Look to Jude again together.
I'm going to start reading at verse 8 again and read down to
verse 13. Likewise, also these filthy dreamers
defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael the archangel, when
contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses,
durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord
rebuke thee. But these speak evil of those
things which they know not, but what they know naturally as brute
beasts and those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto
them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, ran greedily after
the heir of Balaam, for were roared and perished in the gainsaying
of Corrie. These are spots in your feast
of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without
fear, clouds without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit
withers, without fruits, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. raging waves of the sea, foaming
out their own shame, wandering stars to whom is reserved the
blackness of darkness forever. Our blessed, blessed, blessed,
blessed Master, our Lord Jesus, our God and our Father, Lord,
been taught by the Spirit of God to call you Abba Father.
And we do, our Father, our Father. We're so thankful that you've
enabled us to call you our Father, enabled us to call Christ Jesus
our Master, our Lord, our Savior. And Lord, we bless you for your
great mercies given to us every day. Thank you for your compassions
that never fail. Thank you that you told us you'd
never leave us, never forsake us, that you'd go with us even
unto the very end. And oh, Lord, we're so grateful
for that because we need to be kept. We need to be upheld. We need your grace. We need your
mercy. We need your strength. Lord,
we don't have any spiritual strength in ourselves. those spiritual
abilities in ourselves. So every time we come to worship,
every time we gather to meet, Lord, we trust you to give us
those abilities, those gifts that you'd work in us both to
will and to do if you're a good pleasure. Because if you don't
will for us to do it, we certainly would not ever will to do it.
So work in us, Lord. Bring glory to yourself. And
Lord, we pray again for For Jim and Debbie Fawcett, Lord, please
have mercy on them, especially on Jim. God, please do something
for him. And Lord Jesus, I also pray for
our lost family. We've all got children, grandchildren,
sons and daughters that desperately, desperately need the Lord Jesus
Christ. But they don't know it. They
just don't know it. But Lord, you can make them know
it. Wake them up in the morning or wake them up this night and
make them afraid, O Lord, of going into eternity without you. You could bring such a fear and
such a guilt upon their conscience, and you could bring such trepidation
in their hearts and souls. Make them feel the weight of
their sin just in a moment of time, if it would please you
to do it. But do help us tonight. Please
bring glory to yourself. And please be merciful to our
friends and families. For Christ's sake, we pray. Amen. Number 235. 235. Ask me not, O gentle Savior Hear
my feeble cry While on others Thou art calling Do not ask me Savior, Savior, hear my feeble
cry While all others Thou art Do not pass me by. Lift me at the throne of mercy,
Find a sweet relief. Kneeling there in deep contrition
Filled by unbelief Savior, Savior Hear my fearful cry While on
others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by. trusting only in thy merit would
I seek thy face heal my wound Save me by Thy grace. Savior, Savior, hear my feeble
cry. While on others Thou art calling,
Do not pass me by. Have the spring of all my comfort,
more than life to me. Who have I on earth beside Thee? Who in heaven but Thee? Savior, Savior My people cry While on others
Thou art calling Do not pass me by I want to deal with three heretics
tonight. You know, he dealt with threes
here. He dealt with the three people, you know, saved the people
out of the land of Egypt, and the angels which kept out their
first estate, and even Sodom and Gomorrah. And he started
there in verse 8. These apostates, these ones that
crept in unawares, They were, it says, they defiled the flesh.
They were morally corrupt, morally corrupt. And they despised dominion,
despised authority, rejected authority. And they speak evil
of dignities, people that's dignitaries, they speak evil of them. And they were dreamers, it says,
you know, they were filthy dreamers. They were dreamers, they dreamed
visions and had visions and taught them as truth. And he also states
the describe of those three heretics here now. You know, he starts
here in verse 10, or verse, excuse me, verse 11. He's going to deal
with three heretics here. Three heretics. Cain, Balaam,
and Korah. He said, woe unto them, for they
have gone in the way of Cain, ran greedily after the heir of
Balaam, for reward, and perished in the Gain saying, or denying
of Korah, spots in your feast of charity. And they feast with
you, and they have no fear of God in them at all. You know,
and he pronounces a woe on these right off the bat. He said, woe
unto them, woe unto these people that he described. the way he
described them. And here he gives us three people
from the Old Testament. Three people from the Old Testament
and all the things that they did that he had just talked about
what these people had did. And the first one he says, woe
unto them for they've gone in the way of Cain. Cain is mentioned
in four books of the New Testament or in the Bible. He's mentioned
in Genesis chapter 4, mentioned Hebrews 11, 4. He says, you know,
Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than did Cain in that
he was accepted of God. And then he's mentioned in John
3, 12, 1 John 3, 12, he said he is of that wicked one, Cain. And then here in Jude 11. But
now he, I want you to look with me in Genesis chapter 4. Look
in Genesis chapter four with me. Let's look at Cain. Cain
is so typical, such a picture of the average person in this
world today. Cain. Cain. And here's the first thing about
Cain is that Adam knew his wife and she conceived and bear Cain
and said, I've gotten a man from the Lord. When she said, I've
gotten a man from the Lord, she, you know, the Lord had told him,
you know, that they was going to have a seed that would crush,
bruise his heel, but he'd crush the head of the serpent. And
she thought this is the one that's going to be the one that's going
to do that. She really thought that. And again, she bare his
brother Abel, and Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller
of the ground. And in process of time, it came
to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering
unto the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the
firstlings of his flock, and the fat thereof. And the Lord
had respect unto Abel's offering, but unto Cain and to his offering
he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, his
countenance fell. And the Lord said unto him, Why
art thou wroth? Why are you so angry? Why is
your countenance fallen? If you doeth well, shall you
not be accepted? And if you do not well, sin lies
at the door. You got a sin offering. All you
got to do is bring it. And unto thee shall be his desire,
and thou shalt rule over him. And oh my, so here he was. Tell
you the first thing about him. He was Eve's and Adam's firstborn
son. He was a religious man. He was
a religious man. He brought an offering. He worked
hard to bring an offering. And oh my, but he was a religious
man, as by all nature, all men are. Men's gonna have some kind
of a religion. He's gonna have something that
he trusts in, if it's nothing but his own works, his own righteousness,
or his own abilities. But he believed in God. He believed
in religious duties. But what pleased him, his nature,
his will, was not what God planned, not God-purposed, not what God
said. This is the first instance of
will-worship you find in the Bible. And what we mean by will-worship
is that I'll worship the way I will do it. I'll worship by
my will, by my power, by my abilities. I'll do things my way. And that's
what will-worship is. You know, so many people will
worship today. You know, the average place where
people go, it's wheel worship. They just wheel worship. They
don't even think about Christ. They don't talk about Christ.
They don't talk about sin. They don't talk about the hope
that's only in God and in Christ. They just don't do it. But oh
my, look what else he said. And he rebelled. When we go back
over there, he said he rebelled against God's revealed way of
salvation. You know, God clothed Adam and
Eve. He had to slay an animal and
shed some blood in order to clothe Adam and Eve. He clothed them
with the skins of animals. So that's why Abel brought blood. He brought blood because he learned
that what his father did. He said God had to slay somebody
and his father told him God had to shed some blood to cover our
nakedness. God had to shed some blood to
cover us up and make us acceptable. But oh, he rebelled against that
way. No, no, he did rebelled against God's way. And oh my,
he was revealed the way of approaching him by shedding blood. That's
the way Abel did. And without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sins. He rebelled against God's way.
He rebelled against the way of faith. Instead, what he did,
he did like almost everybody does. He brought what he made
himself. I heard a fellow say one time
he got his, went out and picked the best beans he had, dug him
some potatoes, got him some squash, God is a big ole ears of corn.
Back then, you know, before the curse really took effect, I mean,
you imagine how big a ear of corn was. And here he comes,
he brings all that stuff and lays it down before God and said,
here, here, this is the best. This is the great, this is the
best fruit that anybody's ever brought. Anybody's ever brought.
And oh my. And you know what, when he done
this, I tell you what he denied. He said, I'm not a sinner. I'm
not a sinner. I don't need blood. I don't need
a righteousness. I don't need a substitute. I
don't need an altar to put blood on. If what I do by the works
of my hands and what I do by my own efforts, if what I do
by the sweat of my brow, if that's not acceptable to God, then that's
just not acceptable. I don't like it. And you know,
he got angry about it. Ain't that what it says? He got
wroth. God took Abel's, Abel brought
blood, Abel brought a lamb, Abel brought a sacrifice. Abel brought
in the fat thereof, the best part of it. And okay, now my,
he got mad. I'll tell you what, he got mad
at God. Oh my, he didn't need blood,
he didn't need a substitute. He didn't need righteousness
by that substitute. Cain rejected God's ways. Cain rejected God's way. And he got angry. And it offended
him. It offended him. Made him mad.
I remember years ago when I first started preaching the gospel.
And I'd go places to preach it. And one of the first things people
would tell me, they'd line up to do this, say, if what you're
preaching is so, that means I'm not saved. And how many of you
all felt that way when you first started hearing the gospel? If what you're saying is so,
that means that I don't know the Lord, I've not been saved.
Because I trust in my works, I trust in my free will, and
people would line up and say, listen, if what you're saying
is so, then I'm lost. And not only am I lost, but my
mama's lost. I said, you're just going to
have to come to whatever conclusion you can, whatever conclusion
you will. Years ago, when I put a newspaper
article in the paper all the time, I put in one there, four
lies that the devil's telling on God. And boy, I tell you what, it
got people stirred up. And this church right up the
road up here, this big Baptist church up here, they put in a
full-page article, full-page article in color. All the four,
exactly the opposite of what I said in my article. Four truths
about God. God loves everybody. Christ died
for everybody. It's up to your will. And you don't need to trust anybody
but what we teach and tell you. And the first lie the devil told
is, is that God loved everybody. He died for everybody. That man's
salvation by free will and God will accept him if he's sincerity. But that's the way Cain was.
Cain said, oh Lord, I was honest in what I'd done. It's the hard
work that I'd done. It's the best that I could bring.
And you don't want it? You don't want it? That makes
me angry. That makes me mad. I don't like
you the way you're treating me. I don't think it's right. I don't
think it's right. And there's my brother over there. him and you accepted his sacrifice. Oh, my. And look what happened. We're going to go on down here
in chapter 4. Oh, my. God told him to be accepted,
but he just bring a sin offering. And what happened? And Cain talked
with Abel, his brother, and it came to pass that when Cain rose
up against Abel, his brother, and killed him. That's how mean religious makes
you. If you got religion and it's
based on what you do, it'll make you mean as a devil himself.
That man, because God rejected him, God would not have anything
to do with him, he got mad and he said, if I can't kill God
and I can't get at God, I'll get at the closest thing I can
to it, which is my own brother. Which is my own brother. And
oh my, and I tell you, look what happens, you know. Look what
it says over here. I believe it's in, yeah, verse
16 of chapter four. The Lord cursed him. The Lord
cursed him. And look what it says in verse
16. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. He never was in the presence
of the Lord, but he said, Since God won't accept what I've got,
since God don't want what I have, I'll just leave. I'll just quit.
I'll just go on. I'll just go on. Oh, my. And I got his anger towards
God. God placed a curse on him and
placed a curse on his religion, and he went out. He separated
himself from God. He separated himself from the
altar of God, separated himself from the people of God. And I
tell you all, he was the first willful unbeliever and apostate. And I tell you, the world's full
of Cain's. Let me show you, go back over in our text. But I
want you to look in Hebrews 10, 26 with me. This is what people need to understand. The way of Cain, the way of Cain,
I was talking to a fellow today, and he had a T-shirt on that
says, you know, fight for the faith. You know, contend for
the faith. And I said, boy, I like that
shirt, you know. He said, you know, you got to keep the faith. And I said, I really appreciate
that. And he said, oh, yeah. I said,
yeah. And I said, well, I said, I'm
preaching through the book of Job. And he said, I love that
third verse, you know, where you're supposed to defend the
faith. And I said, well, it says contend for the faith. Not defend
it, contend for it. And he said, well, and I said,
I've been preaching where I'm at 46 years, soon to be 47. He
said, well, where do you preach at? I said, right down the next
church, right down past you all. You know what he said? Oh. Oh, he knows exactly what I preach
down here. All of them up there know exactly
what I preach. But look what he said here in
Hebrews 10, 26. This is what God says about this business.
For if we sin willfully, reject God, do like Cain did, walk out
from the presence of the Lord. For if we sin willfully after
that we've received the knowledge of the truth, there ain't no
another sacrifice for sin. You don't take what God said
to take Take Christ and have Christ and His blood and His
righteousness. He said, you keep bringing offerings
and keep bringing offerings, but God will not accept. There's
only one sacrifice God ever accepted. And then if you reject that,
you can't bring another one. God won't have another one. He
won't do it. All right, now back over here,
let's look back here in Jude. Oh, the world's full of canes,
full of canes. They're everywhere, everywhere.
And then look what he says, woe unto them that's going to wear
a cane. And this gives you the, you know, it ran greedily after
the era of Balaam for reward. You know what Balaam's sin was?
He did what he did for money. He did what he did for a name.
He did what he did to be paid. And you can read about him in
Numbers 22 through 24. And you know, and his was covetousness,
his was greed. And his problem was that a man
hired him, hired him to go and curse Israel. He was afraid of
Israel. He is afraid of Israel's God.
He hired this prophet, Gentile prophet, Balaam. Now, you go
and you curse Israel for me. Well, God wouldn't let him. God
wouldn't let him. Well, God told him, no, don't
go down there. He said, listen, they're my people
and they ain't gonna be cursed by nobody. Well, He went on anyway,
he got up the next day and away he went. He got his donkey, he
got his ass, you know, and he was going down, going, going,
going to go down there and curse. And when he was on his way over
there, he was going by this narrow way and his, and it bumped him
up against the wall and hurt his leg. He jumped off there
and went to beating on his. And that, that God gave that
A voice has started speaking to him. He said he forbade the
madness of the prophet said don't you know? Don't you see that
angel standing there with a sword? And this said God forbade the
madness of the prophet oh my he was a Gentile prophet a fortune-teller
and yet God used him God used him to prophesy of Christ coming
as the star of Judah and the seed out of Jacob. But Caleb,
a king of Moab, was afraid of Israel. He hired Balaam. And
he sent messages back and forth, and he sent more, and offered
him more money. This offered him more money,
and more money, and more money. And he'd take the money, but
he knew good and well that God wasn't going to let him do what
he'd been to do. But he kept taking the money.
Kept taking the money. And, oh, my. I tell you what,
even that ass rebuked him. He couldn't curse Israel. And
Balaam told Balak the king, he said, you know how I tell you
how in the world to overcome Israel? I'm going to tell you
how to do it. He said, you get their wives
to marry your sons. And then that way, y'all will
be intermingled and intermarried. And that way, they won't be fighting
one another. Oh, my. And look what it said
over here in Revelations chapter 2. I think that's where it's
at. Revelations chapter 2. Oh, Israel committed fornication
with Moab, and their women went into idolatry. Look what he said
in verse 14. But I have a few things against
thee, because there are them that hold the doctrine of Balaam,
who taught Balak, the king of Moab, to cast a stumbling block
before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto
idols, and commit fornication." He said, if you can just get
them women to marry your sons, and that would be, that's what
he meant, you know, don't be unequally yoked together. And
these people, when they got down there, they went and started
worshiping the gods of Moab. They forgot the God in the Bible.
They forgot the God that brought them out of Egypt. They forgot
about the God that saved them through the Red Sea. They forgot
about Him. And they said, oh my goodness, these folks here,
they treat us well, and next thing you know, they're committing
spiritual fornication. They're worshiping idols. They
set up their idols to worship them. They set up their idols.
bowed down to him. And oh my, that's what he called
him, the doctrine. He compromised for money. He
compromised for a name. That's what he did. And I tell
you what, there's, you know, the average preacher in the Southern,
I'm gonna tell you something, a statistic that's true, and
I believe if you ask him, I believe you'd find this true. The average
Southern Baptist preacher changes church every 18 months. You know
why? First of all, they run out of
anything to say, and they got to go somewhere and say the same
thing for the next 18 months. But they do it because they're
always looking for a bigger pulpit, more money, more prestige. That's what they're looking for.
And anybody that works and preaches for money Don't go listen to
him. I mean, believe me, take care
of the workman's worthy of his hire. He is that. But when a
man starts setting a big, big salary for himself, there's men
that make $300,000 or $400,000 a year preaching. Now, if I said
I need $40,000 a year, you know what you all do? Sorry preacher, we're sorry.
But oh no, we don't gotta do that. Oh no, no, we're not. But
that's what they do. You know, Paul says they're after
filthy lucre. And I want you to see what Paul
said in Acts chapter 20. I want you to see that. Talking
about the difference in preachers and the difference in the way
men do things. Yeah, I think this is where I
want it. Yeah, I think it's down here
at verse 28. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves
and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers, and feed the church of God, which he hath purchased
with his own blood. For I know this, after my departing,
just like over in Jude, shall grievous wolves enter in among
you. They won't spare the flock. And also of your own self shall
men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples
as to them. Therefore watch and remember.
that by the space of three years, I ceased not to warn ever one,
night and day. And now, brethren, I commend
you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build
you up and to give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified."
Now, this is what he said. I coveted no man's silver or
gold. He wasn't a Balaam. I didn't
want anybody's clothes. I didn't want anybody's clothes.
I never said, boy, I need a new suit. He never said that. You
yourselves know how that these hands have ministered unto my
necessities and them that were with me." And what he was saying
was, I didn't get, I wasn't after anything that you had. And I
tell you, preachers are just the opposite today. And then
let's go back over and look at the gainsaying of Korah. Woe
unto them have gone the way of Cain, Jude verse 11, ran greedily
after the heir of Balaam, Greedily, greedily. And then look what
it said, and perished, perished in the gainsaying of Korah. When
it says Korah there, that means Korah. Korah, son of rebellion. He's against God's order of authority. Korah was a Levite. cousin to
Moses and Aaron. Look with me and keep this now
and look over in, I think it's Numbers 16. Look in Numbers chapter
16 with me. And that word gainsaying means
to deny, means to deny. You know, he was a cousin to, he was a Levite,
he was a cousin to Moses and Aaron. But he was a jealous man. He was jealous of Moses being
elevated above him. And he spoke against Moses. He gainsayed against him. Look
what it said in verse 1. Now Korah, the son of Izar, the
son of Goath, the son of Levi, and Dathod, and Abiram, the sons
of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took
men, and they rose up against Moses. rose up against Moses
with certain of the children of Israel, 250 princes of the
assembly, famous in the congregation, men of, and listen to what it
said in verse three, and they gathered themselves together
against Moses and against Aaron. Those were the first two men
that God sent down to Egypt. God appeared to Moses in a burning
bush and said, I'm going to send you and you're going to tell
him to let my people go. And Aaron, because Moses stuttered
so bad that Aaron would be his spokesperson. And look what he
said, and they gathered themselves together against Moses, against
Aaron, and said unto them, you take too much upon you. You think
you're the only one that's got some authority around here. You
take too much upon you. All the congregation are holy,
every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Wherefore, then,
lift yourselves up against the congregation of the Lord." Oh,
my. What do you reckon is going to
happen to these men? They rose up against Moses. They rose up
against Aaron. And they gathered the people
together against Moses. All Israel knew God had sent
Moses. He was the one that God made
the leader. He was the one that God spoke
to. He was the one that was on the
mountain. He was the one who God made the deliverer. But here's
what he did. He despised authority. He spoke
evil of dignities. And Jude said he perished, he
perished. Now look here in number 16, look
down verse 28. And oh my, their punishments
were swift and fearful. And you know, I've several times over the years
and there's people that that will not, just will not accept
a preacher. They just won't do it. They won't
recognize them. They won't comment, won't make
a good comment, won't acknowledge you, won't say anything good
about you at all. And oh my, try to take over every
once in a while. But look what he says down here
in verse 28. And Moses said, Hereby shall
you know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works. I have not done them of my own
mind. If these men die the common death of all men, or if they
be visited after the visitation of all men, then the Lord hath
not sent me. But if the Lord make a new thing,
and the earth open up her mouth, and swallow them with all that
are pertain unto them, They shall go down quick into the pit. Then you shall understand that
these men have provoked the Lord. And it came to pass, as he made
an end of speaking all these words, and you know what he said,
all of you that's for me stand over here, all of you that's
for Cora stand over here. And so listen, and when it came
to pass, verse 31, when he made an end of speaking these words
at the ground clave asunder, God caused an earthquake. just
where they were standing. That was under them. And the
earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up. And listen to this,
and their houses, and the men that appertained
under Korah, and all their goods, They and all that are pertained
to them went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed
upon them, and they perished from the congregation." And they
all went down alive, and they perished. That's what he says,
they perished. You're talking about a dangerous
thing. Oh my, to reject God's that God puts in a position.
And rejecting Moses and speaking against him, they despised God's
way. They spoke evil of dignities.
Moses and Aaron, they spoke evil of them. They had no regard for
their dignity. Had no regard for men that was
10,000 times better than they were. Oh my. He rejected God's
way. He rejected God's prophet. He rejected God's law. And oh my, God keep us from falling
into these sins of Balaam and Cain. God keep us from that. And look what it says about them.
In verse 12, these are spots in your feast of charity. You
know, we have feast of love, that being feast where you love,
where there's love. And when they feast with you,
feeding themselves, they don't have any fear. They don't fear
God. And he says, you know, you'll
see a big old cloud. He said, boy, it ain't rained
in a long time. I tell you what that cloud looks like. It's got
some rain in it. But it don't. And I tell you, then carried
about of winds. Winds carry them here and yonder
and about. And then there are trees. They're
like trees whose fruit withereth. They don't have any fruit. And
it says they're twice dead, dead in sins and dead in Adam. and all twice dead in religion,
plucked up by the roots. And then he says, listen, this
is the way they are, raging waves of the sea. Them big old waves
come rolling in, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their
own shame. They're like a wandering star
up in the sky, to whom is that darkness up there is reserved
to them forever and ever and ever. Oh my, God help us to never
be a Cain or a Balaam or a Korah. Oh, let's don't do that. Let's
don't do that. Let's follow God's way. This is God's sword right here.
Sometimes it gets pretty sharp, but I tell you what, it tells
us what we need to know when we need to know it. And I'm very
grateful for it. Our Lord Jesus, thank you. Bless
your holy name for meeting with us tonight. Lord, we heard about
these people, these postates, these heretics, these people
who sinned so grievously against you. so grievously against your
people, so grievously against your word, so grievously against
your presence, so grievously against the sacrifice of your
son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Not afraid, not afraid at all,
not afraid of facing you, not afraid of facing the judgment.
They think they're all right. But, oh, God, keep us from such
sins. Keep us from covetousness. Keep
us from despising authority and rejecting authority. Help us
not to speak evil of the Lord's people in any way. And, oh, blessed,
blessed Savior, don't let us rise up against God's people.
Oh, Lord, you said it'd be better for a millstone cast around a
man's neck and throw it into the ocean as to offend one of
those little ones for whom you died. So God make us a tender-hearted,
very watchful, prayerful people. And do it for Christ's sake.
Amen. Amen. Thank you, Lord, for saving
my soul. Thank you, Lord. for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me thy great salvation, so rich and free. Aaron Greenleaf will
be here to preach for you Sunday, both services. I love Aaron. He is really, really a gifted
preacher. I love to listen to him. I really,
really love to listen to him. I think he's one of the best
preachers around.