The Bible says that the weapons
of our warfare, and that's what we're engaged in, spiritual warfare. And again, I want to emphasize,
I don't want to take away from this, this is not like a ball
game, you know. We're trying to run up points,
and Satan's trying to run up points, and whoever has the biggest
score at the end wins. No, the victory is assured. Christ
has won the victory, but for the glory of God, he's left us
here to battle against Satan, to battle against the world,
to battle against even our own flesh. We have a warfare within. The key to victory in any war
is to be equipped for the battle. And Paul wrote that the weapons
of our warfare are not carnal to the pulling down of strongholds
like physical strongholds. You know, this is a real issue
today, you know, the issue of radical Islam and all of that. They have a view of the world
that says, well, I'm either going to convert you or I'll kill you.
Well, that is never. the way of God's Word. It's never the way of Christ.
Never has been. There have been false Christians in the past
who have murdered people, but they went against the teachings
of Christ to do so. So that's never been one. But
our weapon is the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit, the
Gospel. And our battlefield is the mind,
the affections, the will. That's where we're at. And we
feed upon the word of God. We need to be spiritually healthy
in this battle. And we feed upon the word of
God, which makes us spiritually healthy. We become skillful,
as Paul wrote in the book of Hebrews, in the word of righteousness,
that we can tell the difference between what's good and what's
evil. And that means we have to go to the word of God because
if left to ourselves, we don't know the difference. Not in God's
sight now. We know the difference between
morality and immorality in the world and charity and stinginess
in the world. But when it comes to God's standard,
we don't know the difference until God teaches us. And that's
what we need to understand. And then we have to know the
enemy. And that's what this book of
Jude is about. And I've got a little anecdote here about a famous
preacher. He was once asked how we as true believers are to deal
with false preachers, false believers and their false doctrine. And
he answered by using an analogy of a crooked walking stick. He
said, if you see a lame man walking down the road and his walking
stick is crooked, he said, I don't have to point out that his walking
stick is crooked. All I have to do is produce a
straight stick and lay it down and lay the walking stick beside
it, and he'll see that it's crooked. Now that's what he said. Now here's my question. Is that a good biblical analogy?
And the answer is no. No. The Bible points out the
specific errors of false preachers. In fact, that's what this whole
book of Jude is about. Now, you may say, well, it's
a short book. Well, but there are other places throughout the
New Testament and the Old Testament where the specific errors of
false preachers are pointed out for several reasons. Number one,
false preachers, false preachers sometimes come so close to the
truth that if it were possible they could deceive the very elect.
Remember Christ talked about that in Matthew chapter 23. The issues of false doctrine, you
see. Now here, let me say this. I
don't want the ministry of this church to be nothing more than
just pointing out the negative, obviously. I want to preach a
positive message. I want to preach the truth. I
want to lay down the straight stick, all right? But there are
times when it's necessary for us to say, hey, your stick is
crooked, and you don't see it. That's what's happening here.
Well, look here in verse 10 of the book of Jude. Now, he's talking
about these false preachers, but these, they speak evil of
those things which they know not. Now what he says there is
what they're preaching and what they're saying, which is false
doctrine, is born out of ignorance and deception. They're ignorant
of the way of salvation. They're on the broad road that
leads to destruction and they don't know it. They think it's
a way of life. The Bible says in the book of
Proverbs two times, it says that, I've got that listed here, Proverbs
14, 12 and Proverbs 16, 25. There is a way that seems right
to men, but it's a way that leads to destruction. And he goes on, he says, look
in verse 10, he says, but what they know naturally brute beast
in those things they corrupt themselves what he's saying there
is they speak the things that are natural to fallen sinful
depraved men and women the Bible says in 1st Corinthians chapter
2 and verse 14 the natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God Neither can he know them, for they are spiritually
discerned. Who is the natural man? Well,
that's how we're born naturally. We fell in Adam, and we're born
dead in trespasses and sins. And what you have to do is go
to the Bible. What can the natural man achieve
on his own? Well, he can achieve great heights
of religion, He can give mental agreement to a lot of truth,
but what can he not do? He cannot really tell the difference
between saved and lost. He cannot really tell the difference
between what glorifies God and what dishonors God. He cannot
and will not choose the right way of salvation. Now he can
be confused, he can be deceived. You know, in John chapter eight,
verse 44, when Christ was talking to the Pharisees, and he says,
you're of your father, the devil, and the lust of your father you
do. He's a murderer from the beginning. He speaks on his own.
He speaks of his own. What he's talking about is you're
just doing what naturally comes from sinful creatures. He can
achieve great heights of religion, great heights of morality, even
great heights of charity in the world. Even atheists can be charitable
people. And we're not to judge by those
things. And I'm going to talk about that in the coming messages
on John chapter eight, you know, Christ being the light of the
world. The gospel light exposes the deeds of men and women aimed
at saving themselves or keeping themselves saved as being evil.
And that's why we must come to repentance. So they're just talking,
when they speak, they're false gospel. And their false gospel,
listen, their false gospel always places man at the center. It's always salvation in some
way, at some stage, in some degree, conditioned on man. Man makes
the difference. That's the false gospel. That's
the essence of the false gospel. When it comes to being saved
and lost, when it comes to being blessed or cursed, when it comes
to being justified or unjustified, man makes the difference. Christ
did everything he could do. Now you make the difference.
That's natural. Man always thinks he makes the
difference. Think about it in every area of life. You know,
I think about these environmentalist, all right?
And don't get me wrong now, I've always said, now we need to be
responsible citizens and good stewards of the things that God
has given us in this earth. We don't need to trash the earth.
We don't need to pollute the earth. But whenever we get the
idea that we can save this world, that's the natural man. He thinks
he can do it all. And in religion, it's no different.
When it comes to salvation, he wants to think, I made the difference. Why? Because man is determined
naturally to get some glory. He will not give all the glory
to God in Christ. I'm the one who made that difference,
made that choice. Well, we do make a choice, but
what does the Bible say? Bible says that we must be born
again, yeah. That he makes us willing in the
day of his power. Why does the word of God reveal
that? I'll tell you why. Because God's determined that
he's gonna get all the glory and we get none. It's all Christ. Now it's easy to say that, but
do we really mean? I guarantee you these false preachers
said it's all grace. It's all Christ. Because we see
that in scripture. Well, he calls them brute beast. Now that sounds harsh, doesn't
it? Brute beast. You know why he calls them brute
beast? It is because they live, I've gotten your listening, they
live and die by their own natural instincts, like an animal, rather
than by the word of God. That's why he calls them brute
beast. And so whenever they preach their false message, they're
just speaking what's naturally according to fallen human depraved
sinful instincts, just like a beast. Why does a cow eat grass or a
sheep eat grass? And why does a wolf eat sheep?
That's their instinct. So in order to be brought to
faith in Christ, what does the Bible say? You must be what? Born again. You've got to have
a new heart. You've got to have a new spirit.
And that comes from Christ, who lived and died, was buried and
rose again on the third day. The resurrected life of Christ.
And it's not by the will of man, it's not by the works of man.
John chapter 1 tells us that. It's by the power of God. It's
the will of God. Well look at verse 11. He says,
woe unto them. Now woe is an expression of their
state. They are in danger of the wrath
of God. Who is in danger of the wrath
of God? Any sinner who lives and dies
in unbelief. Now, we want to avoid this. You remember when Isaiah saw
the Lord high and lifted up and he said, woe is me, for I'm undone,
I'm cut off. Isaiah realized that without
Christ, without the grace of God, without the power of God,
he was alienated from God. And that's what this woe means
here. Woe unto them. And he mentions three specific
Old Testament references that exposes the crooked stick here.
that says your stick is crooked. And what are these? Now listen
to these very carefully. Now the only way to avoid that
woe, that wrath, is by the grace of God being found washed in
the blood of Christ, clothed in his righteousness imputed.
That's the only way. And those who are washed in his
blood and clothed in his righteousness, they are brought by the Spirit
to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works. They know they
didn't make the difference, Christ did. So what does he say? Well, first of all, he says they've
gone the way of Cain. The way of Cain. Well, what's
the way of Cain? Well, it's the way of salvation
by the works of men. So in other words, if I stand
before you and I preach a message that makes salvation in any way
according to your works, that's the way of Cain. Now, Cain was
a religious man. He came to worship God. Preachers
will tell you sometimes, they'll say, well, Cain wasn't as sincere
as Abel. That's not what the Bible says.
Why did Cain kill Abel? Well, I've got a reference here
in 1 John chapter 3. It's because his works were evil
and his brothers righteous. What was the work that Abel did?
He came before God with the blood of the Lamb, a picture of God's
grace in Christ, his righteousness imputed. Abel knew he was a sinner
and had nothing to recommend him unto God. Well, Cain came
to worship too, but what did he bring? The works of his hands. And, you know, people can speculate
on that and all that, but that's what the Bible says now. The
way of Cain. Cain murdered Abel because God
revealed that Cain's works were evil and Abel's righteous. And so Cain refused God's word. Remember in Genesis chapter four,
you can go over and read that, how God, Christ told him, he
said, if you do well, you'll be received, you'll be accepted.
Well, what is it to do well? Well, that's established with
Abel. To do well is to come before
God pleading Christ in His righteousness alone. That's what it is. Well, who's gonna do that? Only
sinners who've been born again by the Spirit, by the grace of
God. And then look at the next one.
He says, they've ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for
reward. Well, you can read about Balaam.
In the book of, I didn't put that reference here, did I? You might have it there in your
concordance. The error of Balaam. Let's see. I think it's in the,
well, I can't remember. What is it? Yeah, there's a reference
to second Peter, because he mentions false preachers there. I didn't
put down the Old Testament reference. You all can look that up. So
I'm not going to look it up up here, because we don't have time.
But Balaam, I think it's back in the book of Numbers, isn't
it? But anyway, Balaam was a false prophet. What is the error of
Balaam? It's the spirit of compromise,
compromising the truth, either in doctrine or conduct, for the
purposes of gaining money, popularity, or worldly acclaim and approval. That's what it is. Now listen,
you know, somebody says, well, you know, I know these highfalutin
preachers who are in it for the money. And there are some, you
know, who without reservation and without embarrassment, you
know, they flaunt that. And that's the Arab Balaam. But
I'll guarantee you one thing, you know, most of those preachers
who are multimillionaires, I guarantee you most of them would defend
themselves by saying, well, this is the blessing of God on me
for what I do. People talk about Kenneth Copeland
having a jet. He has a jet that he goes all
around the world. Well, I'm not asking you all
for a jet. I don't have any place to go
but Ashland to visit my My grandkids, you know, I go out to Ruston
once a year, but I don't go pretty much anywhere else, so I don't
need a jet. But anyway, you know what bothers
me about Kenneth Copeland? It's not the fact that he has
a jet, necessarily. He preaches a lie. Wherever the
jet takes him, he preaches a lie when he gets there. He preaches
a false gospel. And that's the spirit, that's
the error of Balaam and the way of Cain, too. But it's not necessarily
a preacher who's in it for the money, necessarily. It could
be one who's just wanting to be accepted with people. I want,
you know, somebody told me one time, said, well, can all those
people be wrong? Yes, they can if you read the
Bible. Here's Elijah. We studied this
Wednesday night. Here's Elijah, the prophet of
God. Nobody's listening to him. Everybody's
against him. And he comes to the point of
being distraught. And he says, Lord, am I the only
one? And God revealed to him, I've
got 7,000 that have not bowed the knee to Baal. I don't know
what the population of Israel was back then, but I guarantee
you 7,000 was a small number, given the whole population. Even
7,000. Wouldn't you love to see 7,000
people? Well, I would. But compare that to the population
of the United States. Now there probably wasn't as
many in Israel then as there is in our population today, but
God always said, through the prophets, that in any given generation
that it was a remnant according to the election of grace. But
here's the thing. If you're going to go by the
word of God, think about it. If you're determined, as I am,
I'm resolved. to go by this word and nothing
else. The moment I try to judge truth and error, good and evil,
based upon the numbers, I've left the Bible. You understand
that? Somebody says, well, that many
people cannot be wrong. My friend, do you remember, well,
let's turn there. Turn to Psalm, I think it's Psalm
50. Look at Psalm 50. Is it 51? Okay. I may not have the right
reference here either. No, that's not it. Oh, no, it's Psalm 53. Yeah,
there you go. Look at Psalm 53. I'm sorry.
All right, it says in verse one, The fool hath said in his heart,
there is no God. Now literally what that means,
it's not just talking about an atheist who necessarily denies
God, they're included there. But what it says, a fool says
in his heart, no God for me. I don't wanna worship that God,
the God of this book. That's what that means. Your
God, just like what one old preacher told a true preacher, he says,
your God is my devil. You know what they were arguing
over? Election. Your God is my devil, he said.
And he claimed to be a Christian. So the fool had said in his heart,
no God for me. Corrupt are they and have done
abominable iniquity. There is none that doeth good.
Do you hear that? Paul quotes that in Romans. But
look at verse two. He says, God looked down from
heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that
did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them has gone
back. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. Who's he talking about there?
He's talking about the natural man. And so what he's saying there
is this, you know, somebody says, well, God gives everybody a chance. Well, if God came down here and
got the whole population of the world together and said, now
I'm going to leave it up to you. Do you want me? Do you choose
me? The whole world would turn thumbs down on Christ. That's
what the Bible teaches. Go back to Jude now. And so, yeah, I think that's
quoted in Psalm 14 too, isn't it? But that's what he's talking
about. The heir of Balaam is a compromise
of the truth in order to gain acceptance, in order to be assimilated,
in order to please men. It's kind of like those who,
and we read this in The book of John, I think it's chapter
12, where it talks about those that believed on him, but they
would not confess him because of the Pharisees. They loved
the praise of men more than the praise of God. That kind of thing. Okay, the next thing he goes
to is the Ganesane. They perished in the Ganesane
of Corrie. That's Cora. And Cora was back
over in the book of Numbers, chapter 16. Korah was the one
who opposed God's appointed, ordained leader, preacher, Moses. And Korah also opposed Aaron. Moses represented the law and
the word of God. Aaron represented the priesthood. So Korah got a contingency of
people to follow him to oppose Moses. and to oppose Aaron, and
so they were destroyed. The word Gensain means they contradicted,
they opposed. In other words, they wouldn't
accept God's word and shut up. They had to say more, and the
more was against God. And what he's talking about there,
look, what you have to understand is when they rejected Moses,
they rejected God. Not because of anything in Moses,
but because Moses preached God's Word. And that's what I tell
people. I'm just the messenger now. And
if you get angry, then all I can do is show you what God's Word
says and let you know that you're not getting angry at me. Don't
shoot the messenger. You're getting angry at God.
When God says there's none good, no not one, how does that make
you feel? Well, Bill, I don't agree with
you. Well, I didn't write that. It's
like the fellow who called me up one day. He said, I don't
believe that predestination. And I said, well, do you think
I'm the one who invented that? I didn't come up with that word. Yeah, it goes back farther than
him, doesn't it? I said, that's God's word, isn't
it? God says it. So I told him this, I said, what
you need to do is go into God's word and find out in the word
what that means. And he said, well, I'm not gonna
bother with it. Well, that's the gainsaying of Korah. You
see what I'm saying? I'm not gonna, it's not worth
my time. And then, now let's go on, look
at verse 12. He says, these are spots or blemishes
on your feast of charity. A feast of charity is like a
worship service. That's what we're doing right
here, feast of love. Showing our love for God, our
love for Christ, our love for his truth, our love for one another.
And that's a metaphor for worship services of brethren. He says
they're blemishes on your feast of charity when they feast with
you, feeding themselves without fear. There's no fear of God
before their eyes. All right? He's not, listen,
we invite anybody and everybody to come to our worship services,
even unbelievers. Even if a false preacher shows
up, I'm glad he or she is here, and I'm gonna preach the gospel
to them. When do they become blemishes on your Feast of Charity?
When you let them preach. when you let them teach. That's
what was happening here. When you let them spread their
false gospel in your feast of charity. They're not to have
a role in guiding or leading the church. Anybody's welcome
to come and hear the gospel. And we pray for their salvation.
Their only hope is to hear the gospel. But if you let them stand
up, and guide and teach their false doctrine, the way of Cain,
the error of Balaam, and the gainsaying of Korah, that kind
of thing. Then they become blemishes, and he says, they're clouds without
water. You ever had, you know, somebody
said, well, we've been in a drought. But a lot of times during that
drought, you can look up in the sky, and what do you see? Beautiful
white clouds. What's the problem? No water. And that's what he means, they
can appear beautiful, they can appear appealing, they can appear
religious. Christ said of the Pharisees,
you do indeed appear righteous unto men. But inwardly, you're
like an open grave. He says here, he says they're
carried about of winds, winds of doctrine, change. We talked
about like that progressive Christianity thing, that's what that is. Carried
about by, like the clouds that move in the sky. Trees whose
fruit withereth without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the
roots. Wow. They're trees that bear no good
fruit. Christ said it, I've got a reference
there in Matthew 7, how it says a good tree cannot bear corrupt
fruit. And a corrupt tree cannot bear good fruit. A lot of people
say, well, he's talking about believers there bearing the fruit
of the Spirit and unbelievers not. That's not what he's talking
about there. He's talking about preachers and teachers. And what
he's saying is, under a preaching of these false gospels, nobody's
gonna be saved. There's no salvation under the
preaching of a lie. The corrupt tree cannot bear
good fruit. Read the context there in Matthew
7. What did he say before that? There's the narrow way and there's
the broad way. Beware of false preachers. You'll
know them by their fruits. There's no true conversion under
the preaching of a lie. And the gospel is the revelation
of the righteousness of God. Isn't that right? It's the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first
and the Greek also. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, for as it is written,
the justified shall live by faith. That's the imputed righteousness
of Christ. That's the work of Christ on the cross which successfully
saves his people. They're like trees without fruit.
Verse three, raging waves of the sea foaming out their own
shame. One, you know, it's like the sea comes in, you know, like
with a tsunami and then it settles down. They're hot, they're cold,
all of that. He says, they're wandering stars
to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. They'll
perish because their message is a false message. All right,
we'll conclude there.