What Is Apostasy?

John MacArthur explained, "Apostasy isn’t an unintentional departure or personal struggle with doubt. It is deliberately abandoning the truth for erroneous teaching. 'The faith' refers specifically to the body of Christian doctrine, not the act of believing. Some will depart from 'the faith which was once delivered unto the saints' (Jude 3). People who understand and outwardly affirm Christian doctrine but don’t have a heart for God are prime candidates for being seduced by demons away from the faith."

John MacArthur warned of apostasy. He was not talking about Christians who struggle with doubt. To the contrary, apostasy is when a person deliberately rejects the truth of Holy Scripture for false teaching. MacArthur defines apostasy as "seduced by demons away from the faith."

Apostasy happens to people who "outwardly affirm Christian doctrine but don’t have a heart for God." In others words, they have made a public profession of faith, without their hearts being changed by the grace of God. Scripture says, "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" (1 John 2:19).

MacArthur warned that apostates are "seduced by demons away from the faith." Scripture teaches that demonic spirits motivate false doctrine (1 Timothy 4:1). That leads to "deliberately abandoning the truth for erroneous teaching." Therefore, according to the Scripture, they are "made manifest, that none of them were of us" (1 John 2:19).

Do You Know the Lord?

Do you know the Lord? It's more than academic knowledge. Knowing the Lord is through a personal faith relationship (Hebrews 11:1-6). Faith is confidence and trust in the Lord. Faith knows God in a personal relationship through the Lord Jesus Christ. Believers come to God the Father through faith in God the Son (John 14:6).

God proves his love for us at the cross of Jesus (Romans 5:8). Knowing the Lord is knowing God's love (1 John 4:8). Faith receives God's love in Christ (John 3:16). Believers know the Lord by knowing real love in our hearts, through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).

Knowing the Lord is through a covenant relationship. The Lord Jesus Christ is the surety of the covenant. God promises with a covenant oath that cannot be broken. Such covenant promises are everlasting. Believers take God at the word of his promise. All the promises of God are Yes and Amen for believers in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20).

Know the Lord, for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them (Hebrews 8:11). Believers know the Lord today through the everlasting covenant in Christ (Hebrews 13:20-21). Lord is God's personal covenant name. Believers know the Lord in a personal covenant relationship through Christ.

How Is God Trinity?

God is Trinity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. While the Bible never uses the word Trinity, it clearly reveals one God in three Persons. The triune God works in perfect harmony from the beginning to the completion of our eternal salvation. There is election by God the Father, redemption by God the Son, and regeneration by God the Holy Spirit. 

Consider this illustration of God as Trinity. You may draw a triangle on paper to illustrate the Trinity. It is one triangle with three distinct points. So, there is one God in three distinct persons as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

Believers encounter God as Trinity through prayer. We pray to God our Father, in the name of God the Son, through the presence and power of God the Holy Spirit. Jesus teaches us to ask the Father in His name (John 14:13). Scripture teaches us to pray in the Spirit (Ephesians 6:18; Jude 20).

The testimony of God as Trinity is baptism. It's a public testimony to God as Trinity. Jesus commanded us to baptize believers in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). Notice that baptism is not in the names plural, but the name singular. It's in the name of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Is Grace Resisted?

God's grace is resisted by all who reject Christ. They thereby have "insulted the Spirit of grace" (Hebrews 10:29). The Bible teaches that people can and do insult God's Spirit. Their hearts are not changed by the grace of God. Condemnation is for all who reject Christ (John 3:18). 

"You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you" (Acts 7:51). Only the Spirit of God can change our hearts, which means our mind, will, and emotions. By resisting the Holy Spirit, people are insulting the only one who can apply the gospel of Christ to their lives.

The Holy Spirit, who changes our corrupt hearts, is the same Holy Spirit who convicts our hearts. Conviction is grace that precedes new birth (John 16:7-11). When conviction is resisted, grace is resisted. This is condemnation for refusing to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.

All who reject Christ are condemned. Jesus said, "And this is condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" (John 3:19). Therefore, all who reject Christ have no one to blame but themselves.

What Is the Church?

The New Testament teaches the divine romance, that the church is the bride of Christ. The church is not a denomination nor a sectarian group. The church includes all who have been saved by grace through faith in Christ. The church is a mystery not revealed in the Old Testament. The church is revealed in the New Testament (Ephesians 3:1-6). All believers compose the body of Christ. He is the head of the body (Ephesians 5:23).

Wedding customs in New Testament days illustrated the relationship with Christ and the church. The father chose the bride for his son. God the Father chose the church as the bride for His Son. Believers are the bride-elect of Christ. Marriage was a covenant relationship. Christ is the Shepherd of the everlasting covenant (Hebrews 13:20-21). A dowry price was paid for a bride. Jesus paid it all for his bride at the cross (Ephesians 5:25). 

In the book of Revelation, we read about the divine romance. It is the marriage of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7). The Bible has been described as the divine romance. God loves us and pursues a personal relationship with us. Believers receive the love of God in Christ (John 3:16).

The Lamb is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. John the Baptist introduced Jesus as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). He is every believer's Passover Lamb at the cross (1 Corinthians 5:7). The divine romance is God's love for sinners at the cross of Jesus (Romans 5:8).

What Is Foreknowledge?

Augustine taught God's foreknowledge. "Since only One foreknows, only One knows that number and can already name them by name, not because this is already decreed by universal foreordination, but because God's knowing is contemporary with every moment in time, including future moments with all their contingencies."

God's attribute of foreknowledge includes all things. His foreknowledge has to do with all his people in Christ. God foreknew us in Christ. God foreknew his relationship with each one of us. God foreknew us as justified and glorified in Christ (Romans 8:28-30).

God's foreknowledge includes our salvation, yet that does not remove the command for all people to repent (Acts 17:30). God foreknew us in Christ through a personal relationship, yet that does not dismiss our responsibility. We are responsible for our choices. We must repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the gospel (1 Peter 1:2; 2 Peter 1:10).

God's foreknowledge includes our personal relationship through Christ. God foreknew us in the everlasting covenant through Christ, the great Shepherd (Hebrews 13:20-21). God's foreknowledge includes all things to the least detail. God foreknew us in Christ as his people. That includes our calling, gifting, and service (Ephesians 1:4-6; 2:10). 

How Is Grace Received?

God's grace is received as unmerited favor. There is no way we can merit nor earn the favor of God. It comes to us only as the gift of God. Faith in Jesus Christ receives God's saving grace. Don't fall for the idea that you can somehow be good enough to merit God's favor. Grace is not for good people. It's for sinners, and that includes all of us. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

Grace is received as deliverance from the curse of sin and death, through Christ our Lord. God's saving grace works in us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31). God's grace comes to us by faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:8-10). 

Grace is received through the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). To receive the Gospel is to believe Christ died for your sins on the cross (Romans 5:8). To receive the Gospel is to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and confess him as your Lord (Romans 10:9). 

Grace is received in Christ alone. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners  (1 Timothy 1:15). We have all sinned (Romans 3:23). God's grace is received in Christ crucified for all our sins (1 John 1:7). God's grace is received by faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.