Well, we're on our journey through
Jude, this remarkable book of the Scriptures, and we're looking
tonight at verse 4. And verse 4 gives the reason
for Jude writing this letter. He calls himself a servant of
Jesus Christ, a brother of James, and he describes the saints of
God. They're sanctified by God the Father, they're preserved
in Christ Jesus, and they're called And these sanctified,
preserved and called people are the recipients of mercy. Mercy,
peace and love. Not just mercy, peace and love,
but multiplied mercy, peace and love. And when we look at the
characteristics of the false teachers in Jude, and their deceptive
creeping in unawares that we see in verse 4, we can understand
why it is just a blessing to have multiplied mercy and peace
and love from God the Father. Beloved, when I gave all diligence
to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for
me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly
contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints,
for, or because, this is the reason he's writing, for there
are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained
to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our
God into lasciviousness. Denying the only Lord God and
our Lord Jesus Christ, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness
is to declare that if you preach the Gospel and you preach the
grace of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, it will cause men to
live lives of wickedness. And the licentiousness in their
mind is put to rest by people being put back under the law
and a bunch of rules and regulations. These are, according to 2 Timothy
3, these are perilous times. Know this, says the scriptures,
know this also that in the last days perilous times shall come. And it gives a great description,
the list of the attributes of the false teachers. But they
didn't love the Gospel. I'd just like us to read something
out of Matthew Chapter 24, if you could. I want us to be reminded
that this is a constant theme throughout the Scriptures, that
we are to know this. We are, like the children of
Issachar, to be, according to the work of God in our hearts,
to be men of understanding of the times and to know what Israel
ought to do. We are in the Church of God in
this degenerate age, we are to be like Esther. You remember
Mordecai came to Esther and he said to her, knowest thou whether
thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this. The God has raised up his witness
in this world and witness in this town and witness in his
people here. for such a time as this. These
are precious times, brothers and sisters. They are times when
we are called upon in all sorts of ways to bear witness to the
grace of God and the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's a precious privilege. As
much as we are disturbed by the characteristics of the false
teachers and the cunning and craftiness that they bring, we
do know that all things work together. Our Lord reigns. And
this is just again, as we saw last week, it is the outworking
of the promises of God. And what should surprise us is
not that these things happen, but we ought to be surprised
if they didn't happen. When we see the Word of God being
fulfilled before our eyes, we need to be thankful that God
has given us the Scriptures, and especially thankful that
He has given us eyes to understand and hearts to believe the Scriptures. In Matthew 24, the Lord Jesus
talks about signs of the end, doesn't he? When he built, he built remarkable
things and Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things?
Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone
upon another that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat on
the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying,
Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign
of thy coming and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered
and said unto him, The first thing, isn't it, to contemplate
when it comes to the end times is Take heed, take heed that
no man deceive you. When you contemplate these times
that we live in, the first word of the Lord Jesus Christ, He's
promised what's going to happen to that temple and it happened
just 35 years later, 38 years later. It was destroyed and the
Romans left that 25 acre temple complex like a ploughed field. And that wall that the Jews go
wailing to all the time is a foundation wall of that temple. All that
was above it was destroyed. That foundation wall was left
there as an exhibition of the power of Rome, that this mighty
building won't stand the force of Rome. Take heed, says the
Lord Jesus Christ to us, take heed that no man deceive you. 4. Many shall come in my name,
saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. 5. And you shall
hear of wars, and rumours of wars. 6. See that you not be
troubled. 7. For all these things must
come to pass, but the end is not yet. 8. For nation shall
rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 9. And there
shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in diverse places.
All these are the beginning of sorrows. then shall they deliver
you up to be afflicted and shall kill you. And you shall be hated
of all nations for my name's sake. Then shall many be offended
and shall betray one another and shall hate one another. And
many false prophets shall rise and deceive many. And because
iniquity shall abound, The love of many shall wax cold. We live in a world where iniquity
is abounding. The remarkable thing is that
the abounding of iniquity according to the Lord Jesus Christ causes
the love of many to wax cold. May it not be so with us. But he that shall endure unto
the end shall be sired. And this gospel of the kingdom
shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all
nations. Then shall the end come. He just says, our Lord Jesus
Christ says to watch. The very elect of God, the elect
of God, are not immune from these attacks, is it? He said there'll
be a great tribulation down in verse 22, and except those days
should be shortened, there should be no flesh saved, but for the
elect's sake, those days shall be shortened. And then if any
man say unto you, lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it
not, for there shall arise false Christs and false prophets. and
shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, were it possible,
thank God it is not possible, were it possible, they shall
deceive the very elect. Behold, take careful notice,
says the Lord Jesus, I have told you before. The Lord Jesus promised
something. Peter and Paul spoke of it coming. Jude says it's already here.
It is remarkable, I am still often staggered by the fact,
that in the days of the apostles and those who walked with the
Lord Jesus Christ, there were these certain men who crept into
these churches. And it is a mercy for us, isn't
it, 2000 years later, that we have the apostolic testimony
of those events as promised by the Lord Jesus Christ. We have
the apostolic testimony of how they dealt with them. And Jude
here describes these men in verse 4. He says, certain men, they
crept in unaware. They'll only creep in to the
real Church of God. They've got no interest in creeping
into other churches. They can walk in as bold as brass,
can't they? And only the true Church of God
will be caused to see them as such. And only the true Church
of God will be caused by the Lord to respond appropriately. Why is that? We've just read
it, haven't we, in verse 1 and 2, isn't it? They're sanctified,
they're set apart by God the Father. God the Father watches
over His own. They're preserved in Jesus Christ
and they are called and multiplied mercy and love and peace is required
for God's children to stand in these degenerate days, to contend,
to contend for the truth, to contend for the faith which was
once delivered to the saints, to contend for the fact that
the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified is the Gospel and God
saves by sovereign grace. He saves. He saves eternally
and he saves effectually. It is interesting that Jude doesn't
name these people. If you turn back a page in your
scriptures, you'll see that John is not frightened to name one
of them in 3 John. He speaks of a man and it is
remarkable. Just ponder the situation. Here
is John, the Apostle John, the one who leaned on the Lord Jesus.
Chess, the one who declared himself to be the one that the Lord loved,
that one who had been a faithful apostle probably by this time
for 60 or 70 years, had written the most remarkable words that
have ever been penned. Just remark, he wrote the words
of God, and he pastored these churches up there, and he had
seen every one of his brother apostles put to death, and he
had stood and stood and stood for all of those years, and yet
this man, Deiotrophes. This man, Deotrephes. I wrote
unto the church, verse 9, 3 John, I wrote unto the church, but
Deotrephes, who loved to have thee preeminence among them,
received us not. Fancy that, the brazenness of
the hardness of the human heart to tell the apostle John where
to go. It is remarkable, isn't it? One
of the things that's really struck me as I've been reading these
characteristics of these false teachers and contemplating it
is that I think I have for so long wrongly assumed that these
people are sincere. Sincere and mistaken. I think it's another case of
where no matter what we think, we need to have our thinking
adjusted by the Word of God. And we need to view things not
as we do through human eyes, we need to view things through
the scriptures. I cannot find in the scriptures,
these men are deceived and they are deceiving many, but I cannot
for the life of me see in the scriptures where they are in
any way allowed to be considered innocent. I think the scriptures
hold them guilty. The remarkable thing to contemplate
brothers and sisters as I go through this list of characteristics
of these false teachers here, is that the very false teachers
that Jude is speaking about have this letter. It doesn't take
very long to copy out 24 verses of the Bible and have it. It
would have been spread around like wildfire. It doesn't take
long to memorize it in that day. And so that's the thing that's
remarkable, isn't it? These people... Such is the hardness of the human
heart. Such is the power of God in reprobation,
giving people over and allowing them to go their own way. Such
is the power of God in sending a strong delusion that people
could actually read this letter and see that it describes them
to a T and not be moved. Let's just read some of these
characteristics. See, Jude doesn't name them. He wants us to look
beyond personalities and he wants us to look to principles from
scripture. If we're going to contend for
the truth and contend for the faith and stand for the truth,
in that battle it doesn't matter what people look like and how
fancy they are and how eloquent they are. But what do they say? What do they say about the Lord
Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and how do they live their lives
in that context? We are to see this in principle
because Jude is writing not for his time alone, but he's writing
for all this age that we live in, these last days. You see,
in verse 4, they creep in unawares. They're ungodly men, turning
the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and they deny the only Lord God
and our Lord Jesus Christ. Don't forget, these people are
spots at your feasts of charity, verse 12, and they feast with
you, feeding themselves. They are there in the church,
enjoying, as they thought, the Lord's Supper. They creep in. They are denying the only Lord
God and Jesus Christ. Verse 8. They are filthy dreamers.
They defile the flesh. They despise dominion. They speak
evil of dignities. They speak in verse 10, they
speak evil of those things which they know not. And what they
know, they know naturally. What their knowledge is, is the
knowledge of a brute beast. What you can learn, you can learn
an awful lot about the scriptures and not know anything spiritually
about it. You can learn an awful lot about history and you can
learn an awful lot about theology and not know nothing spiritually
about it. those things they corrupt themselves.
Woe to them, they have gone the way of Cain. They have run greedily
after the error of Balaam for reward, and they have perished
in the rebellion, again saying of Korah, these are spots in
your feasts, and they feast with you. Jude describes them as clouds
without water, carried about winds, trees without fruit. Verse 12. Verse 13. They're raging
waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars.
They're not fixed on anything. Whom is reserved the blackness
of darkness forever? They are ungodly. Verse 15. They make hard speeches. which
ungodly sinners have spoken against him. All of their speaking, ultimately,
even as they feast with you, their speaking is against them.
They are murmurers and complainers, and they walk after their own
lusts, and their mouths speak great swelling words. They are
arrogant, and having men's persons in admiration, they are flatterers
because of advantage. Verse 18, they are mockers. They
are those, verse 19, who separate themselves from the saints. They
are sensual, they are natural, having not the spirit. And there's
one word, one phrase that describes them to a T. Someone who could
read that letter and have it describe them in such detail. verse 12, the end of verse 12,
halfway through verse 12, without fear, without fear. I have felt the burden ever since
our fellowship began that we need to prepare ourselves for
the times that we live in. We need to know the times and
we need to be able to see what is going on around us. But also
we need to be mindful of the call upon us to be humble in
the midst of all this. It is the most appalling thing
to think that this, as multitudes have, multitudes have gone to
hell thinking that this was written about someone else and not themselves. God's people are like the apostles
when the Lord Jesus said that someone was going to betray him
at the Last Supper. What was the response of the
eleven? First response of the eleven, they didn't say, is it
him? Is it I? is i please don't let
it be i lord please don't let it be i we look We look to ourselves,
and we look to ourselves knowing the depth of our frailty and
our feebleness, and I trust that we look to ourselves and instantly
want to look away and say, Lord, protect me from myself. Protect
me from what's in me. That's why the scriptures continually
remind us, don't they, that we are to examine ourselves, and
to hate every false way. We hate every false way. There
is nothing, as we've seen in previous weeks, there is nothing
in doctrine, there's nothing in doctrine and practice that
doesn't say something about the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. God's people love His words.
I love Psalm 119. It's a great declaration of the
Lord Jesus Christ and His relationship to the Word of God. But they're
also great words for us, aren't they? How sweet are thy words
unto my taste! sweeter than honey to my mouth.
Through your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false
way. Psalm 119 verse 113, I hate vain
thoughts, but thy law do I love. I hate and abhor lying, but thy
law do I love. It is, it is the call of God
upon His people in this world, in this time, to stand for the
Gospel and contend for that Gospel. The only reason He calls upon
us to contend is that there is a need to contend. But also we
are told how to contend. 2 Timothy chapter 2, just turn
over there for a second. It's a lovely description. Paul's
writing at the end of his life and he's writing to this young
man Timothy and he knows in chapter 3 he says, in the last days perilous
times shall come and he describes those people, these people that
have a form of godliness, verse 5, and deny the power thereof
from such turn away. But in chapter 2 verse 24 he
says, and the servant of God He says, verse 22, flee also
youthful lusts, and follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them
that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. I love that, don't
you? Flee the youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, charity,
peace. And who do you follow righteousness,
charity, and peace with? With them. with them that call
on the Lord out of a pure heart. But foolish and unlearned questions
avoid, knowing that they do gender strife. And the servant of the
Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach,
patient, in meekness, in meekness. Meekness is about knowing who
you are and whose you are. It's not wimpishness and meekness. Moses was the meekest man in
the world, the meekest man on the face of the earth. If you
want to find out how meek Moses was, you go and ask Pharaoh.
He knew whose he was. He knew who he was. Meekness,
instructing those that oppose themselves, and listen to this
phrase, if perventure, if perhaps God will give them repentance
to the acknowledging of the truth. If God The only one who is going
to give them repentance, the only one who is going to turn
them ultimately is God, not the power of our arguments or the
persuasion of the things that we say. It is God. That they
may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are
taken captive by him at his will. That's how we are, to contend,
isn't it? We contend by holding out the Gospel. We contend in
meekness. We contend, we contend by being
with those that call on the Lord. We contend not by being, creating
strife, but being gentle, being apt to teach and being patient.
We wait on God. We wait on God to do the things
that God alone must do. So let's go back to Jude and
have a look at the way these false teachers operate, the reason
Jude is writing. For there are certain men, they
are named, they are known, they are known by the apostles. But
Jude wants us to know that there are certain men. There are always
in the scriptures certain men. God has marked them out from
old eternity. But they are certain. crept in unawares. Isn't that remarkable? Now these
are churches that the apostles passed, brothers and sisters,
crept in unawares. It's as if they came in by a
side door. It actually means to go down
into and alongside. It means that they came with
cunning words and they were clever debaters. It speaks of someone
like a lawyer who pleads a case very cleverly with guile. Imagine you've seen it on movies
and other things, haven't you? A lawyer will plant a seed in
the judge's mind or plant a seed of doubt or something about the
character of a person in the jury's mind, a seed of thought. They come in unawares. It is remarkable, isn't it? In
Galatians Chapter 2 they came in unawares, they crept into
those churches, false brethren unawares brought in who came
in privately. They came in in a sneaky way
to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ. They came
to spy out what glorious liberty the children of God have in the
Lord Jesus Christ. That that they might bring us
into bondage. That's what they do. Jude will
say, doesn't he, he says they have other people, persons in
admiration because of advantages. They want to take people captive
to themselves. But also as much as we are warned
we are also given in the scriptures a great reason for comfort, don't
we? He goes on in that verse to say, who were of old ordained
to this condemnation." I want us to first think about what
the condemnation is. It's this condemnation. It's
this judgment. See, the judgment of God upon
false teachers is right now. It's this condemnation, the judgment
of God allowing them to go their own way. It's this condemnation,
it's the judgment of God not restraining them. It's the judgment
of God writing the words that we have read this evening of
the Lord Jesus Christ and they're multiplied throughout the New
Testament. There's hardly a page of the New Testament that doesn't
warn and it describes them in great detail. and to hear those
words and to be completely unmoved. That is the condemnation. That
is the judgment of God. We have witnessed, brothers and
sisters, the judgment of God on false teachers who have been
allowed to go their own way. It is this condemnation. It's
not the condemnation in the future. It is this condemnation. John writes, and the Lord Jesus
speaks in John chapter 3 of this condemnation, doesn't he? You
might know the verse well in John chapter 3. He says, and this is the condemnation,
that light is come into the world and men loved darkness. So they loved darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. Why don't they come
to the light? Because they love the darkness, says the Lord Jesus
Christ. For everyone that does evil hates
the light, neither comes to the light lest his deeds should be
reproved. Such as it is with us, brothers
and sisters, when we sin, isn't it? There's nothing like a bit
of darkness to cover our sins. There's nothing like a bit of
hiding away as a cloak for our sin. But he that does the truth
comes to the light that his deeds may be manifest, that they are
wrought in God. That wrought is the word we get
for wrought iron. God's work is the work of taking
something which is dead and making it malleable in His sight. It is a powerful work of God.
They were, there is a divine design behind this brothers and
sisters. This condemnation, these ones
coming in, these ones creeping in are serving God's purpose
in His church for His people. They always are. The devil is
God's devil. He is ultimately a servant of
God's people, his minions and his servers. are ultimately the
servants of the souls of God's people. It must be so, otherwise
the Scriptures are not true. God says He's working all things
for the good. God says these were ordained
of old. In verse 12 He says, to whom
reserved the blackest of darkness forever. Verse 14 He says that
Enoch prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh. They
were told, it says in verse 18, you were told. You were told
by the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, verse 17 and 18. They
told you these things were going to happen. You have been told.
So God's design, God's purposes are there being fulfilled in
all of this. In the midst of all of that,
in the midst of all the trials, in the midst of all the enmity
against the Gospel, in the midst of all of the irrationality of
enmity against the Gospel, we must turn again and again and
again. Turn again, turn our eyes away from the things of this
world and remember that our Lord Jesus Christ sits on the throne
of heaven and He reigns and rules all things and His people are
seated with Him and they are secure. When we see God's plans
unfolding, We need to both be humbled, but also we need to
be comforted, brothers and sisters. In 1 Corinthians 11, 19 it says,
for there must be heresies. There must be heresies among
you. The word heresy means simply
to choose. I will choose the God that I will have. I will
choose the theology that I like. I will choose the bits of the
Bible that I like. I will choose to cut out chapters
that I don't like and just ignore them altogether. I will choose
the characteristics of God that I like. I will choose to ignore
the ones that I find offensive to me. There must be heresies
among you that, and there's a purpose to it, isn't it, that they which
are approved may be made manifest among you. See their success, they come
in, creep in and they creep in unawares and their success comes
from their outward talents and how they look to men. They are
those that speak great swelling words. Have you been in the company
of someone who speaks great swelling words? I've been in the company
of people who speak great swelling words. And you're just in awe. How can someone speak such great
swelling words and be lost as a goose in a snowstorm? But they
are, aren't they? They speak great swelling words
and having men's persons in admiration because of advantage. Advantage to themselves. They'll
flatter you. And the reason they flatter you
is that they want you to flatter them back. They'll pat you on
the back as long as you'll pat them on the back as well. These men were ordained. They were
ordained to this condemnation, ordained of old, ordained to
this condemnation of being a wolf in sheep's clothing and ordained
by God to the condemnation of hearing God's warning word and
saying, that's not about me. They are ordained of old. And
what Jude is saying there, the word literally means it was pre-written. It means without any question
whatsoever that this condemnation and this activity was ordained
as written in the Book of God from the foundation of the world.
It is, it is part of the eternal covenant of God. It is part of
those things that are order and secure in every detail, says
David. In Proverbs 22, it speaks to
the same word. It says, I was set up from everlasting,
this is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, I was set up from
everlasting from the beginning, wherever the earth was of old. So this is not something that
has caught God out. It has not surprised our God,
nothing surprises God, ever. It is, it is that that beginning where the Lord
Jesus Christ, as the great surety, was given a people into His hands
and He's held them secure forever and He holds them secure forevermore. That's why in the midst of all
of the warnings about the false teachers in 2 Thessalonians and
all about all the deceitfulness of unrighteousness in them that
perish because they receive not the love of the truth, they receive
some acknowledgement of the truth but they didn't love it. They
didn't love it that they might be saved. For this cause God
shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie,
that they all might be damned who had believed not the truth
but had pleasure in unrighteousness. And then there's a wonderful
but. One of the great buts of Scripture, isn't it? But we are
bound to give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning...
That's that word, of old, isn't it? From of old. God has from
the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. Belief of the truth. So these
men and this activity and this condemnation is written beforehand
in the book of God's eternal decrees. What we have day by
day is the unfolding of that book, that great scroll is unfolding
and another page is being brought to light. These perilous times
that shall come It is. It is another revelation of the
fact that our God, our God reigns. Our God reigns according to His
Word. Our God reigns for good. Even the apostasy is for the
good. Even the false teaching serves
God's children. It brings humility. As I said
earlier, that the apostles at the Last Supper, is it I that
brings humility to God's children? My continual prayer in India
was, Lord, please don't let me lead these little ones astray.
I was terrified by the thought that Matthew, Mark, Chapter 9,
that I taught day in, day out for five years over there. If
I lead one of these little ones astray, and all of us are little
ones, If I leave one of these little ones astray it was better,
in the Greek it says it's better for you to be a rotting corpse
with a millstone around the bottom of your neck and be at the bottom
of the Sea of Galilee than to leave one of these little ones
astray. Lord protect them from the sins of my flesh and protect
them from the sins of false teaching. But our God reigns and false
teaching serves God's children. I have spoken to several of you
of late, but we have been taught, we have been forced into the
Scriptures and we have been taught by the opposition to the Gospel
that we proclaim. Those that opposed us have been
the most remarkable teachers that you could have ever had.
We were forced into the Scriptures, we were forced again and again
to examine ourselves, weren't we? Is this what God says? Is
it really true that the Lord Jesus Christ laid down His life
for His people and completely and perfectly put away their
sins forever and He completely and perfectly sanctified them?
And He loves this particular people. He loves them with an
everlasting love, an undying love. And He draws them to Himself
and He causes them to see that they are nothings and He is all. And he has an undying, unquenchable
love. And it's his joy, it's his joy
to take these miserable sinners and present them before his father
as his glorious bride. Perfectly fit to be in the presence
of the king of this universe. Perfectly fit for heaven's glory. Perfectly fit to be the bride
of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. perfectly fitted by God, not
fitted by God plus our activities. And in the midst of all of that,
In the midst of our God reigning He causes His people to be humbled
because the sins that we see, the sins that we see around us
are sins that we see that we are. We don't see ourselves as
beyond and separate to the sins. You read the prayers of the people
in the scriptures. We did it, says Nehemiah. We did it, says Daniel. We did
it. And now in the midst of this
depraved generation, the children of God cry out like the psalmist. I trust it's our Porsche at times.
In Psalm 119, 136 he says, Rivers of water run down mine eyes,
because they keep not thy law. We don't stand above them to
mock them. We stand grieving over what's
going on around us and woe to us if we are hardened of heart
in the midst of the apostasy. So these men creep in unawares.
They're unawares to men but they're not unawares to God. may creep
in exactly as He has promised, exactly as the Lord Jesus said,
exactly as Enoch promised, exactly as the apostles of the Lord Jesus
Christ promised, exactly as Jude promised. And yet God reigns
over all. They come in with deliberate
deceit. It is remarkable, isn't it, that
I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. I want to. And that's just my flesh. God
does not. God does not. They are enemies
of His people. They creep in unawares rather
than standing clearly. And yet our God rules over all
of it for His good. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee, and the remainder of wrath thou shalt restrain. The wrath of these men against
the Church and against the Lord Jesus Christ ultimately shall
praise them. And He restrains the wrath of
men. I love the fact that He restrains
the wrath of men. If it wasn't for His restraining
hand on the wrath of men, blood would flow down the streets of
this town. and fill the swamps around this town. Such is the
depravity of human nature, such is the power of our God, restraining
the wrath of men. The Lord has made all things
for Himself. Yea, even the wicked for the
day of evil, Proverbs 16.21. And the scripture says, Romans
9 says under Pharaoh, for even for this same purpose have I
raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that
thy name might be declared throughout all the earth. Pharaoh was raised
up by God. God hardened his heart, Pharaoh
hardened his own heart, but God in judgment caused all of that
so that his name would be glorified. And he said to Pharaoh, he said,
I just could have wiped you and Egypt out in a heartbeat if I
wished to. He'd raised them up for that
purpose. Our God does all things well. And even this condemnation,
even these creeping people will be exposed in the time of God
for His people in His Church. And He will protect His Church.
He will protect His Church for the season that His Church bears
witness, His individual Church bears witness to Him on this
earth without a doubt, brothers and sisters. And it doesn't take
the cleverness of men to figure it out. They will be exposed
by God. Our God reigns, for from Him,
for of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen. As I said at the beginning, these
men that were written off here had this in their hands. It is
remarkable, isn't it? The men that God condemns so
openly in the New Testament were men who had it to read. It is a remarkable thing. Why
should then we be surprised, brothers and sisters, that people
in our day read these things in the Scriptures and don't see
them at all? May God continue to give us eyes
to see. May He continue to remind us
that this absolute sovereignty of God doesn't mean that anyone
can ever say that God has tempted him. Let no man say when he is
tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with
evil, neither tempteth he any man. These men are 100% responsible
for their own activities. And people will then say, won't
they, if God ordains this condemnation, then they have no choice in the
matter. Everywhere in scripture where
sin is dealt with, it is always, it is always, it is always chargeable
directly and personally to people. It is with wicked hands that
they put the Lord Jesus Christ to death. It was according to
God's determinate counsel and full knowledge. But their hands
were the wicked hands that plotted and schemed and denied the Lord
Jesus Christ and acted with shocking, shocking deceit. The no false
teacher is innocent. Don't allow yourself to think
that they are innocent. They have all been warned and
so have we, brothers and sisters. The Lord promised that this would
happen. Jude declares that they have
already come. They've crept in unawares. But
this is a time, brothers and sisters, isn't it? It's not a
time for us to despair. It's a time for us to contemplate
the wonder of God, raising up His truth, and raising up the
most remarkable means of just spreading it at the press of
a button all around this world. All around this world. I was
speaking to Don Fortin a little time ago and he said, how many
people in Japan do you think listened to a Gospel message
from Free Grace Radio last month? And I sort of guessed, not knowing,
I think I lost a few hundred, he said 2,780, I think it was,
had downloaded messages from Free Grace Radio about the Gospel
in Japan just a month ago. And what do you do? You press
a button, brothers and sisters. Press a button. It is for these
days, isn't it, I remind you where I started. The children
of Issachar, which were men of understanding, they knew what
the scriptures said, they understood the times, to know what Israel
ought to do. God has raised us up at this
particular time. planet earth, there is no better
time and no better place and no better opportunity ever granted
for us than to stand and declare the truth of the grace of God
in the face of our Lord Jesus Christ. And whatever stands opposed
to us will be for our good. Let's pray.