Falling Away From The Faith Part 2

This is Stu Epperson from the Truth Talk Podcast, connecting current events, pop culture, and theology, and we're so grateful for you that you've chosen the Truth Podcast Network. It's about to start in just a few seconds.

Enjoy it, and please share it around with all your friends. Thanks for listening, and thanks for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Man Talk, brought to you by TAWCMN, talking and walking Christian men's ministry, where they're devoted to breaking down the walls of race and denomination, and challenging men to take their God-assigned role. Here's our hosts, Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr., a black guy and a white guy. Welcome back to Man Talk Radio. This is Roy Jones Jr., and I am the white guy. And I'm Will Hardy, that other guy. Has somebody changed you into talking what you used to say?

I know, I know. We just change it up every now and then. Hey, welcome back. We had a great, great program last week. We're excited to continue that conversation this week, and it's based around people moving away from what we call a strong faith and moral base to live by, which is the Bible. They're moving away from traditional biblical thinking, right, Will? Exactly. And out of the church, as we've grown up knowing it, and as we continue to preach and teach men each week how important this is in their life. That's right, and we were reading from a Christian Post article that you had introduced us to, and some statistics that were in there were just shocking and alarming, and then things concerning what people believe and how they believe that there is more than one way for salvation and all you have to do is be a good person and all this, which if they understood the truth, they would know, you know, if they really sought the truth, they would know that we are not inherently good. True.

So there's no good in us. So we want to continue with this article because we only got about halfway, Roy, from last time. Well, you've got to quit talking so much, Will. Or I've got to quit talking so much. I'm not sure what to do. Maybe it's a combination of both.

It probably is. It's a good thing we're not passionate about the gospel. Oh, no, we love to talk about the gospel. But, you know, before we start, Roy, I do want to give a shout out to all of the listeners and the positive feedback that we have gotten, some emails and voicemails that I have received over the course of, you know, a couple of years now. And they haven't been a whole lot, but I do want to just thank the listeners for listening and their feedback because, again, it's very encouraging that there is a listener base out there and they understand what we're trying to do in reference to tackling some issues that are just tough issues. Yeah, that's a very good point. And I would like to thank them as well, Will. Thank you so much for bringing that up.

So we'll make sure to acknowledge them. And, folks, while we're on this topic, we don't talk a lot about this because we don't try not to talk about ourselves, but we would like for you to reach out, subscribe to the podcast, ManTalk Radio Podcast, and pass that on to your friends and family. And we would love to hear from you if there's some topic you'd like for us to explore until you can reach us at www.talkam.com. That's T-A-W-C-M-M.com.

And hit our contact form. We're more than happy to take up your topic and address it and share with you what our heart is and what God puts on hard to talk about with it. Amen. So in this, the other half of this article, Roy, it says 55% said that the Bible is not God's authoritative and true word. And 69% said people are basically good. Now, what do you have to say about that?

Okay, let me mirror back. 55% said that the Bible is not the authoritative word of God. 55% of these are of quote, unquote, Christians. Exactly. I'm speechless. Exactly. I'm speechless.

I mean, what do you say to something that's so off the wall? Let's see. And I think it goes back to the point that you stated earlier is that the church is slowly, slowly becoming the world. So we're starting to look like the world. And that's, I think some of that is because from a pastoral perspective, you know, now with this COVID-19, and I'm talking to pastors all the time. I mean, weekly, I'm talking to a pastor in some capacity because we have a little network. And I asked them almost weekly, you know, how are the people starting to come back? And for the most part, they're saying, no, they're not coming back. They are, you know, getting online and they're doing the, you know, virtual services and things like that, which I think that's become the norm now.

In this environment. But I've asked them and they say, no. And see, and I think, and I asked why, and they say, well, for the older ones, which, you know, a lot of congregants are that are of that age of 60 years old and older, they say that they fear of getting COVID. And I think that's mainly because there is not a working vaccine right now. I believe if a vaccine was available, we would probably start to see the numbers and people coming up. But I think until that time, it's just going to be stagnant. And of course, I'm thinking about always those congregations that are large congregations who have like really big budgets, you know, and if people are not giving like online or, you know, that's that takes a bite into the church.

Oh, for sure. We know we've talked about that before we all, and I think the church is going to be purged. I think they're going to be people that were sitting on the sideline to begin with, that weren't necessarily, well, first we'll say maybe were this, were going to be the goats and the sheep are being separated, that they weren't really followers of Christ.

They were checking the box. So if they get purged, or they get sidetracked as a result of this COVID and they don't come back, it's because they've gotten out of habit and maybe they didn't have the relationship they thought they had or needed to have to stay in the fight. The other piece of that is, I think there's gonna be a lot of people looking for answers. And there should be every person out there should be, if they've never thought about the, or thought about eternity, or what's going to happen after I die, they should be thinking about it now. Because when something goes wrong, they should be thinking about it now. Because when something as global as this is and can create so much economic stress, so much physical and mental stress, and we're not talking about the number of deaths, because we know that number, proportionally speaking, is not really large against the global population.

A death is bad, but we know statistically it's not as bad as it could be with the number of cases have been diagnosed. If they're not waking up now to ask the question, what's after this, what is after this life? I don't know what's going to get them awake. I think God has allowed this to happen to bring his people home. More of his people home. We know not everybody will choose, right? But everyone has an opportunity to choose.

Amen. And so that leads us into this next point that Barna, which is George Barna, you know, he's the Christian statistician that keeps up with a lot of statistics and do a lot of surveys. He said that if you look at some of the dominant elements in the American mind and heart today, as illuminated by the inventory, most people believe that the purpose of life is feeling good about yourself. So that's their whole purpose for being here and interacting with other people is just feeling good about yourself. So if I feel good about myself, then that's enough to get me into heaven. Was that database the Christian database or was that people in general? Was he referring to people in general? This is Christian database.

So there again, the Great Commission, right? So if we are to model our life after Christ as men, women, that means being a servant, serving others, others before self, love your neighbor as yourself, then it's not about myself. So therefore, back to the earlier comment, it's not the authoritative word of God.

58% are saying it's not the authoritative word of God. So therefore, I don't need to obey. I don't need to follow the rules. So I don't need to model myself after Christ. I don't need to make disciples of all the nations.

I just need to be worried about me. Because what you're saying that this statistics. Amen. And so I want to take our listening audience attention to let's be clear, if I can interrupt you once.

Yeah, go ahead. We want to make clear we're not saying that's the way you should be repeating what the statistics says. If you just turned in or just tuned in, we want you to know this is not the way man talk radio feels or believes or will or Roy teach or preach when we have the opportunities to share with others. And so we would say go back and listen to part one, part one of this, or rewinder.

That's right. And you'll get understanding. So first Timothy, chapter four, verses one through 11. Now the Spirit speaks expressly, says that in the latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of devils.

So this goes consistent with the other scripture that says, in the end days or last days, wrong will become right and right will become wrong. And that's exactly what we're seeing. We're seeing a reversal. You know, we're seeing our the society is reversing from the values in which this country was built off of. Yeah, I think right now is a good point to say, folks, it's time to wake up.

It really is time to put the brakes on and get out of all about me syndrome. Because tomorrow may never come. We talked about this tomorrow may never come. And if you're listening to us today and you've not made a commitment to follow Christ, what if tomorrow never comes for you? What if you go to bed tonight and you don't wake up tomorrow?

What if you're caught up in a car accident and you don't have an opportunity to make that decision later? Are you ready for eternity? Are you ready for eternity? You know, and we lost a young man at church this week that in a tragic car accident 19 years old. So that just comes to mind that folks tomorrow is not guaranteed. God is the only one that knows the time and the place. If you've not made a decision, I'm calling on you now to make a decision to follow Christ so that you'll make it home. And don't give heed to everything that sounds good. Let God bless you to investigate things that you come in contact with. Just don't take people's advice, face value.

Search the scripture, get in there and let the word of God begin to speak to you because everything that sounds good is not good for you. So people could come back and start saying, you know, this is what I would do if I was in your situation, but are they prepared to suffer some repercussions as a result? No, because they're not going to be in your house. They're not going to be living there. They're going to be, you know, in the next county or wherever they live.

So they're not going to see and experience anything that you will experience because you're at home. So let's be coming up here on another break here. Praise God.

But I want to get this next paragraph in. Most people contend, and we'll pick this up after the break. Most people contend that all faiths are of equal value. This again, is coming from the article of the Christian Post and the statistics was done by George Barna. All faiths are of equal value that entry into God's eternal presence is determined by one's personal means of choice. See, going back to what we talked about, what's good for you is good for you. What's good for me is good for me. So my personal choice will impact my eternity. Absolutely.

Without the knowledge of Christ and without the grace of Christ. So if I do good, I should make it home. That's what they're saying.

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Call 336-885-1987. That's that's uh Welcome back to man talk radio. We're having all kinds of side conversations.

We got to start paying attention. Keith. Keith's back there. Poor guy.

He's looking at us waiting on us to get it dialed in. Keith we love you. Amen. Praise God brother. We love you.

Yes we do. So we were talking about this article from the Christian Post and statistics by George Barno. And then the last thing I said before a break was that philosophy was wrong. And you're right. You're right because it goes on to say that uh eternal the eternal presence is determined. This is this is from the article now people. This is not what we believe in.

Determined by one's personal means of choice. There there's the word again. And that there is no absolute guide or growth for an individual morally. Okay so that is that is a byproduct of the last 35 or 40 years. That is a byproduct and the result of the last 35 or 40 years. And I'm gonna roll it back even just in the last um 30 years or 25 years.

And uh just to forsake if you'll bear with me here just a moment. Back when one of our former presidents was accused of having an extramarital affair and because of his classification of what sex was right or not classified we saw trends go off the chart within the middle school population. Those types of activities right and the adults know what we're talking about here. So the last 30 years 25 30 years it's become this whole mentality because I define it makes it either right or wrong not because the authoritative word of God makes it right or wrong. And that's where that that type of mentality has has manifested itself over the last 30 35 years. Yeah see so if you have no standard then anything becomes a standard.

Right. So so if I have if I have no guide uh to live by that's truth and it it covers my entire life and how I should live in order to be effective for the kingdom then then anything that I say or believe is truth to me. Or if you redefine it as well but anything you believe but if you want to broadcast it out and you've got a following as a lot of these influencers do if you will quote unquote on social media if they define it back to our comment earlier they're not researching it and verifying it they just say hey this person says this is okay just back to my earlier comment just a moment ago about what the president defined as not yes or no having it right. And see that determines a lot of what the people believe in these uh instagram and snapchat people and all this other stuff is the number of followers a person have so if if they have like half a million or above followers and they saying well if a half million people are following this person then they gotta be truthful right I really want to listen to what they have to say which again that has become their standard so now when you start falling away and you're wondering why am I becoming weak spiritually all of a sudden why am I not like I used to be when I first came to Christ and I'm talking about Christians now or ones who profess to be Christians you know what what's happened to get me from the point that of where I was to where I am now. Well that's got to be external influences right it's because you've started listening to the world the pulpit has started talking from a world perspective not about the world but from a world perspective and has got you convinced that these things are now acceptable but the word of God says they're not right. Exactly and so giving giving heed to the spirit the these doctrines of of demons that first Corinthians I mean first Timothy 4 says is that a person speaks lies in hypocrisy so you you can't be perfect if you've broken the law of God and since God says that everyone needs Christ in order to be born again then that has to be the standard and is the standard for all mankind again this is what the doctrines teach the doctrines of demons teach that if I take away the standard then you can make it whatever you want to be same thing that satan did to Eve in the garden right did God really say yeah see so he used the same tactic he used the same he's using the same tactics today did God really say what you just said he maybe you heard it wrong maybe you you you just didn't understand truthfully because he know that if you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you won't need him anymore see that that's the ideology that he was infusing Eve with and of course she gave it to Adam and and then the rest is history and that's why we're here now which is a bad place to be a very a very bad place to be so here he goes on to say that philosophy of life contradicts a fundamental basis of what may be the two most significant documents to the longevity and success of America the bible and the constitution of the United States these documents agree that this nation will only be healthy and fruitful if it is populated by moral people by abandoning our moral standard and tradition and replacing them with inclusive and conditional preferences we're losing the foundation that have enabled the American America to succeed for more than two centuries so we a person if we go back to what we talked about earlier we say is a person generally morally good can we say that most people are generally morally good well how would you say that if there's no moral there's no moral baseline exactly so if again what's the standard for saying that making that statement if a person is morally good what's the standard by which you measure myself right how good you are morally or not good so i measure myself you measure yourself by yourself so i say hey i'm morally good and so that's nobody's business but my own yeah that's that's the mindset right exactly we as follows Christ know it's actually your brothers and sisters in Christ's business because we're supposed to be setting example and serving others right and that service doesn't necessarily mean that i'm telling my brother my sister all of what goes on in my household but what it is is i'm there has to be some accountability because we are all part of the body of Christ right and we are all members of the body in particular according to the word of God so that leads us then to this question that if a if a person believes that they are moral morally good and there's no standard by which to base their morality on then anything they say and or do to justify their actions is good to them well that's the end justifies the means right theological statement they're just applying it in their own walk of life that's right and not living by any guidelines or any any what we used to call yard sticks right i'm not measuring myself against what God has told me to measure myself against his word and see and then again in first Timothy chapter 4 verse 2 you know it said speaking lies in hypocrisy having their own conscience seared with a hot iron see a person who is deceived or who is a false teacher when when we talk about something being seared with a hot iron think about uh well i don't know well you you weren't in the military but but in the military i seen guys get hurt and they would have like a vein or artery that would get torn and so the medic would run over there and say soldier we need to cauterize this or you're going to die and so what they do is they get something hot and they sear that that's right they cease seal that wound up to stop it from bleeding so the false teachers and prophets their conscience has been seared just like that wound so it you they have been desensitized that's the word i'm looking for so they have been desensitized to any and every other thing that's good that comes from God so here they are now justifying whatever actions they are and they're not going to listen to anybody else in reference to what they have to say because their conscience has been seared and that's what the word of God is saying here so if you've been seared you have no sensitivity to anything that would be good to help you spiritually so what does the bible say and what does God tell us about when you turn away from him eventually he's going to do what allow your mind to go where reprobate right which means you'll no longer recognize right and wrong that's right that's that's romans chapter one and two that's right you you'll be you'll be of a reprobate mind and that's what the word reprobate means the reprobate means that God has basically turned you over to your own mischievousness your own sin your own deception because in your mind you understand right and wrong again appealing to that conscience see the conscience is telling you hey but if the conscience has been seared there you have it right there you have it you're not you're not letting anything come in so hence the 58 of the followers of Christ quote unquote don't think this is the authoritative word of God the bible so draw in the parallel if they've been turned over to a reprobate mind because they've turned away from God or they're not following God how would they know hence the survey says it's okay to not have the authoritative word of God that's right because it isn't in their mind's eye but folks we know that is not the case this is the authoritative word of God that's right it is his book of life for us yes it is while we're living in this life hallelujah praise God and will why don't you tell them how to come home well all you have to do is just confess that you are a sinner believe that Jesus Christ came through the virgin Mary died on the cross which shed his blood for you and then give your life to Jesus Christ tell ask him to come into your heart and make you a new creature and you'll become a citizen of the kingdom of God amen and we'll see you on the other side amen thank you so much for joining our show it's been a great two weeks yes it has we'll look forward to joining you next week with a brand new topic god bless everyone people get excited over God because God is the only only one who is able to do for you what you can't do for yourself amen as we wrap up today's show be assured that TAWCMM talking and walking Christian men's ministry is building a community of men that are Christ followers with the desire to be servant leaders in their homes communities churches and work environments check out our website for upcoming events and regularly scheduled meetings drop us a note for topics that you would like to have us visit in the future thank you for joining us on man talk today visit us at www.tawcmm.com men walking the talk