Let's open our Bibles to the
book of Jude. So many interesting things here.
I'm calling the message to keep you from falling. But this is
a commentary on the last days, this book of Jude. And the author
identifies himself in two ways. He said Jude, really his name
is Judas. That is his name. But he identifies
himself in this fashion. He said, I'm a servant of Jesus
Christ. I'm a bond slave of Jesus Christ. No greater honor than to serve
him. A willing, loving servant of the master. That's what I
am. These disciples were humble men. They didn't care about titles. They weren't fond of recognition. Their Lord taught them well,
he that would be greatest among you, let him be your servant. So he begins this epistle with
the words, I'm a servant. And then he identifies himself
as the brother of James. There's good possibility that
he adds this to distinguish himself from the other Judas, the one
who betrayed the Lord. But he said, I'm a bond slave
of Jesus Christ, and I'm the brother of James. And this is
called a general epistle. That means that it's not addressed
to any particular person or church, like the church at Galatia, or
like Paul's epistle to Timothy or Titus. This is a general epistle
written to all believers, because he addresses them in this way.
Now, here's a threefold way in which he identifies the people
to whom he's writing. I tell people over and over again
in interpreting Scripture, we need to find out who's speaking
and to whom they're speaking, and try to find out the subject.
But he's speaking, he's writing to those, number one, who are
sanctified by God the Father, that is elected by God, chosen
by God, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
He's writing to the people who are set apart, sanctified by
God the Father. Long before Christ came, long
before Christ died and sanctified us with the blood, long before
the Word of God was given to us, we're sanctified by the Word.
We were sanctified, set apart, chosen, elected by the Father. Now read with me Deuteronomy
7, and this is what he said about Israel. He said in Deuteronomy 7 verse
6, this nation of Israel, everybody in Israel wasn't converted, wasn't
saved, but this nation was set apart as a national people. Verse 6 of Deuteronomy 7, Thou
art a holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath
chosen thee to be a special people unto himself. above all people
on the face of the earth. God chose the nation Israel to
be a special people. Why? Verse 7, He didn't set His
love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number
than any people, greater, stronger. You were the fewest of all. Verse
8, one reason, He loved you. Why did God sanctify you and
me? He loved us. Now, because we were great or
strong or mighty or good or moral or holy, he chose us in Christ
to be holy. But the one reason he loved us,
that he set us apart. And then he says in verse 1 there
that he's writing to those who are sanctified, chosen, elected
by the Father, and preserved in Christ Jesus. Put in the hands
of Christ. God put us in the hands of Christ,
our surety. of the eternal covenant to be
redeemed, to be kept, to be brought to glory. And he prayed in John
17. He said, Father, those that you
gave me, I have kept. I have kept. I've manifested
your name to them. I've manifested your word to
them. I pray for them. I've kept them in your name.
I will that they be with me in glory. He'll not lose a one. My sheep will hear my voice,
they'll follow me, I'll give them life, they'll never perish."
Chosen by God, given to Christ to be redeemed, to be kept, to
be preserved. Thirdly, he said, and you're
called. You're chosen, you're redeemed, and you're called.
This is not just ordinary preaching. This is an effectual call by
the Holy Ghost. This is the effectual, invincible,
irresistible call of God, called by the Holy Spirit. There you
have the Trinity, chosen by God, preserved, redeemed by Christ,
called by the Spirit. Paul wrote to those Thessalonians
and he said, I know you're elect of God, brethren, I know you're
God's elect, because our gospel didn't come to you in word only,
it came to you in power in the Holy Ghost. and you will call. All right, verse 2, and this
is a salutation that appears in most every epistle. If you'll check all the epistles
of Paul, usually he'll say, grace, mercy, and peace be unto you,
or mercy, peace, and love be unto you. But this is a salutation,
and this is a standard greeting in every epistle because these
are the choice blessings. What are the four choice blessings?
Mercy, peace, and love, and grace. These are the characteristics
of the kingdom. Not material blessings or physical
blessings, but these blessings. If we have grace, mercy, peace,
and love, we have all we need. Turn to Romans 14. Romans 14
verse 17. This is the kingdom of God. Paul
said in Romans 14, 17, the kingdom of God is not meat and drink.
Not meat and drink. What is the kingdom of God? It's
righteousness in Christ, peace with God, joy in the Holy Ghost,
and he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable of God to
God and approved of me. You know, people exercise to
get stronger bodies. Walk around the park, buy all
these rowing machines. We take vitamins to get healthier. Doris puts my vitamins in front
of me there in that little container. Sometimes I'll hide one of them
in my pocket because it's too big to take. Uh-oh. We take vitamins to get healthier. We invest money to get richer. We go to school to get smarter.
Shouldn't the children of God labor to attain these blessings
here? Grace, mercy, and peace. Shouldn't we strive to be more
like Christ instead of spending all of our time trying to get
these other things that go away with age? strive labor to be
more loving, peaceful, gracious, forgiving, kind. Those are the
marks of the kingdom. That's the life of the kingdom.
All right, verse 3. He says, Beloved, and this is a term often
used by the apostles. If you take your concordance
sometime and look at the word beloved. Beloved. Beloved of God. Beloved of one
another. Beloved of Christ, this is still
the mark of inward grace. Christ said, by this shall all
men know you are my disciples, if you love one another. Beloved,
when I gave all diligence to write unto you, now here he's
going to give us the purpose of this book. He's going to give
us the purpose of this book. I gave all diligence to write
unto you of two things. Number one, the common salvation. The common salvation. Everybody
who's saved is saved with one salvation. There's a common salvation. There's
a common faith. In other words, Paul says there's
one gospel. Not many gospels, one gospel.
Turn to the book of Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians 4. Let's note this. Ephesians chapter
4, verse 4. Ephesians 4, verse 4. Now, there's one gospel, the
common gospel, the only gospel. Paul said in Galatians, if any
man preaches any other gospel, let him be accursed. But here
in Ephesians 4, verse 4, it says there's one body, there's one
Holy Spirit, even as you're called in one hope of your calling,
that hope is the blessed hope to be like Christ, there's one
Lord, there's just one faith, there's just one baptism, That's
the baptism confessing Christ or the baptism of the Holy Spirit
into the body of Christ. But this one baptism is one God,
one Father. You know, I think that the existence
of so many churches, so many, many, many churches. When I was
driving to West Virginia last week up Route 10, Route 3, Route
214 to get to this place where I preached. We passed dozens
and dozens of church buildings, churches everywhere. There's
so many churches, so many denominations, so many voices rising up, so
many people, thousands of people preaching and declaring their
recipes for salvation. I think the presence of so many
of these religions and churches lure people into a state of permissiveness
and leniency. And they get this idea, well,
it really doesn't matter what you believe, just so you're sincere. Everybody is going to heaven. Everybody's in all these churches
and denominations, but that's not what Christ said. Turn to
John chapter 3. He says there's a common salvation.
There's one gospel. The only gospel. He says in John
3, verse 35, verse 34, he whom God hath sent
speaks the words of God. God gives not the Spirit by measure
unto him. The Father loves the Son. He
hath given all things into his hands, and he that believeth
on the Son, Jesus Christ the Lord, incarnate crucified, buried,
risen, ascended, seated, exalted. Believe on the Son, you have
life. Believe not the Son, you never see life. The wrath of
God abides on him. That's one gospel. That's the
common salvation. Everybody who's saved has this
in common. He believes Christ. Rest in Christ. Trust in Christ. Love Christ. Depends on Christ. And Christ
alone And that's what he's saying.
I'm writing concerning this common salvation. And secondly, needful
for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly
contend for the faith. Earnestly contend for the faith. What is the faith? The faith
is the whole purpose and plan of redemption in Christ. That's
the faith, is one Lord, one faith, one body, one hope of your calling. And that is called the word of
faith, it's called the most holy faith, it's called also the common
faith. Every believer believes Christ. He's sanctified by the Father,
he's preserved in Christ Jesus and called by the Holy Spirit.
It's common salvation. And it's the faith. And he tells
us to earnestly contend for that faith. Now that doesn't mean
contentious, that doesn't mean to get ugly, organized an army
of crusaders and go forth conquering the world in a harsh way. The wrath of man does not work
the glory of God or the righteousness of God. But this word, earnestly
content, is this, it's earnestly dedicated, earnestly committed
to this gospel, separated to this one gospel. persuaded, not
in doubt, not reluctant, to declare Christ in him crucified. Like
the hymn writer wrote, I'm not ashamed to own my Lord, nor to defend his cause, maintain
the honor of his word and the glory of his cross. Jesus, my
God, I know his name. His name is all my trust. Nor
will he ever put my soul to shame, nor let my hope be lost." I'm
writing regarding this common salvation as one gospel. The
gospel of substitution, the gospel of satisfaction, the gospel of
crucified, risen, exalted Savior. And for you to earnestly, dedicated,
committed, not reluctant to declare your confidence in Now look at verse 4 carefully,
verse 4. For there are certain men, there are now and there always
have been, there are certain men. God uses men to preach his
gospel. The prophets were men, the apostles
were men, God's missionaries, pastors and teachers, they're
men. God uses men to preach his gospel. But Satan uses men also. He uses
men also. Turn back to 2 Peter, chapter
2. God puts his hand upon certain
men and calls them, puts them in the ministry, gives them gifts
to preach, teaches them the gospel, sends them forth by his Spirit.
As my Father sent me, I send you. But Satan puts his hand
on certain men, and he sends them forth. And it says in 2
Peter 2 verse 1, they are false apostles, they are false prophets.
They were false prophets among the people, even as there shall
be false teachers among you, who privately bring in damnable
heresies, even denying the Lord Jesus Christ at Bolton, and bring
upon themselves swift destruction, and many shall follow their pernicious
ways. We see that. We see that all
about us. Satan uses men to divide and
to preach a false gospel. Turn to 2 Corinthians 11. Let
me show you this. Satan uses men. He entered Judas. And here in 2 Corinthians 11,
verse 13, 2 Corinthians 11, 13, such are false apostles, deceitful
workers. transforming themselves into
the apostles of Christ. And that's no marvel. Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no
great thing if his ministers, his ministers, God has his ministers,
they're men. Satan has his ministers. They
transform themselves into ministers of righteousness. Not the righteousness
of Christ, but the righteousness of the flesh. And their end should
be according to their work. Certain men, let's go back to
verse 4, and I want you to see this. There are certain men,
and they crept in unawares. They don't announce that they're
Satan's ministers. They don't announce that they're
wolves in sheep's clothing. They don't come in saying that
we come here to deny everything you've been taught. They come
in unawares. They're creeping. They crept
in. Creepers is what somebody calls
them. creep in unawares. They are not born of God, they
are not taught of God, they are not added to the Church such
as should be saved. They are tares that are sown
in the night when men sleep. When the Church pastors and officials
are not alert, when men sleep, Satan sows tares. They creep
in unsuspecting, under false pretenses. And the most treacherous
and subtle enemy is the one inside the church, not out. The one
who divides and deceives. If we can only learn to wait
on God, be always alert and wait on God. Over here in 1 Timothy chapter
3. 1 Timothy chapter 3. The pastor where I was last week
told me about pastoring a church somewhere, like several years
ago. And he resigned. And the church
was in a hurry to get another pastor. And they called this
young man and he said, I went to a service. He said, I met this young fellow
and he rode in on a motorcycle and he had tattoos from wrist
to the top of his shoulders, just like one of these fellows,
a hobo on the road. And I said, well, how did they
call him? He said, they got in a hurry. He deceived them. And he totally ruined the church,
just destroyed it. Well, look at 1 Timothy 3, verse
6. He says here, talking about bishops,
pastors, elders. He gives the credentials for
an elder. He says in verse 4, one that
ruled well his own house, having his children in subjection with
all gravity. If a man doesn't know how to
rule his house, how can he take care of the Church of God? And
not a novice. What's a novice? A new fellow
on the block. A new person passing through.
A new person that they do not have approved over years. Don't you do that, listen, verse
22, laying hands suddenly on nobody, nobody. Don't put them in the pulpit.
Don't put them in places of responsibility. Don't put them in places of leadership. Don't put them in places interpreting
scripture and teaching people. And don't you be partakers of
other men who do it, of their sins. Some of the biggest mistakes
that churches and congregations make is in this very area, instead
of waiting on God, wait on God, wait on God, let a man be proved,
let a person be proved, let them spend years, because you can lay hands, once
the hands have been laid, and the office has been assumed,
and the title has been taken over, and the doctrine has been
taught, It's too late to shut the door then, the horse is out. He said these men have crept
in unawares, unawares. Well, look at the next line.
Who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly
men. Wait a minute. They came in unawares
to us, but not unawares to him. not unawares to him. Now listen
to me. Though such men get in to the church of the Lord
Jesus Christ, they creep in unawares to us, they're not unawares to
God. They're not unawares to his providence
in allowing it, in allowing it. You remember, Isphael wanted
a king. And Samuel said, no, God's your
king. They kept on, we want a king, we want a king now. And God came
to Samuel and said, let them have one. One unaware of him
is unaware of them. They were unawares of what they
were doing. He said, Samuel, they're not rejecting you, they're
rejecting me. Give them a king. He gave them Saul. They played
part in blood. They played part with the cream
of their armies. They paid for it in losing the
ark of God. So these men, Judas was where
he was by God's purpose. Remember, Christ said that, the
son of perdition from the beginning. And the church is not tried,
and the gospel is not challenged, and the Lord Jesus Christ is
not betrayed except according to the will of God. But that
does not excuse our failing to wait on God. That does not justify
what we do in our haste, in our way. We'll do it our way. We'll
plan it our way. We'll do what we want to do. Turn to Proverbs 16. Let me show
you a verse over here. Proverbs 16, verse 4. God's on the throne, he permits
us, he allows us sometimes to follow our inclinations, our
wants, our desires, what we think is right when we don't seek his
will and seek his guidance, his leadership. He lets us have it,
but he'll work it out for his glory and our good. The Lord,
Proverbs 16, 4, the Lord has made all things for himself,
yea, even the wicked, for the day of evil. He said to Pharaoh, for this
same purpose I raised you up, that I might get glory in you. But like I say, this doesn't
excuse our unwillingness to crown the God for some leadership,
for revelation of his will, for him to send us his teachers,
his pastors, his preachers, his elders, his men who speak for
him. And here's what they do, here's
what they've done. Two things. In verse 4, they're ungodly men,
and they've turned the grace of our God into lasciviousness.
The church now belongs to the world. You know that's true. You ever read the morning paper
where there's whole denominations have ordained in gaze, and whole
denominations have gone just Presbyterians. And the Church
of England and those establishments that used to have men like Newton
and Watts and Whitfield and Bishop Ryle and those men, Baptists
have just gone into the world. You can't tell the difference
in a church song service and a rock concert. They've turned
the grace of God into lasciviousness and flesh. It's already happened. It's gone, except in a few places. And here's the second thing they've
done. They've denied the gospel. Denying the only Lord God and
Jesus Christ, denying the Father who gave the Son that he might
be just and justifiable. That's the two areas today in
the Church. And these men have crept in, and denominations that
used to stand firmly and strongly for the truth of God, every denomination
has allowed these two things to happen. All right, let's look
at verses. Verse 5, let me show you something
here. Verse 5, you be patient with
me. Then he gives us three examples of people who were so high and
so blessed and so blessed of God and how far they
fell. For example, first in verse 5
is Israel. I therefore put you in mind,
though you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the
people of Israel out of the land of Egypt, when he brought them out of Egypt
with a mighty hand, what an exeter! They never left a hand or a hair
or a hoof behind. They came out with several million
people. with gold and silver that the
Egyptians had given them, led by Moses, God's greatest man,
Abel and the high priest. Oh, how high they were! Forty
years later, their carcasses fell in the wilderness. That's what he said. Afterwards,
he destroyed them. Two of them left. Two of them. Even Moses is dead up there on
Mount Nebo, Joshua and Caleb. Now that whole crowd that left
Egypt singing and dancing, boy they were high. Now they're dead
in the wilderness. They denied his truth, unbelievable.
Then he said, and the angels, let's go a step higher in Israel.
Angels, Lucifer, and the angels which kept not their first estate.
They were spirits, free spirits who enjoyed the light and presence
of God. And he turned them out of heaven
and reserved them in everlasting chains under darkness, under
the judgment of that great day. He lifted their hand against
God. And then he said, Sodom and Gomorrah,
two of the greatest cities in the plains, the cities about
them in like manner. But what did they do? They did
what the United States of America is doing right now. They gave themselves over to
fornication and going after strange flesh, perverted flesh, homosexuality. In fact, the sin is named for
those towns, Sodom and Gomorrah, Sodomy. And God set them forth for an
example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. A certain man crept in. God has
his men sent to his gospel. Satan has his men. God sends
his and they're recognizable by the gospel they preach, the
truth they stand for. Satan's pretense, unaware, while
men sleep, not waiting on God, not proving men. Lay hands on them, turn them
loose, and after a while they're like Israel, they've gone to
the bottom, like the angels, gone to the chains of darkness,
like Sodom and Gomorrah. How does one recognize these
creepers? How do you recognize these creepers?
You have any idea how you can recognize a creeper? Creep the
end out of where? Verse 8 will help you. Number
one, they're filthy dreamers. They're filthy dreamers. What
they teach is not the Word of God. You notice all these religious
folks on TV, most of them don't have a Bible. They're a bunch
of women sitting around talking about things, you know, what
they think. That's what they're thinking. They're dreamers. They
tell their dreams. They tell their visions. They
tell their revelations. They tell what God told them
last night. God came to my being. He spoke. Tell you what, when
somebody says that, you just turn and run as fast as you can
in the other direction. Because God warns us about a
movie in Jeremiah chapter 23. Jeremiah chapter 23. It always bothers me when I see
somebody come to church that doesn't have a Bible in his hand,
or her hand. And I sure don't want to hear
a preacher get up without a Bible in his hand. Jeremiah 23, listen
to this, verse 25. I've heard what the prophets
said, prophesy lies in my name. They say, I've dreamed, I've
dreamed. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets
that prophesy lies? They're prophets of the deceit
of their own hearts. That's where their message comes
from, out of their wicked hearts. Which think to cause my people
to forget my name by their dreams. Which they tell every man to
his neighbors, their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.
The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell his dream. And he
that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. Verse 29, my word is like a hammer,
breaketh a rock in pieces. My word, oh boy. They are dreamers. The second
thing you can tell these creepers, they are dreamers, and then verse
8 says they defile the flesh, they glory in the flesh, they
glory in numbers. Mike gets over there and sings
a hymn. Our ladies sing occasionally. And their effort is to magnify
the grace of God in the words of the song and sing about Christ. You watch these gospel singers.
Boy, they're fleshy. Oh, they're fleshy. They're vulgar. Just plumb vulgar. God's nowhere near this singing
that's going on now on television. I don't say anybody can even
watch them, let alone enjoy them. Fleshly. They're fleshly. Fleshly. They defile the flesh. They glow
in numbers. They glow in talent. They glow
in entertainment. They glow in success. They glow
in health and wealth. They glow in their riches. Flesh. Flesh. That's how you
can tell them. They're dreamers. And they glorify
the flesh. And thirdly, they despise dominion. They despise sovereignty. What is dominion? Authority.
Who's in authority? God. The Lord thy God reigneth. He's sovereign in creation. He's
sovereign in providence. He's sovereign in salvation.
He quickens whom he will. They despise lordship. Oh, they
talk about Jesus as Lord, but they don't mean that. He's done
all he can do and that's up to you. God wants to save everybody
in Cain. That's not authority. That's
not dominion. God's got a plan for your life.
You just have to let him work it out. That's not authority. They despise authority. They
despise dominion. And listen, they speak evil of
dignitaries. Evil of dignities. They don't
hesitate one moment to voice their opinion above the Word
of God. They don't hesitate. The scripture
says, let your women keep silence in your churches. I suffer not
a woman to teach, not to use of authority, but to be in silence
and in subjection. And they say, now my idea is
this. That was old Paul. He was kind
of a throwback anyway, you know, kind of a wet blanket. But God
wants women to testify and wants women to run things. They don't hesitate in a minute
to correct Paul, their apostle. They speak evil of prophets and
dignities and apostles and God's preacher, but they don't hesitate
a minute to challenge God's preacher, not a minute. They've got their
ideas about things, speak evil. Their lips speak evil of God's
servants. And yet, look at verse 9, Michael
the archangel. Now do you know who that is? Michael the archangel. He's the
angel that buried Moses. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 34. You know the background. I'm
not going to take the time to tell you about why Moses couldn't
enter the Promised Land. You know why. And why God killed
him. You know why. But anyway, in
Deuteronomy 34, Verse 1, here it is. And Moses
went up from the plains of Moab, under the mountain of Nebo, to
the top of Mount Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And
the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead under Dan, Naphtali,
land of Ephraim, Manasseh, land of Judah to the utmost sea, south
in the plains of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees
under Zoar, The Lord said to him, This is the land which I
swear unto Abraham, and to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, I'll give
it unto thy seed, and I'll cause you to see it, Moses, with your
own eyes, but you shall not go over thither." So Moses, the
servant of the Lord, dies right there on that mountain in the
land of Moab, according to the word of God, and he buried him. Michael buried him, I believe,
Michael the archangel. God sent an angel to bury him.
Now, let's read it carefully. And he buried him in a valley
in the land of Moab over against Beth Peor. But no man knows of
his sepulchre unto this day. Now, what was Michael contending,
or Satan was contending with Michael over the body of Moses?
Do you know what he wanted? Satan wanted Michael. to tell
where the grave was, where Moses was buried. He wanted Moses'
grave site to be elevated. He wanted Michael so the people
could worship Moses, come visit the grave, you know, take pilgrimages
to the grave. Think what they could have done
with that. Think what... And he contended. I don't know how he was contending,
whether he wanted that body or whether... The point he's making
here is no man knows where that sepulchre is, nobody. God won't
let them find the Ark. Neither the one in the temple,
nor the one on Noah's road, because people worship the cross. That
cross has never been heard of. Moses' body, and Michael, and
you know what Michael did? over here in our text, in Jude.
Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about
the body of Moses. He didn't bring against him a
railing accusation. Satan, Lucifer, prince of the
pirate air, one time the mightiest heavenly being. And here's what Michael said.
He said, Satan, God will rebuke you. God will take care of you. This is the advice he's giving
us about, look at verse 10, but those speak evil of things they
don't know anything about. They speak evil of things they
know not. They're quick, these folks are quick to contradict
the scriptures, to contradict the word of God, contradict apostles,
contradict men sent by God, have their way. And yet Michael the
archangel would not, he knew Satan was wrong, dead wrong.
But he said, God will take care of you. And God will take care
of his apostles and prophets and servants. But these folks
speak evil of things they don't know anything about. But what
they do know naturally is brute beast. In these things, they
corrupt themselves. They take the very things that...
All right, I'm going to give you one more thing and quit.
Verse 11. Here's the flea foe mark of these
false creepers. That's how you tell them they're
dreamers, they defile the flesh, they despise sovereignty, and
they strictly change the word of God. They speak evil of dignity
and the incentive of God. And then here is the mark of
their message, number 11, verse 11. Woe unto them, they've gone
the way of Cain. Now that's simple isn't it? What
was Cain's error? No blood. No sacrifice. Salvation by works. Abel brought
the lamb. Cain didn't bring the lamb. Where's
the lamb? That's that scripture you read
a while ago, Ronnie. Where's the lamb? You can't worship God without
the lamb. Brethren, we can't have a service
here without the lamb. Without particular redemption.
I'm not talking about a shot in the dark. I'm talking about
God's sovereign effectual, particular, limited atonement for his people. That's the blood. The way of
Cain is, that matters. And then the way of, they ran
greedily after Abraham, religion for financial gain. And every one of these television
preachers, I'll tell you this, I'd love to put this and a full
page ad on the paper, any preacher that begs for money is not sent
of God. I don't care, television preacher,
the station out there, anything, telethons, he's not sent of God,
I guarantee you. Can you imagine, can you imagine
now, I'll just take one of you men
for example, I'll take Bill Pemberton here for example. If your children were out in
the neighborhood with a tin cup baggie, who are they shaming? You. They're bringing shame on you.
You flip your lid when you... You realize they grab everything
in the house. What are you doing? And try to
raise money for the family. I'll provide for my family. I've
always provided for my family. And Almighty God's always provided
for his name. And when you go out here selling
candy door-to-door, or having car washes to raise money for
missions, or begging for folks to bring their tires and give
their stewardship, you're bringing shame on God Almighty who said,
I'll take care, I'll supply your food and drink. That's who gets
the shame. That's humiliating. I'd just
move. If I just did that, I'd pack up and just head out. I
don't know where I'd go, but I'd just head out. I couldn't
face the public again. And it's a shame to God Almighty
for us to beg for folks to support his ministry. But these guys,
they're like old Balaam who sold out for the shekels. That's right. And then the third thing they
do They perish in the gainsaying of Corrie. Let me show you that,
and I'll let you go. Number 16. Number 16. You know, God sent Moses. Like I said a while ago, the
Lord has his preachers. He has those he sends. He anoints, he ordains, he appoints,
he teaches them the gospel, he sends them. He puts them in authority. It's his authority, not theirs,
but he sends them in his name. Well, in Numbers chapter 16,
this fellow Corah, got some men, verse 2, Numbers 16, they rose
up before Moses with certain children of Israel, 250 of them. They were princes, they were
smart men, they were educated men, they were gifted men in
certain areas. They were princes, leaders, famous
in the congregation, men of renown. They gathered themselves against
Moses and Abel, and they said, you two fellows, You take too
much on yourself. Seeing all the congregations
are holy, every one of them, the Lord's among them, why do
you lift yourself up as the teacher, as the leader, as the one that
God speaks to? And that's the sin of coal. That's
usurping the authority that God gives to service every sin. Don't you see how that, and you
can read the rest of it and look at your commentaries, Don't you
see how that's a commentary on the last days? Gee, it is. All right, I'll let you go. I've
talked long enough. Oh, here's a good song to close
with. 268. Our firmer foundation, you
saints of the Lord, laid for your faith in His excellent Word.
Number 268. Let's stand while we sing.