Conditions for Apostasy'

1
Conditions for Apostasy.

• Having men who are willing to put their own
  desires and their own priorities ahead of the
  Lords.

2

• Miriam and Aaron (Num. 12).
• Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (Num. 16).
• Judaizing teachers of Pauls day (Galatians 17).

3

• These people placed a high priority on what they
  wanted.
• Some of them may have been convinced that what
  they were saying was true.
• But when one is advocating error, given long
  enough, somewhere along the way, he will realize
  that he is not going to win his cherished goal by
  legitimate means.
• Then he will become unscrupulous.

4

• These were people willing to go to trouble to get
  what they wanted.
• Many times, sowers of discord, and teachers of
  error will work harder at doing their job than
  those who teach the truth.

5
Having people who are not firmly committed to
Gods ways.

• We are to hate every false way (Ps. 119104,
  128).
• Tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind
  of doctrine (Eph. 416).

6

• Ready to follow every false way (2 Pet. 22).
• Quick to criticize the efforts to deal with false
  teachers (Num. 1641).
• People who want something different, no matter
  what the difference may be.

7
Widespread ignorance.

• Prov. 2918.
• Hos. 46.
• Many times people are ignorant because they have
  not had a chance to learn.

8

• Many times people are ignorant because the
  scriptures get in their way, so they make
  themselves willfully ignorant.
• They refuse to have God in their knowledge (Rom.
  128).
• They willfully forget what becomes inconvenient
  to their agenda (2 Pet. 35).

9

• These are people who are willing to misapply
  scripture (2 Pet. 316).
• This is why a whole Bible approach to Bible study
  is necessary.
• It is why a determined, comprehensive effort must
  be made to encourage every single member to avail
  himself of the opportunities to learn the
  scriptures.

10

• Unfortunately, this ignorance is found
  plentifully among those who would teach and
  preach.
• In fact it is more often the case than not.

11

• Spiritual truth is in scripture, not out of it.
• Preaching needs to grow out of scripture.
• To many preachers, scriptures are a lake to seine
  to see what odd fish one can find.
• To others, one needs to have a quota of
  scriptures, and when the quota is satisfied, then
  one can say whatever else he wishes to say.

12
More interest in social and physical endeavors
than spiritual ones.

• More interested in man than God.
• More interested in play than worship.
• More interested in the good life on earth than
  eternal life in heaven.
• More interested in our ideas than Gods.

13

• When these conditions prevail in a church, all it
  takes is a spark to light the fire.
• If these conditions are systematically
  eliminated, then apostasy will have a hard time
  getting a hold in a church.