, as ye know what manner of men we were
among you for your sake. (1 Thessalonians 1:5)

This Book has a message for those who will hear it, a message that will
transform hearts and lives. The Word of God is not only a chart and compass,
but it is our powerhouse. My friend, you cannot be ignorant of the Word of
God and live the Christian life!

2. "?Praying in the Holy Spirit?" (verse 20) is the second thing Jude says
we can do in days of apostasy. And that's a particular kind of prayer. Paul
says in Ephesians 6:18, "?Praying always with all prayer and supplication in
the Spirit.?" Twice in the Scripture we are told to do that. And praying in
the Holy Spirit is not turning in a grocery list to the Lord every morning
or evening. It's really getting down and, in the Spirit, laying your heart
bare before Him. And I believe we can talk to Him as we can talk to no one
else.

Because I drive while alone quite a bit, I've been practicing something for
the past few years. When I drove over to Phoenix recently, it took me six
hours, and I had a wonderful time of it. Do you know why? The Lord Jesus sat
with me. You say, "?How do I know??" Because I talked to Him all the way
over! I told Him what was on my heart. And I told Him about a lot of
people-I told Him about the people I like, and I told Him about the people I
don't like. He already knows how I feel-no use trying to keep anything from
Him or trying to cover up.

You can tell Him how you feel! And I believe that is praying in the Holy
Spirit today-when the Spirit of God leads us to Him where we can exhalt Him,
we can praise Him and confess to Him and tell Him everything. How wonderful
it is! We'd better start doing that in days of apostasy, because otherwise
we may fall by the wayside-you can. We all can.

Paul, in writing to the Ephesians, chapter 6, verses 11 to 18, told them to
"?put on the whole armor of God,?" and you'll notice that every piece of
that armor is for defense with the exception of two. Finally he speaks to
them of "?the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.?" We have no
other offense than that except for "?praying always with all prayer and
supplication in the Spirit.?" This is the type of prayer that touches the
throne of God. It is the type of prayer that gets things from God!

It was my theory, up until the time I was pastor of the Church of the Open
Door in Los Angeles, that what we needed to do was to multiply numbers in a
prayer meeting. I do not hold that view any longer. If you have ten people
attending a prayer meeting and they are more or less spiritually asleep, it
is not a very effective prayer meeting, I can tell you. But to multiply that
number from ten to one hundred hasn't helped if you've brought in ninety
more spiritually dull people. All you have now is a hundred dead people
instead of ten dead people, and that has not helped the prayer meeting.

However, we do need those who will pray in the Holy Spirit. We need prayer
that reaches through and touches the heart of God-prayer to which He
listens.
I love that prayer in the ninth chapter of Daniel. Notice how he prepared
himself:

And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications,
with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes; and I prayed unto the Lord, my God,
and made my confession.. (Daniel 9:3-4)

And God dispatched an angel with an answer to his prayer. I think God said,
"?You go down and answer his prayer, but I'm going to keep listening to
him.?" Daniel went on praying, and he touched the very heart of God.

Have you ever read any of Martin Luther's prayers? Oh, I tell you, when that
man prayed, it was like storming the battlements of heaven! We hear very
little praying like that today. But that is the type of prayer that
absolutely transformed Europe-prayer in the Holy Spirit.

There are many times when we don't know what to pray for. I'll be honest
with you-in my lifetime I have encountered problems that I have no solution
for. I used to be able to give the Lord the best advice He ever had received
on just how He ought to handle the thing. But I've learned that instead of
going to Him with a program all outlined and saying, "?Look here, Lord, this
is the course You should follow,?" now I am more inclined to say, "?Lord, I
don't know the answer, but You do; if we get the right answer, it will have
to come from You.?" Therefore-and I say it reverently-we can throw this back
into the lap of God. And that's the way He wants it!

Years ago a missionary in Venezuela sent me a little card on which was a
definition of prayer: "?Prayer is the Holy Spirit, speaking in the believer,
through Christ, to the Father.?" Friend, that is a very good definition of
prayer.

Praying in the Holy Spirit means the Spirit of God leads and guides us in
our prayer life. A great many folk say, "?I pray for a certain thing and I
don't get an answer.?" That ought to tell you something-you are not praying
in the will of God! My grandson, when he was small, used to ask for more
things that he shouldn't have than any little fellow I've ever met! I'd take
him with me to the store sometimes, and he'd want everything he shouldn't
have. I'd think to myself, My, that's the way I pray! Just like a little
child, I say, "?Lord, give me this and give me that,?" and He doesn't do it.
Why? Because I am not praying in the Holy Spirit. Oh, to cast ourselves upon
Him in days like these! In times of apostasy how we need to pray in the Holy
Spirit.

3. "?Keep yourselves in the love of God?" (verse 21). Notice this exact
language. Jude did not say that we are to do something to win the love of
God. You are already in the love of God. Just keep yourself there. And
friend, you cannot do anything to merit the love of God, neither can you
keep Him from loving you.
Do you remember the rich young ruler who came to Jesus with a question? He
wanted to know what he should do to inherit eternal life. And the record
tells us:
Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou
lackest; go thy way, sell whatever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou
shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow me.
And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved; for he had great
possessions. (Mark 10:21-22)

He turned and walked away from Christ, but the Lord still loved him!

We need to recognize that God loves the believer. All through the epistle of
Jude he calls believers "?beloved.?" That doesn't mean that Jude loves them
or that they love him. It simply means they are beloved of God.

You see, you can't keep God from loving you. You can, however, step out of
the will of God so that you do not feel the warmth of God's love in your
life. So Jude says in effect, "?Keep yourselves out there in the sunshine of
His love. Let His love flood your heart and flood your life.?"

It is the Spirit of God who makes the love of God real to the believer. And
that love of God is not our love for Him but His love for us. The Holy
Spirit makes it real to us.

I'm of the opinion that there are believers who are in trouble today, many
in a tough place, like the mother in Dallas who had cancer and wanted to
talk with me since I myself was battling it. I told her, "?You're talking to
the wrong one if you're looking for courage. I'm a coward. I'm very frank to
tell you, I wake up sometimes at two o'clock in the morning in a cold
sweat.?"

She said, "?Dr. McGee, I have a boy and I have a girl, and I've lost them.
And my doctor tells me that I'll die unless my nerves can become quieted
again. I've been to psychologists and psychiatrists. They can't help me.
What shall I do??"

So I asked her, "?Do you believe God loves you??"

"?I'm not sure of that.?"

"?Well, He does love you. And if you're not sure of it, ask Him to make it
real to you. I had to do that. He made it real to me and He'll make it real
to you. But,?" I told her, "?whether you have that assurance or not, the
Word of God says that He loves you. He loved you when you were a sinner, and
since He loved you then and saved you, oh, He loves you now! These problems
you have, you can take them to Him and know that since He loves you He's
going to give you the solution.?" Then I added, "?But make sure you stay in
His love.?"

She asked, "?What do you mean??"

I said, "?You know, you can't keep the sun from shining, but you can sure
put up an umbrella and keep it off you. You can't keep it from raining here
in Texas, but you can come in out of the rain and stay dry. There are a lot
of folk today, a lot of Christians, who have put up an umbrella-an umbrella
of indifference, an umbrella of sin, an umbrella of stepping out of the will
of God-and they don't experience the love of God. But if you are willing to
step into that circle of the will of God, if you're willing to confess the
sins in your life, if you're willing to take down the umbrella and step out
into the sunshine, you'll feel the warmth of His love.?"
A lot of folk need that today, because a great many of God's people are
going through deep water. Recently I have been talking to a family that has
been called upon to bear more than its share of trouble. It is a Christian
family. The father (candidly, I wondered if he would make it or not) said to
me the other day, "?If it were not for the fact that I am persuaded that the
Lord Jesus loves me, I'd give up the whole thing and walk out.?" But he won't
be walking out because he has kept himself in the love of God.

How you and I need to keep ourselves in the light and warmth of God's love
in these days!

4. "?Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life?"
(verse 21). The mercy of God is God's concern and care for you. Because of
His mercy He was able to save you-He was concerned about you. He is rich in
mercy. He has plenty of it. And we need all we can get because it is by
mercy that God would even put up with us.

"?Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ?" refers, I believe, to the
coming of Christ for His church, the event we know as the Rapture of the
church. You see, the reason I believe the church is not going through the
Great Tribulation is that we are told to look for mercy, not judgment. I am
not looking for judgment or the Great Tribulation. I am looking for the
mercy of God.

A long time ago when He saved me, He did it by His mercy. And the very fact
that He keeps holding on to me is an evidence of His mercy. If you meet me a
million years from today in eternity and you find I'm still in heaven (and I
will be there), I tell you now what I'll tell you then: I've been here a
million years because He is merciful to me.

I am looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. In days of apostasy we
need to look for that, my beloved. In this day of failure, in this day of
compromise, in this day of discouragement, we are to look for the mercy of
our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

5. "?And of some have compassion, making a difference?" (verse 22). The
better translation is, "?And of some have compassion, who are in doubt.?"
There are a great many good, sincere people today who do have their doubts,
and we need to be patient with them.

In our Thursday night Bible study some years ago a woman came to me after
every service for, I suppose, six weeks with one question after another. I
began to have a feeling that she was trying to trap me or trick me and,
frankly, I became a little impatient with her. Another lady was there with
her, one of our church members. So one night I answered this woman's
question rather sharply, and she turned and walked out. And the lady with
her came to me and said, "?Dr. McGee, just be patient with her. She is a
very brilliant woman-she's in Who's Who, and she's been in practically every
cult here in Southern California. She is really mixed up. And when you talk
about '?Christ dying and paying the penalty for your sins,?' and '?you just
trust Him?'-that's a new world to her, so give her time.?" So after that I
would really answer her questions the best I could. About three months later
she accepted Christ as her Savior. And I had a wonderful letter from her
when she was back in Ohio, telling me of how the Lord was leading her.

There are some for whom we need to exercise compassion because they are in
doubt, but they are honest. We are living in days when there is so much
doubt cast upon the Word of God. Remember that we are in the apostasy.
Though the creeds of all the great denominations were sound creeds (they
differed a little on some points, but on the great basics there was no
difference), today the church has been taken over by liberals who totally
reject the great doctrines their denominations were founded upon. Folk in
these churches have been so brainwashed over the years that though they want
to believe they are having their problems. We would do well to be patient
with them.

6. "?And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire?" (verse 23). I
do not know whether we'll see a revival in our day or not. We haven't so
far. But I do know this, that we can still pull them out of the fire. These
are folk whom we would judge to be hopeless sinners. It seems to us that
nobody could reach them. I have been amazed at some of the people who have
come to the Lord through the medium of radio. People that I have known and,
frankly, have given up, have come to Christ by hearing the Word taught on
radio. "?And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire!?" What a
tremendous thing!
A letter has come to me from Fairbanks, Alaska, which illustrates this:

Because KJNP is the loudest voice in the Arctic (50,000 watts) hundreds of
bush pilots lock onto the station to guide them into the city of Fairbanks,
and they must listen to what is on the air at the time. Just a few weeks ago
one of the wicked bush pilots was locked onto KJNP and, behold, you were
broadcasting! By the time he reached Fairbanks he had repented and was
wonderfully born again by the Spirit of God. He is now attending a
fundamental church and doing well. Praise God!

There are a few-one here, two there. If we mean business, we can still see
people being saved today.

May I say to you, friend, there is somebody around you today whom you can
pull out of the fire. If there were a house on fire with somebody inside of
it, you would do your best to get him out. I'm sure you would. But just
think of the people around you today who are on their way to a lost
eternity, and some of them you can reach. I don't think you can reach them
all. I don't recommend you go out on the street and hand a tract to
everybody who comes along, but I do say there is somebody you can reach. And
the interesting thing is you are the only one who can reach them-they would
never listen to this preacher-but they will listen to you. They have respect
for you. They have confidence in you. Yet you have never told them about the
Savior who has saved you. That is the type of witnessing we need in days of
apostasy.

7. "?Hating even the garment spotted by the flesh?" (verse 23). What really
is the flesh, as it is used in the Word of God? I think we have the wrong
idea of it today. The word "?flesh?" does not necessarily mean only that
which is licentious, although it includes that. The "?flesh?" refers to this
old nature that we have. And this old nature does not always go in the
direction of licentiousness. There are a great many people today who are art
lovers and music lovers. There are cultured folk who would never rob anyone
or engage in immorality. But without Christ they are lost people, and they
are living in the flesh-as much in the flesh as any drunkard on Main Street.
In God's sight they are just as lost. God says that "?all have sinned, and
come short of the glory of God?" (Romans 3:23). All come under that
category.
You and I today are to hate the garment that is spotted by the flesh. May I
make it personal? Pride is of the flesh. Gossip is of the flesh. Harsh
criticism is of the flesh. And there is a lot of the flesh manifested in our
churches. This pious pose that many have toward spirituality is of the flesh
and not of God at all. Even Paul the apostle, a religious man who was
converted to Christ, said, "?Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver
me from the body of this death??" (Romans 7:24). This is not a lost man
asking for salvation. This is the cry of a saved man who was living in the
flesh. Anything that Vernon McGee produces of the flesh God hates,
regardless of how religious it is or how pious it might be or how much Bible
it has in it. If it is of the flesh He hates it. Only that which the Spirit
of God produces through us can He use. We should learn to hate "?even the
garment spotted by the flesh.?"

These are the seven things we are to do in days of apostasy.

LET'S GET GOING!

Dwight L. Moody said, "?I look upon this world as a wrecked vessel. Its ruin
is getting nearer and nearer. God said to me, '?Moody, here's a lifeboat. Go
out and rescue as many as you can before the crash comes.?' ?" And up until
the ministry of Billy Graham, Moody looked into the faces of more people
than any man who ever lived, and he reduced the population of hell by
200,000. My friend, if God could use Moody, He can use you and He can use me
in these days of apostasy. Moody said, "?I got the lifeboat and went out.?"
What about you, Christian friend, in these days?

I hear so many people complaining today, and these are good days to
complain. They say, "?Oh, look at the stock market! . Oh, look at the
riots! . Oh, look at what's happening in the world!?" Sure, it's all
happening. We had better keep our eyes open-lots more things are going to
happen. We've seen more things take place recently than we saw in the entire
century! And the next several months may be tremendous. But, my friend, I
would rather live today and get out the Word of God than to live in any
other period in the history of this world!

I say it's thrilling to get out the Word of God in these days of apostasy.
These complaining and criticizing Christians-God, have mercy on them in a
world that's on fire and a world today that probably is moving toward
revolution. But thank God we can still get out the Word of God. Let's be
about our Father's business.