Truth Matters

Dr. Cheryl Davis: We have so normalized the deception of Satan that we are living in the times that Isaiah mentioned in chapter five where we are calling good evil and evil good. We have normalized the lie of Satan as the truth. The authentic truth of God is the standard and it is unchanged. We have been deceived into believing that truth is relative and subject to interpretation. The Bible says, "I am the Lord and I change not."

Guest (Male): New Testament prophets warned that mankind and the church would one day turn away from the gospel. This time in biblical history was known as the Great Apostasy, a conscious abandonment of faith in God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

Dr. Cheryl Davis: In the times that we are living, we have to guard our minds, our eyes, and our hearts. Remember the things that we have learned of God. Remember whom we have learned them from and the Holy Scriptures will make us wise for salvation.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Truth Matters, empowering men and women in the Christian faith to teach biblical truth in the culture and the marketplace of ideas, using the Bible as a sacred trust of truth, ensuring the message of Jesus.

Our program host is Dr. Cheryl Davis. Dr. Davis is a wife, mom, speaker, and Bible teacher. She is a graduate with a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. She is married to Thad Davis, pastor of Faith Assembly in Saint Pauls, North Carolina.

On today's edition of Truth Matters, Dr. Cheryl Davis talks about the Great Apostasy, what it means to Christians, and if such a time in history could repeat itself today. Today's message is titled "Living in the Shadow of the Great Apostasy." Let's listen.

Dr. Cheryl Davis: Today I want to speak to the church about the church. What I mean by the church is the church as a whole, the body of Christ. I am disturbed by what I see happening to the church. We see churches closing, we see denominations dividing. If you are following the news, we see Christianity on the way to becoming the minority religion in the United States.

I am sure that you have observed the same things and you may have your own reasons as to why this is. I would like to offer an opinion. The root of the problem is that Satan is the great imitator, the great deceiver has crept into the church. Satan has always warred against the truth and the church, but the intensity of that war recently has hit another level. We are becoming defiled from within by leadership being deceived.

We have been deceived into believing that truth is relative and subject to interpretation. The authentic truth of God is the standard and it is unchanged. The Bible says, "I am the Lord and I change not." The standard is the word of God. We are moving away from authentic truth to popular inclusive doctrine.

While I am not saying that deception is at your church or at my church, what I am saying is that the church, like every other church, your church, my church, is a target for deception. Particularly in the fact that there are a lot of churches recently in a very important transition phase, as my church recently came out of that same transition. As I've talked to you guys about this before, our pastor passed away and we were looking for a pastor. I'm finding a lot of churches do not have pastors at this time.

A preacher is not a pastor. Many preachers desire the role of pastor for a number of different reasons. But if I would give any advice to any church looking for a pastor currently, fast and pray for God to send the right person. A person who will not compromise but who will stand for the truth even if it means persecution. A time to guard yourself against deception is not when it is knocking at your door. The time to guard yourselves and ourselves is when we see it afar off.

Let's turn to Matthew chapter 22 verse four. This is a well-known passage of the Bible in the Olivet Discourse and it reads like this, "And Jesus answered and said to them, take heed that no one deceives you." I want to begin with the end in mind. If you do not remember anything that we talk about today, you need to remember these four principles. We are living in the last days. Number two, deception has penetrated the church. Number three, our actions are a direct reflection of what we believe. And number four, take heed that no one deceives you.

First, I would like to say we are living in the last days. And I know I say this all the time, but really I feel like the more that we talk about this, the more it will penetrate our hearts and our minds and our souls. Billy Graham once said, "World events are moving very rapidly now. I pick up the Bible in one hand and I pick up the newspaper in the other, and I read almost the same words in the newspaper as I read in the Bible." It's being fulfilled every day all around us.

David Jeremiah calls these times the times of the end. The Bible has much evidence that we are living in the last days. I don't really have time to go through all these points in the Bible to speak of the last days, but modern-day events and the news read like the pages of the Olivet Discourse in Matthew chapter 24. I know you're very familiar with that passage as I talk about it quite often, but in particular, Jesus is sitting on the Mount of Olives and His disciples are asking Him, "Jesus, what will be the signs of the times and the coming of the end of the age?"

And Jesus tells His disciples, "For many will come in My name, saying that I am the Christ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled. For all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows."

We are living in the beginning of sorrows, but the end is not yet. Jesus goes on in verses 10 through 12 to say, "And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold." We see these characteristics in society already. People are so easily offended we are afraid to speak. It seems the more we try to unite, the more divided we become.

Everyone is allowed to have their own experience and their own interpretation and it to be the truth to them. False prophets are presenting a God that changes and issues apologies for past judgments. We think we are making things better and helping to unite people, when all we are doing is leading people away from the only source of hope that there is: Jesus Christ, our Savior and our Lord. We are living in the last days.

My second point is that deception has penetrated the church. There is a present-day danger of deception that is already here. We find it when Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 1. "Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, having heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron."

On April 28, 2022, Christianity Today reports, "Conservative Methodist Launch Global Methodist Church." The Global Methodist Church is forming to uphold traditional conservative values. I would use the word authentic truth here or the actual word of God. While the United Methodist Church says they are not interested in continuing sexism, racism, homophobia, irrelevancy, and decline. These are the words of church leadership.

They are accusing the word of God and the traditional doctrine of the United Methodist Church to be sexist, racist, homophobic, irrelevant, and frankly the very reason for their decline. All of that is bad. I don't have time to digest it all or teach it all, but I do want to spend some time here. There are two key words in this article: irrelevancy and decline.

We have so normalized the deception of Satan that we are living in the times that Isaiah mentioned in chapter five where we are calling good evil and evil good. We have normalized the lie of Satan as the truth so much that the word of God which is eternal is viewed as irrelevant to the times by the church. Not by the world, we expect that, but by the church, or what we thought was the church on April 27, 2022, the day before April 28, 2022.

Also, the Methodists are blaming the word of God and exclusivism as the reason for their decline in numbers. And when the Bible says clearly that narrow is the gate and wide is the road to destruction. We think our churches are declining because the word of God is no longer relevant or out of date. I don't know about you, but what I'm here to say is this: our churches are declining because of rebellion and hardness of heart, not because the word of God is no longer relevant or out of date.

Light does not dwell within darkness. Light displaces darkness. The word of God will never condone sin. We think that this deception is new. It is not new, it is ancient. Satan has been building his empire of deception since the Garden of Eden. Satan told Eve in Genesis chapter three verse five that if you eat of the fruit of this tree, you will be like God. That is the lie. And I want you to underline "the lie" because I'm going to reference this as we go on and continue our conversation.

2 Thessalonians chapter two verse 11 tells us that they should believe the lie. What is "the lie" in quotation marks? What is the lie? The lie is the idea that man is his own God and therefore can do whatever he pleases and better himself by his own human efforts. Romans chapter one verse 25 tells us that they exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.

God originally made man in His own image. Now, man is making God in his own image. Man has become his own God. I'm going to say that one more time because I think it's very important. Man has become his own God. The great lie has not just penetrated the Methodist Church. The great lie is in the hearts of Christians that are sitting in Pentecostal churches like my church, Baptist churches, and Assembly of God churches for that matter.

I spoke to the son of a Church of God in Christ minister. He said, "Why should I care about whom someone sleeps with or whom they choose to marry? What does that matter to me?" Many who sit in church Sunday after Sunday and proclaim to be Christians but post on their Facebook pages "my body, my choice." Many Christians approve of disobedience, sin like abortion.

The only God that will allow us to murder an unborn child in the name of freedom of choice is the God of our own minds, not the true and living God. The love of many has waxed cold even in our churches. His statement was proof of that. We only care about me, not about anyone else and their choices. When the Bible clearly states that we should love our neighbor as ourselves.

We have churches that are filled with people that have a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. They have an outward appearance of religion but not true Christian faith or godly love, for they have never experienced the power of God in their lives. They have a form without the force. They have religion without reality. They say they have Jesus Christ as their Savior, but they have never made Him Lord of their lives.

There is a difference in praise and worship. The Bible says, "Let everything that have breath praise ye the Lord." Even the birds praise God without a spirit. But those that worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth. There is a difference in Jesus Christ as your Savior and as your Lord. Deception is in the church. I would go so far as to say that Satan's deceptions have even reached into our homes.

2 Timothy chapter 3 tells us that perilous times will come when men will be disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, and unforgiving. Children even in Christian homes are unthankful and do not appreciate what their parents do for them. I have great experience with this. They are unholy in their attitude towards their parents. The home or our children are one of the most vulnerable points to fall prey to deception for women.

When our own flesh and blood goes astray, I have seen many women fall away because they love their children more than the word of God. I have seen mothers change their beliefs in order to maintain a relationship with their children and their grandchildren. When clearly the first and greatest commandment in Matthew chapter 22 is that we are to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

Which leads me to my third point. Our actions are a direct reflection of what we believe. The God-ordained family unit is being dismantled right before our eyes. The Obama administration along with the Supreme Court in the spirit of the Antichrist pushed to legalize same-sex marriage and traded the truth of family love and God's word for the lie. Here we go, the lie again.

In the place of natural love that God has put into men and women and families, today we have a great deal of natural love that God has condemned. Gender and sexuality are in complete confusion and God is not the author of confusion. Romans chapter one verse 32 tells us, "who knowing the righteous judgment of God that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only the same but also approve of those who practice them."

We are even accountable for our approvals. It is not that we commit these acts to be guilty. The sin is the fruit of the deeper heart issues. The only way that you would truly approve of the lie is that you believe the lie. Most people that believe that abortion should be legal have not had an abortion. Most people who believe that marriage should be all of the above are not homosexual, gay, or lesbian.

Most people who believe that drugs should be legalized don't do drugs. They just believe the lie like the people whose rights they are supporting. Our actions reflect what we believe. They believe that man and woman should be able to worship the God of their own minds because they worship the God of their own minds. He just looks different to them. That is why people vote and support for the rights of others to destroy themselves with sin because deep down inside they want the same freedom to follow their own heart's desires.

We keep going after the fruit when really the intent and condition of the heart is what will be judged. So goes the family, so goes this nation. So goes the members, so goes our churches. What we permit in either one of those places, we promote. Our actions reflect what we believe. But before I go any further, let me just summarize again. I believe firmly we are living in the last days. Deception has entered the church and we see examples of that. And our actions are a direct reflection of what we believe.

Lastly, I just want to warn you to take heed that no one deceives you. We have talked about what the Bible says, we have talked about what it means. Now let's talk about what it means for you. We have already seen great men of God and their deception be uncovered recently. Jerry Falwell Jr., Ravi Zacharias, Brian Houston of Hillsong, and the list goes on and on. But that does not affect us much because they are distant and afar off.

But soon we are going to see people that we know, people that we love, people that we have confidence in, fall away. Most recently I've seen that even in my own life where I saw the root of pride five years before. It's just the late effects of roots of pride spring up later. We have to wait to see the fruits that are manifest when we can see the conditions of the heart far sooner.

People that we love, people that we have confidence in are going to fall away. We may be faced with situations with our children or grandchildren that we will have to make a hard decision regarding the truth. The relationships may become strained. Speaking of the Methodist Church, I have a friend who goes to the Methodist Church and she did not think that her church would have to decide to leave the conference but they are faced with that decision.

Even in the time of when they were making the decision, there was a struggle because some wanted to stay. In our conversations, our discussion was why is there even a decision? The word of God is clear. The reason all this is going on is in our conversations that we are living in the last days. It is going to break our hearts and challenge our faith.

But you need to understand that when it happens, the Lord has interceded for you already and the scriptures have prepared you. It is not if it happens but when it happens. Please remember these scriptures. I want you to turn in your Bibles, mark these, turn the page, highlight, whatever you do. 2 Timothy chapter 3 verses 13 through 15. It reads like this.

"But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." Continue in the things that you have learned.

This is what I have learned. I believe that on the average, 25% of the body of Christ as a whole are genuinely saved. I believe that this is the remnant of people that truly want to live a righteous and holy life. These are the people whose fruit line up with the word of God. Isaiah talks about in chapter 35, there is a highway of holiness and the unclean shall not pass over it.

I believe there is a remnant of people who will not bow to deception even if it means suffering for the sake of Christ. Even if it means losing a relationship with their children. Even if it means losing social status. Even if it means marginalization. Even if it means poverty, even if it means death. Those conditions are occurring in other countries. They are not occurring in the United States as of yet.

God will always protect the remnant and keep the remnant of the righteous. Upon this rock I will build My church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. He will not leave us without a weapon. He will not leave us without power. He will not leave us without a comforter. He will not leave us without a way of escape. His word says He will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

I have learned that God is the God who provides bounty in the wilderness. He is the God who provides manna from heaven when there is no food in sight. He is the God who brings peace in the midst of the turmoil of Satan. He is the God that even when I doubt, His grace covers my doubt and keeps me that I don't let go. He is the God that when Satan hatches a weapon against myself and my family, His mercy and His grace keeps it from prospering. My God is enough.

And even if on tomorrow I wake up and the world is on top of me and Satan is at my door with the deception of the world, I will remind myself to continue in the things that I have learned. I will stir up the gift that is within me for God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and a sound mind. His truth will endure and lead us through these turbulent times.

Men and women, continue in what you have learned. Knowing in whom you have learned them, and from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures. The scriptures will make one wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. The Bible says in John chapter 1 that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The scriptures are the heart, mind, and character of God. The scriptures are the infallible inherent truth of God. By way of the Holy Spirit, it lives, it breathes, and is alive in you. It speaks, it teaches, and it loves. But you must remember from whom you've learned them. You learned them from God Himself. Man is but mere mortal or imperfect. The preacher, the Sunday school teacher, is just a vessel that was plucked off the ash pile such as you and myself.

We buried our pastor a year ago. But because he taught us that it is not him that we look to but Jesus Christ, we can go on. Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against Thee. Our God will never fail us. Jesus Christ will never fail us. For in Him we live and move and have our being. The word of God will make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

When the deception of Satan comes like this, the word of God is not really the truth for today's times, it is ancient and outdated, we are progressive now, and we're not going to listen to that. You can quote the word of God and slay the enemy. Ephesians chapter 6 verse 17 tells us, take the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.

It was the sword that Jesus used when He defeated Satan in the wilderness. Satan tempted Jesus to believe the lie. Satan came to Him in three ways: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Each time Jesus responded, "It is written. It is written. It is written." Men and women, it is written. Take heed that no one deceives you. If the sword of Deuteronomy worked for Jesus in the garden, it can work for us.

Deuteronomy chapter 6 says, "Hear, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

Men and women, take heed that no one deceives you. In my closing, I know I have said a lot. I will summarize again. We are living in the last days. Deception has penetrated the church. Our actions are a direct reflection of what we believe. Take heed that no one deceives you. We are seeing the deception of the great lie take men and women of God captive day by day. Take heed that no one deceives you.

When it gets close to us, and I believe that it will, we must remember these things. Remember the things that we have learned of God. Remember whom we have learned them from and the Holy Scriptures will make us wise for salvation. In the times that we are living, we have to guard our minds, our eyes, and our hearts. Take heed that no one deceives you. We need to be watchful, we need to pray to be wise, we need to pray to be willing, we need to pray for God to wash us with His word.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis and today's message titled "Living in the Shadow of the Great Apostasy." In these changing times, there has been one thing that has never changed: the message in the Bible. The truth in God's word stands stronger than ever. Read it for yourself so that you may know and discern what is true, holy, and acceptable in the eyes of God.

Friend, if you're searching or confused in what to believe in this ever-changing modern culture, Dr. Davis would like to help you discover and understand what is true and genuine. You can reach her by email at cheryldavis@projecttruthmatters.com. Cheryl is spelled C-H-E-R-Y-L Davis at projecttruthmatters.com. You can also write to her at PO Box 159, Saint Pauls, North Carolina, 28384.

Or you can connect on Facebook at Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis. And lastly, if you'd like to hear more of Dr. Davis's messages, the Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis podcast is available on Spotify, Apple, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Google Podcast, Pandora, and Castbox. Our website is projecttruthmatters.com. Truth Matters is made possible thanks to the prayers and financial contributions of friends like you and is a production of The Truth Project.