I'd like for you to open your
Bibles today in the book of Jude, the next to last book of the
Bible. I've been preaching through this
and I've been taking my time, and today I'm really going to
take my time. I'm going to just deal with one verse. And the
reason I'm dealing with one verse is because the subject is so
important. It falls right in line with the
passage that Brother David read in 1 John 3 and what I read in
1 John 4 to test the spirits. testing preachers. You know,
to be a preacher of the gospel is an awesome privilege that
no true preacher will take for granted. And sometimes it's a
glaring reality that we are weak vessels. You know, they say that
believers have three great enemies, the world, the flesh, and the
devil. That's the church against the world, the flesh, and the
devil. and we're constantly in a battle, it's a warfare. Today
I'm particularly in the warfare with the flesh, it's called allergies.
And so I have to struggle through this. But how do we win this
war? Well, first of all, we win the
war by first of all realizing that the war is actually already
won. Because Jesus Christ, who is
our hope, our Savior, the Lord our righteousness, has already
conquered sin. What Brother David read there,
he was manifested to take away our sins. That's what he did
on the cross. He took them away. What does that mean? That means
he paid the debt to God's law and justice, our sin debt. That's what we did in Adam when
we fell. And then when we're born into
this world spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, we run up
a sin debt. That's one of the words for sin
in the Bible. And Christ paid that debt, having
our sins charged to his account, our debt charged to his account. And he went to the cross and
put them away and paid the penalty. That's called redemption. He
bought us. And he conquered sin. Now we're
still sinners, we're still plagued with the presence and the contamination
and the remaining influences of sin. We're in a warfare within. But the battle's already won.
Paul spoke of that when he talked about that inner warfare in Romans
7. He said, I want to do right, I want to be like Christ, but
I can't because in the flesh dwelleth no good thing. And it
keeps me from achieving the perfection of righteousness that I can only
find in Christ. But he says, who shall deliver
me? Oh, wretched man that I am. He
said, who shall deliver me from this body? He said, I thank God
through Jesus Christ, my Lord. And he said, remember he said
that there's therefore now no condemnation to them which are
in Christ. Our sins cannot be charged to us because they were
charged to Christ. We cannot be condemned because
Christ died. He was condemned in our place.
And that's his people. And of course, he's conquered
the world. He said, in the world you'll
have trouble, but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world.
So we have that victory. So that's the first way we win
this battle, realizing that it's already won by our Savior. And
we win this battle by continually looking to him. by God-given
faith, resting in Him, not depending upon ourselves, not trusting
our own selves. Lean not to the arm of the flesh.
Trust in the Lord. That's what we do. We run the
race of grace, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. And so with that in mind, what we want to do and what we
want to be sure of, whenever we hear a preacher, are we hearing
the truth? Now Jude spoke of those preachers,
prophets, or self-proclaimed prophets, who had crept into
the church unawares. And he says here that they had
crept in unawares, verse four, 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,
All right, and these are those who claim to preach grace. Some
claim to preach sovereign grace. That's what we preach here. You
know, we talk about free grace. Well, there's only one kind of
grace, and it's free. We talk about sovereign grace. There's
only one kind of grace from God, and it's sovereign because he's
a sovereign God. And it says they deny the only
Lord God and the Lord Jesus Christ, but they come in the name of
Christ. Paul spoke of that in 2 Corinthians 11. He said, they
claim to preach Jesus, but it's another Jesus that is not the
true Jesus. Did you realize that? The Bible
speaks of false Christ, false messiahs. And so everybody who
names the name of Jesus, what we need to know is that, is it
the Jesus of the Bible? Back over here in Jude 10, he
says, or verse 11, he says, woe unto them. That means God's judgment
upon them. These false preachers who crept
into the churches unawares, they got in there without people knowing
them. They knew enough to say the right things to get in. You
understand? And this is God's righteous judgment
against those who would preach a false gospel, or in some way,
at some stage, to some degree, deny that gospel. And we're commanded
to test the preachers. That's what 1 John 4 says. You
know, a lot of people today say, well, I'm not supposed to judge
anybody. You better read your Bible. Now we're not supposed
to judge anybody in a self-righteous way. We're not to look at people
and say, well, I'm better than them. And I know I'm going to
heaven because I'm better than them. No, that's self-righteous
judgment. Judge not that you be not judged. That's what that means. But we're
commanded to test the preachers. And how do we do it? Well, how
do they look behind the pulpit? No, that's a wrong judgment.
Are they eloquent in speech? Can they speech without sniffing
and coughing? Is that the answer? No. How do you test preachers? Well,
we test them by the word of God. By the word of God. And that's
why the Bible in Hebrews chapter five tells believers that we
need to become skillful in the word of righteousness, which
is the Bible, Genesis to Revelation, in order that we might know the
difference between what's good and what's evil. Man by nature
doesn't know that difference. Did you know that? Oh, I know,
he knows the, he has a conscience, it's a condemned conscience,
a fallen conscience, and he can tell the difference between murder
and charity. But when it comes to salvation,
a right relationship with God, man doesn't know what's good
and what's bad. And I'll show you that. Well, as you notice
in the bulletin, I've entitled this message, God's Way Versus
Man's Ways, plural. Why is that? Because when it
comes to God and his truth, there is only one single way of salvation. But when it comes to men, false
preachers, religionists, there's a thousand ways to damnation. But God has one way. And I'll
tell you something, Christ said that, John 14, six, he said,
I am the way, not a way. You listen to popular religion
today and popular culture, they'll say, well, there are many ways
to God or many ways to Christ. No, and this is one of the most
hated doctrines of scripture. that God says there's one way
and no other way. Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. Proverbs 12, 28 says, in the
way of righteousness is life, and in the pathway thereof there's
no death. The way to Christ is the way of grace. The way to
Christ, the way of salvation, is the way of righteousness which
we don't have and can only find in Him. It's the way of grace. It's the way of the cross. We
sing that hymn, the way of the cross leads home. It's the way
of the blood, the blood of Christ, the finished work of Christ.
But man has devised a lot of ways. But all those ways that
man has devised are ways of death. They're ways of death. It's said
in Proverbs two times, chapter 14 and chapter 16. It said, there
is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof
are the ways of death. So whatever way man comes up
with, whether it appears religious and moral and good, no matter
what way it is, if it's any other way than God's way, it's a way
of death. It won't work. The Lord in the
Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew chapter seven, verse
13, he said this, enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide
is the gate, broad is the way that leadeth to destruction,
and many there be which go in thereof. Because straight is
the gate, narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there
be that find it. I think about Moses when he was
praying to the Lord, show me your glory. And he made this
statement in Exodus 33. He said, now therefore I pray
thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way. I want to know God's way. I know
man's ways, I've been on there. A lot of them, different ones.
The way of the Baptist, the way of the Methodist, the way of
the Catholic, whoever it is. But I want to know God's way.
And Jude uses three Old Testament examples of men who were under
the judgment of God's wrath to show the error of these false
teachers. Look at verse 11. He says, woe on them for they've
gone in the way of Cain. Now that's, he uses three, it
kinda covers all the annals of false religion. The way of Cain.
You remember Cain. Well Cain murdered Abel. And
I heard a preacher say one time, well that's the way of murder.
Now listen to me. Cain was on the wrong road before
he murdered his brother. Now that's bad, that was the
first murder. When Cain murdered Abel. But
he was on the road to destruction before he murdered Abel. That's
what Brother David read in 1 John 3. When he's talking about the
way of righteousness, it's the way of grace, it's the way of
Christ, it's the way of God's word. And he says in verse 11
of 1 John 3, listen to this. For this is the message that
you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,
not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. Now it says, and wherefore slew
he him? You know what that means? Why
did Cain slay Abel? Why did he do that? Listen to
the answer of God's word. Because his own works were evil,
and his brother's righteous. Now what do you know about the
works of Cain and the works of Abel? Well, you can go back to
Genesis 4, I don't have to turn there this morning, but both
of them brought an offering to the Lord. Cain brought an offering,
Abel brought an offering, didn't he? And it says there in Genesis
chapter 4 that the Lord rejected Cain's offering, but he received
Abel's offering. And this is another issue. I've
heard preachers talk about, well, Cain wasn't sincere. Or Cain's
heart wasn't right with God. Well, his heart wasn't right
with God. But it wasn't because he was insincere. But here's
the thing. How do you know Cain's heart
wasn't sincere? You know, there are people in
false religion who are sincere about what they're doing. Dedicated
to what they're doing. The Bible doesn't say anything
about Cain being insincere. But it does say this, he brought
to God an offering of the fruit of his labor. Now what does that
represent? Salvation by the works and the
wills of men. But what did Abel bring? He brought
the blood of a lamb. Well, what's significant about
that? Well, God had established in
Genesis chapter three that the only way of salvation is the
way of his grace through the blood of a qualified appointed
substitute. And he pictured that lesson by
using a lamb. He slew a lamb and gave Adam
and Eve coats of skin. Abel's lamb pictured the blood
of the Lamb of God who is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
Abel knew him as the promised woman's seed, the promised Messiah. Abel, when he brought his offering
to God, he was saying, God, I'm a sinner. I cannot save myself. Only you, by your sovereign grace,
through the blood of the Messiah, can I be accepted. Cain came
in self-righteousness, bringing what he had worked for, the works
of his hands. And so the way of Cain is the
way of salvation conditioned on sinners, at any stage, to
any degree, in any way. It's the way of salvation by
works. So here's a man who comes into the pulpit and he says,
I believe in the sovereign grace of God, I believe it's grace,
but you've got to do this, that, or the other. Or they say, well,
God loves you and Christ died for you, now the rest is up to
you, you've got to make the choice, you've got to make the difference.
That's the way of Cain, my friend. That's the way of works. The
way of grace is salvation. Totally, exclusively, completely
by the blood of Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
us from all sins. Nothing added to it, nothing
taken away from it. That's what it's all about. Grace
and works will not mix. Paul said it in Romans 11, if
it's by works, it's not of grace. If it's by grace, it's not of
works. Paul wrote in Galatians 2 and verse 21, if righteousness
come by the law, by our works, then Christ is dead in vain.
The way of Cain is when any preacher, no matter what else they say,
no matter how much scripture they read, if they introduce
the works of man into the mix as attaining or maintaining salvation,
they've gone the way of Cain. You say, that's pretty strict.
Well, God is a strict God. He won't share his glory. He's
a jealous God. He's gonna get all the glory.
And Paul wrote in Galatians 6, 14, God forbid that I should
glory, boast, save in the cross. I'm not gonna boast in my works.
I'm not gonna brag about my choice. So-called free will as they say?
No. I'm here to brag on Jesus Christ,
the Lord of glory. I'm here to tell you about who
he is. He is God manifest in the flesh. And what he has accomplished
on the cross of Calvary, he has saved his people from their sins.
He put away their sins. They cannot be charged with sin.
There's not gonna be one sinner in hell for whom Christ died. because he put away their sin.
Our sins were charged to him, and we have his righteousness
charged to us. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. That's what the gospel is. And
then he mentions in verse 11, he comes now to the error of
Balaam for reward. Now Balaam, you can read about
him, is back in the book of Numbers. Three or four chapters. Numbers
22 through numbers 25. Balaam was a false prophet, but
you know what he did at times? In fact, three times. He spoke
the words of God. Even as a false prophet. How
could that happen? I'll tell you how. Because God's
in control. That's right. Balaam was a man. who was hired out by the king
of Moab, a man named Balak, who was afraid of the children of
Israel. You know, when they were coming through the desert and
the wilderness, and they defeated some of their enemies. Well,
God defeated them for them. And people began to hear about
these Israelites coming through who they defeated strong armies,
and this king of Moab was afraid, so he hired Balaam, a false prophet,
to curse Israel. You go and curse them. And he
did it for money. And Balaam said, I'll do it.
And three times when Balaam stood up to curse Israel, God stopped
his mouth and filled his mouth with the word of God so that
he blessed Israel instead. He was an unwilling participant
in the blessing of the people of God. He did that three times. But in the end, the false prophet
Balaam found a way to bring it to a compromise. And that's the
way of Balaam. And what he did is he brought
in the Moabite and other women to seduce the men of Israel and
get them to commit fornication, prostitution, all of this, and
intermarry with the Moabites and with the heathen. And God
then brought him down. And so what is the way of Balaam?
It's the way of compromise for gain. Now it can be gain of money,
filthy lucre. In other words, somebody who
claims to preach the gospel but holds back in order to get more
people to give him money. Now we know preachers like that. But it can also be gain of popularity. I've had preachers tell me this.
I think I've been preaching almost 40 years now. I used to say 30.
But they've told me, I believe what you're preaching, but if
I'd preach it in my church, I'd lose so many people. That's the
way of Balaam, folks. I've had preachers say this.
They've left churches where the gospel's preached Men and women
left churches where the gospel is preached because they didn't
want to lose friendship with others outside the church. That's
the way of Balaam. It's compromising the word of
God in order to gain money, friendship, fellowship, whatever. That's
the way of Balaam. Now I've often told you I would
love to see this building packed out. I would love to see us tomorrow
start talking about what are we gonna do? We gotta build another
building. We don't have enough room for
them. I'd love that. But I'm not gonna compromise
the message to achieve that. By the grace of God, I'm not.
You understand what I'm saying? That's the way of Baal. Compromise. And then lastly, he mentions
here in verse 11, they perished in the Ganesane of Korah. Now you know what gainsaying
is? It's rebellion. And if you want to read about
Korah, now this man Korah is back in Numbers chapter 16. You
know, when God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, Moses
was God's appointed leader, God's appointed prophet. Aaron, Moses'
brother, was God's appointed high priest. And the children
of Israel were many. I don't know exactly how many.
Scholars argue over that. But this man named Korah, he
decided to take matters into his own hands and stand against
God's appointed prophet and God's appointed priest. And he said,
now Moses and Aaron, you all have taken too much on yourself.
I'm gonna take it on myself. And Korah had people with him.
And he stood against God's prophet and God's priest. So the way
of Korah is the way of rebellion against God's authority. That's
what it is. He rebelled. And you know what
happened. That's the one, him and his folks,
God opened up the earth and swallowed. Well, what is God's authority
today? It's right here in this book,
folks. And a false preacher is one who
can preach a lot of truth, but they will deny truth. They'll
deny the truth of God's word. They'll hold back, for example.
It's like the one you told me who was preaching through the
book of Romans, and after he got through with Romans eight,
he said, well, I'm gonna stop there. I'm not gonna go into
Romans nine. You know why they won't go into
Romans nine? Because that talks about God's sovereignty, his
election of grace. It talks about God loving Jacob
and God hating Esau. God who doeth as he will, when
he will, as he pleases. He's in control, he's sovereign.
He said, I'll have mercy on whom I will and I'll be gracious to
whom I will. It's not of him that runneth,
nor of him that willeth, but of God that showeth mercy. They
reject God's authority and they'll reject God's preachers who preach
that word. That's the only authority I have
is the word of God. It's not by credentials. It's
not my pulpit presence or my eloquence. It's the word of God.
If they speak not according to this word, there's no line in
them. So how do we test the preachers? Well, we got to ask some questions. Let me give you these. If you
hear a preacher preaching, Does he exalt the sovereign love,
grace, and mercy of God in Christ as the only cause of salvation?
God's electing love and grace. God is the only cause of salvation.
God is the only source of salvation. God chooses his people. That's
what the Bible says. I know people don't like that,
the doctrine of election, but that's what the word of God says. Does he preach the sovereign
God of sovereign mercy, sovereign love, sovereign grace, electing
grace? That's what I want to hear. How
about you? You know why I want to hear it? Because it glorifies
God and it puts me in the dust where I belong. Speaking of that,
here's the second thing. Does it humble man in the dust
of inability and reveal his total spiritual deadness and depravity?
Or does it speak of some spark of goodness in man? The free
will of man. That's not biblical. What does
the Bible say about us by nature? It says, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them.
They're spiritually discerned. The Bible doesn't speak of any
goodness in us. We fell in Adam, ruined by the
fall. And every faculty of man And
woman is under the bondage of darkness and sin until God by
himself turns on the light through the preaching of the word. And that's the third thing. Does
it show how all salvation was conditioned on Christ who by
himself fulfilled those conditions to secure the complete salvation
of all for whom he died and arose? The complete salvation. It doesn't
talk about how man can be saved and then lost, no. That's what
Jude says here at the end of the book. Look at verse 24. Now
unto him that is able to keep you from falling. Who's able
to keep me from falling? Not me, not you. Who's able to
keep me from falling? He says, and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only
wise God our Savior. Be glory and majesty, dominion
and power, both now and forever. Amen. That's what the Bible says.
Why is it that once a person is truly saved by the grace of
God, he cannot be unsaved, be lost again? Because it's God
who keeps us. Because it's God who will not
charge us with sin. Because it's God who sent Christ
to work out a perfect righteousness, which He's imputed, charged,
accounted to us, that cannot be taken away and cannot be corrupted? Because it's God who gave us
of His Holy Spirit. In that passage that Brother
David read, in verse nine of 1 John 3, it says, whosoever
is born of God doth not commit sin. Well, does that mean once
I'm born of God, once I'm regenerated and converted, that I'm no longer
a sinner? No, it doesn't mean that at all. I'm still a sinner
saved by grace. Looking to Jesus Christ is my
only hope. Well, what does that mean, he
does not sin? It means, in the context, he's talking about the
specific sin of apostasy, turning away from Christ. If you're truly
born of God, you cannot turn away from Christ completely.
You cannot forsake Him completely. Why? Because His seed remaineth. Well, what is His seed? That's
His children. That's what He said back in verse 1. What manner
of love that God has bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God, the children of God. His seed is His offspring. Who are they? That's the ones
whom God chose before the foundation of the world and gave to Christ.
Made Him to be their surety. Sent Him to be their substitute.
Accomplished their redemption on the cross. And He says, In
verse 9, his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because
he's born of God. That means he has the gift of
life from God, spiritual life. He's been born again by the Spirit. He's been regenerated and converted
and the Spirit himself indwells us and keeps us and we cannot
totally, completely apostatize, fall away, turn against the Lord
Jesus Christ. God won't let us go. That's what
it means. Here's another thing, does it
point to Christ's perfect righteousness imputed to us as the only ground
of salvation? That's his blood. That's what
his blood means. His righteousness, the merits
of his obedience unto death, charged to our account before
the justice of God, enabling God to be just and justifier,
the only source of spiritual life. Next, does it show how all salvation,
including faith and repentance, are gifts from God, worked out
by the Holy Spirit in the new birth? Regenerating us, converting
us, and it's the fruit of Christ's righteousness. The work of the
Holy Spirit in giving us spiritual life to all whom God chose, all
whom Christ died for. What is faith? Faith is believing
God. Believing God's word. Looking
to Christ for all salvation. None of us would do that on our
own. If it were left to our own wills,
we would always turn away, walk away. But if any of us believe
in Him, what does the Bible say? For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto, not because of, but unto good works, which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Here's
another thing. Whatever they're preaching, does
it shut every door but Christ? Bar every way but Christ? Destroy
every hope but Christ? And present Christ alone as our
life, our hope, our salvation, our righteousness, our acceptance
before the Father? Or does it leave other ways,
open to other ways? You know, that's common in religion
today. I had a lady here come from another
church in town, and she told me the reason they left, because
they preach what they call progressive Christianity. And I asked her,
she asked me, she said, do you know what that is? And I said,
well, I've read about it, but you tell me what you think it is.
She said, well, they're preaching that there are other ways to
heaven other than the true Christian way. That's pluralism. My friend, that's the way of
Cain, the way of Balaam, the way of Korah. It's the broad
way that leads to destruction. There's only one way. And then
lastly, does it encourage obedience? Fighting the war, the flesh and
the spirit, and discourage disobedience based upon, motivated by, the
free grace of God and motivated by love and gratitude, not motivated
by legalism. Mercenary works. You know what
a mercenary does? A mercenary is one who fights
in a battle for somebody because they're getting paid. That's
right. Those who are seeking to work
their way into God's favor, or into heaven as they say, to earn
rewards. That's a mercenary. That's not
a child of God. That's not a willing, loving, bond slave of Christ.
That's a mercenary. Those who are working in order
to get right with God because of fear of hell, that's legalism. What are God's children? willing,
loving bond servants of Christ serving him based upon the fact
that he's already freely and fully given us all blessings. Blessings that we didn't earn.
Blessings that we don't deserve. Including the very next breath
we breathe. Did you realize that? The next
breath you breathe, you didn't earn it and you don't deserve
it. Why? Because we're sinners. So what
is our worthiness? Worthy is the lamb that was slain,
Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead. He is our worthiness.