If you would, turn in your Bible
to the book of Jude. The book of Jude. I feel like we have something in
common. I'm from a little town of Wilkes-Barre. Most everybody
knows Norfolk's where anybody keeps up with the race and that's
where they used to have a small racetrack there years ago. Probably
about two and a half hours, something like that, depending on the traffic. I can't remember, it's probably
been about 10 or 12 years ago, we were in a church and the Lord
had revealed the gospel to us. And when he revealed the gospel
to us, we began to preach the gospel, the gospel of God's grace
and God's mercy. And these were people that I
had went to church with in religion all my life. We had all set together
under religion, but when I began to preach something different
than what we had heard all of our life, you know, things didn't
go too well. I mean, these people that were,
you know, you would think would be friends. But before long,
it came to a point that we had to leave. And they with some
others said, well, we feel like we want to have a place where
we can worship God. So we actually met in my home for probably about
three months, met in the garage. And then after that, we rented
two or three buildings, you know, and the whole time I was wondering,
now, is this what God really wants me to do? I mean, do I
just need to go maybe find a place where the Gospels preach and
I'll just go there? I mean, I'll just sit and support
somebody else. But you know, over the years, and then probably
about six years ago, the Lord led us to a building that, you
know, been a church building for years. And you don't mind
me telling this story, just bear with me. And we went to the bank
and was going to purchase this building. There's no way we could
have bought built the building for $70,000. And the man at the
bank said, well, we didn't have any money saved up for a down
payment or anything. He said, well, why don't you
just ask those people that own the building if you can just
buy it from them? I said, well, you know, that's
a pretty good idea. So we made him an offer and had the lawyer
draw up the papers and everything. And he said, you can make them
payments for two years. He said, you can come back. The
man at the bank did, and he said, I won't need the money. So I
went to him, and they said, yes, they will. We'll finance it for
you for two years, interest-free. Okay, that was $70,000. When
we went back two years later to the bank to borrow the money,
we only had to borrow $38,000. I mean, Lord's good. I mean, we wandered for years
going from one building to the next, one building. You say,
well, what are we doing? Is this where we need to be?
But if God intends for a work to be established, He'll raise
it up. He'll provide for it in his time. Kind of like the children
of Israel when God sent them out. It came every day. One day
right after the other. So they had to depend upon him.
We know we want to depend upon what we can see. But we must
depend upon him. We must trust him. He said unless
he built the house, we labor in vain. But if God builds the
house, all hell can't shake him. If it's built on the gospel,
and founded upon Christ, who is the foundation, not upon sinking
sand. There's a lot of places, there's
a lot of churches that are built upon sinking sand, and they look
pretty for a while, but you let a storm come, you let a wind
blow, and it'll fall. You know what it does? The storm
reveals the foundation, or reveals the lack of the foundation. So
today, if you would turn with me to the book of Jude, which
is only one chapter. Really, there's only 25 verses. And some would say, well, this
is just a small book. It can't be really important.
If it's in this book, it's important. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God. It's ordained of God. And if
it's in this book, it has a purpose. Not only my Bible says it was
written in A.D. 70-80. It wasn't just written
to those people. It was written to us. It was
written to us today. And it can be applied to us today. I want to begin reading at verse
1. And read down through verse 7, but mainly just look at verses
5 through 7. It said, Jew, the servant of
Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by
God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ and called. Mercy unto you and peace and
love be multiplied. Beloved, when I gave all diligence
to write unto you of the common salvation, It was needful for
me to write unto you and to exhort you that you should earnestly
contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
Someone said that could have been wrote once and for all delivered
unto the saints. For there are certain men, creppy
and unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation,
ungodly men. turning the grace of our God
into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God and our Lord
Jesus Christ. He says in verse 5, I will therefore
put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that
the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward
destroyed them that believed not. And the angels which kept
not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath
reserved in everlasting chains under darkness into the judgment
of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and
the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over
to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth
for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. I want us to talk today, like
I said, mainly in verses five through seven, on the signs of
apostasy. Here in these verses, we have
three examples We have the nation of Israel, the fallen angels,
and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah who are recorded as apostates
who left their first estate and were later destroyed by God's
judgment. The term apostasy can be defined,
I think, if you would turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. beginning at verse 1. There's
a falling away. Now he says, Now we beseech you,
brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our
gathering together unto him, that you be not soon shaken in
mind or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word, neither by
letter as from us, that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no
man deceive you by any means. For that day shall not come except
there come a falling away an apostatizing first, and that
man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and
exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped,
so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself
that he is God, but he is not God. This son of perdition, this
spirit of antichrist, which is already at work today. You know,
that's what John said. People are looking Say, well,
this is something in the future. No, it's the spirit of Antichrist. What did it say in the book of
Ephesians? It said, We wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of
the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places. And that's what he's talking
about here. He says in verse six, And now you know what withholdeth,
that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of
iniquity doth already work. only he who now letteth will
let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that
wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit
of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming,
even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all
power and signs and lying wonders, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness
in them that perish." Now watch this, "...because they received
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." And for
this cause, what cause? Because they wouldn't receive
the truth. Because they would not receive the gospel. For this
cause, God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe
a lie. That they and I all might be
damned to believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness.
Most everybody I know is religious. Everybody I know has made a decision,
have been baptized or something. They believe something. They
believe something and they've probably experienced it. I don't
doubt their experience. But they believe a lot. They're
deceived. They're deceived. They've been
deceived. In these verses, we see that
it's a falling away from the gospel. A falling away from Christ
and a falling away from faith. Remove them from Christ. The
word translated falling away means a defection, a departure,
a forsaking, a falling away. Listen, it's a falling away from
faith in him verbally or by conduct. In the early church, there's
many examples of this. Some forsook the gospel by returning
to Judaism. Remember the book of Galatia?
That's what that book was written about. They were some believers. God had given them faith to believe
in Christ, and they were uniting with the church, but then these
Judaizers came in. If you'll read the book of Galatia,
it said these Judaizers came to these believers, and they
said, unless you're circumcised, you can't be saved. That's what
they were telling them. And see, I don't know everything
about Judaism, but what I do understand is that this man here
was raised in strict Judaism all of his life. His mother was
a Jew, his father was a Jew, and the rest of his family were
Jews. And God gives him faith to believe in Christ. If he forsakes
that and he identifies with Christ, his family is going to turn against
him. His family is going to say, well, he's dead to us. And they
would even have a burial. deny him. They'd say he's no
longer my son. This is what it would cost. And
through that pressure, some would be tempted to draw back and go
back to Judaism. And that is a forsaking, a departure,
and that's an apostatizing. And that's what it was. That's
why Paul wrote that letter. That's why he withstood to Peter
face to face, because some were being deceived by what Peter
was doing. He would eat with these Gentiles.
And he'd see these Jews, and he'd leave them, and he'd come
over here and sit with these Jews. And you know what he was
saying by his conduct? That the law still exists, and
the law had not been fulfilled. And Paul said, no, that's not
the case. The law has been fulfilled, and the sacrifice of Christ,
and there's nothing else left for us to do. And that's how some forsook.
And there's others who forsook the gospel by trying to mix law
and grace. By mixing Judaism with the gospel. This cup filled with water, if
you poured oil in it, they'd never mix. The law and the gospel
works in grace. They cannot mix, but people want
to have it both ways. They want to say that it's by
grace, but it's something you do. They want to say that God
saves sinners by grace, but you've got to do your part. It's all
of grace. All of grace, from beginning
to end, from the time that God chose His people, called those
people, and preserved His people, they are saved by grace. But people want to mix it just
a little bit. You know why? Grace offends people. It's sovereign grace. It's all
of grace. And that offends men's pride.
Now, they want to make it where it's not quite as offensive. In another way, people apostatized
these Gentiles who professed faith in Christ. Some became
apostates by returning to their former idolatry, worshiping idols
and images. And some did so by mixing the
customs and beliefs of their pagan religion with Christ. And
some were like the disciples in John chapter six. Read that
chapter again where our Lord talks about he's the bread, the
manna that came down from heaven. And he goes on, and he says,
No man can come unto me except my father draw him. And what
he said offended those people. It offended them. And some left. You know what they did? They
forsook him. They departed from. They seemed like they were followers
of Christ. But something, he said, offended
them. And you know what? He turns and looks at the twelve
disciples and he says, Will you leave also? Will you depart also? And you know what Peter said?
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. You have the
words of eternal life. Where else are we going? There's
nowhere else to go. And it said those people walked
no more with Christ. Isn't that apostasy? They seemed
to be followers for a while. Now they've apostatized. Listen,
the apostasy of professed believers is not an indication that the
apostates were ever saved and then were lost again. Apostasy
is the manifestation of an apostate heart. It just reveals itself. Someone said one time, say a
man, he works in a factory and then he gets promoted and And
he gets to a position in authority or something. They said, boy,
that position corrupted him. No, he corrupted the position.
He was already corrupt. That was just a place for him
to express himself. 2 John 2, verse 19 says, They
went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been
of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went
out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
But you have an unction from the Holy One. And you know all
things. Listen, apostasy, when it gets
down to it, is the willful rejection of divine revelation. That's
what it is. It's the willful rejection. That stubborn, rebellious will
that says, I will not bow to Christ. I will not have it that
way. Just like those people in John
6, they said, I will not have it that way. I will not follow
Him anymore. And what? They turned their back
upon Christ. Our Lord tells us in Matthew
24 that before His second advent, there would be a great falling
away in that multitude who profess to be believers would become
followers of Antichrist and false Christ. Turn with me to Matthew
24. I told my people a while back
that I'm not smart enough to figure all this out. But I know this, and when you
turn there, I'm going to show you just a few things from Matthew
24. You know, the disciples ask him
when all this is going to take place, when the buildings will
be torn down and all this. And one of the first things he
says in verse 5, well, verse 4 he says, Take heed that no
man deceive you, for many shall come in my name saying, I am
Christ, I preach Christ and shall deceive many. Verse 11, and many false prophets
shall arise and shall deceive many. Then verse And except those days should
be shortened, there should no flesh be saved, but for the elect's
sake those days shall be so shortened. If any man shall say unto you,
Lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not. For there shall
arise false Christs and false prophets, and show great signs
and wonders, insomuch that if it were possible they should
deceive the very elect. That's great signs and great
wonders. You know, the only reason today
that you're not deceived is God's grace and God's mercy. It's not
because you were smarter than anybody else. God preserves and
God keeps his people. You have an unction. You have
an understanding. Verse 29 says, Immediately after
the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and
the moon shall not give her light. The stars shall fall from the
heaven, and the powers of heaven be shaken. Then shall appear
the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the
tribes of the earth mourn. They shall see the Son of Man
come in clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He
shall send His angels with the great sound of a trumpet, And
they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from
one end of heaven to the other. In the midst of all this, I like
that even where Paul was writing to the Thessalonians. And he
talks about this same subject. And he said, in the midst of
all this, in the midst of so much apostasy, isn't that where
we live today? Apostasy, apostasy. You know what he said? I'm bound
to give thanks always to God for you, brethren. Beloved Lord,
for God has from the beginning chosen you unto salvation. Yeah. First, people hate that
term election. Paul rejoiced in it. Paul rejoiced
in the fact that God chose a people of his own love and his own accord
and keeps those people. A couple of signs of apostasy.
The Scripture clearly identifies apostasy, some things that characterize
the departure of men and women from Christ. As I've already
said, it involves the rejection of God's word as our only authority
and rule of faith. This is the only rule of faith.
Some people say, well, I heard somebody say one time they said
they was trying to talk to him about God and his sovereignty
and God, the character of God. And they said, well, just let
me read to you one chapter. He said, OK. So he picked Romans
chapter 9. Read it verse by verse, never
even made a comment. And when he got through reading
chapter 9, he said, do you believe it? He said, not the way you
read it. But listen, we look at that wall
and we think that wall's plumbed. But if I could go to the pickup
or Gary could go to his pickup and he could get a level, we
could put it on that wall and we could, it would tell the truth,
right? This book tells the truth. This
book reveals the character of God. You were saying this, you
was trying, he was trying to, which one was trying to get a
mental picture of what I look like. You know, it's like you
tell most people how God, what's the character of God? God's sovereign.
God does as he pleases. Listen to most people, how they
describe their God. He's a God whose hands are bound.
who's old, he's feeble in a rocking chair somewhere, and he can't
do anything unless somebody lets him. And he's the beggar. He
walks around kind of like with a cane, and he's trying to beg
somebody, won't you please let me in your heart? Won't somebody
make Jesus their personal Savior? That's not how this book describes
God. God is sovereign. God, if He ever invites you,
it's like the king inviting you into His presence. Right? We come as beggars. What did
Mephibosheth say? He said, I'm an old dead dog.
He said that was fetching grace. He said, you go and fetch him.
He was lame. He couldn't come on his own.
But God brought him. That's God's character. But they
say, oh, that this is not the only rule of faith, that's just
your interpretation. Listen, 2nd Timothy 2.8, Now
that James and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist
the truth. Men of corrupt minds Reprobate
concerning the faith. Secondly, apostasy is a form
of godliness that denies the power of God. They have a form. They have a system. But no power. I tell you, I have even listened
to tapes of some who said they believed the truth and everything
they said was true, but it was dead as four o'clock. Someone
I heard Rob Barnard say one time on tape, said it's like a shotgun.
It's straight as a gun barrel, but it's just as empty. Nothing
but head knowledge. But if God ever reveals the gospel
to you, it's something different. Something different. Apostasy
is the departure from the faith, embracing the doctrines of devils.
1 Timothy 4.1. Now the Spirit speaketh expressively. that in the latter time some
shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits
and doctrines of devils." They've been seduced. Apostasy is the denial of the
doctrine of Christ. Apostasy is the mixing of grace
and works. It's a denial of the believer's
complete freedom from the law and its condemnation. We're no
longer under the law. We're under grace. When we was
in religion, and God might have spared you, but I grew up in
religion from the time I was big enough for somebody to take
me to church. And it was all do, do, do, don't, don't, don't. If you didn't give your tithe,
they'd say, well, God's going to get it some way. If your car
tore up, if your washing machine tore up, first thing you'd think
of, well, that's God punishing me. Let me tell you a little
secret this morning. God will never punish his people
for their sins. You know why? He punished my
Lord and my Master. He bore my chastisement. He bore my sin. He bore my punishment. He bore the law, the penalty
of the law, in my stead. Complete freedom from the law.
We're not trying to get people to do something they don't want
to do. People serve God because the love of God has been shed
abroad in your heart, and you're going to do exactly what you
want to do. He made you what? Willing in the day of His power. You wasn't willing, but He made
you willing. Made you willing. In a word, apostasy is a turning
away from the gospel of Christ into another gospel. Let me show
you this. Galatians chapter one. Galatians chapter one. Howard went to Galatian and preached
the gospel and established his church and some people who came
in. Works mongers. He said in verse six of chapter
one, I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called
you into the grace of Christ and to another gospel. which
is not another, but there be some that trouble you, and would
pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we are an angel from
heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have
preached unto you, let him be accursed, as we said before. So say I now again, if any man
preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received,
let him be accursed." That's pretty plain. That's pretty plain. And here in Jude, he left three
examples. The fallen Israelites. We don't
know how many millions came out of Egypt. There was millions
and millions. God delivered them. God sent
all these plagues upon Egypt. God sent the death of the firstborn.
God brought them out. God brought them to the Red Sea,
brought them through the Red Sea. No doubt about it, God brought
them to Sinai. God gave them manna from heaven.
He gave them all these things. And He brought them to a place
called Kadesh Barnea. And they send out twelve spies.
Ten spies come back and they say, these giants in the land,
they know what the essence of it is. They said, our God's not
able to do for us what you think He is. But Caleb and Joshua said,
God is able. Yeah, there's giants in the land,
but our God's bigger than those giants. And the people believed
the ten spies and didn't believe Caleb and Joshua. And God slammed
the door on them, and they wandered in the wilderness and died in
the wilderness. Look at all they've seen in Hebrews.
It says the gospel was preached unto them as well as unto us,
but it didn't mix by faith. They didn't believe God, and
they died in the wilderness. When God slammed the door at
Kadesh Barnea, they were reprobated. And reprobation is but the forerunner
of everlasting destruction. It's death before death. It is
judgment before judgment. It's hell before hell. God slammed
the door. Because if you're reading the
Scripture, it said the next day, they said, well, we'll get up
and we'll go in. And they couldn't go in. You know why it says Moses
didn't go and the Ark of the Covenant didn't go? Before I get to the second one,
the thousand angels, there are steps to apostasy. Listen. Apostasy
is rarely, if ever, a sudden act. It's a gradual, deceitful
process. Probably none of those who came
out of Egypt thought they would ever dream that they'd leave
Christ. But they did. What leads to apostasy? Some
become apostates as a result of persecution, like in John
6. The family turns against them. Have you ever noticed you can
get all brands of Baptists, you can get your Methodists, you
can get your Catholics, you can get any one of them you want
to name. You can get them all together and they can get along.
But you get one in the midst who believes Christ, who trusts
Christ, and they'll all turn against him. Persecuted. Persecuted. That's why some return
and say, well, it just costs me too much. Some become apostates
by the influence of false doctrine. Some, like Demas, depart because
of the influence and love of the world. And it's usually the
result of an unrested hardness of heart and neglect of Christ. Let me tell you something. When we met the first time in
our garage, There's probably only like, I can't remember how
many there was of them, but there's probably only two or three that's
even left now. What happened to them? What happened
to them? Some that I thought would trust
Christ. Now, I can't judge, but James says, faith without works
is dead. Isn't that what he said? Isn't that what he said? Faith
without works is dead. Now they've left for the things
of the world. And other things, just like these children of Israel
did. They came out, but turned their back upon Christ in the
gospel. Then these fallen angels in verse six. We tend to think what a terrible
thing that people would go to hell. But these angels stand
as a glaring example of the fact that no one goes to hell who
does not choose to go to hell. Look, these angels, well, in
the very presence of Almighty God. And when Satan and Lucifer
was lifted up with pride and said, I'll exalt myself above
the very throne of God, they fell with him. Chose to fall. They didn't fall like we did
in Adam. They fell one by one. They chose to rebel against God
and against Christ. They left their first estate. And that's essentially the same
choice that man makes in his willful rejection of the life
that God gives him. It's a willful rejection. Then these fallen Gentiles in
verse 7. Those Gentiles that lived in
Solomon Gomorrah had the truth of God set before them by the
testimony of righteous lot. They didn't. By the light of
nature, you read, I won't go and read the whole chapter of
Romans chapter one. They said they didn't like him
to retain God in their knowledge, change the truth of God into
a lie. God turned them over to what? A reprobate mind. People
don't like that term reprobation. Well, they know exactly what
it means. But they didn't like that God gave them life and they
rejected it. Read Proverbs chapter one again.
I said, I stretched my hand out all the day long to a disobedient
and gang-sand generation. Stretched out my hand, no man
regarded. He says, one day, he said, I
called and no man would come. He said, one day you're going
to call and I won't listen. He said, one day I'm going to,
he doesn't say, I'm going to laugh at your calamity. Oh, he says,
I'll mock when your fear comes. He said, this is a serious thing.
Serious. They willfully turned their backs
upon God's truth. Apostasy, as I said, is the willful
rejection of divine revelation. The willful. And the result of
apostasy is reprobation, and reprobation is but the forerunner
of everlasting damnation. In these three examples here,
in these verses, verses five through seven, we see no recovery. In Hebrews 3, verse 12, listen. He said, Take heed, brethren,
lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing
from the living God. But exhort one another daily.
You need exhorting, and I need exhorting. Have you ever felt
a hardness of heart? Sin? If anybody could depart,
it would be us. The only reason you don't apostatize,
it's only the grace of God. It's not our strength. It's not
our will. Look what He said in verse 24
of this book. Now to Him that is able to keep
you from falling and to preserve you and to present you faultless. He's able. That's humbling. You know who holds you. God,
if He ever allows you to see the corruption of your heart,
And your nature, that's humbling. You'll be like Paul. Oh, wretched
man that I am. He didn't say, oh, wretched man
that I was. Oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver
me from the body of this sin? And he said, exhort one another
daily. Back to Hebrews. Why it is called
today, let any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of
sin. For we are made partakers of
Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence He said fast
and to the end. Why would He say it today if
you will hear His voice? Harden not your heart. You know what He said? As in the provocation. Listen, God doesn't have to,
He's not required to, to ever send the gospel to you at all.
But if he ever does, you ought to listen. Kind of like, remember
Samuel? Remember when he was just a boy,
he lived out with Eli? And the Lord was speaking to
him. And he went to Eli, and he thought Eli was the one calling
him. He said, no, it wasn't me. He said, you go lay back down.
I think he called the second time. Then he called the third
time. He said, speak, Lord. He served and listened. And it's
not that you hear a man. If all you ever hear is a man,
you'll die lost and without God. But if God ever speaks through
a man, through the gospel, to your heart, you need to listen. Listen. Listen. May God use that
to encourage our hearts.