1012. The Characteristics of an Apostate

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. The school was founded in 1927 by the evangelist Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. His intent was to make a school where Christ would be the center of everything, so he established daily chapel services. Today, that tradition continues with fervent biblical preaching from The University Chapel platform. Today's speaker is Dr. Steve Pettit, who served as an evangelist for over 29 years before becoming president of Bob Jones University. I wanted to actually talk to you this morning, sort of a big picture conversation today about thoughts that I've had for many, many years on this odd mystery that you have in the Bible of people who are professing Christians who fall away from the faith, or people who profess to be Christians, but they strangely live in real opposition or difference to what you read in the Scriptures. What I'd like to do is talk about it in general, and then I would like to bring it down to some very clear principles going forward, especially in your own personal life and in your ministry life, and then also in your family life.

So if we can get through this in the next 23 minutes, we're doing very, very well. I want to talk to you today about the characteristics of an apostate. There are two books in the Bible that I'd like you to turn. I'm going to ask one young man and one young lady to read scripture for us this morning. I need a young man to read Jude verses three and four. Can I get a volunteer? Okay, we'll have you read, and then I need a young lady to read 2 Peter chapter two and verse one. Can I get a yes please, ma'am, right here?

So we'll start right here with a young man. If you'll stand up and read out boldly, if you would please, so that all can hear verses three and four. Behold, 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 a hold 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. Thank you very much.

Please, ma'am. 2 Peter chapter two verse one. But false prophets also arose among the people of this, as there will be false teachers one year who will secretly bring indestructive Pharisees, even denying the master who bound them, bringing upon themselves with destruction.

Okay, thank you very much. So one of the things that we see in the book of Jude in 2 Peter ... If you'll go back and read them.

I read them this morning in my devotions again. And what you see is that they are almost... It's almost like one wrote off the other. Whether it was Jude or Peter, it's hard to know.

Jude was the brother of Jesus and Peter's Peter. But essentially, they say essentially the same things. And what they bring to the forefront is this oddity within the church of certain people who come into the church and they teach and profess their faith in Jesus and the grace of God, but the message and the fruit of their message is different.

In other words, instead of preaching a message of grace that brings about a transformation in the life, a life that turns from sin and darkness to a light of obedience and submission to becoming like Christ, they preach a message where people profess to be Christians, but somehow it leads them more into a loose lifestyle. And it's an oddity. And we have that today and it was written 2,000 years to explain that. And what these two writers are dealing with is what we call the issue of apostasy. Hebrews chapter six and verse six uses a phrase that's very important. It speaks about people falling away. And the idea of an apostate is a professing believer who abandons their faith and they eventually disassociate themselves with their former relationships and associations with the church. So an apostate is somebody who falls away from the faith. But when you read Jude, it actually is a mystery.

It's an oddity. It's sometimes hard to put your finger on it, but their influence and their lifestyle is really in contrast to the lifestyle of our Lord. And so the idea of the two books is the idea of Jude and Peter warning about apostasy, warning about a falling away from the faith. And when you read through these two books, and that's, I'm trying to sort of inspire you to take the time to read through this.

I've been reading through it for 40 years and you still think through and wrestle with it. That there are some very discernible characteristics about people who don't get the gospel right, if I can say it that way. Or they make a profession that they're believers and it really doesn't come out in their lifestyle. Jude tells us in verse 19, they be they who separate themselves sensual, having not the spirit. In other words, instead of them being really spirit minded people, as you read in the scripture, they're more fleshly oriented.

They're more sense oriented. They're really not oriented in obedience to God. And so the apostates have though, however, they have some very clearly discernible, distinguishing marks to them. And in general, they're described as ungodly. You can read that.

I'm not gonna take time to read that. But specifically, there are three discernible characteristics about apostasy. And the reason I'm going to bring these out are these are the very things that I would be most concerned about in my own personal life, in my family, in my ministry. These are things that you want to stay away from because they are elements of those who have fallen away from the faith. And what are those things? There are three of them. Number one, the first is a defiant attitude towards authority.

We're gonna see that. I'll just read some phrases from these two books. The second is the first is a defiant attitude towards authority. Secondly is a defilement or they defile themselves morally.

So there's moral defilement. And then number three, they are deceitful or you could say they are dishonest with their words and the way that they live their life. So for example, we talk about false teachers and false prophets. The idea of false is a dishonesty. They're not really teaching the truth.

They're not telling you the truth. Now, let me just read you some of the phrases from Jude and 2 Peter. Again, you can do it yourself, that really describe these three characteristics. The first one, let's take the idea of defiance towards authority.

Let me just read you some of the phrases. They despise dominion, speak evil of dignities, railing accusations, murmurers, complainers. Their mouth speaks great swelling words. Having men's persons in admiration because of advantage. In other words, they're always manipulating to get an advantage to get ahead for their own personal benefit and gain. They are mockers. They despise government. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.

So what you get in an apostate is this idea of a defying attitude towards authority and you can see it in their actions, their spirit, and especially in their words. They murmur, they complain, they bring accusations against. That's the first one. Second one, let's take the idea of defilement.

Just listen to the phrases that you find in these two books. They defile the flesh. They turn grace into lasciviousness.

What does that mean? It means that they take grace, which is like a beautiful flower, an orchid you could say, with this incredible sweet smell, but they actually twist it. They abuse it. And they take grace, which is the idea of freedom and liberty, and they turn that into selfish purposes. And so historically we call that antinomians, those that are against the law. They are filthy dreamers walking after their own lusts.

Delivered just lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. They walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice by sensual passions of the flesh.

They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. Many will follow their sensuality. They allure through the lust of the flesh, through much wantonness. Those that were clean escape from them who live in error.

So we have the idea here of a form of immorality, of no problem with those elements. And then let's look at the third, and that is the idea of deceitfulness. They teach error, false prophets, false teachers. They exploit you with false words. Through covetousness shall they with feigned, feigned means fake or dishonest, feigned words make merchandise of you. That is they use their words to manipulate to get what they want. Sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you.

For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, while they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption. So, I mean, obviously it's a pretty dark picture. But I remember when I was your age, I remember reading these things and really wrestling through in my mind. You know, apostasy is hard to see. It's hard to figure out why.

It says because they come in by the side door, you don't even know that they're there. You don't even know the influence that's going on. It's pernicious.

It's like a little leaven in a lump and it begins to affect things. But we know it's there and history has proven that, and we know it's true today. So, as we look at these three qualities, these three things I brought out today were things that I came to understand at your age. That these are three things that I need to really be ruthlessly against. I need to be against dishonesty. I need to be against defiance and I need to be against moral defilement. So, let me talk about three areas that this affects us.

Let me talk to you about it, first of all, personally. These are sins that you as a Christian, if you are a true believer, you really believe, then these are three areas in your own personal life that you really need to be hard on yourself. Let's take the first one and that is an attitude towards leadership or authority. There is no time in your life where you won't be in a position where you will have people over you. And you will be responsible to be in submission. And what's interesting about an apostate is that they're willing to speak evil about people when even an angel's not willing to do it. Michael the archangel would not even speak a negative word about the devil. But an apostate is willing to speak evil about others. You should strive to have a good relationship with leadership. You should seek in your attitude to be in submission to the authority that is over you. You should be extremely cautious with people who by their very spirit are critical or they murmur or they complain.

And in general, they treat leadership with contempt. One of my closest friends in my life is a gentleman named Dr. Marty Heron. Marty pastored the Harvest Baptist Church on the island of Guam for I guess he was there 18 years.

He is now the executive vice president of Faith Baptist Bible College. Well Marty and I were really really close friends while we were students here at Bob Jones University and all the way through we've been involved in ministry now together for 40 years. And when we were young and we were just married and started to have children, we both made a decision together never to criticize an older man in the ministry for whatever perceived failures he had in his family.

Because we learned something that whatever you put on somebody else's plate, you're going to have to eat it one day. And we made a very conscientious decision to encourage one another but never be critical because we really don't know the circumstances or the situations they find themselves under. So my point I'm trying to say to you as a young person looking forward to your future that I want to be supportive and stand with leadership because we're living in a day where actually defiance or that attitude especially with social media is so much more prevailing than one of support. And when I read the book of Jude, please read it yourself, what's the spirit of an apostate he's defiant towards authority. Second area is in the area of moral defilement. And so personally let me just say that you should be ruthless on yourself about avoiding moral temptations.

Your own personal habits including your thought life, your eyes, your ears, what you look at, what you look at on the internet, what you watch on television. The accessibility to moral evil today is far greater than when I sat where you sat 40 years ago. It's just more accessible. It doesn't mean that sin is greater today than it was then. Sin's always been right.

But the accessibility to it. And so as a Christian servant of God, our faith in Jesus Christ always should lead us to a Godly life. Our immorality is going to dictate our theology. People will change their theology because they've changed their morality. Your theology should be dictating your morality. And so therefore as a Christian young man and a Christian young lady, you should strive to live above all moral defilement. Now we live in a sinful world. We're going to see things. Things are going to happen.

It's going to be there. But you need to set on yourself the highest moral standards. If you are in a dating or an engagement relationship, you should set the highest moral standards within your relationship. Because it is natural. God, if I can be so blunt, God created us to have sex. He made us that way. That's called desire.

I'm going to talk about that this semester. That's a part of the way God created us. But we live in a fallen world.

We live in a fallen culture. And so therefore as Christians we should strive to live at the highest moral level possible. Avoid the kind of conversations that take you down a conversation that will lead to sexual innuendos and those kind of things. And then thirdly, you should be hard on yourself in the realm of your own.

And I say this, I want to say this really properly. You should be hard on yourself, not so much in just the realm of your conscience, but in the matter of being honest as opposed to being dishonest. To be honest with your words, to be forthright, to not be deceitful, to tell the truth, avoiding all forms of deceit or lying or cheating or promise breaking.

You should strive to be the kind of person who your yes is yes and your no is no and you're trustworthy. You should be in your own mind honest before God about, for example, like your finances. I believe in tithing. I'm a super big proponent on tithing, not just because I believe it, because I believe the Bible teaches us. I believe tithe predated the law, it was part of the law, and I believe it was after the law. So you say, I don't believe in tithing. Great, just give more than 10%, you'll be okay. But tithing is a matter of the conscience because in most churches, the pastor never knows what you give.

So I'm a member of a local church here in the greater Greenville area in Clemson, and I tithe and I give to the church. It is a part of my conscience. And I want to be honest with my conscience because if you're not, the first place that you compromise is generally with your conscience.

Do you see what I'm saying? And being honest with yourself. So I want to encourage you to strive personally. Then secondly, in the matter of ministry. When you go to work for someone, you should seek to be loyal to the people you work with. I was privileged to work five years with a pastor in Michigan and I made a decision that I was going to be loyal to him. It didn't mean that I agreed with every single thing, but no one ever knew if I differed with him.

Because I want to be loyal. I learned something that in a local church, people will figure out if you're willing to listen to their criticism of the leadership. I never had anyone in my church come to me and start criticizing the pastor in front of me. And I sat there, I listened and agreed with him.

I always point out, I said, if you have an issue, you need to go to the source because I'm not going to support you on your positions. You need to be honest and be a straightforward person and be a straight shooter. So when you go into a ministry, wherever you go, it is crucial that you be loyal to the leader, not because he's a demigod, but it's just the way God has set it up. Also in the matter of your own morality, within the framework of ministry, that you be above board in your relationships.

If you're going to be a youth pastor or a pastor of any ministry, or you're involved in ministry, your relationship to the opposite sex must be above board. For 20 years, we traveled in our ministry in evangelism. We had 57 different young people travel with us.

42 of them were Bob Jones graduates. I had many young ladies travel with us. And it wasn't that we just sort of worked together. We literally lived together. We ate together. We traveled together. We played together. We prayed together.

We were like best friends. And so we had a very, very clear line relationally. And I treated them, or I wanted to treat them according to the scripture, to treat them like my sister. That's what the Bible says. Treat younger women like a sister. And that's the way I sought to view them in my own life.

Well, unless a person is just rabidly, grossly immoral, you don't have relationships with your sister. And so therefore you treat them that way. And because I knew that when we lived that close together, that if someone brought an accusation, it would be absolutely devastating to us. And I'm thankful.

I'm so thankful to God. And at the end of every year, I would always thank our team members for their moral integrity with one another. Because we had a wonderfully, just a glorious relationship with one another, but we had very clear moral lines. And so therefore, as a Christian, it is so important that you avoid the defiance and dishonesty. And the third is the idea of deceitfulness within your own ministry. And that is to maintain the highest standards of integrity within the way you communicate. To be honest and forthright. To strive to be consistent with people all the time. Not to be two-faced.

Speaking one way to one person and another way to another person. To treat everyone with respect. To be willing. To be confrontational if necessary. To be straightforward with one another. So it works in the framework of your ministry.

It works in your life personally. And then let me just conclude with your family. In the raising of our children, we have four children, two boys, two girls. And the raising of our family, we, my wife and I, decided that there would be three areas that we would be very hard on our children about.

And these are the three areas. Number one, you cannot disobey authority. And if you disobey authority, we are not going to support you. And we taught our children it's two against one all the time. Mom and Dad against you, you'll never win.

You're not going to win. Our son Michael, super stubborn. Super stubborn. And I won't go into a story, I've got stories to tell you, but when he was like a year and a half old, he stood up one day in his crib, and he stood up and he looked at it and he said to me, out. He wanted to get out of the crib. I said, do you want to go see your mommy? He said, mm-hmm. I said, say please. He went, mm-hmm. I said, son, if you don't say please, you will never see your mother the rest of your life. That was at about 7.30 in the morning.

At 11.30, he finally said please. I told you, you're not going to win. OK? Defiance is unacceptable. Number two, dishonesty. Now, we have a lot of fun, but you can't lie. Deceit, defiance, and then defilement. And that is the thing that we have been over and over with our children about what we watch on TV, what we allow. Our relationships with one another need to be absolutely above board and be committed to biblical purity.

Those are three areas. Why? Because when you come back to Jude in 2 Peter, what do you see? These are the characteristics of these apostates. And I realize that these qualities don't make you a Christian, but they do describe the kind of person who falls away in the faith. So I wanted to give you that.

Think about it. You can read through the book of Jude. You can read through the book of 2 Peter yourself. Hope that that's a help. God bless you.

Have a great day. You know, these daily programs are made possible by the many friends of Bob Jones University and this radio ministry. If you appreciate these programs and benefit from the faithful preaching and teaching of God's word, would you consider sending us a special financial gift today? You can easily do that through the website thedailyplatform.com and then click on the give button on the home page. I'm Steve Pettit, president of Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Thank you for listening to The Daily Platform. If you're looking for a regionally accredited Christian liberal arts university, I invite you to visit our campus and see how God is working in the lives of our students. For more information about Bob Jones University, visit www.bju.edu or call 800-252-6363. We hope you'll join us again tomorrow at this same time as we study God's word together on The Daily Platform.