Jude 1:11

Book of Jude, I’m going to read verses 8 through 11, our focus tonight on verse 11 alone. Likewise, also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord, rebuke thee. But these speak evil, those things which they know not, but what they know naturally as brute beast, in those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Cora. May God bless to us his sacred and holy word this evening. There was a children’s waiting pool in an east coast inner city, a neighborhood, that had been closed for over two years. And finally, the city workers decided to do something, and they painted the pool, filled it with warm water, and opened it to the light of the neighborhood children. A short time later, however, the neighborhood parents were furious. Eighteen children had cuts on their feet. It seems the pool hadn’t been cleaned out before it was painted, and so the workmen had merely spray painted over the glass debris at the bottom of the water. of the pool, and thus the children got their feet cut. The harm done by the city workers is like the damage done by false religious teachers. They are ones who cover up their design and purpose, their deceivers. They disguise their heresy by couching their views in cleverly very cleverly by using biblical language. And of course, they always change the meaning of the terms when they do this so that they can deceive people. They’re very dangerous to your spiritual health. And when you wait into their circle of disciples, you’ll find yourself getting injured spiritually. I want to talk about the dangerous religious errors from this text. of scripture verse 11 this evening I’ll begin by saying this you must avoid the way of Cain you notice you can’t you can’t read the book of Jude without knowing some Old Testament history because if you don’t know your history you’re not going to know about Sodom Gimor or you’re not going to know about Lott or or any of the other the fall in the wilderness and things like that and here you’re not going to know about Cain or balaam or cora unless you have read these old testament stories. But let me begin by saying this. As a religious person, you can engage in faithless worship. Now, the story of Cain is found in the book of Genesis chapter 4. I’ll direct your attention there tonight. Genesis chapter 4 and I’ll read the first. five verses of this chapter and Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and and bear Cain and said I’ve gotten a man from the Lord she again bear his brother Abel and Abel was a keeper of sheep but Cain was a tiller of the ground and in the process of time and many commentators believe that this means at the end of the week in the process of time or at the end of the week it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground in offering unto the Lord. Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and his following, but under Cain and his offering, he had not respect, and Cain was very wroth and his countenance fell. Now the first thing we should realize here that Cain was a religious man. We would classify him as a churchgoer today. And he attends worship, doesn’t he? He even brings an offering to the Lord. However, it is merely a form of godliness, just an outward show of religion. Hebrews 11 forces by faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. which indicates to us that Cain did not have faith, else he would have offered the proper sacrifice to the Lord. Even though he practiced a form of religion, he didn’t have faith. And this is a very common problem. People who attend some assembly, some religious assembly somewhere, but their hearts are not right. with the Lord. Now you’ll notice that Cain’s offering was of the fruit of the ground, rather than a sacrifice from the flock. A sacrifice of the flock would be following God’s example when he clothed Adam and Eve after the fall, because he took the skins from those animals and put their flesh. them on Adam and Eve to clothe them. But it seems that Cain expected God’s acceptance based upon his good works, his toil in the ground, which had produced this fruit. And thus we have the difference between these two offerings. Evidently, Abel had learned the lesson from the Garden of Eden, that God slew an animal to provide clothing for Adam and Eve after the fall, because it points to the idea of the atonement, to the idea of forgiveness through a substitute who dies in your place. The sacrifice looked forward, of course, to the acceptance with God through the seed of the woman, Jesus Christ, who was promised in Genesis 315. Kane, however, didn’t comprehend or did not accept that. And therefore, he followed his own ideas of worship and rejected the example that God had provided. God’s pattern. Now, these apostates that Jude is writing about, to which Jude is referring, have crept in among the people of God. We have read that earlier in the book. They don’t really belong there. They snuck in. Forwardly, they’re religious, but the root of the matter is missing. They don’t have faith. In Ezekiel 33, you read of the ancient Israelites who use the words of the prophets, constantly in their everyday conversation to make themselves, I guess, feel better. They took passages out of context to support their confidence of God’s protective care, that the land would never be conquered, that the temple would never be taken, and captured and so forth. And they found pleasure, even in listening to the prophet’s teaching, even though they had no intention to following it, it was like, as God says, entertainment to them. Holy entertainment. Yet the Lord declares, they hear your words, but do them not. You can go through the motions religiously, but be missing the heart of it. How many filled the church people? fuse each Sunday that are no different than Cain. As long as the worship is self-exhaulting, they’re happy, they’re content, they have no problem with the twisting of Scripture to suit their fancy. However, God will not accept it. It is an abomination in his sight, and if you tell them so, they will turn in anger against you. You can engage in faithless worship, because that’s what we would have to say. about Cain’s worship. Secondly, as a religious person, you can have a hatred of the true children of God. Now, as we read this passage here in Genesis, notice verses 8 to 10. Kane talked with Abel, his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew him. And the Lord said, and to Cain, where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not. am I my brother’s keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood cryeth unto me from the ground. Kane envied his brother because God accepted Abel in his offering, but did not accept Kane in his offering. And it’s an anger that’s like that sinful that sinful anger that Christ talks about in the sermon of the mound is the same as thou shalt not kill because he is murder in his heart and he carries it out. He kills his brother. He didn’t do it because anything Abel did to him personally. He did it out of envy. Envy. Now we read in 1 John chapter 3, verses 12 and 13, these words were not to be as Kane who was of that wicked one, Satan. and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him because his own works were evil and his brother’s righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. The Apostle John draws the conclusion that Cain’s actions toward Abel were really indicative of the world’s attitude toward the people of God. And even false religious people’s attitude toward the people of God, because they’re still part of the world. They may not understand that, but they are. Jude seems to be indicating that these apostates envied the gifts that were given to the legitimate preachers and teachers of the Word of God. They envied the success that God gave their work and the honor given to them by the church. And it was a hatred born out of envy. It shows a lack of grace by these false professors for the Bible tells us that love or charity envy of not. In 1 Corinthians Chapter 13. As John puts it, he that hates his brothers are murderer. 1. John 315. Religious hypocrites always envy, despise, and hate the true people of God. Because their worship is actually evil in God’s and it’s not following the pattern God has said. Isn’t this the reason the Pharisees hated Jesus Christ? They were envious of him. The interest that people showed in him? Isn’t this the reason false religious groups persecute the true church of Jesus Christ today? Hatred of the true people of God. The third thing we see is this. As a religious person, you may complain of God’s righteous judgment. Those verses 11 to 16 here. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive and a vagabond shall thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I be hid. And I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth, and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me. And the Lord said unto him, therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord shall set a mark, and the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. and Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of gnaud, the land of wandering on the east of Eden. Kane complained that God’s punishment was too great. It was too harsh, that it wasn’t fair and just. It was too much for him. He would be not only a fugitive from, his own family. But as he complains, and it’s pointed out twice here, more importantly, he has no hope of pardon from God. He is banished from the presence. I take it as the local presence where they would come to worship. He had refused to bring the proper sacrifice in spite of God’s rebuke. In spite of the fact that God told him if you bring to right sacrifice, then you can be accepted. He had taken a human life, his own brothers, in fact. Certainly God had a right to instantly strike him dead. It would be a just punishment, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. God didn’t do that. But he did cut off Kane from his favorable presence here, guaranteeing his eternal doom, indicating his fore-ordained reprobation. Just like these false teachers were foreordained to destruction. Yet Cain has the audacity to complain about the intolerableness of God’s punishment. It’s too great. Isn’t it interesting that most false cults Jehovah Witnesses, the Christian science, Tist, and so forth, deny the existence of eternal hell. They cannot stand the teaching about God’s just punishment. They want to get rid of that doctrine. Those who complain and gripe about divine justice are simply siding with Cain, and I remind you he was of that wicked one according to John. You must avoid the way of Cain, and here are some of the things that we could point out about him. The second thing, he says in this text of Scripture, is you must avoid the air of Balaam. Now, what was the heir of Beelam? Well, the first thing I mentioned is this. You can be dominated by covetousness. With regard to himself, we see this standing out about him in Numbers 22. After destroying a great company of the Amarites and conquering their land, the Israelites encamped on the plains of Moab, and this made the king of Moab Balak very, frightened. There are millions of Israelites nearby. And he’s scared to death. So he turns to a prophet that he knows of named Balam for help, who is a false prophet. Bayelak desired to have the prophet pronounce a curse against God’s people. So he sends these messengers out to get him and bring him. He says, seems to be somewhere around the Euphrates River. And he offers the false prophet a huge sum of money. A reward. A great reward if he will come and curse the people of God. Balam was warned by God that these people were coming, these messengers, and said, don’t go with them. But he had a covetous eye. As Peter tells us, in 2.15, he loved the wages of unrighteousness. He was covetous. And the love of money is the root of all evil, isn’t it? And it certainly is the death blow of any true religion. Deidab was so anxious to obtain this great reward promised by the king of Moab. That he ran greedily after it, according to Scripture. He wanted it bad. a headlong pursuit, despite the fact that he gets rebuked by the donkey, you remember? Peter says that false teachers through covetousness with feigned words make merchandise of you. In 2. Peter 2.3. The teacher, false teachers are just like Balam. It’s all about the money. It’s all about covetousness. Who can doubt that the most false religious teachers are in the business of making money rather than helping souls. Look at the TV evangelists, the radio preachers, and so forth. I saw a newscasts one time where they showed some of these guys are always asking for money and sending in and you can get, you know, they’ll pray for you and all this. And they were taking the checks out of the envelopes and just throwing the envelopes into the trash, not even reading them the letters or anything. Just take them. the money out. That’s all they were concerned about. For the most part, you find them engaging in all these money-making schemes. They seem to use religion to dupe the gallable out of their hard-earned money. I remember one time I listened to there was a man that was talking about this false prophet. He was talking about, if you send him in $5,000, you’ll get 10 or $10 $15,000, or $20,000, double back, or something of this nature. And then he’d have people on there and said, oh, I sent him in, $5,000, and I got $10,000 back or $20,000 back. There’s a greediness about this. Remember how the scribes and the Pharisees for all their religious pretense, the barred widow’s houses. Get the money. Money is what makes them tick. Money is all they’re concerned about. The most profitable ventures. track their attention. Do they write books on how really to live the Christian life? No, but they’ll write prophecy books. They’ll sell you prayer cloths and prayer rugs and study Bibles and an anointing oil, special anointing oil, so you can be healed. Some of you may know the history of the Jehovah Witnesses and Charles Taz Russell. In 1913, he sold miracle wheat, which he said would grow five times faster than regular wheat. Well, the U.S. government finally took him to court and proved scientifically that his wheat did not grow faster than the regular wheat. In fact, it was an inferior brand of wheat. Yeah, it was all about making money. He was selling this at the time, it was a dollar per pound for this wheat. It was a scam. It was a scam. So you can be dominated by covetousness. You can promote sexual immorality with regard to others. Look with me at Numbers Chapter 25. Some people perhaps have missed this thought, but the Bible makes this very clear. Look at the first nine verses here with me of Numbers 25. In Israel bowed in Shidham, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people under the sacrifices of their gods, and the people did eat and vowed down to their gods, and Israel joined himself under Bail Pior. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and the Lord said unto Moses, take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel. And Moses said, of the judges of Israel, slay ye every one his men that were joined under Bail Pior. And behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brother and a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses and the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And when Phenius, the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron, the priest saw it, he rose up the congregation, took a javel in his hand, went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed upon the children of Israel. Those that died in the plague were 24,000. The story of Balaam didn’t end with him simply being rebuked by God and unable to curse the people of God. Balaam tried in every way to gain a reward and you know and Bailam kept moving the places where he would bring the sacrifices and see if he couldn’t get a different answer from this angle and from that angle on the children of Israel. He tempted to curse, but God controlled his speech and every time he ended up blessing the Israelites. This so angered Balak that he refused to pay Balam the money promised, but the false prophet was still greedily grasping effort and he had a new idea. He was so covetous that he actually persuaded some of the women of Midian and Moab to entice the men of Israel into sexual impurity. They would use their feminine charms, if you would, draw the people of God into false worship, which in that day involved sexual acts. In this manner, Balael hoped that God would judge Israel and then he could legitimately curse them and gain the reward. It’s interesting. If you look at Revelation 2 in verse 14, this is referenced Revelation 2.14. I have a few things against thee, because thou hast them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols and to commit fornication. You see, he’s involved in this. This era raises its ugly head years and years later in the days of John the Apostle. It’s interesting when Israel did conquer the land of Canaan, they made sure they killed Balam. They put him to death according to Joshua 1322. But, Like Bailom, these false apostates that we’ve been reading about here in the book of Jude have led the people of God into sexual impurity. We saw it in verse 4, where we read about they were involved in lasciviousness. We saw it also with their connection with Sodom and Gomorrah and the unclean activity of the homosexuality that was involved and so forth. Isn’t interesting that often sexual sin is associated with false teachers? If you ever study the Mormon religion in particular, you will find some very interesting things about the wives that they took and the young women they took, I mean young women they took for wives. And bring them young, and if you study them carefully, Joseph Smith, if you read any of his works, Joseph Smith, and his doctrine and covenants, there is a famous section on plural marriages, and there is a specific revelation for his wife in Section 132, telling her that she must stand ready to receive additional wives that have been given to her husband under the pain of everlasting punishment if she didn’t. Can you believe these guys? No, I don’t know if you’ve been familiar with some of the cults that they have been around, but what happens is that sexual sin is often permitted and promoted among their followers. Whether it be child sex, whether it be polygamy, whether it be whithmy, whether it be white swapping, there’s all kinds of things that go on and that people should be aware of. False teachers lead people into these errors and follow the way of Balaam. In fact, the doctrine of Balaam resurfaced in the church at Pergamos, we read in the book of Revelation, demonstrates this error continued to plague the people of God. It’s a relevant issue, and Jude brings it up here in his book. So you must avoid the heir of Balaam, covetousness, and sexual immorality. The third thing, he says in this passage here in the book of Jude, is you must avoid the gainsaying of Koram. Now, if you would, look with me at Numbers, Chapter 16. Let’s see what this is all about. I’m only going to read what portions of this chapter chapter. Let me begin by. reading the first three verses of chapter 16 in numbers. Now, Cora, the son of Ishar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and own the son of Peleth, sons of Rubin, took men. men. And they rose up before Moses with certain of the children of Israel, 250 princes of the assembly of the assembly. famous in the congregation, men of renown, and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, ye take too much upon you. Seeing all the congregation of holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them, wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord. Then dropped down to verses 12 to 14. And Moses said to called Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Elieab, which said, we will not come up. Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of the land that floweth with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us? Moreover, thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey, or given us inheritance of fields and. vineyards, wilt thou put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up. And then, if you would, verses 26 to 33. And he spake unto the congregation, saying, depart, I pray you from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be consumed in all their sins. So they gat up from the tabernacle of Cora, dath, and the barrenahum, on every side. and Dathan and Mabarim came out and stood in the door of their tents and their wives and their sons and their little children. And Moses said, hereby ye shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, for I have not done them of mine own mind. If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after visitation of all men, then the Lord hath not sent me. But if the Lord make a new thing. and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit, then you shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord. And it came to pass as he had made an end of speaking all these words at the ground clave asunder that was under them, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men, and all the men, that appertained unto Kora and all their goods, they and all that appertained to them went down alive into the pit and the earth closed upon them and they perished from among the congregation. Quora was a Levite who engaged in a rebellion against the leadership of Aaron and Moses. You take too much or too much authority upon you. sort of like the brother and movement they were saying, nobody should be the head. We’re all gifted like you are. Corr and his followers were guilty of rejecting Moses as God’s appointed messenger and Aaron as God’s appointed mediator. The insolence of these rebels is seen in how they treated Moses when he called them to appear before them, we won’t come up. Verse 12 and verse 14. They criticized Moses’ leadership. They planned to take control of the reins of power for themselves. However, God sent a special judgment upon Cora and his followers that we read about here. The earth opened up and swalled them. They went down alive into hell. Now, just as Cora rejected God’s appointed leadership of Moses and Aaron, so these false teachers in Jude’s day reject and speak evil of the Lord. leaders of the church. The dignities. They speak evil of dignities as we’ve already studied in the previous study. And just as Cora had many followers, so these spiritual leaders, these false spiritual leaders also involve others in their deception who follow them. The suddenness of Cora’s destruction is an example of how swiftly God can deal with the rebels in his church. Remember how Paul warned the Ephesian church with tears in his eyes about false teachers stealing away people from the assembly. In Acts chapter 20, verses 29 and 30, pride and ambition may cause you to oppose God’s established leadership. And even though God has set these men up to be rulers in his church, and has commanded people to obey them that have the rule over you. It is core of sin to invade the religious office without a call and to seek to destroy the order that God has established. This is always the way with false teachers. They’re always pulling people after them, pulling away from the true church, dividing those who profess to be the true people. of God, criticizing, abusing God’s leadership. And you’ve seen this firsthand and it has happened many times down through history. So you must avoid the gainsaying of core. Let me conclude tonight by saying this. Jesus taught us in the sermon of the mouth, beware of false prophets, which shall come unto you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. He shall know. them by their fruits. Now, the fact that their ravening rules is dangerous to the true sheep. Because they will devire you. They will harm you. Often false teachers initially appear on the surface to be good. But like the waiting pole with a glass debris, it’s all a paint job. It’s all a cover-up. And eventually the mask comes off and they are exposed. As a believer, believer, you can know if a person is a false religious guide. False professions don’t last long. You know them by their fruits. Tears are eventually distinguished from the wheat. And while your knowledge is never infallible, God gives his people light so that they can test the claims and the teachings of these false professors. Though your knowledge doesn’t always enable you to penetrate the disguise that’s worn by imposters, it ought to arouse suspicion and make you cautious and look more carefully. And this knowledge fortifies you so you’re not completely deceived by these false teachers. How is this spiritual knowledge or insight obtained? Well, spiritual discernment accompanies the new birth. Because you have the presence now of the Holy Spirit in your life. Regeneration is being brought out of darkness into God’s light. He enables you to perceive things that you could not see before. Your spiritual faculties, once dead, are now alive. And you’re more perceptive about these things. It’s like a deaf person who now can hear or a blind person who now can see it makes a complete difference in their whole life. There are degrees of spiritual discernment and the closer you walk with God, the more illumination you’re going to have. Spiritual discernment, of course, has to be exercised. Just like muscles have to be exercised in order to remain strong, the Bible tells about spiritual discernment. It has to be exercised. Hebrews 5 says those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. We have to have our spiritual senses exercised so that we know what’s good and what is evil. The more understanding you have of the Word of God, the more understand you have of the principles of the Christian faith and the graces of Christian character, the better you are going to be able to perceive spiritual deception. you shall know them by their fruits let me mention three areas here first their creed their doctrine if you would false teachers twist the message of the grace of God they lead people with straight doctrine they deny the true faith and they throw in some types of works righteousness in their teaching the second thing is their character which is evil and corrupt. They have faithless worship like Kane. They have a covetous nature like Balaam. They have sexual immorality like Balaam. They have power-hungry people like Cora, and they oppose God’s appointed leadership like Cora. And then, of course, the third area is their converts. You remember what Jesus said when he was condemning the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 23, he said to them, you make your disciples two-fold more the child of children of hell than yourselves. You know, they go all over the world, so’s speak, all over the place, trying to make disciples. You said, when you make them, they’re worse than we are. They’re worse than you are. There’s teachers, false teachers. So what is produced by the instruction of these counterfeit teachers that Jude speaks about? What is the fruit that comes out as far as their converts? What kind of converts do they have? What are their lives like? Do their converts engage in self-exhaulting worship? Do they demonstrate a hatred for those who follow the true faith? Do they complain about God’s righteous judgment? Are they greedy? Do they practice sexual immorality? Do they show contempt for the true spiritual leadership? Are they arrogant? Are they rebellious? This is what false teachers breed, these kind of individuals. Woe unto them who follow the way of Cain, of Balam, and of Cora. You can be assured that God’s severe judgment is going to hang over these types of people. And Jude warns us about it here. Don’t get caught up with these false teachers, because here’s where they’re going, and here’s what they are going to lead to in the lives of their disciples. Let’s close with the word of prayer tonight.