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We sing hymn #231.
We are pilgrims in the wilderness. Our dwelling is a camp created. Things so pleasant now bear to us. Death 231.
We're pilgrims in mind.
I can't hang on.
To figure out.
Things I don't know, I don't know. We waited a long time.
And I had a great time in the heart of our last time, our fire and sun threatening God.
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Bing.
And and you have.
You don't know what I have to do in the union. One of my life is considered to have the maintenance business and everything and I I said blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, $100. That happened to me.
You just read a couple of verses before we pray.
First in the book of Ezra.
Chapter 9.
Verse 4.
The first part of the verse.
Then were assembled under me and.
Everyone that trembles at the words of the God of Israel.
Look at Nehemiah.
Chapter 8.
10 verse one.
And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the Watergate.
And verse 2 And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation, both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, on the first day of the 7th month, be read therein before the street that was before the Watergate, from the morning to midday, before the men and women and those that could understand and the ears of all the people were attentive onto the book of the Law.
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Verse 5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above the people, and when he opened it, all the people stood up.
And verse 7.
Jessica Bonnie and Cherubaya Jamen echo Chabophya.
Gordadia.
Via Salida, Azariah, Jazzabad and Pariah and the Greenwich Florida people to understand the law and the people who stood in their place. So they read in the book of the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading. And then verse 10 Then he said unto them, Go your way, keep the fat and drink the sweet and fortunes unto them.
For whom nothing is prepared, for this day is wholly unto the Lord. Neither be sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. And we look to the Lord for guidance. Help our loving God and our Father received the scriptures that have been read this morning. Think of the people that were attentive unto the Word. We think of the people that were gathered together at the right place by the Watergate, and we know that classic would result as a result of them being assembled there.
We pray this morning as I word is read and comments are given.
That there might be, uh, that which is distinct, that which each of us can appropriate and understand from the oldest to the youngest. And we thank you too, that those who were not able to be present on the occasion were thought of and so a portion was to be sent to them. And as we return home from the conference, may we be mindful of the fact that we have been fed and that we can share that which.
Uh, has been given to us and share with them. We seek thy help, uh, today and all of the meetings, but especially in the readings now that, uh, we may be guided of thee and uh, that thou art blessed. Those that are assembled here this morning. We ask this in our saviors worthy and precious name. Amen. Amen.
Start with verse five perhaps?
Even the Book of views.
Beginning of verse five, dude, Verse five. I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this. How does 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 had reserved into everlasting change under darkness?
Unto the judgment of the great day, even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities above them in like manner giving themselves over the fornication and going after strange flush, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh despite.
Dominion and speak evil of dignitary.
Yet Michael the Archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, does not bringing against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuked thee. But these speak evil of those things which they know not, but what they know naturally as brutes, beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Woe until them, for they have gone in the way of Cain.
And ran greedily after the era of Balaam for reward. And perish in a gainsaying of Corey. These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, Feeding themselves without fear. Clouds they are without water carried about of winds, Trees whose fruit wither, witherers without fruit.
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Twice, yet plucked up by the roots.
Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. And Enoch also the 7th from Adam, prophesized of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with 10,000 of His Saints to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that our ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds.
Which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are murmurers, complainers walking after their own lusts, and their mouth speaketh Gray swelling words, having man's persons in admiration because of advantage. But, beloved, remember E the words which were spoken.
Before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you there should be markers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves sensual, having not the Spirit.
But ye beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God.
Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life, and of some have compassion making a difference, and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, 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 ever. Amen.
If I could, because there are so many who were not with us when we began this portion yesterday, I just like to give a quick summary of some things. In verse three, we saw that it was the desire of Jude to write about the common salvation that the believers had in the Lord Jesus Christ and to enjoy Christ together. But he was not able to do that. Instead, he was constrained by the Spirit of God to write what we have in this chapter.
And that was to.
Warren the Saints against evil men, and to exhort them to earnestly contend for that faith which was once committed unto the Saints. And so he goes on to.
Speak about these ones who had crept in among the Lord's people unawares, and he speaks in verse four about two things that were characteristic of them, and that is, they followed their ungodly lust, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.
And they despise authority, and in particular the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, having introduced the subject that way goes on in the verses that we began with today to give 3 examples from the Old Testament of where this happened in the past for our exhortation. And the first we had in verse five was the example of the children of Israel and the wilderness, and how after seeing all that the Lord had done.
They despise that and they were then became an example of these ones who turned away from God in His grace. The second, of course, is the angels. The third one would be Sodom. And Gomorrah takes up these three examples, which we'll look at now, but to show about these evil men. And then we'll go on to other examples a little further down verse 21, there's three more examples brought in to show the different types of characters.
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Uh, uh, this evil that was brought in.
Brought in by particular men who we referred to yesterday as apostates, those who, having professed the Lord Jesus Christ, turned away from him. In the Old Testament, of course, it would have been professing God, professing truth, that which they knew. But in our time, it's those who profess to be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then they turn away and say, no, it's nothing. And perhaps the main verse to show what these ones are, if you can just turn there for a moment, would be in Hebrews chapter 6.
Hebrews, chapter 6.
It says in verse four, it is impossible for those who are once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. And so that's what we're talking about, these ones who had professed to be believers, but then they turned aside and said it's nothing.
The Lord Jesus Christ and his death didn't matter and so they crucified to themselves the Son of thought afresh in doing so. And Judith is even a little worse because it's taking up the ones who were leaders and became maybe primary examples. Peter speaks of them in first, Peter second. Peter 3 is the evil teachers Here we see their evil acts in Jude and we find there's no hope for these ones. And so it is in our chapter when we go through these examples we see and each one of them.
That there is.
No hope. So you go to verse five. You find that they're destroyed at the end of the verse, verse 6.
They're reserved and everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Verse 7, the end of it, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. The ones who turn away in this, in this manner are forever lost. And so you say, well, why should we take this up? Well, the one thing is to be warned about it and to be on guard. But there's another reason our brother and Dorothy like cement, uh, remind us of this. And that is that there's a spirit of apostasy. These things that affected the ones that we have here can affect any one of us who are true believers.
And so we need to be aware of them and we need to recognize that when it happens in our own hearts and judge it. And we need to turn back and get right with the Lord whenever this begins to rise in us. So it's a very important chapter to consider.
To pick up on the what Tim just said in this application to each of us here by giving a brief summary of versus 5-6 and seven, because there's a moral progression downward from verse 5:00 to 6:00 and from verse six to verse 7, verse five, the root principle is unbelief. Unbelief in the heart has has been so often quoted in the goodness that's in God's heart toward us. And then later in the chapter in verse 21, there's the antidote given. But verse five is unbelief, unbelief in the goodness of God, in the goodness of God and his provision for us.
Verse six, the root principle is disobedience. The angels in Psalm 103, verse 20, are spoken of in their characteristics. One is power. The 2nd is that they are obedient and they're ministering spirits. And as servants or ministers, their chief responsibility is obedience to their master. That's given up in verse five and verse six. It's unconstrained luck at the end of this moral progression downward. And so Tim just mentioned the importance of the application to each of us here.
And so in our own lives, if there is soil in our heart of ungratefulness, unbelief in the goodness of God toward us, if there's a complaining and bitterness that's in the heart may not even come out of our mouth, but that's where our thoughts go when we're on our own. That's the soil of verse 5. The shoots come up in disobedience in verse six, and there's the full crop of unfettered lust in verse 7.
I think it might be profitable to look at the background, shall we say, of what we get in verse five of of umm, we get that in numbers 14 or 13 and 14, where the spies have gone up to the land and they brought back the fruits of the land and there was a.
A bunch of grapes because he took two men to carry.
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And, uh, but then the spies mentioned that the children of Anneck were there in verse 35 of Numbers 13. And when they, and there we saw the giants. The sun's panic, it comes from the giants. And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers. So we were in their sight in verse chapter 14. And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried and the people went together that night.
And that verse four. And I said one to another, Let us make a cap and return unto Egypt. What were they saying?
They were saying that God couldn't perform what he promised.
And so we find it's, it's the sin of unbelief. We we get the apostle takes it up in Hebrews 4, the end of sorry, the end of chapter 3.
So we see they could not enter in because of unbelief. By limited God, the creator and sustainer of the world, they limited him. They they promised them the land of of Canaan, but they limited him. They said he can't do it.
And so we find that that sin is unbelief, and I think the apostle refers to it. And this really effects us in chapter 12.
Well, chapter 12, Hebrews 12 and verse one wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let aside, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily protect us. Now the the definite articles there in the Greek, I mean it's there in the Greek, it's there for emphasis. But what is the sin that the apostles referring to? I believe it's the sin of unbelief that we got in chapter 4 and it's something that can affect us. We can limit God. We can say God won't do that.
And so, umm, I think we've uh, perhaps to give the opposite view here as to what our thoughts should be, umm, perhaps we can refer to the, umm, the, uh, very fine reply that Shadrach ate Meshach and Abednego give to the gives to Nebuchadnezzar. Umm, And if I can find it, I think it's in, uh, Daniel 3.
The 17 this is Jan. This is this is this is this is faith in action in the in the remember that first, first verse of the 12Th chapter of Hebrews. What's the contrast? The contrast is unbelief in contrast to faith as we got it in Chapter 11. Here's faith in action.
If so be this is the Oh, perhaps we should read this verse 16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If OB our God whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and it will deliver us out of our hand, O king. But if not the known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou set up.
They acknowledge the sovereignty of God. They acknowledge that God in his sovereignty may allow them to become martyrs.
I doesn't hold with that. God could deliver them from the fiery verses. It was an easy thing for God delivering for a fiery furnace. We'll deliver them from the fiery furnace. So we get that contrast between faith in action as we get in the reply from our Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to to Nebuchadnezzar and unbelief, unbelief limiting God as to what he can do.
Well, who were the 1St annual laborers?
Adam and Eve were the first unbelievers because they listened to the devil directly and they believed what the devil said.
That's real unbelief.
We got people like that going around from house to house today.
They are even.
Uh, worse because they say that they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they're in reality, there are those who's trying to smeet to.
See come into houses and.
To teach people about what they believe and.
And their their biggest.
Mistake which makes him makes it obvious who they are because they insist that the Lord Jesus Christ was created and they have their own Bibles called the New World Translation, which is uh, really a false book all the way through.
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I remember when I first came in contact in in Canada, it was with their writings was given to me by my landlady and I, I thought to myself, I wasn't even an unbelievable believer then. I was also not thought. I thought, well, what is this?
It it is important when anybody gives us something to read which we don't know, that we check it right away with the scriptures if that is what the scriptures teach us.
And there are many of those.
Faults so-called Bibles.
In print today. And there are those people who distribute these things.
And they are the ones who are turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness.
That's what it really is.
False.
Falsehoods.
There's a great difference between a backslider and an apostate.
The descriptions that we have in these verses here are particularly in connection with those who have apostasized our brother Lauren Perry. Harry, you gave a good definition last yesterday. Nor, uh, Lorne, do you recall what he said in connection with apostasy?
Yeah, to written my memory for all my life again, most of my life, uh, Mr. Harry Hajo repeated often. Apostasy is willfully turning away from revealed truth.
Now Peter was one in the Scriptures who was never an apostate.
He accepted Christ and he was restored.
And uh, we read of apostasy our brother Red from this Hebrews chapter 6, and we also have in chapter 10, don't we, of Hebrews as well? It's impossible to renew.
Once. Once a person turns willfully away.
There's nothing less that God has to offer. He gave his best, He gave His Son. And if a person refuses that, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation that to me I think would we could say was apostasy. Umm, the steps toward it are really starting with the fifth verse here, it seems to me, in connection with faith that has been mentioned here.
That, umm, there was a mixture of believers and unbelievers that came out of Egypt, wasn't there?
And those that were pretenders, professors.
They turned away and it led to apostasy and my right in my thoughts there.
Matches that in Hebrews chapter 4. Brother. I think I left it.
English Chapter 4.
Is there less, therefore fear less, the promise being less than a bettering into the his rest? Any of you should seem to come short of it. Not to us was the gospel preached as well as unto them. But the word of God preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that hurt us.
And so there was a mixed multitude, as you said, that came out, but there were those that didn't have faith. And in Hebrews Chapter 11, it says without faith it is impossible. Please God. Faith is what justifies man before God. In every distillation, faith is needed before God. Today we have a full revelation of the gospel presented to us from God through the apostle Paul, and we have, uh, Christ's death on the cross and its resurrection.
And faith is needed to enter into that today. But the Old Testament saying say believe God as Abraham did and it was accounted to Abraham for righteousness as it was all Old Testament Saints. But faith was needed to commend the blessing before God at every dispensation. No exception even today has to be faith.
I'd like to, umm, make a comment with regards to, uh, the sin of unbelief.
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We, we talked about it. Uh, our brother is just umm.
Given us a shining example of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
Who had a decision to make under great pressure?
That that's usually when.
The sin of unbelief looms on the horizon is under great pressure.
Uh, just this past week I was visiting with a girl.
And, uh, we were talking about her dad, who's a cancer patient.
And I went to visit him.
And, uh, I got to the door and there's these dogs barking behind the door.
So I knocked on the door and he opened the door and umm.
I step inside and uh, there's four Rottweilers inside. There's two of them in cages. They're the pups and they're 90 plus pounds. The other two are the male and the female, umm, the female, umm, the female is actually also in a cage. The male was not. The, those of you have dogs know that the 90 plus pounds, the big dog, the male sitting on the mat in the corner was 160 lbs.
So I walk in the door and and the man says to me don't worry about the dogs, they're not gonna hurt you. And and the male immediately gets up and purposely marches towards me. Quickly puts his head right up against my leg with his 160 lbs pushing.
And he lets out his growl from the bottom of his chest that sounded like a Harley being revved up. And and I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm standing there and I'm not sure where to put these hands that are shaking now. You know, I really didn't believe what that man told me. He told me these dogs were not going to hurt me. And you know, brethren, the circumstances into which the sin of unbelief comes across our pathway, They are real hard circumstances. They're like what? We've just.
Considered in connection with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. And it takes real moral power and moral courage in our personal lives to be able to withstand the sin of unbelief. I dare say if those 12 spies had have gone and they had gone to that promised land and there had been no giants, they would have come back with a glowing report just like the two. But usually when that sin of unbelief.
Is right on our horizon.
The conditions are tremendous pressure with the enemy of our soul seeking to put the pressure on. And may I suggest that those here that we're Speaking of are different than in those in Acts 20? These are those who crept in. It's interesting to read Mr. Darby's translation in connection with these ones because they slither in unnoticed, as it says in Mr. Darby's translation in Acts 20. The apostle warns that he says there are those among you.
We're going to rise up.
In different classes, and it's good for us to be able to differentiate between the two classes, but in order to usually what happens is we're so focused on those who among us have risen up, we don't see these other ones. Slytherin in May. I just suggest that the sin of unbelief is something that is very, very real.
This past were a point of clarification.
Do you speak any bad apostate? It doesn't speak of them creeping out. So to these apostates that stay within professing Christmas.
As deceivers.
Some of them do.
And uh, that's what we have here. I believe he turned for a moment to 1St John chapter 2. You find there's others who don't stay. That's really good with our brother Dave was just bringing before us. We have all different characters have been brought out from the scriptures. But in first John chapter 2, umm, if I find the verse, uh, nineteen really back in verse 18, little children, it is the last time. And as you have heard that Antichrist shall come. Even now there are many antichrists.
Whereby we know that it is the last time. So this is talking about this character as well, these apostates. And notice what he says next in verse 19. He says they went out from among us. They went out from us. That would be from the apostles, but they were not of us for had 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. And so there certainly were ones who did go out as well. But it's good to know all the different cases are taken up. There's some like in Acts 20 that are, uh, from the leaders.
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There's some who come in maybe who are like that for a while and then they go out and there's others who just stay there and continue to make the trouble.
An example of that I think of other Tim and Acts chapter 15.
Mentioned about those that were apostates said they went out from London apostles and uh, we didn't have any authority to do so says there in in chapter 15 verse one assertion certainly which came down from Judea.
Thought the brethren had said, except he be circumcised after the manner of Moses, he cannot be saved. And then further on down. This is in the 24th verse there for as much as we have heard that certain that's those ones in verse one which went out from us have troubled you with words averting your soul saying you must be circumcised and keep the law. Keep the law to do we gain no such command. So they didn't have any right-handed fellowship to do what they were doing.
And they went out from the brethren in Judea, in Jerusalem, and, uh, they were teaching a lot. So we have an example of that. They, they left.
I think we get the same progression.
In our chapter.
In, uh, First Corinthians chapter 10, I just mentioned it.
First Corinthians, chapter 10.
And umm, reading from verse six now these things were our examples, uh, to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they lost it. So as we were saying, the children of Israel, they were characterized by unbelief, weren't they? They didn't believe the goodness of God. They wanted to go back to umm, Egypt and enjoy the leeks and the garlics and the com cucumbers.
And so they lusted, uh, of those things. What did it lead to? Uh, verse, uh, the next verse? Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up the plate. So there we have apostasy, don't we, The turning from the Lord to idols. And then of course, we have the third step. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed and fell in one day. Three and 20,000.
So that's it ended up in moral, immoral, umm, uh, wickedness. And of course it brought down the judgment of God on them. So I believe we have the same principles here, do we not, as we have in verses 5-6 and seven of our chapter.
I had already been spoken about the IT says in verse four that they crept in unawares. And if you turn to 2nd Kings chapter 439.
And one went out into the field to gather some herbs and found their wild vine, and gathered their own wild gourds, his lap bowl, and came and shred them, shred them into the pot of pottage, for they knew them not.
And umm, I'm a middle-aged shareholder, middle-aged, I guess. And I think of my journey of faith. And there were times when I thought, well, what's the harm in this or what's the harm in that? And, and actually, umm, those thoughts that I had were really shredding in and giving up things that were so important if I really examine them carefully. And as we've been considering that we need to earnestly contend for the faith.
And so Ira would encourage us.
To really be careful as I come back on my journey that I had not always considered things in the light of scripture and I instead let my own human reasoning get into thoughts as though what should what should be allowed or what's wrong with this or etcetera. And Proverbs tells us to keep our heart more than anything that is guarded for out of it are the issues of life. And so I would just encourage us. There's a there's also a song that has lyrics that says it's a slow fade when we give ourselves away. Maybe some younger people are smiling and recognize that.
And so there might be some big things that would come in our life and we'd say, well, I'd never do that. I'd never compromise on that thing. But in fact, holding very carefully to the truth that we have is so, so important because it is the shredding in, it is the creeping in. It is those things that sometimes can really take advantage of us and then turn over to, uh, first Samuel.
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First Samuel, chapter 8.
And verse 5.
And he said unto them, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy waist, so thou maketh the King to judge us, like all the nations.
So at first when I read that verse, I thought, well, you know, I there's a certain benefit to a governmental order and other things like that. And, and you'll see where I'm going with this in a minute. But you know the human reasoning, make us a king to judge us like the nations. But The thing is, please Samuel, when they said, give us the king to judge us. And so Samuel prayed unto the Lord, and the Lord said to Samuel, hearken unto the voice of the people, and all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me.
And so again, as we consider things, we really need to be before the Lord and them and have our eyes focused on the Lord because logically you could say, oh, the king isn't such a bad thing. But the Lord says, no, they have rejected me. And then in verse 11, he goes on to warn them and say, you know, this will be the manner of king. They'll take your sons and all kinds of bad things. And they continued. It says in verse 20, it says that they may, uh, also.
Be like all the nations and that our king may judge us. And so so they they proceeded in that way regardless they, they had their mind set that way. That's why it is so important to keep our hearts guarded. But then in first Samuel chapter 12.
Verse 19 Then they began to recognize. And so the people said to Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not, for we have added unto all our sins this evil to ask us a king. So they're my logic of well, the king isn't such a bad thing, but really it was rejecting the Lord. And then they finally recognized it was an evil thing to ask the king. And Samuel said to the people, fear not, you have done this, all this wickedness.
And so sometimes again, these, these small things, you know, and, and I used to think perhaps maybe we're too narrow or we think too carefully about things, but there's no such thing as being too careful with the word of God. In Acts chapter 17, we're reminded that they search the scriptures daily to see whether these things be sold. And that's what I would encourage us to do. And then lastly, just looking back and conclude again, umm, in verse two, so mercy and peace and love be multiplied. And that was spoken about yesterday.
5 + 5 versus 5 * 25, so lovely multiplied and then over in verse 20, kind of bookending this, this real dark state and condition, so to speak. But beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God. And so keeping our eyes focused on the Lord, we indeed are living in the last days. There's no question about that.
And and I would just encourage us to keep our eyes focused on the Lord. Be careful when you're thinking about things. It's not human reasoning. It's not what's popular. It's not well, some people don't like that. It's really whole heartedly following the Lord who loves us so much and has given us everything that pertaining to life and godliness, he tells us. And so can we wholeheartedly really follow the Lord And sometimes we have to make hard decisions, but it's not a popularity contest. It's really about.
Keeping.
Our eyes on him and running that race and laying aside every sentence so easily besides us. So, uh, just a few thoughts there.
Brother referred to that scripture in Second Kings and the head read down further.
And there's not always the time to refer to that, but.
Expressly says concerning, uh, those, uh, shreds that were put into the pot. Expressly says there is death in the pot. It's telling us like it is, and sometimes we gloss over things.
Try to sweeten things, minimize things, but Scripture tells it here like it is. But then there is an antidote that we have here. And in verse 41 it says what he said. Then bring meal and he cast it into the pot, and he said pour out for the people that they may eat and there was no harm in the pot. Well, the meal would speak to us of Christ, wouldn't it? And we also think of that Scripture in the 15th chapter of Exodus, those bitter waters.
00:45:13
And.
Uh, at, at Mara and verse 25, it says, and he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree which we had when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. So we're thankful for the fact that they were not left without a resource. And so if they had looked, uh to and applied what we have here in these two scriptures.
In the, uh, pouring in of the meal.
And casting that tree into the bitter waters, then there's less.
To ask for meditation is the fact that when these things creep in, do we have a tendency to leave it to what we would call, uh, uh, trying to think of the word, uh, the oversight? Or should this be an exercise of each one of us to find out what these things are that are leaking in and how do we go about being exercised, about remedying it? Do we depend too much upon?
Our laboring brethren or.
Uh, leaders of our assembly.
Uh, it's just an exercise I have. Do we exercise our own hearts to try and weed out these days?
Any thought on that?
Believe even what we were taking up in connection with those that have or have crept in unawares and perhaps may still be doing so. There are a number of things that we should consider. One of the things is care and reception and then there is the shepherding that is necessary afterwards. And I think there are more attention were paid to both of these things. Both are very important that.
We would have perhaps invest of a problem.
And Satan is very subtle.
Uh, back in World War 2.
And one of the local assemblies in our area, there was a German spy that became connected with one of the assemblies and was not until considerably later that his true identity was revealed.
And I I don't want to put any blame on the local brethren there, but it shows how subtle the enemy can be. And so we have to be before the Lord in terms of reception and in terms of our shepherding when those people are received.
This is a kind of a practical point for young people in in line with what we're Speaking of here.
So through the personal responsibility to fortify ourselves as well.
And I, I noticed an interesting parallel and you see these otherities out. You can, what we've seen in June and the first chapter of Romans, you look at June, uh, verse.
I forgot my glasses at the hotel, so give me a moment here.
Uh, first four, when I talk to the certain men, they crept in unawares. It says that they deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. And let me read the progression downward into umm.
File. Since you turn with me to Romans one, we see a similar progression, but there's a key difference. I think we need to highlight Turn to Romans 1.
And we look at first.
Start in verse 18, Romans one, verse 18, and it says for the class of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth and unrighteousness, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them. For God has shown it onto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even in eternal power and God is that they are without excuse. So here in Romans one we have the general revelation of God in creation.
So Goddard deals himself generally to every man in his creation. Every man is held accountable to his creator because of that. Can you turn back to JU You'll notice that while enrollments one, it says they had the general revelation of God and they rebelled against him and they redo that chapter. You see them descending down through idolatry into moral evil sins. You turn back to Jude. The key difference here is that you have these men that rebel against revealed revelation, specific revelations. They knew at least the head knowledge.
00:50:01
That their Lord was the Lord Jesus Christ. It wasn't just that general revelation of creation, it was specific. They acknowledge head knowledge.
Which makes them incredibly dangerous because they can speak truthy things that may appeal to the ears of those listening and they convince people. So how do we protect ourselves against that? Well, I would think of Paul's instructions to Timothy, if you turn to Timothy, Second Timothy, chapter 3.
Second Timothy, chapter 3.
And reading from verse 13.
It says, The evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue thou on the things that thou hast learned, that has been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child that was known, the Holy Scriptures, which were able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction and righteousness. The man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
We could make one more turn to Proverbs.
Robert Chapter 2 and.
Again, this is how how Jude employed us to.
Pulled to the face that was once given to us and also how do we defend against those that would corrupt that that state with things that sound like truth because they do have an all head knowledge. Well, if you reach chapter 2 and I'll read the whole thing that it is long from verse one through to verse 9. You get these the writers and Florence the reader to receive the words of God the hide his commandments within your heart cry after knowledge.
And then in verse six and says the Lord giveth wisdom, out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
And if you get to verse 10, it says when wisdom, what is that wisdom? The wisdom gains the words of the Lord that we're told to umm, put it within our heart in the first few verses, verse 10, when wisdom entereth into Vinehart and knowledge is pleasant onto thy soul, that wisdom is now intimate to your heart. It's not just in your head. Discretion shall preserve thee and understanding shall keep these from what? To deliver these in the way of the evil man and the man that speaketh forward things who leave the path of uprighteousness to walk in the ways of darkness.
To rejoice to do evil, and delight in the prowardness of the wicked, whose ways are crooked, and they are prowered in their paths.
So by reading God's word, uh.
Getting a hard knowledge digging into our heart when we do have an apostate or, uh, teacher, false teacher that's speaking things that sound truthy because they're using buzzwords of Christianity or they have some truth contained within them. Having that knowledge of scripture is ultimately what can help defend US against accepting what they say. And when somebody says something, we may not know right off, whether it's right or wrong, but like the Bereans care facts, the word of God and test what their men are saying, whether it's true or not. So I just use that as kind of practical, umm, something to take away from this chapter. It's kind of practical instruction or application. Certainly for myself. I, I, I see that the need to read more scripture so unfortified against these things.
But it's proven out there as a as a way to protect yourself against these types that stay within the church and and teach falsehoods.
We're finding it hard to creep away from verse 4, but it does say that these men crept in unawares. They weren't sure about who they were, how they got in, and it could be that.
Some of these people are in your assembly.
Maybe they're maybe it's a young person rebelling against the revealed truth, willfully revealing against it for it could be an older person who's laying down a lot of standards and things that are not according to the word of God, extra things about Christianity that aren't part of the word of God and expect everybody to live up to their standards. And well, a certain amount of crept and unawares. We have some who are as we are Speaking of in this chapter, who are the apostates. They're not true believers.
But then there's also some who are being.
Umm, deceived by these ones who are true believers. And as has been mentioned, there needs the shepherding care to, to, to help encourage those who have been deceived and to teach them. But those who are not true, it says that they have been were before of old ordained to this condemnation. Now if we read that, we may think, oh, these people have been chosen to be condemned, but that's not what it says. It's it's talking about those the condemnation was given, was ordained for those who had become apostates. It didn't say that this one was going to be an apostate.
But the condemnation was for those who committed the sin of apostasy, and they turned away, willfully turned away from revealed truth. And so we get in verse 7.
That these ones are set for. These three instances are set forth as examples of suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. That sounds pretty severe.
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To have a person might even be your friend who rejects Jesus Christ.
And the result is vengeance of eternal fire. It's not something that you spend 1000 years in and then you get to go to heaven. This is eternal. It's eternal damnation.
For those who would apostatize and turn against the truth that's been revealed in God's Word.
Thankful for the brother here who asked the question about both individually and collectively keeping these things. And if you turn to Jeremiah chapter 15.
And furthering on what was commented about, umm, individually taking things in as well, uh, Jeremiah chapter 15, verse 16.
Thy words were found and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. I am called by Thy name, O Lord God of hosts. And recently ours had the benefit of being at a meeting where Bill Cross was speaking about our spiritual diet and umm, and it certainly provided a good parallel because there, there was a time in my life and perhaps many in this room could say that it's even perhaps your time in life now or was.
Where your spiritual diet was.
Was very limited. If you looked at my spiritual diet, I probably would have been in intensive care because they would have said this guy's got no food. He's he's almost dead. And that's because I occasionally read. I went to the meeting because I listened to the reading meetings and but I was not taking in the words like it says here, finding the word and I didn't eat them and I word unto me.
The joy and rejoicing of my heart.
And it says in Psalms a very familiar, very simple verse taste and seeing that the Lord is good and and you know, I could not taste or enjoy what other people were doing unless I tasted it and enjoyed it myself. And again, that very simple parallel that Bill set out about just practical food. And you can tell in your own life when you're not eating well, you become tired, you get susceptible to sickness and everything else.
And the word of God is so rich and such a treasure for us and I neglected it way too much. And so if there's anyone here who has been neglecting, today is the day to consider changing that and making it a habit of your life to really enjoy the word of God and to take it in. And if you say, well, sometimes it is hard to understand, it tells us in Second Peter that some things are hard to be understood. I'd encourage you to read from the Bible Truth Publishers website.
If you have, uh, electronic media, because if you read the Bible from the Bible truth, uh, publishers website, then as you finish your chapters, you can go down to the bottom and there will be ministry on the chapter or ministry on verses in the chapter. And so as you read something, if you were stuck and wondering, well, I'm not exactly sure how to apply that. You can get some additional food there and it's all available at your fingertips. So I would encourage us to individually do that, although I do agree too.
From a collective responsibility.
We do have have responsibility as well at the table, etcetera to do the right thing. And lastly, in Ephesians chapter 4, you know part of the the faith that we need to contend for patient chapter 4, verse 1/2.
7:00 So I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you walk worthy of the location where when dear called with all loneliness and meekness and long-suffering, preparing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body, there's one spirit, and even a dear cold and one hope of your calling. 1 Lord, 1 faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all, and in you all and and to every one of us is giving grace. And so.
It is a very individual thing too. I mean, the assemblies are the, what we see there is really the product of our collective spiritual fitness, so to speak. And if we're not exercising ourselves into things of the Lord and we're not feeding on the Lord, it's no wonder that we'd be surprised when, when, uh, as Dave was talking about, when those hard times come, do we have the, the strength and the fortitude to face them with the Lord? And so I encourage each of us to, to try to.
Take in the Lord more and more, you'll never be sorry.
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The two groups mentioned there is act caption 20. It was a fossil call when he is addressing the elders and Ephesus before he would depart to be with the Lord, he gave instructions to them.
Uh, verse 28, it says, there, take heed therefore unto yourselves to all the flocks over which the Holy Ghost have made you overseers to feed the Church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, us during the flock. That's what we have here in, uh, in our chapter in Jude. And then it mentions, uh also of your own selves come in, arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.
Their true believers, but they have self in view and not the Lord.
And then verse 31 Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn you everyone night and day with tears. Now brethren, I commend you to God, to the word of this grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified or set apart in Christ.
It's also the word of God that is able to keep us.
And to teach us and to be able to give us discernment when perhaps are those that may be among us that are not true, we need to serve it from the word of God to be able to recognize those types of people. Uh, the apostle Paul spent two whole epistles in Corinthians to try to expose them to the Corinthians that they would recognize them. He didn't try to root them out, but he tried to expose them so that the Corinthians Saints would be on the judge themselves.
In rooting them out, he may have uprooted some good wheat along with the, the tears like we haven't. Matthew 13. So he was careful not to do that, but nevertheless, he sought to, uh, different things that there were those among them that were of all the teachers and that they should recognize them. And, uh, and so, so should we, we should be able to recognize what is false among us. And we, we can do only do that by the word of God.
He takes your occasions to umm.
Two, towards recognizing these.
False ones among us are very helpful, but I think we need to remember too that there is that spirit of apostasy that we need to recognize as well that can come within each one of us. So I think it was very helpful what was mentioned before about faith and how we can fail and faith, and that's what we had.
In in verse 5, then our brother mentioned in verse six, we get down to the second thought which is disobedience. First is unbelieving, then disobedience. This can happen to every single one of us who are.
Believers, it's not just a matter of, of those who are false among us, but it's a matter of that old nature that we all have and the fact that we can be LED astray. And, and so I, I just point that out because I think it's good to remember that the enemies within, not just the house and, uh, we look at this, these are very severe warnings, every one of them. This next one is about the angels, which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation.
Yes, reserved and everlasting chains unto under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Tells us in Matthew chapter 22. And the Sadducees came to the Lord, and a question about resurrection.
The Lord answered them and said that in the resurrection it is not so, but he says there's neither marriage nor giving in marriage, but they are as the angels of God in heaven, showing that in heaven the angels of God are not married or given in marriage. Yet here we find that there were ones who left their first estate and they went on to something else. And the next verse tells us about Sodom and Gomorrah and something very significant in that verse it says.
Even as Sodom Gomorrah, the word even connects it.
And the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, going after strange Flash. These ones, these angels apparently were disobedient. They left the place that God had put them in. They came down on the earth, I believe we have in Genesis chapter 6, until for them, uh, those of the daughters of men, and they corrupted themselves and they corrupted things in the earth. And it was a terrible thing. And so they're put here as an example.
And God didn't leave them that way. He put them in chains to be reserved unto everlasting darkness, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day. It says here these things are very serious, and yes, they're serious for the one who goes astray. But insofar as we as believers.
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Leave that which God has shown to us, and we go back and become backsliders. As our brother was mentioned, we can never be an apostate, but we can become backsliders and get into a terrible state in a terrible way. It's good to hear these verses and good to take the warning.
Because we have a loving father who is not going to leave us there. He's not going to put us in these chains and reservists to everlasting fire, but he is going to deal with us as a father and he's going to, uh, correct us as his children and sometimes many of us in this room. And I can certainly tell you that that correction can be very difficult and it's not worth it that praises his name when he does it. He doesn't just leave us, go down this way tells us in First Corinthians 11, he said that, uh, if we would judge ourselves, then we should not be judged.
With the world, God's gonna judge them, and these apostates are gonna be judged that way.
He will judge His own as a Father who loves us. But we can judge ourselves first. We can read these verses and we can see that there's a path of obedience that God has called us to. He's put us in a certain way and we can heed that. And in that path we can find blessing. But to go out of it can be very hard.
Just like to add something and recall a remark that was made by our brother David. Considering the verses in the 24th chapter of Luke's gospel. I know some are fairly hard on the way on the two that were on their way to Emmaus, but their their hearts were touched as a result of being in the Lord's presence. But in verse 33 it says and they rose up the same hour.
And returned.
Through Jerusalem that, that was a choice. They were going away from Jerusalem, but they made a conscious decision to go back to Jerusalem. So that's very important, isn't it, in our lives when we see, uh, ourselves getting further from the board and make that decision to go back to Jerusalem. Oh, just before that the Lord had opened up the scriptures to them. And that has an effect not our heart burned within a.
Natural man has nothing but his own lust.
He's unable to perceive divine things.
And in an effort to gratify that lust leads him to rebellion against God.
That rebellion leads to apostasy, and that, in its turn, is visited by overwhelming judgment. And so it is in all three of these cases, the judgment was thorough.
And so the character of evil here is brought out later and further on in these verses, natural group B's unable to perceive divine things, just like the examples we have in Israel there when they made the golden calves. What's become of this Moses? We don't know. An invisible Moses up on the mount would not satisfy them. Make us gods, something we can see.
And so there's natural man that's not satisfied with an ascended Christ, with an invisible Holy Spirit, unable to perceive divine things. He turns from God's order and he brings man's order in make us a captain to go back to Egypt.
Bring in something we can see, bring in something of man's order. We don't want God's way. And there's a turning away from God's order into in heaven above with the angels or the earth beneath with Sodom and Gomorrah.
Turning away from God's order, and we'll see that the character of these men is then to bring in man's order instead. And where is professing Christianity going to end? They're going to make themselves a king. They're going to make themselves a captain. He's the Antichrist. He denies the Father and the Son. And the overwhelming visitation of God's judgment upon what's left of Christianity led by that captain is the severest judgments that are found in the Book of Revelation.
In verse five, he said, I will therefore put you in remembrance.
Though he once knew this.
How that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed them that believed not?
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What is he referring there to?
To the people that.
Had been taught all the things that Moses had taught them, and the Lord brought them out of Egypt.
But then there were those who rebelled against him when they did not want to go into the land that he had promised them.
He destroyed all them that believed not.
I always think there must have been those that was where over 20 years of old.
Who rebelled against the commandment of God to go in and take over the land of each, the promised land?
So there was a severe judgment.
God, and God is also a God of judgment.
He did so many good things to Israel and they knew that.
And yet, when it came to a.
A real act of faith. They failed. And there was not just a few that failed. Our whole generation failed.
I I sometimes think of what's what must have.
Be in the minds of those who have been condemned and his they still have to live out their lives.
Knowing that they were gonna have to be destroyed.
Because of unbelief.
To live all that knowledge the rest of their lives.
That they.
Must be among the ones who have to be destroyed.
That rebelled against the Lord.
So the character of these ones who have crept in to defile and corrupt Christianity is brought out in verse 8. Filthy dreamers.
They don't want revealed truth. They've turned from it. They have their own dreams, their own revelations that they propound.
Defile the flesh, corrupt in their moral ways. Defiled bodies promote corruption and moral things.
Despise dominion again.
Christ, He's up in heaven, head of the church, We can't see him, the Holy Spirit.
We don't need his leading. We can't see him either. We want what we can see. They despise dominion. They're not subject to God's order, and they speak evil of those very things, the thought of being subject to God.
No, it's man's will. Man's will is not worthy to be corrected by anything, let alone God, who we can't see. And this is the character of those who are defiling Christianity Today.
#46 in the appendix.
All right, our God and Father, we just thank you for this chapter that we've had before us.
This morning and Father, we just acknowledge that it's in all of our hearts to.
When we're under the extreme pressure of society around us that has turned completely from my ways morally.
And teach that the Word of God is wrong to fail in faith and in disobedience and into the same lusts that are being taught around us. Our Father had just prayed that each one of us here would be like Caleb and like Joshua who found their strength in walking with the and recognizing our God, thy power to help in every situation that they were put in. We just acknowledged Lord how both are coming is and yet we acknowledge too how easy it is for us to forget it.
And to just walk in the ways of everyone around us, just pray that these things wouldn't be just head knowledge, but today would impact every day of our life. And then as we have in the antidote at the end of the chapter, that we would keep ourselves in the love of God and realize it's our table to preserve us. We just ask this Lord Jesus and thy name, Amen.