1995 When Apostasy Turned Belief To Unbelief

The United Church of God celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. The sermon I will give today, I've got a lot of what I call prepared statements that I have put together that I will read and maybe extemporaneously talk some, but make some of these statements throughout the sermon that I've prepared. The United Church of God is a byproduct of a major disruption that happened in the former organization in 1995. At that time, the church organization that we, many of us, myself, and many of us in this room, and listening in, was a part of a dramatic change in the doctrines of the church. I know some of you in this room here today are newer to this faith, way of life, what you've come or are coming to understand. But for many of us, we were there. We went through it, and I thought it appropriate to go through and look back at 1995, the apostasy. I've never shied away from calling it that because it was just that. It was apostasy. And I want to talk about those things today. The changes, the things that happened back then were seismic in nature. It was like a giant tidal wave hit the church with the changes that were being made. And of course, it was devastating through the whole membership. Today, 30 years later, like I said, I want to look back, and I want to reminisce and talk about that timeframe. And here we are today, 30 years later. Still, hopefully, all of us, each of us, adhering, holding to those truths as Jude says, once delivered. The title for your sermon today, When Apostasy Turned Belief to Unbelief. And that's what happened. When the belief of so many was almost turned over, it seemed, overnight. So, I'm going to talk today, this is the way it was in 1995. It was there. Again, many of you were. And I want to tell this story. Did a little research last night. Went back, and this week I've done some research back in that timeframe. Here were three of the headlines that were published as this great upheaval, this apostasy, this change of doctrines in the former association happened. Here were some of the headlines. A major cultic church is transformed from within. We were called a cult. Its leaders publicly repudiate key doctrines. Christian churches from all denominations opened their arms to the worldwide Church of God. We were welcomed, so to speak, by the exchanges, by the other mainstream denominations, churches, what have you. By the way, it's a very important side point. When we baptize people, we make it clear through the language you use. We do not baptize you into any sect or denomination, but into the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. The heresy, the apostasy started in the leadership with ministers in leading positions, leading a coup against the truth itself. And I will mince no words today. I will not hold back 30 years ago, and I will speak truth to truth, teaching and justifying, as they did, apostate doctrines and teachings as new truth. As new truth. To replace old and former beliefs held, when in reality the new so-called changes and new truth were nothing more than from the pit of the hell, the devil himself.

Because the devil was behind it. He always is. And that deception is nothing to the great deception that is coming. Perhaps that's another reason I give this message today, because deception is yet to come of a far greater nature ahead of us one day. I know for me personally, and probably some of you in this room that went through it, as I kind of go back again and just kind of a historical look back, you know a third of the Bible is history. And that history of the Bible is recorded for us to learn from. The message today is a message I give to go back, look at, and also learn from that to make sure that we ourselves never get caught up in apostate teachings, because apostate teachings are all around us in this world, and they're growing, and they're growing. The initial shock for me personally, and a great initial shock, was how fast so many of my brothers and sisters I thought who believed like I did, turned from the teachings once delivered. That was such a shock to myself, and I know many of us, is just how fast you might say this fire was spreading, a fires of deception speaking symbolically.

Had a man, a great friend in the former congregation over in Tupelo where I had attended for most of my life. I had seen him and his wife come in, as we used to say, come into the church, be baptized. They became great friends, family members of the congregation. They quickly believed the lies, and the man told my brother, you need to let them do the driving. That was leadership. You need to trust them, listen to them, let them do the driving. I guess he borrowed from the old worry hound slogan, let them do the driving. I know when my brother told me that, I said, so in other words, hand your salvation over to another man. Give your salvation to work out your salvation to someone else. Because Paul says in Philippians 2, 12, to work your own salvation out with fear and trembling. It was times that was so difficult to navigate through.

To borrow from Thomas Paine's words, most of you know who Thomas Paine was, he had made that comment, these are the times that tried men's souls. During that time frame, it was certainly a time that was a test and a trial to all of us. Because what was happening went to the heart and soul and core of what we had believed in. It went heart and core to who we were. It went heart and core to my whole being. Things that I had believed from a child up, things that I had been taught from the Bible. And I was now being challenged like many others about what I had been taught and believed, and what I had been told and taught I was being told no longer is true. Again, only to have gone through it as many of us did, and reflect back and look back 30 years ago, and how painful those things were. The entire foundation of belief was under attack. And in its place was A. Joe. I said, A. Joe, dressed up lives and falsehoods being promoted as new truth and new understanding.

How well I remember, it became a catch slogan, a catch phrase. It's this new truth. I had those tell me, Gary, it's this new truth. It's new understanding.

For true believers, and the true believers weathered the storm and came through it, I believe, and even myself personally came through it stronger than I had been before the adversity hit. Because that's what adversity does. Adversity, if you weather the storm, will make you stronger. As I gave the sermon months and months ago about adversity. Adversity happens to us because it will make us stronger if we weather the things we go through. But it became a battle. It became a battle of spiritual survival. And to again, to quote from Jude's words there in that little writing letter that he wrote, and I will go into that God willing hopefully the next time I see you, but to contend for the faith once delivered.

The apostasy calls many by the thousands to cease following not only what we considered to be the teachings of the association organization that we had been a part of, but they deviated most of all from what we saw and understood as the clear teachings of the Bible. And it appealed, and I saw this personally because I stand here today in a type of historical look back, but having lived through it, I consider myself somewhat of a historian looking back at that. I had never done Bible study like I began to do during that period of time because I had taken so many things for granted, and I will talk about that again God willing when I come back next time because this basically is part one of a two-part. I wanted to give this part before I go to conference and then hopefully be able, God willing, to give the second part when I get back from conference.

I had grown up, in a personal way of saying this, I had grown up like most of us to believe that the ministry that served us would be faithful and remain faithful to the truth. And all of a sudden, many of our ministers were betraying us, and many of our ministers were beginning, especially those in leadership, were beginning to tell us that this is the new truth, this is the new truth, walk you in it. The Sabbath, the Seventh-day Sabbath. How well I remember being told so many things that that old cliche say it ain't so, Joe. They would say the Sabbath was just a relic, an outdated relic of the old. It was there only kept by ancient Israel, a relic of the old to be discarded. It was not necessary any longer to keep the Sabbath. In fact, they even said of some of us that was in leadership that we worship the day. Some of you may remember that. And I remember when I first heard that, you just worshiped the day. I remember even then as a younger man, I remember thinking, I don't think I have ever worshiped the day, but I hope I understood why we keep this day holy. I remember the language, and I don't know if this is going to kick back some of your memories, but I hope you will remember we were being told that the rest was no longer in a day, the rest was in Jesus Christ. Well, yes, our rest is in Jesus Christ. But they were nullifying the whole concept of the Sabbath rest spiritual principle, this embedded in the First Great Command and given it creation as a memorial forever.

The holy days, we were told. They had no reverence anymore. They had no redemptive value or meaning anymore. The holy days were to be, in essence, basically abandoned. Christmas, Easter was okay to embrace.

Tithing, that's no longer necessary. That's just a burden. No longer necessary to tithe. Oh, and no longer was anything considered to be unclean that you couldn't eat. And all of a sudden, you could eat the pig from his tail to his snout again. And as many went out immediately after and got a nice plate of pork or whatever. Remember the discussions about the Godhead? And I know some of you are newer to the faith, the truth, what have you. And I know that this is foreign to you, but for most of us, it's not. Remember the discussions that were going on about the Godhead and what we were being taught about the Godhead? I've only asked you to raise your hand. Do you remember the little booklet they put out, God is? Raise your hand. God is. I've got that booklet at home somewhere.

They were going to explain God, the Godhead, in a whole new way. That sure did sound a whole like the Trinity Doctrine to me when I read it, of which we don't adhere to that. The Triune God.

The teachings on the identities of modern Israel, the sons of Jacob, the term as it's called British-Israelism was totally being discarded. It had been already. That matters nothing to our times today. How preposterous. I could go on. Everything was being turned upside down.

We were being taught that the law of God was no longer binding on Christians. It didn't have to obey the law because they were explaining to us. And I had this explained to me. And I had others would tell me this, that Jesus Christ had come and had kept the law perfectly for us. Any of you remember that? He had kept the law perfectly for us. He had been the perfect sacrifice. And therefore, we no longer had to keep the law. We were under no obligation to keep the law. In fact, it was a resurrection of old lies, old heresies brought back, as there were those at that time who had come out of mainstream religion. And some of those who didn't abandon the truth were saying, they're trying to tell me to go back to old lies that I came out of.

It was a resurrection of the old Martin Luther, one of the great reformers of the Protestant Reformation. It was one of those resurrected beliefs of Martin Luther, that grace alone without works was the only thing necessary for salvation. And you only need to study Martin Luther in his writings to understand what I just said. It was all about grace only without works that was necessary for salvation. All these things were being preached and told to us at that time. There even came the point where the pastor general literally said, in essence, if you don't like the teachings, there's the door.

The more the apostasy grew, the more it grew, the greater its intensity, the greater it seemed, the falling away was happening. And however, remember, they began to go through the Church at the time. Those who were holding fast to the truths that we had held so dear. I remember those in the Church at the time saying, aha, here is the great falling away that was prophesied to happen in 2 Thessalonians 2. They won't turn there. When the Apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2 talks about the son of perdition that will come, the great false prophet, and he uses that term, and yet, it's not in the Bible. There is no verse in the Bible that says that when the great falling away comes. What Paul says, unless there come a way of falling away. Unless there first come a falling away. But there were those who thought this is it. Christ is about to come because the Church has apostatized. And here we are 30 years later. Is Christ on the horizon yet? When will He come back? Only the Father and Him knows. The sin of unbelief. You could study the Bible. If you want to do a Bible study on it, please do. If you studied the sin of unbelief, the apostasy was turning belief to unbelief. Because when we deny what Jesus Christ stood for, and when we deny what He taught, we deny Him. We cannot accept the messenger and reject the message. And that's what mainstream religion has done. They reject the message, but profess to embrace the messenger Christ. By the thousands, members decided to just acquiesce to the new truth. It was a great delusion. I didn't say it was the great delusion because the great delusion is yet to come. But it was a great delusion. And there were those again who were saying, well here it is, here's that great delusion. And yet, it was of itself a great delusion. Give me a sip of water. Members by the hundreds and thousands were quickly abandoning what they had been taught. And to use the expression, the analogy, the symbolistic way of saying it, I'm kind of standing there off, sitting kind of on the sideline, observing what's going on all around me and my family. Because that's what we were. And that's who we were. And that's what a church is supposed to be, a family. And we were a family. We were one big extended family worldwide. And all of a sudden, the family is under great attack. The family is being inundated with this gospel that I don't recognize and many others didn't. And yet, many so quickly said that they did and they embraced it. I look back at that time, and I remember we were being told by those who were promulgating the heresy that we were being set free. We were being set free from the bondage of keeping the law, the Sabbath, the holy days, kind of like that old words from the famous speech, we're free, we're free at last. And that was the attitude that was so shocking to me personally.

There's so many of my brothers and sisters that I had known for years and years, and we had sat there together. I thought we were all learning together, that I thought we all believed together, and all of a sudden, I found out that we didn't.

It divided members, separate friendships because it was a type spiritual civil war.

Two people that I grew up in the church with, husband and wife, I was to find this out later. He, the husband, had been one of my best friends growing up, and I was to find out later from his father that his wife, who also had grown up in the church with me, I heard from the father, his father later, that she had told him, if you don't follow this new truth, I will divorce you. And he stayed with her. And these were things that was happening to us. This is the way it was in 1995.

I wrote in my notes, what was the motivating force for these changes? And brethren, I speak of things that I know personally, someone I was talking to the other day. And actually, I was a fellow minister, and we were talking, and we were kind of comparing some notes, and we're both together concluding. I may not and don't know near everything, and I don't know a lot that I still want to know, but I do know what I do know. And he and I were comparing that same mindset. I know what I know. And all that I don't know, I want to learn. But I knew that what I was hearing was not right.

Why did it happen? What was the motivation behind it? Why were these falsehoods, old lies, circulated, brought back? Why were they being taught as new truth? What was the ultimate reason for it? You can believe me or not, that doesn't matter. I know what I know.

Four words will answer the question why they did it. Four words will answer it. Be like the world.

Be like the world. To gain acceptance. To gain acceptance.

I was up later last night going back and doing some research into someone's writing from that period of time. Someone who had written a book who was part of the leadership that did this. And I was reading his own words again late last night in anticipation of giving this message today to refresh my mind again of some things. And was motivated to become accepted by mainstream religion. That was the chief motivation. Leadership in the ministry, with many other ordained ministers agreeing as well. Wanted to transform and bring the former organization into the mainstream of religious teachings and customs to be accepted.

If you look at the history of ancient Israel, that's their story. God gave them clear instruction how not to what get so intertwined with the nations around them, especially in false worship. What was it they wanted when they wanted to have a king? Go back and read it. We want to be like the nations around us. We want to have our own king. This was the motivation from those who were pushing the changes. We want to be like and be accepted by those religious people in mainstream religion. And no longer will we have to swim against the current. We can swim with the current, finally. It won't be so hard anymore. We can just be like everybody else. Be accepted. Be a part of the group. Go the Broadway. Oh, that word Broadway in my life. How many times in the Church of God, growing up, I've heard that term using messages, the world goes the Broadway. The Church seeks and goes that narrow, beaten path. And Christ says, many are called and few are chosen.

It was appealing to all those thousands who made quick decisions, and that's again what shocked me so much was how fast many of them turned to apostate teachings. But it told me something else too, and it's not meant to be any way condemning, but it taught me too and showed me. They really didn't understand this book and His Word the way they should have, or they never would have apostatized.

Key leaders in this apostasy and revolt against God and His truth, and that's what it was. The revolt was against God. This revolt was of the same spirit and mindset of when Lucifer convinced a third of the angelic realm to rebel against God. This was of the same mindset and spirit because the same being, the devil, was behind it. Who, as Philippians 2, I think, says, works in the sons of disobedience? By the way, that word, obedience in 95, became a dirty word. Obey? Brother, that's archaic. That's Old Covenant. Christ did it for you.

The law is not binding. When my pastor and his wife came out on that final visit before I walked away, and she tried to explain to me that it's this new law, Gary, which I wasn't buying a dime's worth as the old saying goes. I'll say maybe something about that in the next message. Key leaders. And I was to find out later, because once I had walked away from that great apostasy, once I had walked away and looking back, and I've been looking back for 30 years at what happened, and I still learn from it. And we all need to learn from it because of what we're yet going to face. Not on what we're going to face, what we're facing now. Because truth has never been more elusive and more counterfeited than what we're seeing in this day and age right now. Turn the news on. Where do you get real truth? Most of the news anymore, most of the mainstream new services are nothing but propagandists. If I said that word right.

God's law. I came to see personally. I came to see personally as a long time minister at that time. A long time minister in 1995 after we had walked away from the former association. We were some of us standing there talking one day. And the former minister who himself had rejected it, he said, you know, he knew some of those key leaders that had pushed these changes. And he said, I knew them. They never had a love for God's law. He witnessed some of us of that. They didn't care for God's law. They didn't love the Sabbath. They didn't love the Holy. They didn't love the things of God. And when opportunity was there, you might say they took it. The leaders of the apostasy departure from the faith. They gave lip service to Christ being the Savior. Mainstream religion does that, but they again denied Christ by abdicating and abandoning and preaching and teaching that the law was not binding any longer, nor the Sabbath or any of that. They embraced the same empty worship as the world around them. They were preaching a come as you are gospel.

I grew up as a side point. I grew up back in Northeast Mississippi, and I grew up, and I knew people in almost every one of the mainstream denominations back home. When I say I knew hundreds of people, that's not exaggerating. And I knew the belief systems of those denominations, and I had many good friends and relatives in those denominations. And we always kind of just kept the topic off religion, because you know how that goes. If you don't agree, we don't need to argue about it. But you know, I could see growing up that most of mainstream religion teaches that old Martin Luther principle. It's only by grace. By the way, Martin Luther, if you know his writings and have read any of them, Martin Luther didn't like to go to the book of James. He couldn't rationalize the letter of James. He had a problem with that. Boy, I really appreciate James in that letter. James was to the point when he wrote that letter. In fact, obedience again was excised from the lips of those who were pushing the apostate teachings. One of the main leaders of that apostasy even said, made the statement that people were now being called out of darkness, slowly turning to light. That they were being called out of the darkness and slowly being turned to the light. I went back and found that statement this week and looking back. And I wrote in my notes, well, it's reverse. It was in reality they were returning people from the light back into darkness.

Brethren, do you understand that Satan's way? Do you really understand he is the God of this world? Do you understand Revelation 12? I know it by heart, the devil who has deceived the whole world, and he turns light into darkness. And that's what ultimately happened. He took a third of the angels and turned them into darkness.

And by the way, so soon after he did that with the third of the angels, they realized we've been duped, and their fate is sealed forever because of it.

The devil had seduced and deceived the thousands to believe, as I wrote in my notes, the unbelievable, things that I would never have thought. I would never have thought a few years previous to what happened. I would never have thought that this could happen to us. And perhaps you thought the same thing, and yet it was happening to us at the time, and we were just in disbelief that it was happening. And then we look back, and we still kind of look back and think, how did it happen still? It was earth-moving in our lives. And we are again, the United Church of God, is a byproduct of what happened. Because a group of ministers and people came together in Indianapolis in 1995, and put together, as I use the simple terminology, put together and forged out and put this, and came up with this new organization called United Church of God. And here we are 30 years later, and we are perfect. I heard my wife over everybody. Thank you, Rhonda. She knows me bearing any of you. How cynical, sarcasm, but meant to drive the point home. We are far from perfect, and yet, who is? But we're doing the best we can. I believe that. I think we're trying to forge ahead to the Kingdom of God. We're trying to do. We're flawed. The ministry is flawed. I'm flawed. You're flawed. We're all flawed. But we're all hopefully trying to do the best we can, but never to abandon the truths of God, and to never forget 95. Never forget it. You know these things were prophesied, talked about. I've often said, if you know the history of the New Testament church, and if you know the things that the apostles dealt with, the greatest problem they dealt with was false teachers and false teaching. That was the greatest thing. Not the only thing they dealt with, but that's the greatest problem issue. And it started from the beginning. I want you to turn to Acts 20. Did you think I was not ever going to go to Scripture? Acts 20. I selected some choice, what I call choice scriptures, that I thought would reflect on what happened 30 years ago. But not only what happened 30 years ago, but what will continue to happen, and what will happen in a more great apostasy one day that will come. Acts 20, verse 28. Verse 28, the Apostle Paul here is with the Ephesian elders, the ministry. And he is about to depart the scene. And in verse 28, he tells the ministry here, the elders there at Ephesus, Therefore, take heed to yourselves, and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And also from among yourselves, men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. And therefore, watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. Paul not only told those Ephesian elders there that day to oversee the church, shepherding, bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, because Paul knew that the savage wolves would come in. As the Scripture calls them, wolves in sheep's clothing. Ministers who profess to be ministers of Christ. Ministers who, 30 years ago, had professed to be ministers of Jesus Christ, and yet denied Him by the things they began to teach us.

And Paul warned about it. But oh, this is just written for Paul's time, right? Being a little facetious, you know better.

This Bible is written, and written for our ears today, and our minds and hearts today, to receive as much as any church age, if not more, because of the time frame we're now in. Because we are facing, and brethren, we are one day facing the time when the great false prophet will show up. And that's when the greatest delusion, because he will do mighty miracles, with Satan's help. Satan will use him and perform even mighty physical miracles. And Christ says at that time, as we well know in the Olivet prophecy, that many of the very elect would almost be deceived. So it's going to have to be very powerful. Mesmerizing. By the way, that's another term. It was mesmerizing too many people back in 95. Oh, it sounded good. We don't have to worry about that job on the Sabbath anymore. We don't have to worry about that job, you know, keeping the holy days. We don't have to worry about tithing. We don't have to worry about keeping that law, because he did it for us. That was the main premise of their teaching too. Was Christ did it for you? Which is basically if you have studied the reformers of the great Protestant Reformation, that's pretty much where Protestantism came from, is come as you are. That is a basic tenet of the teachings.

Paul warned of the apostasy. Turn to 2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 2.

I sure didn't come today, like I said, to preach smooth things today. I don't really ever do that. 2 Peter 2.

I'm in love with God's truth, and I hope you are too. Was 30 years ago, and more so than ever, because it challenged me. It challenged me, and I got up off my duff, so to speak, and began to study the Bible in a way I never had before, because they were challenging everything I had ever believed in. 2 Peter chapter 1. I'm sorry, 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 1. Peter gave a warning here, a warning down to every church age. But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you. That is down to us today, who will secretly bring in destructive heiresses, even denying the Lord who brought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. Truth was being blasphemed in 95. The truths of God were being blasphemed, and the teachings were blasphemous against God. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words, and for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. They will be with you with smooth sounding phrases and words like, it is this new truth. As my pastor's wife looked at me that night in my home and said, Gary, it is this new truth in Christ. I'll say something about that next time, hopefully in the next message. I had to make a stand. If you were there, you did too. It was a time to make a stand, as many of us realize and did. By the way, a thought occurred to me this morning. We had always been accused of being a cult, of just following a man.

Well, when we walked away, we walked away not following a man. I wasn't ever following a man. I was following the man who had told me in my youth and told me in the church different times, if I don't follow Christ, you don't follow me. And that's what I understood from a youth own. And so when my shepherds, some of them, in leadership, and when they were speaking these things, I didn't recognize their voice. And I left it, and many did. And I said, proof, we weren't ever following a man. We were following the truth. Because in our area of Tupelo, my pastor and all the elders apostasized.

And a number of us members had to walk away and start all over without any ministry at the time. We were not following a man. I never have. I hope you don't. Never follow a man as such. Paul said it so well, follow me as I follow Christ. You are bound to follow the teachings of the ministry as long as they what? As long as they follow Christ and His teachings. That's the truth of it. And the moment I don't preach that, you are to reject it as I did in 95. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 7, verse 15.

Matthew 7, verse 15, Be aware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Those are the words of Jesus Christ. Oh, they come to you with sweet, soft-sounding, smooth words of deception. And it had to be since Mr. Housen was there back picking on Mother Eve again today and Adam there. Thank you, David. Where are you, David? Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate that. Let's be positive. Let's not be negative. Be happy. Learn to be happy. As Paul says, content with whatever, but we're using that little phraseology. But that wily serpent, the devil, when he came into the Garden of Eden. What a persuasive, smooth argument, presentation he must have given them. Of course, Adam wasn't deceived. We know that he was deceived. Again, Adam, you did it for reasons. Most of all, you were the most irresponsible. Of course, you were the head of the house and you did what your wife told you to do, but all good husbands do that. I thought I'd get a little snicker from some of you. I want you to turn to 2 Corinthians 11. 2 Corinthians 11. Verse 13. 2 Corinthians 11. Verse 13. Paul writes here, I read those words again by the Apostle Paul in putting the message together, and I went back and read those words, and that's what the devil does. He makes darkness appear as light. And all the while, his whole chief aim is to always take you and me back into darkness. If you have come out into the light of the day, so to speak, using it that way in terminology, if you have been called by God and you have stepped into the light of the day, and you have come to understand what you know because He has given you a mind to understand through His Spirit, and then you return to that darkness, that darkness not only becomes greater, but you may never escape that darkness again. And that's sadly what happened 30 years ago. And many who went into darkness are still trapped in that darkness, and they think they're liberated, and they believe they're liberated and set free from the bondage of the law, and the Sabbath, and the holy days, and these things of God. And yet, they are living in a type darkness deceived because the devil still has them deceived. Thankfully, some do come back. Another story for another day, so to speak, but some do come back. And it's a great joy when someone escapes that darkness, and God brings them back out of that darkness, and they come back out into the light of truth. Just as He deceived the angelic realm, the third of the angels, He was able again, and He's still doing that. He deceived and used men. He used men 30 years ago who were wolves in sheep's clothing, impostors, deceitful workers of, actually, unrighteousness, to dress themselves up in righteous garment, so to speak.

Go to 2 Timothy 4. 2 Timothy 4.

This is not only exposing the apostasy of 30 years ago, but I hope it keeps the door open that we never forget and that we are never deceived because deception is always there. And it comes in so many forms, and it comes at us in many different ways. In 2 Timothy 4, this last letter that Paul wrote to Timothy, to someone that was like his own son, and he writes these words in this letter, words that to my mind serve as a prophecy and also tell us what happened 30 years ago.

He says in verse 3, Wow! I read those words again as I did preparing the message, and I see so clearly that's what happened in 95. Ministers who taught what they knew that many of the people wanted to hear because many of the people had itching ears for something new, something different. And in many people's minds at that time, they looked at it as if this law is a type of abundance. Sabbath-keeping is a type of abundance. And when the leadership said, we've just removed the fence around your life, it's okay now to transgress because the law is not binding upon you any longer. And they so quickly, so quickly embraced the apostate teachings. It happened, brethren, by the thousands, by the thousands. And Paul wrote about it.

You cannot be accepted by the world and live God's way at the same time. That's a great dichotomy. I will repeat it. You cannot live God's way and at the same time be accepted by the world. When I use the term accepted by the world, that means embracing all those things that the world right now and always has walks contrary to the things of God. Is this world in any form or fashion walking with God? You know better than that. It's headed for its own got children in the room. It's headed for its own doom and destruction.

In 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 10. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 10. The apostle Paul in that latter part of the verse of verse 10. And again, chapter 2 of 2 Thessalonians is where Paul goes into the dialogue of the coming Son of Perdition, the Man of Sin, the great false prophet, and about when this great delusion will happen. If you know that chapter, that's all that needs to be said. And in that verse 10, Paul gives the reason for why they will embrace great delusion. And he gives a reason because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. I look back at 95, I knew it then, I know it more now, I know what I know. So, most who turned so quickly never had a true love of the truth. It was only like a fence around their life. It was only by the letter. They were only operating by the letter of the law. And if we only operate by the letter of the law, without operating by the spirit of the law, then we will never reach conversion. We will never become converted. One can have all the physical knowledge in the world and can understand by the letter so many things, and yet that does not equal conversion. Because conversion is a true changing of the heart. As I heard again, that wonderful sermon years ago on Pentecost by Benny Butler over in Gadsden, some of you know Benny. And Benny gave that wonderful sermon, I will never forget over at Pentecost in Gunnersville. We need a new heart. God's going to give us a new heart. Conversion brings about a whole new heart, a whole new mind and heart and change of thinking.

Here's your verse that I've pondered all my life and looked at in 1 John 2, verse 19. 1 John 2, verse 19. And oh, how I have looked at this verse.

They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. That's very clear to my mind. 30 years ago, I looked at that verse and what was happening around me and seeing all those who were quickly embracing this new truth.

And I've looked at this verse for 30 years. How many times? And I've realized they never really were operating from a converted heart and mind. It was only by the letter. And when they were told that by the letter, even of the law, they no longer had to abide or observe these things. They were now free and liberated. They had a new liberty. They were excited. I remember being just basically kind of speaking allegorical terms, bowl over by the enthusiasm of some of these people.

They were so happy because we've finally been liberated. When one takes the view that God's law holds us in bondage, it doesn't get any worse than that in terms of a mindset. God's law liberates us. When you understand, but see it takes a converted mind to know that. Only a converted mind can understand when Christ says, take my yoke upon me, for it is easy. What? Only a converted mind can understand what He's talking about.

They were devoid of the proper understanding that they should have had. The apostasy of 95 was ultimately, as I look back, was a test most of all I believe on each one of us. There's that old expression that goes way back to my childhood, and you've heard the old expression, that ever so often, and this is used in theological discussions at times, that ever so often God will shake the tree.

You've heard that term, I hope, and believe you have. That ever so often God will shake the tree. In other words, God ever so often will allow you and I to be tested, and we may be tested in a way that takes us to the limits of what we call our faith and beliefs. They were tested. In my mind, I wrote in my notes, it was a type. And understand how I say this. It was a type at that time of separating the sheep from the goats.

It was a type of the wheat and the tares and the chaff being separated. And it certainly was a time where we found out who were the true ministers of Jesus Christ. Because the true ministers of Jesus Christ stood up and defended it. Many of you don't know this in this room. My brother Rick Beam was pastor of the Huntsville congregation in 95. And he walked out on that Sabbath with a contingent. Some of you were there that day, and he walked out that day repudiating the lies.

And he, along with others, and many of us, had a new beginning. And I'll talk a little bit more about that new beginning for me personally when I come back God willing, like I said. So here I am today with you, those of us, along with many others, who have had to hold tight to the truth. I go back always and remember the first thing Christ warned about in the Olivet prophecy. The very first thing He warned about was earthquakes in different places. Are you awake? No. Take heed that no one deceives you. That's in Matthew 24.4.

Before He got into the litany of things that He prophesied in that prophecy, the first thing He said was, take heed that no one deceives you. Do you think Christ may have put in order the things He wanted to say? Because deception is not only that great, and He knew it would be, and always will be, because until Jesus Christ comes, until He comes, the devil is going to continue to deceive, and the great delusion is yet to come.

The next time I come, I want to speak about the title of that sermon will be from Jude to contend for the faith once delivered. That will be the message I give when I come back. God willing, because I always trust that God will let me do that. And as I continue with another look back, but much more as I will give that message, looking at us presently and going forward.