Join us for an eye-opening episode where Dr. J. Vernon McGee unpacks the concept of apostasy amid rising challenges in the church. Anchored in scriptural truth, we examine how ancient warnings resonate louder in today’s world as some depart from faith. With listener stories from Ann in Alaska and Mary in Texas, the episode paints a vivid picture of personal faith journeys interwoven with collective concerns over the state of Christianity. The episode promises to equip listeners with understanding and encouragement to stay the course in turbulent times.
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The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith.
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Nobody wants to hear bad news, but sometimes bad news can actually be good. It can warn you. It can protect you from danger. Welcome to Through the Bible. In this Sunday’s sermon, Dr. J. Vernon McGee is going to deliver a warning that was first written to us in the book of Jude. Now, like many New Testament writers, Jude raises the flag against the coming apostasy of the church. In simple terms, apostasy is when people turn their backs on God and when they renounce faith and all things that are true. Dr. McGee said, What was a little cloud the size of a man’s hand in Jude’s day is in our day a storm of hurricane proportions. It was true back then when he first made the statement, And it’s just as true and maybe even more so today. Now, Dr. McGee recognized the rising tide of changes in the organized church. So he signaled the warning in this sermon that he called the apostasy has arrived. Let’s listen with hearts that are willing to heed God’s warning. But before we jump into a very serious message, let’s encourage each other with a few stories from our fellow listeners. First, we’ve got a voicemail from Ann in Alaska.
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My name is Ann. I’m from Willow, Alaska. My husband and I have been on the Bible bus for several decades. We’re senior citizens, very much senior citizens. And the older we get, the more opportunities we have to go to the doctor and have more appointments than we’ve ever had in our lives. But this gives us an opportunity to share the Bible with the doctors, with the nurses, whoever takes care of us. And then as we shop in the stores, we talk to the store owners, we talk to the checkers and people in the store, wherever we could stop them with a card that said John 3, 16, for God so loved the world. And they say, oh, we know that verse. We love the Bible. And then we stop and talk to them and give them information on the Bible thus and tell them about this thing every day of the week, Saturdays and Sundays. It’s just a privilege to hear the word of God. Dr. Vernon Riggie is so plain, so simple. So true and so honest. We love his Bible questions, the way he reacts to the questions. He does it in such a wonderful, wonderful, caring and knowledgeable way. We’re proud to say we love the Bible through the daily Bible reading on the bus. Also, I would like to make a request for those Bible bus passes, more people to hear about the Bible bus. and to learn about Jesus that tells us about his love for us, through his sacrifice for his life for us and how he wants us to live for him and tell him about the wonderful hope that we have in Jesus and his soon return to the rapture. We’re all looking for his return, and I think the older we get, the more anxious we are for his return. We’re tired of this old life. We want to be with Jesus. Thank you very much.
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Thanks, Ann, for sharing through the Bible with the people that you meet. I got a seat saved for you and your husband. And if you’d like some of those Bible bus passes that Ann mentioned, give us a call at 1-800-65-BIBLE and we’ll get some out to you. And if you don’t know what they are, let me fill you in. Our Bible bus passes, well, they’re designed to give you a fast and easy way to share the Bible, that is through the Bible, with people that you meet out and about in your daily life. They’re about the size of a business card, so they’re really easy to carry around with you. and each one has a small bit of info and a QR code pointing folks to the program or one of our other resources. Now, we got a few of them. So probably the most popular is our Listen Bus Pass. That points people right to our app, which I gotta say is one of the best ways to either supplement or keep on top of your Bible bus journey. But we got a couple of others too. One that’ll help you share all of our online books and booklets, and another that sends folks right to all of our other resources on how to know God. So if you’d like any of these passes to start handing out, Be in touch. The number again is 1-800-65-BIBLE. Now here’s a note from Glenn in Seattle, and he writes this. I have made my most recent donations to Through the Bible and wanted to let you know that I appreciate all of the new innovative ways you spread the gospel via modern technology. I applaud your efforts to use every way possible to reach the lost and further the understanding of God’s word for believers and unbelievers alike. And as much as I appreciate the new technology, I listen to TTB’s daily teaching and Sunday sermon on AM radio. On days when I cannot hear it on radio, I catch up by listening on ttb.org. The messages have been a blessing to me in many ways. I’m grateful for your faithful dedication to sending out God’s word. Well, it’s great to hear from you, Glenn. Thanks for supporting the Bible bus in more than 250 languages around the world. Now, I think we got time to hear from one more listener.
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Hello, my name is Mary, and I’m from Texas. I started listening to Through the Bible somewhere in 2018, I think. I heard someone refer to J. Vernon McGee in the Bible bus, so I looked it up. In going through the Bible systematically, I began seeing God’s story throughout the history, the times of mankind. In Dr. McGee’s teaching, he connects Bible truth with real places, real events, real historical times, I’d never heard it that way. I love the story of God that he gave to us. I’m so thankful for y’all and your role in discipling of the body of Christ. God changes people from the inside out through his word. Thank you. You are much appreciated and loved, and someday we’ll meet.
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As you probably heard, it’s letter month through the Bible, and it’s a time that we set aside to celebrate letters from our listening family. So this is really a special and personal invitation to you. If you’re loving and learning from these studies, would you share how God’s using them in your life? It’s simple. You can drop us a note in the feedback section of our app. You can email us at biblebus at ttb.org. You can write to Through the Bible, Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C, 6B1. And like Ann and Mary, you can even call and leave a message at 1-800-65-BIBLE. Now let’s pray and get the Bible bus rolling. Heavenly Father, we come before you with open hearts, ready to heed and hear the truth that you have for us in your word. Though we may not want to hear the warnings, Lord, we thank you for loving us enough to speak the hard truths that protect us and draw us closer to you. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Amen. Now here’s Dr. J. Vernon McGee with the Sunday Sermon on Through the Bible.
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Now this evening as we begin our message, we turn to 1 Timothy, the fourth chapter, and we want first to define our terms. Let’s understand what we’re talking about when we talk about the apostasy. And in 1 Timothy, the fourth chapter, verse 1 reads, Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, etc. I’m not reading the other tonight because I’m not dealing with that particular part at all. Now in order to get at the meaning of two things that are here, I’d like to read the last verse of the third chapter because it actually, verse 1, is a contrast to it. Paul says here, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, He appeared to angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. Now, that is a glorious, wonderful statement of that which is supernatural and which is a matter of history tonight. Now, when Paul begins here, the word now, it’s a little Greek, de, and it should be but. It’s in contrasts. But the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times, and I want to stop with that word latter times, it’s a technical expression. You will find in the Bible that the term last days or last times are the time of the end Never the end of time, because the Bible doesn’t use that expression, nor does it ever use the expression the end of the world. Now I know our translation says that, but it’s always the end of the age. The world doesn’t come to an end. Oh, I know there’ll be a new heavens and a new earth. But that doesn’t mean that we get rid of the earth. It’s going into eternity. That’s God’s intention. Therefore, there’s no such thing, as far as the Word of God is concerned, as the end of the world or the end of time. But there is such a thing as the last days, the latter times, the end of the age. And when you find that expression, we need to determine what it refers to. It can refer to the nation Israel, or it can refer to the church. Now, it sometimes refers to the nation Israel. In chapter 49, And Jacob called unto his sons and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. Now, that’s the last days of the nation Israel. And those last days refer to a very definite technical period that the Lord Jesus, in the Olivet Discourse, labeled the great tribulation period. Now, when Paul uses it here, speaking to a young preacher, he’s speaking of the latter days of the church. That is, those days immediately preceding the rapture. This is the way the church will conclude its earthly career. In the latter days, he says that the Spirit speaketh expressly. This is something that the Spirit of God would emphasize to believers, and it is that some shall depart from the faith. That word, depart from the faith, is our word that we want tonight. Actually, the word depart is a Greek word that is apo-histemi. Two Greek words, a little preposition, apo-histemi. which means away from. And histemi means to stand. And apohistemi or apostasy, for we bring it over into English by transliteration, it means to stand away from. Now, let me illustrate it in a very, I think, graphic manner. I’m standing here by this pulpit. Now, I move away from this pulpit. I am standing away from the pulpit. I did stand by it, but now I’m away from it, standing away from it. That is apostasy. It is to one time to have professed something and another time to have denied that which you once professed. Webster, and he always does a good job of defining words, he says this, that apostasy is the abandonment of what one has voluntarily professed, total desertions of the principles of faith. This now is what he defines as the apostasy, abandonment of that which was voluntarily professed. Now we have our Lord using that expression. In the 8th chapter of Luke, verse 13, and the Lord Jesus uses it like this. He’s giving this parable about where the seed fell. And now he says, “…they on the rock are they which that when they hear, they receive the word with joy. And these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation…” Fall away. That’s the word, apohistemi. They’re apostatized. They profess to believe. Now they move away from it. They no longer believe. They have departed from the faith. So that apostasy would be impossible today among people who’ve never heard the gospel. You have to, an apostate is one who has not only heard the gospel, but who has professed to believe the gospel, and now he has departed from the gospel. That’s apostasy. You couldn’t have it among people who’ve not heard the gospel. It has to be among those who’ve actually professed something. Now, that, I think, makes it rather clear-cut. There’s another place where it’s used in Hebrews 3.12. Let me use it as a point of illustration. “‘Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.'” Now you have that statement used there, in departing from the living God. Here are those that have professed to believe. Now they no longer believe. They have departed from it. Now you probably heard this in this day. I’ve heard this again and again among preachers. When I came down to this church’s pastor, a Presbyterian preacher said to me, Well, he said, McGee, he said, you know, I once used to be a fundamentalist. As I was brought up in a fundamental home, my mother used to carry a Schofield Bible. My dad had a Schofield Bible. But you know, I don’t believe that stuff anymore. What is he? An apostate. He once professed it. He once said, I’m a fundamentalist. But now I’m no longer a fundamentalist. I no longer believe that. I’ve departed from it. There are literally today thousands of men in the ministry tonight, and I want to say to you, there are an unhappy lot that can say, I once professed it, but I no longer. Now I want to give two examples that I think are startling, and I give them to illustrate And I think, frankly, they ought to cause us to bow our head in humility before God and ask for his help. I can’t understand anyone tonight living in these days, and we’re told to examine yourself and see whether you’re in the faith or not. These are days when God’s people need to examine themselves. I’m going to give one that you’d probably be a little amazed at. Karl Marx was an apostate. You say, you don’t mean that. I do mean that. This is the man who wrote Das Kapital. Did you know that he was brought up in a Christian home? Now listen to this. His father, a rabbi, descended from a long line of rabbis, accepted Christian baptism for himself and his family, changed his name Herschel to Heinrich. Young Carl attended the gymnasium at Trier and his school leaving examination papers have been discovered. The one which gained the most unqualified approval of authority was a theological essay Listen to this, on the union of the faithful in Christ according to John 15, 1 through 14, portrayed in its origin and essence, in its unconditional necessity and in its effect. That’s quite a subject for a young fella, but that’s what Karl Marx wrote on. John 15. This is marked by the teacher as a thoughtful, copious, and powerful presentation of the theme. The boy was 17 when he wrote this essay in 1835. That’s the man who went on to write Das Kapital. That’s the man that wrote the ideology for godless states today and godlessness. He was an apostate. He once professed to believe something. There came a day when he stood away from it. He no longer believed it. Now, he is an apostate. Paul said to young Timothy in the latter days, some shall depart from the faith. They will apostatize and they will depart from the faith. Now, all the New Testament writers They speak of the approaching apostasy. To them it was just a little cloud that was on the horizon just the size of a man’s hand. But that cloud now has darkened. It’s covered the sky. And tonight, you and I are in the storm. I do not think that we’re in the eye of the storm yet. And I do not think it’s broken with all of its fury. I think in the next few months, and probably the next two years, that what we have heard will be nothing compared to what we’re going to hear in the next two years. We are going to see one of the greatest departures from the faith that the world has ever seen in the history of the church. We are moving in that direction and nothing in the world but a supernatural revival. And I cannot see that God intends to do it before he brings his church out of the world. He may do it. I have no inside information and I do not preclude the possibility of that. The church forgotten. these things that the Word of God had emphasized, and you will find that the church was persecuted at first, and during that period it thought of itself as a pilgrim and stranger here. It was true to the Lord. It preached the gospel. And actually, had it continued in that condition, you would have had worldwide evangelism in the first 500 years. But it was in 313 that Constantine was converted. Constantine gave the edict of the toleration. And that meant persecution seats. And no longer was the church a martyr church. It came up out of the catacombs. Five million had shed their blood and laid down their lives gladly for Jesus Christ. But now the church finds itself in power. And a man like Augustine, a great mind and a great man, but he wrote the city of God. And he gave the church a vision of building a kingdom down here upon this earth. And that actually explains Roman Catholicism today. They have attempted to do what Augustine says the church should do, build the kingdom of God here upon this earth. And God never intended His church to do that at all. It was to be a church to preach the Word of God. and to attempt to win man to Jesus Christ. But he got away from that. But by the end of the 19th century, with the tremendous expansion of the British Empire, you will find the most optimistic ideas and notions entered into the church. I want to give you tonight merely two quotations. One is from Nauville in his book, The Problem of Evil. Now you listen to this. and see how it fits into the present hour. The civilization of Europe, or to call it by its true name, which it derives from its origin, the Christian civilization, is visibly making the conquest of the world. Its triumph is only a matter of time. No one doubts it. Now, that man, a few years ago, could make that statement and nobody would contradict it. Now, there were a few old moss-backed fundamentalists that contradicted, but nobody paid attention to them anyway. But may I say to you how absurd that statement is tonight. Justin Smith, I looked at his commentary, pulled it down off the shelf in Columbia Seminary years ago. 1883 is when he wrote. Now, I won’t give you his whole quotation, but listen to this. It has been said that in 25 years more, If the present rate of progress continues, India will become as thoroughly Christian as Great Britain is today. There will be 30 millions of Christians in China and Japan will be as fully Christianized as America is now. The old systems, they tell us, are honeycomb through and through by Christian influence. It looks as if a day may soon come When these systems, struck by vigorous blows, will fall in tremendous collapse, meantime every weapon formed against Christianity breaks in the hand that holds it. Already the Lord’s right hand hath gotten him the victory. And on and on it goes like that, as if the entire world would be converted by the beginning of the 20th century. And they believed that at the beginning of the 20th century. But tonight, may I say to you, the so-called Christian nations, they don’t want the gospel of the grace of God preached there today. This is a desperate hour that we’ve come to now in the history of the church. Now, when I entered the ministry, And that’s somewhere this side of the Dark Ages. May I say that this matter of the apostasy, it was something that was out yonder in the future. Modernism, yes. It was still a small cloud on the horizon. Oh, a bit of a breeze was blowing. Modernism was a minority. It was discredited. Dr. Machen had absolutely put the critics of the New Testament, especially concerning the virgin birth, he’d put them to riot. They were running for cover. And Dr. Dick Wilson, the outstanding and still stands as the greatest scholar of the 20th century as far as the Old Testament is concerned. I heard him make this statement. He spoke, by the way, 40 different languages. And this man had written many books on all these old languages. And he says, the thing that I object to is the critic, when he writes against me, always has to use my books. And they did, because he had the only source material that there was. May I say to you, this man, an outstanding defender of the faith. Now, all of that’s gone. And all of that has changed today. And the storm now has broken with all of its fury. I’m not a pessimist. I refuse to be called a pessimist unless the pessimist can be defined as the man who blows out the light the optimist thought he saw in the dark. And I want to blow that light out, but I do think that we need to recognize very definitely that this approaching apostasy is something that ought not to take us by surprise, but it’s something that we ought to be able to meet in this hour in which we are living and to recognize it for what it is. Now, the Lord Jesus never did predict phenomenal and amazing and fabulous success for His church. This is the thing he did say in Luke 18, 8. I tell you this, he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? And in the Greek, it’s the faith, and the faith is that body of truth that the apostles have handed down. It’s in the New Testament today. That’s the faith. He says, will he find the faith in the earth? And it’s asking the Greek in the way to get an answer that’s negative. No, he very frankly says he will not find the faith on the earth. And I recognize that he’s referring to the day when he returns to establish his kingdom. But we are in the beginning of that apostasy, this hour in which we live. So we need to recognize that this is something that should not take us today by surprise at all. Now there’s one thing that Jude and I will be going constantly to the book of Jude. It is the book in the New Testament that deals exclusively with the apostasy. And I will be basing these messages on this book. And I want tonight just to call attention to verse 4. For there are certain men prepping unawares who were before of all ordained, and ordained here means they were written of beforehand. This is not something new, Jude says. They were before of all written of beforehand to this condemnation, ungodly men. Of course they’re going to say God is dead because they’re ungodly men. God’s not even in their thinking. Turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Judah started out to write on some great theme of our salvation. He says that, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of our common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Then he gives that statement that these certain men have crept in unaware. Now, the way that this can be translated, and I’d like to call attention to that, is blatant immorality. They turn the grace of our God into blatant immorality. You see, the difference today in sin is the fact that sin in this present hour, that before was carried on under cover. I’m perfectly willing to admit that there was sin in the church before, an unbelief, but it was kept undercover. But today it’s blatant. Immorality has come out in the open. And now they are, as we’re going to show in another time, that there are several ministers in some of our outstanding denominations that are saying adultery is perfectly permissible. Lying and stealing are perfectly permissible today. They have turned the grace of our God into blatant immorality. We’ve come now to that day. And the denial of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, You can always judge them by that, and we’ll deal with that later. Now tonight, just to open the subject, I want to mention three evidences that apostasy has arrived, and I’d like to call your attention to these. One of our elders, I do not know whether he’d want me to use his name or not, he sat there, and the fellow sat there is Al Menturn, but I won’t tell you who gave me this. But every now and then he puts in my hands a very valuable document, because in his teaching he’s able to get in contact with this. Here is something that is prepared today that is sent out to liberal churches. I was not sent one of them, and I take it that it’s only sent to your liberal ministers. Now, you are well aware that the liberal church for years, ever since I’ve been in the ministry, has not had a Sunday night service. When I became pastor of the Second Church in Nashville, Tennessee, I said one of the conditions I’d come on would be that we would begin again the Sunday night service. And we began the Sunday night service. Because a church that can’t have a Sunday night service has a great mausoleum, a $250,000 plant. They ought to tear it down and make it a parking lot. They only have one service a week in that church. It has no right to exist. It ought to have more than just one. And so in order to try to get people to come out Sunday night in these churches, this is a dialogue with the world. Now, what do you think it’s going to be? Well, they mention certain pictures that you can have and show them, and then after you show them, you have a discussion in the church. And let me mention some of these pictures that are here. We have blue denim. You show that, and it’s a picture. They very frankly say it’s on sex and marriage. That’ll make a good discussion afterward. And then the other one is all about Eve. And I imagine it is all about. And then, just let me lust for life. And then we have, I’ll cry tomorrow, social problems. And then, here is one. I imagine you could really fill up most any church in Los Angeles if you showed this picture. Cat on a hot tin roof with Elizabeth Taylor. Now, my friend, may I say to you, Did you ever think that you would reach the day when this would be shown in churches? Well, it is. And that which was absolutely as condemned by moral leaders of the world, the church today is showing it. Amazing, isn’t it? Now, that’s one evidence that we are today in an apostasy, blatant immorality today. Then another illustration of it. There are apparently a great many people thought I would miss it. The picture in the paper of them doing the Watusi in the church. Did you see that picture? And friends, may I say to you, I have preached ever since I’ve been in the ministry that an apostasy was coming. But I’m very frank to say to you tonight, I never thought I’d live to see it. I thought it was way down yonder in the future and it will break sometime in the future, but not in my day. It has broken in my day. I never thought I’d see the Watusi in the church. In fact, I never thought I’d ever see the Watusi. The thing brought out of heathen Africa, if you please, and put in the church today. Now I say to you tonight, that we’re in the midst of an apostasy. When the church in its desperation and its liberalism, why they couldn’t get a corporal’s guard out on a Sunday night. Therefore they have to resort to this. And then we have ministers who’ve denied everything. Now I will deal with this in a very definite way a little later. But tonight I’m going to give you only one quotation and then we’re through. Out of a poll of 700 preachers, the following results were given. 48% denied the complete inspiration of the Bible. 24% rejected the atonement. 12% rejected the resurrection of the body. 27% did not believe that Christ will return to judge the quick and the dead. A Washington, D.C. minister said, We liberal churchmen are no longer interested in the fundamental modernist controversy. We do not believe we should even waste our time engaging in it. So far as we are concerned, it makes no difference whether Christ was born of a virgin or not. We don’t even bother to form an opinion on the subject. An Arlington, Virginia minister said, we’ve closed our minds to such trivial consideration as the question of the resurrection of Christ. If you fundamentalists wish to believe that nonsense, we have no objection, but we have more important things to preach than the presence or absence of an empty tomb 20 centuries ago. A leading minister in Washington, D.C. said flatly, in our denomination, what you call the faith of our fathers is approaching total extinction. Of course, a few of the older ministers still cling to the Bible, but among the younger men, the real leaders of our denomination today, I do not know a single one who believes in Christ. or any of the things that you classify as fundamentals. One modernist said, we are interested in human life and human destiny on earth. We don’t know or care whether there’s a life beyond the grave. We presume there is a God, but we know that He will ever be a mystery to us. We do not know or care whether God possesses personality or not. He may be just an impersonal force. Religion means very little, if anything. In the modern world, religion has no vital place. The function of the modern ministers is to guide the thinking people along social and economic lines. Morals like religion are out of date. The world today requires a new social order. The younger generation won’t need either morals or religion if we create a social order without ignorance or poverty. We are moving in the direction of the elimination of prayer from our services entirely. We still include it occasionally to please those who are accustomed to it, for prayer is a sort of habit with folk. It takes time to educate them to a realization that it’s a hangover from the superstitious past. We do not teach Bible to our young people. We do not teach them to pray. Our youth program is centered around recreation. Friends, may I say to you that there is going on at the present moment in the church the greatest program of brainwashing that has ever taken place, to absolutely get rid of the Word of God. And I say to you that I think fundamentalists ought to wake at this hour. What a wonderful hour I think it is to live in and to still be able to be intelligent. And I went to school with some of these fellows, and I know what kind of grades they can make when they sit down and are really put to the test. I happen to know some of them. And I want to say this to you. You can still be an intelligent person and believe the word of God and believe that Jesus Christ, 1900 years ago, intruded into history. And he died on a cross. He rose again the third day bodily. He ascended back to heaven and he’s alive tonight. He has sent the Holy Spirit into the world and the Holy Spirit has made him real to multitudes tonight. May I say that’s still the message and it’s still pertinent for this hour to meet the needs. I feel sorry for men like this. My heart goes out to them actually for their loss. Lost without a compass. Lost in the dark. Lost without knowing where they were going. Have you ever been lost? I hunt up in the Hatchabas. There’s a man here tonight that he and I hunt together some. That was before he got so old that he couldn’t walk with me. And I was hunting up in Kelso Valley several years ago with Blair. I think maybe his widow may be here tonight. He went to be with the Lord not long ago. Well, Blair and I went up early one Saturday morning. He parked his car. We were quail hunting, and we walked, I suppose, two or three miles. We did not see a quail, didn’t get up a covey. He had a heart condition then, and we came to a covey of quail. I’d never seen a larger covey. There must have been 200 birds in it. Believe me, we got excited. He overdid it when he knew that he should leave, and he told me, I’m going back to the car. But I stayed on, and I followed that curvy. They scattered, of course, in every direction, and I followed them. I lost absolutely sense of time and direction. I didn’t even know where I was. I must have gone two or three miles from where we got them up. And all of a sudden, it occurred to me that I was lost. I did not know which direction to go. They were the foothills of the Tehachapas and its rugged country. I climbed to the top of one and I looked around to see if I could see some spot I recognized. And I give you my word, I couldn’t see a hill. I couldn’t see a tree. I couldn’t see anything I recognized. And it’s at a time like that you have a feeling of fright. And so I started out rather hurriedly. And I walked, I walked, I’m sure, for 30 minutes, and all of a sudden it occurred to me I was going, I must be going the wrong direction. I see nothing familiar. I turned and started in the opposite direction, and every now and then I thought I’d see something familiar. I want to tell you, without a compass, without knowing where I was, I became absolutely frightened. And finally, again, I climbed to the top of the highest hill that was in that area. And I looked over the landscape. And believe me, I prayed to the Lord to get me out of that situation. But as I stood there, I thought how tragic it is to be lost in this world and not know where you’re going. Not now. Not have a compass. Not have a map. Not have anything. Just lost. And I stood there and I give you my word. I did not know which direction to go down from that hill. And I must have stayed there for over an hour praying and wondering. And finally, I saw a car coming down in a very rough trail. Men got out and they started down the road. I called to them. I said to them, have you seen a blue car? And they said, yes, parked up a road about one mile. May I say that was my direction. I came down off of that hill, and I tell you, I went up that road. And when I saw Blair, I never saw anyone that I was as glad to see as I was to see him. And there he was sitting eating lunch. And I said to him, I said, how long you been here? He says, I’ve been here a long time. Says, where you been? I’ve been waiting for you. I said, I got lost. Said, you did? I said, yes. I never had such a funny feeling in my life. Be over in those hills and be lost. My friend, tonight, multitudes in this world are lost. And the tragedy of it is they’ve wrecked their compass. They’ve wrecked their map. They don’t know which way to go. Maybe you are here tonight, lost. Well, I’m delighted to be able to tell you that this is a compass. I’m delighted to tell you that this is the way. The Lord Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Multitudes that have been lost in this world have come to him and have found it to be true. And you can find it to be true even in days like this. I tell you what a comfort it is. What a hope it is. What a wonderful thing it is to have tonight an assurance in days like these. And to be able to say with Paul, I know whom I have believed. And I’m persuaded that he’s able to keep that which I’ve committed unto him against that day. May God keep us true. And if tonight you have lost your way may i say come to christ he is the light he is the way he’s the truth he’s the life what can you do in these days of apostasy
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, the answer is the same as it’s always been. Come to Jesus. And we’d love to tell you more about this great gift from God. Many of Dr. McGee’s resources, both written and recorded, are available in our app or at ttb.org. Just click on How Can I Know God? Or call 1-800-65-BIBLE if you prefer that we mail you a few of those helpful materials. Now, as we go, I’m Steve Schwetz, praying that you fix your eyes firmly on Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life, and hold fast to the blessed hope of his glorious return.
SPEAKER 03 :
He washed it white as snow.
SPEAKER 01 :
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