My Defense Against Error and Apostasy

Now if you will turn to the book
of Jude. The writer of this short epistle
identifies himself in two ways. In verse 1 he said, I'm a servant
or a bond slave of Jesus Christ. And then in the natural realm,
physical realm, he identifies himself as being a brother of
James. And he says, I'm writing to them
that are sanctified or set apart or chosen by God the Father. I'm writing to those who are
preserved or secured in Christ Jesus, to those who are called
by the Holy Spirit. Jude, a servant, a bondslave
of Christ, writing to those chosen by the Father secured in the
Son and called by the Holy Spirit. And he salutes these believers,
and if you and I are called by the Spirit, set apart by the
Father and redeemed by Christ Jesus, he's writing to us just
like he is to these people. And he salutes them and wishes
for them in verse 2 a multiplication of mercy and peace and love. Mercy unto you, and peace and
love be multiplied. Now he gets to the subject matter
of this epistle. He says, Brethren, when I gave
all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation. Why
is it called the common salvation? Well, most writers suggest that
it's called the common salvation because it's common to all nations,
and to all believers, and to all generations, and to all who
are called. It is the common salvation, Jew
and Gentile, young and old, whomever, it is the common salvation. He
said, I write to exhort you, it's needful for me to write
unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend
for the faith because the faith once delivered unto the saints,
because, verse 4, there are certain men crept in, unawares, who were
before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning
the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God
and our Lord Jesus Christ. I'll put you in remembrance.
You once knew this. And then he gives several examples
of divine vengeance on those who went off into error and apostasy. He said, you remember the example
of the Israelites who were delivered out of Egypt, and Scripture says
they were later destroyed for their unbelief. And then verse
6 he gives the example of the angels who kept not their first
estate. these angels rebelled against
God when Lucifer rebelled, and they left their first position,
and it says, God hath reserved them in everlasting chains under
darkness unto the judgment of that great day of judgment. And
then he gives another example. He said, even as Sodom and Gomorrah,
these perverted, warped, and twisted cities, went after perverted
flesh that God Almighty set forth for an example, they suffered
the vengeance of eternal fire. And then he deals with these
false preachers. Verse 4 says, there are certain
men who crept in. They don't come in flying their
colors, I am a false prophet, I am a false preacher, I am not
a true minister of the gospel. They come in unawares. And they
also come in, Paul said in another place, They come in professing
to be the ministers of righteousness. They come in professing to be
ministers of righteousness. Even Satan changes himself into
an angel of life. And here's what he says about
them in verse 8. He calls them filthy dreamers.
But they defile the flesh. Peter said in 2 Peter 2.10, they
walk after the flesh. That's the realm in which they
move. That's where their interest is,
making a mark in the flesh, impressing the flesh. They walk after the
flesh. He says they despise dominion,
or they despise authority. They despise the sovereignty
of Christ. They despise the kingship of
Christ. They despise the authority of
the master. Our Lord said, all authority
is given unto me in heaven and earth. They despise this authority. And then they speak evil of dignity. They speak evil of heavenly beings
and heavenly glory and the Glorious One. They speak evil of these
heavenly dignities. They speak in a familiar way
about God and about Christ and about the Holy Spirit and about
angels. And he gives this example. Now
this is a This is an example here of verse 9. There's been
a lot of dispute about this, but he says, and here's what
he's talking about, he says these false preachers, these false
apostles, they live in the realm of the flesh. They defile the
flesh. That's where they try to impress
one of the people, and that's where they try to get people
to make some kind of fleshly commitment. They make a fair
show in the flesh. They compel you to be circumcised
and so forth. That's the area in which they
move. And they despise authority, sovereignty, kingship, and they
speak lightly of heavenly beings. I'll give you an example of that. Several years ago, a preacher
had this to say. He said, if God elected a people
to salvation, and Christ died for those people. If that's the
God of the Bible, that God is my devil. That's what he said. And then I was holding a meeting
for a preacher here in Ashland, and after I left, he stood before
his congregation and he said this. I'm not saying he's a false
prophet, I'm simply saying that that it's dangerous to speak
lightly concerning deity and dignities and those in authority. And he stood up before the congregation
and he said, if Christ Jesus only died for believers, he's
no savior of mine. Now, here's an example. I want
you to look at Michael. Now, who are we talking about
here? Turn to Daniel. If you will, the book of Daniel,
chapter 10, verse 13. The Michael we're talking about
here is one of God's highest angels.
We're talking about Michael, the archangel. The Scripture
says when Christ comes, the trumpet will blow and the voice of the
archangel shall, he probably will announce the coming of Christ.
He's called Michael, the archangel. And in Daniel 10, 13, But the
prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days,
but lo, Michael one of the chief princes. One of the chief princes
came to help me, and I remained there with the kings of Persia."
Now, we're talking about Michael, one of the chief princes. We're
talking about Michael who inhabits glory, heaven. We're talking
about Michael the archangel. We're talking about Michael,
one of the few angels even named in the Bible. And it says here,
when contending with the devil, with Lucifer, he disputed about
the body of Moses. Now, there are different people
who say that they were the devil, Satan, and Lucifer, same person,
Satan, was disputing with Michael over the law. But I don't believe
that at all. If you'll turn with me to Deuteronomy
34, I believe that they were disputing over the actual human
body of Moses. Now what happened to Moses? Well,
God took Moses away. He didn't die in the camp. The
people didn't bury him. The scripture tells us that God
took Moses and that God buried him in the mountain, and that
nobody knows where his body is, didn't then. Now here was It
was fearful, I believe, that people would have worshipped
Moses' body and worshipped his sepulchre. Moses was such an
unusual and mighty and great, enormous leader that these Israelites,
if they could have had the body of Moses or the tomb of Moses,
they would have made a shrine out of it like people today make
out of the Holy Land and that empty tomb over there in Jerusalem
and Calvary's Mountain and other places. People are prone to worship
things and not Christ. That's the reason they had to
grind up the brazen serpent in the powder. People were worshiping
the brazen serpent that Moses lifted up on the pole. So Deuteronomy
34, verse 5, Moses, the servant of the Lord, died in the land
of Moab according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him. That is, God buried him. in a
valley in the land of Moab over against Beth-peor, and no man
knoweth of his supplica unto this day." Now, let me tell you
exactly what I believe here, that Michael buried Moses on
God's orders, and Satan, Lucifer, tried to interfere. He wanted
Moses' body to remain. He wanted to remain in the camp.
He's satisfied for people to worship anything but Christ.
Satan tried to keep Christ from going to the cross. He spoke
to him through Peter. Be it far from you, Lord, to
go to the cross. And Christ knew who was contending
with him. He knew who was objecting to
the cross. It wasn't Peter at all. It was
Satan. And Christ turned and said, Get thee behind me, Satan.
He addressed Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan. Now here Michael,
when he disputed about the body of Moses, read verse 9, would
not bring a railing accusation even against the devil, even
against Lucifer. But what did he say? He said,
The Lord rebuked thee, Lucifer. Nowadays, men don't hesitate
to just say what they think, what first comes to their idle,
evil, most of the time minds, about God, and about Christ,
and about the Holy Spirit, and about angels, and about heavenly
deity, heavenly beings. They speak evil of dignities. Look at verse, if you will, at
verse 10. They speak evil of things they
don't know anything about. It's a mark of a false prophet,
a false preacher. Here are the marks of a false
preacher. They defile the flesh. They corrupt the flesh. They
move in the area of the flesh. That's what they appeal to. They
try to get results in the flesh. They try to make a show in the
flesh. These things that they do are to recognize the flesh. You see the boards on these churches.
They'll say, we had so many in Sunday school today. We had so
many last Sunday. We had so many a year ago. And
our record attendance was this. Numbers, numbers, numbers. making
a fair show in the flesh. Let's get all these people, here
they come, let's get all these people coming down the aisle
so people can see we're doing things. It's in the flesh. There's
no reason, and I said this in North Carolina last Sunday morning
in the church where I was preaching, there's no reason for any church
to count anything but the money. And that's just to make a deposit.
What difference does it make how many members we have, how
many is in Sunday school, or how many is in the morning service
or evening service? Well, you say, we just want to
keep a record. Why? Why do you want to keep a record?
For bragging purposes. We want to see where we stand.
You can't find out where you stand by record books. You find
out where you stand according to His presence. And it would
be far better to preach to ten with God there than ten thousand
with God not there. But this is the area where false
religious prophets operate. It's in the flesh. And they despise
authority. They despise dominion. They despise
sovereignty. They despise lordship. They despise
kingship. They're forever talking about
man's free will. man's free agency, man's free
moral agency, man's dignity. They don't talk about God's majesty
and God's glory and God's holiness and God's might. They despise
those things. And then they speak evil of things
they don't know anything about. You know, when Paul, the apostle,
was brought before the high priest I wish I could remember exactly
where it's found in the book of Acts. But Paul was brought
before the high priest, and he didn't know he was the high priest.
This man occupied the office of high priest, and Paul didn't
know it. But Paul knew what the office
of high priest represented. But he was talking, they were
questioning him, and the high priest said something to him,
and Paul called him a whited sepulcher. He said, you whited
wall. And when he said that, one fellow
sitting by reached over and slapped him. And he said, Paul, do you
speak that way to God's high priest? Now this high priest
was a corrupt man. This high priest was an unsaved
man. This high priest was a man who
didn't know God. But here's what Paul said. I
didn't know he was God's high priest. It is written, thou shalt
not speak evil of the high priest of God, and I apologize. That's
right, the Apostle Paul apologized for speaking evil of even a corrupt
man, but who occupied an office that represented something. But
these false prophets, they speak evil of things they don't understand,
they know nothing about. But he says in verse 10, what
they do know naturally, that is, what they do understand physically,
they corrupt themselves in these things. For he says in verse
11, they've gone the way of Cain. What was the way of Cain? Cain
despised substitution. That's the way of Cain. When
God told the boys through their father Adam to bring a blood
sacrifice, Cain refused. And he brought the fruits of
his own labors, the works of his own hands, and he turned
his back on substitution. You won't find a false prophet
glorifying substitution. He doesn't understand it, he
doesn't preach it, and he denies it. Then secondly, they ran greedily
after the heir of Balaam. What was Balaam's heir? He wanted
to get paid. He wanted to get paid. He was
seeking gain, he was seeking reward for his services, for
what he did. They've gone the way of Balaam
for reward. And then they perished in the
gainsayings of Corey. What was Corey's problem? He
rebelled against authority. He rebelled against authority. Now he says, God will deal with
these false prophets in vengeance, like he dealt with all error
and apostasy. But let's move on to verse 17.
In verse 17, But beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken
before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They told
you that in the last times there would be mockers, murmurs, proud
scoffers, arrogant false teachers, antichrists. Christ said they
would deceive, if it were possible, the very elect. cunning men,
crafty men, who separate themselves, sensual men, having not the spirit. He then directs us to the use
of four means as a safeguard against error. Jude then directs
us to the use of four means as a safeguard, as a defense against
error and apostasy. And here are those four things.
They're four words that you'll find easy to remember. building,
praying, loving, and looking. Now first of all, he says in
verse 20, But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy
faith. This is the first line of defense
against error. This is the first line of defense
against religious hucksters. This is the first line of defense
against false prophets. This is true. This is true. Listen to it. All false prophets
and all religious hucksters prey upon the ignorant. They prey
upon the ignorant. They prey upon the unestablished
and the uninformed. That's exactly right. That's
their field of service. That's their clowntail. They
find some person who's religiously inclined. And that person, whether
Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Nazarene, or Catholic, if he's
ignorant and unestablished and uninformed, they'll just descend
on him like a cloud to sweep him away into their error. They
prey upon ignorant people. And if you want to have a defense
against error and against religious false prophets and hucksters,
then you build yourself up on the most holy faith. Let me show
you some scripture. Turn to Ephesians first. Ephesians
chapter 3. Now look at this. Now remember this. Our building
will be no stronger than the foundation. Now you men who know
anything about building know that. You know that the most
important part of the building, actually, if there is a most
important part, is the foundation. What it sits If it's not on a
good foundation, it is no good. Now, listen to Ephesians 3, 17,
that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you, being
rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with
all the saints what is the depth of the breadth and the length
and the depth and the height, and to know the love of Christ,
which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled with all the
fullness of God, rooted and grounded in love." Rooted and grounded. Look at Ephesians 4, 11, right
across the page. When our Lord ascended, he gave
some apostles and prophets and some evangelists, some pastors
and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. till we
all come into unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son
of God unto a perfect or mature man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ, that you henceforth be no more
children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind
of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby
they lie in wait to deceive you." If you're grounded and established
and built firmly upon the foundation of Christ Jesus, you will not
be the prey of these false religious hucksters. They can't touch you,
they can't shake you, they can't move you. We've got to be grounded
in these things. Now listen, turn if you were
to Colossians 2. Colossians 2 verse 6 through
9. Let's read this. Colossians 2
verse 6 through 9. As you have therefore received,"
now this was Don's message last Wednesday, I believe, "...you
have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted
and built up in him," now here's the key, "...rooted and built
up in him, and established in the faith, as you have been taught,
abounding therein with thanksgiving, lest any man spoil you through
philosophy." What's going to prevent it? If you are rooted
and grounded and built up and established in the faith, you
won't be spoiled through philosophy and vain deceit and traditions
of men after the rudiments or elements of the world and not
after Christ. You see, that's the first line
of defense. Brethren, and this isn't arrived
at overnight. I'm not saying it is. I'm saying
a lifetime of study. I'm saying personal and mutual
edification is necessary. I'm saying graduation only comes
with glorification. But I'm saying this, I'm saying
that Christ is our foundation, and the truth of God is understood
in its relationship to Christ. And the more we learn of Christ,
the more we're going to be able to defend ourselves against error
and apostasy. the more we're rooted and grounded.
For example, become rooted and grounded in Christ the Creator. Who is He? In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and
all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything
made that was made. Christ the Creator. Christ the
covenant surety. As in Adam we died, in Christ
we're made alive. Christ is of God, made unto us
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Christ, our crucified
Redeemer, who bore our sins in His body on the tree, who was
wounded by our transgression. Christ, our Comforter, all things
work together for good to them who love God, who are called
according to His purpose. I'll never leave you nor forsake
you. Christ, our King, who reigns over us. Christ, our Priest,
who intercedes for us. Christ, our Crown and our Glory. The more you know of Him, the
more firmly you're going to be established on the foundation
of truth and the harder it will be for anyone to move you. Well,
now that's the first line of defense. Beloved, he talks all
the way through here about these, he says, I'm writing to you about
this common salvation. I'm writing to you about this
salvation that's in Christ, and the same thing can be written,
he says, to all nations and all people and all generations and
all calling, Christ is that salvation. It's the same, we all have a
common experience and a common Redeemer and a common goal to
be like Christ, and a common blood that redeemed us, we have
that in common. Now he said, I'm writing that
you might be set for the defense of that faith. because the Fetches
call them creepers. Creepers have come in unaware.
These men have come in hiding behind their sheep's clothing,
wolves in sheep's clothing. God will deal with them, but
beware lest they deal with you. And their prey, their line of
attack is upon the ignorant And upon the uninformed and the
unestablished, those are the folks they descend upon, little
children that can be tossed and driven by the vain philosophy
and the elements of this world and the traditions of men. They
can just snow you with those things. But he said, if you are
grounded in Christ Jesus, if they come upon that rock, that
immovable Christ the Creator, Christ the Surety, Christ the
Crucified, Christ the Comforter, Christ the Crown, Christ the
Glory. They can't move you, because
you're complete in Him. You've found your sufficiency
in Him. The flesh cannot draw you away. Like Peter said, To whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words of life.
I found in Him a resting place, and He has made me glad. Satisfied. in Christ. Now, as I said, this
isn't arrived at overnight. Turn to 1 Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians
13. This is a lifetime of study,
and we grow in grace. I tell you, it's a real tragedy
in this day. I think we just This emphasis upon giving people
jobs to keep them coming to church. I know churches where a fellow
comes down the aisle, he's converted, in two or three weeks he's teaching
Sunday school. It's like Brother David Ellis
told me his father-in-law is an agnostic. Barbara's father
is an agnostic. He objected to their marriage.
He didn't want her to marry that preacher. But anyway, he started
going to this church up there in Iowa. Agnostic, he went two
Sundays to church, two Sundays in a row. And the preacher asked
him to be a deacon, two Sundays in a row. That's enough. That ought to be ordained a deacon
if he comes two Sundays in a row, especially if he's on time, if
he gives enough. When I was over in North Carolina,
a young man came to me. He said, Brother Henry, I want
to ask you a question. I said, go ahead. He said, you
know I'm not a Christian. I said, yeah, I think I know
that. He said, you know, he said, I
went to this young people's meeting with my wife, she was a member
of that church, Christian church, and he said the first time I
was there, all the young people came to me and asked me to be
president of the group. He said, what do you think about that?
I said, I think it just fits in the pattern of this modern
day. Now brethren, it takes years to learn something about this
book. And you'll meet with discouragements along the way, but it's a growth
in grace and a growth in the knowledge of Christ. And it's
day-by-day study and edification and being taught. But watch this,
verse 12 of 1 Corinthians 13. Now we see through a glass darkly
or dimly, but then, praise God, face to face. Now I know in part,
and the oldest Christian here can say that same thing right
there, I know in part. But then I shall know, even as
also I am known." Well, that's the first defense against error. That's the first bulwark against
apostasy. It's to know Christ and his word. Now, secondly, he tells us praying
in the Holy Ghost. The second line of defense against
error and apostasy is personal devotion, personal devotion and
prayer. John Bunyan once said this, ìThe
spiritual man can no more live without prayer than the natural
man can live without breath.î Now brethren, I want to warn
myself and you, and I want to be very tender right here, I
want to encourage us, but I want to do it in such a way that this
devotion will not be an organized thing, but it will be a personal
need and a personal endeavor and effort. But throughout the
Scriptures, our Lord departed to pray. Now, if our Lord needed
to pray, how much more do I? In the scriptures, the disciples
cried, Lord, teach us to pray. The Apostle Paul exhorted men
to pray, to pray for him. He said, Brethren, pray for us,
pray for us. And then he said, I pray for
you, I have not ceased to pray for you night and day. And then
he told us to pray without ceasing. You must have, if you're going
to have a bulwark of defense against error and apostasy and
false teaching, you're going to have to spend some time alone
with God in prayer. Now the more I learn of God's
holiness and power, and the more I see my sin and my weakness,
and the more I encounter the inability of men And the more
I see my insufficiency for this tremendous responsibility, the
more I feel and the more I do pray. I feel the need of it. I feel the necessity of it. I
have to pray. And it's not this formal, lifeless
petition. Now, I want us to learn to pray. But it's not a formal, lifeless
petition. I've found in my—and this is
something we don't like to talk about. I don't like to talk about
our personal prayer life, but I feel like that if we're going
to speak on the subject, we need to get down to what we're talking
about. This thing of prayer is not a
formal, lifeless petition. He says, praying in the Holy
Ghost. with those groanings which cannot
be uttered." Now, Paul said, I speak as a fool. Okay, I speak
as a fool then. But he did it. But let me, bear
with me while I do it a little bit. I was getting a message
last Saturday night. I was supposed to preach last
Saturday night. I felt so empty, honestly, empty, totally empty. I didn't have a thing. I had
an outline, but I had no life. I had no unction. I had no leadership
of the Holy Spirit. I didn't know whether I had the
right message or not. And I'd been with these preachers and
people all day, and I was alone in my motel room, and this is
the way that I prayed. I got down on my knees beside
the bed, and I said, Lord, I don't have anything to say. I just
don't have anything to say. It's pitiful. Lord, You know
me. You know. I want to preach the gospel.
You know that I want a message to preach to these people. I
don't have one. I just don't have one. That's all there is to it. And
if you don't give me one, then it's going to be a total, complete
failure on my part and on the part of the church and everybody
else tonight. And that's the way I talk to
the Lord. That's not being overly familiar with God, I don't think,
and I don't think that's being demanding of God. But I think
you and I need to When we try to pray some, and I know this
public prayer, I don't know so much about that. Sometimes we
get a hold of the horns of the altar, but about 90 times out
of 10 I don't think we do. We make an effort to. We've got
to have public prayer. I know that. that the Bible encourages
us to pray together, where two or three of greed only is touching
any one thing. I know we've got to have it.
I know it's a part of worship, and I know sometimes you men
are able to get hold of God in prayer, but what we have got
to have is private prayer. groanings in the Holy Spirit. When you're there by yourself
and you don't have to word it just right because somebody's
listening, you don't have to wonder whether or not I'm saying
the right thing, and you don't have to worry about anybody finding
out about your meanness, you can just pour your heart out
for God. And you can, there on your knees,
you can Just say, Lord, here I am, and Lord, I don't have
to hide anything from you, I don't have to try to. Here I am, I'm
in a mess, I just, things aren't going right, and I'm in trouble,
and I'm sick, and this is not going right, and I just lay it
before you, and if it's, if you please do anything about it,
that'll be all right. If you're not, that's all right too, but
I just want you to know about it. That, honestly, I want us
to learn to pray like that. Somebody said, he prayed like
he was talking to a friend. Well, that's exactly what you're
doing. He prayed just like he's talking to his father. Becky
has no trouble talking to me. We've got such a good relationship.
She walked in and said, Dad, now, I want the Oldsmobile, Dad. I want to drive that little Volkswagen.
Well, why don't you want to drive that? I just don't want to. I
want to improve my image a little bit, you know. But she can talk
that way. We don't need to be formal with
God. I think formal, lifeless prayer,
just be thrown out the window and forget it. And I honestly,
I have more faith in prayer than I have in controversy. I have
more faith in prayer than I do in argument. And I think if you
and I will maintain a private prayer with earnestness for the
glory of Christ, no false prophecy, prophets, nor heresy, nor deception
will enter in here. I don't believe it can get in
the door if you and I will do some praying. And I challenge
you to. I challenge you to pray for me,
for one another, for your enemies. Lord, I don't want this ill feeling
between me and Ronnie. I want it to be straightened
out. I mean that, Lord, and I'm asking you to give me the right
attitude. That's prayer. That's prayer. All right, here's
the third defense against error. Build yourself up on your most
holy faith. Pray in the Holy Ghost. Keep
yourselves in the love of God, in the love of God. Now, it's
difficult for me to put this third, the third line of defense. I don't know what this may be
the first line of defense. You know, Paul wrote now about
his faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these
is love. One old Puritan said, if a man's
heart is right with God and with his brethren, his head won't
go very far wrong. Isn't that beautiful? If a man's
heart is right with God and with his brethren, his head won't
go very far wrong. If you love God, you cannot love
false doctrine. The old writer, the old writer
of scripture says, you keep your heart out of it or the issues
of life. And if what I believe is motivated
by love for God and love for his glory and love for his majesty,
then I'll believe that which will give him glory. He said, my sheep will hear my
voice, and his voice is the voice of glory. And if somebody comes
along here and lowers the glory of your God, you'll recognize
it if you love him. And if what we do is motivated
by love for God, then our actions will be all right. Our Lord said, Peter, do you
love me? Lord, you know I love you. Then
you'll feed my sheep. That's our motive. He said, if
a man loves me, he'll keep my commandments. If he loves me... Men are motivated by many things,
all liable to change. But those who are motivated by
a sincere love for Christ will never fail. Will never fail. If any man loved mother, father,
husband, wife, brother, sister, yea's own life more than me,
he's not worthy of me. But if you love me, you'll keep
my commandments." That's the third line of defense against
error, to love him and to love one another. And then the fourth
word is looking, looking, looking for the mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. looking forward to the
sure coming of Jesus Christ. Look at verse 14. Enoch said,
Behold the Lord coming. Behold the Lord coming. Our Lord
said to his disciples, I will come again. He said, I'm coming
and my reward is with me. We look for his mercy day by
day. But my, my, don't we look for
His mercy in that day. In that day. And when scoffers
come around saying, where's the promise of His coming? For since
the Father's fell asleep, all things continue as they are.
We say with Olenip, behold, He's coming. I'm looking for Him. I'm looking for Him. He's coming
again. He's coming again. He went away,
but not to stay. He's coming back again. This
same Jesus, the angel said, which was taken up from you into heaven
shall so come in like manners you've seen him go. He's coming
back. We wait for our Lord's return,
and we wait expectantly, expectantly. So that's my defense against
error. That's my fourfold defense. That's
my bulwark. That's the four walls around
our holy Jerusalem. Edification. Edification. Devotion. Affection. Expectancy. Building ourselves
up upon this holy faith. Teach me, preach, I've got to
learn. I've got such a hunger and such a thirst for righteousness. Show me everything God will show
you. Show me and I'll show you what
God shows me. And we'll grow together in the
grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, that we be no more children
tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine that comes over
the radio or over the television or from the pulpit by these flesh-mad,
numbers-mad false prophets who corrupt the flesh and despise
dignity and speak evil of the things they don't know anything
about. Build us up, and we're going to pray. We're going to
pray. I'm not talking about long, spending
two hours in the closet. I can get said what I want to
say in just a few minutes, and I believe you can too. The longest
prayer in this Bible can be prayed in four minutes. And the Lord's
prayer in John 17 can be prayed in about two and a half minutes.
And the prayer he gave his disciples can be prayed in about 45 seconds.
God's not going to hear you for your much speaking. God hears
you for your earnestness and sincerity and the basis of your
prayer for the glory of Jesus Christ. Pray, pray. Pour out your burdens and your
hearts unto the Lord. Call upon me. He said, I'll hear
you. You have not because you ask
not. You say, what happened last Saturday
night, Preacher? Well, Lonnie will tell you, and Carolyn, I
preached. I know, I'm like old Barney.
I blessed me, too. I really had the power of God's
Spirit in me. Oh, my. Really, God blessed me. He heard my prayer. He heard
my prayer. And then, loving. We need to
love Him and love one another. Our Lord said, let me turn to
a scripture. and read this and then I'll let
you go. Look at Mark 12, Mark chapter 12. Loving him and loving
one another. In Mark chapter 12, over here
in verse 29, he says this, in Mark chapter 12, verse 29, I
believe it's Mark 12, 29, And Jesus answered and said, The
first of all commandments is, Here, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one Lord. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment,
and the second is like namely this, I shall love thy neighbors
thyself." There is none other commandment greater than these. Loving and looking. Looking. Just like old Simeon was looking
for his first coming, we're looking for his second coming. And he's
coming back.

My Defense Against Error and Apostasy

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My Defense Against Error and Apostasy

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About Henry Mahan

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