 When we speak of falling away, we really need to be clear what the Bible means by this great falling away. Now, let's go to Second Thessalonians and let's look at what Paul is trying to say in comforting people who thought that maybe they had missed people being taken up into heaven. This is what we call the rapture. I know there's some that don't believe that, but this is what Paul is speaking of in Second Thessalonians. He spoke about it in First Thessalonians, but then there were those who felt like they may have missed it. But Paul said, no, just to comfort them, and he says what must happen first. And notice what he says. He says, verse three, let no one in any way deceive you for it will not come. What's the it? This rapture we're speaking of will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, this understruction, but I wanna pay it to the word, the apostasy. This is what we call the great falling away or the apostasy. The Greek word is over here to the right is the Greek word apostasia, which is, it's a rebellion. It's made of two words, apai and istami, which is this kind of place. It's intentional. And what it refers to is not a falling away from having salvation. No, this falling away, this apostasy is a moving away from belief, from the faith. How do I know? Well, this is also brought up again in First Timothy four one. He says, but the spirit expressly says that in latter times, some will fall away from the faith. And it's intentionally, it is the faith, it is taste, pisteuse, which is the faith. And they haven't fallen away from faith or having fast faith, they're not falling away from believing, they're falling away from not their faith, but from the faith, the core tenants of Christianity. Let's be clear guys, the longer that we are here, the longer that the gospel is on this earth, the more people are going to move away from sound doctrine. Whatever you think is sound doctrine, you name it, be it the Trinity. Less people are going to believe in the Trinity, more people are gonna believe that the Trinity is false. Less people are gonna believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, more people are gonna believe that he did not. Less people are going to believe that the things that the Bible laid out as sin, homosexuality or abortion, those things will fall out of disfavor, more people think that it's okay. More and more people are going to believe that you can do what you want to, have what you want to as long as you claim to be a Christian. Whatever sound doctrine is, it's going to fall out of favor even more so, whatever is an ungodly or a doctrine of demons, as the Bible says, those are gonna be more invoked. Those are gonna be the things that you're gonna see more. You're gonna see more of this outward manifestations that they say are spiritual, but the Bible has no mention of it. They'll bring up things. You'll see more and more things that aren't found in the Bible, but they'll tell you that this is just a move of the spirit, people being slain in the spirit, people falling and people laughing, things like that, that we don't see any example in the scriptures. This is, ladies and gentlemen, this might be the beginning of it, maybe we're in the middle of it. These things must happen first before the lawless one shows up. This is the great fall in the way. This is the MO of Satan. What does he do? Recall from the very beginning, the first time that Satan is introduced or he speaks with mankind, he speaks with Eve. And what does he say? Going to Genesis three, let's put it on the screen. What did he say? Now the serpent was more crafted than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, look what he says, indeed, has God said? Did God really say that? So the first thing the devil wants to do is to impugn God's word. Is that what God actually, is that what the word actually says? Is that really in the Bible? You'll see that all throughout time and history, you'll see the enemy or his emissaries saying that. People are gonna try to confront you and tell you, try to prove to you that the Bible doesn't say that to make the Bible inauthentic, stating that that's not true. Or the next statement that Satan says is the next trick that they use and that is it's verse two. After he says that you should not eat up any tree of the garden, the woman says, she repeats it back to him, from the fruit of the trees of the garden, we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat from it or touch it or you will die. Then here comes Satan and his tricks. This is what he does all the time. Look what he says. He says, the serpent says, you surely will not die for God knows that in that day you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God knowing good and evil. Now what does he do? He says, no, you have misunderstood. That's not what the Bible means. That's not at all what it means. And so you're gonna have people who are gonna do one of two things, actually both of them. They're gonna say, that's not what the scripture say, or they'll say something different. They will twist scriptures and they will get you to try to believe that that's not really what it meant. That's Satan's MO. And he does that and he's effective because look what Eve says after that. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to her eyes and the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from his fruit and ate. So in her eyes, she had already thought that it was desirable. There was some sort of looking at this thing, thinking something, wanting it. And so all Satan did was just get her to believe that God didn't really say that or that God didn't really mean that. And so at the base of all of this is our own desire to do what we want to do, which is why we have this great falling away. People are going to depart from sound teaching and the reason why they're gonna move away from sound doctrine is because as Paul says, they have itching ears and they're gonna wanna have for themselves teachers to preach what they want to hear. And so this falling away from the faith, not falling away from faith, we never see in scriptures, not one time someone having faith that we know this person has faith and they fell away. But we do see oftentimes in scriptures as a matter of fact from the beginning to the end, we see people who know what the absolute truth is. They can even repeat what the truth is. They can tell you what the word of God is and then change it, know what it really means is this or they'll add to it. And so that's what the great falling away is. Now we've seen people do this as we just look back through history, but never in the history of the world have we seen in mass so many professed believers leaving departing from the faith. And what I mean by the faith, the teachings, the doctrine, what the faith is about, the report, you know, the gospel Paul says that I'm not ashamed of it because it is the power. And we're told that faith comes by hearing and hearing and the word hearing is not a verb, but it's a noun, faith comes from the noun, from the report, that's what we're talking about. People will depart from that. Never before in the history of mankind have we seen so many people departing from what we've always accepted as truth. Unlike any other time in history, it could not mean departing from salvation because if that were the case, what we see today is no different than what we saw in the past. People who looked like they were Christians, who looked like they believed, then we find out that they're not. Well, that's not any different today than it was then, but what is different, and this is what these pastors are referring to, people who have accepted what the truth is or know what the truth is and still rejected, they'll put a spin on it. Why? Because it fits what they want. Having itchy ears, they'll find for themselves teachers to preach the same thing. And so what we ought to do is what Paul says, and that is to teach what a course will sound doctorate. The falling away won't be from authentic Christians. It won't be from true believers. It will be those who look like and sound like and even act like at times actual Christians. But because they have decided to go after something else, it became evident of who they were. And so ladies and gentlemen, that's what the great falling away is, and that is the trick of the enemy. He's only got two tricks up his sleeve, really, really good because it taps into our flesh, what we want taps into our desires. And so it's easy for us to, you know what? Maybe you're right. Maybe I didn't see that scripture the right way. Maybe I should look at it the way you want to because the way you look at it gives me what I want. And it's almost a win-win for me and the devil. Do not leave what sound doctrine is. Do not take what his word says, let that be enough if what his word says, if it's not enough for you, if it doesn't move you, then it's a very good chance that you, my friend, might not be a Christian. And I hate to think of that for anyone else, but again, the word is what it says. Do not be part of this great falling away. Amen.