Apostasy Part 2

How far can a truly saved person go off into apostasy?  

Continued...

To the point that they don’t even believe the Lord anymore!  They stop believing on him, on his word.  Let’s say that you were truly saved; you trusted the shed blood of Jesus Christ 20 years ago.  You were in a church that didn’t rightly divide the word and you lost any understanding that you had.  You questioned the truth.  The Corinthians are a good example.  Look what Paul says about them:

1 Corinthians 1:2, 8-9

Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their's and our's:… Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

And also in Phillipians:

Philippians 1:6

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

The Corinthians got to the point at which they no longer even believed in the physical, bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.  A great passage that contains the Gospel is found in 1 Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;  And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

The real reason that Paul wrote that is found in the preceding verse:

1 Corinthians 15:1-2

Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;  By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

He is not saying they weren’t saved (soul salvation); he is talking about being saved from confusion.  Paul is reminding them that what they don’t even believe in anymore, the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, is our gospel! 

1 Corinthians 15:17, 19

And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, [essentially then eat, drink and be merry (Luke 12:19), because:] we are of all men most miserable.

Paul is dealing with the physical, bodily resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15 because they lost that understanding.  If you want to know how far a truly saved person can go into apostasy, look at the Corinthians.  In 1 Corinthians 5, a leader in their assembly who understood ‘once saved always saved’ abused the grace of God.  (It should not be abused [God forbid!] but it can be.)

1 Corinthians 5:1

It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.

Even the lost, heathen, idol-worshipping gentiles knew that was bad.  A believer was doing things of which even the gentiles said, ‘That ain’t cool.’  Yet he was saved.  I believe that he was a leader teaching that it was alright to do that.  But Paul says, ‘No, no!’

1 Corinthians 6:11

And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

So a believer can deny the Lord Jesus Christ in works:

Titus 1:16

They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.

…and he will deny us an equal share, equal reign with him.  If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful.  A truly saved person can go into apostasy as far as sin will take them…

1 Corinthians 6:9-10

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,  Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5:19-21

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,  Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,  Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

 …but not far enough so that the grace of God can’t keep them.

2 Thessalonians 3:3

But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.

To be continued…