"apostasy" Tagged Sermons
1. The Impossibility of ______________________.
2. The Presumption of ______________________.
3. The Implicit ______________________ Held Out.
1. The Perilous Position of ____________________.
2. The Providential Purpose of Prophetic ____________________.
3. A Peculiarly Precious ____________________.
1. The gospel reveals that God the Father effectually called elect sinners to salvation by means of the grace of Christ (v. 6).
2. Turning away from the biblical gospel for a different one is a turning away from God the Father (v. 6).
Jesus enjoys what might be called a ‘year of popularity,’ a phenomenon compared pointedly to the modern church’s own cult of popularity. Against the earthly eschatology of Pharisees and Sadducees alike, Jesus keeps preaching the narrow gate rather than the easy crowd.
God genuinely leads his people into trial and temptation, this sermon insists, without leading them into sin itself, a distinction the seventh petition depends on. The ‘evil’ in view there is identified specifically as apostasy, a sin the modern church has largely forgotten to name. Christ himself, tested in Gethsemane, is what actually keeps believers from sinning inside their own trials.
Suffering and glory run throughout 2 Timothy as a matched pair, and this sermon insists the gospel’s glory, per Romans 5, far surpasses whatever suffering precedes it. Timothy himself stands in real danger of apostasy; this is no hypothetical threat. Losing sight of heaven, more than any external threat, is what actually causes believers to fall away.
Elijah comes ‘from the east,’ a phrase that ties him to God’s own presence rather than merely a geographic origin. Paul’s own apostleship follows a similar pattern of coming from outside to confront the establishment. Ahab faces that same confrontation here, a warning that applies as much to today’s liberal and conservative apostasy as to ninth-century Israel.