0098. Apostates From the Faith–Their Character
Apostates From the Faith–Their Character
"These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage" (Jdg_1:16).
We are not at all sure that the apostate teachers of our day will really relish this portraiture of their characters, but God who speaketh knoweth what is in man.
1. They are murmurers, complainers.
They murmur at the Divine teaching of God’s Word.
They complain at the Divine justice of God’s dealings.
They walk after their own coveting.
What is there in the Book of books that these up-to-date murmurers and complainers have left to simple saints?
Some deny the Pentateuch.
Some denounce the Prophets.
Some defame the Poets.
The story of the Creation is a myth.
The story of the Cross is a phantasma.
The story of the Coming is an illusion.
The historicity of the Word is doubted.
The scientific accuracy of the Word is disputed.
The verbal inspiration of the Word is done away.
Christ was not born of the Holy Ghost and Mary.
Christ was not in very fact the Son of God–Deity.
Christ was not the eternal, unchangeable, omniscient God.
Job and Jonah were not actual characters.
The miraculous must be scientifically explained, or else expunged.
Prophecy and revelation express the poetical fancies of the writer.
2. They walk after their own desires. They are men dominated by self. They walk in the flesh and in the mind. This charge is vital. For we read, "They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh * * If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die" (Rom_8:5, Rom_8:13).
Yet the charge is true for Jude positively states in Joh_14:19, "These be they who separate themselves, sensual (psuchikoi), having not the Spirit".
These men have forgotten that "the natural man receiveth not the things of God".
These men have spurned the fact that "God has made foolish the wisdom of the world".
These men have disdained the fact that "the Spir-it searcheth * * the deep things of God"; and, "the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God". Men who are soulish, having not the Spirit, are not fit guides in spiritual things. Men who are soulish, having the spirit of the world, cannot know "the things that are freely given to us of God".
Men who are soulish, walking according to the spirit of their minds, cannot receive "the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned".
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR