apart from the quickening power of the Holy Spir it, nothing but “ filthy rags” of self-righteousness in the sight of God. “Raging waves of the. sea, foaming out their oivn shame.” James describes the man who has no stabilizing faith as “a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed” (James 1 :6). “Tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doc trine,” these apostates know nothing of the Chris tian’s hope, “ sure and steadfast . . . an anchor of the soul” (Heb. 6:19). “ Wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.” Like lost planets, hurled out of their natural order, they plunge off into ever-deepening darkness, farther and farther away from God, the Source of light. “ Ungodly sinners,” wicked in their lives, rebel lious against God. “Murmurers" against God and His Word. “Complainers, walking after their own lusts.” “ Their mouth speaketh great swelling words" They boast o f human progress and of an advanced civilization, not realizing that this godless civiliza tion is doomed. “ Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (Rom. 1:22). “Having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage” —not seeking the glory o f God, they seek to honor men. How the Spirit of God drives the pick of investigation into the very motives oi men’s hearts! “Mockers in the last time, who . . . walk after their own ungodly lusts." Ridicule and scorn at. the fundamentals of the faith “ once for all delivered unto the saints,” cynical unbelief—these are marks of apostasy. They are mucli in evidence today, my friend. Peter wrote o f these “ scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?”—meaning the return of our Lord (II Peter 3:3, 4). We are living in very solemn days! “ They separate themselves" from God by deny ing that One who is the only Way to God. “Sensual,” natural, unregenerate. “Having not the Spirit.” “ Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3 :5 ). These were the Lord’s words to Nicodemus. ENOCH'S PROPHECY “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied o f these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them o f all their un godly deeds which they have ungodly commit ted, and o f all their hard speeches which un godly sinners have spoken against him” (Jude 14, 15). God knew that apostasy would mark the last days. Until recent years many have been saying that the world has been getting better and better. We no longer hear so much of that, in the face of war and armaments and lawlessness and crime;
terly way. But then he spoke of “ the mistake of Calvary.” And he closed his message by saying that Jesus died and was buried — he did not call Him “ Lord” ; “ no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost” (I Cor. 12:3). Call ing Him “Jesus,” His earthly name, this apostate closed his message by saying that Jesus died and was buried, and that “ the dust of His body min gles with the dust of the Palestinian hills; yet His Spirit goes marching on.” He had no place in his sermon for the eternal God who is the risen Lord. My friends, that man is a “ sunken rock.” Thou sands hang on his words, and will be eternally lost because they have heeded his message. He is but one of many who are leading men into darkness. “Feeding themselves“ — not feeding God’s
sheep, not nourishing His lambs, they seek their own selfish interests. “ Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds.” Did you ever see the farmer eagerly scanning the heavens for a cloud ? Did you ever see clouds of promise driven away by the wind? There are men like that. Many a child of God sits in the pew, hears a much-loved text read from God’s Word, thinks his soul will now be refreshed; but lo ! he hears Shakespeare or Browning or Tennyson instead! What a terrible responsibility is that of the man who stands in the pulpit! “ Trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots.” Themselves “ dead in trespasses and in sins,” they know noth ing of fruit-bearing, of pointing lost men to the Lamb of Calvary. Their following among men is traceable to their own personalities, their humani tarian and benevolent ideals—admirable traits, but
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AUGUST, 1966
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